ElectricPaladin
05-27-2013, 04:23 PM
Dark FATE is the Dark Heresy is the FATE hack that I'm going to put together to run 40k in. This is a thread for brainstorming a game for my wife.
My wife is not normally into the 40k background. She's a roleplayer and a nerd - and she appreciates all the hard work I put into the models and background for the forces I create - but the setting of 40k kind of squicks her out. And yet, today, she said to me (and I paraphrase) "if I were ever to play a character in the 40k setting, I'd want to create a character who was basically Jesus, there to fix all the problems and spit in the face of the Grimdarkness."
The following idea was born.
The game is set at the end of the 40k setting, when the Emperor has finally died. As predicted, with Warp travel now nigh-impossible, the Imperium has finally broken apart. Most worlds that don't have either powerful local IG or Space Marine contingents guarding them have fallen to Chaos or Xenos invaders. Without the Imperium to distract them, the Tyranids have pushed even the Tau and the Eldar back to the point that the Tau are desperately protecting the core of their empire and the Eldar are besieged in their craftworlds. Orks run rampant, turning world after world into wastelands as they Waaaagh! unchecked across the stars.
The game begins in a minor feudal world protected by an errant Strike Cruiser of Space Marines who were stranded here when the Emperor died. My wife's character is one of this world's people - her town's midwife in fact - a single mother raising her child, conceived out of wedlock. She couldn't marry the child's father because he was taken by the Space Marines shortly thereafter (they [I]can recruit as late as the late teens, IIRC, and will if they are in dire straights - and these Astartes are certainly in dire straights when it comes to recruits).
She is also the Emperor reborn.
You see, in this story, the Emperor has become the a Warp God of ingenuity and progress upon his death. He saw the state the Imperium was in and decided that he needed one last material incarnation in order to ensure mankind's survival. This otherwise unimportant person is that incarnation.
I can see this game going in a lot of interesting ways. She will certainly have a complicated relationship with the Astartes - on the one hand, she will begin to surface memories of the Primarchs and may come to view the Space Marines quite maternally, but on the other hand they stole the boy she loved and turned him into a death-oriented killing machine who can only return her love in an abstract, protective sort of way. How might she deal with some of the Primarchs returning to the Imperium - which is certainly in its hour of need - especially the hyper-masculine ones like Russ? How will she deal with the inevitable conflict with the Daemon Primarchs, who are likely out to kill or corrupt her now, while her vast power remains untapped? Could Magnus see in her an escape from his damnation and slavery? How will the Ecclesiarchy deal with her? She is also certainly an incredibly powerful psyker. Even though her super-powered multisoul makes it possible for her to deal with the Warp without quite as much risk as the average human, she still needs to learn to manage that power, which could make an interesting chapter in the game.
Anyway, I know this is terribly heretical, but I think it could also be a lot of fun. Getting away from the standpoint of what "would" happen - we know this entire premise is completely whacked out from that perspective - what kinds of stuff could be fun?
The idea is that this is a character who will turn the Grimdarkness on its head, while still honoring the epic, "passion play" aspects of the setting.
What do you think? Questions? Comments? Concerns? Accusations of heresy will be summarily executed... I mean ignored. Summarily ignored :D.
My wife is not normally into the 40k background. She's a roleplayer and a nerd - and she appreciates all the hard work I put into the models and background for the forces I create - but the setting of 40k kind of squicks her out. And yet, today, she said to me (and I paraphrase) "if I were ever to play a character in the 40k setting, I'd want to create a character who was basically Jesus, there to fix all the problems and spit in the face of the Grimdarkness."
The following idea was born.
The game is set at the end of the 40k setting, when the Emperor has finally died. As predicted, with Warp travel now nigh-impossible, the Imperium has finally broken apart. Most worlds that don't have either powerful local IG or Space Marine contingents guarding them have fallen to Chaos or Xenos invaders. Without the Imperium to distract them, the Tyranids have pushed even the Tau and the Eldar back to the point that the Tau are desperately protecting the core of their empire and the Eldar are besieged in their craftworlds. Orks run rampant, turning world after world into wastelands as they Waaaagh! unchecked across the stars.
The game begins in a minor feudal world protected by an errant Strike Cruiser of Space Marines who were stranded here when the Emperor died. My wife's character is one of this world's people - her town's midwife in fact - a single mother raising her child, conceived out of wedlock. She couldn't marry the child's father because he was taken by the Space Marines shortly thereafter (they [I]can recruit as late as the late teens, IIRC, and will if they are in dire straights - and these Astartes are certainly in dire straights when it comes to recruits).
She is also the Emperor reborn.
You see, in this story, the Emperor has become the a Warp God of ingenuity and progress upon his death. He saw the state the Imperium was in and decided that he needed one last material incarnation in order to ensure mankind's survival. This otherwise unimportant person is that incarnation.
I can see this game going in a lot of interesting ways. She will certainly have a complicated relationship with the Astartes - on the one hand, she will begin to surface memories of the Primarchs and may come to view the Space Marines quite maternally, but on the other hand they stole the boy she loved and turned him into a death-oriented killing machine who can only return her love in an abstract, protective sort of way. How might she deal with some of the Primarchs returning to the Imperium - which is certainly in its hour of need - especially the hyper-masculine ones like Russ? How will she deal with the inevitable conflict with the Daemon Primarchs, who are likely out to kill or corrupt her now, while her vast power remains untapped? Could Magnus see in her an escape from his damnation and slavery? How will the Ecclesiarchy deal with her? She is also certainly an incredibly powerful psyker. Even though her super-powered multisoul makes it possible for her to deal with the Warp without quite as much risk as the average human, she still needs to learn to manage that power, which could make an interesting chapter in the game.
Anyway, I know this is terribly heretical, but I think it could also be a lot of fun. Getting away from the standpoint of what "would" happen - we know this entire premise is completely whacked out from that perspective - what kinds of stuff could be fun?
The idea is that this is a character who will turn the Grimdarkness on its head, while still honoring the epic, "passion play" aspects of the setting.
What do you think? Questions? Comments? Concerns? Accusations of heresy will be summarily executed... I mean ignored. Summarily ignored :D.