Platoon

I apologize in advance for huge amount of words you have to read but it's all important to the game so please make sure you understand all the points. I recommend just reading the first 2 sections to see if this is a game you'd want to play before reading the whole thing. This document is organized as follows:
	-Character Creation specifics
	-Some game background and the tone of the game
	-Rule changes we'll be using
	-Regiment options
	-Things to keep in mind
	-Fluff

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Character Creation
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	This game is not a normal game. Rather than playing as a normal party or squad we will be playing as an entire platoon. Your characters will not be heroes, they will be lowly infantrymen fighting unceremoniously in a city filled with death. However, if your character is lucky, brave, or stupid enough they may earn themselves a medal of honor (potentially posthumously).
	To play as a platoon, each of you will have 5 characters. 4 of these will be grunts in the 4 normal squads within the platoon and 1 will be in the command squad. A list of various character restrictions are below:
	-You MUST have 1 sergeant character. One of the player's sergeant will be the Lieutenant in the command squad.
	-ALL characters in the normal squads MUST be guardsman specialties. This means they are restricted to Heavy Gunner, Medic, Sergeant, Operator, and Weapon Specialist.
	-You are restricted to 1 character of any given specialty.
	-In the command squad, any of the guardsman specialties can be used as well as Commissar, Priest, Psyker, Tech-priest and Stormtrooper.
	-There can only be 1 of any given specialty in the command squad.
	I would advise against creating in depth backstories or personalities for your characters. They are green recruits fresh out of training and for all you know they could end up dead during the first session. I recommend creating more of the backstory and personality through play as the game progresses, adding details as they come up in interactions.

	I want you to roll for your characteristics (2d10+20, 9 times) rather than use point allocation to produce a more natural (random) variation. You are free to assign the 9 results to which ever characteristics you choose. You are allowed one re-roll but if the result is lower, you have to keep it. You will be rolling in the roll20 game once you have your sheets.

	Characters in the normal squads will start with the book standard 600 exp. Characters in the command squad will start with an additional 1,000 exp on top of the book standard (600 for guardsmen, 300 for support) to represent their increased training.

	Starting gear will be only that in the standard kit and coming from specialties. There will be no chance to requisition additional equipment before your first mission but before subsequent missions logistics tests will be possible.

	So I've gone over the way the platoon is constructed but just to be clear there are going to be 5 squads with every player having a character in each. 1st Squad will be the platoon-level command squad consisting of the Lieutenant and those that facilitate the running of the platoon. 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th squads will be normal infantry squads which will bear the brunt of the fighting. Each of these basic squads will have 1 of each guardsman specialty.

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Background & Tone
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	The inspiration for this game was looking into urban combat experiences of Red Army soldiers during WWII specifically those at Stalingrad. You can expect brutal urban combat against enemies just as competent (if not more so on occasion) as yourselves. Those in command will need to make tactical decisions (hopefully in line with the character's personality) that may or may not pay off. The command squad will direct which squads deploy where and how they should work together. The sergeants (or acting sergeant if the sergeant is incapacitated) will make in the field decisions to achieve those objectives. This is not an adventure game; instead of optional plot hooks your unit will be given orders they need to fulfill. How you do that will be open-ended to varying degrees determined by the circumstances.

	This game is going to be extremely combat heavy and the vast majority of play time will be spent in structured time (initiative order). We'll be using a combat map as well for the vast majority of game play. It will be more akin to an old school dungeon crawl than most current sandbox-esque WH40k rpg games. That being said this is not a game for min-maxing players that want to "win". Do not approach this game as "players vs. the GM/the enemy" or you will not have a good time. The goal to keep in mind is telling a story about your characters during the most stressful, dangerous and defining time of their lives. Hopefully we'll be able to role-play while roll-playing and you'll be capable of approaching your characters as well rounded individuals rather than flat stat-blocks that roll dice at things until they die.

	I'm looking for this game to be serious. That being said jokes are welcome and appreciated when appropriate but you're characters should not be walking jokes and you need to be able to "serious up" when needed. If you make a character who tells jokes to keep spirits up that's fine but he shouldn't be making barbecue themed jokes when the medic is on fire for example.

