Core Rules

You are but one among the teeming masses of humanity, raised from obscurity at the whim of an Inquisitor. Perhaps you drew their attention through exceptional service, great devotion to the cause, or some special talent. Whatever the case, you did not have a choice. Your Master spoke, and you were bound to their service. You are an ACOLYTE.

INTRODUCTION

ACOLYTE is a solo or co-operative narrative wargame, inspired by Rangers of Shadow Deep, the original Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, and its narrative progeny. In ACOLYTE, all players are working together to further the goals of the Inquisition, with enemy behaviour guided by simple decision trees and events shaped by random draw. these rules can be used with both pre-written adventures and stock Kill Team missions, offering narrative objectives and party progression across multiple scenarios.

An ACOLYTE adventure module, Sector Carthagenica by Berimud is the intended module these Core Rules are adapted for. though this adaptation was tested standalone, as Berimud's campaign progresses, there may be certain additions to this document, as well as other additional modules published.

An original ACOLYTE by fodzilla adventure, Something Rotten in the Underhive, will be adapted in future and provided as an external link here.

You will need:

Kill Team (3rd edition) Core Rules or Lite Rules
Numeric (D4-D20) and scatter dice.
A deck of standard playing cards.
A collection of Warhammer 40000, Kill Team, Necromunda (or 3d printed alternative) miniatures.
Assorted indoor and outdoor terrain.

Alternately, willingness and ability to improvise.

You may want to use the following addons:

Bestiary (KT3 adaptation), containing basic threats you may encounter in any Killzone
Know No Fear addon to play as SPACE MARINE operatives

KILL TEAM FOR BEGINNERS

Kill Team may play a little differently to other systems you are familiar with. the following is an introduction to fundamental concepts as a supplement to the Lite or full KT rules; consult these for full detail of the below.

KT is a D6-based skirmish ruleset simulating combat between groups of individual operatives via alternating activations. All operatives have multiple wounds, inflict multiple points of damage, and have a range of actions they may perform each activation.

OPERATIVE STATS

KT operatives have a block of characteristics that determine their capabilities:

OPERATIVE NAME						APL	MOVE	HIT	SAVE	WOUNDS
NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION						3	6"	4+	6+	8

Abilities

UNIQUE ACTIONS

1AP

Unique action effects

Unique action restrictions

KEYWORDS: ACOLYTE RETINUE, IMPERIUM, LEADER, ACOLYTE

Operative name: name that determines the operative
APL: action points per turn
Move: movement in inches
Hit: attack roll difficulty (lower is better)
Save: defence roll difficulty (lower is better)
Wounds: how much damage can the operative withstand
Abilities: passive abilities the operative has during Scenario
Unique actions: actions specific to this operative.
Keywords: words that refer to operative's faction and may be used by other rules.

WEAPON STATS

KT weapons are either Melee or Ranged, with impact determined as follows:

	NAME	ATK	HIT	DMG	WR	WP
	Hot-shot laspistol	4	-	3/4	Range 8", Piercing Crits 1	2

Name: name that determines the weapon
Atk: quantity of the attack dice
Hit: modifier to hit; dash (-) means use raw operative Hit stat, positive modifiers (+X) mean add modifier to attack dice result, negative modifiers (-X) mean subtract modifier from dice result, specific dice roll (X+) means replace operative's hit stat with following for the attack
Dmg: quantity of damage inflicted when you resolve normal/critical hit respectively
WR: weapon rules; additional rules used when you attack with this weapon; mostly described in Kill Team Lite Rules, those marked with * described under the table that contains that weapon
WP: wargear points; specify relative cost of the weapon

ACTIONS

Each operative may perform a given number of actions (Move, Shoot, etc.) per turn, and can only perform each action once per turn, if there is no rule that states otherwise. Some operatives have access to unique actions.

All operatives start the Scenario with Conceal order. Operatives are given either Engage or Conceal orders at the start of each their activation. Operatives with Engage order may perform all actions; operatives with Conceal order are more limited but cannot be targeted by most ranged attacks while in cover.

COMBAT

Combat is resolved through comparison of dice pools. Critical hits and saves (normally rolls of a 6) are more powerful. A roll of 6 is always a critical hit. A roll of 1 is always fail.

In a ranged attack, the attacker rolls a given number of attack dice, retaining hits, and the defender attempts to avoid damage by rolling a given number of defence dice, retaining saves. Good save values can be overwhelmed by quantity of attacks or armour penetration, while poor save values can be reinforced by use of cover.

Melee is reciprocal, with each combatant taking turns to inflict damage or remove a die from their opponent's pool via parrying. with mutual damage and no armour saves, melee is quick and bloody.

