Got a house rule you want to share or something from the books you're not quite sure about then discuss it here.

Here are the house rules I use.  I think #1 is important to keep the game going.  Face to face maybe not so much.  Some of the rules obviously only apply to play by post gaming but I figure I'd post them all.  Feel free to steal the list!

1.  No player killing unless there is a good reason.  You certainly do not have to be best buddies with the other players and can cheat, lie to, undermine, backstab (not literally), steal from ect. the other players but please no attacking other known players unless there is a very good reason.  This prevents that player from burning a FP if they die and then getting revenge causing the attacker to probably die and spent a FP...

2.  Try to avoid double-posting.  ie. "I punch him in the face and walk off."  If there is a chance it will not work, or there will be another reaction slow it down. ie.  "I TRY to punch him in the face.  If that works I'll walk away angry."  In this example you could miss, and you might not be let off and able to walk away.  If you think it would require a roll please go ahead and roll it to be safe.  If it does not need a roll the result will be ignored.

3.  You can roll your own dice if you want.  Please cut and paste the results.  I will roll for you if you do not, often from home with real dice so you may not see the result.  If you use the dice roller I expect you to inform me of the rolls, there is nothing worse than seeing it used and only being informed by cut and paste of the successful rolls.  If you do roll your own rolls telling me how many degrees of success you think you got, location, and damage rolls would also be helpful.

4.  Please try describe objects with strange sounding names.  It helps to invoke a feeling that tech is strange and mysterious for the everyday man.

5.  Please try to be very specific about what gear is on you, and where it is located.  All weapons assumed to be holstered unless I am told otherwise.  Also if a weapon is jammed, broken, or empty, it will remain so until you tell me you are taking the time to fix it.  If you run out of bullets at the end of a fight don't forget to reload.

6.  Surprise is deadly and only lasts a 1/2 round.  You may only take a half-action in the surprise round.Having second thoughts about that one.....

7.  Righteous Fury!  Anyone can trigger this, even NPC's.

8.  Fate points!  Fate points are VERY rare and will not be given out lightly.

9.  Combat.  Try to post multiple actions so I do not have to ask every round what people are doing if nothing happens.  ie.  I attack with aimed shots until I get hit.

10.  "Give 'em both barrels!"  Characters armed with a regular, double-barreled shotgun can fire both barrels at once, making one attack roll.  If a hit is scored +1 dam (Dam d10+5I).  Firing both barrels the shotgun is treated as not having the "reliable" trait for that shot, and will jam normally.

11.  Parrying requires a half action (parry stance) and a readied melee weapon
but anyone may use it. A primitive shield grants firers -10 BS if they are using primitive weapons, and a regular shield grants -10 BS to all attacks (except explosive).This is to put it more in lines with WFRP.

12.  Double barreled shotguns may interrupt loading and only load one barrel.  Both barrels may be loaded with different ammunition loads if desired, and when the PC fires they decide which was fired.

13.  Stub pistols, pump-action shotguns, hand-cannons, and any other weapons with an internal magazine may also interrupt loading and load 3 rounds in one action.

14. Healing.  Lightly wounded characters heal 1 point a day, the Int bonus of the healer if added by a medicae check.  If the character rests the whole day they may also add their T bonus.  Heavily wounded heal 1 a day with a medicae check, 1 a week without plus their T bonus if they spend a week of full rest.  Critically wounded heal 1 a day with a -10 medicae check, none without.  Psychic healing may only be safely done every 24 hours.

15.  Fury rolls with a flame weapon will require the target of the attack to make another AG check and if it is a fail then they are hit for d10 more damage.  If the extra damage roll is a 10 repeat.

16. Any rolls which you will not know if you passed like silent move, awareness, etc. will be made by me.

17.  Lumbering.  Anyone with a movement of 1 who runs only gets a -10 to be shot.

18.  Adepts can have a hive background as well as the other listed ones.

19.  Any hit to the head that causes damage requires the target to make a T test or also suffer a level of fatigue in addition to any other critical effects.

20.  Characters may spend a FP (which they get back in 24 hours of course) to heal a point of damage each morning.  They can even spend more than one.  This represents miraculous healing, a strong will to live...whatever.  It will make a character a little less effective that day as they will have less FP for re-rolls and whatnot, but help them to heal a little faster.  This extra healing takes place before regular healing and may even bump a character from heavily wounded to lightly.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Questions?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:28, Wed 21 Jan 2009.

If you fail a check on a psychic manifestation (or roll a dreaded "9") can you re-roll it with a FP?

yes

Sexulant!

that was the short answer

long answer: usually, yes. As stated in the rules, you can reroll any die roll, but depending on the GM you either reroll the entire test (thus possibly letting you roll more 9s) or just the die that came up a 9.

While on the subject: you can also reroll the perils of the warp test (D100) with a fate point, so if you nailed the test but got a 9 (or more) it may be better to use the faith point to reroll the perrils test. Especially because some of the effects are either damnable funny (unnatural cold when manifesting Hollocaust or whatever) or sometimes just plain usefull (berserk when facing a sniper or something :D)

And since psychic powers have come up, let me point out the HUGE c*ckup in the core book. On page 161 there's an example in the top right corner (gray box) The psyker used in the example is Psy rating 2 and used fire bolt, a discipline power which can't be acceses unless you're AT LEAST psy rating 3 (and she's a puny psyker to boot, only between 30 and 39 WP)

Awesome!  I like the idea of seeing what the results are and taking the best.  Good eye on catching the error in the example.

My guess is that the error is some old playtest note that made it into print. Like the Pshycic power in the monster section

This isn't really a rules question per se, but it did make me stop and think.

