It`s me or some of the weapons in RT are a little unbalanced, for example, the Hellgun with Pen 7. Is a laser weapon, yeah with a power backpack, but is not a laser cannon. Or the opposite, the noble lasgun with Pen 0, how does the imperial guard kill an ork if their weapons are so ineffective. They have artillery, yeah, but not the common soldier in the front line.

So, should I adjust the weapons that seems a little off? What do you think?

If I'm not mistaken, the average ork has a TB of 6, with armor of 3 primitive, meaning they soak 7-8 points of damage. The humble lasgun does 1d10+3 so for an average of 8 damage. So.... average ork would take about 0-1 damage per hit. Obviously, the Imperial Guard also employs heavy weapons with a high sustain rate of fire when against orks, so heavy stubbers, auto cannons, and multi lasers are in about every squad.

With that said, I also had an issue with the Hellgun having a Pen of 7, and attempted to substitute the Dal'Hakka (probably misspelled) Hellgun from DH to be the more average Hellgun varitity available. However, about 3 weeks into GMing RT I had an epiphany that PC's inevitably obtained way better equipment than the Hellgun, and retracted my silly house rule.

So what if the average lasgun has trouble killing a cat. Or if the readily available Hellgun can easily kill that human adversary in Power armor. I quickly came to the conclusion more pressing issues were present when GMing RT, like ship combat and mass troop engagements. Why dwell on the little things?

P.S. Wait till you get to the Rak'Gol in ship boarding actions with their high armor and TB, compared to common armsman controlled by a PC.

I concur with that last comment. Even though I allow NPCs to inflict critical hits in my game, the basic lasgun is virtually ineffective against Rakgol.

Bolt pistols and bolters are mostly effective, and heavy bolters still work as well on Rak'Gol as they do on about anything else.

This is part of why the Ork is a feared commodity; even as simple as they are, dumb, and without subtlety, even predictable, to a point, the typical Ork can absorb a lot of punishment, and then they also weaken the Guards' best advantage; numerical superiority. Orks are terrifying because they will charge the lines, and many will survive, to make the Guardsmen have to fight CC, which IG suck at. IG knows what its typical weapon is, and how well the Ork can take it, and they get antsy when they know that the two will collide.

Also, from at least one perspective, the Guardsmen don't beat the Ork. They serve as bubble wrap, slowing down, and maybe hamstringing the Orks for the artillery, or big guns. One needs to remember that, outside of the Only War game (and even there, sometimes), the infantry aren't really the stars; the tanks are, and the grunts die in droves that the tanks can crush the mobs with ordnance fire. Eldar are hard to hit, Orks hard to hurt, and other humans bring the same toys you will use. Against Orks, and numerous other bigger threats, like the nastier strains of Nids, or the aforementioned Rak'Gol, your squad's heavy/support weapon is the point of it all, and the others, with the humble lasguns, are just there as extra wounds allocation. Certainly, I'm exaggerating to a degree, but if you look in TT, the big Infantry blobs are mostly just for extra wounds before the squad needs to roll for casualties, and to protect the Primaris, Commissar, or whomever else you added in to hurt things, who might buff 20-50 grunts, but is really there because they have a power weapon/fist, or a better gun, and you want to protect that.

On the plus side, at least the Orks are universally famous for a love a dakka, and an equally massive complete inability to hit with it, so you won't often suffer horrendous casualties until they close for melee. They might be better in this game line, by a smidge, but Orks like guns for the noise, and even their best HQ's in TT have BS 2, so they almost never hit. In Tabletop, some Orks might not even be aware the point of a gun is to wound people at range with the shots.

If I'm not mistaken, the average ork has a TB of 6, with armor of 3 primitive, meaning they soak 7-8 points of damage. The humble lasgun does 1d10+3 so for an average of 8 damage. So.... average ork would take about 0-1 damage per hit. Obviously, the Imperial Guard also employs heavy weapons with a high sustain rate of fire when against orks, so heavy stubbers, auto cannons, and multi lasers are in about every squad.

