Me and a few people I know play this game called "Dark Heresy". It plays like Dungeons & Dragons in essence, but is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I GMed my first game a little while ago and it turned out splendidly.
There were two players: a Guardsman and an Assassin.
The basic briefing is that an Inquisitorial operative disappeared from the area recently, and it was their task to find and recover him. Or, if need be, return with his head. The Inquisition does not easily forget acts of treachery. The players were given trackers that would locate the operative (named "Crowley"). So, I set the players down on a Hive World in a supply cruiser to maintain secrecy for their cause and we began.
The best moments of this session include:
- When the players were attacked by troublemakers, Guardsman shot one in the head and ended up blowing it off, but not without the body catching fire and frightening the everliving hell out of the crowd (and, funnily enough, lighting plenty of them on fire). In the same battle, Assassin got his leg broken and had to sit out for five days.
- Going on from the above, Guardsman knew he couldn't carry out the mission alone, so to pass the time, he went on a drug run. And made, like, 50 thrones.
- When the players found "Crowley", they ended up finding a computer chip that was embedded within him. Upon viewing the information stored within, they found that he was consorting with a Genestealer Cult. The surroundings of the video data suggested wealth and ease of living. Thus, to the Upper Hive they went.
- Ah, getting by the guards. During his drug run, Guardsman had to buy his way past them, but got away with paying in dud money. This time, the guards guarding the Upper Hive major thoroughfare were wise to him. Assassin managed to intimidate them, though.
- When the players tracked Crowley to a large estate, Guardsman hid in nearby foilage while Assassin had a very awkward conversation with a house servant. It went like this:
"Master Arkady is busy at the current moment. Come back later, perhaps?"
"Sorry for, uh... bothering... you?"
Clearly, Assassin was expecting to be greeted by something truly nasty.
- The players came back at nightfall and silently disposed of the doorman. They successfully snuck in and found Crowley sipping wine with Arkady, who promptly had the players imprisoned when they announced themselves. And all their equipment confiscated.
- Crowley visited the players during their confinement and offered to initiate them into the cult. Guardsman knocked him unconscious and took his cell keys while pretending to give him a handshake. Classic. The players didn't get their gear back, though.
From here on out, this needs to become a continuous story.
During the escape, the players ended up in the master bedroom. There was a window, on relative ground-level. They used Crowley to break the glass (and test the fall). Upon finding that the ground was a safe drop from the window, they exited and stole an open-topped ground vehicle with a heavy stubber mounted on the top.
The alarms went on. Cue car-chase, with Assassin manning the heavy stubber while Guardsman drives, Crowley still unconscious in the passenger seat. Not long into the chase, an Inquisitorial transport flies overheard, and the players get a radio signal to follow. They do so, and are eventually greeted to the "road" (insofar as it could be called that) giving way and the transport lined up with the chasm, its small vehicle bay wide open.
Guardsman does the obvious thing and uses the car to jump into the vehicle bay. Mission accomplished. The players go to the cockpit to thank the pilot. He simply asks them to sort out the vehicle bay door, which appears to be slightly malfunctioning. So they go back to the vehicle bay.
The players check out the door and get it back in order. Suddenly, out of the darkness, a claw swipes at Assassin and disappears again. A Genestealer drops from the ceiling in front of the vehicle bay exit. With no weapons and no armour, the players seem quite defeated. But not quite. Guardsman opens the vehicle bay door (which faces straight behind the spacecraft), waiting for the Genestealer to attack. The Genestealer itself jumps onto the bonnet of the escape vehicle.
Clearly, Assassin didn't get Guardsman's idea, as he sped forward, threw an arm into the vehicle and disengaged the brake, so the vehicle slid backwards towards the opening.
The Genestealer simply hopped off the vehicle. FFFFFUUUUUUUUU--
This is when Guardsman committed the most incredible act known to roleplay. He jumped into the reversing vehicle , fired the heavy stubber into the Genestealer, killing it, and jumped out in time to grab onto an outer-railing and be pulled up by Assassin. They took a moment to catch their breath, looked down at the hive surface and closed the bay door. Looking at one another, the same thought hit them:
"Where's Crowley?"