I've been rolling characters up the last couple of nights just to see what I come up with (and for writing inspiration).  One of my characters rolled 01 on the Divination Table which gives the character a minor mutation.  When I rolled on the Mutation chart it came up 99, which gives the character a minor psychic power and a Psy rating of 1.

So my question is, would this character know that they are a psyker, or can they manifest powers without realizing what they're really doing?

I think that is solved by how you wish to play that character.
I for one would not want to run around as a mutant psyker and have no control of my powers. The black ships will be the least of your worries ;)

I would take that mutation roll to suggest that he -hasn't- been picked up by the black ships yet.

Not only that, but his psyker is different than what other psykers experience. It could be the character has seen or done something that awakened the ability in him, or it could be early manifestations of a demon possession or future mutation (depending on how he is played).

But, I would say that he would be aware of his psyker abilities, just like the majority of characters are aware of their mutations. It's hard to ignore the foul touch of the Warp!

that depends on the specific powers. If the psyker has, for example, powers such as luck and other powers that could be explained by chance AND he has the fortune never to get a perrils of the warp, that could mean that he is completely unaware of his powers.

most powers give away their presence by their very nature though ( "hey.. a gun just apeared" )

Look at Soric from the Dan Abnett novels. He was a Latent Psyker, and his powers first manifested in hallucinations that turned out to be clairvoyant in nature. And then he began to predict the future through little scraps of blue paper with his writing, predicting the future, that he managed to some how always find on his person.

I have a few career variants I use in my game that others may find helpful. The first is a Navy career path. I'm hoping that Rogue Trader will bring us something a bit more tailor-made, but this'll do for now. The second is a Commissar career, because I had a player who desperately wanted to play one. It seems to be working well so far:

Navy
(Variant of guardsman career)

May not be entered by anyone with a Feral world background

 Starting skills:
Speak Language (Low Gothic), Speak Language (Battlefleet Calixis war cant), Pilot (Spacecraft) or Trade (Technomat).
 Starting talents:
Melee Weapon Training (Primitive), Pistol Weapon Training (Las or SP), Basic Weapon Training (Las or SP).
 Starting gear:
Sword or axe or hammer, las pistol +1 charge pack, knife, voidsuit, Navy uniform.

Ranks:
Conscript = Rating
Guard = Voidsman
Armsman = Able Voidsman
Sergeant = Master Mariner
Veteran

Sniper stream careers are unavailable. Command and assault streams retain the same ranks. Assault troopers are assumed to be boarding party specialists.

Advances

 Characteristic Advances
  The costs for Strength and Agility advances are switched: Agility advances now cost 100/250/500/500, Strength advances now cost 250/500/750/1000

The following general changes are made wherever they occur in the Guardsman career listing:

Drive (Ground vehicle) = Pilot (Spacecraft)
Common Lore (Imperial Guard) = Common Lore (Navy)
Navigation (Surface) = Navigation (Stellar)
Ciphers (War Cant) = Common Lore (Tech)
Swim = Trade (Technomat)
Survival = Scholastic Lore (Astromancy)

In addition, the following advances are available

Voidsman
Void Accustomed (as a Talent) 200

Able Voidsman
Forbidden Lore (The Warp) 300
Scholastic Lore (Cryptography) 100

Master Mariner
Common Lore (Xenos) 200
Binary Chatter 200
Peer (Void born) 100
Peer (Spacefarers) 100

Veteran
Talented (Pilot Spacecraft) 100
Heavy Weapon Training (Ship's Cannons) 100

Commissar
(Variant of Cleric career)

Must take Schola Progenium background.

Starting Skills: Speak Language (Low Gothic, High Gothic), Common Lore (Imperial Creed), Common Lore (Imperial Guard), Common Lore (War), Performer (Orator).

Starting Talents: Basic Weapon Training (Las, Primitive), Melee Weapon Training(Primitive), Pistol Training(Las, SP)

Starting Gear: Sword, Laspistol and 1 charge pack, Lasgun and 1 charge pack, knife, Commissar's uniform, Flak greatcoat.

Ranks
The Redemptionist stream is not available

Novice
Initiate = Junior Cadet
Priest = Senior Cadet
Preacher = Junior Commissar
Cleric = Commisar
Confessor = Senior Commisar
Bishop = Command Staff Commissar
Heirophant = Hero of the Imperium

Advances

Characteristic advances remain the same

The following general changes are made wherever they occur in the Cleric career listing:

Replace
Barter with Command
Blather with Intimidate
Ciphers (Acolyte) with Ciphers (War Cant)
Command with Interrogation
Common Lore (Ecclesiarchy) with Common Lore (Imperium)
Common Lore (Imperium) with Common Lore (Imperial Guard)
Interrogation with Barter
Performer (Singer) with Performer (Orator)
Pilot (Civilian Craft) with Pilot (Military Craft)
Scholastic Lore (Legend) with Common Lore (War)
Scholastic Lore (Imperial Creed) with Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis)
Scholastic Lore (Philosophy) with Scholastic Lore (Judgement)
Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis) with Scholastic Lore (Imperial Creed)
Secret Tongue (Ecclesiarchy) with Secret Tongue (Military)

Remove
Trade (Cook)
Trade (Copyist)
Performer (Musician)

In addition, the following advances are available:

Junior Cadet
Replace Peer (Ecclesiarchy) with Peer (Commissariat)

Senior Cadet
Replace Peer (Workers) with Peer (Military)
Common Lore (Imperial Guard) +20 100

Junior Commissar
Replace Peer (Middle Classes) with Peer (Administratum)
Replace Decadence with Jaded
Common Lore (War) +20 100

Senior Commissar
Forbidden Lore (Xenos) 100

Command Staff Commissar
Replace Peer (Nobility) with Peer (Ecclesiarchy)
Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis) +20

Hero of the Imperium
Replace Peer (Astropaths) with Peer (Inquisition)
Into the Jaws of Hell 200
Litany of Hate 200
This message was last edited by the player at 11:07, Sun 29 Mar 2009.

