One NPC I'm going to be including is a very powerful psyker. One who will use intimidation at times, including threatening to kill someone on the spot. Problem is, there are times when the threat needs to be made quickly, and I don't know of any way for a pskyer to quickly get across the message "I can easily kill you where you stand", especially among people who don't know how dangerous psykers are, or don't know that this NPC is a powerful psyker.

This psykers solution is to carry a gun. When it is time for her to make a quick threat, she points the gun at them. That quickly gets across the message. The only problem left is that, of all the guns in 40k, I don't know which ones to pick to get the message to the widest possible audience. Any suggestions ?

Preferably a pistol.

The gun doesn't need to actually work, as she can always follow up the threat with one of her powers. But it does need to look very threatening to as many humans in 40k as possible.

Bilateralrope said:

You can use a power that is harmless but has a distinct effect on the players to strike fear in them. It works better than a gun.

Honestly, levitating off the ground with glowy eyes and hands crackling with spectral lightning should be bloody well intimidating for the average 40K denizen!

As far as guns go, first off, pick one you can use. There are untouchables, null rods, and various psychic phenomena that can make use of psychic powers either impossible or mind-bendingly unwise. So, that gun may well get used as a backup weapon. As far as intimidation value goes, pick one that's either high tech, high caliber, or both. The exact choice is up to your sense of style as well as availability. Bolt pistol, hellpistol, plasma pistol, or the classic slug throwing hand cannon... all are possibilities, and there are a bunch more in the Inquisitor's Handbook.

Cheers,

- V.

Hand-flamer, nothing says Intimidate like a flame-thrower.

If you're looking for a pistol, there are many options. The biggest "oh god I'm going to die" would be the Inferno Pistol, particularly with Airtorch Ammunition, which you can slowly load into the gun while describing what it will do to them. It also has the benefit of basically being able to carry through on that threat, even to a fully armored Space Marine. No, I'm not kidding. Yes, Deathwatch PC Marines included. Point blank with a Melta Weapon with Scatter will mess up anyone.

Of course, Ripper Pistols are also good, and as mentioned already, the threat of being lit on fire can be particularly terrifying. Hellpistols will do the trick, as might plasma pistols, or even Bolt Pistols with Organgrinder rounds.

What's the plan for this guy? I mean, in my group, if someone threatens to kill us, we'll usually just jump him and make a day of it unless they have something that will kill ALL of us. Case in point, in our game, we were dealing with some Eldar. We suspected one of them was a Farseer, another was a Warlock, and a third, well, we didn't know offhand but when a Farseer and a Warlock are in the room you can suspect something serious was going down. If we had felt immediate danger was about to occur, we would have occured it first with those odds.

Then the meeting concluded (peacefully) and we went to make an exchange of goods. Particularly valuable and dangerous goods. And then the Warp Spiders came out to escort us. With an Exarch.

The speed at which we toed the line and put our murderous thoughts behind us was quite impressive. Even our most xeno-hating group member (the Missionary, the First Officer) uncrossed his fingers and became suddenly quite friendly to the pointy-eared menace.

Enormous muzzle diameter is probably the best starting point on your shopping list of essential gun traits; if they don't look up the wrong end of a barrel and think "I could fit my whole fist up there" then your Friendly Local Arms Dealer isn't doing his job properly. Luckily, in 40k, this particular requirement is pretty easy, with even some stub revolvers having a barrel you could use as a pint glass (assuming you plugged the whole near the cylinder). Personally, I'd recommend something with a little more Blam! than a piddly stub revolver though, in case you need to back up your threats.

Next up, you want a weapon with some ominous and distinctive sound telling you and the threatenee it is ready to inflict some imminent violence. Any method of chambering a round and/or cocking a hammer/disengaging a safety will do for this, provided it's loud and recognisable: single action revolvers, semi-automatics, pump/lever-action shotguns and rifles will all work swimmingly with their variations on "ka-click", although one shouldn't overlook the various noises you can coax from non-SP weapons: the high-pitched whine of a rapid-discharge capacitor is scary enough when it's only powering a camera-flash, so las/hell weapons should be more so; the sibilant hiss and occasional whoomf of flamers is guaranteed to throw anyone off, even without the minor fireballs and other visual aids that accompany it. My personal favourite, though, is the ominous huummmmm and Glow-of-Doom™ provided by a gently cycling plasma weapon, not least because it has the subtext "not only am I sufficiently rich and/or badass to own such an indiscriminate dispenser of maimery, I am crazy/irresponsible enough that I don't care that these things are known to sometimes explode when fired"...

