So, Rogue Traders can acquire **** near anything they want. One I'm fleshing out is a very movie-pirate-rogue-hero like, and he is renowned for his sword-sidearm combo. Both his primary sidearm and his main blade are personal-fluff awesome toys, a fine inferno pistol that passes down in his line, and a beautiful Eldar Power Sword from a beautiful Corsair Captain he aided, but while I love the inferno pistol, and that the Rogue Trader is one of the only people in existence who might be able to actually acquire one, I know that, between their limited clip size, and likely poor choice for ship boarding actions, the part of his fluff that the Dragon's Ire is rarely drawn fits. So, what would be a good other option for a more typically used pistol?

I love plasma pistols, and would normally just have that be the other sidearm, but they CAN burn you, and might also suck in boarding actions, so what's a great pistol option, in your opinions, for damage + clip size + maybe not venting a compartment? What fun guns do others like to field, when you really can have just about anything? Thanks.

I'm personally partial to splinter pistols, though I'm sure they're not the superior choice from a numerical sense. Can't beat that clip size, though. You could fire it on semi-auto 40 times before it ran dry.

Plus, I feel like the morale impact of poison use would be good in a boarding fight. Nothing like watching your compatriot die a slow death of convulsions to take the fight out of you.

I have an Archeotech Las-Pistol which I keep strapped to my RT's hip. There's a common Plasma Pistol holstered at the small of his back for easy reach for tougher things.

Common power sword to offset it as well, though I did recently get an upgrade.

Personally my Rogue Trader has fancied himself a best quality Carnodon Pattern Precision Hand Cannon loaded with Organ Grinder rounds.

Sure it requires two hands to use, sure I get dirty looks from the GM, but I can't help smiling when one aimed shot from my pistol does more damage than the Missionary's power fist.

Of course, he uses a power sword when things get closer, but he's thinking of upgrading that to something more... stylish.

The RT in my long running campaign is still using a Best Plasma Pistol that he calls Mr. Sparkles. IMO, the good old plasma pistol is still the best bang for the buck. If you really want to sex things up, Inferno Pistol.

Well, as I said, I'm always a fan of the plasma, and then the ripper pistol, but looking back at the Overheats rule, it seems to come up less than I thought, so I think said guy, being rich will round out his pistols with the good old plasma. I do love his inferno pistol, but see him as rarely drawing it, based on range, ammo cap, and ammo cap (twice on purpose). Thank you.

Why does no one like Hand crossbows any more?

Edit: Best Quality Golden and Gem studded Hand Crossbows with glass shafts filled with Toxin and Exploding Arrow Heads attached. Feathers are from the rare and elusive Do-Do Bird, and the draw string is made from black spider silk. Did I mention the trigger has a engraved saying of "All souls call out for salvation."

Why does no one like Hand crossbows any more?

Edit: Best Quality Golden and Gem studded Hand Crossbows with glass shafts filled with Toxin and Exploding Arrow Heads attached. Feathers are from the rare and elusive Do-Do Bird, and the draw string is made from black spider silk. Did I mention the trigger has a engraved saying of "All souls call out for salvation."

Hm, the sheer amount of bling is tempting... now if only my Rogue Trader could have two of them...

Well if he inherited the inferno pistol where you go from there for backups and options is heavily dependent on PF. I suggest just staying away from any non-melta/non-plasma energy handgun as slug throwers are always better than las/hell weapons the moment you get into special ammunition. The handcannon and the autopistol are both better than they have any right to be paired with the right ammo and recoil gloves, grab an MIU and you can tri-wield any mix of them you like on a budget. Although if you're going for pure crunch you really cannot beat the solid old workhorse known as the bolt pistol, kills mooks dead without being excessively destructive/cost ineffective and the rounds don't bounce off of bosses or big scary monsters.

I think one thing to keep in mind is if you have a solid pistol/set of pistols you like then combi them there's no real reason not to, especially if you combi them with a shotpistol attachment and put specialized shells in them. In many cases the less than lethal special shells are more devastating than the ones that do raw damage, if the dread pirate Steve is leading his mooks into battle bearing down on you with a powersword and you nail him with a snare shell forcing him to spend his next few turns testing strength or agility to escape you've probably already kicked the encounter's ass because by the time he's up again his mooks are dead and he's getting curb stomped three on one.

Hm, the sheer amount of bling is tempting... now if only my Rogue Trader could have two of them...

I'm pretty sure you can get bolts with the toxic rule, and even if you can't you can always just apply poisons to them and at that point they become more than merely bling.

Why does no one like Hand crossbows any more?

Edit: Best Quality Golden and Gem studded Hand Crossbows with glass shafts filled with Toxin and Exploding Arrow Heads attached. Feathers are from the rare and elusive Do-Do Bird, and the draw string is made from black spider silk. Did I mention the trigger has a engraved saying of "All souls call out for salvation."