I really like that Commisarr build, I have been trying to figure out how to pull one off around the tabletop, but I am usually too infatuated with their depiction in Gaunt's Ghosts to give them any fair and balanced treatment.

Well done indeed!

Thanks. It took a bit of horsetrading between myself and the player to get it well-balanced. We agreed that making it a Cleric variant was the way to go, but his initial bid was for something that cherry-picked the best advances from both Cleric streams. I've got a version where the whole scheme is written out if you want it, but it's loooong, so I thought I'd avoid posting it here.

I got a good question. In the Inquisitor's handbook it mentions backpack power supplies for hellguns, but doesn't have any mention of prices for that type of thing. Anyone know how much something like that should cost?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:54, Fri 08 May 2009.

IH errata lists a 'Hellgun capacitor' as being 50.

frakk!! RevMark do you have a photographic memory or something, I know I have seen You on Jeopardy.  Are you in the FF forum, you have to be that is a stupid question. Do you mind giving out your handle?  My name is Senior Cardinal of Ignato the head of the Adeptus Minostroum in the Calixis Sector, praise Saint Drusus



let the Emperor grant you a brave death
Yr.Obd.Srvnt.
Senior Cardinal Ignato

No, I just happened to have had to look into it within the last few months because I had a player who wanted to get a hellgun.

I'm actually not on the FF forum, though I probably ought to be, I guess. My problem really is that as a veteran WFRP player I'm psychologically conditioned to battle on with a games system with zero support from the publishers, and, to be honest, most of the time feeling like the less I know about recent developments the better. I really ought to give the FF guys a chance, though. I'll look into it and be sure to look you up when I get there.

Grasshopper
Light 4-wheeled recon and utility vehicle.  No frills installed in most models.  Tough and easy to learn how to operate.  May run on a battery or petrol depending on the model.  Might have a map/nav system, vox unit and/or winch depending on the model.

Type: Ground Vehicle
Size: Large
Armour: Front 12, Hull 12, Top 12
Traits: Easy to master (with an hour's worth of instruction may be used by the untrained as a basic skill (1/2 AG)
Narrative Speed: 50kmph/100kmph
Combat Speed: 10/35/70/105/140
Handling (Drive (Ground Vehicle)): +10
Armaments: None but may have a pintle mount in the rear
Crew: 1 (Driver)Passengers: 3
Access Points: Two side doors and one in the rear (tail gate).

Okay so you can take a full action and attack with each weapon at -20, so can you only take a single shot?  Semi and full auto are full actions so I would assume you cannot use them with two weaponn attacks.

  Good question. Not having had to GM or play a dual wielding ballistic fighter as yet I can't say I've looked into it much. My initial reaction was 'Of course you can, you can fire SA or FA on both if you want to as your full action'. But that's more based on a visceral need to allow people to recreate the Matrix lobby scene than any real reading of the rules. Having said that, I'm not sure your reading of the rules is correct there because if applied to melee dual wield it would preclude the combination of multiple attacks talents with dual wielding, as strictly speaking this is a full attack action plus a free half attack action, but this is explicitly allowed. If the ballistic dual wield is ruled the same way as the melee dual wield there would be some logic to saying that you could take a full attack action SA or FA (equivalent to Swift Attack or Lightning Attack) with your nominal primary hand, and your secondary hand is essentially a half action single shot 'free attack'. Like I say, that makes some sense rules-wise, but it may not make any sense in reality, when it is conceivable that a character may be equipped with two guns which lack a single shot capability. Does a character dual-wielding Ripper clips, for example, find their dual wield capabilities suddenly cease to apply? What stops them pulling the trigger on the second gun? Now of course the GM can rule that it's too difficult to control two guns on FA with any accuracy, meaning that although they pull the trigger everything automatically misses on the second gun, but I'd feel a bit of a bastard doing that. I guess I'm coming around to allowing two guns on SA or FA. If that seems obscenely over-powered one obvious solution is to rule that you get less or no modifier to hit for SA or FA when dual wielding (say +0/+10 or +0/+0 or -10/+0 if you're feeling really mean) due to the intrinsic difficulty of keeping two guns on target with automatic fire. That will reduce the number of hits you get on target, whilst still pushing the same chunk of clip through the gun.

  For all I know there may be an errata ruling on this, but I don't have my copy of the errata to hand...

There was not anything last time I checked, as it was an idea that crossed my mind for my Commissar until my usual 'I like swords' thoughts came back online, and after reading the new one there still is nothing.

I would say that if someone wanted to use semi auto and full auto with two weapon wielder, they make tests at their BS with no modifiers for full-auto and -10 for semi-auto, simply just sum the bonuses, I would also rule that ambidextrous has no benefit, given what a players BS is usually like when they get that talent I dont think they will need it.

When it comes to dual shot, I would say one test, it's a full action and has only a +10 modifier for both types of shot, both guns have to be fired the same way and you work out the number of extra hits that would normally be got, then double them.

However I would try and avoid the use of it in a game, being able to lay down that much fire with some of the high end pistols especialy at close range seems a bit over the top.

  I'd be very reluctant to simply rule that any talent 'has no benefit' when there's no clear reason why it should not. At the end of the day you're talking about at least 100 hard-earned xp, which you're arbitrarily ruling are useless. If you really want to try and reduce the bonuses further I'd look at rewriting Gunslinger talent. As it is it not only increases the chance you'll hit but also increases the chance you'll get more hits in on SA or FA. I'd be inclined to rewrite it as a ballistic version of Blademaster - allowing you a reroll on a failed BS roll, but not increasing the chances of getting more hits.

