TwiceBorn's quest brainstorms

Brainstorm for future quests:

1) WH40k Storm Troopers Quest--One Shot
Play as a squad of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers. The player starts out in command of 5 Storm Troopers--originally 10, but now 5 due to combat losses. The squad is one of several comprising the 4751th Storm Trooper Company, aka "The Death Parade".

From the 40k books I've read, there seems to be 3 general portrayals of Storm Troopers: robotically stoic (Caiphas Cain series), so redshirt that they're not written with any personality (Gaunt's Ghosts series), or quirky (ADB's Helsreach). I like a synthesis of the first and third portrayals; Storm Trooper training and the Schola Progenium is so intense that you inevitably break and it's only a matter of how you get broken, so either you come out with the personality of a robot or the personality of a wacko.

The "Death Parade" is made up of several squads, whose names I completely ripped off of the Geno Five-Two Chiliad Imperial Army regiment from 30k, with each squad having its own personality. Part of chargen would involve picking a squad of which the MC is the commander of:

The Jokers: have a particularly off-kilter sense of humor. They approach even the most horrible of things with raucous laughter, for what else can you do against watching the guy next to you get turned inside out by the very essence of hell?
The Dancers: have an aggressive approach to combat in that they have a preference for melee. They're called the Dancers because of the way they move into and during knife fights. In terms of personality, they'd tread the line between being pure and being corrupted by Khorne.
The Clowns: love using unorthodox tactics. If anyone's going to climb up a ventilation shaft during a firefight using bubble gum to get better grip, just so they can go fetch a desk from a different level of the building that they use as mobile cover, then strap explosives to it and throw it into a room to clear it out...it's The Clowns. Tend to have a strange outlook on things.
The Jugglers: really like explosives, particularly grenades. Why shoot what you can just blow up? Reckless personalities.
The Jesters: enjoy luring their enemies into traps. They're also into taunting and trolling their enemies. Likes verbally tormenting others, to the point where they're pretty much bullies.
The Tricksters: love nothing more than stealth, mindgames, and deception to pull of the perfect mission. Frequently brings along camocloaks, has a tendency to prank the other squads, each other, and, when especially drunk, the closest Inquisitor.

I don't think I'd use much in the way of mechanics for this one, unlike Titan Quest.


2) Astartes Journey Quest: the MC starts off as a Space Marine Aspirant, during his very last test before he's geneforged into one of humanity's greatest warriors. The players get to choose the course of his Astartes career, whether he ends up as a Chapter Master, a Dreadnought, a Master of Sanctity, a Chief Librarian, or even a Chaos Lord/Sorcerer. The players would also be able to determine Chapter characteristics, such as how closely the Chapter follows the Codex, combat doctrine, attitude towards the Imperium and mortals, etc.

3) Desolation Quest: There's a lot of post-apocalyptic modern stories, but I've always wanted to see a post-apocalyptic Fantasy quest--this would be my take on it. Would take a lot of cues from Dark Souls 1, going for much of the same tone.

The premise is this: the world was, until recently, ruled by wizard-kings who relied on their magical, political, military, and economic power to maintain their thrones (think medieval kings and warlords, except a lot of their power comes from being able to set people on fire with their minds). But Man Grew Proud, and abuse of magic caused a cataclysm that burned the world and rendered all humans unable to use magic.

The MC would be a young knight who survived the world-burning, due to having been near a cave when shit went down. As he explores the burnt-out remnants of his world, he'd meet other survivors and travel with them; a frightened young mother and her baby daughter, a former court mage used to a life of luxury, a priest who'd long since questioned the misuse of magic, and others. Sights would include former kings and nobles scrounging up a living in the ruined wrecks of their once-majestic homes, former peasants ruling bandit-towns through fear and violence, the crashed ruins of cities that once flew through the air.

Rather than a grimdark feel, I'd like to go for something else. Sorrow, gloom, despair, weariness, rather than edgemaster edginess. Depression, rather than tension.