Howdy folks!

Let me start with a little disclaimer saying that I am a completen ewb when it comes to Warhammer 40k and it isnt my intention to yank on anyone's chain with my question (most of them might sound really dumb). I have been Dungeon Mastering for 7 years now, running homebrew campaigns, but with this Warhammer setting.. well I feel like fish out of the water. I am currently reading novels in order to get a better feel of the technology and the peculiarities of the various gizmos. But progress has been really slow.

With this out of the way here I go:

Problem 1. Acolytes gain Thrones from the Administratorum, like an employee would from a company. From what I recall these payments are monthly and as rule of thumb they are based on their careers and/or ranks (guardsmen earn somewhere around 50 thrones while the clergy go somewhere around 200). Now this means that I should set a game date, in order to track the passing days so that my players would have a clear idea when to expect payment for their toils.

Question 1. The adventure I started with, is Edge of Darkness. What time date should I choose? Should I use Terran dates? (i.e. the 3rd of March. 40136) I am inclined to do so since from my understanding the cycles of night and day (on most imperial planets) mimick the night and day cycles on Earth)

Problem 2. In the game there are these devices named Chrono that they function like watches. My Acolytes fished them out of some dead Logician agents.

Question 2. Do these function like real watches, showing the 24/12 hour cycle. They are digital or mechanical?

Problem 3. It is from my understanding that VOX transmition take years to arrive to the nearby planets and the Astropath messaging comes cannot be used to get accurate information across (as these come in form of visions and signs).

Question 3. What other means there are for the Acolytes to submit reports or request help from their Inquisitor or their contact in the higher command echelon?

That would be all for now. I will drop some more questions here as soon as I bump against them. Any help would be greatly apprecialed.

Thanks,

Xarthilias

Problem One: I seem to recall that it says somewhere in the Hand Book that you can pay your Acolytes for every 400xp, this is the system we currently use in our group. If they want to however my group can petition their contacts for better equipment.

Problem Two: I would agree that most worlds (Worlds with tech: Imperial, Hive etc) would use Terran standard hours, as to how the Chronos work i think it would differ from world to world some being digital and others being more pocket watch like. I would also think there is a difference in who uses watches on different planets.

Problem Three: I always thought that Vox was fast and reliable but very short ranged (at most a planet) and that you had to use Astropaths for long range communications even if they are more unreliable because the reciever had to decipher the message and could decipher it wrong in rare circumstances.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the reply Bassemandrh.

For the first problem. That could work except that my Acolytes gathered 500 xp or from the first 2 days (in-game). And i reckon that by the time the adventure will draw to a close (one, maybe two days in-game) they will rack up at least 400 more xp. I am also concerned about the xp haitus between the adventurers and the down time spent recovering from injuries, making research and so on.

Anyone else encountered this issue?

Problem 2. That is a good call right there, for some reason I though these would be standard. Of course all the Logicians equipment should be consistent in their tech. But yeah, makes sense that the Chronos should vary in terms of tech.

Problem 3. I see, so then there are no alternatives for two these two forms of communication? An idea was to send a letter via a ship. Are there any records of a secret Inquisitorial mailing system?

Xarthilias said:

A letter via a ship is even more risky than an astropathic message, since that ship could take anything between 4-5 days to 100 years to get to the system next door, and even longer for systems further away. Plus they could be destroyed, lost, or the letter could be intercepted by an enemy.

Meanwhile, an astropathic message is usually fairly reliable except in extreme circumstances (like the Warp being volitile between the originator of the message and the receiver), and can be encrypted in such a way that only the person you want to receive it can decipher it.

Plus, ships aren't amazingly common, and are extremely expensive. Just sending a letter on it, even if the ship is actually going to where you want the letter taken to, would cost several hundred thrones, even more if the ship wasn't going where you wanted to letter to go to (more along the lines of thousands of thrones, since you're sending the ship out of it's way). Meanwhile it'd likely only cost a few hundred thrones to send a message via astropath, and possibly nothing at all if you went to the Inquisitorial Headquarters on the planet and used their astropath.