COVER

Effective use and circumvention of terrain is key to success in KT. Where terrain intersects a potential ranged attack, targets may benefit. Operatives within 1” behind intervening cover can normally automatically retain one save without rolling.

Operatives in cover with a conceal order normally cannot be targeted, and operatives more than 1" behind intervening heavy/large terrain are normally considered to be obscured and are hard to hit.

Kill Team may be deadly but there is more to it than just killing, and securing your Master's objectives can often be better served by avoiding combat.

RULE CHANGES

ACOLYTE plays according to standard Kill Team (3rd edition) game rules, with alterations and suggestions as noted in-text and as follows.

GAME SEQUENCE

Use Scenario game sequence from this document.

SET UP OPERATIVES

Unless otherwise specified, Acolyte operatives deploy after any Enemy operatives specified by the scenario instructions.

COMMAND POINTS

the CP pool is shared across all players. If players lose the initiative, no second additional CP is added to the pool.

CRIT OPS, TAC OPS, KILL OP

Crit Ops, Tac Ops and Kill Op are not used. Primary objectives are specified by each scenario. For purposes of gaining experience, track a number of incapacitated enemy operatives separately for each friendly ACOLYTE or FOLLOWER operative. that number will be added to operative's XP at the end of the scenario.

VICTORY POINTS, DETERMINING THE VICTOR

Victory points are not used. There is actually no victor. Scenario runs, scenario ends, and its consequences are defined by primary and secondary objectives, condition of your team, and whatever else your Campaign Master created.

EQUIPMENT

Do not use Universal or Faction equipment. Equipment is equipped on each operative individually. Use Wargear points (WP) to purchase additional wargear for operatives from the Wargear list of Acolyte Core Rules.

ACTIVATION ORDER

All Acolyte players are treated as constituting a single Kill Team for activation purposes. Unless otherwise specified, the Acolyte team always begins the turn with Initiative. with multiple players, you can roll for priority within the Acolyte Retinue each turn but may have more success working co-operatively.

GROUP ACTIVATION

Friendly operatives with Group Activation special rule may choose to group-activate regardless of operative type if they are within 3" of each other. Enemy operatives group activate by type as normal.

SHOOT ACTION

Use a D6 to track how much ammo left in each operative's weapon, starting with 6 (or whatever defined by weapon rules) and decreasing value by 1 after each Shoot action that operative made with its weapon. When the counter reaches zero, weapon's ammo is Depleted and that operative cannot use this weapon until it is Reloaded.

If the operative got a Weapon Jam (as described in event table, it can shoot again with that weapon in that turning point after it performs a Reload action.

Some weapons listed in Acolyte have weapon rules related to this rule alteration.

Designer's note: This rule alteration is recommended when you play on Medium or Hard difficulty. When playing on Easy difficulty you can ignore all ammo-related rules.

WEAPON RULES

Devastating: Devastating weapon rule with range specified (e.g. 1" Devastating* 2) does not inflict damage on an operative armed with it, if the operative fights or retailiates with that weapon.

INTERVENING TERRAIN

If an intervening terrain feature is within 1" of both operatives, it is not obscuring even if some parts of terrain feature are not within 1" of one of the operatives. E.g. this example from core rules is treated as following: Operative A and operative B are in cover from each other, but neither of them is obscured.

gw-obscured

Note that an operative can still be in cover and obscured at the same time if there is 2 or more intervening terrain features with Heavy trait between attacking and attacked operatives.

STRONGHOLD TERRAIN FEATURE

Whenever performing attacks, that are activated through abilities which state “perform attack against each operative within X" of marker”, and the operative, that is target of that attack is wholly within the floor of the Stronghold terrain feature, the weapon used for that attack has the Lethal 5+ weapon rule.

GW Core Rules errata, Stronghold terrain feature: Do not apply that paragraph of errata.

ADDITION TO LITE RULES

If using Kill Team Lite Rules, include the following additional rules:

ACCESSIBLE TERRAIN

Operatives can move through Accessible terrain, but it counts as additional 1" to do so. Only the centre of operative's base needs to move through Accessible terrain.

FIGHT ACTION

While a friendly operative is assisted by other friendly operatives, improve the Hit stat of its melee weapons by 1 for each doing so. For a friendly operative to assist them, it must be within control range of the enemy operative in that fight and not within control range of another enemy operative.

TERRAIN AND MOVEMENT

Operatives cannot move through terrain unless there is a rule stating otherwise - they must move around, climb over or jump/drop off it.

