Not on NPC's of course, but lets say a PC decides to break into a pharmacist and gets into one of the cabinets. How do i decide what he finds there? Just over the top of my head, or is there a formula/dice-thingy I should do?

I would base what he finds on the type of world, the community the pharmacy serves (i.e. wealthy, middle class, poor), and the availablitly/rarity of most drugs in general.

For instance, I would think most pharmacies would have a stock of general antibiotics and the like (stuff like "Cast Spray/Synth-Skin", "Counterseptics" & "Rainbow" from IH) and maybe a Toxin Wand or 2. If its a pharmacy in one of the Black Ships then it should probably have "Torpor" (from IH) in stock. A pharmacy based in a military compound or a military medical camp in the field could have stuff like "Stimm", Frenzeon" or "Halo" as well as antibiotics.

Just use your best judgement.

I told my players to forget about loot and that I would decide what they got logically rather than what they killed and what they could scavenge. Once that happened combat became much less about killing the guy with the good gun so you can steal it and more about winning combat and acting as a team.

The only real other standing house rules are that if you kill someone with an Energy or Explosive weapon, you cannot salvage anything from them, as their corpse is burnt/destroyed/exploded/etc., taking their equipment with him (we don't use the Critical Hit charts on regular Mooks, so this makes it quicker) and that you cannot salvage armour from someone you've just blown to hell and back with your weapons.

BYE

H.B.M.C. said:

Pretty much this. But now that they have earned back some of their Inquisitor's trust, and are Rank 6-7, I have given them each a rosette - allowing them a small amount of access to their I's influence, so if they want special equipment, all they have to do is find it (Inquiry), then use their influence (per Ascension, but I give them a base Influence score of 20, roughly one-third of their I's) and/or bank accounts, to acquire it. All of which requires die-rolls. It has also been made very clear to them that any abuse of this system will result in all of their privileges being revoked. So far, it has actually worked pretty well. They requisition what they think they need, assuming they can make the rolls ... but they haven't gone hog-wild so far (despite my belief that this was exactly what they would do). And, of course, every now and then they may find a tantalizing piece of gear or whatnot on a vanquished heretic ... but usually I use those as story-drivers.

OP I suggest you check out the Drug Section for War Zones in the IH. It has many medicines that would be considered useful. However if you're going for more of a herbal route, check out the feral and frontier sections. Ultimately though, if you feel like your players are being to greedy just make all the drugs they find obscurely labeled and of dubious quality.

On the subject of looting in general, I got my players out of looting through a combination of scenarios where the slowest guy died and the fact that their Inquisitor provides all the basic equipment they need to succeed. Still I let them scavenge for ammo if they need, tools such as explosives, and rarities like best quality powerswords that anyone would be insane to just leave.

Actually I recently gave my players their own ship (a bit like the Ebon Hawk from KOTOR), that they took (by force) off some mercs that had been hired to kill them. It came with a fully stocked armoury. All basic gear (Lasguns, Shotguns, etc.), but still a decent amount. I've made scavenging for weapons less of a big deal by giving them a lot of basic stuff.

BYE

H.B.M.C. said:

Yeah, that's a good way to go about it.

To be honest, I've used several methods in my current game. In their first couple of missions, they had normal starting gear, plus whatever they could buy with starting money, then whatever they could scrounge during the course of the missions. One mission, their Inquisitor just issued them what she thought they would need. Then, they were allowed to keep some confiscated credit chits from one mission, to use as they saw fit. On their last mission, their Inquisitor opened up her personal armoury to them and told them to take whatever they needed. They confiscated a local PDF Banshee on that same mission, along with a driver and a gunner. And, thanks to some fantastic role-playing by the Noble Scum character (he's Malfian), they are currently zipping around in a "borrowed" Battlefleet Calixis Guncutter. Apparently, having friends of rank in the Imperial Navy is useful after all.

In my case I had to do it.

In Act II of our campaign I had them in in the Underhive of a Hive City and they came across a gun store. When the whole town turned around and attacked them, and they discovered that the gun store was rigged with explosives, they proceeded to have a 1/2 hour argument about how best to fight off the enemies without blowing the gun store up so that they could loot it.

Completely missed the point of the encounter really.

From that point onwards I've made loot less of a big deal. Hell I even stopped giving EXP for individual kills. Take the focus away from gaining 'stuff' and inter-group competition, and things work better.

BYE

H.B.M.C. said:

While I have espoused the opinion that you should let your players have the toys that they want ... I feel I should qualify that in at least two ways:

Give them what they want ... as long as it does not iminently interfere with your idea of what is "40K", and as long as it does not unduly mechanically unbalance your campaign. In other words, if your idea of what 40K is denies your players' requests, then don't allow them. If your players' requests are obviously only for a "game-mechanics" advantage, then don't allow them ... unless they also add to the role-playing experience.

