Ghaundan said:

Have to disagree to an extent. Those Brothers who take the Oath aren't newbies to their Chapters. Codex Devastators, for example, have been through the entire Dev-Assault-Tac rotation once and gotten back to Dev. A Space Wolf Assault is likely equivalent to a Blood Claw sergeant than a new recruit; a Black Templar Tactical is probably not a guy recently ascended to Initiate from Neophyte, he's probably trained some Neophytes himself.

If you take away Chapter conflict, you take away the Chapter spirit. A Chapter would consider this spiritual pollution or corruption of ancient, lauded ideals. The DA/SW rivalry is more brotherly than bitter; the RG/WS rivalry is about trusting your brother (and knowing not to). Chapters have vested interests in keeping these traditions alive. The Deathwatch, as a pastiche of Chapters, has a vested interest in not suborning established Chapter traditions, because if they do that too much, the Chapters will stop sending warm bodies to take the black.

I just can't see Codex Scouts being seconded. That they exist as a Requisition choice makes sense: Astartes Chapter X is operating on Vanity; it has a number of Scout squads used as spotters/snipers and getting field experience in the process. For some promises and a nominal fee, Chapter X's scouts can do some sniping for Kill Team Y. But those Scouts aren't steeped enough in Chapter culture to be seconded; doing so could make them very un-X-like and when they come back to Chapter X, they may not even know who they are or what their Chapter is like, causing a lot of internal problems.

Kasatka said:

But tha's completely contrary to the character of the Chapter as honour-obsessed crusading knights. The Neophyte < Initiate relationship really comes off more like that of a Squire. In fact, the description given in the codex is actually described as something quite similar to that. It's all but named it. I can't see Helbrecht being too happy to hear about his Marshals casually throwing recruits in to the wind. At the very least it's contrary to tradition, so.. yeah.

And I agree that it's very unlikely a Scout would be seconded to the Deathwatch (perhaps he was rescued and returning any time soon is inconvenient), but I don't think the Deathwatch takes only veterans. Anyone of exceptional talent could be offered up, and sometimes it seems like a Marine will be sent to the Deathwatch as punishment (seems odd to me too, since noone wants to send someone who could bring dishonour on to their Chapter).

Any "scouts" encoutnered as part of the DW would be full Astartes using scout armor for.. some reason, likely operation specific.

Really the only chapter with Scouts that would be seconded to the DW would be Space Wolves. The general principle behind DW marines is that they are already accomplished, blooded warriors, no PC in the DW game is meant to be a "level 1" Space Marine. (fluff wise anyhow)

You could make any sort of exceptions I suppose if you HAD to have an astartes trainee in a DH group, but I guess the question I would ask is… why?

From a fluff standpoint an inquisitor would have access to better trained and equipped troops than what is effectively half a space marine. What task is a scout going ro fulfil better than an assassin or scum trained for stealth and shooty/stabby goodness?

CaptainStabby said:

Lynata said:

Good answer, I'd say.

Sure and I can make a friendly Dark Eldar with twin power scimitars and a cyper panther too and that still doesnt make a lick of sense fluff wise either.

"Cause I want to" is rarely a good reason to do something game mechanic wise. If I had a player ask me to play an Astartes scout in a DH game I'd talk to them about what they were trying to accomplish with the character, what made that appealing etc… You can make essentially the same character with existing rules and it involves no handwaving or weird contrivances. If the ONLY thing the player is hung up on is "I want to be an Astartes" well, frankly they should be playing DW or BC.

That said, everyone runs their games different and if you're having fun, go for it.

 Has anyone made the same complaint back when Sororitas Novices were introduced?

"Cause I want to" is what very likely determined the majority of the deviations that make this game's fluff different from GW's version of the setting. Why do you think that, around here, players can choose to play a Vindicare Assassin permanently assigned to some Inquisitorial cell? Or why do you think that FFG chose to decouple the Deathwatch from the Ordo Xenos, let alone introducing an artificial equipment gap? Or why do you think that, following 5 weeks of players demanding this, the standard lasgun just got variable power settings in the latest update of Only War's beta rules? All of this goes against fluff that was established elsewhere, yet for some reason there it's okay?

I would recommend being less hypocritical when making an argument like that. Or at least trying to abstain from inflammatory comparisons to a certain D&D character.

It is not too difficult to come up with a somewhat believable fluff excuse for allowing an Astartes Scout in a DH group. Actually, all you need to do is copy-paste the justification they invented for the Sororitas Novice, and replace any mentioning of "Sisterhood" with "Red Hunters Chapter" - voilá.

As you said, everyone runs their games differently, and everyone has a different perception of the setting. You may not like OP's idea, but that doesn't mean it has to be ridiculed.