Perfect Organism's Warhammer 40,000 conversion thread.

[Sam Baughn]

Originally Posted by Flynn

Very Clever handling of the bolter. Any thoughts on the Auto cannon? Just figured I'd ask b/c I remember them absolutely tearing up the battlefield in the tabletop game.

Originally Posted by Perfect Organism

An autocannon might be similar to a 15mm heavy chaingun, possibly with the ETC option. The term 'autocannon' seems to be extremely widely applied though, so there is probably a lot of variation.

Originally Posted by Perfect Organism

Specialist ammunition seems to be fairly rare in smaller calibre weapons. APEX seems to be mostly reserved for bolters, with autocannons firing either proximity fused HE or APHC...

That gives them 22d+2(2) pi damage with their armour piercing ammo. Enough to chew through space marines and light vehicles, but not enough to deal with tanks or really heavy infantry, like terminators.

Note that 'autocannon' seems to be a very general term in the 40k setting, being applied to everything from one man machine guns to the main guns of some tanks. Pretty much any fully automatic conventional gun larger than a rifle could be described as an 'autocannon' in 40k.

Originally Posted by lexington

I don't think that using weapons straight out of UT will ever get you a perfect fit to 40K, you're going to have to do a lot of tweaking.

Sure, but I'd like to see how far I can get before I have to start tweaking and designing new stuff. I'm actually fairly suprised that so much of the UT material seems to fit so well.

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

I really like the approach you've taken, have you tried testing the stats out to see if they are coherient with the 40K game mechanics?

I do check the odds and compare them to other game mechanics (both 40k and the other official games in the 40k setting), but I don't take that as the final word in how things should work.

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

I wonder if you could develope a series of martial arts based on the descriptions in the 40K fluff?

Yes, but you would have to make up a lot of material to round them out.

Here is my previous attempt at some of them:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...5&postcount=41

[Flynn]

(Sorry, when I read your answers I somehow missed the mention of the autocannon. Fail is me).

What do we have coming next in this lovely little series from you?

[Sam Baughn]

How about this as an option to bump up the damage of beam weapons?

Overcharge Power Packs (TL9^)

Any beam weapon which can fire hotshots may be converted to use overcharge power packs. These combine experimental high-density power cells with expendable cooling fluid to allow weapons to fire much more powerful shots, at the expense of ammunition capacity, loss of reliability and the risk of hot coolant bursting over the user.

When loaded with an overcharge power pack, a beam weapon does twice it's usual damage (or radius of effect, or HT/Will penalty), but has half it's normal rate of fire, divides it's shots by fifteen (round down) and gets -2 to it's malfunction number.

In addition, a weapon loaded with an overcharge power pack may vent dangerously hot coolant if it suffers a malfunction. On a roll of 15-18 on the Firearm Malfunction Table the weapon vents a blast of hot gas and vapour - treat this as a burning explosion doing damage equal to the weapon's base damage centered one yard in front of the user. The power pack is rendered useless, but the weapon may still be usable if it has not taken too much damage - although it will be considered to have overheated unless allowed to cool for at least ten seconds.

Overcharge power packs are not rechargable. They may fire hotshots as normal, if the user is willing to take the risk (and the hotshot damage is doubled, just like the base damage). They cost the same as normal power packs.

A weapon which can only use overcharge power packs has no extra cost, but a weapon designed to switch between normal power cells and overcharge power packs costs 50% more than usual.


That gives respectable tank killing power to laser weapons and models the classic 40k exploding plasma guns - I'll assume that a lot of las and melta weapons are fine (reliable), so it's fairly rare for them to go up and when they do the damage is usually survivable, while plasma weapons with their higher base damage will be more dangerous.

[weby]

A note on the accuracy of your Las guns

at acc 8 a trained shooter(skill 15) putting a scope on the weapon(+5) and aiming for 5 seconds(+2 more), bracing(+1), gets 12- to hit at 2000 yards(-18) 10 shots/minute without using other aiming aids or using Precision aiming.

At acc 12, they can go for eye shots fairly reliably if they have targeted attack technique maxed..

[Azinctus]

Originally Posted by Perfect Organism

Cinematic physics combined with raw strength and savagery is explicitly one of the possible justifications for Imbuements given Power-Ups 1. It suggests just such an approach for Dungeon Fantasy style barbarians.

In that case we're good to go. As my mate pointed out last night Marines ought to be as effective with their knives in close combat as they are with a boltgun at range.