Xarthilias said:

Part of what makes the dystopian future of the 41st millennium so dark are dreary is that there is no efficient means of tying the Imperium together, beyond the astropaths. Even those guys aren't perfect. Communication is iffy, travel is risky, technology is for all practical purposes treated like religion (ie: praying to the "machine god" that your gun won't jam, etc.) Humanity may have come a long way in some respects, but they've also lost a lot of control over their surroundings in the process. The unknown is something to be legitimately afraid of in the darkness of space, and sometimes (so it seems to me) there's more out there that humanity doesn't know than there is that they do.

Inquisitors come down hard on suspected heresey partly out of paranoia, but also partly because it will take a long time for authorties in other star systems to even learn what happened, let alone respond. The inquisitor is given the jurisdiction to make unilateral decisions in an effort to ensure decisions get made before it's too late. This kind of power often leads to overconfidence and oppression, but that's the way of life in this era. Few people obey the law because they're afraid of immediate consequences. Many people obey the law because even being mistaken for a criminal will get you strung up as one. And the penalty is usually death.

Thanks a lot guys for the answers. I have a clearer picture of how things are running communication wise.

Following on my questions, please give mean an example of a message the my Acolytes can -hope- to get across through an Astropath? And how much time it will take to reach from Scintila to Iocanthos? (They're two planets and a half away )

Also following on my first question, can someone give me a date to work with? The Calixis Sector timeline seems so confusing to look at. I will work with whatever you -date- you supply. Just realized that keeping track of elapsed time can bring forward a lot of interesting and fun events: the inquisitor's birthday, ecclesiastic holidays, re-enactments of holy crusades/events etc..

Xarthilias said:

Most Imperial planets have their own calendar that is suitable for the local year. The Imperium has the Imperial Calendar in which dates are of the following format:

axxxyyyMmm

where a is the "accuracy number" that gives an estimate of the accuracy of the date given. 1 means that it's totally accurate, while 9 means that it's only a guess.

The next three numbers (the xxx) are the "year fractions", and are simply the thousanths of the year in question that have passed.

The last three numbers (the yyy) are the standard year, and the two numbers after the capital M are the millennium.

The starting date of my campaign (with the adventure Edge of Darkness) was 4315815M41. This means that the "accuracy class" is 4, pretty high for a place as remote as Calixis Sector, but the adventure took place on Scintilla, the sector capital so I thought it was justified. The next three numbers tell us that 315 thousandths of the year have already passed(which means that it's about 105th standard day of the year). The rest tells us that it's the 815th year of the 41st millennium (so 40815).

It might seem a bit complicated to use at first, but it'll get a lot easier after some experience with it. My players are nowadays completely comfortable using the Imperial Calendar.

So, as a rule of thumb you could say that about three (3) year fractions make a standard day which means that about every 90 year fractions the acolytes receive their salary. That's how I do it anyway. You are of course free to do as you please, as is any other GM.

-Cheezy

For the thrones issue, I'd suggest not worrying about iron hard dates. If you plan out a game that only lasts a couple days, you could always give the thrones as a 'bonus' for a job done adequately (as the phrase "excellent work, acolytes" seems to be something pretty far fetched to come out of an inquisitor's mouth). A "you have done adequately, here is a pittance. Don't spend it all on holos and llo-sticks". The only time months are usually going to pass by quickly is if they are going to be in transit to another planet. As mentioned above, also relating to your problem with finding means of communication, space travel is risky business, as even the best crewed ship could get caught in a warpstorm for 100+ years and emerge on the other side as if only a day had passed.

