Pinion Cell: characters for appraisal

[Koval]

I decided to do a little project that ties up three things at once.

Firstly, I wanted to see if I could back-convert from Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader into Inquisitor in the event that I make it to any Conclave-events -- to that end I'm generating two profiles in DH and two in RT, and transferring back across. For ease of modelling and minimal wallet-stress I'm aiming for this to be done in 28mm.

Secondly, there's an old RP that I wanted to join, about a year and a bit ago, but the guy arranging it did a runner and it never got off the ground. So I've got character ideas I'm not doing an awful lot else with.

Thirdly, it gives a little bit of extra context to an otherwise unrelated character I'm using on the IC board.

Whole-group stuff first, then profiles for individual characters.


-881.M41: As a reward for purging a cell of Mechanicus schismaticals, Interrogator Osmond Johm is given two Skitarii Centurion-issue gatling laspistols. Tech-Priest Willem Cals of the Erstenheme Forge Guard Auxilia elects to enter Inquisitor Diederich Paxton's service when the Inquisitor deigns to take credit for his Interrogator's actions, in an attempt to shut the Inquisitor up and get him off of Erstenheme.
-898.M41: Osmond Johm is ordained as an Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus. Tech-Priest Cals attends the ordination ceremony.
-941.M41: Inquisitor Johm's investigation of Herman von Strab's suspected heresies at Armageddon is shot down before it can even begin, first by the war against the Orks, then by Denialist elements among the Imperial defenders. Tech-Priest Cals grudgingly joins in.
-987.M41: Inquisitor Johm recruits Arbitrator Oscar Lozano on Issana.
-990.M41: A revolt on a lunar colony over Issana draws Inquisitor Johm's attention, and he arrives at the colony three days before the Elysian 196th "Spire Crawlers" intervene.
-990.M41: Tech-Priest Cals is attached to Green Platoon, replacing the late Enginseer Verlaine. Arbitrator Lozano is forced to join Squad Baker, standing in for Commissar Kenmare when he is hospitalised by friendly fire.
-990.M41: Trooper Ivor Kass, Squad Baker's plasma gunner, distinguishes himself by destabilising a major enemy supply line with a single shot. While Kass insists that he was aiming for an enemy agitator, Arbitrator Lozano's report to Inquisitor Johm details how Kass fired his plasma gun at full power into the main storage tank of a promethium truck as it was crossing a bridge. Trooper Kass enters Inquisitor Johm's service, on the condition that he bring his plasma gun with him.
-990.M41: A maintenance accident renders Trooper Kass' plasma gun useless. Tech-Priest Cals is unable to repair the damage and commends its machine-spirit to the Omnissiah. Inquisitor Johm, wanting to retain his plasma gunner, requisitions a local replacement.
-992.M41: Arbitrator Lozano, while getting drunk with Trooper Kass, makes a comment about pinion feathers. Inquisitor Johm is grateful that he never heard the full comment.
-995.M41: Inquisitor Johm investigates a Chaos cult on Armageddon that claims to possess a fragment of Angron's armour as a holy relic. The cult and relic are destroyed, but Johm breaks his left arm and shoulder in the process, as well as sustaining other, more trivial injuries.
-995.M41: Tech-Priest Cals concludes that Johm's arm will heal, but Johm grows impatient and demands a full cybernetic replacement, hoping to return to active duty more quickly. Cals disapprovingly carries out the replacement, warning Johm that "medicine and the Machine God do not work that way".
-998.M41: Two days before a scheduled departure to Tigguo Cobauc, the Third War for Armageddon breaks out and Johm takes it upon himself to police the Imperial war effort at a command level.
-998.M41: Corporal Aveline Briscoe, 11th Steel Legion, blindsides an Ork Nob with her heavy stubber after it kills the rest of her fireteam, then proceeds to hose an oncoming Ork squad with bullets until she runs out of both Orks and ammo. Briscoe is awarded a commendation for her bravery.
-998.M41: Savant-Warrant Gerlach MacKay, Psykana Auxilia, ignites an Orkish fuel depot with a psychic fireball and destroys five enemy wartraks in the process. Nearby soldiers swear blind that MacKay threw a grenade instead, apparently mistaking him for an officer with a shock-staff. MacKay is awarded a commendation for his bravery, but remains amused by the soldiers' simplicity and the reactions of the senior officers as they present him with his medal.
-998.M41: Arbitrator Lozano brings both Corporal Briscoe and Savant-Warrant MacKay to Inquisitor Johm's attention. The Inquisitor earmarks, then recruits, both.
-998.M41: During Armageddon's Season of Fire, Inquisitor Johm departs from Armageddon and travels back to the Carthax sector.
-002.M42: Arbitrator Lozano is nominated Acolyte Primus of the Pinion Cell.
-002.M42: Savant-Warrant MacKay finds Arbitrator Lozano and Trooper Kass slumped over one another in a mutual state of undress. Detecting the smell of cheap alcohol, MacKay ponders setting them alight as a warning not to intoxicate themselves on duty, but thinks better of it and leaves.
-004.M42: Corporal Briscoe is mortally wounded by a heretic's lasbolt in the course of duty. Tech-Priest Cals attempts first aid but is unsuccessful.
-007.M42: Severino Valdez is transferred to Inquisitor Johm's service by the Carthaxian Conclave. Johm is briefed on Valdez's powers of detection and hyper-awareness, and readily accepts him into his service. Johm remains mercifully unaware of the circumstances surrounding the death of Valdez's former master.
-010.M42: Inquisitor Johm is made aware of the murder of Inquisitor Paxton, eighteen years earlier, by one Inquisitor Garte. While Garte is also eighteen years deceased, and while Paxton and Johm were not especially great friends, Johm resolves to go on a fact-finding mission in Segmentum Tempestus. He ponders taking Tech-Priest Cals with him, but decides not to bother.
-010.M42: Last sighting of Inquisitor Johm by his acolytes, who remain in Carthax.
-010.M42: Rumours begin circulating that Inquisitor Johm has been murdered in Segmentum Tempestus, possibly on the border of the Feroxa Subsector. Arbitrator Lozano dismisses these rumours when an astropathic communiqué bearing Johm's ident-stamp reaches him.
-011.M42: Valdez leaves the Pinion Cell after a disagreement with Tech-Priest Cals and Savant-Warrant MacKay, and is transferred to Inquisitor Creed's service.
-012.M42: The present day.


