I just started GMing with my friends being the acolytes, four of them (we are all fifteen). we know all the rules and we made our characters. I even made up a really cool campaing that we are in the middle of right now. I noticed in the forums that alot of you have said that the PC's dont get access to the RAW, does this mean they cant have there book open, or whats the deal on this because im confused. Also if anybody had any tips on how to be a GM when all of your PC's are your best friends and bloodthirsty 24/7 and dont know how to investigate and all they do is KILL KILL KILL!!!!

Any way.... Thanks for the help

The RAW means rules as written, if your PC's cant have their books open...how do you play?

And you create consequences to prevent them from killing everyone. Slap them down. The PCs dont have a license to kill anyone they want.

I noticed in the forums that alot of you have said that the PC's dont get access to the RAW,

Who is "alot of you"? I haven't seen any posts that recommend this.

Well, Cifer, i for one would STRONGLY recomend not letting your PC's have the RAW, read the RAw, or even know the RAW exists. I personlay think storylines where in your PC's realize their lives are nothing but the play thing of those in really real reality to be a bit too 90's for my taste. The players, on the other hand, can of course have the book, read it, use it, block flying food with it, etc. The PC's getting their hands on the book would just probably mean the end of the universe... or a whole group of budding Red Mages. ;-)

Good point. Usually it's me who says "Perhaps you shouldn't kill your players ..."

On Robro's second question:

I'm a strong believer in giving the players what they want. If your players want carnage then give it to them. If you're looking for something else, introduce the things you would like (investigation, interesting social situations) in between the killing now and again as preludes or epilogues to the bloodbath. When the players get interested in these little non-violent parts, have that part be integral to the killing. Have one of the NPC's that they were socializing with and not butchering give them a heads up on some enemies' activities which would allow the group to get the drop on them and butcher them much more effectively, etc. When the players start seeing these asides as also being helpful and useful in the inevitable combat to come, they will give them more time and more of their mind enabling you to expand on them. Someday, it might not be all about violence, but you have to build up to that by giving them what they want and then making what you want a part of what they want... if that makes any sense.

If you're playing the default setting for the game, that being Inquisitorial Acolytes, just make the players cell their Inquisitors dirty dog's who work to keep the the blood off of their master's hand. They're the ones who get their hands dirty when it's time for the hammer to come down. When a heretic is uncovered, they're the ones who are called in to kill his family, friends, and casual acquaintances and their families. Not only dose such a method of purging remove any support networks for the heretic and any others who might have been infected with his heretical thought virus, but also encurages others to turn in anyone they suspect might have fallen from His Light On Terra before the hammer falls and the Inquisition shows up -everyone looses when that happens. Their Inquisitor, in his infinite wisdom, would use other cells for actually rooting out the heresies, and them for the clean up. This, however, will make them a bit more expendable (and in some cases) a liability that may need to be purged themselves.

Of course, if you really just want them to stop killing everybody in sight 'cause you're having no fun, have you tried telling them this?

Graver said:

In my campaign we have two parties, the main one a standard investigative party with relatively (so far) low combat prowess, and a high-XP adepta party. The logic being, there are many creatures in the DH universe which it's fun to run plots around, but who would have the investigators for breakfast. So the adepta party gets called in on the occasions that the main party has uncovered something they can't take on alone.

Anyway, the relevance of this to the OP is that the adepta party has worked very well as a kind of space hulk-esque game where they get handed a mission and go do it, generally consisting of purging baddies. There is plot in these missions, but it mainly consists of interesting scenes where the fighting happens, which in turn feed into the main campaign. The Nuns themselves don't pay any attention to it.