What do I personally recommend as a threat'nin' gun though? Well, depends on exactly what image you want to project-

• Big SP handguns, like the Carnodon and Fatebringer hand cannons suggest "slightly conservative, but consummately professional bulletmonkey", although the actual model and quality puts some variation into that. Essentially, these guns say "I want a gun that'll work, no matter what, and that fires big enough bullets to blow your head clean off".
• Las weapons, like the Steelburner and archeotech laspistols (plus the Belasco and Khayer-Addin duelling pistols and the various hellpistols) suggest a character with a bit more flash (sorry), as well as a commendable devotion to killin'.
• Bolt pistols could suggest you represent trouble coming from on high (if they are sufficiently flashily Imperial, etc. Bolters are great status symbols), but more than anything else they suggest that someone wants the threatenee dead badly enough to hire a primo gunshark. At the very least, the message bolt weapons send is "someone is sufficiently indifferent to your survival they are prepared to spend a bullet that costs more than your weekly wage. And we have spare ammo"
• Hand-flamers simply suggest there's a psycho here. He doesn't want you to survive this, but if you are very co-operative and very, very lucky, you might get out of here quickly. Maybe even alive, although that may not be the kindest thing. They can also suggest humble piety and sacrifice before the God-Emperor. Go figure.
• Dangerous. Psychotic. Well connected. Plasma gunner... For fully fun-sized plasmariffic purveyance of doom, go for the Plasma Blaster. It's essentially a plasma storm bolter.

What Alasseo said.

The Astropath in my campaign is looking for a Wrath pattern plasma pistol with a red dot sight. It's one of the few pistols that's accurate, so she's quite likely to actually hit with an aimed shot. And, well, it's plasma. (She's already got an Inferno pistol. Wacky PC's and their 65 Profit Factor...)

Cheers,

- V.

Alasseo, thanks for that. It will be very useful. Two questions though:

- Are there any exotic/xeno weapons that are worth considering ? (Huge-bore Ork guns, lots of blades on splinter weapons, etc)

- Which ones are best if the character can't acquire one of those guns, so decides to create a model to fool people ?

Honestly when it comes to exotic weapons take your pick:

The Crux Beam Gun comes to mind, awesome weapon, with a cool light effect and nice destructive potential. The scatter quality and the fact that you can use it on semi-auto also give this one a huge potential. Most likely your foe won't know what it is but the appearance should more then make up for it as it clearly screams "Xenos". Of course that is a drawback as well as you can't just stroll around with it in Imperial Space.

The Eldar Deahtspinner is what you want if you're going Eldar though. Limited range, but blast (2), reliable AND tearing. 4d10+5 damage (only penetration of 2 but who cares really). If you want your foes goons to all be a meat-pudding this is what you want. It should intimidate the crap out of them.

A Larn Cutter looks awesome and has a great damage output with the tearing quality. If your opponent can be intimidated by a gun: this is a sure bet.

Xenos Flechette Blaster: deadly but shortranged. It's a weapon prized for it's ability to cause terror. Also has blast (2) and tearing. The ultimate shredder.

If you go melee rather then ranged:

Having a Harlequin's Kiss might also do the trick. Less flash and an exotic melee weapon, but it's always good fun to turn one of the grunts of your opponent into a meatpudding with one go. For a melee weapon a thunder hammer is my prime choice though: looks awesome and the damage output is nearly unmatched in a melee weapon.

All good and all, would someone with an auto cannon or other over sized implement be threatening enough?

Void_onion213 said:

I'd stay away from heavy weapons. They really can't be brandished effectively. Worse, you can't gesture with them while you're talking!

The autocannons are for the muscle you have backing you up. Their job is to loom threateningly. For your own personal implements I'd point you to Alasseo's guide there.

Why on earth would a psycher be trying to draw attention to themselves? You are playing in the 40K universe, right? Imperial propaganda has instilled a healthy fear of all thinks warp related into the citizenry. Psykers are "usually" rounded up by the Inquisition to be "Soul-Munchies" for the Emperor. Other Psykers draw the attention of things from beyond... daemons are bad enough but a full blown enslaver plague could be grounds for an Exterminatus of the planet.

That all said... nothing says "I mean business" like a good old fashioned Bolt Pistol if you are in fact looking for a pistol. Everyone who knows what one is knows that they have a mass reactive explosive tip meaning that IF you get shot with one your remains will be the consistency of Chunky Salsa.

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChunkySalsaRule

Hmm, if you're allowed to use the inquisitor's handbook then I think a hack shotgun would be perfect.

It's small so you can gesture with it, cheap so you can buy lots of other goodies and brutally effective enough to intimidate pretty well. It won't do any good against powerful enemies but they should all be smart enough that your psyker potential will threaten them enough.