---

For ease of presentation and ease of access for those that decide to do quote-filleting, I'll put up character profiles separately.

[Koval]

NAME: Oscar Miguel Lozano

RANK / AFFILIATION: Arbitrator (Acolyte Primus) / Adeptus Arbites (Ordo Hereticus)

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: (4)301955.M41
Place Of Birth: Issana, Segmentum Tempestus
Gender: Male
Height: 170cm
Weight: 70kg

WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
63 67 57 66 60 59 56 59 62

Handedness: Right

Equipment: Pattern-9 "Sanction" combat shotgun with two reloads, stub gun with one reload, knife, light carapace (AV 5 on chest and abdomen, AV 4 on arms, AV 3 on all other locations except head), three doses of Slaught (administered by syringe), flask of amasec, visor, chronometer.

Skills and Talents: Hardy, Hipshooting, Quick Draw.

"Sanction" Combat Shotgun: A standard law enforcement weapon on Issana, the Sanction replicates a more powerful Astartes weapon in form, but is intended for use by ordinary humans. Typically chambered in 12-GA (though larger 10-GA versions also exist), the Sanction also finds favour among Issana's Imperial Guard regiments as a close-assault weapon.
The Sanction has the same profile as a Semi-Auto Shotgun loaded with Scatter Shot (see the Revised Inquisitor Armoury). It has the following profile:
Type  Range   Mode    Acc   Dam   Shots  Reload  Wt
Basic   E  Sg/Sm(2/3)  -    D6+1    8     (2)    35

Multiple hits: For every degree of success the hit roll is passed by, an extra hit is scored (resolved against the same location), up to a maximum of three hits.

