Fellow GMs, I have a quick question for you all!

How do you go about introducing the RC archetypes. Do you tell the players what they have available to them as they hit the influence minimums (but also tell them they still need to meet them ingame) or do you not even mention it, and when they meet certain characters in a story, later tell them when appropriate that the character is available or something else entirely?

I'm interested to hear how you do it!

Thanks

Currently, it was enough work to present the new core rules changes to them, and I did not even made them aware of RC, although I "mixed" one in right from the start for a player who used to play a SoB in my last DH game. Mostly, my players trust in me as the GM to offer options "in game" when they fit the character they play AND the games I play with them.

Our group only allows RC from those we have met in game, that way there is a story behind them and a "reason" for them to be aiding acolytes. At one point we met a Deathwatch Marine and later one were able to "summon" him to aid us against Eldar. Same thing with some sisters we met/aided.

~ alemander

Thanks guys, that clears things up nicely. That's pretty much how I've been doing this thus far, guess I'll keep at it.

I encourage the players to generate reinforcement characters to 'hire' if they feel they need them - they don't tend to use the 'superfriends brigade' because they tend to be on missions where subtlety is important. However, they have (via the Inquisitor and their own contacts) the resources to hire in some 'professionals' to handle the unpleasant stuff once they know what's going on (or think they do).

Having investigative/manipulative characters for the most part, being able to spend a couple of influence to substitute out for a 3-4,000 XP combat character for a session as discrete 'hired guns' helps a lot because as the GM I can have the heretics have realistic security for the 'big finish' fight without it being a massacre, but it also helps underline the run-run-run-ruuuuunnnnnn!!!!! moments when the players 'normal' characters (who generally have a laspistol and delusions of competence) find themselves in a gunfight, even against a bunch of hive gangers.

It works in reverse, too - I like PCs to be encouraged to outline and name their 'off-screen' contacts.

Encouraging the players to spend influence to establish a contact in the form of "Get-You-Good-Price" Pietro, who's got commerce+20, common lore(underworld)+20 and a sanctionate record so big they gave him a second oath cog to record it on, or an up-hive scholar with scholastic lore (chymistry)+30 and a supercilious attitude, is a good way to (a) 'flesh out' the game world and (b) give the players - limited - access to obscure skills that they might need once or twice because they're plot-central to a given mission but aren't something that'll come up enough to be worth spending XP on the player himself learning; a lot of the more obscure Scholastic Lore and Trade specialities, for example.

It also gives you plot hooks for future games, because these characters, once created, will continue to exist 'off camera' - and can need favours, get in trouble, or even be killed - the PC's trusted arms dealer getting murdered is a way for a nemesis to 'strike at the players' if they blow their subtlety too badly, without the PC's own characters being directly affected (which is more likely to lead to complaints if they don't have any chance to stop it).