Lobotomised foes and sneaky friends

[traveller]

Mkay so next time I am in town I will be buying tools to start building up my new warband(s) (WIP's shortly after that) and I am trying to work the skeleton of their fluff.

One of them is, or at least was, my ordo hereticus inq's first catch as a fully fledged inquisitor. To mark the occasion he has the heretic partially lobotomised (sadistically, just enough to leave him aware of the world around him but not enough that he can control his own actions) fits a simple bionic brain allowing him to follow basic commands e.g. carry this to the ship, kill that cultist, face the wall and don't turn around until I come back etc. Anyway I was wondering if there is a name for this? He is not a servitor since I would assume they are respected machines.

My secondary warband, who will be important NPC's in the campaign I am writing and will no doubt never play (I really need to find local players) are a trio of traders in information, each with a different method of obtaining information depending on the situation. The kill everyone quietly and get what you need guy, the never seen always hidden guy and the social infiltration guy.

For these three I have a few questions. What sort of non lethal accessories would you want if you were sneaking about, I am thinking of things like;

Laser tripwire: set at around waist height a low powered laser and light detector are set up to create a tripwire. If broken a radio signal is sent to the character alerting him that someone has crossed the tripwire. The laser must be set up in a narrow space with walls on either side no more than 10yds apart

Distraction: A small speaker making the sound of footsteps, a knock, a whistle etc. Not sure on rules for this if the sound is heard, I don't want to force a character to check out every sound, I was thinking of an initiative test modified by distance to target and every 10 (20?) points or part the test is failed by the character looses an action. Also I am not sure what to do on subsequent turns if it is still making noise... "I'm not falling for that again" vs. "There it is again, this time I'm going to find you"... any advice would be appreciated.

Scrambler: Sending out static radio waves on all common frequencies renders all communication devices, friendly or otherwise, useless. Disrupts all communication electronics in a 10yd radius.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. WRT campaign I am planning on the three have found and are trying to trade info they oughtn't, they will (try to) infiltrate the player warbands to turn them against each other and escape with the info before the players investigations lead to the inevitable conclusion...

[MarcoSkoll]

He is not a servitor since I would assume they are respected machines.

He might not be a normal servitor, but I expect he'd get called one anyway. Most people would see a human/machine servant and call it a servitor.

Players will do it too, so if only for your own sanity, just call him a servitor so you don't have to constantly correct others on it. (It's the same reason I wrote my never-been-anywhere-near-Cadia Kasrkin from a planet which emulated Cadian doctrine and terminology, because I knew he'd be called one anyway. Not surprisingly, given he's based on Kasrkin artwork.)

What sort of non lethal accessories would you want if you were sneaking about

A stummer. It suppresses most noises in the vicinity.

In Dark Heresy, they're not too expensive or hard to find (25 Thrones and Average availability, I think), and provide +30 to Silent Move tests. Battery life is a bit short, but far longer than an average Inquisitor game.

Distraction: A small speaker making the sound of footsteps, a knock, a whistle etc.

Obviously, you don't want to force characters to check out every sound... so, I suggest just having a hearing range, suggestions as to the kind of noises and perhaps rules for how you can actually find the device.

And then just let the other players roleplay how their characters would respond.

Some of my characters would carefully go and check it out. Some would use auspexes or psychic senses to scan/scry the area. Some would point at an underling and say "Go find out what that was". Some might just start shooting in the hope of hitting something. Some would get fooled twice. Some wouldn't.

You can't possibly cover all the range of ways characters could respond or the circumstances it could happen under. But I'm sure you or whichever GM can adjudicate if players just aren't playing ball or are ignoring it with no good reason. (For example, they're probably not going to fuss about the whistling noises when they're running away from a plasma reactor about to go critical, as your current rules could do.)

Scrambler: Sending out static radio waves on all common frequencies renders all communication devices, friendly or otherwise, useless. Disrupts all communication electronics in a 10yd radius.

Firstly, I expect you mean Jammer (a Scrambler is intended for distorting your calls so no-one else can listen in).

Secondly, I'm not a big fan of things that disable someone else's equipment, at least on an automatic basis.

I'd either make jamming a uncertain dealie (perhaps the recipient has to pass an Sg test to work out what was said in amongst all the static), or include a big negative somewhere else.
I'd suggest a bonus to finding the guy with certain auspexes - because he has basically turned himself into a beacon if he's broadcasting static the whole time. A bigger bonus the better the jamming is.