I had a thought in one of my serious campaigns

As a GM, am I able to gift weapons or other wargear after some form of serious deal?

Like I had a plan to pit my team members against a seemingly unstoppable wave of enemies in an old Imperium area, and if they were able to defeat the foes, They would be able to come across a long lost vault storing pieces of ancient weaponry or some such, with special qualities that they could keep.

Is this doable or should I stay away from it.

As long as you are aware of the ramifications of special features and bonuses on weapons and how they will impact your game, knock yourself out.

I would still try to stay within one level of renown of the players to keep room for them to advance further.

I was only really looking at a "slight" beef to the things, like:

The Dark Angel librarian PC (who seems to excell at individual combat against higher ranked enemies) finds a force sword thats all the same states, but also gains Felling (1)

The HoD Devastator PC (who is frugal as all hell when it comes to shooting his HB) Finds a modified Heavy Bolter with all the same stats, but enables Semi Auto Fire with a ROF of 5 or such

The Assault Wolf finds a "Frost" Axe which is a power axe, that gains Razor Sharp

The Assault Subjugator (who has an affinity for dual wielding Chainswords and RP's a supreme hatred towards the Daemon) finds a Sanctified Chainsword

The Smurf Techmarine finds either a special Chain variant Omnissian Axe that gains the Tearing quality, or some random pile of scrap he can sit down with and use to take one of his implants craftsmanship up one level.

And, IM not quite sure what to do for the Blood Angel Librarian PC, as my brain justs farts out...

Keep in mind 'minor' things like the ones you listed can be bigger than they may seem at first. Felling is only a +4 damage to an 'average' marine but can be a +8 damage to a larger foe. ROF increases will add 2d10+N to each time the player fires.

Again though, as Uncertain says, so long as you're prepared for their power level go for it.

One last thing, IMHO it's best to give people equal share of the loot, and what 'equal' is depends a lot on your campaign and what types of enemies you throw at the PCs. Sanctified weapons may do squat in one campaign, but be a lynchpin in another.

Well; you game, your rules. As Charmander points out though; sanctified and felling weapons aren't very 'minor'

I'd personally stay clear of it, as DW is not a game about phat lewts, and dishing it out makes president. The party might expect more, or get back into loot mentality. Space Marines aren't strictly going to even *want* to start grabbing shiny stuff, given their frugal existence. Their instincts are likely to have them hand over everything and anything found, especially if such items are of unknown origin. Indeed, the Marine's instinct is more likely to be to return such things to their 'home' Chapter, rather than steal them for themselves.

For me, it also stretches believability that the party just happen to find a bunch of stuff that perfectly suits each and every one of them. It just stretches my suspension of disbelief a bit much.

DW sets clear president by charging XP for equipment (via Wargear), and highly limiting the amount available. Provision of an extra bit of kit each that's worth a big hunk of Requisition is a big thing, given that most PCs will only ever see two pieces of wargear. It essentially means that if -say- the party have 50Req each for a mission, plus 40Req of their own kit, providing them each with an additional 20Req of kit is giving them about 20% more resources for *every* future mission that they do. Requisition is an economy, and you need to carefully consider the economic aspect of what is happening, both now and in the future. If there's five of them, then 100req worth of bonus gear is like handing them 4 extra melta bombs each mission, or a suit of armed termie armour.

Killing ridiculous amounts of foes has it's own award: XP. You're essentially deciding how the characters will be rewarded (by loot) for their deeds based on what you want, but it might not be what they want. What if the player doesn't want the item because he wants to spend his Wargear talent on something else? Then you've distributed a reward unequally (in that some will have the advantage of it, whereas others will not want it), which may make a player irate. My personal approach would -as I said- be *not* to hand out loot, but if I did then to allow it by way of offering each of the players the chance to buy the loot as a special Elite Advance custom wargear talent with a fairly steep price, but obtaining wargear that they otherwise could never have. That way, they can either grab the loot and pay XP for it, or instead simply take the XP and spend it as they which. It allows the player to then advance the characters as *they* wish, rather than as you wish them to.

