Hi all,

I am new to War Hammer 40K RPG and all (although I did kept tabs on DH), I've been reading RT and something pop to mind (actually several somethings but I will post them at the houserule section).

My question, and it maybe petty, is why there are no Weapon skills. True there are controlling abilities to hurting other people (Ballistic Skill and Weapon skill) and you get a Talent that tells you in what weapons you are trained to hurt other people but you can't improve your hurt other people skill only your ability. Opposed to that look at Fellowship which basically tells you how (and I quote the book here) " Fellowship is your ability to interact with other creatures, to deceive, charm and befriend them,". So if Ballistic skill measure you innate ability to hit things Fellowship measure your innate ability to interact with them. For Fellowship you get a skill like Charm that once mastered can give you a bonus to your basic innate ability but for guns... no such luck you either know how to use it or not.

Thoughts, answers, eternal scorn ?

Cheers,

Roy

It's fine the way it is. If you want to get better at hurting people and breaking things, buy the weapon training talents, the supporting talents (Marksman, Mighty Shot, Gunslinger,...) and the WS/BS advances and get some high quality weapons and accessoires.

It's easy enough to rule that the Weapon Training Talents are Skills instead. I did this in DH before the Universal groups appeared. For example, I had an Arbitrator with Basic Weapon (Bolt), Basic Weapon (SP) +10, and Basic Weapon (Las). If you do this, you have to decide what ranks the weapon skills fit in at, and I'd suggest NOT using the Universal grouping.

The original Warhammer Fantasy Battles game was a miniatures battle game. Every model was presumed skilled with the weapons it carried. It used the following charcteristics:
M WS BS S T I W A Ld Int Cl Wp
Move
Weapon Skill
Ballistic Skill
Strength
Toughness
Initiative
Wounds
Attacks
Leadership
Intelligence
Cool
Willpower

the original Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader minis game used the same stats as the WFB game. And had a limitation on what could be carried. You couldn't use any equipment with a higher tech level than the model carrying it had in Int.

Warhammer FRP 1E added a couple:
M WS BS S T I W A Dex Ld Int Cl Wp Fel
Dexterity
Fellowship

WFRP1E used talents and skills that were boolean; you had them or didn't. (Like the 40KRPG traits). Weapons were default of WS, +10 if skilled, but some odd weapons were WS if skilled, and default of 10 for unskilled. It's pretty reasonably likely that this adapted from AD&D weapon proficiencies.

WFRP 2E adjusted down the number of stats.
WS BS S T Agl Int WP Fel
Agility

WFRP2E also used 3 levels of skill, and made unskilled consistently 1/2 stat for most skills, and no roll for some. But it adjusted the weapon talents to the system shared with DH.

Dark Heresy used as a core the rules for WFRP2E, but changed the stats a bit. It also makes more use of Advanced skills.

At that point, Black Industries was yanked off the project, and FFG got hold of it.

FFG made a few subtle revisions to both WFRP2E and DH, but fundamentally didn't alter the game. They added most of the supplements, too.

Rogue Trader is FFG expanding upon the DH system for a different subsection of the 40K setting. It inherited the WFRP 2E mode for Weapons Talents, itself an inheritance from WFRP 1E.

You become better at hurting people by raising your WS or BS. For melee you increase your strength to increase damage. Further some classes can specialize certain weapons. Talents are really where things shine. Two weapon fighting for example. Bulging biceps to use heavy weapons unbraced.... Talent to help you crit, hit certain locations.... Also be sure to read the rules on aiming, full auto, and the various weapon mods. A player who knows the rules can generally get +20 to +40 to hit most of the time...