In my campaign I have an explorer with the best quality MIU interface allowing him a +10 BS for any weaponsystem with an Interface. Well, a complex machine such as a vessel surely would have such an MIU interface thus allowing him to use his Interface.

Result, with his RT buddie having his eye on him, he got a BS of 60+. It was a slaughter as he would fire the macro batteries and the Lance. Hardly missing anything. I said that I would allow it for now but that I was going to throw it into the group, meaning you guys.

So what do you think. Can he interface into the ships weaponry and keep his bonusses? Can he fire every single weapon (probably the turrets as well) and keep his bonus? Am I the only one who thinks, oh dear this is bad?

Sister Callidia said:

Technically, it's appropriate to the setting to do that. Extensive MIU links are, afterall, used to operate Titans, moving it and firing all the guns. However, such systems require decades of training and are often far more invasive and sophisticated than one you can fit entirely within your skull. Personally, I would allow an MIU-equipped character to operate a single system using his link - the device can't handle more than that at any one time - so the character could pilot the ship, operate a single weapon component, work with the Augur array, etc, but not all at once.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

I'd agree with that. Having him able to do everything at once is a bit crazy, at least without massive amounts of invasive surgery and training.

Personally I'd give him a it only on a single weapon system, and make other people roll for the other weapons. If you read Titanicus the operator of the Titan doesn't actually fire his own weapons. Each weapon system is fired by a different operator all of who have MIU.

Also remember that the MIU is a direct link to his brain. Bad things might happen if a system he is linked up to is destroyed or damaged.

Dalnor Surloc said:

The lines between each crewman's role is repeatedly blurred with Titan operation. Many of the senior crew (or the entire living crew, in the case of a Warhound) have some MIU link to the Engine, all for different reasons. The Princeps is described in all cases as the man in charge of the entire thing - he wills it to walk, feels the pain of the damage it suffers, holds fast against the wilful Machine Spirit, directs the weaponry, etc... but many functions are still delegated to others to some extent. Though the Princeps can see the world from his Engine's perspective, a crewman operates the sensors as well. While the Princeps and/or Moderatii may operate weapons, they're actually slaved to gunnery servitors who do the actual work. In practice, I imagine that the Princeps has complete access to every operational system the Titan has, but only performs the tasks he feels most comfortable doing and delegates the others to his subordinates as needed, which in turn leads to different Legions and different Titans having different crew arrangements (at the very least, in some cases they're described as having two or more Moderati who control specific major functions, while the ones in Titanicus have only a single Moderatus who acts as the Princeps' second-in-command)

My gaming group and I already decided to only allow him to use his MIU for one battery. But you give excellent reasons why he can't do them all. Also I like the part of the danger of interfacing while a component takes damage.

Plus I realize that this ship, was refurbished after it was liberated from a Space Hulk. All kinds of things could have happened there that did escape the former owner. After all, not everyone got a best quality MIU or is willing to rewire the whole ship for a system he doesn't use.

It's a common house-rule that the Rogue Trader's power only works once a round, regardless of length of round. a ship combat lasts half an hour, but if the RT is making other actions they won't be able to to focus on buffing those crewmen.

I agree with only plugging in to one gun per round too.

That said, his BS will hit 60 eventually anyway, through stat advances and crew actions (Lock on, Put Your Backs Into It etc.). If he's wiping the floor with encounters, send bigger ships in greater numbers.

I would clearly rule no to that.

for the first while Titans are operated by MIU vessels are not. One would have to remember that while vessels are way more powerful that a Titan they are also a lot less complex and advanced. Titans are comtroled as mentiond my Mechnanicus trained and implanted crew men, while navy personal (and pirats, and Rogue Trader etc) are "only human" and as they need to be able to use the ship it is not build to support MIU and the like.

In addition as far as I can see from reading the novels and the like while a Titan's weapon is controled nearly directly (serviator mind-linked to its operator) a ship is not operated in the same way, the huns are manually crew by dozins if not hundreds of crew members and not at all mind-linked to its operator (the explorer in this case).

Okay the whole explination sounded better in my head but would still rule that he would not get the bonus if it were my game.