Only War

Only War
RPG published by Fantasy Flight Games
Rule System	d%
No. of Players	3+
Session Time	10+ minutes
Authors	Andrew Fischer, Mack Martin, Sam Stewart
First Publication	2012
Essential Books	Only War Core Rulebook The Game Master's Kit Final Testament Hammer of the Emperor Enemies of the Imperium Shield of Humanity

"...in the grim, dark future there is." -Yoda

The latest entry in Fantasy Flight Games's Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay product line, in which players take the role of Imperial Guardsmen. The first edition of the core rulebook, and two splats have been released (Hammer of the Emperor which gives new regiments and rough rider rules, and Enemies of the Imperium, which gives more information about the various foes Guardman ire likely to face and information on how to make a regiment that serves the traitorous Severan Dominate).

Players roll up Guardsmen from different disciplines within the Guard - heavy weapons specialists, pilots/drivers, techpriests, Commissars, and so on. Each player also gets one or more background NPC helpers, referred to as Comrades. These Comrades serve as extra hands, ablative wounds or even something for the Commissar to BLAM. Don't get too attached to your Comrades. They. Will. Die.

The vehicle rules look promising, and seem more streamlined than Rogue Trader's.

That aside, beside the trolls who like to post about how the mehrines are unappreciated, /tg/ has always been in love the idea of an anonymous everyman fighting in the 41st millennium. You know, the one who signed up to go fight in a big galaxy, where one needs to be pretty ballsy just to step off his homeplanet and into a festering, flaming hell where one will likely get swatted into a paste by an indifferent carnifex, axed in the spine by a guffawing ork, or have your legs liquefied into drugs that a Slaaneshi cultist will hope to snort off of some daemonette's ass while you watch. The one armed only with his flashlight and his faith in the Emperor to fend off the grim darkness of the galaxy. Some fa/tg/uys are probably all over this one already.

As a bonus, Only War has a large amount of high quality female guardsmen artwork. So if you ever wanted to see what a female Vostroyan First-Born or Mordian Iron Guardsman officially looked like, this is your chance.

/tg/ has since created a fan regiment called the 1st Membranes using the regiment creation rules. They are made primarily from Psyker stock, and as a result are a regiment of gibbering, schizophrenic and/or awesome troopers who, when confronted with Orks, will either scream at the things coming out of the walls or mow down hordes of greenskins with mind bullets.

Classes

Guardsmen

Guardsmen are normal soldiers and have access to comrades. They start off with double the starting XP of Specialists.

• Heavy Gunner - Big, strong, and tough, these Guardsmen wield any heavy weapons that are given to the Squad.
• Medic - Dodging deadly weapons-fire and explosions, these Guardsmen risk everything to keep their squad-mates alive.
• Operator - A bit less leery of the strange technology that the Imperial Guard often employs than their compatriots, these Guardsmen are often entrusted with piloting the Squad’s transport or other vehicles. They also die very, very easily.
• Sergeant - Every Squad needs a strong commander to lead the charge into combat. The Sergeant keeps his men motivated and coordinated through the toughest battles.
• Weapon Specialist - The “average” Guardsman, these men and women perfect the use of the lasgun or other weapons, bringing death to the enemies of the Imperium.

Specialists

Most specialists are tied to specific roles. Some do not have access to comrades.

• Commissar - These men and women enforce morale over the rank-and-file troops with an iron fist and the occasional summary execution.
• Ministorum Priest - Bringing the light of the God-Emperor to the battlefield, Ministorum Priests inspire the troops around them, not just with their preaching, but by fighting their foes with their massive Evicerator chainswords.
• Ogryn - These immense Abhumans are built like rocks (and are about as intelligent as rocks too) and act as some of the Imperial Guard’s most effective shock troops and will obey their superiors with doglike devotion. Just don't expect them to get into a Chimera- they get claustrophobic. Try to get your DM to let you buy "ogryn-proof" versions of other weapons at higher levels, or you'll be stuck using the same Mono two-handed weapon for the rest of the game. Also good for a drop regiment so he can use a RPG or autocannon.
• Ratling - Short and rotund, these small abhumans are used as infiltrators and snipers.
• Sanctioned Psyker - Feared by their enemies and allies alike, the Psykers of the Imperium are capable of bending the roiling power of the Warp to their will - until that power breaks them.
• Storm Trooper - The best part about being an OPERATOR isn't operating operationally. It's showing all those pesky grunts you did, and how bad they're at it in comparison.
• Tech-priest Enginseer - Enginseers wade into battle clad in thick armour, tending to the machine spirits of the Imperial Guard’s many war machines. Gets the most Aptitudes and is able to get his hands on some of the most effective gear the game has to offer before it even starts, so one can make a fair case for this buckethead being the most powerful of the bunch (though the Psyker might mutter some words of dissent into his non-existent beard once he's made it through the first couple of sessions).