Hm, the sheer amount of bling is tempting... now if only my Rogue Trader could have two of them...

....and this is why Rogue Trader is the Best!!!

My favorite sidearm is the flare I fire in the air to signal that it's time to release the drop pods full of genetically and cyber enhanced psychopaths onto the heads of the unfortunates who made the mistake of standing in front of the wrong group of crazies!

I'm Inclined to agree with the Bolt pistol above. If you already have a Melta Pistol you already have a hand-held Bazooka for anytime things get really scary! What you really need is an antipersonnel weapon that is reliable enough to drop "most" adversaries without risk to yourself or excessive ammo consumption. On the other hand, If you find yourself facing a Chaos space marine, whip out your Melta and say BLAM! You may not kill him but you'll definitely get his attention! (not sure that's such a great thing though!)

I've always been partial to the Irontalon naval pistol and the Flametongue howdah pistol from DH, although it's always kinda fun to fit a pistol grip to something like a bolt carbine...

Our RT uses a Destroyer Hand Flamer with Nephilim Fuel and Consecrated Fuel Canister. The pistol is a Combi-Melta with Pyre Lance Nozzle for heavier opponents. He has Cleanse and Purify, so the Agility test to avoid being on fire is at -30.

He also has a Best quality micro-Condemor boltgun with the Integrated and Ammo Selector upgrades. The weapon is usually loaded with Vengence rounds.

Of course, he is an Arch-Heretek who tinkers all sorts of personal weapons. His favorite rifle is a Twin-linked, Integrated Condemor Boltgun with an ammo backpack.

Our RT uses a Destroyer Hand Flamer with Nephilim Fuel and Consecrated Fuel Canister. The pistol is a Combi-Melta with Pyre Lance Nozzle for heavier opponents. He has Cleanse and Purify, so the Agility test to avoid being on fire is at -30.

He also has a Best quality micro-Condemor boltgun with the Integrated and Ammo Selector upgrades. The weapon is usually loaded with Vengence rounds.

Of course, he is an Arch-Heretek who tinkers all sorts of personal weapons. His favorite rifle is a Twin-linked, Integrated Condemor Boltgun with an ammo backpack.

So what you're saying is If is not a dozen rak'gol or a chaos space marine, He sleep walks through it

At this point the players are usually dealing with the elite enemies while their troops and guards deal with the weaker opponents. At Rank 7, we spend more time on political maneuvering and exploration. Yu'vath constructs are their present bane, as they are exploring Aubray's Anvil and trying to deal with the remnants of the Yu'vath forces that brought the ancient forge world down. Crystalwisps in particular worry the players. Of course, having a BS of only 43ish he isn't the most accurate character. That is why he relies on flamers and plasma weapons with starflare vents.

Your typical RT at Rank 7 is going to have access to some remarkable weaponry, which allows me to throw pretty much anything at the players and have them figure out how to deal with it. The Hand Flamer CombiMelta is actually only a -15 aquisition for one anyways. Less if you have the skills to apply the modifications and buy them seperately. Anything less than Near Unique is not going to be outside the reach of most RT parties for personal weapons, even at low levels. Even the starting Ryza Plasma Pistol on the RT killed a Lictor in a single round (it was luck, but the RT just turned to his command staff and ordered them back to work). He still carries it as a reminder of his Imperial Guard days. The rest of the command crew is generally equiped with Near Unique or better Archeotech and Xeno weapons.

The key for me is not taking it easy on the players. Several of the published adventures have the group facing squads of Chaos Marines or worse. I tend to make things more deadly the better equiped they get. When they explored the Sacred Heart I had the core of the Warp Engine turn into a Daemon Engine (stated as a Defiler). It was a deadly fight, but the player enjoyed it.

Wrath Plasma Pistol - best plasma pistol in the game.

Mauler Bolt Pistol - genetically locked, so only your RT can fire it (like in the old Judge Dread).

Ripper Pistol - a weapon of choice of Sly Marbo. Perfect for big game hunting.

Plasma pistol and ripper pistol, why deviate from basics with a melee character. I have something that I can use to shoot people when not in the mood of slashing things with powersword.

Ripper Pistol, Carnadon from DH, Assault Gauntlets for something a little different?

As plenty have said the humble bolt pistol does pretty well, as does the ringleader pistol from DH's book of judgement.

But to be honest my gunslinger character always tend to reach for a carnadon loaded with HD-penetrators.

Regards

Surak

Bolt Pistol with Vengeance Bolts, or possibly Organgrinder... Vengeance Bolt Shells +3 dmg and Pen makes that puppy hit harder than a Plasma Pistol, and is way cooler.

Best quality plasma stuff dont Overheat so, also a good choice.

I do like Ripper Pistols

I also love the very solid Hecuter Autopistol from Dark Heresy.

