Punk-Dark Imperium: Looking at the Ultra-Marines (WD 97)

WD 97 (via dakkadakka.org)

Happy New Year, folks!

I've been working on my Punk-Dark Imperium setting for Starslugs, and have made a reasonable chunk of progress. Still need to flesh out the careers, since I'm adjusting Mongoose Traveller for 40K assumptions rather than its existing Golden Age ones. The basic combat rules are good to go in theory, but will need playtesting. Over New Years', I began rolling up my subsector; right now the process is more tedious than engaging, but I suspect that it may yet grow on me.

Going back to my musings on theme, tone, and game style, I found an old White Dwarf (#97) that had an article on the "Ultra-Marines." Interesting to look at how things have changed in GW-land...

Originally...

• The Ultra-Marines (yes, hyphenated every time) were founded "during the inter-legionary wars of the thirty second millennium" - a conflict now known by GW as the Horus Heresy and expanded in excruciating detail from its hazy, nebulous, and evocative roots. Current GW materials call the chapter the Ulrmarines and state that their founder essentially created the Marine System of Organization (tm), called the Codex.
• The Ultra-Marines got the kit and paraphernalia of a disgraced legion that had been banished to the Eye of Terror, interestingly enough. Generally a no-no in later 40K.
• They are one of the few Space Marine chapters to be called "Adeptus Astartes;" the term is reserved for marine chapters that also hold planetary governor positions. Later 40K sees all Space Marines called Adeptus Astartes.
• Their home planet of Macragge is an inhospitable shithole with an economy based around shrimp farming from dust oceans. Current 40K has it all idyllic and just and Grecian.
• Official positions within the chapter aren't restricted to Space Marines; regular folks "(or even morphs or half-humans)" can can hold the rank of Master within the Ultra-Marines. Current 40K has everything entirely Space Marine all the time, barring some flunkies designated as "chapter serfs." In the original writeup, they're just bluntly called slaves.
• Scouts are not young neophytes being sent in to prove their worth, but regular troops wearing power armor and jetpacks. Because, y'know, you might actually want to have effective scouts. 
• THERE ARE BROWN FOLKS IN THE CHAPTER WTF GUYS. Characters have names like Cha Lee, Asata, Singa, Yu-Wan, Butt, Hajadin, and Idu. This is throughout the command structure - senior officers, junior officers, and staff officers. (Current 40K can barely acknowledge that Spess Mehreens might not have names so Gothic that they shit cathedrals.)
• Also, go back to the bit about having staff officers, like a military organization that isn't a bunch of dumbasses.
• One of the masters of the chapter is a half-elven (excuse me, half-eldar) psyker who's served with other Space Marine chapters. (Ah, how far current 40K has fallen from ELVES IN SPAAAAACE!)
• The Master of the Ships is named Christo Columbine. The half-eldar psyker is named Illiyan Natase, apparently riffing off of a Romanian tennis player from back in the day.



Ultra-Marines using camouflage!
(From WD 105, via Arcadia Prime)

• The chief medical officer of the Ultra-Marines "has an acute if rather unnerving love of chainswords, having the idea firmly set in his mind that this is the only way to remove troublesome armor when attempting to deal with a wound."

OK, so what's the upshot of all of this?
Early 40K has a sense of humor (I suspect that there are other pun names I didn't pick up on). It's got a greater willingness to approach things from a "classical wargaming" standpoint, with a lot of discussion of things like communications, medical systems, and ecologies, even though the article is ostensibly just about the Ultra-Marines.

The Space Marines are not shown as being fundamentally removed from humanity, and there's a much greater integration into human society. Think Dune's Sardaukar, an elite force but with still human concerns and outlook, versus the mono-murder-machines of current 40K. Look at the images below - same fella, Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultra-Marines - but such a difference in proportion! And that also applies to how they interact with the setting; later 40k seeks to have its Space Marines mythic and gigantic and writ large, while this look, at least, has them human in scale, rocking goofy looking cloaks, and dealing with paperwork.
 
Also, the WD 97 version has dinosaurs, because fuck you, that's why.

Marneus Calgar then and now...
Image comparison by HakoMike, here.

On Theme

Rey had a nifty post over here discussing a cool idea, where fighters can wear ridiculous outfits and gain the equivalent of chainmail armor class. My first thought was "I totally want to steal that" and my next thought was "Definitely shouldn't steal that."

Or at least, definitely shouldn't steal it for Legacy of the Bieth. I'm shooting to have a certain theme and atmosphere in my setting, where things are washed out and sun-blasted and Sergio Leone cinematography, even in the Zone itself. The fancy peacock outfits of the Imperials and other city slickers wilt and fade in the borderlands. Life means little, death sometimes has its price.