Xenos weapons AND psyker seem to be walking a thin line re. purging for heresy.

Otherwise Allaseo's guide is pretty good.

Why on earth would a psycher be trying to draw attention to themselves? You are playing in the 40K universe, right?

Xenos weapons AND psyker seem to be walking a thin line re. purging for heresy.

Remember that I'm playing Rogue Trader. The game set mainly outside the Imperium. A game where the players are allowed to deal with xenos.

This also means the possibility of less advanced worlds, where weapons may not be recognised. For example, if someone pointed a gun-shaped object with glowing lights all over it in real life, you wouldn't feel threatened by this gun. But many 40k characters would see a plasma gun.

It doesn't matter how powerful the weapon is, if members of a society don't see it as a weapon, the NPC will need a different weapon when dealing with that society.

I'm probably going to go with a bolt weapon here. To societies around our level of technology, they still look like a gun, just one with a large barrel. Though an Ork weapon would have its uses.

For status I would say Bolt pistol,

Close contender would be plasma pistol.

However an Inferno Pistol pointed at someones head is bound to get their attenton.

Bilateralrope said:

You are correct when saying you may deal with all sorts of things most in the IOM cannot, including xenos.

Make an example of someone (a la BOOMSTICK in Evil Dead movies) then point the gun at your intended intimidation target.

Weapons that they don't recognize as a weapon can be kept in reserve assuming they might not take them away if they gain advantage over you and you need a method of escape - keep them secret.

Bolt weapons are cute and loud. Try a stingray - microwave their butts.

When in doubt go for big bore and loud. Incidentally the bolt pistol fits this to a T and is more acessible to a RT player than a DH one.

There's a reason bolt weapons are such iconic symbols of the imperium's manifest destiny to kill anything it wants to. And it's not just because the humans want a gun as loud and rude as an ork weapon.

My second choice would be a hand flamer. Once that pilot light kicks on your opponent will know he's gonna burn slow and painfully if he ticks you off.

Even medieval screwheads will fear those two 'boomsticks' after only one or two warning shots.

You can use an Astartes caliber Bolt Pistol I guess... Nobody in their right mind would mess with a guy that can bring down an Astartes and wave his weapon around. Then again it might draw some transhuman attention to the said NPC

Warmaster_Horus said:

What about a metal shell that looks like an Astartes Bolt Pistol ?

Remember, it only needs to foll people up until it comes time to use it.

One of my characters used a shoulder-mounted weapon (last time it was a Hellpistol).

It made a nice "bzzz" following the target, and the red-dot sight projected a small nice dot on the, say, confabulator's forehead. It was quite food for negotiations. The bonus is that you don't need to do a thing with your hands. Kind of "You don't worth spending any additional movements."

The character even don't change a look on his face. The gun on a shoulder revived, pointed on the opponent and turned red-dot sight on.

Of course a red dot sight aimed at someones head isn't very good for intimidation at all since they can't see the dot (unless they are a mutant with eyes on stalks of course).

Better to stick the dot on their chest or belly.

Or if the area is smokey/foggy/dusty, you might get some cool scattering of the laser beam which would be obvious enough. But not normally.

As for the best gun to threaten someone, Bolt pistols work well, but for those who know what it is, little beats an inferno pistol.

I would go with Bolt Pistol. I would say that most of the Imperium would never see rare weapons like Plasma Pistols etc. However Bolt Weapons are Iconic from their association with Space Marines, and would intimidate most people just because of that.

Chris

Bilateralrope said:

There is precisely no point in having a threat that you cannot back up at least partially. So if you're going to have a fake metal casing to make it look like you have a deathly gun in your hands, it better have something inside to shoot with.

Alasseo said:

The NPC in question is going to be a powerful psyker, meaning there won't be any problem backing up the threat.

But not the gun itself. I think the big fake gun is a terrible idea. If I was GMing I would allow a roll for the people being intimidated to try and realize that it's a fake gun. Psychic powers or not, you'd be holding a prop that makes knowledgeable people (aka, the most dangerous people) more likely to attack you, or at least take you much less seriously. No thank you.

In addition, a true Astartes pistol would be very hard for a mortal to use. Going from the "Man's reach exceeds his grasp" sidebar, the recoil of the thing might just cause the gun to fly out of your hand, damage the arm, or worse. This means that even if a person does take your prop at face value, they'd still consider it a lesser threat than a slightly smaller bolt pistol that the wielder seems to be able to use with deadly efficiency.

Stick with guns you can actually use. It's not just the size of the gun that matters, it's also your visual ability to use it. The Metallican Gunslinger who effortlessly twirls around his stub automatics should be more intimidating than the Adept who can barely lift the hand flamer that he's trying to brandish.