...being an Untouchable and wanting a background package or other neat things. I would, would you?

I would award an XP bonus for a good backstory with some plot hooks (i.e. one containing some characters from their past). They'd have to work for it.

I would give all the players more starting XP in order to allow everyone to start with equally neat stuff.

The starting XP are somewhat low, me thinks.

After all, these are people sought out to work for the inquisition, aren´t they? I allow my two groups to start with about 800xp, in order to give them SOME "power".

If I start a new campaign, or have a story event where the players will play as characters other than their "main storyline" characters, they'll be starting at a minimum of 1000 xp.

That smacks of min/maxing and cherry picking backgrounds. Being a null is enough of background for anyone.

Dalnor Surloc said:

being a null isn't a background of any kind whatsoever. It's nothing more than a mechanic. Now being a tranch war veteran, that's a background. I'd have no problems whatsoever with a player being a tranch veteran and a null. I don't see why GM's have problems with players min/maxing since such idiocy is so easily punished. Dark heresy isn't "balanced", but it's not a game about balance, it's about storytelling.

Locque said:

Woah wait. Being a Tranch War Veteran is a mechanic too.

If my player wanted to play an untouchable and wanted to be a tranch war veteran as well, I'd say "sure, why not? But you don't get the stat package buff for being a vet without the experience. You just have that roleplaying background."

The XP is to buy extra skills and buffs, not for background. Anything more is min/maxing over your fellow players. I might allow those skills from the background package to be purchased as elite advances, but that's a different bag altogether.

*If* I allowed a PC go go into negative XP, it would be at 1.5-2 times the going rate. IE if you needed an extra 400 XP as a starting character, you'd have to work off 6-800 xp before I started giving you awards. Either that or I'd give everyone the same starting xp.

TheFlatline said:

being a tranch veteran is absolutely a mechanic, but it gives you a history. Being an untouchable does not, it's an utterly blank slate. Frankly I think being untouchable should be free at character creation, but players were only allowed to take it with their GM's permission. If I felt a player was min/maxing, then you bet your ass they'd be punished for their weaknesses, over and over again, until they learned.