That said, the discovery of an ancient shrine containing the bodies and wargear of a group of Astartes who died doing something epic and were interred by the locals is pretty cool hook towards the party then taking the items back to their Chapter via a roleplay adventure, and maybe earning a suitable reputation-based deed from it, and perhaps a Chapter trapping by way of thanks. That's far cooler to my mind than simply handing out +1 items, and also reinforces the importance of wargear to Astartes.

I say do it. Nothing wrong with adding some flavour for each character and making them feel special. I do a similar thing in my game and just have to up the number of enemies I use or add some special rules for them as appropriate. Don't forget that he GM directly controls requisition so you can easily modify objectives on your missions so that players aren't too powerful compared to your bad guys. And even if they are too powerful? Well it's not that important as long as your players are having fun and the plot is progressing.

Siranui said:

Note to self: Do not attempt maths prior to 5th coffee of the day. #fail.

Personally I'd go for more... "tame" options. Penetration is a wonderful stat to buff: it only affects the enemy's armor, and yes, one pint up can be a world... but it becomes very useless against unarmored foes who assault en masse. Felling is a little trickier there, because it negates a variable amount of Toughness "damage reduction", depending on how much unnatural Toughness bonus the foe has. Sure, you can compensate for that... but there is this thing: actually, the top of Felling is 1. No weapon has Felling (2).

Also, take into account that Rites of Battle give an option to "use" the renown to take more Requisition (you lower your renown level by one for the mission requipment selection, and you get 1d10xrank extra requisition). In the first game of "Emperor Protects" you are given 55 req., and all players are Rank 4... all but one did the downside, and got 30-38 or so extra requisition... plus Signature Wargear (they all had it at master level, but the Apothecary who was happy with a standard Power Sword...). In the end, they went down with a Razorback, tons of Kraken ammo and other extra stuff they didn't use.

So be careful with what do you give them. Frankly, I'd let them find and even use some or another piece of ancient gear here and there, during the adventure, but at the end of it they should turn it to the Forge inside the Watch Fortress. If they truly liked the item, they can always invest in the Signature Wargear talent to get that concrete piece of gear, with a history and that stuff.

I get the feeling some people will hate me for this, but....

In my campaign i've been giving my players gear rewards that give minor bonuses related to what my players want (i've even asked them to write out what kind of stuff they would like to get)

So far i have doled out:

A medical servo skull (that was a freebie due to the lack of an apoth)

A heavy bolter with a 1 mag fire selector (so the dev can switch to fun ammo easier)

An explosive headplate for more powerfull headbutting (someone asked for this, very specifically...)

Wrist mounted bolt pistols (this was a mutual agreement between me and a player)

Leg mounted grenade satchels (for an explosively inclined assault marine)

A back banner that announces sound advice and calming statements (for the tactical marine that displays the only real rational thought in the group)

A oversized storm shield with a teleporter mounted in it (think captain america)

and probably some other stuff i've forgot...

Anyways, my group doesnt exactly take our deathwatching very seriously, so i dont mind giving out odd/fun gear to players to compliment their characters. But as the others here have pointed out, be carefull about what you give them, since you dont want to mess up the power level within your group too much

Ok so this is the end result of my thinking cap's final battle

For the Space Wolf Assault Marine:

The Kraken's Folly:

This Powerful frost axe seems to shiver in delight as you pick it up, its power core activating after testing for a gene-Match. You can feel its power coursing up your arm and the beast within seems to attempt to jump to the front of your mind yet again in joy at the carnage the two of you can deal with this weapon

The Kraken's Folly is similar to a power axe(like in the TT) and is Master Crafted, however to show the ancient qualities with the weapon it has the following modifications;

1d10+10 E pen 7, Power Field, Unbalanced, Razor Sharp,

The Subjugator Assault Marine:

Daemonbane:

The Machine Spirit within this blade seems to falter for a second as it attempts to recognize your gene-seed before it recognizes the similarities with the one who wielded it last, and finally activates with a flurry of clicks and whirs, before a Holy light seems to spill forth from the entire length of the blade, giving you a feeling of welcome and comfort, but you can tell that the unclean and the heretic will quail before its light.

