I'm not talking about the "we work for the inquisition" issue, my players are fully aware that waving that flag around can cause more problems than they want. I'm talkinag about one person being an Arbites, judge, jury and executioner and all that...I feel that almost every intimidation check he makes versus an Emperor fearing civilian would end up getting plus modifiers.

Another is a Techpriest and even if he is a minor part of the Cult Mechanicus he wears the red robes and not many outside of the cult would know how high or low he would be. Also using the standard requisition rules he managed to start out with three mechadendrites due to those things being scarse for members of the Adeptus Mechanicus...but that's a whole different issue.

Then there's the player who plays a member of the Adeptus Ministorum. Even the nobels (unless corrupt) are religous, Emperor fearing and superstitious and would hold a priest in some regard. Lucky for me the player is not all that familiar with the setting and is unaware of the sway his character could hold over the masses. He just knows he's a good talker who can hack someone apart with a chainsword.

How do you guys deal with players being in somewhat of a powerfull position?

Hi there,

in my opinion, you got a lot of it very right, especially the part of having „a bonus“ in regard to God-Emperor fearing citizens and certain social dice rolls. In fact, “Desolation of the Dead” (official adventure provided within the booklet that came with the GM Kit) states a +20% bonus when characters seem to be part of an officially authority.

But, to me this stops rather quickly when you reach the higher levels of Imperial society, and even more so when it comes to nobles. If you take a comparison to “real world medivial nobles”, those were perhaps god-fearing, but as they were what we would later call “politicians” and “statesmen”, too, they quickly recognize that most clergy were just the same: people. Not saints, not prophets but people with a certain set of values that work for the church who, in turn, was founded to do God´s will. To put it short, they are far less “awestruck” as a mere citizen would be. They will deal a member of the clergy with certain minimum of politeness, but a mere priest is still just a mere priest, and not their equal. Influence is a good measurement here, as long as “Inquisitional authority” is not brought to bear. After all, those who are "VIP" in a local area know those other who are "VIP", and faking being a VIP to them is like faking being a member of a community that only counts 500 people in total: they tend to know each other and if they have never heared of you before, they are not likely to buy it.

Mechanicus is the same here, and you can assume that “merely being a Tech-Priest” will stop being any good at the higher level of society. While this “who knows who is whome?” is usable in regard to (simple minded) citizens, those who are not part of the drudging class might have seconds thought if all out of a sudden “the Pope of the local Mechanicus district” shows up and comes asking…for access to your records. The Tech-Priest might get along with fumbling with gear and stuff or accessing things, but those who have things near them that need regular treatment by the AdMech might know the local AdMech. Is all this strangeness giving a bonus against the un-initiated? It should. But it is still a test (for Deceive, i.e.) to pull the thing off without raising suspicion (which could lead to a denial OR to reduce subtlety).

To “balance” the benefits mentioned before, one should lower the Subtlety accordingly or “cap” it at a rather low point. Arbitrators walking around and asking questions is NOT “subtle” as they ARE feared and they only reason they have to show up an deal with something is a crime against IMPERIAL LAW. That is not like the police showing up, but like the FBI /CIA /MI5/MOSSAD/BND.

My two cents.

I honestly don't make a case of it.

Acolytes are supposed to be important/talented people and as such, when they act against/with regular people, I give them a clear edge, which are those perceived authority bonus. But when it come the time to act with higher society, rival organisations and even plain enemies, they don't get such advantage. These people have agendas of their own and, as much as it can be said, those that can be considered peers of the Imperium, will have their own way of seeing how to make things work. At this point, it will be where acolytes must have hard tests (or at least challenging ones) because acolytes or no, an Imperial Guard Lord General knows his sh*t and won't let random dudes tell him what to do, unless they convince him that what they ask him to do is really that important.

On the side of subtlety, I don't see a loss in subtlety necessarily as "oh ****, word of the Inquisition's presence has spread" rather than a

"the gang members of the place are alerts, many other criminal were killed in the past few days" or "Man, there is this authoritarian guy asking question and killing those that doesn't answer. Don't know who this guy is, but we should disappear because he could ask us questions we don't want to observe"

The same for psychic ability

"We knoew that there's a witch around, we must be alert, because there will be people trigger happy at killing anyone perceived as a witch" so the cultits/criminals or even normal families gets into hiding.

No need for the Inquisition to be said, just actions will alert people that are targeted by such.

On the other hand, leaving no traces, not using any forme of authority, having a cover and enforcing it through fitting actions, these can help the subtlety get higher, but at this point, I've digressed enough.

I'd let people play up what authority they have. As noted, a tech-priest does have the perceived backing of the mechanicus - provided no-one calls him on it. The problem is, a lot of the people you'd want to use that leverage on (people with important information, high end tech, etc) are precisely the people who'd know you're just an Enginseer Minoris.