At this point the players are usually dealing with the elite enemies while their troops and guards deal with the weaker opponents. At Rank 7, we spend more time on political maneuvering and exploration. Yu'vath constructs are their present bane, as they are exploring Aubray's Anvil and trying to deal with the remnants of the Yu'vath forces that brought the ancient forge world down. Crystalwisps in particular worry the players. Of course, having a BS of only 43ish he isn't the most accurate character. That is why he relies on flamers and plasma weapons with starflare vents.

Your typical RT at Rank 7 is going to have access to some remarkable weaponry, which allows me to throw pretty much anything at the players and have them figure out how to deal with it. The Hand Flamer CombiMelta is actually only a -15 aquisition for one anyways. Less if you have the skills to apply the modifications and buy them seperately. Anything less than Near Unique is not going to be outside the reach of most RT parties for personal weapons, even at low levels. Even the starting Ryza Plasma Pistol on the RT killed a Lictor in a single round (it was luck, but the RT just turned to his command staff and ordered them back to work). He still carries it as a reminder of his Imperial Guard days. The rest of the command crew is generally equiped with Near Unique or better Archeotech and Xeno weapons.

The key for me is not taking it easy on the players. Several of the published adventures have the group facing squads of Chaos Marines or worse. I tend to make things more deadly the better equiped they get. When they explored the Sacred Heart I had the core of the Warp Engine turn into a Daemon Engine (stated as a Defiler). It was a deadly fight, but the player enjoyed it.

Fair enough. At Rank 7, yeah... they're going to be decked from head to toe in sexy.

I guess my only problem is that the system, regardless of weaponry, allows players to even have a chance toe-to-toe with Chaos Space Marines... much less a squad of them. 10 CSMs... hell, they should be able to wax 3 sets of PCs... at the same time. I suppose this is why I've only ever had an RT group deal with a CSM once. It was 1 Sorcerer... and it still manged to cause a pair of fate burns and a number of other crits before they got him (they were rank 4 at the time).

I guess my only problem is that the system, regardless of weaponry, allows players to even have a chance toe-to-toe with Chaos Space Marines... much less a squad of them. 10 CSMs... hell, they should be able to wax 3 sets of PCs... at the same time. I suppose this is why I've only ever had an RT group deal with a CSM once. It was 1 Sorcerer... and it still manged to cause a pair of fate burns and a number of other crits before they got him (they were rank 4 at the time).

The guard kills the rank and file grunts of the traitor legions all the **** time, you can even the odds through the right application of heavy weapons and big **** tanks. By rank 7 an RT player character is likely as not to own a tank factory and be wearing armor that can take more punishment than the tanks he has built there. Your typical Chaos Space Marine is just some kid that got grabbed off a fallen world or in a raid and who had corrupted geneseed shoved up his ass. He's totally killable especially if you can bushwhack him with concentrated fire.

High rank Rogue Traders often have access to better equipment than space marines. The Marines Errant have a longstanding arrangement with House Ecale and often recieve higher quality power armor and armaments from the Rogue Trader house when they serve with it. As Larry said, your typical Chaos Marine is less well trained (and probably more poorly equiped) than an Imperial Astartes. Chaos Marines may carve through Imperial Guard like knives through tofu, but so can your typical cult assassin (let alone a Temple Assassin). Rogue Traders are equal in status to Chapter Masters of Astartes, which gives them access to exceptionally good equipment and training.

The real advantage in combat for Marines is their Unnatural Toughness and training. The more common Chaos Marines lack the edge of training over Rogue Trader characters, and will generally not have Fields or exotic Archeotech/Xenotech. RT characters are not DH characters. They are what DH characters might equal at the height of their career. They are the equivalent to an Inquisitor's personal coterie, which in fluff can fight Chaos Marines on a relatively equal footing. That is ignoring the players being able to throw thousands of elite troops equiped will effective weapons at their enemies.

Sometimes, some foes' skill and ability rating are as much bluff and legend as real awesome. Space Marines are BA, no question, but they are still mortal, no matter how many tweaks have been done, or gear picks given. If I have to accept that "regular" Space Marines can kill a Primarch (Rogal Dorn, and I don't believe there was a Traitor Primarch at his defeat), then I'm willing to believe that a group of humans, especially ones uniquely unaffected by the often limited gear options of Humans could best a CSM, or even a group, though likely with some serious casualties. Otherwise, the GM really couldn't use them.

Note the details of the micro upgrade (Hostile Acquisitions, p 58): "... a Basic-class weapon with this upgrade becomes a Pistol-class weapon instead..." There are some abusively evil options with that; for example: micro storm bolter. With vengeance bolts, you can dish out 8 hits, each 1d10+6 Pen 7, Tearing, Unstable.

Cheers,

- V.

I don't know how many times I've said it already but the Storm Bolter never should have been a basic class weapon in RT, it should be reclassed as a heavy weapon.