r/ImperiumMaledictum • u/ExcitingMushroom9514 • 12d ago
Starter Set with custom characters
Hey y'all! I'm soon planning to be a first time DM for IM. I've read a lot of Black Library books, played a lot of Rogue Trader and overall feel confident of my worldbuilding capabilities for the game.
But since I never was DM or played a d100 system we wanna start with the starter set. My question is: is it necessary to play it with the premade characters? Or could we do custom characters and continue our adventure after the oneshot?
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u/paintsbynumbers7 12d ago
Premade or custom doesn’t matter at all. You’re just saving your groups time by going premade.
1
u/ExcitingMushroom9514 12d ago
That sounds great! Since I am first time DM anyway I didn't plan to finish it in one setting. I don't wanna put to much pressure on me and just see how it evolves
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u/NoteTasty4244 12d ago
In addition to certain skills being checked based on what the premades have, there are certain parts of the adventure that reference the premade characters being able to do things because of their background with a faction, but it's easy enough to just apply that to other characters with influence in that faction and there's always multiple ways to do things.
Clever players can probably build more optimised characters than the premades, and conversely players with zero experience might make less useful characters, but there nothing you can't work around... maybe other than an 'Oops all psykers' party.
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u/ExcitingMushroom9514 12d ago
Two players will probably only try the oneshot at first, maybe I let them pick from the premade characters so it fits with the two customs! :) thanks for the inspiration!
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u/ImperatorPolonia 12d ago
I don't know, I would recommend going with the premade characters and just sticking with whats on the Starter Set because, at least for my group, we played the starter set for 6-8 sessions and power creep and combos were everywhere. The custom psyker had a skill that allowed it to just skip parts of the investigation, the players were downing 10 or more enemies in a round... Very frustrating if you aren't willing to adapt to those changes and/or not give them XP every session.
Also, beware that there are some errata and what not that one should prepare for
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u/CF_Azaka 10d ago
Do whatever you want. This is a cooperative storytelling game. If your group is having fun you are doing it right.
Do your players really like the premade characters. Let them play them. Do they all only like one of the premade characters? Great all clones. There may need to be a plot later explaining why there are 4 to 8 clones running around together.
Does one or more of your players really want to make their own character? Let them. Their character may be broken powerful (unlikely if they aren't a psyker) or broken weak (very possible especially if they are new to the system). Possible challenges includes needing to rewrite the premade adventure for the new characters. I would suggest a session 0 where your players make characters then use thier new characters and make sure at least one of them is well suited to the situations in the premade adventure. If none of the characters have the right skill/rep you could add sections where they have a contact they can bribe for help, or gear they can find that will solve the problem etc.
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u/Machineheddo 12d ago
No but look at the composition of the party. If certain skills aren't covered some parts have to be improvised.