I was thinking, and reading over some things, and had a thought: What kind of process does someone go through when thinking up a name for their favored, most loyal weapons (And by loyal I mean the ones that never jam, almost never miss, tend to one shot enemies with Emprah's Fury, etc)?

For example, I'm thinking of having our group Tech-Priest (the only group scrimshaw) etch my Nomad with the words "Sting", and my twin pistols with "Wrath" and "Death" (yes, I know this is a bit corny, but my assassin loves his guns, and he's pondering naming his chain knives "Pain" and "Suffering").

Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on such an event, especially since it's not happening until the end of the current mission, at the earliest.

Here's one:

Have the names of the weapons etched in high gothic. It would be setting appropriate, and badass. To simulate this, use latin.

"Sting" would become "Spiculum"

"Wrath" and "Death" could become "Ira" and "Mortis"

For that matter, you could use just about any language. That lets you have meaning, while still having something that sounds mysterious and exotic to the ear.

(Apologies for potential mistranslations)

None of my players name weapons*, either they are something they shouldn't have. And it's pretty common for then to go through CC weapons really quickly, I think the tech-priest might name his obcene bolt pistol at some point though.

*with the exclusion of the Redemptionists Evisorator which he called the "Deathmonger" after it killed a broodlord (and my current mission) in one hit. It's known more collequally by the players as the "Rightous asskicker" and "No survivors" pity he had to ditch it out an airlock... That might be coming back, it was crazy.

Hmm...indeed.

To put this in context, I stole a really awesome line from a quest (picture/text based story driven by multiple people, sorta like a mass Choose-Your-Own-Adventure) as his Family Creed:

Pain of mind is worse than pain of body.
Pains of the body can be ignored. They can be overcome through the power of mind.

I will taste of pain, nourished by its purity. I will soak up this pain as a bud soaks up sun, and that pain will be gone.

And then I will bloom, into a most terrible thing.

And I will become pain.
And suffering.
And wrath.
And death.
And here is my sting.

I sincerely wish I could translate that into latin for you.

However, as was mentioned, I would hesitate to give weapons names unless they are of exceptional quality or sentimental value. A nomad certainly falls into that category, though, so you're good.

Well, the pistols (a pair of Armsmen-10s) he's had since almost the beginning (Give or take a session or two). Mind you, our game has been going for 2 years in game time.

Some of the weapons in the group are named.

The Priest in our group was given a Best-Quality Mono-Chainsword called 'Light of the Emperor'. The Arbite in the group has a name for every single gun he has, all named after women:

Cindy - Combat Shotgun.
Daisy - Stub Revolver
Scarlett - Plasma Pistol
Bertha - Heavy Stubber
Gerda - Grenade Launcher

And he just got a .54 Trantor... not sure what he wants to call that.

Jerichus (Kylen's assassin character) was awarded his beloved Nomad rifle by TWO (yes, two!) Inquisitors who pulled a few minor favours in to have the piece comissioned. It is a best quality Nomad sniper rifle system with an Omnisight (see RT for details) and that pesky 2-3 year waiting period was skipped for it's delivery. His twin Armsman-10s lack that distinguished origin, but they are good quality and have been loyal and faithful tools with agressive yet cooperative machine spirits.

For those wondering who the Inquisitors were:

Astrid Skane (the team's BIG boss) and Globus Varak (the team cracked a big case for him, by personal request.)

Random thoughts:

1) LOVE the Arbitrator's named weapons. That is AWESOME! Reminds me of that scene in Firefly when we learn about the "very special lady" in Jayne's life: a rifle named Vera.

2) MONO Chainsword is redundant. Does not stack.

ZillaPrime said:

Indeed, chainswords are already mono. If you read the Mono rules, you can only apply it to primitive weapons, and chainswords are chain weapons, not primitive.

I have a blessed monosword, and I want to name it.

But I really don't know whether to call it Hunger or Thirst, is it said to have its own "personality" and wants the flesh of daemon, it's reforged warp steel, or something like that, rather cool IMO.

dyp100 said:

Are you sure that it's blessed? After all, some daemon weapons are possessed with daemons that lothe other daemons "with a purty and fury that can only be possible from one of their own warp-spawned kind" (From RH). Warp steel sounds like bad news.

numb3rc said:

Yeah, that mace of justice or whatever it is called, but no, something happened in the RP to transfer warp energy into the blade, (battling a rogue pysker who was an agent for a cult) and our group tech priest reforged the sword with mono and blessed quality, the sword having it's own personality is very Eisenhorn, IMO, like barbaistar, or whatever the blade was called, and I think it's very cool, the blades apperance is always awesome as well, which is always a plus.

Well that sounds cool indeed but still names like "hunger" and "thirst" smack of Chaos if you ask me. Bloodthirster, anyone?

numb3rc said:

LOL, I was gonna use Latin as for it to sound more Imperial. (Latin being High Gothic for all purposes) Anyway, you can't say the Imperial can't be very bloodthirsty, especially a cleric working under the Inquisition, even if he is a bit level minded compared to other priests, he has his moments, meaning a fellow team member has pulled a gun on him twice, but yes, I was happy when I got that sword.

