I have a noble PC in my acolyte group. After five years of leave, they are going to reconvene when the parents of multiple acolytes, including the noble's, are murdered. This will leave him as the primary heir and head of his household. I am considering giving the team a small profit factor at this point to represent the noble house's holdings.

Is this a good idea? What do you see as the potential ramifications of doing this?

I don't see why not. I wouldn't give him full access to the whole of the houses fortune just yet. But something along the lines of the lower end of things; maybe a Profit of 30 or so.

-=Brother Praetus=-

What rank are the acolytes on your team?

If they are something like rank 3 then it will make a HUGE impact on your game, since the team will suddenly have access to massive piles of "best quality fill in the blank" and some serious "walkin' about" cash to boot. If on the other hand they are already rank 7-8 then the impact should probably be fairly minimal... They will be piling on with Ascention and Influence soon enough and they probably already have some choice pieces of personal gear by now.

The real question is what feel do you want for your game? If you are going for the dark and gritty down in the gutters Cyberpunk style game then you definately want to avoid this. On the other hand, if cash is really secondary to the overall story and the team has some other strong and unifying motive already then it probably won't hurt.

One fun GM goodie if you decide to do this. You gain a new carrot and stick for your toolbag: The Noble's PF can be bumped up or down slightly to reward good or stupid decision making by the group as a whole. Did the Guardsman just piss off one of your business clients at a big formal event? Perhaps he pulls what contracts he has that are non-binding and goes with your competitor? DO make sure that if you end up giving the player's character a small PF from Rogue Trader that you saddle the same character with some social obligations that go along with the family business!

I already make use of several of the talent changes in RT for my DH game (considering them to be "Eratta") so one more on the stack probably won't kill your game.

The PC's are almost at rank 6, but I have been a bit conservative when giving them equipment. They really only have one or two "premium" items a piece. The noble house in question is somewhat of a small backwater family, so I was looking at 20 as the number to shoot for, giving them a decent chance of finding single items for personal use, but making it somewhat unlikely that they could handle missions by renting out mercenary companies.

If it drives the story in your game in fun and useful ways (to the story) then why not? It sounds like an interesting plot development. Besides, if he gets out of hand with it then the Noble's enemies (you know, those things they start with from the Noble background?) can always pounce on an opportunity and make a play for the assets, bring malicious legal procedings to bear or simply try to figuratively burn the legacy down. That would probably make for some good drama too... Either way, have fun!

As said: As long as you compensate the benifits (better equipment) against the obligations (rivals and duties) there should be no problem. It could be used as a plot device as well.

Awesome. Thanks for the input!