Special Character Supplement

[Gebadire]

Evening all,

Over the past few days I have been putting together a backstory for my Guard army, and have been fleshing out some ideas for leaders etc. Whilst doing so, I was wondering what other people have done in terms of creating their own characters?

As much as I enjoy 40k, I find the rules are very limited in terms of creating your own forces, in that you have no control over models, apart from the way they look and their wargear.

What are your thoughts about this, and do you feel there is the space in the 40k game for maybe a Codex: Special Characters, were people could be given a set number of points, and choose from all the special powers that characters have, to create their own, and come up with the back story?

I'm farely new to 40k, so was just wondering what peoples thoughts are. Apologies if this has already been bought up!

[Dreachon]

I think something like is gonan get absued like hell, IMO your far better off sitting down with your mates and just talk about the characters.

[Gebadire]

I realise what your saying, but there are ways around it. The special abilities could be grouped into different lots depending on their strength, and you are allowed a maximum of say one from each.

The way I figured was that everything will be worth points, and the more you add to it, the more it costs, up to a limit, so as not to make things un-balanced.

I realise there may not be room in the game for it, I would just like the opportunity to put some ideas in to models, and there be a rule set that would allow me to use them in games. Guard for example have Cadian special characters, but I do not play Cadian, I play my own class of guard, so where does that leave me?...

[Dreachon]

I agree, I play IW and sadly for me there isn't a cool special characrter that I can use.
It is a bit hard to make such a system as it will be different for each race.

[Gebadire]

There may be a way around it, if for example if each race had its own section to choose from.

All of the special powers that are already available for models in a set army could be brought together, plus any others that had been thought up. These then given points costs, and any rules that apply.

The codex could in theory have a chapter for each 40k race.

I agree it may be an effort to put together, but would open up a whole new world to 40k, where people could really begin to customise their forces and races.

[Ckok]

I like the idea people are going to power game regardless just because there is the potential of cheese it should never stop the creativity of players.

[Chain Templar]

Two ideas. Use the rules for Kell and Creed, etc and call them something else, write a short story for them.

The other way to prevent overpowering selfmade characters, not just limit one from each category. Make it so you can only combine certain categories and maybe even have drawbacks that would allow you to take more, or just if yuo took from more than one category (a la Space Marine Chapter Traits).

[thechaplain]

To be honest, it's really easy to make a special character! If you're willing to spend the points that is. You can actually tool up a Guard officer to have more stuff than a special character. Even just being a bit creative with the rules can really help!

For instance - the fluff for my regiment states that the Commissars have the effect that they do on the men because they are incredibly inspriational - not because the men are terrified of them! So each Commissar gets a Trademark Item - and given some suitably special names and other such minor tweaks, you can come up with a really nice SP.

Just my thoughts on the matter!

[Sister Bluebird]

Originally Posted by thechaplain

To be honest, it's really easy to make a special character! If you're willing to spend the points that is. You can actually tool up a Guard officer to have more stuff than a special character. Even just being a bit creative with the rules can really help!

For instance - the fluff for my regiment states that the Commissars have the effect that they do on the men because they are incredibly inspriational - not because the men are terrified of them! So each Commissar gets a Trademark Item - and given some suitably special names and other such minor tweaks, you can come up with a really nice SP.

Just my thoughts on the matter!

The Chaplain hit it right on the head.

[Dekendo]

A while back I stumbled across something exactly like you are asking. For the eldar character, Phoenix Lords in particular, there is a base stat line for them all and then the war gear & skills make all the changes to their profiles. Here is how this worked:
Base point cost for the stat line: (some big number) points
War gear: take all the special items and work out all the point costs or use the point costs from the standard character
Skills: same as above but maybe a bit more costly or more restrictive being as they are more powerful to start

Obviously none of these were legit characters but it kept them balanced for the most part and it's always best to pay more for the home brewed guys. When in doubt just ask your opponent, ask here, or ask your local store for advice. I've seen some pretty awesome special characters in good friendly games.