Daemonbane is a Master Crafted Power Sword and has the following stat line ;

1d10+8 E pen 6, Balanced, Power Field, Sanctified

The Blood Angel Librarian:

Arkio's Redemption / Ba'al/s Fury *( would like opinions on these, as I am unsure which one I like better)

This oddly bladed force sword seems to thirst for blood before you even pick it up. once it is in your hands, you feel a very sharp needle extend from the hilt of the sword, drinking of your life fluid for a moment before it recognizes the ever present thirst it has come to rely on. As it links with your psychic power you can actualy feel it call out for the blood of the enemy, and its toothed blade was forged to draw it with alacrity, each and every tooth on the blade glinting in the dull glow of the lum-lamps.

* is a master Crafted force sword, however due to its odd blade it gains tearing ;

1d10+4 R pen 2 Balanced, Special, Tearing

The Hammer of Dorn Devastator Marine:

Dorn's Embrace:

As you retrieve this exquisite specimen of a heavy bolter, you can hear the hushed panderings of the cog-boy Marine as he surely wants to rush forward and take it apart just to see how it was made so. As its logic banks recognize the vitality of your Primarch running through your veins it spins a cycle of its feeder mechanism almost as if it was expressing happiness. You notice a Rate Of Fire mechanism on the side, almost as if Rogal Dorn was standing watch over the manufacture of this weapon and simply stated that every Bolt Round is a gift, and they should not be wasted so callously.

Dorn's Embrance counts as a Master Crafted Heavy-Bolter, with a Semi auto burst option it has the following stat line ;

Class : Heavy, Range : 150m, RoF : -/5-10, Dmg : 2d10+12 X pen 6, Tearing, NO jam,

Dark Angel Librarian:

Caliban's Vengeance

The feelings of unease that have clouded the back of your mind ever since you happened across "the Fallen" seem swept away as this sturdy blade rests gracefully in your hand, The Psychic Link expands on this feeling of a warm embrace and washes away all feelings of secrecy and mistrust, as you know this blade has seen the repentance of many of the Fallen, and may yet guide your hand to more.

Caliban's Vengeance is a Master Crafted force sword, with the Felling (1) quality and has the following stat line ;

1d10+4 R pen 2 Balanced, Special, Felling (1)

The Novamarine Tech-Marine (pandering cog-boy):

was a dilemma. He's never played a TT game as space marines, and rarly read any fluff on them, so his RP style is off, because hes a **** Tau/nid player (I love throwing that back in his face as I force him to kill Tau) I was thinking of showing him a table of old Master'Crafted implants, and allowing him to salvage parts of them to turn any one of his implants into a master crafted implant,... or...

Omnisiah's Riposte:

As you come across this weapon, set aside in its own place of honor, your implants seem to hum slightly with every step closer you become. This Axe seems crafted by the Omnisiah himself, to show that any and all who carry thier faith in cold steel instead of weak flesh. As you pick it up its Machine Spirit seems to flow into your Arms, making it almost impossible for your fleshy self to tell where the axe ends and you begin. Its power field glows bright, turning the eyes of the Skull from a dull pitless black to an overflowing bright white and it seems ready to tear to pieces anyone undeserving of the Omnisiah's Gift.

Omnisiah's Riposte is a Master Crafted Omnisian Axe, with the Tearing Quality and the Following stat line ;

2d10+8 E pen 6 Power Field, Unbalanced, Tearing

So what do you guys think?

I like them, interesting fluff text for each one, the rules are pretty solid, but nothing seems out of wack (although i still dislike the default hvy bolter stats)

Only issue i can see is the sanctified sword, which may not have much use for your players due to it only working on a very specific target group. But i can't think of anything interesting to add to the weapon, maybe trade balanced for defensive, or just be lazy and add more damage

my problem with ditching the sanctified for defensive is that in the end its a sword, and a sword with a neg 10 to attack seems a bit silly, and might not see much use. Also I plan on throwing some Daemons and other Warp Filth into the mix, turning him into an integral part of the missions. My main purpose for this and the Heavy Bolter is that they dont always play with us, so I wanted to give them something a little more fancy or interesting to use, to maybe draw them into more games.