  If dual-wielded pistols on FA just seem too over-powered, however, it's probably worth thinking carefully about whether as a GM you're letting the inherent weaknesses - range and lower clip capacity - really be felt. If a character with pistols is always dominating combats it's likely a sign that your combat is always occurring at short ranges and is over very quickly. Now there are obvious reasons why we tend to set up combats at short range (any melee specialist will be pretty useless if they've got to spend at least three rounds sprinting before they get to the enemy) but they will therefore always favour pistols, and it's worth at least sometimes setting up something over longer ranges. Or shorter ranges. Engaging a dual pistol wielder in melee combat is a good way of rapidly reducing their effectiveness. If ranged combats are over very quickly it's likely a sign that your opponents are only lightly armoured (as few ranged weapons have much penetration) and are not tending to use cover to their advantage. Cover makes such a big difference to surviving a firefight that you're insane to not use it when available. The fact is that a pistol fired on FA is likely to be empty within 2 or at the most 3 rounds, at which point (even with rapid reload) reloading will limit you to a single shot at most. And of course if you're reloading two pistols it takes twice as long...

My thinking was basically you are not aiming much when you fire both guns at max rate at once, you really do not have the time to, you are simply filling the area in front of you with bullets and laser bolts, ambidextrous is all about having as much control in on hand as you do in the other, as control is not the issue when indiscriminately firing bullets, I figured no extra bonus, although I can see it being a bit unfair on the player saying you have just sunk 100+ XP into this skill and it is worth jack all for this technique. I'll have to a bit of a think about it.

The gunsinger idea is a good idea though, the only thing I have against doing that is that it gives a reroll to an attack that is likely to have some good modifiers on it already (+10 aim, +20 range, extra if you have a sight) unlike close combat which is normally +10 for aiming, and all of this is in a game where nearly every career has access to cheep BS stat boosts. Shooting is the easiest and safest option open to a player in DH, close combat needs the boosts it gets from talents like blademaster and the high end weapons to make it a viable option as well a entertaining, if shooting got a reroll ability it knocks close combat down a peg again.

If you fire a burst do you need to decide who gets hit and how many times before or after damage is rolled?  I would assume before to prevent rolling until one target is dead and then moving to the next with the remaining, but I can't find a ruling on it anywhere and it has come up several times in the past couple RL sessions that I've played in.

When determinaing who got shot when a burst was fired, we used the tried and true method of spliting up the targets through a d100 and rolling the dice for each hit.

I've tended to go with the approack Flakk outlined, but I don't think I've ever seen it written down as a ruling anywhere.

Your right it isnt. Perhaps FF games can add that in or something with their release of RT. Which I cant wait to see come out.

Zac's post moved to DH GMs wanted....
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:56, Mon 25 May 2009.

Furious Assault

What happens if a hit is scored on the first attack but it is avoided with a parry or dodge?  Would the second attack still take place?

Personally I would say no. If the blow is parried or dodged I would rule that it is not a sucessful hit because the defender has stopped it being a hit and made it a miss and so the next attack does not take place.

I would say yes. Because if the first hit had to stick, they would say 'with damage done' not just first hit scored.

So we have 1 and 1.  Anyone else?  This talent is much better than I had first thought and I want to make sure I get it right for the Moritat in the group's sake.

Alright new question.

In my game Ordo Hereticus, we tend to do things a touch differently and allow allot more freedom of character option.
In the past I worked out some of the social problems of Tau caste society using the Black Library literature on them.
Now I have a player who would like to play a Fire Caste warrior.
I'm all for it, however I wonder if there would be any inherent deductions from the character.

An example of one would be the Tau's strict dislike for melee combat, would that equate to a minus in the area?  Any suggestions are welcome.

Have you checked out Dark Reign? Someone had posted up some basic stats and such for a Fire Warrior. Even has a full advance table.

As for Furious Assault, I would say parry yes, dodge no.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:18, Wed 19 Aug 2009.

In reply to thew00tninja (msg #38):

The Senior Cardinal fully endorses Dark Reign thew00tninga.  Don't forget the downloads for text basedRPol character sheet, fine fan fiction, and google more.  More fan-sites being built, Tyrant Star is shaping up nicely.

Does anyone in the forum know of any other info on the Emperor's Tarot deck, Red Dwarf had a good list.  Has anyone seen a full 78 card deck, the most I have seen is around 45 cards and they shift from different writers, most refrences are from Ian Watson BL novels.  If anyone else has a link the Cardinal is always looking for images or structure to Ecclessastic Divination.

Yr. Obd. Srvnt.
S.C.I.

Kraikken, I feel that a Tau warrior could theoretically end up as quite a good hand to hand fighter. Look at O'Shovah, he's famous for outfighting orks and in game terms, there is ONE non-special character in the entire Imperial Guard book with equal weapon skill as O'Shovah, and that is a Lord Commissar. Perhaps this could be incorporated as a separate Home world for the Tau? The Farsight Cadre, focuses on improving physical stats and the expense of a lack of respect from the Empire and a lack of specialized armour.

Good point Nareik.
I've been wondering on the sphere influence of their society and planet traditions as they evolve.
I considered a scenario where their pulse weapons where inaffective, or the Imperial troops they fought with where heavily intrenched in something like a small forge world.
The Tau would likely take strides to preserve the tech for study, and a scenario like this could have developed a world that prided itself in martial combat because of the years of close quarters combat fought for the planets control.