Hardy: For the purposes of Recovery, any Crippling Damage Lozano has suffered is treated as Acute (unless he is dead or unconscious). A successful Recovery action against an Acute or Crippling injury therefore heals Lozano to Serious injury, and he can Recover to a Heavy injury as normal.

Amasec: Any character attempting to detect Lozano by smell adds +5 to their Awareness test.

Visor: Purely cosmetic item. No in-game effect.

Chronometer: In-character item. No in-game effect.

[Koval]

NAME: Willem Cals

RANK / AFFILIATION: Tech-Priest / Adeptus Mechanicus

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: (3)027818.M41
Place Of Birth: Erstenheme, Segmentum Pacificus
Gender: Male
Height: 190cm
Weight: 130kg

WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
55 61 63 56 53 66 68 61 70

Handedness: Ambidextrous (right hand preference)

Equipment: Erstenhemer DN-0 "Wrathchild" stub pistol, Erstenheme Forge Guard issue armour (AV 4 on chest, AV 3 on all other locations except head), average bionic lungs, average bionic heart, bionic digestive tract, respirator, hand-held motion tracker.

Skills and Talents: Speak Lingua Technis, Medic.

DN-0 "Wrathchild" stub pistol: A military-grade hand cannon, this huge stub pistol is favoured by some Erstenhemer officers for its rugged durability and ease of use, and derided by others because of its mass and loud report. Cals has attempted to mitigate at least one of the latter qualities.
This is a Hi-Power Stubber, fitted with a telescopic sight and a silencer (see the Revised Inquisitor Armoury). It has the following profile:
Type   Range   Mode    Acc   Dam   Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   J    Sg/Sm(2)  -    3D6    10       2    23

+1% bonus to each aim action (cumulative) for each full 5 yards the target is away, to a maximum of +10%.
...
A silencer reduces the range at which a weapon can be heard to a fifth of normal.

Bionic Digestive Tract: Cals increases his AV on his abdomen by 1, but must test for System Shock as soon as he takes Acute Damage to his abdomen, and immediately suffers System Shock if this then becomes Crippling Damage. Cals is also immune to the effects of toxic food and drink; however, this feature is unlikely to come up unless acting in-character.

Speak Lingua Technis: Cals can speak Lingua Technis. In game terms this means that any tests he makes to operate complicated tech are taken at +10, and that he can speak with other servants of the Adeptus Mechanicus (including servitors), without being understood by those outside the Omnissiah's service.

[MarcoSkoll]

The fluff looks solid thus far.

The stats though do look a bit on the high side. Lozano's average at 71 - and if my memory serves me right, I think the highest average I have in my collection (excluding Space Marines, Xenoi and the like) is 70.2. No prizes for guessing who.

My own set of guidelines for system conversion is that stats in DH/RT are about 15 points below of those in Inquisitor. It doesn't match perfectly with DH's and Inquisitor's descriptions of what various stats might actually mean , but it works quite well in practice.

For example, starting DH stats average at about 30, and this represents relatively inexperienced characters (but not total civvy riff-raff - they were, after all, good enough for the Inquisition), so that translating to numbers of about 45 seems about right.
At the top end, an Ascension character might be packing a stat or two of around of 60-70, which would relate to Inquisitor stats of 75-85, which fairly well represents the upper end of what it's normally sensible to stat Inquisitor characters at.
Add in some fudge factor for particular skills and talents, and you're about there.

As far as the skills and equipment...

Hardy... I'm not exactly sure how this is meant to be interpreted. Is it meant to suggest he doesn't count the "crippled" level towards the normal limit of "can't heal more two levels from the maximum injury taken"?

As far as the amasec, just make it a fixed +5% bonus or something rather than having to roll it every time. Smell doesn't come up much, so might as well make it a moderately noticeable bonus.

What's Stimm meant to do? My personal suggestion would be that it granted two of the skills I've written - "Hard Head" and "Feel No Pain"...

Hard Head: The character's skull is practically made of adamantium - no matter how hard they are knocked about, they always manage to keep their wits.
If stunned from more than one source, the durations are not stacked and only the highest duration counts.
Additionally, if stunned from a non-lasting source (poison or Mesmerism would be a lasting source; Immediate injury effects, psychic shriek, being hit around the head or a photon flash would not), the duration is halved, rounding up.

