Naraden said:

where's the roleplaying potential in that? holding a trench until you die?

Guardsmen are like tadpoles. A frog spawns thousands of little eggs that hatch tadpoles hoping that one or two reach maturity. Ofcourse you can work around this in a rpg, and make sure there is room for player character heroism and excellence, and make sure they level up from cannon fodder grunts to something more impressive ... but this then is a different picture from what the fluff of the W40K universe has been painting so far.

The Laughing God said:

Meh, even looking at the Source Material that ain't the case anymore.  There's plenty of room for heroism of normal people.  Gaunt's Ghosts, Caiphas Cain.  Those are the sorts of books likely to be the inspiration here.  Yes, you're not even a blip on the radar of the Imperium as a whole beyond the strength of your institution, but that doesn't mean you're utterly screwed.  You can still rise to become a great hero, even if just on local levels.  There's so much room for a regimental game.  If anything, it's an -easier- game for a GM since there's some chain of command stuff to keep PCs from wandering too far off track, and lo and behold, suddenly it won't feel so railroady!

The Laughing God said:

The same roleplaying potential you'd have with Space Marines I imagine.  And no one said it had to be until you die, just until you run out of bullets or badguys to shoot at.

Only War will allow for female characters.

 after playing the game space marine i can:

Save your ammo, stay behind any cover you can and cross your fingers, because if you face and orc or a chaos force directly you can only pray to the emperor for your life. Maybe holding that possition was very important and your name will be praise for giving your life in the name of the emperor...

Just saying, whether or not it is "frowned upon" looting the bodies is a time honoured tradition of military campaigning. In the 41st millenium, there are some regiments that are rewarded with looting rights, or the commissariat knows better than to tell a bunch of hyped up killers that they can't burn of some steam by killing and looting, it's all over the IG codex (or in the case of the Savlar Chem-Dogs, are paid in loot and threatened with the return to their homeworld).
As far as the chain of command goes, it does not have to be the collar that chokes player creativity to death. For good examples of that see also:

Saving Private Ryan (movie)

Band of Brothers (miniseries)

Bad Company 1&2 (video game, no plan survives contact with the enemy)

Platoon (movie, chain of command broken, divided, and incompetent above squad level)

Gaunt's Ghosts (seriously, read these if you want to play this)

Ciaphas Cain Omnibus (another good read for IG and a Commisar who doesn't shoot everyone on his side)

Tears of the Sun (movie, chain of command distant but useful)

Aliens (movie, genestealers where copy pasta of this)

Hamburger Hill (movie, the madness of war)

The Patriot (movie, light infantry who fight a superior numbered foe)

Last of the Mohicans (movie, the iriquois are light infantry, the redcoats are more pig-headed die in droves types)

Deathwatch (movie on netflix, not related to the rpg, ww1 piece that is a very easy analogue to fighting on a chaos world)

I believe this game will offer more than its fair share of roleplay. As previous posts have stated rising up and being a hero is possible in the Guard. Yes you are underpowered compared to most of the xenos, daemons, and other assorted nasties in the galaxy. Yes you will most likely die alongside hundreds of yor comrades. However denying the enemy your death. Hanging on by a thread alongside your comrades frantically trying to push back the enemy. In a sense all of these classic themes can be attributed to ALL the FFG games not just Deathwatch. Laughing God has a good point in that it shares a similar concept, in my opinion however it leaves for more roleplay. If a group of PCs make all characters from the same regiment who've been with eachother for a while they can all generate a rich backstory of their group not just their own character. This is a bit lacking in Deathwatch as the squad generates history being together and getting to know eachother. But in OW i think collective player backgrounds could leave open some great hooks or even possible side adventures for the squad as a whole, not just based off of one singular players background. This honestly could be one of the more cooperative games out of the 40k game line from FFG. I am excited to see how OW turns out to be, and i hope itll bring as much Roleplay as we are all hoping for. Cheers!

While I own Deathwatch I have never run it as only one player has even a smidgen of interest in it. We find supermen boring to be honest. Now the Imperial guard? When we heard about Only War the reaction from the male players was "sweet! Gaunt's Ghosts!" and the females was "Sweet a war game in 40k we can make characters for." (you'd be surprised how having a group with women in it makes Deathwatch a no-go while Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and now Only War have drawn their attention.

 It is sort of my hope that with Only War to take care of the more down to earth soldiering, Deathwatch Marines will be free to become the mighty heroes of myth and legend that I want them to be.

And that would be a good way to differentiate the lines.

Riggswolfe said:

Both girls in my group love playing Space Marines.

ItsUncertainWho said:

"You shoot your lasguns. They all miss. The bad guys shoot their lasguns. They miss. Next round: everybody misses, and no hits in the next round."

Lingula said:

And the round after that the bad guys give up because they are outmatched!

You also forgot the montage build sequence.

Yes it does warrant a new game mainly because the imperial guard and deathwatch space marines are two different military groups in the Imperium. Thus the playing style begins to vary. As well, the roleplaying aspects of the two would turn out drastically different.

One of the major differences between roleplaying Only war and Deathwatch is in the scale, in Deathwatch
you alter the course of an entire salient, possibly even the entire crusade. As a squad of veteran guardsmen, you
alter the effect of a battlefield/warzone. As previous people have pointed out, most war movies do not fit well with
the role of space marines on the battlefield. Where as they fit perfectly to the role of the imperial guard.

For one, I can't wait to run a campaign as follows: (For arguments sake, lets say our OW squad is drop troops)
Imagine omaha beach-like situation. Now it is only a world being invaded by the Imperium. Before anything, the
Deathwatch marines are sent in to try and assassinate the enemy general/warmaster/big bad guy. They have to
preform this task (and possibly several side quests) in a fixed amount of in game time, before the Imperial navy arrives
in force. Then our OW squad moves in on their Valk, dropping behind enemy lines, their job is to take and hold a landing
zone/destroy communication stations/ disable orbital cannons/ capture or destroy bridges or so on. Their job will get
easier/harder depending on how well the Deathwatch team performed.

Then with a good breach head against the enemy, the imperial army moves in and start the slow job of retaking the entire planet.
Thus, the Deathwatch is no longer needed, and they can carry on with their own jobs, on other planets and other war fronts. They are
way too scarce and valuable to remain active in this war front. Whereas the OW squad will remain and continue
with the war effort, and have several more missions to do before the planet is secure. Also they will their missions will effect how
well the war effort is going, thus impacting their logistics rating. 

Well, that is just what I had in mind.
 

I'd personaly say the relationship between Only War and Deathwatch is pretty much identical to that of Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader. Basicaly Space marines and Rogue Traders have a lot more freedom to act in the ways that they want to when compared to Imperial Guardsmen or low level Inquisitorial Agents. Only War and Dark Heresy give you a look at the lower levels of Imperial society and maginfies the struggle for survival. Whar could seen to be easy meat for a squad of Space Marines or a starship can appear as insurmountable odds to a squad or two of Imperial Guardsmen.

Only War should be an oppertunity to show the uncaring nature of the Imperial organisations. Limit their tools to get the job done, hand out almost sucicidal missions, introduce incompetent officers to lead them, roll out the tyranical commissar to offer them the choice of victory or death etc. Make them realise that the only thing there is between their character and a messy death is their squad mates.

Kahadras