Advanced Specialties

Added with the Hammer of the Emperor splatbook, advanced specialties allow characters to expand their abilities, or simply add more dakka. Guardsmen may also switch from one basic specialty to another (e.g. from Heavy Gunner to Sergeant, though not to Ratling since that's a support specialty). Alternately, characters can stick to their current specialty and gain a +5 bonus to a characteristic they have a matching aptitude for. The book suggests making this option available to players once for every 2500 XP their characters earn.

• Brawler - A melee fighter, for players who are sick of being told Guardsmen can only beat Fire Warriors in close combat.
• Breacher - An explosives specialist, the recommended class for black Scottish cyclopeses. Seriously, they even paraphrased the demoman right under the word "Breacher" on the class page. Great for blowing up any-and-everything.
• Commander - A Sergeant on steroids, Commanders are leaders forged in combat. They can take up to four additional comrades and use them (and the rest of the squad's comrades) to maximum effect, essentially acting as a one-man party.
• Field Chirurgeon - When keeping your squad mates "alive" simply won't cut it, Field Chirurgeons are soldiers who are meant to keep men fighting. Not quite as medically skillful as a true medic, but better than trying to tape your own arm back on.
• Master of Ordnance - This class gives your comrade a mortar and gives you the responsibility of calling targets. Also allows for artillery strikes from orbital ships or basilisks once per encounter. Very useful if you're not in a building or voidship. Just try not to call it down too close to your position.
• Scout - Guardsmen who navigate dangerous terrain, operate where they can't be seen, and act as... well, scouts. Scouts also make for silent knife kills of sentries.
• Sentry - When not being stabbed by scouts, sentries are masters of defense. Effectively a one man heavy weapon squad, sentries dig in and can hold against hoards of enemies that would wipe out a less entrenched position.
• Sharpshooter - Snipers without being Ratlings. Sharpshooters are masters of fighting at extreme ranges.
• Tank Ace - Effectively a Sergeant for tank crews, Tank Aces can turn a Leman Russ into even more of a killing machine.

Do note that while Support Specialists are technically eligible to switch to an advanced specialty as well, Hammer of the Emperor only contained options for Guardsman-class characters. Shield of Humanity changed this by adding the following exclusive options for Tech-Priests, Ogryns, Ratlings and Priests.

• Architectus Magnus - A techpriest treadhead, specializes in driving, repairing and boosting an armoured vehicle.
• Crimson Exemplar - An elite Mechanicus warrior with a shit-ton of integrated weapons.
• Enginseer Prime - Lazy fucks that fight by proxy through a horde of servitors.
• Bone'ead - Ogryn sergeant, not really a fine strategist but good enough to impress his fellow lunkheads.
• Bulwark - The closest you'll ever come to playing an ogre barbarian in Only War.
• Gun Lugger - The closest you'll ever come to playing the Heavy from Team Fortress in Only War.
• Fixer - Obligatory 'face' class, a smug as fuck space hobbit with a silver tongue and loads of friends. Pair him up with a Commissar to ensure hilarity.
• Longshooter - Specialized sniper, because if you're playing a ratling you might as well fit the stereotype to an S.
• Trailblazer - Ratling infiltrator and survivalist. By that I of course mean 'thieving bastard'.
• Incinerant Priest - Scourge and Purge your guts! You are a heretic! That means your guts are unclean! Scourge and Purge!
• Preceptor of Penance - Zealous preacher always accompanied by a mob of meatshields penitents in search of absolution.
• Prelate-at-Arms - The classic paladin with charisma out of the ass and intelligence as a dump stat, now in Future Middle Ages flavour.
• Rector Erudite - A scholar that wandered on the battlefield by mistake. While he's at it he can help the squad with his formal education and wealth of knowledge.

