but I've found that more than 2 characters becomes a lot for one person to handle.
Interesting; however, it's closer to "RPG-Lite". Some basic mechanics I'm definitely using:
Each player chooses a basic career path and specialty within that path. They then, using a certain, fixed number of points, upgrade their character's statline, purchase skills, weapons, and other wargear items (like various grenades, or tools). Generally speaking, I'd mandate that each player give their character a name*- however, supplemental warband members would actually be pre-named, and start as NPCs which the players can recruit to their cause(s).
Since the initial points limit is ample enough to outfit a character, and still have some points left over (or have a surplus of weapons and wargear), they can use said points/extra gear to outfit recruited NPCs.
In a starting game, the GM would control the Inquisitor, who directs the warband- each player then has their own character.
*For the most part, I'm going more for RPG-lite and action-heavy. I want the game to be something that takes no more than 30 minutes to go over the basics- and that's with a group of 3 or 4 people. Background/motivations for characters can come later, and are desirable for a campaign, but generally speaking, I'm more interested in making it a cinematic, narrative action-oriented experience.
A good way to think of it is "like a Michael Bay movie, only with plastic minis on a tabletop, and in 40K". Note that that ignores any criticisms for Bay's film making, as they aren't particularly relevant.
Though if you could elaborate on the "3+ characters=hardmode", that would be very helpful.
Never played 40K, is it easier/simpler to play?
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Ooh boy, you had to give me a hardmode question. Alright, the short answer is that actual 40K is pretty easy to get into. The short version of the long answer is that it's very, very, complicated.
There's no less than some 4-6 different 40K tabletop games. And that's not counting the PnP RPGs that Fantasy Flight Games makes (linky, 40K is Black Crusade, Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, and Rogue Trader*). These non-FFG produced games, IE 40K games produced solely by Games Workshop, are:
1. Warhammer 40,000. The actual, and original, TT game. Currently in 5th Edition; competitive metagame revolves around mechanized infantry lists. Usually games are played at 1500-2000 points limit, so take a couple of hours to finish. Smaller games are possible with the standard missions, anywhere from 500-1250 points. For less than, or more than, that, you'll need to pick up expansions:
A. Apocalypse. This is where you go for OMGWTFBBQ-huge games. The basic 40K system holds up pretty well up to around 2500-3000 points limit, where the "Force Organization Chart (FOC)", used to organize and limit an army's choices (so you can't field an entire army of super-choppy commanders), breaks down. Apocalypse games are for 3000+ points. AFAIK, the only upper limit on the size of an Apocalypse game is either "doesn't fit in whatever gaming space you have", or "collapses table under the weight of the models".
Final Word: at US$50, it's an expensive book, and it'll take a long time to put together a collection of your own minis that would allow you to play it. If wherever you play 40K at offers regular Apoc matches, then picking up a copy is handy- and generally, you can probably find someone to team up with to make up the points so you can field an Apoc-size army.
B. Battle Missions. Offers a bunch of alternate scenarios for playing 40K. Of note (IMO) primarily for the 3 special missions- Kill Teams, and the names of the other two (which I'll start with) I forget. One is based around killing the enemy's HQ (commander) unit with your own. Generally, you'll want a named character from each player's chosen army's HQ section, but unnamed HQs are acceptable if you haven't got any GW-official named characters on-hand. The second puts three Baneblade super-heavy tanks (thus requiring the Apoc book, BTW) against a 1500 point normal 40K army (1 BB=500 points). Pretty simple- the Baneblades try to kill the army, and vice versa.
Kill Teams uses a modified FOC to allow for small games of 200 points- generally speaking, that's a lonely ol' squad running around- with the caveat that you don't deploy the squad as a squad, but as ten independent models. KT has a lot of loopholes that the designers didn't think about, primarily revolving around vehicles- but the format is a lot like Apocalypse in that being a Rules Lawyer will probably get you left alone without any games to play. KT is about having fun, and on a small scale.
Final Word: US$30. Pricey for just having the KT mission rules if that's all you want, but a great deal if you'll use the other scenarios too. Overall, you'll get a lot of use out of the book. A great choice for a starting 40K'er.
C. Cities of Death. Pretty much, it's rules for playing 40K in urban environments. It was actually released during 4th Edition, but GW's site has a FAQ/Errata doc that updates it to 5E, and number of concepts in Cities of Death were actually used in the 5E BRB. It's pretty simple, but putting together a Cities of Death battle can be expensive, in either time or money, or both- that terrains' not going to put itself together!
Final Word: US$30. I'd recommend this if you wanted together an urban warfare KT set up- as KTs are very cheap to collect model-wise (it's the books that'll bite your wallet!). Cities of Death+BM for KT, along with the BRB and 2-3 armies, and 1-3 squads for each, will be a great way to put together a series of games for yourself and a couple of friends.
D. Planetstrike. A similar vein to Cities, in that it's oriented around a single facet of 40K warfare. In this case, planetary assault. Games have an attacker and and a defender, and uses a modified FOC to emphasize the rapid nature of it. It's actually quite 'cinematic', as the defender's bastions are reduced to rubble and the terrain on the board is generally going to change every turn.
Final Word: US$30. If you want to throw your men into the teeth of enemy guns (from orbit no less!), or perhaps want to gun down the enemy's men that are being thrown into the teeth of your guns, this is for you. It'd require a bit of work, but you could probably adapt it to KT, and any of the expansions can be combined, in, well, any combination.
E. Planetary Empires. As expensive as the Apoc book, but also includes a tileset. This is useful if you want to build a campaign using a Risk-style strategic map. Otherwise, skip it. Could probably be useful with a combination of KT, Cities, and Planetstrike to put together an almost L4D-style zombie (or alien, or daemon) campaign.
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Will cover the others in separate posts, to cut down on OMGWTFBBQ-HUEG posts.