Feel no Pain: The character is indifferent to pain and injury, and can fight on even when grievously wounded.
- For the purposes of System Shock and Consciousness, the character's toughness is increased by half.
- The character halves any speed reduction as a result of injury (rounding the reduction down).
- The character is not compelled to extinguish themselves if on fire, and may continue to act as normal.

... but with a big penalty when it wore off.

I should also add that "injector" and "dose" mean slightly different things in Inquisitor to in Dark Heresy. Injector is a wired in drugs dispenser rather than a syringe type arrangement, and a dose only normally lasts a turn.

[Koval]

The fluff looks solid thus far.

Well I'm glad I can do one thing right

The stats though do look a bit on the high side. Lozano's average at 71 - and if my memory serves me right, I think the highest average I have in my collection (excluding Space Marines, Xenoi and the like) is 70.2. No prizes for guessing who.

My own set of guidelines for system conversion is that stats in DH/RT are about 15 points below of those in Inquisitor. It doesn't match perfectly with DH's and Inquisitor's descriptions of what various stats might actually mean , but it works quite well in practice.

For example, starting DH stats average at about 30, and this represents relatively inexperienced characters (but not total civvy riff-raff - they were, after all, good enough for the Inquisition), so that translating to numbers of about 45 seems about right.

See, I'm aiming for "convert up from 5000 EXP" so I ran up a 5000 EXP profile for an Arbitrator (Lozano), a starting Explorator (Cals) and I'm currently running up a 5000 EXP Guardsman (Trooper Kass) and a starting Astropath (MacKay, but then ignoring the telepathy stuff).

My algorithm looks like:
WS, BS: Add 25
S, T: Add 20
I: Add 20 onto Agi
Wp: Add 25
Sg: Add 25 onto Int
Nv: Add 25 onto a new Wp figure (important since some of them come from Imperial Worlds and therefore get that +3)
Ld: Add 25 onto Fel

(EDIT: algorithm tweaked)

At the top end, an Ascension character might be packing a stat or two of around of 60-70, which would relate to Inquisitor stats of 75-85, which fairly well represents the upper end of what it's normally sensible to stat Inquisitor characters at.

I wasn't about to start genning Ascension characters for back-converting. It takes too long, and in any case anything I draw up in Ascension stays in Ascension. Haines is struggling to stay on the bottom end of sanity in Ascension, and would end up as a total monstrosity in Inquisitor (THUNDER HAMMER!?), whereas back-converting Andreas would neuter him.

Add in some fudge factor for particular skills and talents, and you're about there.

I'm tempted to make a Simon Cowell joke there.

As far as the skills and equipment...

Hardy... I'm not exactly sure how this is meant to be interpreted. Is it meant to suggest he doesn't count the "crippled" level towards the normal limit of "can't heal more two levels from the maximum injury taken"?

Unless he's already System Shocked, unconscious or dead, that's more or less it, and there are a couple of damage results where Crippled doesn't mean "automatically out of the game". I was trying to throw a DH-talent in there that I'd actually bought for him on his profile, but it was either that, or water down Iron Jaw so it has about as much effect as homeopathic medicine.

As far as the amasec, just make it a fixed +5% bonus or something rather than having to roll it every time. Smell doesn't come up much, so might as well make it a moderately noticeable bonus.

Honestly, I threw that one in as a joke.

What's Stimm meant to do?

Oops. I thought I'd changed it to Slaught. Apparently I didn't.

I should also add that "injector" and "dose" mean slightly different things in Inquisitor to in Dark Heresy. Injector is a wired in drugs dispenser rather than a syringe type arrangement, and a dose only normally lasts a turn.

Well, I would've omitted the injector for exactly that reason (let's face it, he's not Damien-1427), but then that runs into the following:
"Okay, so he has three doses of drugs. How does he administer them?"
"He injects them into his arm."
"Then he has an injector implant."
"Lozano doesn't have one of those wired into him."
"Then how does he take his drugs?"
"..."