I was planning to make my own version of 40K but I think I will use yours instead. Keep the ideas flowing!

[Maz]

Originally Posted by weby

A note on the accuracy of your Las guns

at acc 8 a trained shooter(skill 15) putting a scope on the weapon(+5) and aiming for 5 seconds(+2 more), bracing(+1), gets 12- to hit at 2000 yards(-18) 10 shots/minute without using other aiming aids or using Precision aiming.

At acc 12, they can go for eye shots fairly reliably if they have targeted attack technique maxed..

Imperial guards are not that skilled. Maybe SKill -12 for those with decent combat training and a little experience (which by know means cover all imperial gurads).
A +5 scope is a state of the art sniper scope. A +2 is much more likely for a weapon that first and foremost is supposed to be cheap.


So that rounds down from skill 23 to skill 17. Giving an effecient range of 200 yards. Or 500y as the weapon likely has ROF enough to give +1 (proberly enough to get +2), and I think Imperial guards are likely to start firing already at 50% chance to hit (skill 10). Anything wanting to get closer is a thing the IG doesn't want closer. And besides they have plenty of shots.


That being said I think Maximum range on las weaposn could well be higher than PErfect Organisme has put them at. ½ range is probably right, but max ranege is more determiend by skill of the user than of the weapon.

[Sam Baughn]

Originally Posted by weby

A note on the accuracy of your Las guns

at acc 8 a trained shooter(skill 15) putting a scope on the weapon(+5) and aiming for 5 seconds(+2 more), bracing(+1), gets 12- to hit at 2000 yards(-18) 10 shots/minute without using other aiming aids or using Precision aiming.

At acc 12, they can go for eye shots fairly reliably if they have targeted attack technique maxed..

That is a bit better than I was aiming for, but not too much. As I said, Larkin made that head shot at 2,200 yards without it being considered an amazing feat and that wasn't under the best of circumstances, given that he was suffering some kind of mystic vision / epileptic siezure / mental breakdown at the time.

EDIT: although a bit of an accuracy nerf might be in order, possibly giving bulkier weapons a bit of advantage. Maybe something like 'a 40k beam weapon's accuracy may not exceed twice it's Bulk' or something?

Originally Posted by Azinctus

As my mate pointed out last night Marines ought to be as effective with their knives in close combat as they are with a boltgun at range.

I wouldn't say that they are just as effective with their knives as their bolters - they do generally use their bolt pistols in close combat after all. However, a super-fine long knife and ST 30 does a respectable 4d(2) cutting damage. A marine with a chainsword, doing 7d+4(2) cutting would probably be more dangerous with that than his pistol. If he also has Weapon Master, it really starts to look quite scary.

[Jasonft]

Everyone needs to keep in mind one of the gigantic problems the 40K universe has when they are pointing out problems and logical loopholes in the Imperial weapons tech - Nobody in the Empire, with the possible exception of the uppermost layers of the Adeptus Mechanicus, actually understands their technology as technology and knows how to utilize it to it's fullest extent. They literally cannot think that way.

The comment about the lasgun with the scope is a perfect example. To us here in the real world it is immediately obvious that this would work... but in 40K anything over a +2 value scope is probably rare to nonexistent. Sure you could get one made +5 from the Mechanicus if you were an elite sniper attached to the military forces guarding Holy Terra, but otherwise you have slim to no chance of getting one.

Most of their really important tech is like that from what I have read. I'm remembering an incident in particular out of 'Storm of Iron' where a Guardsman of standard training (more or less) was being talked through the targeting/ launch protocols of a surface to space missile via radio by a Mechanicus adept whose fortress was under siege by Chaos. Even in a situation that critical, even defending one of the most secretly crucial bases the Guard had under their control, the Adept clearly did *not* understand the technology as anything other than rote religion.

Turned out the Guardsman's radio got shot before he got told the 'Exhortation to Launch', but he made do with a profanity laced tirade invoking the Emperor... you get the idea.

Humans are barbarians in that setting. They are barbarians with really big guns in many cases but still barbarians - because none of them understand technology anymore and they are ever so slowly sliding into the Abyss.

Sorry to sort of rant here. I love the universe, but boy are those people *screwed*.

