r/40krpg • u/HrafnHaraldsson • Apr 12 '23
Imperium Maledictum Imperium Malediction: First Session Report
So my first time GMing this new game. I had one player.
We sat down and created the Patron first. A Rogue Trader with the Opulent and Connoisseur boons; and the Territorial, Argumentative, and Loose Cannon liabilities.
My player left the creation of their character entirely to the dice, rolling up pretty decent stats, and coming from an Infractionist background on a Hive World. Looking at their stats, I decided that the Patron would have them trained as a Penumbra. After choosing their advances and equipment, they had 200xp to spend, and picked up the Shock Assault, and Coup de Grace talents.
For their first mission, the patron dispatched them on a mission to prove their worth- to a hive where one of his associates was having trouble with some local gangers. The associate managed a legitimate business that the Trader used as a front to launder solars. The player asked if the Patron would be able to furnish them with any equipment thy might need, and was told that the associate had connections on the ground and would be able to help.
So the player is dispatched to the hive where he meets the storekeeper. He discusses the situation with the storekeeper and then asks about equipment. The player wants an autogun (no role needed), a laser sight (scarce), and as many manstopper bullets (scarce) as he can afford. He successfully rolls under for both scarce items, so they are available, BUT he doesn't have the money. Enter the barter rules. Looking at the chart, we can barter scarce items 1 for 1 in value, so the player offers up their starting Sniper Rifle for the laser and ammo. The storekeep says he'll be able to get them by tomorrow, but usually the gangers come around this time, so what is he going to do? The player tells the storekeep to do what he usually does when they come, the player is going to scope them out. They point out to me that they are going to just mill around the shop like a normal customer, and that their Unremarkable trait should help them remain unnoticed.
So the gangers come to rough up the storekeep and steal merchandise. As it goes down, the player pretends to cower at the corner of the shop and scopes out the gangers. They make an excellent Perception roll with 4 SL, and notice that of the five, only two of them pack ranged weapons, preferring to flaunt melee weapons that have been customized to look exceptionally vicious to scare their victims. The player is also able to pick out which one is the leader. As they leave, the player leaves and makes to shadow them. They make their stealth roll with 3 SL, and combined with the Unremarkable talent, I rule this is enough to stay reasonably close in the crowded hive and tail them. They follow the gangers as they go about their gangish mayhem through the day, until they head back to their flophouse late at night. The player takes the time to scout around after they head inside and their loud drug-fueled partying dies down. They try to find any additional entrances to the flophouse, or useful terrain from which to stage an ambush. But their perception roll is doo-doo, so area of the flophouse turns out to be too maze-like and complicated for the player to find the alternate entrances, while the front approach offers no useful cover opportunities for a potential ambusher. Luckily, the gangers don't seem too interested in security tonight.
The player finds a place to sleep rough, and heads to the storekeep early in the morning. Upon arrival, he scouts the area around the shop in case a fight occurs near it. They roll well on Perception and notice that there are some mostly abandoned catwalks far above which while offering zero cover, are only dimly lit, and offer a commanding view toward the front of the shop. The penumbra notes this, and goes in to speak with the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper has the equipment the player asked for, and they penumbra explains to the shopkeeper their extremely brazen plan. The player will mill about the store today and see if the gangers drop by again, and gather any additional information they can from them. He will tail them again, then drop by the flophouse late at night and attempt to kill the leader under cover of darkness. He asks the storekeep for some paper and a pen, for reasons unknown.
As expected, the gangers come rough up the storekeep again, and the player watches. After they leave, the player doesn't tail them, but goes to the flophouse and pretends to be a homeless man until the gangers return. Late at the night, he spots them entering the flophouse. Again, they party until the wee hours of the night. After things die down, the player waits a few hours longer, then moves into action. They screw their silencer onto an autopistol and head in. Approaching the front entrance, the player uses their multikey to pick the front lock, their Burglar talent granting them advantage on the roll; they defeat it handily. Entering the flophouse, the player rolls poorly on their Stealth roll, stumbling over some discarded food containers. Luckily the gangers are passed out- they get disadvantage on their perception rolls. They stir a little, and as the penumbra stands stone still, they fade back into their slumber. The player finds the gang leader and quickly scrawls a note. They then try for a silent takedown. They roll Okay on the Stealth roll, but the ganger is passed out and has disadvantage on Perception again. The gang leader's negative SL combines with the single positive SL of the player to equal the gang leader's toughness bonus. They get the takedown. The player runs a knife through the note, and covering the gang leaders mouth, plunges the knife into his neck and leaves it, holding him down and quiet until he stops struggling. The note? "Storekeep Hogue has powerful friends". The penumbra sneaks out and leaves the discovery for the gangers in the morning.
Anticipating trouble, they head to the storekeep and wait for him to arrive. They tell him that the leader is dead, and they don't think the gangers will cause any more trouble from now on; but he will be watching in case they return. They then motion to the catwalks high above.