Unfortunately, the Tau, unlike the space marines, are not adaptable. Unlike the marine chapters, which all have various ways of fighting, the tau ALL focus on ranged combat. Tau are a generalized race. However, if you believe Graham McNiel which I do, Tau actually do have close combat units. In Graham McNiels latest Ultramarine book, courage and honour, Tau have a crisis configuration with power weapons, designed for close assault.

With the release of RT in the very neer future I have found myself wondering about some of the flaws in the DH rules and the mechanics of the game in general.

The major one that sprung to mind is one that is also in our beloved WFRP 2nd and that is being 'fixed' by 3rd ed, Critical Wounds.

Like WFRP the only time you ever get to roll on the tables is once you are below 0 wounds meaning any of the amusing low to mid table results have very little effect on the batlle because the guys going to fall down within the next round anyway.

Combat within DH for non-combatants is deadly and for combat armed characters is usually quite forgiving until heavy weapons and the high end uber-weapons start cropping up, power swords, plasma guns etc, and so adding an extended critical wounds system to this could make combat very scary for all involved.

Even so I have been toying with the following simple method. After rolling to wound roll a d10, on a score of a 10 roll on the appropriate critical table and subtract 5 from the result, any negative counts as a 1. Apply this result to the wounded individual.

As DH players and more importantly GMs what do you all think of the additional rule and do yous have any system in place to account for critical wounds before a character reaches 0 wounds.

In my game any head hit that does damage requires a toughness check
to avoid a level of fatigue.

My initial thoughts are that combat in DH and WFRP is quite scary enough as it is. I suspect when you say 'non-combatants' you really mean 'people not wearing at least flak armour on all locations'. Once you're wearing armour it's true that combat becomes a lot more surviveable, but (at least in my games) not everyone will be wearing it and not all the time. This effectively means that giving crit results early will make combat a bit scarier for those in armour and downright unsurvivable for those who aren't.

Now the extent to which I agree with your identification of a problem is not actually 'critical wounds' at all, but the fact that things like being stunned for a round or knocked down or dropping your weapon (low end crit results) really should happen a lot more frequently. I personally feel this makes for a more realistic fight, as well as one that is more varied and dramatic (they also make certain talents like Leap Up suddenly seem worth having). If we could find a way of putting more of that in that wasn't too complex I'd be interested, but I think that getting a 1-5 crit result every time you do a hit would be too deadly. The Fatigue you'd stack up would likely mean that a lot of people would be collapsing way before they ran low on wounds. Although that might be realistic it's not that much fun to play.

Good point, I did not really consider the quikness that fatigue could amount up with low level rolls on the crit tables.

As you said things would go very bad for a party if they were not wearing flak armour (Guardsmen donr now how lucky they are by starting with an entire set of it) or better.

Okaym what about on after rolling to wound roll a d10 on a score of a ten roll a d5 and follow tabke below

1: Stunned for 1 round
2: Drop one of your weapons that are in your hands.
3: Character is knocked down
4: Stunned for 1+d3 rounds
5: Character starts to bleed.

If you cause a critcal when rolling to wound you may re-roll the d10 used to determine wheherther as oponent roll on the above tabke.

Does the Imperial homeworld trait of High Gothic as a basic skill make it a halved (spoken, but not fluent) stat, as it isn't taken as an advanced skill and is neither afforded anywhere in the guardsman advances to begin with as a full advanced skill? Or is it fully fluent right off the mark?

My guess on that, thinking in-character wise?
I'd guess they CAN speak it, or read it, but they're not the world's best speakers. They regularly attend services or mass, perhaps they read from the Imperial Creed. They probably learned it in the Scholam as children, but most of them don't really go much further than that.
Enough to get through a text with perhaps a hitch or two, or read out already learned prayers with the correct pronounciations, but no linguists.
Basic, not skilled, usually comes with the attitude "Well YEAH, but..." As in, well yes he can speak it, but he's not very good.
Yes he can swim, but not very fast or with that big backpack on, sort of thing.
They know enough about it for someone who comes into contact with the language on a daily basis, but not like somebody who actually speaks it or interacts using it.
As a swedish person, sweden being a country absolutely saturated with the english language, I very much know this. 95% of swedes can communicate in english, but for most it's slow and their accent is terrible. They know it well enough, but there's a lot of uhm-ing and er-ing while talking, and some words are wrong.
Me, though, use english daily and therefore know the language well.
I'm skilled, but most swedes have it as a basic skill because of their birth place.
...wow, that was a lot of explanation for a simple answer.

TL;DR: First option.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:07, Sat 09 Oct 2010.

Castleman
I am pretty certain that where an advanced skill (e.g. speak High Gothic or Literacy)is 'treated as a basic skill' then it follows the normal rule i.e. even if you are not trained in the skill you can use it at half attribute.

Otherwise it would be counted as an advanced skill and could not be used at all UNLESS you were trained in it.

(It means Trooper 7 can mutter a few words in High Gothic and probably just about write his name having a mega Int of 25!)

That is exactly correct.

Good, that's how I'm playing it.

Don't forget also that a skill is only used at, truly, half-characteristic when it is a Challenging Task. Easy (+30), Routine (+20) and Ordinary (+10) tasks are far more common.

So someone with Basic High Gothic likely has a decent familiarity with the language. They can converse slowly, haltingly in simple conversations. They can likely puzzle out the gist of someone speaking to them. They are unlikely to be able to understand a complicated discussion with multiple speakers, discourse on complicated topics etc.

In another game (non-40K), someone used the base chance of success to understand the words by numbers. So, for example, the individual had a 40% chance to understand the language, they would know what 4 of 10 words meant. Gave them the ability to get the gist of it or, if it was complicated with sarcasm or embellishment, they could get it very wrong.

