Thursday, November 28, 2019

The Third Beast Pack: a WIP Only War Beastman Regiment

This is the regiment created for an Only War campaign I run. Here's the crunch, which will be followed by the fluff.
Homeworld - Each PC chooses their homeworld
Commander - Bilious
Regiment Type - Guerrilla
Training Doctrines - Sharpshooter, Survivalist
Universal Bonus Equipment - 1 stummer, Chain Mail, Flak Helmet, Micro Bead, Grapnel and Line

The Third Beast Pack is primarily composed, as the name suggests, of Beastmen. Generally speaking, they are let loose in some of the most casualty heavy warzones the guard is fighting in to cause havoc for the Emperor's enemies with minimal supervision and very little to no support from other Imperial Guard infrastructure. The Beast Pack is composed of soldiers from many different worlds, since many planets do not have high enough populations of Beastmen to form and entire regiment and mixing significant numbers of abhuman and human companies can cause serious issues. While
most of the soldiers of this regiment are beastmen, over time the excessivly high numbers of casualties they suffer has caused the regiment to be reinforced by soldiers hailing from different origins. Generally speaking, having your squad or company re-assigned to a Beast Pack is a sure way to tell that, for one reason or another, someone in a position of power is exceptionally displeased with you and your associates.

Given their low status and lack of resources, support specialists are rarely assigned to any of the Beast Packs. In particular, Ministorum Priests, Storm Troopers, and Sanctioned Psykers are virtually never in any of the Beast Packs. Ratlings and Ogryn are relatively much more common, as lumping abhumans together tends to cause fewer problems. There is usually only a single Enginseer assigned to a given beast pack at a single point in time, as they have little advanced equipment or vehicles to require one. The Enginseer is assigned to the Third Beast Pack called Castor, and he is not a happy man. In between maintaining the Pack's limited equipment, dealing with the tech-illeterate animals that make up the regiment, and fending off the frequent attempted thefts of his precious equipment, he barely has time to complain that the destruction of Magos Zaria's most prized possessions was, in fact, not his fault, and his assignment to such a terrible situation is some kind of terrible mistake.
The number of Commissars assigned to the beast pack varies significantly depending on how the Imperial Guard command is feeling at a given point in time. Sometimes, their are next to none, when command feels like sending a highly trained, relatively difficult to replace unit like a commissar to ensure the morality and fighting spirit of a bunch of mutants doomed to die either way is a
waste of resources. Other times, they'll have very high numbers of commissars as command feels like that bunch of mutants must be watched constantly to ensure there is no deviance from the Imperial Creed, however small. Currently, there are only a few in the third pack, mostly due to the previous regiment they were assigned to being mostly wiped out and merged with the Beast Pack, which had also taken very heavy casualties.

In terms of combat operations, the Beast Pack is a typical Guerrilla regiment. Companies and to some degree even squads are expected to conduct independent recon, foraging, and attacks on enemy forces they locate. Upon the discovery of enemy strongholds or forces too large for whatever unit discovers them, more squads or companies are called in to assist with the assault. They are typically
fielded either alone or along with other beast packs, though this is not a hard rule. They are more likely to be paired with pure human regiments when fighting Xenos than heretics or rebels, as many commanders feel that fighting their fellows alongside such distinctive abhumans would
be bad for moral. Whether or not that's actually accurate is neither here nor there.


We've also come up with homebrew homeworlds for beastmen. Here they are.

