Well after Andy and I had generated by new character for our upcoming Rogue Trader RPG campaign (a heretical technomagus of the adeptus mechanicus who is convinced things will work if you just press the button and don't worry about the candles)we decided to have a look through the old 'Realm of Chaos' books 'Slaves to Darkness' and 'The Lost and the Damned'.
Now i bought these as a 13 or 14 year old on sale at GW Derby in the late 80s (probably because of the 'adults only' type sticker on it that was to leave me sorely disappointed...) but never really did too much with them. All a bit too crazy with D1000 rolls that could have your rampaging lord of chaos suddenly loose his legs and grow a tail for a head even if you were doing well.
But we thought in the interests of exploring old school gaming we'd each have a go at creating a 40k realm of chaos warband and have a few narrative battles.
Deciding to stick by whatever the gods of fate gave us (and only re-rolling impossible to model or *really* lame mutations like 'farts a lot') Andy opted for a Slanesh renegade band and I thought i'd be clever and go for the 'Sensai' warband. For those not privy to the old rare yellow chaos book, the sensai were essentially descendants of the Emperor and about as close to Jedi as GW could get without being sued.
Andy's rolls started well. He started off with a Rogue Trader who had sold his soul to chaos, gaining a bestial face and a tail for his loyalty... His first folower was a tainted navigator who had his eyes on stalks but quite fortunatley a chaos weapon (staff) forged from the ribs and still beating heart of his enemy which gave him some additional wounds. All good stuff so far and I felt slightly intimidated when Andy's next two group of followers were a couple of bands of human (7 and 5 strong) armed with shotguns and lasguns.
So what would the Sensai have to stand against this force... not much to be honest.
While i appreciate it says 'sensai bands are quite small' I was expecting a bit more than a basic profile navigator with a laspistol and a grumpy old squat hero with a bolter! Luckily Andy took pity on me and let me have another roll on the followers table, this fared only marginally better with a human minor hero as a sidekick.
So I can see our initial clashes being *very* short and think we might be able to get a few dozen game in each night unless my Sensai can get his act together on the recruiting front.
It was pretty good fun to mess about with though but it does prove that the products that nearly drove GW crazy (the ROC books) really were the true product of chaos... or perhaps one madman.. who just happened to be the studio manager at the time (i'll mention no names).
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Hmm odd despite me putting loads of spacing in between paragraphs blogger has ran it all together. Sorry about that chaps, i'll fix it when I can work out what on earth is making it happen.
ReplyDeleteI've edited it now, should be ok :-)
DeleteMy current Dark Elf army started back in the early 90's as six dark elf crossbowmen my Slaanesh Champion was awarded as followers.
ReplyDeleteColKG
I re-read the old Roc books, cover to cover, late last year (the last time was almost two decades ago), and it dawned on me that i had never heard nor seen anybody play a 40k/rogue trader style warband. I mean, a fair chunk of both books are devoted solely to warbanding in it, and it seemed like nobody touched it!
ReplyDeleteThere's a wealth of untapped gold in dem dar pages i tell ye!
It's something i think i'll try in the near future....after warbanding in the old world for a while first :)
cheers.
It was indeed most fun rolling up the warband, and the renegade Rogue Trader result gives me the excuse to buy a female Hellspawn miniature from Reaper that I've wanted for a while. Also, the eyes on stalks result for the Navigator is great, as I can model his warp eye on a large stalk coming out of his forehead!
ReplyDeleteGood men! The old RoC books are my all-time favourite GW books - with many long days spent generating Chaos Warbands (my most beloved being a Lvl 25 Dark Elf Sorcerer of Slaanesh, first mutation Cross-Breed (Dragon), second mutation Duplication x 2, ooh baby!); I'd like to pretend that that I was only rolling these in the long summer holidays away from school, but it still happens if I have a particularly dreadful hangover and some time to kill.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing what conversions you guys come up with (and how you cope with the continual mutations of your Rogue Trader, Andy).
It'll certainly be interesting trying to keep up that's for sure! The mini I've found should work out perfect to start out with, but I certainly plan to attempt every mutation that comes along, even if I have to start over with a totally new mini every few games :-)
ReplyDeleteI flipping love Realm of Choas. Used to be our staple game back in the day, as a 13 to 15 year old. When I moved to Nottingham in my mid 20s I managed to get several campaigns in. Im gutted I no longer live there, and in fact sold my real of chaos books! I hope you guys are using the handy reference books I gave to G!
ReplyDeleteCraziest end to the campaign was when Ullise Ratzini got a giant wielding a las cannon, which because of his Ld10 (mutation) became the warband champion....
I flipping love Realm of Choas. Used to be our staple game back in the day, as a 13 to 15 year old. When I moved to Nottingham in my mid 20s I managed to get several campaigns in. Im gutted I no longer live there, and in fact sold my real of chaos books! I hope you guys are using the handy reference books I gave to G!
ReplyDeleteCraziest end to the campaign was when Ullise Ratzini got a giant wielding a las cannon, which because of his Ld10 (mutation) became the warband champion....