Climbing: An operative must be within 1" horizontally and 3" vertically from terrain that's visible to them to climb it. Each climb is treated as a minimum of 2" vertically (e.g. a distance of 1" is treated as 2").
Dropping: Operatives drop down when they move off terrain or after they've jumped. Ignore 2" of vertical distance that they drop during each action. this means a vertical drop of 2" or less is ignored. If they drop multiple times during action, only 2" total is ignored, not 2" from each drop.
Jumping: Operatives can jump from terrain when they move off it. You can move them up to 4" horizontally from the edge when they jump, done like any other move except in one straight-line increment. the operative must then drop or climb from there. When jumping to terrain feature, you can ignore its height difference of 1" or less, including its rampart (if any). However, when jumping from a terrain feature, if it has a rampart, you must climb it first.

VANTAGE TERRAIN

Vantage terrain is upper levels of terrain in the killzone. It is Light and has following additional features:

Whenever an operative on Vantage terrain is shooting an operative that has an Engage order, its ranged weapon has Accurate 1 weapon rule if the target is at least 2" lower than it, or Accurate 2 if the target is at least 4" lower than it.
Whenever you are selecting valid target for an operative on Vantage terrain, operatives at least 2" lower than that operative with Conceal order cannot use Light terrain for cover. It doesn't remove their cover save, and the defender can retain it as a critical success instead, or retain one additional cover save.
For the purposes of Obscured, ignore Heavy terrain connected to Vantage terrain the active operative or the intended target is on.

UNIVERSAL ACTIONS

The ACOLYTE RETINUE operatives, if not stated specificly, can perform following universal actions:

RELOAD	1AP
Select a Depleted weapon this operative is equipped with. That weapon is Reloaded, reset its ammo counter to its starting value. This operative cannot perform this action while within control range of enemy operatives.

RELOAD

1AP

Select a Depleted weapon this operative is equipped with. That weapon is Reloaded, reset its ammo counter to its starting value.

This operative cannot perform this action while within control range of enemy operatives.

PICK UP OPERATIVE	1AP
SUPPORT. Pick up a friendly Incapacitated ACOLYTE RETINUE operative within control range of this operative, like it were a marker. While it is carrying that friendly operative, subtract 2" from its Move stat. This operative cannot perform this action if that friendly operative's Wounds stat is greater than this operative's Wounds stat, and cannot carry more than one friendly operative. This operative cannot perform this action while within control range of enemy operatives.

PICK UP OPERATIVE

1AP

SUPPORT. Pick up a friendly Incapacitated ACOLYTE RETINUE operative within control range of this operative, like it were a marker. While it is carrying that friendly operative, subtract 2" from its Move stat.

This operative cannot perform this action if that friendly operative's Wounds stat is greater than this operative's Wounds stat, and cannot carry more than one friendly operative.

This operative cannot perform this action while within control range of enemy operatives.

REANIMATE	1AP
SUPPORT. Select a friendly Incapacitated ACOLYTE RETINUE operative within control range of this operative. Roll a D6, subtracting 1 for each subsequent time that operative was reanimated in this scenario. On a roll of 4+, that friendly operative is no longer Incapacitated, set it up as close as possible to its previous location, and it regains D6 lost wounds. After an operative was reanimated 3 subsequent times in scenario, next time it is incapacitated, it is slain. Do not roll Casualty tests for it. Reanimation is also no longer possible. This operative cannot perform this action while within control range of enemy operatives.

REANIMATE

1AP

SUPPORT. Select a friendly Incapacitated ACOLYTE RETINUE operative within control range of this operative. Roll a D6, subtracting 1 for each subsequent time that operative was reanimated in this scenario. On a roll of 4+, that friendly operative is no longer Incapacitated, set it up as close as possible to its previous location, and it regains D6 lost wounds.

After an operative was reanimated 3 subsequent times in scenario, next time it is incapacitated, it is slain. Do not roll Casualty tests for it. Reanimation is also no longer possible.

This operative cannot perform this action while within control range of enemy operatives.

INTERACT	1AP
MISSION. Select an object within control range of this operative. Claim what exactly your active operative should do with that object. Your Campaign Master then resolves the result. This operative cannot perform this action while within control range of enemy operatives.

INTERACT

1AP

MISSION. Select an object within control range of this operative. Claim what exactly your active operative should do with that object. Your Campaign Master then resolves the result.

This operative cannot perform this action while within control range of enemy operatives.