Regiment Creation

You have 12 points, spend wisely.

Who you are

First you choose a Homeworld and a Commander. The worlds are Imperial(1), Penal Colony(2), Agri, Death, Feudal, Fortress, Highborn (Nobles), Hive, Mining Colony or trained in the Schola Progenium (3), Feral, Forge or Frontier (4). The commanders can be Fixed ("Just keep going!"), Phlegmatic ("Tell alpha they should face NW and expect overwhelming fire."), Supine ("These are our orders, have faith!")(1), Bilious ("You would have been dead if I had been an enemy. Commissar, execute this stuttering fool!"), Circumspect ("There, see how they wait to advance!"), Sanguine ("It's up to us, men!"), Maverick ("I can't very well tell you to do something I wouldn't do myself."), Melancholic ("Oh, um, well..."), or Choleric ("Drive me closer, for the EMPRAH!")(2)

What you do

Next you get to choose your Regiment Type and Doctrines. The Regiment Types are Armored, Artillery, Guerrilla or Grenadiers (4), Reconnaissance, Drop troops, Mechanized infantry, Hunter Killer (3), Light infantry, Line infantry, Siege troops(2), Rough Riders (5), or "Everybody gets a Sentinel" Heavy Reconnaissance (8). Thank you, Forge World, for almost making all of these possible (still waiting for my constant cover save Light Infantry with the Flat Out rule).

Universal Standard Kit

Everybody knows that every guardsman gets the same regulation toiletries, utensils, and blankets; however, each regiment has thirty points worth of extra items, from a piping hot cup of Recaf to a Refractor Field, to give to each of their guardsman as a part of their Universal Standard Kit. I'm sorry, did I just hear you say I can give a Refractor Field to EVERY guardsman in my regiment? Because that seems a little bananas. That's right kiddies, at the GM's discretion you can almost make your IG regiment almost noblebright by equipping every guardsman in that regiment with three Poor Craftsmanship Disposable Krak Missile Launchers a salvo of which will fuck the day of just about anything. Of course, getting the GM to actually agree to it is another story. Even so, perhaps we now know the real reason the Imperium still stands. The handful of regiments equipped better than Space Marines and with numbers that would make ants jealous.

(Or, you know, this basically just makes them Taliban fighters, with more cheap RPGs than bodies...)

Splatbooks

• The Game Master's Kit - Pretty standard GM kit, comes with a GM screen that has Only War art on one side, and useful bit of info on the other.
• Final Testament - An adventure splat that takes the IG to a planet named Hevara to bring the planet back into the light of the Imperium, only to find one of the legendary Ordinatus superweapons.
• Hammer of the Emperor - Only War's first actual supplement, it has all types of new things for OW players. It includes rules for new regiment creation and mixed regiments, and features some of the finest of the IG, including the Attilan Rough Riders and the Tanith First-and-Only. Also has new advanced specialties and more armoury options.
• Enemies of the Imperium - OW's monster book, lists all the worst enemies of the Imperium that call the Spinward Front their home. Has rules for formations, which enhance squad-level combat, and more resources for characters that have to stand against these beasties. Also has information on how to play as a Severan Dominate regiment, for the traitorous types.
• No Surrender - Another upcoming adventure splat. Will center around the IG going to take back the Lycurgos star fort from filthy Severan Dominate secessionists.
• Shield of Humanity - A player supplement. Adds new options for specialists (Ratlings, Ogryns, Enginseers and Ministorum Priests), as well as new regiment options and advancement options, mostly support specialist advancements.

Gallery

• 

  The characteristics benchmark table from Dark Heresy, which sadly isn't included in Only War.

See Also

• Dark Reign - A fansite for all the W40kRPG line, has some neat stuff to look at if you need inspiration or are bored.
• Character Folio - Keep track of all your shiz, yo

Warhammer 40,000 Role-playing games made by Fantasy Flight Games
Dark Heresy - Rogue Trader - Deathwatch - Black Crusade - Only War - Dark Heresy Second Edition