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...