I'll fiddle a few things and then try to finish off Kass and MacKay.

[Koval]

NAME: Ivor Emerson Kass

RANK / AFFILIATION: Trooper / Elysian 196th "Spire Crawlers"

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: (2)206967.M41
Place Of Birth: Elysia, Segmentum Solar
Gender: Male
Height: 165cm
Weight: 70kg

WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
58 65 56 52 50 54 53 57 49

Handedness: Right

Equipment: Erstenhemer PT-5 "Myrmidon" plasma gun with one reload (generated using Charax's "We Need Guns" rules), Mars-pattern laspistol (see the Revised Inquisitor Armoury) with one reload, flak armour (AV 3 on all locations), knife.

Skills and Talents: none

"Myrmidon" plasma gun: Kass' old Accatran-pattern plasma gun has since become one with the Omnissiah. Inquisitor Johm acquired a replacement on Erstenheme.
The Myrmidon has the following profile:
Type  Range  Mode  Acc   Dam   Shots  Reload  Wt
Basic   F   Single -10   3D10   10      2/1   55
Note that the first Reload value is used when the gun runs out of ammunition, and the Recharge value is used every time the gun fires.
The Myrmidon may make use of the sustained fire rules on pg.69 of the Inquisitor rulebook (with the exception that it retains its original shots value).
It may alternatively expend five shots at once to increase its Damage to 4D10, but must then spend the next three turns recharging.

Mars-pattern laspistol: For ease of reference, this gun has the following profile:
Type   Range   Mode    Acc   Dam    Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   J  Sg/Sm(2/3)  -    2D6+1   32       2    12

- Low Recoil (LR): This weapon has no recoil or nearly no recoil, making rapid fire  significantly more accurate. For the purposes of firing on Semi or Full modes, there is a +10% accuracy bonus. For example, Semi (3) would only confer a -20% to hit, not -30%.

[MarcoSkoll]

My algorithm looks like...

Which, if you're looking to play against 'Clavers, would put you way ahead of them. That would effectively give a starting DH character WS and BS values of 50 + 2D10 - averaging at 61.

Sergeant Kronen, who I took to the IGT (who, as you can guess from her rank, is not a green guardswoman - she's been at this for over 15 years) has WS and BS stats of 63 and 65 respectively.

Lyra Rhodes has been an Inquisitor for 40 years, and is also a well regarded Doctor of Archaeology (she still serves as a guest speaker at Imperial Scholams on occasion, although under a pseudonym). She nets Sg 81 - by your conversion, an average character creation roll and an intermediate Intelligence advance. An adept could easily have that from creation, if they decided to spend their starting XP on two Int advances.

You should probably refer to the "Conclave Standard" thread to get a better idea of a more modern approach to Inquisitor.
We've moved away from the sample statlines at the rear of the rulebook and more towards the stat descriptions near the front - it's more interesting if the outcome of actions isn't made into an almost foregone conclusion because the characters all have high stats.

It's all still balanced and fair with lower stats - perhaps more so, because it's much less of a case of "who ever gets to shoot first wins the fight".

[Koval]

NAME: Gerlach MacKay

RANK / AFFILIATION: Savant Warrant / Scholastica Psykana

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: Not known, sanctioned (0)106963.M41
Place Of Birth: Not known
Gender: Male
Height: 180cm
Weight: 80kg

WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
63 57 54 55 55 68 53 63 55

Handedness: Right

Equipment: Mars-pattern laspistol (see the Revised Inquisitor Armoury), shock staff, flak armour (AV 3 on all locations except head), bionic left hand.

Skills and Talents: none

Psychic Powers: Detection, Fireball, Inspire, Torch

Inspire: Difficulty 15. Pick one friendly target of whom the psyker is aware. That character immediately overcomes the effects of pinning, and gains the Nerves of Steel talent until the end of the psyker's next turn.