FALLING

When damage is inflicted on an operative that is on top of and within 1" of the edge of a terrain feature, after fully resolving that combat, shooting attack or effect, that operative must make a Falling test by rolling one D6. On a 1, that operative Falls directly downwards from the nearest edge of that terrain feature. Operative may also select to Fall any distance (instead of Dropping) as part of a Move, Dash or Fall Back action at no movement cost.

Whenever an operative makes an action in which it is Falling, if the vertical distance in inches it moves is greater than its APL stat, it suffers 1 damage per each additional 1" of vertical distance, rounding up. If any falling damage is inflicted during a movement action, that action immediately ends.

FLYING

Some operative datacards have the FLY keyword. Whenever such operative performs an action in which it moves, it can FLY. If it does so, it does do not climb/drop/fall/jump as normal. Instead, when this operative makes movement, measure its distance diagonally, directly to the point it should reach. However, if the operative selects to Fly, when it performs the Charge action, it can only move a distance up to its Move stat. Note that if you use VESPID STINGWING operatives in your scenario, this rule overrides the faction rule.

COUNTERACT AND GUARD

In Acolyte scenarios, operatives that have Engage order may Counteract as normal if all ACOLYTE RETINUE operatives are Expended, and it is their turn to activate. In addition, ACOLYTE RETINUE with an Engage order can perform the Guard action in any Killzone, like if it were Killzone: Gallowdark

GUARD	1AP
the operative goes on guard until any of the following are true: It performs any action. An enemy operative ends action within its control range and you don't interrupt that activation. Its order is changed. Start of the next turning point. this action is treated as Shoot action. An operative cannot perform this action while it has a Conceal order, or while it's within control range of an enemy operative.

GUARD

1AP

the operative goes on guard until any of the following are true:

It performs any action.
An enemy operative ends action within its control range and you don't interrupt that activation.
Its order is changed.
Start of the next turning point.

this action is treated as Shoot action. An operative cannot perform this action while it has a Conceal order, or while it's within control range of an enemy operative.

On Guard

During each enemy operative's activation, after that enemy operative performs an action, you can interrupt that activation and select one friendly operative on guard to perform the Fight or Shoot action for free (including actions that are treated as such).

that friendly operative can even perform the Shoot action while within control range of an enemy operative (this takes preceedence over normal Shoot action conditions). this is known as a point-blank shot, and has the following additional rules while your operative is doing it:

Target the enemy operatie within your control range (even if it wouldn't normally be a valid target).
Worsen Hit stat of your operative's weapons by 1
Until the end of the interrupted operative's activation, your operative cannot retailiate.

SCENARIO GAME SEQUENCE

1. GENERATE SCENARIO

Generate a scenario using Scenario Generator.
Select Attacker or Defender side for Acolytes, if both available in scenario.

Your Campaign Master manually constructs a scenario

2. SET UP THE BATTLE

Determine the killzone and set up terrain features. Ensure terrain types are specified.
Set up all the objective markers and interactive objects.

3. SELECT WARGEAR AND FOLLOWERS

Each player selects their followers, wargear and equipment for the battle, up to a DV given in step 1.
Acolytes gain 1CP.

4. SET UP THE OPERATIVES

If defined in scenario, players or Campaign Master set up enemy operatives where specified.
Players set up their operatives in any order. The operatives must be wholly within Acolytes' drop zone.

5. PLAY THE BATTLE

If not stated otherwise, players roll the initiative beginning from first turning point. On a roll of 1, enemy operatives have the initiative.
Each turning point after the first, as a strategy gambit, roll an event roll and apply the corresponding effect.

6. END THE BATTLE

The game continues until the primary objective described in scenario is completed or until friendly operatives are no longer able to complete the primary objective (all ACOLYTE RETINUE operatives are incapacitated, or the primary objective object is no longer accessible).
Some scenarios may have fixed number of turning points.

7. RESOLVE CASUALTIES

Make a casualty roll for each ACOLYTE RETINUE operative that is incapacitated at the end of scenario, as described in Injury and Death section.
Make a recovery roll for each operative with Battle Scars.

8. EARN EXPERIENCE

All ACOLYTE RETINUE operativs that are not Slain, gain experience as described in mission briefing.
All operatives then gain 1 experience for each enemy operative they have incapacitated during the scenario.

Note that the operatives may have effects preventing them from gaining experience or limiting that gained experience.

SCENARIO DECKS

A range of events within scenarios are shaped by random rolls of D6 and D10. Each scenario will specify the tables required and when rolls should be made, generally using Investigation, Event, Objective and Loot tables available in Scenario Generator.

Follow the instructions immediately after making each roll. If a roll would have no effect on the target operative (e.g. APL modification on a Servitor), select the next eligible operative.