Lord Of The Rings (LOTR), Blood Bowl (BB), Battlefleet Gothic (BG), Epic Armageddon (EA), Inquisitor, Mordheim, Necromunda, The Battle Of Five Armies (TBOFA), Warmaster, Aeronautica Imperialis (AI), Gorkamorka
This week I’d like to take a short break from talking about Space Marine
Chapters and instead talk about the Jericho Reach, a war-torn region of
space that is the setting for Deathwatch. During the development of
"Project Iceberg” (the codename for Deathwatch), one thing I was very
interested in was providing an opportunity for Space Marines of the
Deathwatch to face some truly iconic and classic foes. This meant we
could set Deathwatch in a completely different region of space than the
Calixis Sector or the Koronus Expanse.
Welcome to the Eastern Fringe
The Jericho Reach lies far on the Eastern Fringe of the Imperium, a
place that has been all but forgotten but now lies at the center of an
Imperial Crusade to reconquer its territory...for within the Jericho
Reach lies a singular prize; an ancient and mysterious warp gate that
links it to the other side of the galaxy.
Against a bloody background
One of the first things that was decided about the Jericho Reach (named
by a certain Mr. Andy Hoare) was that it was going to be dominated by
war and conflict. Deathwatch is, after all, a game about the Adeptus
Astartes, the Emperor’s finest warriors and so we needed a war; a big
one. We envisaged a portion of space swarming with the enemies of
mankind, where forces clashed in every environment and circumstance
imaginable.
How we would make the Jericho Reach a suitably war
torn crucible of nightmares was answered by the first piece of
development direction we were given: we would plough a Imperial Crusade
into it. With this key point settled it followed that we would view the
‘Reach’ from the point of view of the Imperial Crusade forces: its
topography would be made up of salients and war zones, its notable
figures would be war leaders and heroes, and where the forces of the
Crusade have yet to extend are its places of mystery and possibility.
This Imperial campaign became known as the Achillus Crusade. Once
named, the Achillus Crusade quickly began to gather ideas and
possibilities to it. Many of these early ideas fought their way to the
front and became part of the Jericho Reach as it is revealed in
Deathwatch, some perished in fire, and still others buried themselves in
shadows and waited for a future time to be revealed. Here are some that
made it:
A War of Reconquest
It was decided
early on that the Jericho Reach had once been part of the Imperium; the
Jericho Sector in fact. It was long ago abandoned to darkness, and the
enemies of mankind took it for their own. We wanted to create a
deliberate sense that the Imperium was returning to an area it had once
known, but that had changed greatly over the intervening years and made
less than it once was. One of the ways we engendered this feeling was to
create worlds still inhabited by human populations that had
successfully survived the isolation from the Imperium. Some remained
loyal, but others had long ago been corrupted and now were entirely
resistant to this Imperial reconquest.
The Three Salients
Rather than dividing up the Jericho Reach into sub-sectors, or similar
regions, it is divided between the Crusade's main staging zone (known as
the Iron Collar) and the three primary salients of advance through the
Reach.
We wanted each salient to have a character of its own,
with each facing a different dominant foe and set of circumstances. Each
part of the Crusade has different character and plot threads woven into
its background, making them more like sub-settings in their own right.
The Canis Salient is the oldest and largest group of warzones and has
clashed head on with the forces of Tau Expansion in a battle between two
forces of conquest competing for resources and territory. The Acheros
salient is characterised by a bloody war of attrition against the forces
of Chaos which have encysted in the central worlds of the Jericho
Reach. The Orpheus salient has become fragmented, its lines of
communication and support overextended; all of which have made matters
infinitely worse when a Tyranid hive fleet hit it in the flank.
Ancient Duties and Divided Agendas
The Deathwatch have their own agendas and keep their own council. The
Achillus Crusade may be the cause for war on a massive scale, but it is
not the reason that the Deathwatch are in the Jericho Reach. Nor do the
Deathwatch answer to the command of the Crusade; they may aide the
Crusade forces when the agendas of both coincide, but do not function as
not part of the Crusade war machine. Most of the Imperial units outside
of the senior Crusade commanders do not even know what the Deathwatch
are, let alone that they have any presence in the Jericho Reach.
We divided the power and agendas in this way so that the Deathwatch
player characters could potentially go anywhere in the Jericho Reach,
fight as part of any conflict, and still follow their own narrative
rather than that of the Crusade. The roleplay possibilities of conflicts
between the Crusade command and the Deathwatch were also too good of an
opportunity to pass up.
This divide between the Achillus
Crusade and the Deathwatch also helped us emphasise the nature of the
Deathwatch in this setting: they serve a higher purpose as watchmen who
guard against enemies and possibilities even greater than those the
Crusade must face. There is something alien and strange about the
Jericho Reach; something dark, foul and perhaps even sinister. After
all, the Deathwatch are here—and there must be a good reason for that.
I could tell you more, sharing what I know of the Omega Vault and the
unfolding pattern that leads into a darker future. I would, but at my
back I sense the Master of the Vigil drawing near, and the cold gaze of
the secret keepers and so I must say nothing more.
Forward, Battle-Brothers!
Stay tuned for more revelations and more about the Space Marine Chapters in my next Deathwatch Designer diary!
Deathwatch is a roleplaying game in which players take on the roles of
the bio-engineered super-soldiers known as Space Marines. United with
their battle-brothers, players will complete extraordinary missions
involving some of the greatest heroes and deadliest opponents the
Warhammer 40,000 universe has to offer.
Огромная благодарность уважаемому Tolstiy, который порадовал нас этой замечательной книгой.
Название: Deathwatch: The Jericho Reach Издатель: Fantasy Flight Games Вселенная: Warhammer 40 000 Редакция: Deathwatch Качество: OEF Язык: английский Страницы: 238 Файл: PDF (59,2 МБ)
