My players are wanting to get themselves a private army, so I've been looking for the NPC profiles that I could give them and trying to work out what rarity troops of that quality should have.

Does anyone have any recommendations for other NPC profiles to use (From any RT or DH books), or the rarity of those troops ?

They will come with their listed gear, but my players will be able to replace it with other gear (subject to weight and talent limitations).

So far I've decided that these NPC from the Rogue Trader book will be available one I figure out the rarities:

- Hired guns. I'm thinking of making these scarce.

- Othsworn Bodyguards.

- Battle Servitors (the tools section lists a servitor (combat) as rare, this is the only thing I've found that would count)

- Kroot Mercenaries.

My players want a Company of Imperial Guard. I haven't done the calculations yet, as their PF isn't to a point where they could make any serious attempt to actually get one...

I suppose the question of their rarity would come down to what Level they are and if they come with any equipment. Then how many of them? Where are the PC's trying to pick them up?

The PC's already hire thousands of people. Hiring a Goon Squad of 10 badasses shouldn't be that big a deal. A hundred though, maybe.

My players figured out that it's better to hire some Redshirts and hope a couple survive then BMF's, because if they're running around with paid-for (and not earned) muscle I'm just going to ramp up the difficulty factor of the encounters is all.

My RT player made up 10 n00b DH Imperial Guard "clones". They die like flies (which is fun for me) and he just renames them. Those that survive get EXP to improve them, (which is fun for him).

I'd either pick a profile from the books or make the Player generate what he wants and decide the rarity from there.

They already have 10 custom troopers, which are guardsmen with their xp set at 5000 below the PCs.

I want to set the rarities such that they have several tiers of troops, each one more numerous but less capable than the previous tier.

If they decide to take more men down I will be ramping up the difficulty.

For me, I would simplfy measures by rolling a general stat block for the rest of the 90. This could allow for remembering what their characteristics are and starting gear. For my campaign I went in search of cannon fodder for my players. I found that the gretchan served this purpose. Nothing like a WS 18 and BS of 34. Cause in most cases you could divy up the number of rolls per 10 merc troops. Possibly setting damage once for every ten against the other army. Since all of the troops carried the same stat block confusion would be avoided.

Adeptus Stormicus said:

What do you mean by "rest of the 90" ?

I'm not going to let my players have any more than 10 of the custom guardmen and the barracks component can hold "thousands of troops"*. I expect them to want it filled. I already have several ideas for how I'll be handling those mass combats.

*I'm going to tell my player 5'000 troops.

Why do you suggest that a gretchin is a good choice for cannon fodder on the players side ?

The Rogue Trader book has human profiles which would work as human cannon fodder (the voidfarer on page 371 would be my first choice). I prefer to use human profiles for human cannon fodder, not ork profiles.

Here's a variety of mercs I offered to my players in a recent adventure, when they were shopping for some backup;

Adam, that is interesting but completely useless to me as it doesn't address the rarity issue (better mercs would be harder to acquire) and I also will need to decide on stats for them.

Bilateralrope said:

You might have just solved your own problem. Better mercs would be harder to get, and that would be a function fulfilled by their Craftsmanship. If you look over to the ship section, there's that table for crew quality which could easily be used for just about any NPC hireling imaginable. Such ranges from Poor Quality giving the NPC a relevant skill/characteristic that they're being hired for of 20 (for what ever reason) all the way to Best Quality which will have a relevant skill/characteristic score of 50 9for what ever reason).

So, you don't need to think about how rare or common good mercs are compared to piss poor mercs. Quality answers that question for you. All you need to worry about is how common a group of folks who are willing to murder anouther group of folks is at what ever location the PC's are at. As a standard rule, I'd say that mercs (and by merc I mean anyone willing to kill someone else and/or put their life at risk doing such for another person) are Common (+10) in most places of the Imperium (roughly speaking, people are Abundant, but you would need a subset of those abundant people who are also free to pursue murder or killing for a bit and a subset of those folks who are currently free to kill who you point them at, that's Abundant - 2 levels which gives me a default of Common).

Their common availability would be altered depending on where the PC's are looking to hire, of course. In Footfall, I'd make them one step easer to find (Plentiful) while Quidis would be two steps harder to find (smaller population of killers for hire and those that are for hire are usually owned by others or otherwise engaged).