Torch: Difficulty 0, persistent. The psyker generates an orb of light in the palm of his hand, enough to illuminate a broadly spherical space with a radius of 2D10 metres. In game terms, anything that takes place wholly within the illuminated space is exempt from any visual Awareness penalties imposed by bad lighting. However, anyone that can see the illuminated area is aware that "something is there". This does not work in reverse -- those outside the lit area are still under the cover of darkness. Note that the light generates no heat.


Mars-pattern laspistol: For ease of reference, this gun has the following profile:
Type   Range   Mode    Acc   Dam    Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   J  Sg/Sm(2/3)  -    2D6+1   32       2    12

- Low Recoil (LR): This weapon has no recoil or nearly no recoil, making rapid fire  significantly more accurate. For the purposes of firing on Semi or Full modes, there is a +10% accuracy bonus. For example, Semi (3) would only confer a -20% to hit, not -30%.

Shock staff: This is a shock maul (see the Inquisitor rule book) with Reach: 4, but which adds the user's Strength bonus to its damage only if used in both hands.

Bionic left hand: Other than affording MacKay a firmer grip on objects than one might otherwise anticipate, this is a cosmetic item and has no in-game effect.

[Koval]

My algorithm looks like...

Which, if you're looking to play against 'Clavers, would put you way ahead of them. That would effectively give a starting DH character WS and BS values of 50 + 2D10 - averaging at 61.

Sergeant Kronen, who I took to the IGT (who, as you can guess from her rank, is not a green guardswoman - she's been at this for over 15 years) has WS and BS stats of 63 and 65 respectively.

Lyra Rhodes has been an Inquisitor for 40 years, and is also a well regarded Doctor of Archaeology (she still serves as a guest speaker at Imperial Scholams on occasion, although under a pseudonym). She nets Sg 81 - by your conversion, an average character creation roll and an intermediate Intelligence advance. An adept could easily have that from creation, if they decided to spend their starting XP on two Int advances.

You should probably refer to the "Conclave Standard" thread to get a better idea of a more modern approach to Inquisitor.
We've moved away from the sample statlines at the rear of the rulebook and more towards the stat descriptions near the front - it's more interesting if the outcome of actions isn't made into an almost foregone conclusion because the characters all have high stats.

It's all still balanced and fair with lower stats - perhaps more so, because it's much less of a case of "who ever gets to shoot first wins the fight".

I'll drop the values in the algorithm, then, although I wanted to get MacKay (my last character) up before I did anything daft with it. Otherwise, I'd have ended up forgetting, and ended up generating a shrug-worthy Lozano and Cals, only to have Kass end up with his current stat line and the comparative ability to take both of them on at the same time and win.

Tweaking the now.

EDIT: Hopefully looks more reasonable. I'm too used to a system where the positive modifiers are just as ridiculous and plentiful as the negative ones -- Inquisitor by comparison always looked like "here's your high-ish stats, now here's the many ways we're going to nerf them into the ground" (range band A, anyone?)

[MarcoSkoll]

Hopefully looks more reasonable.

Yeah, that looks good. I don't know how the BS 70 plasma gun will play out, but I guess that as it's only got one shot a turn, it probably won't be too terrifying.

Inquisitor by comparison always looked like "here's your high-ish stats, now here's the many ways we're going to nerf them into the ground"

There are usually more penalties than bonuses, but a lot of the bonuses in Inquisitor can be stacked on themselves. In DH, you can never have more than a +30 aim bonus (Full aim with an accurate weapon). It's not that hard to get twice that aim bonus in Inquisitor (which is often then followed by the guy being aimed at having a very bad day).

[Koval]

Hopefully looks more reasonable.

Yeah, that looks good. I don't know how the BS 70 plasma gun will play out, but I guess that as it's only got one shot a turn, it probably won't be too terrifying.

When I rolled Kass' DH stats he actually ended up with a fairly high-ish BS at the start, then bought BS upgrades. Being as Kass' original plasma gun no longer exists, my best guess is that he went back to the shooting range and got practicing (with a lasgun, mind) before he started using his current one. In any case I doubt the 96th would have picked him out for plasma gun training if he wasn't a decent shot. Shame he distinguished himself by missing.