Amusingly, our Arbitrator has a knife (yes, you read that right - a plain old knife, not even mono) that he calls Daemonslayer. Why? Because he actually struck the killing blow to a daemon with it. It's not engraved or anything. He just calls it Daemonslayer.

Ophilia Midkiff said:

OH GOD IT'S GRENDEL ALL OVER AGAIN! QUICK! SOMEONE SUMMON THE THORIANS!!!

ZillaPrime said:

Why on the Emperor's Good Green Terra would a chainsword need 2 more pen?

Kylen said:

So it can more efficiently cut down His enemies???

-=Brother Praetus=-

AFAIK chain weapons are not allowed to be mono'd as standard because they lack the primitive quality, speaking from a mechanical perspective.

From a fluffwise perspective I believe they are already mono-edged; hence their initial Pen 2 and lacking of primitive quality. Which raises the question: If a chainsword became lathed, would its Pen raise an additional 4 points as per RAW (like any primitive weapon), or would it become SET to 4, as per any primitive weapon lacking existing Pen?

Lathe-forged does not add 4 pen. It's +3 Pen, +2 Damage*, +10 to WS*, best craftsmanship (already factored in*) and cannot be combined with the mono upgrade peer pg. 15 of the v3.0 print friendly errata. So, if you consider the chainsword/axe to already be considered Mono, then what you would get out of a Lathe-forged example would be pen 3, doing 1d10+4+SB R for the sword and 1d10+6+SB R for the axe... Oh, and the rest of the nice features of a Lathe weapon.

Personally, I'm not sure where I stand on the mono-ing of a chainblade weapon if they are not already considered such. I mean, what 275 for the chainsword and 40 for mono for a pen 4 tearing melee weapon? Is a touch beefy; not as beefy as RAW great weapons with mono, but nevertheless.

-=Brother Praetus=-

My PCs typically name all of their weapons.

Mortiurge Arbite:

Vanaheim shotgun: Redemption. Long Las: Judgment. Bolt Rifle: Purgation.

When naming weapons I think of the characters that are using them. A skum might have a chain knife called 'bleeder'. A Tech-Priest might have a lascannon named 'Omnisiah's light' etc.

The Scum had her own name etched into all her weapons, but then she's not very imaginative......

My Cleric's best-quality mono greatsword is called Hormat Ha'el , translating to something like 'Vengeance of the Lord'. It has carved many a giant mutant abomination in half. Not to mention the small mutant abominations who were really just trying to go about their business and had the misfortune to run into a hate-fuelled zealot one day...

You can't go wrong with a bit of Latin (if you can find a suitable translation), but if your character's world has a certain cultural flavour (e.g. Israeli or French or Ancient Greek...) then you could always draw on those resources for something personal to them.

Niqvah said:

Ahh yes. Hebrew and Latin, the greatest gifts to naming cool things since.... EVER!

In the old WEG D6 Star Wars game my Jedi Master character's personal ship is named Samgar Padon. Her lightsabres are named Kedusha and Adon Olam ; each is electroplated in silver with the full text of the prayers etched into the hilts, with durable black rubber inset in all the letters both for dramatic effect and to enhance the grip. Both are multi-phase blades using both Pontitite and Lapidoth gemstones as well as thinned focusing disks to enhance power and precision. These are a Master's blades in every sense of the word: They are POWERFUL and require absolute precision and spiritual focus to wield safely, especially as a pair. Because of their advanced construction, blade length can be adjusted anywhere between roughly dagger sized to 2m long. Her early training and upbringing was with an offshoot sect known as B'nei Barak that parted ways with the Jedi Order over the "reforms" that the Republic imposed after the supposed destruction of the Sith. Since becoming a Master she was instructed to form a girls' school, which was named Bat Ha'shem .

For those not in the know, there are alot of Hebrew words sprinkled throughout the Star Wars universe and some key points in the Jedi philosophy are based in Jewish mysticism (with a nice sprinkling of Budhism mixed in) so in my old game group we took this and ran with it. One of the running jokes amongst the group was that my character was a "Yiddai" (And yes, I suspect this was where Lucas came up with the term Jedi back when he still had some creative energy.)

No, this is not directly DH material. It is used strictly "for example"

Obviously I give a huge stamp of approval for your Cleric's sword. That is awesome! You so need to get that thing blessed.... It demands purity seals and prayer scrolls to adorn it's naked form!

ZillaPrime said:

Indeed, most names are going to sound cool in one or other language! The general style of worship in 40k seems inherently Catholic in many ways, but I've toyed a little with different approaches to worship (e.g. Jewish, or incorporating certain Hindu beliefs). That's where Hormat Ha'el comes into things. A theme from your character's background can provide lots of ideas for naming things, and even their general approach to life and an acolyte's duties.

And you are so right about the sword needing to be blessed. It will be my first task once I get back to Hive Tarsus. I hadn't thought of purity seals and prayer scrolls, but given it's a huge slab of sharpened metal (and being wielded by an angry cleric), there's plenty of space for them. Thanks for the ideas!