My players prefer using a micro-Condemor Boltgun with Vengence Rounds. Not quite the rate of fire, but sanctified is very useful. Never had a player take a Storm Bolter, although I would agree that it is pretty big for a basic weapon.

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.

Couldn't agree more! One bolter is bulky, heavy and full of recoil enough for a mere human - but two firing in rapid fire strapped together? Should have basically been a 'lightweight' heavy weapon.

My players prefer using a micro-Condemor Boltgun with Vengence Rounds. Not quite the rate of fire, but sanctified is very useful. Never had a player take a Storm Bolter, although I would agree that it is pretty big for a basic weapon.

Be glad a player has never taken a Storm Bolter - they are all kinds of broken RAW. Far too many powerful shots in such a compact sized weapon (can be fired one handed with recoil gloves, meaning you can dual wield them, or get Micro-upgrades on them and dual wield them in melee combat... le sigh )

Ripper Pistols are good fun simply for sheer 'armour? What armour?' shenanigans, and also have Toxic, which is a godsent power from the heavens.

Personally I enjoy dual Shotgun Pistols loaded with Hallucinogenic gas rounds, but that's because I'm cruel and unusual.

I have a few that I usually enjoy using.

Micro Melta gun in a wrist-mounted quickdraw holster.

A Micro Lucius shotgun with Acid Shells.

Best Quality Dervish laspistol with the variable setting rule from Only War. (That overload is KILLER)

Arch Militant in my group rocks just two humble bolt pistols. Well, not so humble with best craftsmanship, fire selector and vox operated, but its more the ranks in Manhunter he took from Hostile Acquisitions letting him called shot headshots on everything with more or less guaranteed crits. If the head doesnt explode, its lit on fire, poisioned, and then the rest of the crew opens up and finishes the job.

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.

To my knowledge, most of the Traitor Legions' gene seed is so badly mutated that they cannot create new members any longer. The Alpha Legion being a notable exception. If I recall correctly, the majority of Chaos Space Marines are either original traitor legionnaires or more members of more recently fallen chapters.

In either instance, that would make a Chaos Space Marine an incredibly fearsome - and likely fatal - opponent for a Rogue Trader and his crew.

According to the fluff Fabius Bile (and possibly others) has the ability to make new Chaos Space Marines. the process isn't necessarily based on the original process (or even the original geneseed) but the capability exists.

Something else to consider is that CSM's could also steal geneseed from the dead bodies of loyalist marines to replenish thier stocks.

To my knowledge, most of the Traitor Legions' gene seed is so badly mutated that they cannot create new members any longer. The Alpha Legion being a notable exception. If I recall correctly, the majority of Chaos Space Marines are either original traitor legionnaires or more members of more recently fallen chapters.

There's no way enough astartes fall to chaos on a regular enough basis to maintain that population, sure many Choas Space Marines are fallen Loyalist Marines and there are a handful of absolutely terrifying monsters who have been around for as long as ten thousand years but those guys aren't the norm. The ones you're both probably likely to meet who are also going to completely outmatch you as a high end RT character are thes ones that fall somewhere in the middle. The ones who have actually survived long enough to get really good at being a Chaos Space Marine but who are still low enough on the totem pole that they're running around committing less than sector threatening acts of villainy.

According to the fluff Fabius Bile (and possibly others) has the ability to make new Chaos Space Marines. the process isn't necessarily based on the original process (or even the original geneseed) but the capability exists.

Something else to consider is that CSM's could also steal geneseed from the dead bodies of loyalist marines to replenish thier stocks.

This is closer to my understanding, that the primary way the traitor legions (except alpha legion) maintain or grow their populations is either through theft of geneseed or most often the heretekal methods pioneered by Fabius Bile.

My explorator was quite the tinkerer and had a great number of weapons.

His signature side arm was a custom weapon that was effectively an autopistol with the Storm quality called the Double Eagle. It was mostly a mook killer. Even on moderately armored enemies it was pretty good, due to ye ole riteous fury and up to 10 hits if you manage 4 degrees of success. It would do quite well on boarding actions with low penetration but the ability to put the hurt on tightly packed formations.

He also had a bracer mounted shotgun pistol with a snare shell. Good if he needed to GTFO from something scary or wanted to capture rather than perforate. It was also disguised enough that casual observation wouldn't notice it.

A good quality Wrath plasma pistol with a red dot was his other sidearm. It let him attack heavily armored enemies almost as well as the Inferno when using overcharge. An added bonus was four to five times the range, meaning he didn't have to be in knife fight range to use it, and if he was that close he'd have a bonus to hit.

He'd also made a forearm mounted hand flamer for someone else, but didn't use one himself.

Inferno pistol, because it's Hell's own dueling pistol. It gets backed up with a cut-down Carnodon variant with Organgrinders, just like ol' Eisenhorn carried. Shorter range, only has a 4 shot mag, but it's concealable- and that's a hell of a surprise punch to carry under the coat. Or hat, as the case may be. Both are, of course, suitably blinged out in gold, ivory and rubies.

Edit: I should point out that I'm aware that these are both short-range weapons. If it's long range, my second choice is not a sidearm, but a non-Astartes Stalker-pattern Boltgun. My first choice is my Arch Militant.

well I must admit my RT has pretty much given up on ranged combat but he uses a Plasma pistol that he started with and a Bale Eye that was handy at lower levels for finishing the thing I had hit with my power sword

My favorite is an Archeotech Pistol. Basically a bolt pistol with Inferno Pistol base stats and the tearing and toxic qualities. Found in an old ship.

