Right, me and 1 of my players were chatting recently, and the topic of income came up. Our players are currently on a shuttle inbound for a hive world (whose name I've forgotten ), we've been on the shuttle for 3 months, from the lathe world to..Laradus or something. Not got the book to hand.

Anywyas, said player (a psyker with a freakishly high WP) was saying that, since the inquisitor is unlikley to take a personal interest in our location and activites, he wouldn't know if we were activley investigating or not. I reasoned that, since we were not activley investigating, merely en route, we wouldn't get paid, since we wern't activley doing our job (even if waiting while travelling comes with the job).

Now, my dilema is this; our party has proven very sufficient in handling themselves in combat, we managed to take out 6 tech guards with overlapping fields of fire and D'laka hellguns (from IH).

1 Player has chosen a tech priest and is going down a close combatty route (using an alternate career and backgrouind from IH) and has expressed interest in obtaining a power fist. Now, we'v eonly just reached 4th tier career and our psyker is dead set on getting Force Barrage. So basically, I don't want my players getting rich for waiting on a shuttle,a rriving, blowing their cash and allround kicking arse.

It's not that I don't want them to do well, but I don't want them to be..too ahead of the game, 4th tier players with kiackass weaponary and equipment means I'll have to step up the opposition to keep things interesting, and I don't want the players to get...bored with taking down crack-teams sent to kill them and psykers with discipline mastery and the like.

So basically, back to the original question, what do I do about their income, and specifically, themr eceiving it while not activley persuing an investigation?

From what I've understood of the rules the income isnt paid by the Inquisitor. The income is rather paid from the labour that the PC's do during downtime between missions or during warp transit aboard a ship. Hence why Scum has a varied income depending on what type of heist they attempt each month. Therefore you could consider investigations to be "duty" rather than paid work...

I treat it as the Inquisition paying them, but it pays them by depositing the money with a particular enclave with one of the transtellar banking houses. I'd let them get paid, but that pay is only available on the base planet, unless they thought ahead to send the funds to the planet they're travelling to. They could get access from another planet if they are prepared to get gouged with several hundred (or even thousands) in astropathic transaction fees...

There are these handy things called "credit blocks" that apparently secure large sums of currency in an easy to carry manner. They are mentioned in passing in the equipment of numerous NPC's in House of Dust and Ash . No need to "wire-transfer" ahead.

As to the stipend, it could be from other work or paid by the Inquisitor. It would stand to reason that anything paid out by the Inquisitor would likely be sifted through multiple holdings and dummy fronts before eventually winding up in the Acolyte's hands or account. Of course, that would presume that the Inquisitor wanted to add a layer of security for his acolytes.

-=Brother Praetus=-

In my games, it's the Inquisitor paying them, it's not pay per se, more a means to ensure they can carry on investigating without being killed

Also, my players are equipped with Throne cards. Kindal ike a credit card. These cards have a near infinite amount of Thrones in them, but an inbuilt Chronometerr ensures that, monthly, an amount of Gelt equal to their current salary is unlocked and avaliable to use. It can either be done by handing over the card to a shop owner or whatever, they can scan it and extract the funds that way, or they can go to a cashpoint and extract it there.

Hacking it to mess with the chronometer causes the card to combust. Leaving said acolyte with no money and burnt fingers.

The Problem getting Power Fists and else is not paying for them, but have possibility to pay for them, these items are precious because they´re scarce available.

So one of the best ways to get one is convincing their Inq that they should get those things, as a recognition of their good work, a badge of Honor

That os what I was going for

But I'm a sucker for happy PC's and if they say; "I have the money, I passed the test to find it, why can't I buy it? I'm annoyed now" I'll end up giving it to them

Well.....sometimes >.>

I'd have just gien them the money. Come to that players in my game earn a lot more but always seem to be short at the appropriate juncture

If you can limit the availibilty of weapons that works really well. A power fist for example is probably custom made so use the inquisitors handbook rules for crafting to simulate the time it takes as well as making the pc pay for the creators time. this can make brilliant equiptment rather expensive... but also keeps continuity.

There are very few ways to break this game with money, believe me. Most expensive weapons require talents. Most really expensive stuff is so far out of a player's income reach that he would have to be dormant several years to afford it.

And finally... are you playing beggars or operatives of the most powerful organization of the Imperium? There are certainly many reasons not to take heavy weapons and expensive gear on a mission, but "we can't afford it" doesn't sound like a legitimate one once the acolytes have proved themselves to their inquisitor. Emphasise on how high-tech may draw attention from all the wrong sides and see how your players deal with it.

I have set it up for my players that they are on the payroll of the ][ but that limits them in what they are able to request for missions. So yes they get paid what their characters would on mission, in warp travle, etc..

Even with this method I have to see my PCs get really rich they are usually buying more weapons and ammo so don't end up having a lot left over to play around with. Also anything that might cost them during missions then they are paying that out of pocket. Also there are medical bills to take into account (at least for my group). So getting paid for just wating to arrive at some place isn't that outlandish it all just comes down to how your GM wants to do it. I have just found that it is easier to say that the PCs are getting bankrolled by the ][ and then everything else is left up to them.

Our Psyker is.....VERY arrogant to be honest, nothing he can't handle in his mind

The party strutting down a street in power armour wielding bolters really wouldn't be a problem to him, it would show the groups superiority and cow the weaker :

cyclocius said:

Yes, but the bad guys would be long gone before the PCs ever found them. My PCs are busy buying bet quality flak vest that look like poor quality, and body gloves. If their boss ever aught them wandering around in power armor he'd spaced them. (again) He is pretty clear that if he wanted that sort of thing he'd use his storm troopers, or calling the Sisters of Battle. What he needs is guys to find the bad guys without spooking them.

Which not to say the don't get the chance to drive a loaner APC thru a building. (Honestly they just meant to break in, but failed drive roll badly...) Or borrow a lascannon....

Heheh

My character just has a .54 tranter which I keep under my cloak, I have a flak vest that comes with being an Arbitrator.

Our guardsman.......good luck trying to take his sword off him

Make sure Acolytes and Inquisitors to tithe as well, the Cathedral of Illumination does not stand on faith alone all you armed Clerics.

Our GM pays us for travel and down time, but he adjusts things to cost a touch more as we rank up (after all you do get raises )