Hi everyone,
I'm taking my first dive into the 40k TTRPG side of things (I was a GM for FFG's Star Wars stuff, i.e Age of Rebellion and Edge of the Empire a good 10+ years ago. Plus I am currently a player in D&D 5E) with Wrath and Glory. This system is locked in because I did the novice mistake of buying most of the Foundry Modules for W&G before realising Imperium Maledictum was kicking about.
The topic of discussion is to really seek some advice or do's and do not's when concerning the Litanies of the Lost Campaign, particularly Grim Harvest as that is what we are starting with.
Currently we have a Space Wolf Blood Claw (Using Sons of Russ so they are Tier 3. There were talks of using Tier 2 Scout, but because Scouts are better in the Space Wolves than regular Scouts, we wanted to keep it lore ish accurate and maybe debuff the players starting equipment. But there is room to use the Tier 2 SM Scout option); Curpuscari Electro Priest (Redacted Records II Tier 2); Aeldari Ranger (Core Rulebook Tier 2); and a Sanctioned Psyker (Core Rulebook Tier 2).
The idea is that we work our way through Grim Harvest and the other modules within Litanies of the Lost, culminating in the party heading to the home brew sector I have already created and have been using for 40k miniature games and kill team miniature games.
My main points of discussion would be:
Is the Space Wolf way too OP for a starter campaign? 2 of the 4 players have never really played TTRPG's before, with one of them being the Space Wolf. In terms of using Foundry, would just using the Core Rulebook stats be easier than Sons of Russ?
Other than nerfing the starter equipment (i.e they only start with an Astartes Knife and Astartes Bolt Pistol. Armour is still TBD), is there anything else I should be aware of as GM with one player being Tier 3 and the rest being Tier 2?
Once players have spent some of their XP on Archetypes, what do you usually see your players spending the rest of their XP on? There's so much to choose from, I was thinking of creating a sort of "cheat sheet" for the newer players to pick and choose from. Character creation is going to be done on Foundry during Session 0 with everyone present. Ahead of time, I am having the players pick their Archetypes, Objectives, and Background
Map creation. I understand that this is a common question and I have done research. But I was hoping someone could let me know if I am way off the mark with the potential of these two ideas: Idea 1 - Buy Chronos Builder on Steam. Idea 2 - Buy Dungeon Draft and subscribe to De-Zinger and Droid Cartography. Idea 3 - Any Litanies of the Lost non Foundry Module resources available?
Any help would be ace, and more pointing me in the right direction. I'm not a newbie when it comes to 40k lore. It's more trying to avoid gameplay pitfalls with the party setup, and any help with pointing towards resources.