Given the unnatural toughness and the propensity for Orks to be at least toughness 40 or so the Ork's toughness bonus is going to average at 8 and their armour is not primitive if worn by an Ork. This means a weapon that does an average damage of eight is generally ignored by Orks... Heck if you discount righteous fury which NPCs generally don't get even at maximum damage the Ork will only be taking two points of damage.

This is why Orks are scary to the general populace. The base weapons that they have easy access to aren't effective and Orks are a hoard so you can't even count on weight of numbers bringing them down.

Heavy weapons are your friend in this situation.

he typical Ork can absorb a lot of punishment, and then they also weaken the Guards' best advantage; numerical superiority

However, while scary and resilient, they are far from being invincible. According to WH40K lore, a humble lasgun is capable of severing a human's arm with one standard shot (that's for "lasguns are weak weapons part" - they may be weak but not when compared against AK-47s or G-36s, but when compared against more powerfule 40K guns like bolters, plasma guns or Tau pulse rifles) and a headshot from a lasgun would instantly kill a common ork boy (however, it can be trickier with a nob or mek-boy, a lot trickier).

RPG game mechanics invariably contain things, put there for maintaining balance (and helping the PCs from being killed with a single shot from weapons like autoguns or stub revolvers, held by low level scum).

The humble lasgun does 1d10+3 so for an average of 8 damage. So.... average ork would take about 0-1 damage per hit

It would get more funnier that it applies a way of both ways.

For example.

1) A typical ork boy have 12 wounds, toughness bonus of 6 and armor rating of 2, but only for body. That means, an ork could absorb 6 to 8 damage.

A lasgun deals 1d10+3E damage on normal, and have an AP bonus of 0. That means to score any damage to ork with a lasgun on normal power setting you have to roll 4 or higher on d10 dice if a shot hit anything other than body or 6 or higher if the hit was for ork's body. The maximum possible damage that way is 7 when anything other than body is hit and 5 when a hit is to the body of ork.

However, a humble lasgun could be set to overcharge shots without any sacrifilce than higher ammo cell drain. In such setting it would get 1d10+4E damage and an AP bonus of 0. Scoring damage to ork on such setting would require a dice roll of 3 or higher if anything other than body is hit, and 5 or higher for the hits to body. Maximum damage dealt would be 6 (body) to 8 (anything else).

In time of neccessity a humble lasgun could be set to overload. It is somewhat prone to overheating on such setting and burns ammo cells like no tomorrow, but gets 1d10+5E damage and AP bonus of 2. That means an ork getting damaged on any roll equal of higher than 2 and could sustain a maximum of 9 damage.

2) A typical Imperial Guard infantrymen have a toughness bonus of 3 and armor rating of 4, for all body parts. That means a guardsmane could absord 7 damage.

Ork shoota deals 1d10+4I damage and have an AP bonus of 0. So it would means an ork (if he hits the target that is - a shoota has Inaccurate trait and an orks BS is 24 opposed to Guardsman's 35) hits a guardsman damage would be dealt on dice roll equal or higher than 4 and the maximum damage could be equalling 7 wounds.

Remember that the humble lasgun relies on weight of fire rather than individual firepower! This is shown with the comrade's "get them" sweeping order. This adds+4 to any lasgun wielding guardsman's damage. This will definitely dent an Orc!

Indeed. In Only War, matters are a lot more balanced - firstly, Unnatural Toughness is less overwhelming - it's +2, not x2, so an ork only has TB6. Secondly, a lasgun has the 'high power' setting, at a cost of eating your power pack faster and losing reliable, and finally there are many ways to get damage bonus (it is, after all, a game where the Imperial Guard are the stars).

However, in Rogue Trader, the lasgun is next to useless against even a flak-armoured rival human. The Hellgun's Pen 7 is appropriate - stormtrooper hotshot lasers do punch through astartes armour, even if they then have trouble causing more than light burns to the marine inside it - but a regular lasgun is kind of rubbish.

The appropriate response in Rogue Trader, however, is " why the bloody hell are you using a lasgun? Did someone bankrupt the Dynasty whilst I wasn't looking ?"