There's some great opportunity in there for gaming/RP. A speech given by a court interpreter was enlightening in this regard. He was pointing out that different languages were structured differently and how important it was to allow an interpreter to finish the entire translation before interrupting...

EXAMPLE:
"Sir, I recommend the execution of two years imprisonment forthwith (immediately)."

Now, imagine the poor translator who gets cut off after he gets to "Sir I recommend the execution..."

Lots of range in there for misunderstandings and interesting interactions.

Exactly. The purely technical rules term is that it functions just as a halved characteristic skill, basic.
But like Kilgs, I'd say that in a non-stressful situation, where there's no huge requirements for accuracy, they could be counted as knowing the basics of the language.
A few words and writing your name is way below that mark.

I mean, considering the setting, I'd say almost anyone (Imperial world or no) can mutter a few words in High Gothic. Like the first line of the Emperor's Prayer, for instance. While a whole lot less of them would treat it as a Basic Skill.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:28, Sun 10 Oct 2010.

Thank you, but I'm savvy now. I just wanted to know what percentage was needed on the odd occasion it was called for, as the majority of the time I'll be leaving it down to the players to RP the slow uptake on the lingo.

A n00b question from me: how does "overcharging" work?

certain weapons in the INquisitor's Handbook mention that this, or that happens if you "overcharge" them.  A Deathlight lasgun, for example, gains the overheating property if this is done.  From the name and context I assume it involves firing fewer, harder hitting shots from an energy weapon, possibly at some increased risk of malfunction, but I can't find the term in the weapons sections of either the main book or that one.

Thanks, as always.

There's two possibilities...

A) OVERCHARGE PACK (p142 DH Core)
This is a weapon modification that adds +1 damage but halves clip size.

B) HOTSHOTS (Rogue Trader p136)
The classic sniper las-clip where each clip has one shot in it. Add +1 to damage, roll two d10 and choose highest, Penetration of 4.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:23, Thu 21 Oct 2010.

The first one probably.  I should have thought to look under Weapon Upgrades, really.  I somehow had it in mind that it was something you could turn on and of on the fly from the way it was talked about.

Thanks so much.

In the fluff (Black Library novels) it is. A good half of las-guns, depending on their origin, have a variable gauge for the strength of the shot. In the often-quoted 'Gaunts Ghosts' novels, it is discussed numerous times because the main character always tells his troopers to dial it down to conserve ammunition when faced with foes that are unarmored and such.

Meh.  Its not as if the +1 damage makes a terrible difference anyway.

How does the weight for an Extra Grip work? x1/3 of what? And is that the new weight of the weapon or additional to the weapon's weight?

You add a third of the original weight of the weapon to the weapon, so that it is 1.3333x the weight it originally was.

Two questions that recently arose in my game-

1)Does crushing blow add to stun?  You roll d10+SB vs. d10+TB but does crushing blow give you +2 on your SB check?  It is not damage per say...but it does make sense (and makes the talent even more sick than it is now IMHO).

2)"Another question arrises about the pen of weapons. If you use a pen 2 weapon to stun someone does it's pen reduce the armour on the head that is added to the roll? Not that it matter with Heron mask as he only has a mask on, but it could be vastly important against guys in flak armour we may want to tak alive in the future,"


I would say no and maybe yes (you are using the blunt end of your weapon to try and stun someone right?), but that's just my 2 gelt worth.
Many thanks for your insight in advance=:)

Is there a rule regarding traumas, disorders, malignancies, etc along the lines of "old habits" or something like that, where if you get another trauma, et al after getting rid of one in the past it's likely to be the one you had before?

If so, where in the book is it?

Yup. Two sources:

Ascension under "A Mind Repurposed" along with the one regarding Corruption Points/mutations. In both of those they talk about how, as the Throne Agent gains more Corruption/Insanity Points, they begin to fall into "familiar patterns" and the old insanities/malignancies/mutations they had begin to resurface.

Inquisitor's Handbook under the Mind-Cleansed character creation there's a large section about how the old personality is merely overwritten and never truly erased. Thus the person still has fragment of who they once were resting within them.

Hope that helps Castle and I'll be looking forwards to hearing back from you ;).

Are there any penalties when firing a hvy flamer without bracing?

No. After I've read through properly, you don't roll to hit, can't penalise a non-existent roll.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:47, Fri 13 May 2011.

True you can't penalize a roll that doesn't exist on the attackers end but you can grant a bonus to the individuals that are in the path of said flames due to the fact that their attacker is not positioned properly to cover them in righteous burning promethium in the proper manner...

Or so I would believe if I were running the game.

I agree with arbentur, I would apply the to hit penalty as a bonus to the enemies dodge test. Makes getting cleans and purify all that more necessary.

Makes a sensible rule arbentur. Or alternatively, without bracing you could require a BS roll.

What do you guys think of having people make a bs roll if they try to avoid hitting a friend or innocents standing near the target you are aiming at?

I would just allow the heavy flamer to be fired without bracing no penalties at all, it's designated a heavy weapon because it is bigger than a normal flamer, but it still works the same way and is meant to be used on the move.

I always interpreted it as giving bonuses to the enemies dodge test.  Stops people going on a mad rush shooting gouts of flame everywhere.  Obviously if the enemy can't physically dodge the flame (hiding in a narrow corridor or small enough room) they are hit automatically and cannot dodge.  This makes flamers great for their intended use.

It's actually in the errata for DH. if you fire a heavy flamer without bracing it, the enemy gets +30 to their agility test.

http://www.fantasyflightgames....resy-errata-v3.0.pdf

In reply to Brimflame69 (msg #72):

Knew I remembered that from somewhere other than the vast recesses of useless knowledge realm.  Thanks Brim :)

Are there any rules on boats?  If not, what would a reasonable movement rate be for a small craft?

