Resource System

By Kaihlik, in Dark Heresy House Rules

[i just previewed this and the tables are all screwed up but I don't have time to fix them so sorry about that]

I wrote this for my current DH2 game which is a continuation of a DH1 game (hence the example being Calixis sector based). I am not a huge fan of just rolling influence for everything as I tend to feel a lot of the time it doesn't make sense. I also realise that counting thrones is often uninteresting to many players so I designed this system primarily to serve as a mechanic to drive narrative interactions with other factions. It forces the players to seek out allies to help support their activities.

I gave my players 3 starting Benefactors that were the Calixian Conclave, the Ordo Xenos and Amalathian faction (kind of, its complicated). They can go to each for resources but each has their own Obligations and Risks that mean that they might prefer to seek out new sources of revenue.

All resources for the group go into a shared resource pools that should be tracked on the resource sheet.

Resource points can be spent to acquire items or purchase services. The amount or resource points something costs is determined by its availability. There are no costs for Near Unique or Unique items, the GM can determine that these cannot be bought at any price or he can set their value at whatever he desires. For Plentiful and below the price is 0 and players are only required to be able to find them to purchase them, for these availabilities instead of using the Craftsmanship Modifier increase the availability by 1 for good quality and 3 for best quality.

Costs

Availability

Cost

Ubiquitous

0

Abundant

0

Plentiful

0

Common

1

Average

2

Scarce

4

Rare

8

Very Rare

16

Extremely Rare

32

Craftsmanship Modifier

Quality

Modifier

Poor

1/2

Good

x3

Best

x10

Services Costs

Services are charged at a weekly rate for ease of bookkeeping it is advised that the players add up their standard monthly outgoings and pay every 4 weeks.

Living Costs - 1rp per week

This is the cost of common quality food and accommodation for 1 week and is equivalent to what an average manufatorum worker would expect to pay. Players with access to the Resource pool may find that they need to pay their living costs out of it.

Staff/Acolytes - 1 + 1rp per week/1000xp

An Inquisitor can end up with a large staff performing the tasks that they don't have the time for. They may also acquire acolytes that they send off to perform investigations of their own. More experienced acolytes demand higher wages and so as a general rule for every 1000xp a NPC has they require an extra 1 resource point per week in upkeep costs.

A Benefactor is a an individual or organisation who is willing to provide material assistance to the player group.

The Benefactor can be associated with a particular player or players within the group, these players are known as the Contacts. Only players who are Contacts can make requests for resources. If the Benefactor provides a monthly income then use the highest influence bonus from the list of contacts.

The Resource Level determines the resources that a Benefactor is willing to provide the players, in addition the more influence the players have the more resources the Benefactor will be willing to provide them. The Resource Levels are listed in the table below.

Resource Level

Monthly

Request

1

3 x Inf Bonus

3 x Influence

2

6 x Inf Bonus

6 x Influence

3

9 x Inf Bonus

9 x Influence

4

12 x Inf Bonus

12 x Influence

5

15 x Inf Bonus

15 x Influence

A Benefactor can provide only so much support to the player group which can be provided on a monthly basis or in one off amounts. Whether a Benefactor provides monthly support will depend on the nature of the relationship between the players and the Benefactor.

Being in good standing with a Benefactor is helpful when making requests for resources from them. The groups Standing modifier is added when making request for resources. The modifiers represent the state of the relationship that the players have with their Benefactor. The groups Standing can change based on their actions towards their benefactors. Ignoring Obligations can cause standing to go down whereas going out of their way to provide assistance can cause their Standing to go up, the current standing of the player group is left up to the GM to determine.