General - Cost: 3 points
Hyena  
Characteristics: Choose 2 between Strength, Toughness, and Fellowship; those stats get +3
Skills: Survival, Command OR Deceive, Scrutiny
Talents: Polyglot OR Disturbing Voice
Inhuman Senses: Start with Darksight and Heightened Senses(Hearing, Smell), but tests to 
resist attacks on those senses suffer a -10 penalty
Wounds: Hyenas start with +1 wound. 
Komodo
Characteristics: Choose 2 between Toughness, Intelligence, and Willpower; those stats get +3
Skills: Survival, Awareness, Logic
Talents: Cold Hearted OR Jaded
Cold Demenour: Reptiles tend to have different thought processes than mammals, which most 
find extremely offputting. They suffer a -20 to charm and command tests. 
Toxic Bite: Inside a Komodo's mouth is a horrifying soup of deadly disease and rotting meat. Their
bites count as Natural Weapons with the Primitive (8) and Toxic (2) traits. 
Wounds: Komodos start with +1 wound. 
Lion
Characteristics: Choose 2 between Fellowship, Strength, and Willpower; those stats get +3
Skills: Command, Charm, Intimidate
Talents: Air of Authority OR Heroic Inspiration
Lion's Pride: Must pass a +0 Willpower test to retreat or allow foes to retreat when not faced
with overwhelming odds. 
Noble Demenour: Reduce the Abhuman penalty to interaction by 10
Wound: Lions generate wounds as normal. 
Wolf
Characteristics: Choose 2 between Fellowship, Weapon Skill, and Perception; those stats gain +3
Skills: Charm, Awareness, Survival
Talents: Double Team OR Takedown
Pack Tactics: Wolves gain an additional +10 when Ganging Up on a foe
Lonely Wolf: When isolated from their squad, wolves suffer a -10 to Willpower, Weapon Skill, and         Ballistic Skill
Wounds: Wolves generate wounds as normal.
Fox
Characteristics: Choose 2 between Intelligence, Perception, and Agility: those stats gain +3
Skills: Tech-Use, Scrutiny, Security
Talents: Technical Knock OR Modify Payload
Cunning like a Fox: When interacting with an unfamiliar mechanical system, reduce penalties to Tech-Use and 
Security by 10
Disliked by the Mechanicus: Gain the Enemey: Adeptus Mechanicus Talent, and suffers an additional -10 to 
all interaction tests involving them. 
Wounds: Foxes start with -1 wound. 
Rat
Characteristics: Choose 2 between Agility, Perception, and Ballistic Skill: those stats gain +3
Skills: Stealth, Acrobatics, Awareness
Talents: Light Sleeper OR Ambush
Rat Bastard: When attacking a helpless or unaware target, attacks gain Vengeful: (9) and proven x         where x is equal to Perception Bonus. 
Nervous: When damaged while not in cover and while already wounded, must make a -0 Willpower         check or become suppressed. 
Wounds: Rats start with -1 wounds. 
Bull
Characteristics: Choose 2 between Strength, Toughness, and Weapon Skill: those stats gain +3
Skills: Athletics, Intimidate, Parry
Talents: Brute of Burden OR Berserk Charge
Red Rage: Gain the Brutal Charge(3) trait. 
Seeing Red: When wounded, must make a -10 willpower check to not focus exclusively on attacking         the target(s) that inflicted the wounds on your next turn. 
Wounds: Bulls start with +2 wounds. 

Goat
Characteristics: Choose 2 between Toughness, Agility, and Perception: those stats gain +3
Skills: Survival, Acrobatics 
Talents: Leap Up OR Lightning Reflexes 
Devil's Hooves: Counts difficult terrain as normal terrain for movement purposes
Fainting Goat Syndrome: When a Goat fails a test that would result in stunning (such failing the         toughness test after being struck struck by a weapon weapon with the shocking quality), the Goat         counts as having failed by an additional 2 degrees of failure. 
Wounds: Goats start with +2 wounds. 
Red Panda
Characteristics: Choose 2 between Agility, Fellowship, and Perception: those stats gain +3
Skills: Charm, Scrutiny, Deceive OR Inquiry
Talents: Radiant Presence OR Meditation
Too Stupid to Live: When faced with a mystery, must pass a Willpower test with difficulty determined by the GM to not investigate.
Too Cute to Let Die: Medicae tests performed on a Red Panda gain a +10. 
Wounds: Red Pandas with -1 wounds. 
Crow
       Characterisitcs: Choose 2 between Intelligence, Fellowship, and Perception: those stats gain +3
       Skills: Scrutiny, Deceive OR Sleight of Hand, Logic
        Talents: Lasgun Volley OR Total Recall
        Shinies: Crows are notorious thieves, and most suffer from a deep compulsion to posses shiny objects they see. When confronted by an obviously valuable object, a Crow must pass a willpower test (difficulty dependent on how valuable it is, the difficulty of acquiring it, and the potential repercussions of obtaining it) or do his best to obtain it by any means necessary. 
       Group Communications: A crow receives a +20 bonus to inquiry checks involving a friendly regiment of Imperial Guards, and automatically passes such tests when specifically related to gathering information on enemy forces.  
        Wounds: Crows start with -1 wounds. 

Lynx
        Characterisitcs: Choose 2 between Agility, Strength, and Perception: those stats gain +3
        Skills: Stealth, Athletics OR Acrobatcis, Survival
        Talents: Heightened Sense (Sight) OR The Bigger They Are
        The Harder They Fall: When making an All Out Attack or Charge against a target with a size rating larger that their own, Lynxes may add half of their agility bonus to the damage. 
        Solitary Hunter: When interacting with groups other than their squad, Lynxes suffer a -10 to all fellowship tests.
        Wounds: Lynxes generate wounds normally.  

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