I'm thinking of using the Profit Factor rules in my next DH game. Admittedly, the Profit Factor for Acolytes is going to be quite low and really can only be used when they have direct access to their patron Inquisitor or one of his/her safe houses. Has anyone done this yet? How did it work out?

Haven't done it yet. But if Ascension won't bring this up, im thinking of creating a system similar to PF based partly on what type of background the characters have (like Noble Born contributing to extra PF) and particular talents and contacts as well as the accumulated favor within the Inquisition for the really high level campaigns in Dark Heresy.

Also im thinking of renaming the term "Profit Factor" to something like "Stipend Factor" or something similar. Just to make the distinction between the games.

I have started experimenting with something like a goodwill-value for my players acolytes. My major problem is that I can't find relevant ways to limit the amount of rolls that the characters make. Finding things on an open market takes time and contacts and effort and so on. But requisitioning things from your inquisitor only require time to fill out the forms, and after that it only requires your inquisitor to have the things, and to want to hand them to you. So i have to invent arbitrary game-power-level-limits to stop the acolytes from just writing a long list. Imagine:

Bellina, the support gunner, wants some sort of heavy weapon. She's got about 20% chance to succeed on a requisition check to get a Very Rare item from the Inquisitor. So she writes a requisition for one Autocannon. Then she writes another requisition for one Assault Cannon. Then another one for a lascannon, and one for a heavy bolter. Then she files them all and waits for the handling to be done (= roughly 60% chance of getting at least one of them). Alternatively she makes one big requisition list with all the objects on. And the only limits I can come up with feel so arbitrary and GM-bosses-over-the-players.

What I do right now is that during the last downtime I let my players make three "wishes". These could be the requisition of one piece of rare equipment or it could be the ability to buy a rare skill or talent (this is the only way for my team to gain forbidden lores or psycic powers since they are all guardsmen with slight variations). Some of these wishes were not granted (no powerarmor, FL(inq.) or lascannons for example) but instead they were allowed to change their wish to something their GM felt reasonable, rather than wasting it. This was indeed a very meta-gaming solution.

One alternative way of handling requisition is to have the player make a wishlist and let them roll for each object one at a time from the top down. As soon as they have succeeded on a set number of rolls they don't get to roll any more. I can also imagine the requisition roll gaining a -10% modifier each time you succeed on it. However, even these system feels ruleswise-arbitrary. Why would an inquisitor choose to limit her acolytes to three requisitions each month?

I prefer to handle requisition as a roleplaying challenge where the acolytes gets to ask for stuff and their Inq, or someone working for her, gets to deny or grant on a more character-arbitrary way. The systems just feel arbitrary in a meta-gaming way, wich I find tasting too much of DnD for fitting into DH.

Bellina, the support gunner, wants some sort of heavy weapon. She's got about 20% chance to succeed on a requisition check to get a Very Rare item from the Inquisitor. So she writes a requisition for one Autocannon. Then she writes another requisition for one Assault Cannon. Then another one for a lascannon, and one for a heavy bolter. Then she files them all and waits for the handling to be done (= roughly 60% chance of getting at least one of them). Alternatively she makes one big requisition list with all the objects on. And the only limits I can come up with feel so arbitrary and GM-bosses-over-the-players.

Then grant bonuses and penalties for overly long lists - the Inquisitor (or his aides, more likely) will probably be more well-disposed to someone who feels he is capable of mostly improvising on the spot instead of draining the Inquisitor's coffers.

Factors that could be important when considering whether or not an item is granted:

Acolyte Rank (experienced operatives can be trusted with better gear)
Previous Mission Success (competent acolytes get better toys)
Perceived Mission Difficulty (no handing out Guncutters for going to the grocery)
List Length (as mentioned above)
Appropriateness of Item for Mission (no heavy artillery for a diplomacy-heavy mission at a banquet)
Appropriateness of Item for Career (no heavy bolters for the adept)
Rarity of Item (the aide's time is limited - tracking down rare items eats up a lot of it)
Cost of Item (even an Inquisitor's ressources are limited)
Likeness to another item on the list that wasn't granted (when you can't find a bolt pistol, chances are you can't obtain a boltgun either)

Yes indeed Cifer. That is exactly what I ment. The many factors are so varied and depends so much on an NPCs evaluations that it would be very cumbersome to try to create a representative set of rules. I'd much rather the pretense of an objective rules system and just tell the players to write their wishlists and then I'd roleplay (probably in my mind) the NPC in charge of granting or denying their wishes. Your list will be a very good guideline for when my players next requisition new gear.

I use a profit factor and its pretty simple. I take the cost of item and I multiply it by a factor based on its availablity. This new number is the cost in requisition points. The points are awarded to the Entire Party. I usually give 20-30 requistion points a session and give 50-100 points for a successful mission or take away 30-60 for failure to complete the mission. So for example, an item cost 500 and it is common. 500 *.05 =25 requistion points need to purchase for free. Another example...an item cost 500 and it is rare. 500*.3= 150 requistion points. I would put a table up, but I don't have my rulebook in front of me.

*Edit* The players do not know about this system. So sometimes I fudge it. It helps me keep track of what they should be able to request easily.

I've just started using Profit Factor in my DH game with very few changes. The biggest change would be the name (Profit Factor just dose not suit Inquisitors and their acolytes after all): for Dark Heresy i call it Influence.

I have never liked the ported commerce system that DH has. It, for me and my players, didn't really have the right feel for the 40k universe. In such a universe, money is not power, knowledge is. It's all about who you know and what you can get them to do for you. That's were power is. If you want something, you take it from someone of a lesser station. If you are of a lessor station, well, you get what ever you need from your master so you can do what ever thankless job you are born to do. Tracking money and buying and selling on such small scale just didn't have the right feel even if barter and currency systems exist. So, Influence.

Like in RT, the Cells Influence factor is communal. Unlike RT, it starts if rather small, like around 5. The Influence factor is a measure of how much weight the PC's collectively have (sans Inquisitorial papers and what-not) to throw about and get what they want. Since they will rarely be purchasing anything in bulk and, as such, get a +30 to most acquisition rolls, it's no big deal. I also allow Peer and Good Reputation talents to add a +10 to acquisition tests when a character goes to an organization that he or she has a Peer Talent with to requisition the goods or men they need (as long as said organization would ave the ting being requested).

Te Influence Factor in my game isn't merely a measure of what the PC's can sign off for or bully their way into getting, but it's also an indicator of how extensive their own faceless information network is or ow much access they have to their masters network. It is used between other agents of the Inquisition as a rough measure of respect that they have earned, used wen they want to get their hands on items or goods without resorting to Inquisitorial seizure, and used for the gathering of rough intel from various places or on certain targets.

Instead of engaging in endeavors to rase it, it goes up any time they secure resources for themselves or their master to be used on further investigations, any time they get someone in power to "owe them one", any time they go out of their way to make a contact within some organization, for taking the initiative and investigating possible trouble that was not part of their initial mission, and as a reward for exceptional performance in their mission on hand. In the end, it's a measure of their own weight and not merely the weight granted to them by their master but the weight they've earned. After all, if any of them are serious about climbing the deadly carear ladder of the Inquisition, ten it's never too early to start shoring up one's resources and cultivating their Influence and information networks.

Most interesting.

At the moment, I'm still wondering about the scale of this Influence. A straight linear function just doesn't seem to fit...

Guess I'll have to think about creating a system of my own...