I don't believe that they have boats, I would use the rules for a skimmer, that would be your best bet.

In reply to Brimflame69 (msg #75):

I think a turn is 3-5 seconds in structured time. So figure out how many meters your boat would go in 5 seconds.

Has anyone hashed out what they'd consider work-able rules for noospheric links in Tech-Priests. Mechanicus and Titanicus are so new I don't think FFG has had a chance to publish their own yet.

Jamming:

The rules state that "the weapon needs to be reloaded and any ammo in it is lost". Presumably, that's just one single bullet from the chamber, not the entire magazine, right?

-Also-

Misses:

If firing on Full-Auto or Semi-Auto and the dice rolls a miss (but not a jam), how many rounds of ammo, if any, are expended? The full RoF compliment for that setting or just one round?

By RAW it is the clip in the gun that is lost, but I find that it is generally a good idea to house rule and say it is the amount of ammo being fired that is lost because bolt shells and the such like are to rare to lose to a single bad roll.

When using SA or FA fire the ammount of ammo used regardless of hits and misses is the rating of the SA or FA, so an SA 3 gun firing on SA uses up 3 rounds eve if all three shots miss.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:28, Tue 06 Sept 2011.

The Schola Progenium starting profile. When is says that the 'Schola Education' lores are "basic skills for you". Does this mean they're learnt or unlearnt? If learnt, why not simply say they're available advanced skills?

Castleman:

Basic skills that are not learnt are tested against half the associated characteristic, is it not? Available advanced skills would be tested against the full score of the associated characteristics.

That's how I've read the difference between the two, and explains the phrasing in the books.

Basic skills can be used even without tarining at half-attribute.

Advance skills can only be used if trained.

The schola training changes some advance skills to basic skills so that they can be tested on at half attribute like other basic skills even when not trained in them.

It should be clearer as to whether they are 'trained' or not then *hmph!*. Testing at half-attribute doesn't reflect well on the teachers.

Its not to good given how the game has powered up a bit since then, but if you look at all the original dark heresy homeworlds what they give is quite pathetic in comparrison to the backround systems in RT, DW and to an extent Blood of the Martyrs.

In DH is there any disadvantage to firing on full auto other than ammo conservation and action length?

Say you aim (half) and fire (half) a single shot weapon equipped with a red dot sight you have the same chance to hit as someone firing on full auto (full) yet the guy on full auto has more bullets going down range.

Both shooters have the same chance to hit yet the guy on full auto has a chance for further damage. What's the disadvantage other than ammo expenditure?

Would any old Inquisitor players out there agree that the Inquisitor system had a better way of resolving this.

Thoughts?

It is more than a little silly. I think it is more upsetting that it took them all the way to Black Crusade to try and balance it out.

Unfortunately in DH there is rarely a reason to fire single shot in the game unless you are trying to shoot a particular part of the target and or you are using a basic weapon with the sniper rule.

I would agree that Inquisitor's mechanics had a better representation of SA and FA fire but overall game system was just too clunky and lacked any real non combat rules, it was just a bit to wargame-ey to function as a proper role play game

Agreed.  The autofire thing is endemic in the system, which basically points to a different thing.  In the early game, you have to use autofire to hit anything at all, in the late game you use autofire to maximise your damage.

This is because you don't start getting a "reasonable degree of success" (Read heroic standards) until you have a total statistic (Raw stat, skill upgrade, feats and talents) of 60+% I know really it's really anything above 50% where statistically you succeed more than you fail but 60 is where it starts to get noticeable, so in basic DH that's pretty near the mid/end tiers.

Or, on average a starting basic Dark Heresy character (not ascendant or grey knight) has a failure chance of between 60-75% on average.. FAILURE chance. Not success chance.

It's not that bad. Say someone with a BS of 30 takes a half action to aim and is say 10 meters awaay from his target he gets a 50% chanbce to hit the target.

When the opponent is under 3 meters the chance goes up to 70%.

Considering that in realisty most bullets fired tend to miss, I think we have a good chance of hitting.

But yes, the autofire rules in DH, RT and DW makes using autofire the smart thing to do.

These are the rules taken from the Inquisitor rule book.

Semi-auto

Semi-automatic weapons allow the character to fire a burst of shots in rapid succession, laying down a hail of fire. The recoil from such shooting is harder to compensate for, and so individual semi-automatic shots are less accurate than a single shot, but overall the massed effect can be more effective at close range.

When firing on semi-automatic, the weapon fires a number of times equal to the semi-auto value. If the weapon has a spread of semi-auto rates, the player must declare how many shots are fired when it comes to the shooting action (they don’t have to declare the exact number at the start of the character’s turn). Each shot
suffers a -10% to hit penalty for every shot fired (so a semi-auto)(3) weapon suffers a -30% chance of hitting). Acharacter can aim before firing on semi-auto, but any aiming bonuses are lost after the first semi-automatic shooting action. The rules for placed shots apply to semi-auto aimed and snap shots as normal.

Full-auto

Firing on full auto means squeezing the trigger and letting rip in a pretty random fashion. This works in a very different way to normal firing, to represent its particular advantages and disadvantages. To fire on full auto, nominate a target group. All characters in a target group must be within 5 yards of at least one other character in the target group, and they must all be within the character’s arc of fire. If you wish, you may elect to fire at ‘spaces’, in which case the empty space counts as another character in the target group. Obviously the if the ‘space’ is hit as an end result of firing, the shots are wasted.

Once the target group is established, you must determine your basic to hit roll. This is the character’s BS, modified by Range (but no other modifiers) to the furthest target in the group. This to hit roll is then divided by the number of shots being fired in the burst of fire. The final to hit roll is calculated by multiplying this number by the number of targets in the group.