Their quality and the relevant stat rating it gives you should make it easy to stat them up (if you even want to bother with such). For most merc jobs, all you really need to know is that one stat they were hired for as that will tell you all you need to know. If for some odd reason you need more detailed stats, however, take a template from the back and alter it's stat blocks through a combination of characteristic altering and skill altering so it has it's relevant stats for being a merc at what ever quality level the PC's chose.

I agree with the PF rulings, a better soldier is rarer and better quality. Remember that they need arming, and I'd make the PCs bundle in at least one weapon with the original acquisition. Sure it's easier to find the men then find them guns, but that's not how hiring guards works.

As for their statblock, I'd go the way of ship crews and give them a flat score of 20-40 depending on their quality. Tracking individual redshirts is way too much work, especially when they could be dead next fight. The squad averages out at those stats. The mass combat rules mean they're all armed the same, so you may as well give them the same stats too.

If a hireling is elite enough to have a name, or earns one through roleplaying, then give them a proper statline. Maybe a promotion to Squad Leader, someone for the PCs to bark orders at and receive information from.

My Guess:

Standard Greenhorn Guardsman (WS/BS 30)
Availability: Abundant +50
Craftmanship: Common +10
T here of unmeasurable amounts of humans that can be easily taught to wield a lasgun and die in name of the emperor or a rogue trader, they are not that good save in dying.
Very few will live to see another fight.

So a Regiment (500-1.000 men) of basic Guardsman would be an Aquisition Test +50

Veteran Guardsman (WS/BS 35/40)
Availability: Scarce +0
Craftmanship: Good -10
Very few live to see a second fight let alone a third or a fourth so veterans are far less common than recruits.

A Company (50 - 100 men) of hardened veteran would be an Aquisition Test -10

Stormtrooper (WS/BS 40/45)
Availability: Very Rare -20
Craftmanship: Good -10
The best of the best, these Veteran are hard as nails and trained as any normal human can be, they can be found as the personal guard of Inquisitors, Planetary Governers and some Rogue Traders

A Platoon (10 - 30 men) of Stormtroopers would be an Aquisition Test -20, equal to buying a small Merchant Vessell


Space Marine
Availability: Near Unique -50
Craftmanship: Best -30
Seeing there are very few Space Marines compared to normal human finding them is a quest on its own.
Anyway Space Marines are the finest possible warriors mankind have to offer, persuading them to serve you only for one mission is reserved for the richest and most influencial Inquisitors, Navigator Houses and Rogue Trader.

Hiring a Squad (3 - 5 men) would be a Aquisition Test -60 and an act of legendary roleplaying.


This is my taking on the hiring of troops, training and equiping new troops would be more elaborate.
Fore equipment I would use the Combined Kit and making it a single Aquisition.

GrtZ,

Santiago...

Santiago said:

Surely Craftsmanship is relative to the item in question - so common-craftsmanship Space Marines are normal Tactical, Assault and Devastator Marines from the main companies, Good Craftsmanship is a Veteran, and Best Craftsmanship is a Terminator.

maybe you can break down rarity in terms of equipment and quality in terms of stats.

so merchants/troops are as rare as the rarest part of their equip and the stats are indicated as of the crew-quality chart.

and you as the GM can alter stats accordingly of course

N0-1_H3r3 said:

It's still relative to the item in question, the item being "goon with gun", and by that definition a marine is best craftsmanship regardless.

Besides, somehow I doubt that even the wealthiest of rogue traders would be able to hire a squad of terminators... Form an alliance with the chaptermaster and get them pointed in the same direction as you are going... maybe, but hire? Never. A hardup chapter might be welling to turn a squad loose for payment but I suspect that things like money are of miniscule concern to any space marine.

imperialus said:

I disagree. I don't inherently see a Space Marine as simply a best craftmanship 'generic soldier NPC', but rather something distinct in his own right. Whether or not Best Craftsmanship Space Marines (the item in question being Space Marine) are obtainable (that is, whether or not the GM will even let you attempt to acquire them, whether or not your Profit Factor is theoretically sufficient) is an essentially irrelevant matter.

