I was reading the section on power armour. i had a few questions for other GMs about its interpretations:

No one except space marines wear the suit that increase your size, because no one except space marines have the black carapace implant? Anyone can wear light power amour and it does not change your sizr.

The power supply of a non-military power pack is 1d5 hours (is it really random?), what is the power duration of a military power pack?

I'm going to have to assume that at least one player is going to use his resources roll to get one.

Citizen Philip said:

1. The power armors presented in the campaign materials are not Astartes (Space Marine) quality. Astartes PA is (as covered in the adventure sourcebook Purge the Unclean for DH) actually slightly more protective. The size/bulk/weight of the armor has nothing to do with interfacing with a black carapace.
2. Yes, 1d5 hours. Very random; I believe several people house ruled some variation. Nothing official on the military power packs, but I posted my house rules in this thread here . I'll include the basics below.
3. Count them as Almost Unique . If they have Peer (Military) or Peer (Ad Mech) give them the bonus for that; and I cannot emphasize enough the value of location, location, location..

Basic military style power supply; originally posted for DH, hence a cost listing in thrones.

Military Grade Power Supply (light);

* Cost: 7,000; Weight: 12kg; Availability: Very Rare

Military Grade Power Supply

* Cost: 12,500; Weight: 15kg; Availability: Very Rare

Each such power source will provide a suit of the appropriate armor with a steady supply of power for approximately 5 to 6 months of light use; extensive combat and long campaigns will see the power draw increased by 50-100%. Armor quality applies; with better quality armors not drawing as heavily on the power supply. Good quality armor increases the endurance by a couple of month while best quality armor can see the duration as much as doubled. The high capacity power cells are rechargeable, allowing a spent unit to be reused after a period of maintenance. Such maintenance requires an adequate power source and either a Routine (+20) Tech-Use or a Challenging (+0) Trade: Technomat check with a base time of 14 days. Exchanging a spent power supply with a readily available replacement requires the same tests as noted previously, with a base time of 60 minutes. A successful test reduces the time required by 1d5+Int Bonus days for maintenance, or (1d5+Int Bonus)*5 minutes for replacement; with absolute minimums of 3 days and 10 minutes respectively. Failure by three degrees or more increases the times required (1d5 days or 1d5*5 minutes respectively). Failure by five or more degrees, or rolling a 96-100 on maintenance indicates some form of device failure (rupture, exceeded life expectancy, etc.), and the unit is no longer viable.

Hope this was helpful.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Brother Praetus said:

1. Yes. As Brother Praetus said, all the gear traditionally associated with Astartes ( Bolters, PA and so on ) presented in DH and RT are "civilian issue". The upcoming Deathwatch RPG will give us the true Astartes versions.

2. Absolutely. One of the first things I did when I took up GM;ing DH ( and now RT ) was to introduce certain houserules. Eliminating random PA battery was one them.

3. Let them have it. You can always adjust the opposition to match the players lethality. That fancy PA is not going to help the player much when the rival Rogue Trader takes a shot at him with his plasma pistol ( at maximum power ).

My DH Sister of Battle got herself a suit of power armor in between Shades on Twilight and Baron Hopes in PtU. Our GM decided to houserule it with 6 hours of battery life before it has to be recharged. That way, if I know I'm walking into a combat situation, I'm covered. But since more subtlety is often necessary in the Inquisition, I have to charge up the suit and wear my "plainclothes" armor. (And often get shot at anyways.) For battle scenes in Baron Hopes where I was suiting up, the GM gave the big baddie a plasma pistol... and in the endgame, he had a missile launcher! Glad I dodged that one and planted a bolt in his brain before he got a chance to reload and take a second shot...

I house-ruled that the battery life was rolled only once, when the armour was first acquired

good idea on the battery life roll. It could be drained just sitting on the shelf.

Personally with all the high pen weapons in the game. Power armor isn't horribly attractive. You get major subtractions and hellguns still go through you like warm butter. You are better off with best quality carapace, best quality mesh, best quality body glove or one of the force fields from the IH.

Personally with all the high pen weapons in the game. Power armor isn't horribly attractive. You get major subtractions and hellguns still go through you like warm butter. You are better off with best quality carapace, best quality mesh, best quality body glove or one of the force fields from the IH.

...but then you don't have a frigging Power Armour .

Cifer said:

Exactly ! You are a Rogue Trader. Don´t settle for half measures. Get the Power Armour and a force field. Mini-Terminators anyone ?

Aajav-Khan said:

Why should a Rogue Trader have stuff like that, which is rare even in the inquisition and the Space Marines? How would you justify something like that? What kinds of things would you put the players against to make it challenging?

Danger said:

Rare? Sure, but we are talking the RT system here, not DH so the scales don´t directly compare. The scale in RT goes way beyond what acolytes in DH can even dream of. In RT the players can get their hands on stuff that most DH acolytes would kill for.

I don´t have justify anything. If a player comes up with this idea, fine. I won´t directly say "no". I´ll just make the acquisition suitably hard or more likely make getting the thing a sidequest that has to roleplayed.

Challenge? Moot issue. There are always something bigger/badder/more cunning opponents or situations to throw against the PC;s. A force field certainly is not an "I win- button". Gas, radiation, sound, disease, poison, grapple...the list goes on.

Why should a Rogue Trader have stuff like that, which is rare even in the inquisition and the Space Marines?

Because Rogue Traders routinely manage to accumulate fortunes rivaling those of Inquisitors and Space Marine companies.

Ascension has a "better" version of power armour if you need longer batteries

We have only 1 PC with power armor, the RT's bodyguard; with powerfist and Stormbolter he is a mini-me-marine but has still gone down squealing on a number of occasions. He has a tendency to act all bodyguardlike and throw himself in harms way, as a result he has burnt all of his fate points thus far...

Wing Commander said:

Well, that is what being a bodyguard is all about: throwing yourself between the bullet and your master. I hope the RT appreciates the dedication and loyalty of this brave individual. Some extra benefits or maybe a public commendation...

Well, he has had several pats on the back and a "Don't worry about your leg, the Admech owe us a favour and I'm getting you a shiny replacement!"

Admittedly, the Bodyguard PC is getting a bit concerned as this has been followed by

"Don't worry about your internal organs, our Admech friends say they can replace those for you..."

And..

"The facial scarring isn't actually that bad, and you wear a helmet most of the time so nobody really sees it..."

- The Bodyguard is playing his role to the hilt, and doing a good job of it; managing to soak up a lot of the incoming firepower like a sponge. He has, however, used up all of his fate and is about to get some karmic balance by receiving a point back! He is enjoying his part and looking forward to seeing what he gets replaced next.

Mmm in the end, the only use a power armor really has (besides of the vacuum-resistant, quite usefull in space...) is the +str bonus, which seems to be quite useful to Tech-Priests in the DH forum... (well, for a tech-priest is more logical than any of the lighter armours anyway...).

I handwaved the power armour restrictions in a Dark Heresy game, not something I'd recommend now. For Rogue Trader, I've settled on giving standard power amour five hours of usage without heavy combat (which will it drastically). This is of course before "military power supplies" which haven't been asked for yet.

Of course, the Arch-Militant went for archaetech power armour especially when I said it had a week's worth of power supply.

At this stage, I'm more inclined to think of power armour as something used for extreme fighting, by incredibly elite soldiers like SMs and Soritas and for the rich and paranoid who don't care about the inconveniences and downsides.

from france

the key to the probleme is in dh ascention if not in the dh forum i make some power closed to the one of iron man. look if it may help you.

The Ignatus armour definitely makes more sense for inquisitorial agents engaged in serious combat. Nice addition!