Bolt rounds and plasma weapons are far more efficient.... and frankly that's the level of armament any character intending to enter combat should be aiming for.

he typical Ork can absorb a lot of punishment, and then they also weaken the Guards' best advantage; numerical superiority

However, while scary and resilient, they are far from being invincible. According to WH40K lore, a humble lasgun is capable of severing a human's arm with one standard shot (that's for "lasguns are weak weapons part" - they may be weak but not when compared against AK-47s or G-36s, but when compared against more powerfule 40K guns like bolters, plasma guns or Tau pulse rifles) and a headshot from a lasgun would instantly kill a common ork boy (however, it can be trickier with a nob or mek-boy, a lot trickier).

RPG game mechanics invariably contain things, put there for maintaining balance (and helping the PCs from being killed with a single shot from weapons like autoguns or stub revolvers, held by low level scum).

You got that "arm severing" thing from the Uplifting Primer, didn't you? But seriously, I'm not saying they are crap; just as crap as you'd expect from the most mass-produced, given to every man in an army to use, but the army will still be challenged often, type of weapon. As for headshots, and the like, we all know that the typical Guardsman isn't a crack shot with his flashlight; they get minimal training, and then they get tossed out, into the meat grinder. If they die, they did their job, hopefully, and if they survive, they learn more. Eventually, you get what the codex calls a Veteran, and they can probably make that headshot. Otherwise, we hope that the Primaris nigh every person on the OW forum hates exists will use their vaunted powers to improve your accuracy. If the typical shot hits an Ork's torso, his resilience, armor, and 'Orkiness' will probably preserve him to melee that Guardsman. That's why these fights take so long; both armies have lots of guys, with crappy weapons, probably crappy accuracy, and it's a song and dance if the Humans can use cover, and weaken the Orks, before the Greenskins close for choppa combat, wherein, again, both sides' large numbers will drag that out. As orks are rarely strategic, and don't really use cover, they'll just charge in, absorbing hits, beacuse they can . I like to think that's why so many little wars still happen with the Orks, as opposed to the Eldar, for instance. This is my opinion, at least, and weird, as it's probably the most "praise" I've ever given to the race I otherwise hate the most. Might step back, now. Still hate Orks.

Indeed. In Only War, matters are a lot more balanced - firstly, Unnatural Toughness is less overwhelming - it's +2, not x2, so an ork only has TB6. Secondly, a lasgun has the 'high power' setting, at a cost of eating your power pack faster and losing reliable, and finally there are many ways to get damage bonus (it is, after all, a game where the Imperial Guard are the stars).

However, in Rogue Trader, the lasgun is next to useless against even a flak-armoured rival human. The Hellgun's Pen 7 is appropriate - stormtrooper hotshot lasers do punch through astartes armour, even if they then have trouble causing more than light burns to the marine inside it - but a regular lasgun is kind of rubbish.

The appropriate response in Rogue Trader, however, is " why the bloody hell are you using a lasgun? Did someone bankrupt the Dynasty whilst I wasn't looking ?"

Bolt rounds and plasma weapons are far more efficient.... and frankly that's the level of armament any character intending to enter combat should be aiming for.

Yeah, Rogue Trader's catch-phrase could've been "money talks", where even the youngest of dynasties can probably afford to arm their players with many of the best toys you would normally grumble about costing way too much, in the codex, and a few successes later, you can probably even afford to kit out units of flak troops with "real guns". Fact of the matter is, money is your superpower. As I flip through my RT book, I find that, often, the only real limiting factor in what you can give your character will end up being style/motif. If you say you want great armor, easy. A Plasma pistol? Cake. If you are running around in an Officer's dress uniform, using naval pistols, it's only because you chose to; you could afford better. My RT has some cheese, to be sure, but most of it boils down to stuff he COULD get, on a pretty decent roll, and not being loaded, like Chorda, or Winterscale; it's only one, or two things he has, where you could say "you couldn't buy that at any price", and those are story-based. Money talks.