All of my party have weapons that are best quality so they won't jam. I feel that there should be a chance, no matter how small, that the weapon will malfunction. I've come up with a chart that is rolled on when a natural 100 is rolled when firing a ballistic weapon.

1-2 User Error: The Magazine/Powercell wasn't seated right and now the weapon won't fire until it the magazine is properly installed. spend a half action fixing the weapon.

3-4 Click/Fizz: The ammo/powercell used was purchased from an unreliable source and as it stands the current clip is useless. Reload the weapon with a new clip discarding the existing one. Spend the appropriate amount of actions determined by the weapon to reload.

5-6 And...nothing: Unknown weapon malfunction. The weapon is useless until after the current engagement or until a hard (+0) tech test is made.

7-8 Fancy club: Major weapon malfunction. The weapon is useless until the game session has ended. It will take an armory specialist to determine what went wrong with the weapon and fix it.

9-10 Boom!: Critical Weapon malfunction. The limb holding/firing the weapon takes 1D5 E damage to it, ignoring armor. Make a +10 Toughness test or lose the hand. (I might make this worse if the weapon is a plasma or flame weapon.)

I haven't used this yet but I think I will during my next game. I'd like you guys to tell me what you think.

If it were me, I'd have the character fumble and the weapon with a chance of the weapon discharging upon hitting the ground on a roll of 100. Having a Best Quality weapon seize up like that sorta detracts from the Best Quality part, if you ask me. Besides:

Normal Weapon: 5% chance to jam (roll of 96-100)

Good Quality (Reliable) Weapon: 0.5% chance to jam (roll of 96-100 followed by a roll of "0" on a 1d10)

Best Quality Weapon (with jam on 100): 1% chance to jam

If you're going to implement that rule at all, the chance of it happening with a Best Quality weapon should be less than the chance of a Reliable weapon jamming.

-Kirov

I forgot to write in my original post that good quality weapons subtract one from the roll and best quality subtract 2. Thanks for reminding me

It's the kind of thing that, for me, would just be an unnessisary additional complication. If the scene calls for it, I might have something funny/anoying happen on a natural 100, but it's not the kind of thing I'd really both with rules for. After all, even if they do have a Best Quality weapon, they're still not hitting, indeed probibly missed by several degrees of falure, so it's not like they arn't geting some penalty for their bad roll. So, I guess my feeling is, add fluff to taste, but it's not worth a rule.

Kirov has a point though, such a rule does greatly decrease the value of best & good weapons, but would need to be applied to all weapons.

I disagree with Kirov and Quicksilver. I will totally add this in my game. Whats the chance one of your players is going to roll a hundred and even more a hundred when firing a gun....Yes yes I know one in a hundred I know. But! That's not really how it works. Other factors mess with chances. Anyways... If your players are running around with best quality items then as a DM I think you should be able to just ruin a PC's moment. Come on they have the best guns and probably the best armor. How do you expect them to fear combat if not for the scratching in the back of their mind that...Wait what if I frak up? Everything on that chart is only going to take a turn from them (unless they blow off their hand, not they will won't use a fortune to reroll that toughness test or more likely just the 100 rolled earlier *wink*) and to be honest they probably just have another best quality weapon they can Quick Draw and shot next round. Remember this is the Grim Future. The more bloody chunks and bad luck the better.

On a second note: I don't let my players buy Best Quality ANY! Unless they start with it they better expect to earn it. If you just give your players the best equipment or stuff how do you expect them to respect it. Studies have been done on "effort of gain". If you just give a kid candy it has less effect. They want it more then if they have to earn it. Also they enjoy said candy more if its rare. Nothing against any of your games. But the harder the players play the more fun they have. Remember Best Quality items are artifacts, ancient technology, priced collections, one of a kind, etc. To have one should be a honor. PCs should travel the galaxy to find such items or chase thieves for years to regain it.

Might want to re-read what I said. Yes, I know I'm nit-picking, but I advocated having the user fumble the weapon, not the weapon itself seize up and die. Again, having the best quality weapon seize up and die like that detracts from the best quality part, especially if you went through hell and back to get it in the first place . Besides, if you're the evil GM sort, wouldn't it be more hilarious for the supposedly uber arch-militant be limp-wristing and the gun, with the gun going off and causing all sorts of mayhem that way? I mean, imagine the hilarity of that dropped plasma gun accidentally torching all that promethium fuel or that stray bullet shearing off the suspenders of the arch-militant's pants. The possibilities!

-Kirov

P.S. The ship in the Rogue Trader campaign I played was named (by the rogue trader himself, no less) the Divine Comedy . You do the math.

Now that I have settled down from the many humorous scenarios ( ) my imagination has concocted, I would now like to know the (whimsical) fate of the vessel named the Divine Comedy .

Now that I have settled down from the many humorous scenarios ( ) my imagination has concocted, I would now like to know the (whimsical) fate of the vessel named the Divine Comedy.