[Sam Baughn]

Psychic Powers in the Warhammer 40,000 setting act a lot more like what GURPS calls 'magic' than what it calls 'psionics'; it usually involves rituals, can cause strange supernatural phenomena and is affected by the level of warp influence (i.e. mana) in an area. As such, it is generally easier for psykers to simply use magery and for all psychic abilities to take the 'magical' limitation while noting that they are generally called 'psykers' rather than 'mages' in character (although a lot of people actually think of them as 'witches' or 'sorcerers').

Normal human psykers should generally use the standard magic spell list (usually with a magical style using alternative prerequisite lists) and threshold limited magery (from Thaumatology) with a variant Calamity Table (for a quick conversion, simply replace all results of 29 or more with 'warp rift opens, daemons show up').

Other races will have different types of magery. Tyranids probably use standard fatigue based magery, Eldar might use Path and Book magic (effect shaping), Orks don't really fit comfortably with any existing GURPS magic system that I can think of...

There are also other 'magic' powers in the setting which may or may not draw their power from the same source as 'psychic' powers, notably the Acts of Faith (as used by the Adepta Sororitas) and the rituals of the Adeptus Mechanicus. I'm inclined to say that the Acts of Faith are not 'magical' but merely 'cinematic' in GURPS terms (mostly 'wild' Imbuements for the abilities shown in the Witch Hunters codex), while the AM rituals are a kind of 'magic' but of a different kind to that used by most psykers - in rules terms, probably Path and Book magic, mostly restricted to the Path of Gadgets.

[Sam Baughn]

A template for one of the iconic 40k 'monsters', the Genestealer:

Genestealer
620 points

Attributes: ST 17 (Size, -10%) [63]; DX 14 [80]; IQ 8 [-40]; HT 10 [0].

Secondary Characteristics: Damage 3d/5d+2; BL 58 lbs. HP 17 [0]; Will 12 [20]; Per 12 [20]; FP 10 [0]; Basic Speed 7.00 [20]; Basic Move 7 [0]; Dodge 11*; SM +1 (6'3", 600 lbs.).

Advantages: Affliction 1 (Will; Based on Will, +20%; Malediction 1, +100%; Sense-Based, Vision, -20%) [20]; Affliction 3 (HT-2; Disadvantage, Amnesia, +10%; Incapacitation, Unconsiousness, +200%; Follow-Up, Piercing Striker, +0%) [93]; Blunt Claws [3]; Breath Holding 5 [10]; Catfall [10]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Damage Resistance 6 [30]; Dark Vision [25]; Dominance [20]; Enhanced Move 1 (Ground Speed 14) [20]; Extended Lifespan 2 [4]; Extra Attack 1 [25]; Flexibility [5]; Imbue 3 (One Skill Only (Penetrating Strike), -80%) [8]; Sharp Teeth [1]; Magery 0 [5]; Metabolism Control 10 [50]; Silence 2 [10]; Striker x2 (Cutting) [14]; Striker (Piercing; Low Signature, +10%; Cannot Parry, -40%; Limited Arc, Front, -40%) [2]; Striking ST 12 (Size, -10%) [54]; Super Climbing 2 [6]; Telecommunication (Telesend; Broadcast, +50%; Magical, -10%; Racial, -20%) [36]; Temperature Tolerance 10 (Comfort Zone -55°F to 100°F) [10]; Vacuum Support [5].

Disadvantages: Bestial [-10]; Ham-fisted [-10]; Mute [-25]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15].

Skills: Brawling (E) DX+4 [16]-18; Climbing (A) DX+1 [4]-18**; Penetrating Strike (VH) DX [8]-14; Stealth (A) DX+2 [8]-16.

* includes +1 from Combat Reflexes.
** includes +3 from Flexibility.

Using it's main strikers (the 'rending claws'), the genestealer can do 3d+6 cutting. When targetting chinks in armour and using Penetrating Strike, this can be enough to penetrate tank or battlesuit armour.

The vision based affliction is the 'hypnotic gaze'. I'm not entirely clear whether this is meant to be a psychic power of just extremely cinematic hypnotism. I went with the latter - if you prefer the former, then add the magical limitation to it.

The piercing striker, the follow-up affliction and the Dominance advantage are together used to represent the ovipositor attack. 'Low Signature' makes it hard to spot the wound from the striker. Instead of it's usual effects dominance makes the victim loyal to the genestealer and members of it's brood and alters it's genetic structure to produce genestealer hybrids instead of normal offspring when affected by the follow up affliction. Whether this is balanced with normal Dominance is debateable...