I see a given kind of NPC as a distinct item. A Guardsman is distinct to a Sister Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, who in turn is distinct from an Arbitrator or a Skitarii Hypaspist. Grouping them any more broadly is, IMO, akin to treating a Bolt Pistol as a best craftsmanship stub-auto, because they're both projectile-firing pistols.

St. Jimmy said:

I plan to let the mercs come with gear*. Weak gear that my players will want to upgrade.

*If a mercenary group couldn't arm it's members, it sounds like they couldn't afford to train them either.

Standard Greenhorn Guardsman (WS/BS 30)
Availability: Abundant +50
Craftmanship: Common +10
There of unmeasurable amounts of humans that can be easily taught to wield a lasgun and die in name of the emperor or a rogue trader, they are not that good save in dying.
Very few will live to see another fight.

So a Regiment (500-1.000 men) of basic Guardsman would be an Aquisition Test +50

Veteran Guardsman (WS/BS 35/40)
Availability: Scarce +0
Craftmanship: Good -10
Very few live to see a second fight let alone a third or a fourth so veterans are far less common than recruits.

A Company (50 - 100 men) of hardened veteran would be an Aquisition Test -10

Stormtrooper (WS/BS 40/45)
Availability: Very Rare -20
Craftmanship: Good -10
The best of the best, these Veteran are hard as nails and trained as any normal human can be, they can be found as the personal guard of Inquisitors, Planetary Governers and some Rogue Traders

A Platoon (10 - 30 men) of Stormtroopers would be an Aquisition Test -20, equal to buying a small Merchant Vessell

Space Marine
Availability: Near Unique -50
Craftmanship: Good or Best -30
Seeing there are very few Space Marines compared to normal human finding them is a quest on its own.
Anyway Space Marines are the finest possible warriors mankind have to offer, persuading them to serve you only for one mission is reserved for the richest and most influencial Inquisitors, Navigator Houses and Rogue Trader.
I Cannot imagen that Space Marines outside their chapter are less than good quality.

Hiring a Squad (3 - 5 men) would be a Aquisition Test 50/-60 and an act of legendary roleplaying.

The hiring of all the troops above would be mission based only, and thus are already equipped.
Basic guards would have Light Flak and Lasguns, Space Marines would have Power Armour and Bolters.

Recruiting, Training and Equiping you own forces would be something different all together,

I would treat Recuiting and Training as one single Aquisition, equiping would be a single second roll.

Example:

Captain Symeon of Longinus want to have a small boarding team.
They need to be well trained and moderately equiped.

Such brave and daring men are Rare (10) and the Unit needs to be the size of a Platoon (+10).
After several weeks they are trained to the Rogue Traders wishes, Good Quality (-10)

So the first test would be an Aquisition Test -10

Next Symeon needs to equip his new shock troops, he chooses for the following:

Hellpistol (Rare)
Stun Grenades (Scarce)
Chain Swords (Average)
Selenite Pattern Void Suit (Scarce)

The Rarest item would be the Hell Pistol so the starting modifier would be -10.
Than we add a -5 for every extra object and another -5 for misc. equipment (uniforms, microbeads, etc)

So that would be a -30 test.
Now add a +10 for the number (Platoon sized) and a +0 (Common Quality).

So the equipment Aquisition Test would at -20.

Recap:
Recruiting & Training: Test -10
Equiping your crew: Test -20

Result: A platoon of well armed boarding troops.

It would always take into account the planet/locatin where they want to "equip" themselves with there "privat army".

While "hired thugs and muscle" might be very common (or abundant!) on a hive world, its does not mean that this world will have troops with a better quality available. Even if PDF troops are trainend there, the Governeuer might not be willing to trade them (you never know when the next mass-uprising comes...or worth...the terran tithe collectors!)

On the other hand, if the RT would be next to a world renown for having a tradition of hiring out mercenary (like Vessor mentioned in "Eisenhorn" Novells) good troops might be abundant.

Last but not least, being next to "rather rouge" space port at the fringes might give you access to superb troops...but only in limited quantities (there are only so many stone-cold stubjacks around at a time...).

All very true,

I use these rules as a basis, location is always factor.