So I’m not completely sold on this yet, but had a thought worm that got stuck while waiting for a train. A Black Crusade game themed around Bloodbowl/Dungeonbowl, set on Iniquity in the Expanse.
The story would comprise of matches, as well as the inter game politics of individual and team reputation, commercial weight, even influence of being “picked” for more lucrative off world matches in the Screaming Vortex. Think of coaches vieing for recognition with the princes if the vortex and their demon powered teams.
Things to consider.
Human only-no astartes.
I would probably offer three or four team owners, high power NPC patrons of whom the PCs would choose between for their starter team (though obviously transfers and all the shenanigans surrounding it would apply).
PCs need not all start on the same team...  this may involve certain aspects of pvp. I would want maturity and an honest absence of meta gaming.
A number of NPC only teams (A radical Rogue Trader with an expensive hobby, Ork warband looking for a paid punch up, reavers, or just a local pub side promoted waaaay out of their depth!)
Compacts would be derived around team success over a given period, though this may be something other than just winning (eg assassinating a player on a certain team...)
Posting rate min 3-5 times per week. Seriously, if it involves even abstracted movement on a pitch, players need to be willing to post regularly, even if the posts are very brief.
The matches themselves would be formed around, say, 6-8 “plays”. Short set ups where the teams would be engaged in resolving a part of the match, it may be trying to score, trying to stop the opposition from scoring, or even a tangential strategic play. This is to keep a fast flowing feel rather than the game getting bogged down in a long drawn out bloodbowl game.

Anyway, if folks would be interested in this kinda mix, let me know. ;)
This message was last edited by the user at 10:56, Wed 06 June 2018.

I have more games than I can actually pay enough attention to as it stands, but if a couple of them crapped out, I'd definitely be interested in this.

Considering the team aspect, what's the reason to go with Black Crusade over, say, Only War?

The setting first made me consider a less “Imperial biased” origin. Although it’s based around a team, I was considering also having storylines running off the pitch too.

Aside from a few lore skills, I'm not sure what kind of "imperial bias" you're referring to, to talk about it. Nor do I understand why you believe there would be difficulty roleplaying off the pitch.

Only War is based around a military regiment still? I’m interested in more diverse options rather than just military. And I was under the impression that they were Imperial motivated char gen.

With the possibility of going with/against Xenos and heretics BC seems a better fit to me.

I think some of the apparent resistance to BC may be tied to the Corruption rules and the nature of Talents, Traits and Skills being tied to the various Ruinous Powers.

Most of which can be ignored. by just using the Unaligned costs.

Seeing as the rules mechanics are fairly unified you could use CharGen from RT, BC, OW, or DH pretty interchangeably.

When you boil it down, OW is a game about creating a group of people from a single region (homeworld), with a single directing leader or coach (commanding officer), directed towards a focused regimen (regiment type), and additional training. (0-2 other doctrines)

That sounds like a team to me. It's strictly about a military regiment in the sense that a human apostate/heretek/psyker/renegade from BC (all the human archetypes) is strictly about a character who will commit atrocities and chaos-venerating acts to become a daemon prince, chaos spawn, or dead. OW provides for a variety of human teams with or without abhuman characters. Even abhuman teams.

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The 'resistance' is ... well, questioning the variety to come from a range of 4 human archetypes being spread across 3-4 teams consisting of multiple characters, when three of those those archetypes are "does social stuff", "tech priest-ish", "psyker". I don't see the diversity there, or the xenos choices outside RT.

If the intent really is throwing out the particulars of the system, you could go with Dark Heresy 2e, let everyone hand pick 7 aptitudes, a homeworld bonus, background bonus, world bonus, and spend some XP per character. Absolute ideological freedom.

You both make good points.

As far as the corruption and aligned advances goes, I’d be more than happy to give players the option of opting out, so to speak. Taking fixed unaligned costs for freedom of purchase, and choose whether or not to partake in the more morally dubious acts.
I do want to give other players the choice to embrace the dark side, not that I’m looking for mindless butchers either, but exploring a fall or flirting with chaos is something I’d want to offer.

I haven’t had the most experience with OW, but from reviews I was under the impression starting characters all came with at least a partial military background? Apologies if I’m mistaken.
I didn’t like DH2 though, and from experience I know the chargen from differing lines don’t scale well together.

So, I guess it’s more house rules for playing the straight/er characters then.
And thanks for the advice, I do appreciate it :)

Technically, every 40k rpg that isn't Black Crusade will offer more in terms of turning to chaos, as the baseline assumption for characters isn't, "you have passed beyond mind-breaking insanity into a lucid state of chaos worship."
ie; PCs have an Insanity track and a Corruption track.
BC is situated after the flirt and fall. It follows the other game lines' Corruption tracks after the point where PCs would turn into NPCs. From 101-200, effectively, where the Insanity track is swapped out for chaos-based Disorders, while the gods watch over your actions and reward your successes and failures with more Corruption.

It's an odd point to be stuck on, imo. Imagine if I had suggested BC, and you had said, "I was under the impression all characters are going to lead a Black Crusade?"

Still, good luck with it.

I like this idea a lot, and have a copy of the Black Crusade rules. Assuming we'd all be playing one character each, yes? Let me know if this takes off!
This message was last edited by the user at 19:26, Thu 05 July 2018.