As for the question of communication, i believe there should be some grand database for the administratum, where all the census and figures are collected. Some highly encrypted database where only the scribes have access to, etc. I could, and probably am wrong, but it would make sense if there was such a thing for the hard data of the imperium. I've always seen Vox as a simple comm/radio. Set it to a specific channel, maybe encrypt it, and you can talk to anyone, your unit, etc. Patch into an emergency PDF or Enforcer channel, etc. The range on them shouldn't be more than that of a planet. Maybe lower quality act more like walkie-talkies with a very limited use area, to better quality that can communicate with an orbiting ship or someone on the far side of a planet. As for a message from Scintilla to Iocanthos, you could say anywhere from same day, to a week, probably or a heck of a lot longer if you decided to roll for it, and roll poorly.

For the chronos, you could even have the better quality ones automatically adjust to a new planets time zones, while lesser quality ones only work for specific planets, or require tech-use tests to recalibrate? As for look, they can be anything from a slightly bulky Casio, to a large wrist mounted sundial with gears and gyros, or a glove with a small visual display.

I thought about it more and came across it after I was done with my current campaign, but there are food and lodging expenses the acolytes can pay. Much more interesting if you want to deal with it. Basically the same with income, a cleric or noble is going to have to pay much more for clothes, food, lodging, etc. than the scum or guardsman. So it helps to balance out the difference in pay they get.

I usually just said however months went by in game, and let them have their salary before the next story started. It might be 2 or 3 game sessions before they would complete a story and get any income besides the loot they stole/acquired. You could work out how much they need to pay for food, lodging, etc. out of that for their net income, and just use that number generally for them. Ship travels are the wonkiest though, they don't typically need to pay for anything there and it is pure time gone by which means income for them. Granted they could arrive before they left the previous place...

Xarthilias said:

If you could get hold of Rogue Trader (which has rules for Astropaths in it), that'd help you a lot.

Xarthilias said:

I've been going with a straight monthly pay schedual. It's functional, but it tends to force the PCs to rely on looting dead bodies and selling armour and weapons to make ends meet. That's kind of distractingly D&Dish for me; if I start another campaign, I'll consider using the Requisition system from Ascention/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch instead...

Xarthilias said:

I read somewhere that "815" was assumed to be the standard starting year for DH. Since I started my campaign in October, I set the start date as 301.815.M41 (the 301st day of the 815th year of the 41st millineum). For simplicity's sake, I go with 30-day months.

Xarthilias said:

I assume they are digital; since not every planet has a 24-hour solar day, I assume that chronos use military-style 2400-hour times, which may not relate at all to planetary orbital conditions (i.e. it could be 1400 hours- 2p.m.- in the middle of the planetary night), plus an extra countdown timer that tracks local Sunrise, Noon, Sunset, and Midnight that has to be re-set for each planet.

Xarthilias said:

I think the text in the Core Rulebook about Astropathic transmissions is largely hyperbole; I just treat Astropathic communication as being similar to telegrams in the late-19th Century.

I hope that helps...

Problem 1: I prefer to bypass thronery. Yes, players earn their monthly thrones, to do unto which they will, but if they are members (however lowly) of the emperor's most holy Inquisition, I have a hard time believing that their handler (be he inquisitor, interrogator, etc) is so strapped for resources that the team being flung across the galaxy to inspect potentially catastrophic phenomena can not, somehow, be given some flak jackets and autoguns or <INSERT COMPARATIVELY AVERAGE POWER:LEVEL PIECE OF GEAR HERE>. Remeber, an acolyte cell costs an Inquisitor, in game terms, 5 permanent requisition points. And as they grow, their missions grow, so those level 6 acolytes inspecting a possible genestealer cult might very reasonably be given some chainswords and bolters for their shooty types. No need to play the Well, hey, we were in transit for two months, right? So thats two months pay? So I do have enough for a bolt pistol..ah..wait..does this have a pop of 10,000 or less?

2: Adjust appropriately. maybe use quality indicators to mark particularly advanced or primitve equipment.

