Set of House Rules for (Hopefully) Upcoming PBP

By ThenDoctor, in Dark Heresy House Rules

So hopefully I'll be running a PbP in the coming week(s) on this forum and I figured I'd put up a post that might hold some house rules we come up with.

So far I've got:

Obviously my Expanded Divination Table located in my signature.

-Specifically on that table when you roll a result you can reverse the number and take that instead if you wish. (25 could be 52 for instance)

Those playing a Sororitas member rolls on the DH1 Inquisitor's Handbook Orphan Past table from the Schola Progenium table to show where their parents came from.

If you get the willpower aptitude twice in character creation this will substitue for the psyker aptitude for willpower advancement.
-The pay off of course being that you lose out on another caracteristic app for cheaper Will since it wont be substituted.

Seraphim Jump Pack

15 kg

Extremely Rare

Requirements: Sororitas Power Armor, Operate (Aeronautica) Skill

More streamlined and stylized, this jump pack is based off the same technology used by the Space Marines. The design has the added effect of giving the Adepta Sororitas the appearance of avenging angelic hosts. The aggressive use of them by the Sororitas has made that design work tremendously well. Aside from the normal usage, an alternate tactic, seen in the re-consecrating of Pilgrims' Pause, was as a lateral boost redeploy Seraphim strike teams while staying behind cover.

This model allows a safe descent from any height, along with an unlimited series of short jumps, and and travel in any direction without regard for obstacles of up to double their Base Movement, avoiding any ground obstacles and landing at the end of each Round's movement.

Alternatively, the pack can use maximal thrust to duplicate the Flyer (12) trait for up to a minute before the turbines require a minute to cool.

And not a House rule but a clarification that was discovered.

You can Parry with a pistol, but when counterattacking with the Pistol you are not firing the weapon.

You are beating them with the handle of the gun as an improvised weapon (at least I think that's what pistols are when you use them in melee).

I'll post more as more comes up.

I suggest my standard house-rule for Explosives; +1d10 damage and Proven (3)- Increase Proven by 1 if already present. Add 2 Damage or 2 Pen according to grenade's purpose (Damage for Frag, Pen for Krak, etc.). It really makes them more relevant, especially when dealing with stronger mook hordes or power armoured space-nuns (being able to ignore Frag grenades 75%+ of the time is silly).

Ported in from Only War (I really don't know why they keep removing these.)

Solid Slugs

Solid slug rounds replace the scattershot of standard shotgun cartridges with a solid lead round, giving up spread for improved damage against both armour and flesh.

Effect: A shotgun loaded with slug rounds increases its Damage by +1 and Penetration by +2. It loses the Scatter Quality.

Used with: Any shotgun.

Same base availability as the book meaning one more difficult than the gun itself.

I suggest my standard house-rule for Explosives; +1d10 damage and Proven (3)- Increase Proven by 1 if already present. Add 2 Damage or 2 Pen according to grenade's purpose (Damage for Frag, Pen for Krak, etc.). It really makes them more relevant, especially when dealing with stronger mook hordes or power armoured space-nuns (being able to ignore Frag grenades 75%+ of the time is silly).

Appreciated, I'll think some more on it. I don't think they'll be dealing with hordes anytime soon. They're a baseline group.

Like I said, or power armoured space nuns. It really helps out in a lot of situations.

The problem would still persist once you'd encounter power armoured Astartes, though. At least this way there is some consistency in how the armour might deflect shrapnel...

Ultimately, this is just another case where the game's Toughness Bonus "skin armour" causes problems. Even a completely unarmoured T40 human has a 20% chance to just shrug off a Frag exploding right next to them. But if you're considering to buff every single weapon, I think re-working the way TB deals with damage would actually be easier in the long run.

Not that I'm advocating it here; I am under the impression that Doc wants to stick as close to RAW as possible.

Edited by Lynata

Like I said, or power armoured space nuns. It really helps out in a lot of situations.

They aren't starting out full sisters, so power armor won't be an issue.

I am under the impression that Doc wants to stick as close to RAW as possible.

As much as we can. Some stuff needs to get ported, but those examples are from the closest 40K game in iteration with DH2, so it's as good as it gets.

Oh, I thought this was intended mainly against possible antagonists rather than the PCs. My bad. :D

But yeah, I don't think the players will have access to power armour any time soon -- and even then, secrecy will probably dictate having to forego it much of the time. Once it does come out, I'd almost expect the fights to get so epic that frag grenades being little more than pyrotechnics may actually be intentional, the real threat then either coming from the sheer volume of fire (or explosions), or individual "boss" enemies.

For the time being, however, I think we're going to be fine for at least a while. In my experience with DH1, damage soak only begins to look weird late-game once people just keep piling on TB and AP. Indeed, with Servant apparently having attracted the ire of the Dice Gods when it came to rolling Wounds, it's probably safer not to boost weapon damage for the time being anyways... ^^'

Edited by Lynata

For the time being, however, I think we're going to be fine for at least a while. In my experience with DH1, damage soak only begins to look weird late-game once people just keep piling on TB and AP. Indeed, with Servant apparently having attracted the ire of the Dice Gods when it came to rolling Wounds, it's probably safer not to boost weapon damage for the time being anyways... ^^'

Yeah, it's all about building, I've found some issues around 4+k, but then again, I don't know how the encounter building will work out either in terms of relative power vs players. So we'll see, I don't plan on throwing anything too rough at you this early. I mean you guys aren't really meant to fight much other than humans for the first few 1000 xp anyways from what I can tell.

Latest House Rule.

An Adepta Sororitas has an added choice to their Weapon Training (Low Tech), They also have the added choice to items they receive of a Common Quality Mono Sword.

This was a tradeoff that my players wanted because they felt it fit more in line with novice Adepta Sororitas and I felt comfortable giving them the tradeoff because a Chainblade and the Mono Upgrade are both Scarce Rarity.

As well the sword is doing less damage and does not have the Tearing Quality.

For all intents and purposes this is a fictional over a mechanical choice, which is why I am fine with it.

Latest House Rule.

An Adepta Sororitas has an added choice to their Weapon Training (Low Tech), They also have the added choice to items they receive of a Common Quality Mono Sword.

This was a tradeoff that my players wanted because they felt it fit more in line with novice Adepta Sororitas and I felt comfortable giving them the tradeoff because a Chainblade and the Mono Upgrade are both Scarce Rarity.

As well the sword is doing less damage and does not have the Tearing Quality.

For all intents and purposes this is a fictional over a mechanical choice, which is why I am fine with it.

I think I might steal that houserule and use it for my own games if that's cool. I've had a nagging dislike that all starting gear and equipment, aside from the ones you get with your starting acquisitions, are completely the same for the same background. Having a like for like gear trade off based on rarity allows people to customise their characters and their background to a certain extent.

Having a like for like gear trade off based on rarity allows people to customise their characters and their background to a certain extent.

I wouldn't go that far. That can probably get dangerous very fast. You might as well just use the trading in rules, even then you'd have to decide how it is affected by the Administratum ability or even the Mechanicus background thing.

This specific thing worked because it was for all intents and purposes a downgrade for narrative purposes. They are still technically getting two items for one (common sword and scarce mono upgrade)