Well, not the average citizen of course, then the RP would boil down to "
I worked my twelve hour shift at the manufactorum and got home knowing that the next shift would start in six hours, the Emperor protects". But more on the layer under the establishment, the scum, the acolytes tracking down people, the dreary local law enforcers who are sick of everything and the Arbiters hovering over their shoulder at every move. Screw inquisitors, guardsmen and marines, this is about the stuff you read in bad pulp novels and watch when going to the cinema for the latest explosion-orgasm action movie.
My first "casual" RP was about a derelict space station where scum, renegades and outcasts tried to scrape out a living, knowing that there was no way out. Supplies were brought in through a shuttle and this somehow translated into characters all wanting to escape. They breezed through twelve decks of security, toxic gas, genhanced alien sentries that were faster than a man ever could be and still they reached the shuttle by page two. So I blew that ******** thing up, because EVERYBODY knew how to fly the damn thing all of the sudden. People fell back to their homes and favourite salloons, I set some new rules straight and got it on track again. (it can be quite important to let people know that surprises are not that welcomed, especially the ability to pilot a sophisticated shuttle all of the sudden)
The plot did have some nice user created angles: a young drug addicted smuggler falling head over heels in love with a half-breed Eldar woman who was herself head over heels in love with the only pilot of the group, who loved the half-breed but was wary. The halfbreed knew and used her sexy wiles to get what she wanted from everybody, resulting in future backstabbing moments where the pilot and halfbreed would ditch the group and try to escape on their own. A nice thing was that the guy doing the drug addict really acted like one; he needed his hit badly, he was sweaty and twitchy when he didn't get his shot soon. He tried to keep it secret, until the pilot found out and tried to extort him. It never did end sadly, but from what I gathered it would end on a cinematic note with the addition of a veteran sapper who carried an explosive vest to keep herself from being captured again (from who I wondered) and a snooty Eldar Ambassador that somehow ended up on the station, triggering riots between the scum and what passed for the law there, resulting in a dangerous journey to their supposed exit. As I said, good times.
I tried it for a second run in the other guild, my own guild dead by then but it just wasn't the same. The cool people were gone by now and the level of skill found in RP'ing there was disappointing. I especially like how the people there mirror the Imperial citizenry with their blatant ignorance for the rules and scenario. It even blew up into a tinfoil hat conspiracy at one point according to one ex-member. Not so good times..
I did a Death Watch RP once, people wanted it for quite some time now. I talked my good friend into being the lady Inquisitor who led the strike team from orbit while one of the more experienced members would act as the leader on the ground. It soon devolved into one gigantic shoot out where the marines were outnumbered in the thousands by orks - their objective was to kill a nob silently and slip out, letting the orks fight in the wake of their dead leader and thus, defuse a Waaagh! for a short time because of all the infighting. Meanwhile in orbit the ship came under attack from Dark Eldar, who wanted the inquisitor as slave for their Archon. In short the Inquisitor decided to die because the marines couldn't be bothered to rescue her (so she blew herself up when the last of her personal guard died) and shortly thereafter I decided to drop Exterminatus on the marines for not advancing the story and not saving my girl from death. Yes I am a p***k when it comes to the girls I love.
My main concern with marines in RP's is, they are just like in Inquisitor: damned overpowering and not something countered by a lot of things. Well, nothing short of a lance strike from an orbiting cruiser. When someone is a marine, the rest of players acting as scum, enforcers or deserters aren't going to have as much impact on the story as that d**k head in power armour blundering through everything without any tact ro care for his surroundings. People carry low-tech pistols, crude automatics, maybe homemade pipe rifles and here comes Johnny Marine, with power armour, a bolter and more bionics than Lee "Steve Austin" Majors. Marines can be done, just not in regular RP's and Inquisitor games without the scenario asking for them. Otherwise, they disrupt the story and are just plain overpowering. Even when naked and disarmed, they can still kill you by just sneezing.
As for Guard RP's, Guard is a joy to RP, as long as you can be yourself to some degree. I've noticed in my own experience that people never really warm to the idea of being from the same pre-described regiment where the GM decides the world you come from, your uniform and sometimes even your kit. An interesting take on this was a regiment of veterans or Kill-team styled scenarios,
where the men and women would be from several regiments are thrown together to complete dangerous missions that only veterans could pull off. Only thing you really need to regulate there is that there are not three snipers, or twelve scroungers with an officer's sword that they just happened to stumble upon. Or everybody packing bolters and carapace for that matter..
Ah crap, wall of text. Been ranting far too long, never good.
Minor non-spammy (I hope) ad: I'll be kicking my writing contest off sometime next week, so expect a nice banner here sometime soon
ninja All are free to enter, as long as you adhere to the theme, the sky is the limit! Great prizes can be won and you will get feedback from a great jury who will review all entries. I.E. I am judging them all.
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