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YorkNecromancer
08-03-2013, 04:38 PM
Hello all.

As a writing exercise, since the start of this year, I have been endeavoring to maintain a blog, writing once a week on Sundays. I wasn't too sure what the content would be, just that I would write for fun, once a week.

After two reviews of GW products, I became somewhat disillusioned with the idea of writing negative things. Given my reputation in The Oubliette, this may take those readers who have been engaged in the somewhat... shall we say "enthusiastic" debates there by surprise. As a result of this, I decided to change tack, and rather than complain about what was wrong, I decided to create an example of what I think is right.

To whit, The Kepler Covenant.

The idea is that it's going to be a campaign book, only done the way I personally think a campaign should be done. That is to say, none of the usual GW nonsense about the histories of staff members, and none of the shilling of Planetary Empires. The aim is for an interesting, solid "story" that can form the basis of a campaign for my school's wargaming club. It's about a third completed; once it's finished (I estimate about a year from now at my current writing speed), I intend to run it at the club. It's designed to synergise with the 40K roleplay game system as well; once the 40K side of it is done, I'm going to look at writing up additional materials so players of Dark Heresy and Deathwatch can engage in the non-battle side of the story.

I have asked a few people to have a look at it, and their kind feedback encourages me to "publicise" it here, in the hopes that people here will like it.

A few caveats. It's only set on a single world. This is deliberate, because personally I get annoyed by the whole ice/lava/cloning/death world trope. Earth manages to have all of those things; I imagine any planet we can colonise would be the same. As a result, when the campaign map is finally done, it will be for one planet, and one planet only. I'm not going to add any more. Also, the factions are deliberately designed to subvert people's expectations. The aim is that when reading it, a 40K fan's reaction should ideally be "Wait, what?! But those two factions would never work togeth... Oh wait, I see. Oh no, that does make sense." I hope the setting embodies the 40K setting without being yet more of the "honour and glory" war porn that isn't to my personal taste. Finally, it's designed to be morally ambiguous - in the sense that the "villains" go against the established "morality" of their own respective cultures. This is to facilitate solid roleplay options and stories for Dark Heresy/Deathwatch play.

I include the core introduction below; if you like this and want to read on, the rest is on my Blog page. Any feedback regarding rules, and most especially points costs, do please let me know. The special characters and army changes are designed to interact with each other in a Campaign, not be used in "normal" 40K games.

The Kepler-22b Campaign

Kepler-22 is a star in the northern constellation of Cygnus, the swan, that is orbited by Kepler-22b, a lone planet safely within the star's habitable zone. From Holy Terra, the star is too faint to be seen with the naked eye, and Imperial Records state that Mankind has long known of it – those sages and lexmechanics learned in the blasphemous lore of the Dark Age of Technology, have been known to murmur that the planet was known of even before those horrific times. The distance to Kepler-22 is 620 light-years (190 parsecs), and a typical Warp journey from Holy Terra takes around twenty years, although the fiercer-than-average Warp Storms that seem endemic to the area have meant some journeys have taken as long as a century.

Kepler-22 itself is slightly smaller and cooler than the Terran Sun, with a lower abundance of elements having more mass than helium, radiating 79% of the Sun's luminosity from its outer atmosphere meaning that Kepler-22b is a darker, and slightly cooler planet than Terra, with Explorators who returned from the region during the Dark Age referring to it as a twilight world, with a chilly, if generally temperate clime.

This unassuming, relatively unimportant planet has, in recent millennia, become the site of a terrible blasphemy. The Kepler Covenant, as it is known in the Imperium, is a federation of affiliated species, and is currently regarded as one of the darkest heresies to exist within the bounds of Imperial Space. Based in the extensive colonies on Kepler-22b's surface, the Covenant is currently rated at the Hereticus Terminus threat level, and is regarded as the most significant threat to the Imperium in that area of space.

The Covenant's Membership are unique, in that they are brought together not by species, as is usual within the bounds of the Imperium, but by philosophy. The fact that it was founded by Xenos species would be enough to damn it in the eyes of the Inquisition, but the fact that it promotes the intermingling of human and Xenos pushes the response into the realms of the unforgivable. When one considers that the Covenant holds to a number of the most dangerous heresies imaginable – those of democracy, freedom, and egalitarianism – the only possible response from the Imperium at large could be one of swift and violent reprisal.

While Imperial propaganda holds that such a convocation would be doomed to failure, and certainly would not last against a focused Imperial attack, the war against the Covenant has shown this for the lie it is. Taken individually, the species involved would have little to no chance against the resolute might of the Imperial war machine. However, it is impossible to fight each species individually – the Covenant must be fought as a whole, and in this regard, like an alloyed metal, the individual parts lend the Covenant strength far greater than its original components.

Blocs and Factions.

For convenience, the various warring parties on Kepler-22 are divided into two categories: Blocs, representing the main organisations that are conducting the war, and Factions, the individual armies fighting the campaign on the ground. In a campaign each player may only be a member of one Bloc, but the army they play with may be made up of any members of their Bloc's Factions (within standard Warhammer 40,000 rules, of course).


The Blocs

There are three main power Blocs in the Kepler-22 campaign. At the start of a campaign, players must decide which of the three Blocs they will dedicate themselves to. Unless otherwise specified by a specific rule, once a player has joined a Bloc, they may not leave it – so choose carefully. Once committed, you're in it for the long haul.

In order, the Blocs are:

The Kepler Covenant: a close affiliation of normally hostile species, who have banded together through a combination of shared philosophy, desperation, and survival instinct.

Imperial Strike Force Sigilus: a collection of Imperial forces sent forth to prosecute the campaign (designated Sigilus) in the Emperor's name. Officially overseen by the Inquisition, the Strike Force has a number of divisive issues of politics that make it less effective than it might otherwise be.

The Convention of Thorns: a battle-fleet made drawn from the seemingly limitless fund of a vicious coven of Dark Eldar Haemonculi. They are supported by the Iron Panoply, a small, but highly elite force of Chaos Space Marines, whose public claims of purely mercenary motivation seem at odds with some of their behaviour.

The Factions

Each of the three Blocs of the Kepler-22 campaign is made up of a number of different Factions. Each Faction represents a species and culture with a vested interest in the result of the Kepler-22 Campaign.
In game terms, each Faction represents the army and ally choices available to each player within the campaign.

There are five key Factions that make up the Kepler Covenant: The Phylolaek Dynasty (Necrons); The E'krat Sept (Tau); The Jade Consuls (Space Marines); The Bifrosti (Imperial Guard); and the Lemarchand Kabal (Dark Eldar).

There are four Factions that make up Imperial Strike Force Sigilus: Blood Angels Strike Force Demeter (Blood Angels); The Deathwatch (Space Marines); Ordo Xenos Inquisition Purgation Force Cataclysmus (Grey Knights); and The 199th Cadian Shock Troop Regiment (Imperial Guard).

There are two Factions that make up the Convention of Thorns: The Saemeeshi Coven (Dark Eldar); and the Iron Panoply (Chaos Space Marines).