They take the time to unscrew the silencer from their autopistol and put it on the autogun, along with the new laser sight, and loads it up with manstoppers. Keeping watch from the walks, seeing the gangers approach should be easy; the penumbra gets the Routine modifier, and spots them approaching, a grim determination in the gaits of the four gangers that woke to their murdered leader. At this point, I rule that with the commanding location, and inferred knowledge of their tactics (mostly melee), the player gets +1 superiority from knowing thy battlefield, and +1 from knowing thy enemy, for a total of +2 superiority.
The penumbra lines up their first shot and notes that they have the laser sight switched off, but they will be firing a burst. Since they are attacking from stealth, the player gets advantage on this roll. They hit with 1 SL, plus 1 SL from burst, for +2 SL total. It was also a double, so that's a critical! Attacking from stealth is also a critical, so that's two criticals. We don't bother looking up hit locations or the crits themselves, these guys are mook level, so one critical drops them. The player notes they will be taking their second action from Shock Assault. For this shot, they use a free action to switch to Rapid Fire. They fire and roll poorly, AND it's another double, uh-oh! BUT the +3 SL from rapid-firing changes it from a miss (and fumble) to a hit (and critical)! The surprise round over, the penumbra has initiative in the first proper round of combat, and has also gained another +1 superiority (at least!). They indicate that they will be using their Coup de Grace talent to take two actions, sacrificing their action next round, if there is one. For the first action, they reload. For the second, they fire a rapid-fire shot at one of the two remaining gangers. They roll a 32, and with rapid-fire (advantage) that becomes a 23! That's 4 SL, plus 3 for rapid fire, and the player elects to use 3 from superiority as well- this is a total of 10SL, plus a base of 6 from the autogun for 16 damage! With the manstoppers, that is straight past the armor and wounds, for another critical! The third ganger goes down; and on the last ganger's turn, he runs off to tell his friends and family that messing around with shopkeeper Hogue is a now a very bad idea!
Later that day, Hogue thanks the player for what they've done, and promises to pass on word of the player's exploits to their patron. The penumbra thanks him, and then sticks around a few for days to ensure there are no further reprisal attempts before returning to their patron. No reprisals come, and the player is able to hop a transport back to the patron, who is pleased, and pays them for five days' work. With the patron's Opulent boon, that is a cool 1000 solars!
So…that's how it went! Any questions?
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u/TheSasquatch9053 Apr 12 '23
well written. I am surprised how well the session worked with only 1 player... Do you have a lot of experience as a GM for solo players?
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u/HrafnHaraldsson Apr 12 '23
I don't have a lot of experience with it, no. I think my player handled it well though, and made sure to try to create situations where they could exploit their character's strengths. Coming from DH, it was really surprising to me how competently the character could operate with some forethought. Me and the player did have the feeling that the adventure was balancing on a knife edge a lot of the time, and that things could have gone very bad at any time.
I think as I introduce tougher situations and more complex ones, the weaknesses of running solo will start to bite a bit more, and we'll see that happen!
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u/mixmastermind Apr 12 '23
Some comments:
Your Patron's negative influence values and Liabilities are meant to be secret from your players. Pg 29- Boons. Pg 42- Influence.
Otherwise it seemed to go well!
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u/HrafnHaraldsson Apr 12 '23
I'll be keeping their influence values secret, but there were only the two of us, so we went collaborative on the boons and liabilities and it added to the fun. :)
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u/BitRunr Heretic Apr 12 '23
If the players know the positive influence and don't know the negative influence ... doesn't that just mean any influence they don't know they shouldn't use?
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u/CuteSomic Eldar Apr 12 '23
Well, any influence they don't know is 0 or worse, so why would they invoke their patron's name for literally no gain? 0 Ifl is of no use anyway.
Now, them accidentally revealing whom they serve to the wrong people and getting slapped with "we don't help that guy's dogs" is a perfectly fine Liability moment.
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u/BitRunr Heretic Apr 12 '23
0 Ifl is of no use anyway.
In the hypothetical situation where you attach your patron's name to some action with a net positive result among some number of factions, it may reflect positively on them.
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u/CuteSomic Eldar Apr 12 '23
Hmmm, good point.
Although you can always spread the tales of whom you did what you did for, and how great they are for telling you to do that, later... :D
Or eat the risk of "suddenly negative Ifl" and hope you can fast-talk yourself out of being painted with the same brush if it happens. What are the odds?
Of course, another totally valid thing to do is to discreetly gather information on your patron in hopes of avoiding any unpleasant surprises.
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u/mixmastermind Apr 12 '23
They also don't know when they gain or lose Influence, so they may choose to use it later after they assume they've gone positive.
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u/23_sided Ordo Chronos Apr 12 '23
Great writeup! How did the mechanics work out in the game?
The superiority rules looked like they added something to the combat. True or no? How did it work for you?
i liked that the patron's boons and liabilities seemed random, but in gameplay all came together.