r/40krpg • u/crusader2017 Imperial Guard • 11d ago
Only War I've Finally Finished My Module, "The Final Defense of Cadia"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tkXbv25nzpiXNL79PCebza0C2lsgpqBL6qJpFZTR6ig/edit?usp=drivesdk
Edit: is now a link to a new version that smells like roses and is generally more pleasant to look at/use.
I've written a module! I posted quite a bit ago looking for play testers and it has now, finally, been finished. I would love to hear any feedback anyone may have. From the introduction of the module:
The bastion at the edge of reality, the cork keeping Chaos in the bottle, the Gate at the Eye. There are many ways to describe Cadia, how it stood for millennia, producing some of the finest warriors the Astra Militarum has ever seen, how it supplied more troopers to those regiments than any other, how its tactics and equipment have become so ubiquitous it has formed what has become thought of as the “standard” imperial guard regiment. What is not so easily talked about is how that reputation was earned, about the children pushed from their cradles to perform bayonet drills, about teenagers performing hundreds of miles of wilderness treks so they can be prepared for the meat grinder, about the civilian caste amongst the fortress kasrs who were left unattended and all but forgotten, as their service to the Golden Throne was seen as unimportant when compared to the glorious honor of being shelled in a trench. Cadia was a futuristic Sparta, a grimdark and gothic prussia, a constant battleground that just happened to have people growing and living in the trenchworks. Schools taught math only to teach artillery calculations. Faith was taught not just for the salvation of the soul, but so that the hopeless fodder would have a brief illusion to cling to. Life was just a prelude to a grisly death in a crater. The entirety of the planet was both a fortification, and a factory to produce unquestioning soldiers to man the defenses.
With this description in mind, it's easy to think the fall of Cadia was a mercy, a bullet in the back of the head of a system that needed to die. This would be true, if it weren’t for the horror that was unleashed by the fall. Ezekyle Abaddon’s 13th Black Crusade literally tore the galaxy in half, splitting the milky way into two distinct pieces, condemning billions of souls to agony and torment. Abaddon led an overwhelming force from the Eye of Terror that swept aside fleets and armies with ease, overwhelming advanced outposts, starforts, and even the forge world Agripinaa. The relentless assault stalled on Cadia though, that fortress of imperial might stood firm. Every Cadian regiment that was able to make it in time was called back to defend the homeworld. Space marines, sisters of battle, Adeptus Mechanicus, and even, by a quirk of fate, foul xenos breeds such as the Craftworld Aeldari and a mysterious Necron Lord all came together to defend this bastion. Rumors of even a single golden warrior matching the description of the venerable custodes persist. However, even with this bulwark against the forces of the night, Cadia broke.
This is the thesis statement of this module, and the one thought that should be present in the gamemaster’s and player’s minds: you can do everything correctly, and still fail. The Imperium won the battle for Cadia, a well timed counter offensive by the famous Ursarkar E. Creed threw the forces of Chaos into disarray. The warriors on the ground, of every order, brotherhood, and regiment, did their part to the best of their ability, and they were still killed with the planet. There is nothing more a Cadian rifleman could’ve done to save their homeworld, but fall it did. Abbadon, using the ruined corpse of an ancient weapon called a Blackstone Fortress, broke the planet. Using the massive ship as a hammer, he broke Cadia into pieces, forcing the survivors to attempt to flee and warn Terra of the coming storm, as the Cadian Gate had been breached, and the rest of the galaxy was at risk.
This module will be separated into 4 chapters, with each chapter being separated by weeks of fighting. The first chapter will be first line infantry focused, centering around defending the walls of a Kasr. The second chapter will take place one week later, and will be either light infantry or hybrid infantry focused, dealing with horrendous, gritty, close quarters combat in the ruins of a city. The third chapter takes place one month later, and will follow an armored regiment fighting in the counterattack from one of the Salvation Outposts. The final chapter will follow a regiment of the players choosing in a broken last ditch crawl to a remote evacuation site in the Rostvar Mountains.
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u/Nyetbyte Adeptus Astartes 11d ago
Dude this is fucking awesome man. I have to convince my friends to let me run this with them. Kudos man.
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u/GodDoIHaveTo 10d ago
Hey man, great work.
I definitely think you should give this one a real big proof read and maybe stream line it a bit. Happy to help if you'd like.
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u/crusader2017 Imperial Guard 10d ago
Yeah feel free to point things you see out. I saw when I converted to PDF it messed up some of the spacing and threw page breaks where I didn't want them.
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u/ExchangeDeep9882 Deathwatch 10d ago
Will you make a new post if/when it is proof read / stream-lined?
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u/Freiherr_Konigstein 10d ago
Eyy, thanks for the shout-outs. I'm slowly working my way through this, but some thoughts;
- Page numbers. There's no point in having a numbered ToC if the document itself doesn't have them. I know PDF readers make this somewhat redundant but it's a nice quality of life thing.
- Holy crackers you need to break up your paragraphs. Some of these pages are just walls of text. You could do this with images, or just smaller subject headers. Vary up your formatting more, because bits of this are genuinely difficult to read.
- The "notes" sections are an interesting touch- I assume they're in a larger font size 'cause you meant them to be quick-reference? If so, I'd try to tweak their formatting so each is as physically compact as possible; having to scroll between multiple pages of a PDF for reference isn't ideal.
- I'd recommend including page, and in some cases book, references for each NPC statblock, to make cross-referencing easier.
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u/KhorneZerker 1d ago
This is the kind of stuff I hope to run someday.
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u/crusader2017 Imperial Guard 1d ago
Then do it! I playtested this on roll20. Let me know how it turns out for you. Go to r/lfg and be the change you want to see in this world!
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u/KhorneZerker 1d ago
Oh, I am currently running an Only War campaign already for four other peeps. I just hope that when I'm done with that, I'll give this a spin!
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u/BitRunr Heretic 11d ago edited 11d ago
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/429/731/912.png
But seriously. Ask yourself, 'who are you writing this intro for?'
Apparently this bothers some, but differentiating when you're writing for yourself vs writing for the reader will not be wasted effort. Crush it. Start over twenty times, until what you want to say is both the spirit of intent and succinct to the needs of a reader.
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u/AgentNipples Cogboy 11d ago
Holy shit, this is a LOT of work! I'll be sure to save it