	During play we will play as a single squad within the platoon for the most part. We'll switch between squads as action progresses and when necessary go back in time so each squad is played during a crucial time. This may require some consideration during play as your characters may be moving forward in time towards events we have already played. It may require some mental gymnastics to avoid meta gaming but I'll try to make sure the time discrepancy is never more than an hour in game time. On rare occasions when combined squads are required we'll play as more than one squad at once. This means each player will be taking actions as multiple characters and you should only sign on for this game if you can handle that. It won't get to crazy and it will never be long term but I'm sure it will come up.
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Rule Changes
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	To facilitate this unique game, there's going to be some changes to the rules.
	-First and foremost, the way burning fate points works will be tweaked slightly. In addition to the normal option of taking no damage past 0 wounds and going unconscious instead of dying, you can instead choose to not take damage past 0 wounds but remain conscious. The trade off is that when you go unconscious, enemies will assume you're down and ignore you. However sometimes it will not be feasible to just take a nap during a fight so choosing to remain conscious will allow you to retreat from danger or kill more before you die. If you choose to stay conscious enemies will attack as normal and you will take damage as normal, potentially leading to death or burning more fate. If you choose to stay conscious, you will disengage (if you're in combat) as a free action when you burn the fate point and enemies will consider you a low priority target until your next turn.
	-In a similar manner, whenever a hit would kill you, you can choose to have it kill your comrade instead if they are in cohesion. Do take note though that comrade replacements will be rare if they occur at all.
	-Speaking of comrades; they will sometimes be targeted outside of the normal rules in certain situations where the target will be taking potentially lethal damage in situations they had no way of preventing or knowing about. Example, if there is an enemy sniper watching your squad and everyone fails to spot the sniper before he fires, the snipers first shot will be taken at a comrade instead of a player character. The damage from such a situation would not follow normal comrade damaging rules and potentially kill the comrade outright.
	-Cover will be a huge part of this game. There will be 2 types of cover: full height and partial height.
			-Full height cover represents solid cover roughly the height of the characters or taller. Examples include the edges of walls, sides of a doorway and trees. This type of cover provided extra protection to the body and the arm and leg on one side of the body without hunkering down.
			-Partial height cover can be thought of as "chest high walls" in cover based shooters. It only covers the legs unless you hunker down.
			-Hunkering down in cover is a free action. When hunkered down, regardless of if the cover is full or partial, the cover bonus extends to all areas. However when hunkered down your character is unable to see over/around the cover since they are focusing on not getting shot. Opponents on the same side of the cover as the character are available as normal targets but those on the other side will be unable to be targeted except for Standard Attacks (single shots) with a -30 penalty (-20 accounting for the +10 from standard attacks). This option extends to throwing grenades which do not get the +10 benefit. You are unable to aim at or take any other attack actions at enemies on the far side of cover. To stop hunkering down without moving is a half action and from then on you can act as normal. Movement while hunkered down is halved and movement from a hunkered down position reduces your movement by your half move.
			-Hunkering down is not the same as being prone mechanically.
			-It is reasonable and expected for you to begin your turn hunkered down, stop hunkering as a half action, fire your weapon as a half action, and then return to safety as a free action.
			-The armor value of cover will depend on the material independent of whether it is partial or full height.
			-Not so much a rule change but we will be tracking ammo use. Reloads will be important and running out of ammo will sometimes be a real concern.

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Regiment Options
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	In an effort to keep things balanced I've created a couple of regiments the group can choose from. Everyone will be from the same regiment. Even though the regiments are mechanically created, I encourage the players to give them life by naming it, creating the culture of the regiment and developing it's tradition's through play. Work together on the fluff. The only stipulation is that the regiment must have been founded only recently with next to no combat experience (they can be from planet with history in some engagements but your characters have never been on the battlefield).