In DH, you can never have more than a +30 aim bonus (Full aim with an accurate weapon). It's not that hard to get twice that aim bonus in Inquisitor (which is often then followed by the guy being aimed at having a very bad day).

Actually, that got changed to +60 in an errata, much to the amusement of a Tech-Priest in a campaign I ran a year and a half ago. Said Tech-Priest started off with a long-las, but ended up upgrading it over the course of the campaign and eventually built himself an anti-materiel lasrifle, much to the displeasure of the first heretic to come his way.

[MarcoSkoll]

Actually, that got changed to +60 in an errata, much to the amusement of a Tech-Priest in a campaign I ran a year and a half ago.

I was referring to just the bonus from the action of aiming. Not the overall hit chance modifier, which can of course be brought up to +60 by range modifiers, target size, stunned/surprised targets and the like (or every Arch-Militant's favourite, Weapon Master).

In any case I doubt the 96th would have picked him out for plasma gun training if he wasn't a decent shot.

Yeah, but there are two schools of thought here. One says "Well, they wouldn't give the good weapons to bad shots". And the other says "It's a more complex weapon, learning its foibles would have cost him time on the range*" - which helps mitigate (at least in part) the OHGODEVERYONEHASHADTHEIRHEADPLASMAGUNNEDOFF situation in game by making him less likely to hit with his monstrous weapon.

*Thing is, the (usually) 100 XP for a new weapon training talent in DH... I'm not sure it really represents the effort it would take to learn some of the weapons properly. (It's a bit weird that a plasma gun is as easy to learn as a laspistol.)

[Koval]

In any case I doubt the 96th would have picked him out for plasma gun training if he wasn't a decent shot.

Yeah, but there are two schools of thought here. One says "Well, they wouldn't give the good weapons to bad shots". And the other says "It's a more complex weapon, learning its foibles would have cost him time on the range*" - which helps mitigate (at least in part) the OHGODEVERYONEHASHADTHEIRHEADPLASMAGUNNEDOFF situation in game by making him less likely to hit with his monstrous weapon.

In the interests of avoiding a disagreement I've lowered Kass' BS slightly. Also lowered his AV (and MacKay's) by 1.

Reworked Cals' equipment setup -- he no longer has a shock staff, but in keeping with the idea that he was part of a Forge Guard Auxilia unit, he's actually got armour now. This also makes modelling him a lot easier, or at least it would if I could find a good head for him.

[Draco Ferox]

Shame he distinguished himself by missing.

And not blowing himself up

Come to mention it, how did his plasma gun become one with the Omnissiah?

Range band A, anyone?

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY 01-05!

Actually, it's more about making the game fair on your opponents. Take Call of duty as an example. The UMP and the Vector fire the same calibre bullet, yet the vector does less damage, in the name of balance and a fair game. It's the same here, and the powerful guns tend to have a penalty to prevent you simply blowing all your opponents' heads off and then walking over to where you need to be to complete the mission.

Finally, I quite liked the shock staff. Seems the sort of weapon that might come in handy during formal events where more ostentatious weapons such aas guns are banned.

[Koval]

Shame he distinguished himself by missing.

And not blowing himself up

Come to mention it, how did his plasma gun become one with the Omnissiah?

Left as a Noodle Incident at the time, purely because I didn't want to take a plasma gun, generated or otherwise, and say "this is an Accatran-pattern weapon" when I know damn well it isn't. Having had time to consider how a plasma gun dies and doesn't take its owner with it, I'll attribute it to a maintenance accident that Cals didn't know how to fix. Sure, it's not especially thrilling, but "thrilling" and "plasma guns breaking" don't usually end well for their owners.

Re. plasma gun power -- the main reason I went with Charax's custom-weapon rules rather than the RIA in that instance was because of the Hazardous(X) terminology that I've been sufficiently far out of the loop not to have seen yet. Otherwise, I'd have taken Kass' weapon straight from the RIA.

I quite liked the shock staff. Seems the sort of weapon that might come in handy during formal events where more ostentatious weapons such aas guns are banned.

MacKay still has one, so rest assured, there is still one knocking around in the group.