Okay I am sure someone will read this and think "man how can you not figure that out?" I just need a little clarification before I start scaling up encounters for my players who have weapons with low penetration values (7-10).

Scenario: Players face off against a Rak'Gol (armor 16 body, TB 10). Player A fires his Heavy Bolter on full auto, scoring 5 success. Rak'Gol fails to dodge. Which of the following happens:

Question 1: would Player A roll all 5 sets of damage dice (1 for each success), add them together, subtract Rak'Gol Armor/TB, then I deduct remaining damage from total wounds?

Question 2: or would Player A roll each damage dice separately, I subtract Rak'Gol Armor/TB, then deduct remaining damage from total wounds?

If the answer is question 2, how are players suppose to fight off something that all but heavy weapons can harm (barely)? Right now the party seems to be sticking to melta gun, custom big shoota, hellpistol and grenade launcher. I realize it is up to me to determine the scale (which I can obviously reduce the Rak'Gol) but i want to make it challenging (and often stick to what the pre-made mission says) but not so challenging I am killing players at every turn.

The group (6) players tend to concentrate on getting armor upgrades, weapon % upgrades, their characteristics are increasing greatly, but no extremely lethal weapons. I am not sure I am doing enough to convey to them that they have a plethora of options available to them. I am kind of stuck here on pushing the enemy level on these guys, I am not trying to kill them off but I don't want to throw stuff at them that is way out of their league which could end a session with most the party dead.

Question 2: or would Player A roll each damage dice separately, I subtract Rak'Gol Armor/TB, then deduct remaining damage from total wounds?

You are correct here. The damage is rolled separately, with each hit deducting the Armor / TB of the opponent, and any remaining damage applied to the wounds of said adversary.

Your example: , IIRC, damage of a HVY Bolter is 2d10+4, Pen 4, with tearing. Player rolls 3 d 10 and picks 2 highest which is 7, 5 + 4 (7+5+4=16), netting 16 dam with 4 pen. Rak'Gol has 16 armour and 10 TB. 16 Ar - 4 Pen = 12 Armour left. 12 - 16 dam = 4 damage. 4 - 10 TB = no damage on first attack. You then conduct this sequence an additional 4 times.

If the answer is question 2, how are players suppose to fight off something that all but heavy weapons can harm (barely)? Right now the party seems to be sticking to melta gun, custom big shoota, hellpistol and grenade launcher. I realize it is up to me to determine the scale (which I can obviously reduce the Rak'Gol) but i want to make it challenging (and often stick to what the pre-made mission says) but not so challenging I am killing players at every turn.

The group (6) players tend to concentrate on getting armor upgrades, weapon % upgrades, their characteristics are increasing greatly, but no extremely lethal weapons. I am not sure I am doing enough to convey to them that they have a plethora of options available to them. I am kind of stuck here on pushing the enemy level on these guys, I am not trying to kill them off but I don't want to throw stuff at them that is way out of their league which could end a session with most the party dead.

You can simply lower the Armour Rating of the adversary in question (like say to an 6 or 8), until your group becomes better equipped. And there is nothing wrong with what the PC's are carrying. You need only lower the opponents stats to better fit your groups power level and play style. Not everyone likes to carry around lascannons and missile launchers for every opponent they might encounter. Obviously, once your Explorers start eliminating threats more efficiently, you can increase their opposition level.

I do have a question. What page and book are you getting the stats of this Rak'Gol from? I truly don't recall any Rak'Gol having an armour rating of 16; however, I obviously overlooked it (or don't own the book in question).

You are correct about the Rak'Gol. I had it confused with the another creature (Necron Tomb Stalker or Squiggoth...not sure now), the Rak'Gol Reaver from Koronus Bestiary had body AP 9 and TB 10. Even then the players are dishing out barely enough damage to affect it.

I really don't mind the players carrying what they have, even modifying with a personal touch. I just want to make sure we are all on the same page with how we are proceeding, its been 13 years since I ran an RPG, I want to make sure I am not coddling or hindering players. I will likely reduce the armor of the Rak'Gol (or TB) or similar creatures until such time I need to reset to previous levels.

If everyone is having fun, then you need not worry about accidental coddling. Of course, shenanigans is always a possibility when playing any RPG, but is expected and even encouraged from time to time. GM discretion is advised, of course.

Ap 9 tb 10?? That's hellish armor. Is that on all locations? Time to pack some plasma. You might just want to invent some slave class Rak'Gol that can't afford to wear light tank armor. Little odd that their basic troops can hang with a Space Marine.

Hire on some ordo xenos acolytes and have them bring their friendly neighborhood deathwatch marine the first time you fight them. Large crew casualties to play up the horror aspect. Dude in the back with the MP lascannon be all like "I got this" until the hull breach.

I've been playing FFG WH40k RPGs for over a year and we have always done damage as only one damage roll for all the shots. So if you did 14 damage with 3 shots, then it was 14 damage each time. We have been doing it wrong this whole time

..although there is a speed advantage there as a house rule. Watching someone roll up 9 heavy bolter damages starts getting a little sleepy at the table.

I can see how that could get monotonous. Another nice thing about the house rule is people tend to live a bit longer as a result of a lower chance of doing high damage.

I do try to speed up the rolling a little by having the player roll only once per attack to see if their righteous fury triggers. 8 hits on a storm bolter goes through slowly enough as it is.

On the other hand if everything comes down to one roll, and you get an exploding dice RF... *shudder*

Someone who was only shot by a heavy bolter begins to look like they had a Carnifex dropped on them from orbit.

On the other hand if everything comes down to one roll, and you get an exploding dice RF... *shudder*

Someone who was ONLY shot by a heavy bolter begins to look like they had a Carnifex dropped on them from orbit.

*ONLY*

Heh,

Lots of things in 40k look at a heavy bolter like: "Three shots, str 5, ap 4? Really? You bothered paying 10 points for that? Oops, sorry! Your normal gun sucks even WORSE!"

Drop a Carni on a Baneblade from orbit... Carni's gonna feel it in the morning, after regening most of the day, but the Baneblade probably isn't going to be there anymore.