Gaming Notes: Only War RPG

Only War is the newest entry in the Warhammer 40K RPG library.

At the recent Free RPG Day at Comic Store West I got to play Only War. Only War is the newest RPG entry into the Warhammer 40K universe.

A group of eight players including Sean, James, Talon, Martin and myself all played grunts in a game run by Sam.

The mission was simple: We're on a moon and we're sent to secure a crater that is currently being controlled by the orcs. Simple, that is, until we get the word that the entire crater is going to be "glassed" and we have mere hours to get out or we're dead.

Our communication equipment was damaged in the battle to take over a fortress so we were left with only our wits and our feet. As you'll see, our wits weren't of much benefit.

The first thing we did was kill our wounded. They were only going to slow us down and we wanted their end to be merciful.

We then set off. We soon found a damaged air transport. I was good with fixing technical things so I took an hour and repaired the craft. "Getting out of here is going to be easy!" we said. So we all loaded up and then someone said, "Wait... who can fly?" None of us could. And THAT'S when we realized that one of our injured comrades was the only one with the ability to fly. Oops.

So, having wasted an hour, we set off on foot. Let's just say it was a comedy of errors. Along the way, we killed a commanding officer, caused a riot, and broke every rule of military discipline.

Finally, we made it to a border town where we thought we could get transport. One of my teammates made a contact and arranged for a shady deal to get out of there. Of course, it was a trap. At that point, the rift in the team split wide open and players attacked players. Let's just say it was ugly but more importantly it was a complete waste of time.

After we regained our military composure, we set off again, killing the driver of a truck and taking control of the vessel. "We're free!" we thought again. Only to realize that we had killed the only person capable of driving the vehicle. Again. D'Oh!

So, we continued on our way, encountering heavy orc resistance along the way. Eventually, against all odds, we made it to the safety zone.

And that's when it came across the communicator - the kill zone had been extended. Our currently location was once again due to be glassed...