3: The fluff overdoes the unreliability/non-utility of astropathic comms a bit. While it may not be the best way to send stock prices, or exact numbers o bullets remaining per gun type, you can pretty easily send "sell pigs here." "need more artillery shells-lots" and "oh dear Emperor, its a green tide! Shoot them Shoot them nooow!" It will generally be faster than hard copy in the warp. That being said, several of the more formal and binding documents of the Imperium (to include a formal carta to bring in an Inquisitor) can ONLY travel hard copy.

Even so, the delays, and the lack of perfect fidelity, in the most common form of communications essentially renders centralization extremely difficult, which is one of the prime reasons the Imperium is decidely feudal.

Xarthilias said:

'Terran dates' will only really be relevant on Holy Terra. Each world will have its on local dating derived from however long its annual and daily cycles will take.

The Administratum uses an administrative dating process that is largely imprecise, which i suppose local planets may refer to. Detail here:

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Dating_System

Note that trying to tie this to our dating today, the Imperial administrative year is divided into 1000 segments. This equates roughly to 8.7 hours per segment or three segments per standard 'Terran' day. Not sure if that helps, other than to say that the Administratum does not care to record time any finer than an 8hr chunk!

In terms of paying your acolytes. I think its best to remember that they are not actually 'paid', nor are they employees. They are servants (i.e. indentured slaves) of the Inquisition. the money they recieve from the Inquisition is simply a stipend for living expenses. You might wish to assume their payments come from some private income, in which case i'd suggest this accrues every 90 Imperial time segments (once per month), paid directly into whatever banking or credit system you beleive exists in 40k (if you see there being one at all).

Xarthilias said:

The chronos are also surprisingly expensive, even for a basic one. I'd suggest they are complex think machines calibrated to Administrative standard time, but also capable of automatically registering local chronologies (where they exist, perhaps requiring a planetary ethernet to tune into). In practice i'd tend to say that the owner will always know the time where he is. Best to apply a bit of handwavium here i suspect...

Xarthilias said:

Vox transmissions aren't possible between planets. Without an ehternet, surface-to-orbit is difficult (which is why the Imperial Guard carry massive backpack vox systems to boost their signals.

Astropathic choirss are prevalent on most worlds, facilitating interplanetary communication - both for Imperial authorities and i suspect on core worlds for anyone who can afford their services. Astropathy is generally relaible, barring the vagueries of the Warp (i.e. GM fiat and speed of plot). It really is the best method of interstellar communication.

Alternately physical transmission via courier or in person is the only other real option. Assuming that Hiveworlds exist on some basis of logic, interplanetary travel must be common, and so it shouldn't be too difficult to get a letter on a mail-ship or into the cargo of some other vessel.

Your acolytes would be expected to submit their reports via whatever channel the Inquisitor or more likely their Interrogator-handler desired. He may well in fact simply want them to keep their records until one of his semi-regular check-ins (when an administrative servitor will digest and summarise things fairly rapidly.

Calling for help is perhaps more troublesome. Unless that help is on-world or in orbit ready to go, the PCs are likely to be on their own. As it should be?

Thank you for all the replies. Moving on with my questions.

Question 4. Is there a list of planets (in Calixis Sector) where Schola Progenium can be found and how many years does the schooling last?

Question 5. On what planet is the main Adepta Sororitas Covenant in Calixis Sector? Is it on Scintila? The only information I have is that of Canoness Goneril, but no word on the predominant orders or her whereabouts.

Thanks!

EDIT. I am very much aware that, being the Game Master and all, I can rule and make up whatever I want. However, some of my players are really knee deep in the 40K lore and if I would hate if they start contradicting me about the canon information.

Xarthilias said:

1.: Most Adepts probably gain their Thrones from the Administratum as do Psykers in their service, Clerics from the Ministorum, Arbitrators from their Arbites precinct (thus indirectly from the Administratum), Tech-Priests from the Mechanicus, Guardsmen from the Departmento Munitorum (which is part of the Administratum). Assassins and Scum on the other hand...

