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Campaign Levels

The sheer range of potential characters in Imperium can perturb some GMs. How do you write a campaign for a party that includes both a Noble and a Beggar? How can you fit Space Marines into any party, particularly if the party is made up of civilians and criminals?

Well, part of the answer is to specify a ‘level’ for the campaign or adventure, and only allow careers that would fit neatly (or with a bit of wiggling and force) into that set up. This isn’t particularly complicated, and doesn’t even require any special restrictions beyond the careers used by the players.

(What do you mean, character generation’s random? Nothing’s random in an RPG – if the GM decides it isn’t. Give the player’s re-rolls, or a choice of the ‘best of three’ rolls, or use the points-based character generation optional rule.)

The three given campaign levels are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to move from one to another, should the plot require it, without the PCs even noticing. For example, a group of PC petty crooks run a few dodgy deals at citizen level, before being caught up in an eldar invasion. While serving in the Planetary Defence Force at battlefield level, they capture a few xenos-artefacts and sell these on the black market, making a mint. After the aliens have been beaten off, the PCs are now wealthy enough to start mixing in higher circles of society, eventually entering court level.

This is almost the default setting for Imperium. With the exception of a few of the more specialised career scales (the Adeptus Astartes, Arbites and Sororitas, the Officio Assassinorum and perhaps the Inquisition), any starting character can take part in a citizen level adventure or campaign.

Such a setting takes place largely on the civilian side of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and the day-to-day lives of the PCs should be fairly prominent. Many will have NPC family members, friends and work colleagues who show up on a semi-regular basis. These NPCs can be used for background colour, character development or plot hooks – a PC’s brother getting into trouble with the local protection racketeer is a good motivation for the party getting involved in your finely tailored plot.

The simplest scenario for a citizen level campaign is to pit the PCs against human or abhuman NPCs – it could be that the PCs’ gang is at war with a rival gang, the PCs are involved in investigating the local criminal underworld, they are trying to set up a business, to get from A to B through hostile territory, or to find and retrieve something that either belongs to them and has been stolen, or that doesn’t belong to them, but they think it should do.

More so than in any other setting for Imperium, citizen level adventures offer PCs the opportunity to become the victims of Imperial oppression. Perhaps they could be petty criminals caught up in an Inquisition investigation of the local crime lord, or they could be trying to escape a district-wide Imperial Navy press-ganging raid. A party of PC law enforcers may be in competition with the Adeptus Arbites or other Imperial agencies to arrest a criminal suspect first – perhaps the suspect has evidence that the PCs are corrupt, and they want to kill him before he can spill the beans to the Arbitrators.

Just because the most common encounters are going to be with fellow varieties of homo sapiens doesn’t mean that aliens or darker forces need to be overlooked entirely.

The presence of a genestealer cult on a planet is going to pose a serious threat to the PCs. Perhaps the cult is newly formed, consisting of a single purestrain and a handful of brood brothers in a cellar somewhere. This can be eradicated in a single vigilante raid against local criminals (after the law enforcers seem strangely reluctant to get involved…). Preferably, the purestrain gets away and sets up a cult elsewhere on the planet, perhaps after giving the party a brief flash of claws and chitin as it disappears through a sewer cover – most low-powered citizen level parties will suffer severe casualties if the genestealer decides to fight. If the cult is large and established, the PCs may have a challenge on their hands, and not even realise it. The local criminal underworld is very likely to be heavily infiltrated, if not covertly controlled, by the cult. If the PCs are part of this underworld, things could get very creepy, with colleagues suddenly changing personalities and disappearing to carry out activities for the cult. If the PCs are more legit, breaking open a criminal gang to discover its true nature could come as a shock. If you think ‘mutant’ hybrids and fanatical cultists are nasty, wait until they find the broods of newborn purestrains, the magus, and behind all of that… the bloated patriarch squatting on a throne of human bone.

