An issue came up last session, it has to do with the glorifying acts portrayed in the Tome of Excess. Now, some of them are okay. They're based on narrative and thus hard, or even counterproductive to make specific rules for.

But, what about the following:

Reality bleeds: Rules as written mean that any psyker for perils twice in a row gets 3 CP, regardless of them being tzeeetch aligned or not. But they might not get the infamy. Has anyone experienced if this spirals psykers up into warp spawn or is it okay?

The biggest issue we've had so far:

Spine Ripper: Rip the spine and skull from a still living victim. Both skull and spine has to be undamaged in anyway. Now, there are no tests, it requires sure strike but it seems to imply you can fail. Should it be doable in combat? Any idea guys because me and the khorne guy are wracking our heads on how to do this.

Chop down the victim arms with a medium slice from the body containing the ribs. Then cut off the lower body making a V cut in the pelvis. Here look out not to cut in to the spine. After it grip strongly with both hands the victim's throat. While you contain the grip with your upper palm you squeeze down the remaining muscle and other tissues with your other (lower) palm. Also buy the Trade: Butcher skill.

The inspiration for this is almost certainly Mortal Kombat fatalities, which just don't make any sense, so worrying about how to actually make it happen in a sensible way doesn't need to be a priority if you don't want it to be. Mechanically, the Sure Strike requirement would imply that it probably has to be a called shot to the head, and additionally it obviously doesn't make much sense if you rip someone's complete skull and spine out without killing them so additionally it must be a killing blow. You might also specify that it has to take them all the way to 10 Critical damage. 8 or 9 won't cut it even though that usually kills people dead.

With Spine Ripper to work the killing blow needs to be an unarmed attack, because otherwise, you're just taking their head off, not ripping it off and taking the spine with it. Maybe require no critical damage to the head or torso, before the attempt as well.

However ... in terms of the physics/biology/biomechanics ... Spine Ripper shouldn't really work. But hey - it's 40k. Leave your thinking brain behind.

I would say, the player must land a killing blow to the chest, without using a called shot and then before the crit effects are activated, the player must pass a -10 Strength test to cut\tear free the skull and spine. Fail results in normal crit result, cant be done with I or X damage weapons. Requires one free hand or to drop their weapon as they pull out the bones (still drop on a fail)

Gives it some challenge and risk, specially if in the middle of combat.

As for the perils, I get the impression the character should be actively trying to pull off two results of perils, not simply stumble across it. The intent should clearly be stated either before or after the first perils (depending how leniant you are)

With Spine Ripper to work the killing blow needs to be an unarmed attack, because otherwise, you're just taking their head off, not ripping it off and taking the spine with it. Maybe require no critical damage to the head or torso, before the attempt as well.

However ... in terms of the physics/biology/biomechanics ... Spine Ripper shouldn't really work. But hey - it's 40k. Leave your thinking brain behind.

Now now, if we start bringing realism into this 40k falls apart completely. It's one of the things i like with 40k, it's not realistic and just runs with that fact.

Just wondering if you guys have done any tests or such. I'll talk to the player who's likely to do this and see if we can work something out.

For reality bleeds, it says they have to seek it on purpose. So I 'd say even pushing twice in a row doesn't do it unless the phenomenon is the point of the casting.

honestly considering the state of the average person's health in 40K, what with the constant war, giant implants all over the place ( seriously almost everyone they show has at least one implant in there head) just finding an "undamaged head and spine" would be the hardest part of the whole thing.

On an slight tangent my buddy pulled this off once in a game and proceeded to use the thing to bludgeon another berserker to death. he used it so often ( no I don't remember how it held together) that he eventually got to make it a legacy weapon.

It's name was bob, and due to some work from or tech priest had a higher charisma then the berserker! even if he was a bit of a smart ass.

Reality bleeds: Rules as written mean that any psyker for perils twice in a row gets 3 CP, regardless of them being tzeeetch aligned or not. But they might not get the infamy. Has anyone experienced if this spirals psykers up into warp spawn or is it okay?

I'd argue that getting perils multiple times is far more dangerous than the slow 3 CP creep towards spawndom for the glorifying act itself.

Reality bleeds: Rules as written mean that any psyker for perils twice in a row gets 3 CP, regardless of them being tzeeetch aligned or not. But they might not get the infamy. Has anyone experienced if this spirals psykers up into warp spawn or is it okay?

I'd argue that getting perils multiple times is far more dangerous than the slow 3 CP creep towards spawndom for the glorifying act itself.

Not perils, phenomena. And yeah, the risk is defineatly there but it can also happen by accident unless they go all boring fettered on me. Which both psykers have started doing after several accidents, including a bloodletter...