3.: Mostly none, but that's the way (in my opinion) DH works best without the Acolytes back checking every decision they (are about to) make. Regarding Astrpathic communication the descriptions in the DH rulebook are a little to strict (and abstract) in my opinion in the same way that Dan Abnett in Eisenhorn is a little to liberal (with his sort of astropathic mail-box...).

Best inspiration is the novel Blind if you ask me. Therein it is mentioned that scheduled messages from known Astropaths/Choirs are about no problem to receive without data corruption ao long as their is no warp disturbance or something like that. More problematic are unanounced distress calls without direct recipient and such things.

As Adeptus-B mentioned I would consider astropathic tranmission a little like telegrams of the 19th century (in the same way as navigation and travel times). So short volumes of plain text is easy, pictures are a problem and therewith we come back to 'visions and signs'...

4.: Not that I know of.

5.: The predominant orders are the Order Famulous of the Opening Eye (led by Canoness Goneril) and Sisters of Battle of the Order of the Ebon Chalice (led by Palatine Rhiannon). Both are located in The Abbey of Dawn on Iocanthos. For more details check Blood of Martyrs.

4: I believe every planet of suitable population (I guess a population greater then a frontier world) has at least one schola on it.

I know that you have received a lot of positive feedback already, but I would still like to share my own techniques. Hopefully you have the time to read the book I have written below.....

Question 1: I would not get so bogged down with the whole "pay-check" thing. Typically, a story will take several days to several weeks (including investigation, travel, debriefing, etc.) I usually have some downtime between missions and depending on the length of the last mission, may just skip to the first week of the next month and award them their pay. I never give exact dates, although this would be the ultimate way to keep track using the Imperium Calendar and it's something all GMs should do, in my opinion.

Sometimes, if the travel distance is exceptionally long, I will back-pay the group upon their return. I don't envision them getting paychecks via "direct deposit" or anything, so I keep it simple and they rarely question whether or not I am not paying them often enough. "You arrive after two weeks of travel and must depart immediately for your next assignment" will just mean that they have to wait a little longer before they get paid. The needs of the Imperium come before the desires of a lowly Acolyte!

One person mentioned the unlikelihood of an Inquisitor sending out his Acolytes unprepared. For missions their Lord deems exceptionally difficult, I usually give the acolytes a few extra thrones to spend on gear. Also - don't be afraid to offer the acolytes modest help. Borrowing items from a local PDF armory is acceptable as long as the Acolytes don't start stealing Las Cannons and Chimeras! Perhaps the Inquisition gives them paperwork which allows them to "check out" certain items with the intent to return them. After all, that's exactly how the current U.S military operates. Then the problem of overpoweredness and preparedness are both solved in one swoop.

Question 2: Someone already said it and I concur. They are essentially time-telling devices ranging from advanced millisecond, digital timing to a simple pocket watch.

Question 3. Luthor Harkin stated that the DH rules for Astropaths are a little too strict. I agree, but I believe they are purposefully written that way to make a strict distinction between 40K and the Star Wars / Star trek genres. After all, receiving a live-action T.V message from Earth while patrolling the Neutral Zone is a bit over the top. Don't you think?

Instead of this, we have Astropaths. I think the usefulness of these individuals and the accuracy / timeliness of their messages is relevant to the game's environment. My campaign takes place on and around Scintilla. I don't think it is it is too hard to imagine that this area has more and higher-quality Astropaths than a distant Death World in a system on the fringes of the Calixis sector. It is my belief that highly populated and civilized systems will have better methods of communications than backwater planets in Sector - Z. With this in mind, is it so hard to imagine that the Imperium has enormous, psychic beacon towers on its important worlds or in important communication paths throughout space which help accelerate and preserve these telepathic e-mails? I don't think so.