So I guess what it comes down to is ... what do you want your campaign to look/feel like? Is it more about the "badass characters doing incredible/unbelievable" things, or is it more about challenging your players to come up with role-playing methods of solving problems. Or ... is it a combination that I fail to define?

It all amounts to what you expect from your game, and your players. There is NO real hard, fast rule. I guess it all comes down to you ... and your players ... having a good time.

I allow the players quite a lot of leeway when it comes to picking equipment. They end up picking equipment for their characters for the mission. They will go low tech on the feral world and high tech in the spires of Scintilla. Encourage them to chop and change and it'll be less on the best/biggest and more on which makes the best sense roleplay wise.

Rule of thumb I do not allow equipment or loot that the players cannot use. Only exception is when a player expresses and interested in gaining the skill, I'll often allow them to access the equipment a couple of sessions before they buy the talent.

Fit the "loot" into the session style. A noble adventure would not be turning up stub autos.

Also turn it the problem back onto the players. I.E. If the players raid a pharmacy ask them "what are you after."?

• If they ask for "anything useful" then ask for chymistry rolls to maybe get a few random doses
• If they ask for "stuff to sell on." ask for the evaluate roll to for them to get X thrones worth of drugs.
• If they do ask for a specific drug "slaught" or another combat drug. Look up the drug and decide whether the place would stock it. (maybe a search roll)

Never give the players something you are not happy with them getting or coping with (Autocannon anyone?) not matter how hard they plead or beg!

H.B.M.C. said:

Forgive me for asking but wouldn't the obvious solution have been to make it clear that the mob was approaching fast and that they did not have the time to sit around and argue?

Now, about looting. I planning a campaign and haven't really given this some thought but judging from the posts in this thread it bears some thinking. How come you guys/gals (or whatever the feminin is) felt that you had to restrict looting?

Personally I imagined that it would be a problem that would solve itself, more or less. To carry heavy weapons is, well heavy for one thing and generally also very visible, attracting all sorts of unwanted attention, I would think? Is it just a big time sink to let the players loot every last basic weapon, throne or leather thong? As some of you have touched on already it shouldn't take so long to acquire a reasonable arsenal of basic weapons. Which by the way needs to be stored somewhere.

As Cat mentioned it should also be a problem that diminishes as the acolytes grows in strength and power (and rank). In fact, I, as a player, would probably enjoy scraping and scrounging my arms and armour together for the first few missions. And appreciate that special something even more once I manage to buy/acquire/loot/steal it....

I am just thinking out loud here and am honestly interested in hearing your opinions.

Forgive me for asking but wouldn't the obvious solution have been to make it clear that the mob was approaching fast and that they did not have the time to sit around and argue?

Honestly, for me, I always pit my players against enemies with self-immolation devices on them. That way, when they die, they either explode or catch on fire, so they can't get the uber loot. Minor things like robbing a pharmacy, just make something up off the top of your head. "You have robbed the sotre, you now have in your possession 2 flasks of Nyquil and a jar of Gummy Grox childrens vitamin supplements."

"I eat the vitamins."

"Roll an intelligence test."

(roll 50)

"You fail to figure out a way past the childproof cap. You are seared!"

I let my characters earn what they want, as long as it suits their character and isn't too game breaking. for the drug store i would improvise on the spot and allow them to do a search and letting them find more per level of success. the thing about the vitamin pills is funny by the way.

P.S long player arguments suck and luckily we haven't had one yet.

The good news is that they weren't arguing with me, they were arguing with each other. I just sat back and let them waste time.

BYE

I don't. For me resoureces managment isnt the core of roleplaying. .My players know that my games never have much gear focus and they are suppose to roll with it. I'm generous with what they get, but wont stand that resouces managment wont eat up precious gaming time and just tell them:

"The mecenary team seem to have military grade weponery and armor, with some of the ugly kind of dirty weapons and bombs you find among hive gangs. They got some cash stoved away and some worn but useful gear. Thier cloting is dicreet and pratical"

And then the players suggest some things that from me description would seem likely to be found, and I reply:

"Yea. Sounds pretty likely. Lets say that you got a 70% chance of finding that." And we roll for it and the whole thing is over in 3 minutes.

But this only works if you dont have much gear focus and the players are content with the gear they gets, accept that we wont spend much time on gear, dont feel the need to with claws and teeth fight for every single bullet.

quite good sounding method w176