7explorer said:

The campaign wasn't all that long, sadly (he GM was studying for a major security certification; he showed us the tome he was reading, and it was HUGE), though I do have this story to share.

First, a run-down of the Rogue Trader and entourage:

• The Rogue Trader was a noble and very no-nonsense guy (quite at odds with what *he* named the ship), and as expected, he dressed in an immaculate uniform with all the trimmings.
• The Navigator was apparently cursed with some horrendously bad luck. We'll see this in play in a bit.
• The Explorator. Well, as expected, he was drooling over the apparently 39,000-year-old 1911 that one of the other characters had brought on board.
• The Void Mistress was, well, not pretty. I think she had a mutation or three, including Hideous Strength. Not the sort of girl you'd want to bring home to meet your parents.
• The Missionary was a bit on a scrawny side and couldn't swing a sword to save her life. At least she could shoot straight part of the time. I suppose the fact that she was a bit of an outcast of the Ecclesiarchy didn't help matters. We figured that she got in trouble for preaching the word of the Emperor and not the Ecclesiarchy and was effectively exiled as a result.
• The Arch-Militant was another huge mutant from some Emperor-forsaken Death World. He also had Hideous Strength, was uglier than some Nurgle spawn, stood some two meters tall, and was armed with a vicous mono-whip. Not the sort of guy you'd want to meet in a dark alley.
• Last but not least was the Templar Calix. Though 30 years of age, she looked about only 15 (she's a biomancer). Among other things, she was apparently trained by the Inquisition to fight daemons and other warp spawn, and had the gear to match: a wrist-mounted bolt pistol, a blessed force naginata, and a suit of light power armor with hexagrammic wards (out of character, we jokingly called her "Grey Knight Lite"). We figured that the Rogue Trader called in a favor from an inquisitor that owed him big time. When she wasn't suited up and looking for "boarders", she wore a (mesh) french maid uniform and mopped the floors.

On our very first trip into the warp, the Navigator made . . . a critical error (the player in question rolled a 99). A series of other critical errors followed (no roll less than 88), resulting in the ship crashing into an apparently mild warp storm. Due to in no small part of the skill of the Explorator (the player in question rolled a 01), the Gellar Field was down for only a minute. Unfortunately, that was all that was needed for some unwanted "boarders" to manifest.

The Navigator and the Void Mistress were busy trying to steer out of the warp storm, and the Explorator was busy with the Gellar Field, leaving the Missionary, the Rogue Trader, the Templar Calix, and the Arch Militant to deal with the intrusion. These four get to where the warp critters were, a bunch of purple/pink spiny-looking critters with six arms (the were not gene-stealers). At first sight of these abominations, well . . . (GM called for a Fear 2 test)

• The Missionary - (player spends a fate point to activate Pure Faith and doesn't bother rolling) *draws a bolter* "IN THE EMPEROR'S NAME!"
• The Rogue Trader - (makes the willpower roll) *draws a plasma pistol and power sword* "Damnit, GET OFF MY SHIP!"
• The Templar Calix - ( easily makes the willpower roll) *rolls eyes* "And I just mopped the floors, too."
• The Arch Militant - ( . . . fails the willpower roll. Fails the willpower roll horribly) *runs out the door screaming like a little girl*

At this point, combat was joined. The Missionary had a bad day; she was splashed by warp critter goo and ended up puking her guts out. Then, just as she recovered, she got splashed again and puked some more. How the Rogue Trader managed to keep his uniform spotless after decapitating two of the critters is anybody's guess. As for the Templar Calix, well, she took the brunt of the attack and got jabbed in the side . . . hard. (She suited up as the troubles began, and despite wearing light power armor, she still took some eight points of damage or so in one blow).

Well, the three of them managed to finish off the warp critters. Afterwards:

• The Missionary went to take a looooong shower ("Ew, ew, ew, ew, warp critter goo, ew, ew, ew. ..")
• The Rogue Trader went back to the bridge to hold things together.
• The Templar Calix limped off to the sick bay. (GM ruled that using psychic powers of any kind would automatically cause Perils of the Warp)

As for the Arch-Militant? He came back in after the fight was over. As the Templar Calix limped by, she glared at him and grumbled, "We could have used your help, you know!"

A memorable first session if I ever experienced one.

-Kirov

Kirov said:

This kind of hilarity is just what is needed to brighten the grim darkness of 41st Millennium. I hope the rest the game goes (or went) just as well...

NoneShallPass said:

If this rule was used in the DH/RT games I've played it would just mean that the PCs would spend a fate point any time they rolled 100 on a BS test, meaning that only NPCs would suffer from it.

Also, why is the exploding weapon armour ignoring ?

Wouldn't most weapons be held outside the armour ?

Kirov said:

Nice, sounds like it should be the Blood Angels flag ship.