That's not psychic it is psychological.

First he is a primarch to be in his presence alone make people feel little, fragile, nothing…. 'even Astartes.

Second it's a primarch with a lot of nasty teeths sharp and a bit too big… Making him looking quite a predator aimal.

Third humans are animals even Astartes, Custodes and Primarch (even if their humanity is quite different) and as animal we instinctively react to some stimulus and physical domination had always work fine.

Fourth add all those point and imagine a Werewolf almost 3 meters high, thousand kilos, raging, in a full offence posture and growling at you little baby sheep… Now imagine the heird behind you, what do they feel like…

Pretty bad…

Thebigjul said:

In Thousand Sons it's presented as something the psychically aware members of the Thousand Sons can feel from beyond the range of hearing. I'm not convinced it isn't a psychic effect.

It's also important to note that most of the Primarchs show some psychic ability even if it's not fully trained. Fulgrim, Lorgar, Kurze, and Sanguinus are all examples, and it's fully possible that all of them have subconscious psychic ability. This is where I'd place the roar of Russ - as a subconscious psychic bolstering of the sounds his body can make.

 So here's how it went:

I told the Dark Angel player that he can either pick who to challenge, or he could pick the manner of the trial.  He picked his opponent…the biggest Space Wolf in the room.  The Space Wolf accepted the challenge and chose "Holmgang" as the manner of trial.

I adopted much from Polaria's suggestion on how "Holmgang" works.  I restricted them to standing on a large wolf skin, stripped down to the waist, and armed with a primitive shield and primitive hand weapon of their choice.  I gave the shield 20 wounds each (usually took two hits to shatter).  Each combatant had three shields to go through.  The player picked a sword.  The Space Wolf chose an axe.  The challenged Space Marine was granted first strike.  So each turn went like this:

1.  Challenged space marine rolls to attack.  If the attack hits, the target may either Dodge, or parry with a shield or weapon.  If the target successfully parries with his shield, roll for damage (standard weapon damage plus strength and Talent/Trait bonuses).

2.  Challenger attacks, defender parries or dodges.

3.  Repeat until someone either gives up, passes out due to damage, or falls off the wolf skin.  I had the players roll a Toughness test with a modifier based on the number of critical hits they had received to see if they pass out and fall off wolf skin.

It was possible to die, but I made it clear that deliberately killing your opponent would result in a loss of honor.  However, if a marine died because they refused to give up, that was on them.

In addition, I allowed the Dark Angel player to pay 100xp to take Ritual Duel Fighter (RoB, pg77), but he had to agree to live with the actual result of the duel instead of rolling randomly.

For the record, the player lost, but because he was the first to issue the challenge, challenged the biggest Space Wolf in the room, both combatants lost all three shields, and he fought till he took his first critical damage, there was no honor lost.  This meant Result #2.  Therefore, he lost the use of his Chapter Trapping until he has an opportunity to duel again.  However, his opponent was so impressed with his melee prowess that he gave him a wolf tail from his banner that acts as a Charm and grants +5 Fellowship when dealing with Space Wolves.  The player was a Dark Angel Librarian fighting against a Wolf Guard. [Hey, I didn't tell him to pick the biggest mo-fo in the room!]

Bottom line: Everyone loved it.  It wasn't over too quickly and no one died, but the possibility was there.  There were ethical decisions as well as the player contemplated cheating, i.e. using his psychic powers.

My thanks to all of you for your awesome suggestions and debate.  Respect!

Congratulations!

That should have been a great time in the game. Well done.

It might be easiest to simply read what is read in the Rites of War book under the "Ritual Duel Fighter" deed. As it stands, the two groups will usually send a champion to meet each other on the eve of battle and they'll fight unarmed but fully armored. With that in mind, I'd say a battle based on a point system (X number of hits, keeping an opponant grappled while maintaining the superior grappling position, or fighting until their fatigue forces unconciousness) would suffice quite well. However, as champions of the Astartes, I highly doubt either group would shirk away from a close quarters battle with sword or knife. A battle to first blood would still take time and effort and it's highly unlikely they'd die from the combat.

Plus, who wouldn't want to be in the middle of this: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lkvwveNPdi1qeeo82o1_500.png

Xeldrakka said:

That cool