There are other, more willing, xenophile groups in existence, particularly those that (for want of a better word) worship the eldar – either in their dark druchii aspect, or the more civilised craftworlders. The PCs could uncover, or be involved in, the smuggling of eldar xeno-artefacts, or perhaps they could encounter an eldar in a dark alley or warehouse. Druchii cultists will probably kidnap people to torture and murder, which could be used as a hook to get the PCs into the plot.

Spacefaring PCs, or those living on border or backwater worlds, may come into contact with more open aliens. The tau, hrud, eldar, orks and many other species will trade with humans from time to time. On some worlds they even walk openly in the streets (although usually with bodyguards). Keeping such encounters non-violent can be a strain on the more puritan PC, while more radical ones may be able to make a fortune from trading artefacts with them. Be aware though that most alien races are at least as advanced as humanity, if not more so, and offering glass beads may be taken as an insult.

Chaos is as insidious, if not more so, amongst the citizenry of the Imperium as it is amongst the military and upper classes. This need not even be in the form of covens in cellars. Individuals who have discovered a Chaos tome (such books have a habit of ensuring that they are ‘found’) may fancy themselves as mighty sorcerers and lock themselves in their cellar with a stick of chalk and a couple of dozen candles. Witting or unwitting psykers may hear the whispering voices of Daemons, or be attacked by warp entities like enslavers or astral hounds. Perhaps the business acquaintances in a black market weapons deal turn out be a Chaos Champion and his piratical followers. Out in the wilderness, the PCs will have a struggle on their hands if negotiations go badly.

The emphasis in most citizen level encounters should be on investigation and interaction with NPCs – combat should only occur when unavoidable. Keep in mind that many suspicious NPCs will be using this strategy, since they don’t particularly want their activities to be public knowledge, so relentless attacks on PCs should be kept to a minimum, as should the body count. Most PCs in citizen level campaigns (unless they work their way up to positions of authority) will have few resources to rely on except for their wits, while their opponents may be much better armed and equipped.

Of course, these are just guidelines. If you want to pit your PCs against a planet-spanning Chaos cult, and things turn violent, let events play themselves out naturally. If the PCs’ actions become the trigger event of a full scale planetary insurrection, let them have that on their consciences and plunge them into…

This setting is probably the most familiar to Warhammer 40,000 enthusiasts. We’re talking about adventures set in warzones, with the advantages and difficulties inherent in that. The most successful career types in a battlefield level adventure or campaign are going to be of the Military class, or the more combat-oriented Freelancer or Scholar careers. This isn’t to say that Citizen careers or the non-combatant Freelancer or Scholar careers can’t get a look-in, in improvised ‘scratch companies’ or as refugees or conscripted troops, just that they won’t normally be as well equipped or trained to survive in the terrifying, combat-heavy environment of a warzone.

Most battlefield level adventures will be in the form of combat missions – capture this building, blow up this bridge, assassinate this officer, hold this trench, and so on. PC attrition will be fairly high, even when Fate Points are used. This is the kind of scenario where the Attrition optional rule (see the Injuries section of the Combat rules, for details) comes in handy, although it does take the edge off the risk of sudden death or injury that is so appropriate to battlefield level.

One option is to fill out a squad with NPCs who can either get shot first, or provide a replacement for a player who suddenly finds his original character lying on the ground with half of his or her head missing. This removes the need for forced, "Hi, you must be the party," encounters. This is particularly useful during special operations behind enemy lines. On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with having a stray soldier turn up in the party’s foxhole during the big push, and then accompany the party for the rest of the mission, under the control of the recently bereaved player.

As well as combat missions, there are straightforward day-to-day events on the front line – sentry duty, patrols, requisitioning supplies (perhaps on the black market), delivering messages or scouting uncharted territory – that can be played without combat, providing a healthy release from the tension and danger of face-to-face warfare.

While the PCs are on the front line, their mental health is at risk. Use the Insanity rules to represent the stress of being within range of enemy artillery, on a permanent state of alertness for enemy attack, as well as for the bloody horrors of actual combat.