Through these deductions I am able to conceive that a message sent by a well-versed Astropath from Sepheris Secundus to Scintilla - a trip that takes the Misericord 6 months to traverse - can arrive in a couple of weeks.

The bottom line on Astropaths:

In the end, the Warp and the 40k universe in general are such haphazard places where literally anything can happen. As a GM, this offers you outstanding Science Fiction to utilize in your game. A distress signal from a planet can be deciphered two weeks after it is sent. As they travel, the acolytes can hit a bump in the warp that puts them on that world a day before the signal was sent. Who knows? Perhaps THEY are the ones who sent the signal in the first place......

About the first question. I give out money based on in-game months. Since each scenario usualy lasts on the magnitude of days this means that money comes in during downtime between missions, and is easy to control. If I think the group has good enough gear already, I could just have their Inquisitior give them a new mission right away. If I think they could do with some new stuff, I just say that two months pass between the missions (usualy with them working undercover somewhere on some minor assingment).

That puts the flow of Thrones, and the equipment, directly under your control. Of course, some missions tie together so you can't wait that long between each, but in this case they could just get a cash bonus from the Inquisition so that they can equip properly for the mission.

Thanks a lot guys, and don't worry Flightmek25, if you would have written four times more than you did and it still would have been well under my TLDR threshold.

For problem 1. I decided that, as a rule of thumb, I will honor their incomes during the downtimes between missions when they spend time doing maintenance, training, indoctrination, that sort. If an assignment or a trip lasts for more than a month, they will receive their payment as soon as they can contact HQ and they find themselves in a location where the Adeptus Administratorum can verify their credentials. As for the date, I am very comfortable with Adeptus-B solution.

For Problem 2. What said Bassemandrh hit the nail on the head. These chronos should come and all shapes and sizes, reflecting the various cultures and civilizations. Some of them are really mundane clockwork while others.. well you get the idea.

Problem 3. I will relaxing the Astropathic rules as well. I like the idea of the telegram, I also like the idea that some sacrifices/offerings need to be performed for improved results upon the transmition. I will work out some rules based on the location and the Astropath involved as I figure it is all a matter of personal skill and environment.

Problem 4. Yeah it makes sense that on any planet that is habitable there should be at least one Schola in the densely populated areas. But just wanted to make sure.

Problem 5. Here Luthor Arkon provided very useful info!

Thanks again for all the trouble, this has been very insightful. But feel free to continue to discuss on the topics maybe some really cool ideas would emerge.

I will be posting new questions as soon as I bump my head on the stuff I cant find references for in the books and wikis.

Graver said:

I treat them as being fairly rare- they produce the elite of Imperial society, so I only place them on prominant advanced worlds. Most of my campaign has centered in the Josian Reach subsector, which I describle as being the "rust belt" of the Calaxis Sector: a once thriving region which has gone into sharp decline. With that overall tone, I established that only one planet in the subsector- Canopus, the least declining major planet- has a Schola Progenium. But that's just me...

More questions!

Problem 6. One of my players it is an assassin and his initial idea was that he was an assassin of the Imperial Guards aka the Army. We came to a disagreement since I was keen on the idea that the Imps (for one hundred million reasons) are not in the position to effectively train these elites and that he should belong to an Assassin House.

Question 6. What Assassin houses are there for him to choose from? Is there something like the Navigator houses in Rogue Trader?

Problem 7. After finishing the Edge of Darkness starting campaign, my players climbed to the 3rd rank and managed to get a hold of 500+ Thrones (they accepted Luntz offer).

Question 7. One of the players (min-max-er cleric) prompted me that he would like to make requisition for a Power Armor. Should I allow it? Would it unbalance the game?

Problem 8. Some of the players want to sell back their previous gear to the Adeptus Ministorum.

Problem 8. At what rate should that sale happen? For instance a Mesh Vest costs 150 Thrones. If someone hands it back and they add 225 Thrones will he be able to purchase a Xeno Mesh instead?

