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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imperialus" data-source="post: 4184149" data-attributes="member: 893">Actually the word 'approximately' gets thrown around a lot in the fluff when describing how many marines there are in the Imperium.  There are approximately 1000 marines in a chapter and approximately 1000 chapters.  It is not a constant.  There was an entire founding that went bad at one point.Also I can't imagine that Chapters have enough geneseed to spontaneously create thousands of new marines.  It's described as being very rare and very valuable.  I see the process as being much more gradual and organic.  Successful chapters expand their numbers while weaker chapters shrink.  Eventually a chapter will grow large enough that it can no longer be considered approximately 1000 strong.  That's when it splinters.As far as the decision of where their homeworld should be it really isn't the emperor who decides, it's the High Lords of Terra.  The emperor isn't big on decision making anymore.  The Administratum isn't going to want to give up a valuable and productive planet for the marines to take over.  It wouldn't pay any taxes anymore and besides the Marines don't want to take over some civilized place where the recruits are going to suck.  That's why the first task of the chapter is to conquer it's homeworld.  It is deliberately chosen to be unpleasant.  The idea of going at it alone is just tradition.My concern about that is more a gameplay issue.  By having the entire campaign serve as nothing more than a 'test' the players might not have the same motivation if they know the eventual goal is to sit at the helm of their own chapter and have a hand in it's evolution.  The lack of an ability to make a difference is one of the big problems I see with the 40K verse and trying to translate it into an RPG.  I'm of the personal opinion that a long campaign should create some kind of real lasting effect on the 'big picture'.  A test doesn't have the same effect.  It'd be kinda like in a D&D campaign dropping the PC's into some wizard created dungeon and by the time they emerge they're level 20 and the campaign ends.  Just in this instance the Imperial overseers are the wizard and the dungeon is a planet.Well I have 3 players so I'm thinking one dead scout, one live scout plus the Veteran Sargent is a good starting number.  Replacements will be a challenge but I agree as long as they arn't too frequent it's possible for the PC's to meet up with other marines who join them as PC's.*edit* also I expect it would be less than ideal to create an entire new chapter out of scouts.  Even with their genetic drive a thousand scouts arn't going to be able to pull off an operation like that.  They'll need mentors, guidance, and experience at their disposal to become real marines.</blockquote>

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