Have the PCs’ unit rotated from active duty every few weeks, to give them time to relax, recover and enjoy themselves in the friendly towns and villages away from the front line.

Even there though, the PCs aren’t entirely safe. Organised crime has a field day during wartime, and there’s always the risk of air raids, spies or even the enemy launching a devastating push that plunges complacent PCs into the thick of battle before they’ve even finished their egg and bacon breakfast.

Aliens and the machinations of Chaos are highly likely to turn up in a battlefield campaign, mainly through a crosshair. The Imperium’s lack of a ‘live and let live’ policy to most alien cultures means that virtually any breed of alien can be the enemy. What if the PCs start to empathise with the aliens, or if they’re ordered to fire on alien civilians? Chaos is a common and fearsome opponent for the Imperial war machine, and the Long War has raged for ten millennia. Even so, the servants of the Dark Gods need not be on the other end of the rifle. There are Chaos cults within the Imperial Guard, even as high up as the officer corps, and virtually all Navy vessels have at least one or two cults in their bowels – the barely-regulated press-ganging of citizens ensures this. Even Space Marines are liable to turn to Chaos once they become aware of the potential power and glory available to the most successful Chaos Champion, and who is more likely to be successful than a corrupted Astartes warrior? Uncovering corruption within their own ranks can provide as much of an adventure for the PCs as shooting their way through enemy lines. For a start, you can’t just kill a Chaos cultist with a rank badge that’s shinier than your own – you have to get the commissars or the Inquisitors involved, and most Guardsmen don’t fancy drawing that kind of attention to themselves.

And what if, when things go badly, the PCs are captured? Against human opponents, it’s likely that they will be kept in a POW camp (at least until someone high up decides to have them all executed). The tau and other cultures with a civilised attitude towards warfare may keep humans prisoner, even when their own soldiers have no such guarantee from the Imperial military. Be aware that the tau way of war revolves around destroying the enemy capacity to fight, so they will not think twice of executing prisoners if it looks as if a POW camp is about to be overrun by the enemy. Orks and dark eldar will keep subdued opponents as slaves, torture victims or living trophies. Chaos worshippers take slaves, and may attempt to convert prisoners.

How’s this for a twist? Pit the PCs, as Planetary Defence Force troopers or rebels, up against the Imperial Guard. Let them find out the hard way that the Guard aren’t weak and feeble, but part of the greatest military force in human history.

The helplessness of citizen level and the senseless violence of battlefield level disappear (mostly) at court level. Characters starting out in this setting should usually be given a few thousand Experience points to get them into an appropriate high-ranking career. Low-level PCs moving into the court environment will probably be unwelcome, and will almost certainly be looked down on by those already there.

Military officers, successful businessmen, nobles, politicians and rogue traders are the kinds of characters to be found in a court level setting, along with their retinues, bodyguards, agents and servants. The best setting for this kind of campaign is the court of a particular noble, whether it is the planetary governor, a provincial ruler, Merchants’ Guild prince, or corporation chief executive. Even Inquisitor Lords, Space Marine Chapter Masters or Navis Nobilite house lords can be used in more restricted campaigns.

Espionage, theft, scandals, intrigue, blackmail, and, when all else fails, brown-nosing, are the name of the game, anything for the PCs to curry favour with the man at the top and ensure that they gain power and influence at the expense of their rivals. Occasionally, PCs may resort to assassination. In this case, they should be made aware that the other NPC factions are technically on their side, and if they go ahead, expect retaliation, either in kind or through sabotage of their holdings.

If low-level events take place outside of the immediate confines of the court, what about having players take on the roles of two different characters – their main character, the noble, politician or whatever, and another, lesser character, such as a retainer, bodyguard, spy or assassin? Whenever the political machinations necessitate something being done that the main characters cannot afford to get their hands dirty, switch over to using the second characters, and determine the outcome of the plot in this way. This may involve dipping into a citizen or even battlefield level adventure for a short time, depending on the type of person character two is.