Option 1:
	Home World: Agri-World
	Regiment Type: Line Infantry
	Doctrines: Sharpshooters
	Personal Kit:
• One uniform
• One set of poor weather gear
• One M36 Lasgun (Main Weapon), and four charge packs
• One Warknife
• One suit of Imperial Guard Flak Armor
• One rucksack or sling bag
• One set of basic tools
• One mess kit and one water canteen
• One blanket and one sleep bag
• One rechargeable lamp pack
• One grooming kit
• One set of cognomen tags or equivalent identification
• One primer or instructional handbook
• Combat sustenance rations, two weeks’ supply
• 2 frag grenades
• 2 krak grenades
• 1 smoke grenade
• 1 Hotshot Charge Pack
• Stub Automatic, with 2 clips
• Accordion Wire, covers 2 meters in length when deployed

Option 2:
	Home World: Hive-World
	CO: Sanguine
	Regiment Type: Siege Infantry
	Doctrines: Die Hards, Combat Drugs
	Personal Kit:
• One uniform
• One set of poor weather gear
• One M36 Lasgun (Main Weapon), and six charge packs
• One knife
• One suit of Imperial Guard Flak armor
• One rucksack or sling bag
• One set of basic tools
• One mess kit and one water canteen
• One blanket and one sleep bag
• One rechargeable lamp pack
• One grooming kit
• One set of cognomen tags or equivalent identification
• One primer or instructional handbook
• Combat sustenance rations, two weeks’ supply
• One respirator
• Four empty sandbags
• One entrenching tool
• 3 frag grenades
• 1 krak grenade
• 2 photon flash grenades
• 5 doses of stimm with injector
• Snare-Mine
• Recaf Rations

Option 3:
	Home World: Penitent world
	CO: Choleric
	Regiment Type: Close Assault
	Doctrines: Crusaders
	Personal Kit:
•One uniform
• One set of poor weather gear
• One combat shotgun and two reloads OR one great weapons OR two one-handed low-tech melee weapons(Main Weapon)
• One knife
• One suit Imperial Guard flak armor
• One rucksack or sling bag
• One set of basic tools
• One mess kit and one water canteen
• One blanket and one sleep bag
• One rechargeable lamp pack
• One grooming kit
• One set of cognomen tags or equivalent identification
• One primer or instructional handbook
• Combat sustenance rations, two weeks’ supply
• 3 frag grenades
• 2 krak grenades
• Hand Flamer with 2 reloads
• Stub Automatic, with 2 clips
• Snare Mine
• Uplifting Primer

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Things to consider
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	These aren't rules so much as things to expect and guidelines for play.
	-Don't meta game. This is going to be a bit difficult since you'll have a combat map view and awareness of what's happening with the other squads in the platoon but try to make every decision from the standpoint of your character and what THEY know about the situation; not what you know.
	-Attendance will be extremely important. Should you need to bow out of a session please let me know well ahead of time (at least a couple days). Due to the nature of this campaign if you miss a session it will be 5 characters out of commission rather than just 1. Most likely, when a player or players have to miss a game we'll do a one shot instead of progressing the campaign. Chronic absentees will be booted.
	-There will be a lost of combat in this game and I want to keep it moving. If it's your turn and it takes you longer than a minute to declare your actions I have no problem skipping your turn. There will off course be times where we need to refer to the rules but I have no patience to listen to you try and decide what you want to do for 3 minutes. Your character will need to make split second decisions and I expect you to do so as well. If you're not sure about your options, just choose what you know and research your other options before the next session.
	-I don't allow out of character planning. If you try to discuss your plan as players during combat I'll cut you off. Have your characters make their plans before the bullets start flying. Once the action starts have your characters communicate quickly by shouting commands and information to each other (or using comms/hand signals if you can). I recommend coming up with some general plans for the squads so if the sergeant orders a "Tactical Withdrawal!" all the characters know their roles and no one has ask what to do.
	-Keep in mind, we will be tracking ammo use.
	-Just to be clear, do not get drunk and/or high during play. If you want to have a drink or two while we play to relax that's fine but I've learned from experience that once someone is noticeably intoxicated it's best to just kick them from the group.
	-Have fun, but don't impede other player's fun.  Any questions feel free to ask me. If you have a problem with something about the game, bring it up after or between sessions rather than during.