For example: A character needs 63 or less (after range modifications) and is firing 10 shots at 5 characters. The calculation is therefore (63/10)x 5 = 31 – only round off the final to hit number, not in the intervening stages.

The character then makes a to hit roll for each shot fired. These are not shots at specific targets, but rather an indication of the general accuracy of the burst. Once the number of hits has been determined, each is randomly allocated against a potential target. Note that it is entirely possible for one target to be hit several times while others remain unscathed – being hit doesn’t prevent a character from being hit again in the same burst of fire.

All targets in the target group, whether hit or not, must take a pinning test at their basic Nv (in other words, no +20% for not being hit as is usually the case). Randomise hit location and calculate damage as normal for each
shot. Note that full auto can never make placed shots.

Thoughts? I'm not convinced about the calculation for the hit roll. I do however like the semi-auto rules and would probably be what I use in a DH game. Overall I like these rules compared to the ones in the DH Core rules. I had thought about simplifying it and using the semi-auto for both semi and full but a hit modifier of -100% seems a bit extreme - only hitting on a 1-5!

In reply to Banjo (msg #86):

What are the rules from Dark Crusade?

So the top change to shooting combat in Black Crusade was to make FA and Semi-auto fire half actions and change their modifiers. Now single shot gets an automatic +10 to hit and can then get another +10 from aiming for a total of +20, SA fire comes with no bonus and FA gets a -10 to hit but can get a +10 if you stand still and aim.

Basically FA fire lost its free +20 and subsiquent higher number of DoS meaning FA is now more spray and pray.

You mean Semi Auto you can aim and fire for +10, and for Full Auto you can aim and fire for +0 (rather than -10 without the aiming).

Yep, Semi gets +10 with an aim, FA 0 with an aim, I gave the mods without their aim bonus.

I really don't like the DoS. It means that you can't actually get all your shots to hit. You would need to be making your BS test off of 90 and get low single digits to score all ten on fully auto. Granted someone who made that shot deserves all ten hits but I still prefer the Inquisitor way of having a lower skill test but rolling all the shots individually. Yea it takes a while and yea you'll probably miss but in Inquisitor when someone points there full auto weapon at you and let's rip then you really do fear for your characters safety.

An Asscension character can have a base BS of 70+ and then pack on upto +60 to hit giving them a BS of 130+ at times making it reasonably possible to hit with an FA 10 weapon

Does that not make other shooting modes rather irrelevant. In my mind there should be a distinct difference between firing on S/Semi/Auto.

In Inquisitor this seemed to be S - accuracy, Semi - damage for reduced accuracy, Auto - suppression with the chance for maximum damage at reduced accuracy. The main advantage of Auto was keeping peoples heads down and being able to engage a large group of enemies, very much a support role much like real life.

Maybe I should just give up and go and play Inquisitor.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:58, Fri 13 Jan 2012.

If a gun has FA in DH a character will pretty much never use the single shot mode because their chance to hit and damage is much less on average in exchange for a chance to hit a specific location (except that with enough FA shots you will likely hit the location you wanted at least once) and conserving ammo.

single shot fire mode is pretty much ignored unless a Vindicare turns up and then there is a whole different set of problems.

I'll leave this here, check out the section labeled "Surviving a Firefight" it's surprisingly informative.

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Dark_Heresy

What's the point of a backpack ir harness? It can carry a maximum Kg, great, but does this count towards encumbrance or benefit it in any way? As for the harness, does it provide any bonus other than as a fashion accessory? It can carry a max of 15Kg, but does it make access to what it holds easier/quicker?

Well...

If you don't have one spare ammo has to be held in your hands, and unless your a mutant you generally only have two to work with.  Any of your gear that you have that isn't directly part of your standard wear fits that category.  Data slates, medkits, extra ammo, grenades, your half eaten lunch, maps, trinkets...

Sure you can stuff pockets but then you'll look pretty ridiculous.

Agri-World:

"Quote about agri worlds"

Agri-worlds are the breadbasket of the Calixis Sector. These verdant planets are given over almost entirely to industrialscale agriculture, and are home to massive, city-sized farms and ranches controlled by sector wide agriculture business concerns. They produce the bulk of the Sector’s food, as well as many plant and animal-based products such as oils, medicines, building materials, and textiles. While some of these worlds are fully automated, home only to a handful of technicians and overseers keeping tabs on ancient cultivating apparatus and armies of servitors, most are home to millions of Imperial citizens, both cosmopolitan, business-minded merchants and agents in the port cities and the many hardy homesteaders and labourers who do the actual work of tilling fields and breeding beasts. While agri-worlders have a reputation as honest, strong, and hard working, they are also viewed, unfairly or not, as unsophisticated yokels and easy marks for confidence men, grifters, and other predators.

Men and women who grow up on these pastoral worlds gain a deep understanding of both flora and fauna, and can use those skills on the field of battle to their advantage and to the advantage of their comrades. These characters can get food to grow in even the harshest conditions, and are an incredible asset to regiments embroiled in long, planet-bound campaigns.






Death World:







Feudal World:






Fortress World:






Looking for some feedback on replacing the options from Enemies Within/Without/Beyond - all seemed a bit meh to me. I intend to use in an upcoming campaign. Also working on Daemon World, Frontier World, Garden World, Penal Colony and Research Station as well as Schola Progenium, Mining Colony and Imperial World already thrown in Fortress World. Taking most of my info from Only War and DH.1.

Specifically looking for feedback on fate thresholds and Fortress world characteristics - thinking + Toughness or Willpower, - Agility or Perception. Alternatively leaving it as + BS with no second + or -. Thoughts?