My Dark Eldar (Kabalite Warrior who fancies himself a pirate prince and the Rogue Trader his Lackey) prefers a brace of Splinter Pistols, a Blast Pistol, and a Shuriken Pistol besides his ceremonial Power Sword.

The general idea: http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2013/02/Assassins-Creed-4-black-flag1.jpg

I now have an Accurate Archeotech Plasma Pistol. It requires a very specific, and rare type of hydrogen isotope as ammunition and seems to have been made for power armour wielders (not Astartes) in mind.

It comes with an intelligent sight that seems to be a bit too intelligent.

There's something odd about having a brace of pistols with Clip 120.

An ordinary bolt pistol has a credible chance of dropping an Ork- or even a Rak'Gol- where lesser weapons would struggle to do any damage at all. The potential for doing incredible amounts of damage with only one or two hits makes the BP simply fantastic in almost any situation.

My players are big fans of the Wrath Ryza-Pattern Plasma Pistol. It can do two Maximal and two normal shots on a standard clip, they will never consider acquiring anything at lest than Best-Quality, and it has the Accurate quality to boot.

I'm partial to Shuriken Pistols, as it has decent penetration for a sidearm, full-auto in case I need to suppress something, and I acquire more ammunition for it by killing Eldar, which is a worthwhile endeavour in itself.

Unless facing (very) tough customers or ex-business associates, my Tech-Priest's favourite is a Storm bolter with recoil gloves. What, it can be used one-handed... For anything else, the old-time favourite Inferno Pistol works wonders if you can get close enough, which, when you are a levitating tank bigger (and probably tougher) than a terminator, is not that hard.

... a Storm bolter with recoil gloves...

The renowned words that make all GM's cringe.

... a Storm bolter with recoil gloves...

The renowned words that make all GM's cringe.

Could be worse- Micro-Astartes Storm Bolter with Recoil Gloves...

Ah crud. That's going to be a thing now, isn't it? Sorry guys...

... a Storm bolter with recoil gloves...

The renowned words that make all GM's cringe.

***REDACTED ENTRY***

Ah crud. That's going to be a thing now, isn't it? Sorry guys...

----ORIGINAL FILES RETAIN BY INQUSITOR MANDATE ALPHA253436Y56----

........ Wow. Thousands of munchkins over the world just rejoiced at your statement.

... a Storm bolter with recoil gloves...

The renowned words that make all GM's cringe.

***REDACTED ENTRY***

Ah crud. That's going to be a thing now, isn't it? Sorry guys...

----ORIGINAL FILES RETAIN BY INQUSITOR MANDATE ALPHA253436Y56----

........ Wow. Thousands of munchkins over the world just rejoiced at your statement.

Dont use pistols much

Foxglove (Archeotech Crystalline sword with Adamantium Guard and Sacred Blade upgrades, 1d10+8, Pen 10, Balanced, Potent, Indestructible, Power Field, Sanctified and gives +2 armor to that arm) (This is an Heirloom of the Rogue Trader house, fating back to the Battle of Terra)

Archeotech Boltgun with Grenade Launcher upgrade.

Archeotech laspistol

Daemons are afraid one day I'll get loose in the warp.

Best Twin-linked, Integrated, Customized, Micro-Condemor Boltgun with Vengence Ammo? Doesn't require a recoil glove, is a pistol. Full Auto burst that can get 8 hits with two degrees of success. Don't forget the dual linked Purgatatus Stakegun built in (don't have the stats for that on me), for the anti-psyker win.

25m S/2/4 1d10+6 X 7 60/Full Sactified, Tearing, Storm, Twin-linked, MIU scope

For a rifle against tech foes you can use a Best Twin-linked, Integrated, Maglev Impellar Customized Micro-Techxorcist Rifle with Twin-linked underslung Inferno pisols with Pyre-lance Nozzles. While the Techxorcist rounds don't do quite as much damage, getting to roll 8 times on the Haywire chart means that guy in powered armor is down and the Inferno pistol handles most other heavy targets.

25m S/-/4 1d10+4 E 4 80/2Full Haywire (1), Shocking (-20 on test for organics), Storm, Twin-linked, MIU Scope

20m S/-/- 2d10+8 E 13 1/Full Melta, Twin-linked, MIU Scope

Both are a little rediculous, and only work for someone with a potentia coil. Our Rogue Trader designed them as personal sidearms for himself.

Best Twin-linked, Integrated, Customized, Micro-Condemor Boltgun with Vengence Ammo? Doesn't require a recoil glove, is a pistol. Full Auto burst that can get 8 hits with two degrees of success. Don't forget the dual linked Purgatatus Stakegun built in (don't have the stats for that on me), for the anti-psyker win.

25m S/2/4 1d10+6 X 7 60/Full Sactified, Tearing, Storm, Twin-linked, MIU scope

But you lose out on the badass factor of swinging the biggest Basic weapon you can find! How are you going to intimidate anyone with a weird, disproportionate tiny boltgun connected to you? No, the true answer are twin-linked storm bolters (so much for logic), with a pistol grip and a fire-selector and appropriate ammo for any encounter (Tempest, Vengeance and Metal Storm were my preferred arrangement); almost enough dakka to make any Ork proud, it tears through anything that isn't a classified as a Lord of War. Plus, you can add a mono melee attachment just for the cool factor at that point since it's still theoretically a Basic weapon.

Oh, and to those worried about GM's cringing, I'm usually the GM. My players have learned to fear the words Renegade Tech-Priest and Heretek, because it's just so easy to make them into indestructible combat monsters. Now their preferred sidearms are usually a Nova Cannon bombardement until the planetary crust crumbles at the target location or, if they are feeling tactical, precision lance strikes. But that doesn't leave a recoverable body, and everybody knows what happens if you don't find the body...