Modifier

Great

+30

Good

+20

Positive

+10

Indifferent

+0

Troubled

-10

Bad

-20

Terrible

-30

Each Benefactor will have their own agenda and as such whenever resources are provided there is a percentage chance that it will trigger an Obligation, certain Benefactors may also come with a Risk that is either known or unknown to the players. An example of an Obligation would be if the Acolytes were charged with eliminating a rival of their Benefactor. An example or a risk would be a Benefactor that has been infiltrated by a rival. Obligations and Risks are rolled together as a single dice roll that is made secretly by the GM, when setting up a benefactor the GM should decide the percentage range for the Obligation and Risk, these may overlap. If there is a different risk for monthly payments then they will be given in brackets.

After making a request for resources the players will need to wait a length of time before they can politely ask again. If the players make another request before this period is up they will automatically trigger an Obligation (still role for any Risks). If the players have not completed a previous Obligation for that Benefactor then any further requests are automatically declined (and the players Standing may suffer further).

Depending on the Benefactor resources may be paid out in a monthly amount and/or as a one off payments at the request of the players. To make a one off request the players must pass an influence test and modified by the Standing modifier. In addition if the user has the appropriate Peer talent they can apply that bonus to the test. If someone else in the group has the peer talent then add +5 for each player who has it.

Monthly payments come in every month and do not require a resource test although they can still trigger obligations and risks.

Once the test has been made the GM can then roll to see if Obligations and/or Risks are triggered.

Obligations

Obligations are requests that are made to the players to perform a task in exchange for the resources they have been provided, generally the players will be provided with the resources before the request is made but under certain circumstances (such as if the groups standing with the organisation is particularly low). Obligations are only ever rolled if the influence test to acquire resources is successful.

Risks

Risks are negative experiences that can occur from making requests of powerful organisations. It can take a while for a risk to manifest depending on the nature of it. The risk percentages should always be kept from the players. Depending on nature of Risk it may be that the GM will roll for it even if the Influence test to acquire resources is failed. An example of such a risk would be if an noble was providing support to the players against the wishes of his families patriarch, the act of making the request could tip the patriarch off to the relationship.

Example

Uriel has a Benefactor in the Skaelen Har-Hegemony who he has kept in contact with since his days working alongside Rogue Traders. The Skaelen-Har Hegemony are a Resource Level 3 Benefactor and provide him with a monthly stipend of 27 resource points (9 x his influence bonus of 3) through an intermediary. Uriel has been expanding his operation recently and is running low on funds so he turns to the Hegemony to make a request for more support.

Unfortunately Uriel left the company of Rogue Traders in less than friendly circumstances and some in the Hegemony still retain ties to his old employers, thus there is a slight risk that work of his current whereabouts will make it back to them. He decides to take the risk and rolls his influence of 37 plus his standing modifier of +10. He rolls a 22 and the Hegemony agrees to transfer him funds. The GM then makes his Obligation roll in secret, he rolls a 09 which is the worst case result for Uriel, not only do the Hegemony request that he helps them in their efforts to be awarded a contract but word leaks out of his location. It won't be long before assassins are on their way.

Benefactor Name

Contact

Resource Level

Monthly (y/n)

Standing

Obligation

Risk

Cooldown

Skaelen-Har Hegemony

Uriel

3

yes

+10

01 - 10 (01-03)

08 - 13(n/a)

30 days

Obligations: Help acquire contract to provide food and medical supplies for the Kudrun PDF

Risk: Word of Uriels current whereabouts make it back to his previous employers who hire assassins to eliminate him.

I used this as a guide to create basically a derivative work. I think the basis you provide works out well. I liked it for my group (esp. since we run characters from various of the 40k source rules).

MJD

HR#5 Resources.docx

How did you come up with these two values in your example?

Obligation 01 - 10 (01-03)
Risk 08 - 13(n/a)

I couldn't figure out how those were generated - moreover just to be clear...

1 - 10 = a roll of 10 or Less on D100, right?

8 - 13 = no idea mate > I'm in the dark on this

I'd like to use this system in addition to the vanilla Requisition System > the way I look at it you can do various "things" in the Universe to get your kit...

Please Advise,

Morbid