Once Upon a Time in the West

I find myself finding all sorts of things that sound really cool, but I've got to keep reminding myself about what I want in my setting and how I need to get that across. Once I've gotten that established in the setting (and importantly, convinced myself I've gotten that established in the setting), then I can maybe start to expand other areas and use some of the cool bits I've seen elsewhere. But until my stuff...makes its bones, for lack of a better term, I don't want to start heading out of the areas I need to get right.

The same thing applies with the 40K stuff I'm working on. I need to get the right balance between the weird and grotty John Blanche of the early days

"Jaq Draco" - John Blanche
"Ryan, be careful what you shoot at.
Shome things in here don't react too well
to bolter shells."

...with the slick fancy Adrian Smith stuff

"Eisenhorn" - Adrian Smith
"I am a badass despite the fact
that I am also ludicrously microcephalic."

And the question there is going to determine how I reshape everything. I know I want to have something that embraces a lot of the universe and setting assumptions of early 40K, but I know that I want something of the slickness and baroque tomfoolery that goes along with Dark Heresy and the Abnettquisition works. Early 40K fits in really well with Traveller (at least the STARSLUGS Traveller I've been playing recently), but it's an Abnettquisition premise that I've been noodling at for about two years that's got me started on the conversion process in the first place. 

None of this is dealing with players, mind you. They're going to keep engaging in their ridiculous-awesome plots and crazy shenanigans and not giving a crap about my fretting over themes. As well they should. 

Joesky Note: Dark Heresy weapons and armor would be a pain in the ass to convert into Traveller's regular combat system. Thankfully, the alternate combat system that Sun-Lord Chris posted over at Hill Cantons actually allows for really rapid conversion. The penetration and armor values from Dark Heresy can come over into Traveller almost directly (with a few tweaks to account for Traveller's baseline weapons assumptions). 

(Yeah, this isn't a full tax. Shut up, I'll do more later.)

STARSLUGS Signatory, Punk-Dark Imperium of Man

With my primary gaming campaign being on a bit of an SF kick these days, I've been getting more and more excited about an idea I had a few months ago, using Traveller to run Warhammer 40K games. (I have the Dark Heresy RPG and find it extremely impenetrable, though very pretty and with some very cool bits.)

"Nurgle Slug Obliterator," by Panic
CoolMiniOrNot

Now both Chris and Evan have begun running Traveller games, with the interstellar equivalent of a FLAILSNAILS Convention: the STARSLUGS Convention. (see below)

And this has gotten me excited enough to start getting my 40k system tweaks fully set up for Traveller. I'm envisioning a combination between the wild craziness of the first 40K work, Rogue Trader (gonzo, punk, cynical satire, extremely 2000 AD), and the no less grim but significantly more heroic Dan Abnett envisioning of the setting (not everyone is an asshole, even though life sucks; Chaos is likely going to eat everything but you can still win victories against it.)

So expect some more posts on the matter. The primary areas I'm expecting to work on are going to be creating a new equipment list (using these alternative rules for combat) and a career/lifepath system splitting the difference between WFRP and Mongoose Traveller careers. 

So. Announcing the Punk-Dark Imperium of Man. Let's see where this goes. 

Oh, and related inspirational art blog.

"Enforcer," John Blanche

Simple Translation Agreement Rules Simulating Lastingly Unified Galactic Sectors

In order for freetraders in the Space Cantonment, Directorate Space, and other willing sectors, to prosper and thrive, the referees of those campaigns have set out the following articles in order to ease movement between them.

Article 1
Characters may move between Directorate Space and the Space Cantonment freely provided they meet the standards required in other articles.

Article 2
Characters are bound by the rules of the version of Traveller being used in the game they are currently playing.  This includes things such as the rules for combat (both personal and ship-based), weapon damage, the functions of certain technological items, etc.

Article 3
There is one exception to the rule presented in Article 2: skills.  Characters use whatever skill they possess that is closest to the one in the system currently being run.  This means that characters from the Cantonment (and possibly other CT games) possess broader skill categories than those the Directorate.  Skill acquisition is also based on the characters native system, and not on the system currently being run.  Skill rolls function as other items described in Article 2.

Article 4
Characters may bring their own personal effects with them, but not those held in common with other members of their party/crew.  This includes any ships the characters rolled on the benefits table, assuming the ship is being used by other party members.

Article 5
Psions, astropsychics, and aliens must submit their characters to the referee at least 48 hours in advance so that the referee has the time to read over any relevant sections of their rules/come up with how certain foreign abilities work in their area of space-time.