6: Officially most Assassins seem to come from Assassin Temples like the Moritat, the Astral Knives and other death-cults. There also exist many sort of free-lancing Assassins or organizations like the Sons of Dispater (that could be considered an Assassin House). Most powerful organizations in the Imperium certainly train their own Assassins for all kind of clandestine operations; these include trading houses, noble houses, Navigator houses, Rogue Traders as well as many of the Adepta (e.g. the Mortiurge of the Adeptus Arbites).
The Imperial Guard - or better the Departmento Munitorum - could most probably have their own Assassins/Spies as secret operatives of the Commissariat, the Divisio Tactica, the Collegium Analytica, the Navy Intelligence, a General staff or whatever other organization you could think of (it’s a huge Imperium after all).

7: I would not allow it and would not recommend it, at least not for rank 3. My players are rank 5 and I would not allow it either. Buying is out of question, as 500 Thrones is not enough to buy one let alone finding a seller for Power Armour anyway (this is nothing sold by the odd mid-hive vendor). Regarding requisition, where would he want to get it from? Neither the Ministorum nor the Inquisition would give away one of these precious armours away lightly, even if they have easy access to one somehow. Hard to work undercover in one anyway…

8: Why would the Ministorum want to buy ‘previous gear’ (or anything at all for that matter…) from the Acolytes? They are not traders and Xenos Mesh is not their cup of tea either for that matter…

So what would be their alternative? To sell it to the open market?

And what do you mean when you say it isnt their cup of tea? Because it is Xeno made?

Xarthilias said:

The Minstorum are not traders, merchants, or pawn brokers. They may take back these items from the PC's as a kind offering to the church and bless their next endeavor for the offering, but that would be it. If they want to sell, they might have to scour the under-hive or darker places in the mid hive for a buyer who wouldn't be able to give them more then 1/4th (these are hivers after all, most are indentured slaves owned by the manufacturing company that they work for). They might be better off giving them to their handler to be passed on to another acolyte cell in need of gear for nothing in return. After all, it never hurts to butter up the boss and show that you're a team player, especially when you might really need something from said boss latter on ;-)

As for xeno-mesh goes, as far as I know (and I don't know if I read this somewhere or if this is just conjecture I've personals settled on, sorry), it's not made by xenos. It's "xenos" mesh because it was reverse engineered (by the mechanicus I think) from a xenos origin (one of the few times such has been sanctioned, though I don't want to think about how many purgings there were before it was sanctioned...). I would hazard a guess that the origin of the mesh is Eldar, but that's just conjecture. Either way, the minstorum aren't known for using or employing it. Not only is it not exactly cleanest of armours, they have their own ways (shield robes, rossarus, etc)

Xarthilias said:

If the assassin player is planning on specializing as a sniper, I'd allow a Guard background. If he wants to be a hand-to-hand killer, then one of the houses suggested by Luthor Harkon would be more appropriate.

Xarthilias said:

I think it would be very unballancing. I'm not sure if I would flat-out forbid it, but I would direct the player's attention to the limits of the armour's power supply (1d5 hours, if memory serves) and point out that you will be rolling the limit secretly each time he turns it on. I'm not sure if there are official rules for the effects of de-powered power armour; if not, I'm thinking counting it as equivelant to 2 levels of Fatigue and double it's actual weight would be a quick and easy penalty to go with. That should discourage him from donning it in all but the most dire circumstances...

Xarthilias said:

I doubt the Munitorium would buy it back. If they sell it on the open market, I treat used goods as retailing for 2/3 full price; with that base, I generally let the PCs sell their goods for 1/3 full price, or 1/2 store credit. You might want to make your players sweat it a bit by making them make Barter rolls, and nudging the store's offer up or down based on the result. I think I said before, I hate the D&D-ism of looting bodies and selling used armor- I'll definitely be going with Requisition rules in my next campaign...