1. Do you see a cable feed going to any of these guns? The hotshot lasguns seem to actually be running off normal charge packs. As far as my understanding of the situation goes, the hotshot lasgun is a separate and distinct weapon from the hellgun, with the former replacing the latter and trading some firepower for a higher rate of fire and better handling. With that being the case, if you're looking at a game set in the 900s, or perhaps pre-Munitorum-approved versions, I'd not be against putting those in some edition.

Hmm, that is interesting, maybe then reduce the pen of hellguns back to Pen 3 and keep the long range? Like they used to be, unless someone from FFG wants to explain. I myself will look deeper into this, the cable feed was iconic and I enjoyed that about the hellgun, it looked like a special forces weapon, specialized and powerful

3. The Fate Bringer might be large but it's far from ungainly, which is why it's a popular dueling pistol - it looks nice, has a smooth action, and kills what you shoot it at. Pity about how only Basic weapons get the extra damage from Accurate though.

I don't know many duelling weapons you need to use with 2 hands though

4. I agree with most of your points here.

Thanks

5. I wouldn't necessarily consider Rogue Trader's weapons being "corrected" per se. RT was happy enough to give superfluous pattern designations to guns that show up in the Koronus Expanse, so I broadly backported these over into the Macharian Handbook where appropriate. Generic laspistols only fire single shots, but many of the rarer patterns have more fire settings. Another good example of this is RT's Locke-pattern boltgun - it's the only regular bolt weapon with a full auto setting, excluding Astartes versions of course. Even the Godwyn-De'az from Blood of Martyrs (a newer book that RT, I should point out) hasn't got that. Obviously it's a very particular variant.

True overall, I think "superfluous" patterns are good, more variety, nice to choose between minor variations, adds more feeling to the world. On the laspistol, later books changed it to S/2/- for the basic laspistol, which really makes it nicer overall.

6. If a GM's feeling clever then there's no real excuse for not having some kind of Exotic ammo available to make slug-throwers shoot some kind of weird ammunition type, like "buck-and-ball" loads for shotguns. It's an advantage they have over lasguns - there's only so many ways to make a focused beam of light, but a man with the right tools and a sadistic streak can make all kinds of bullets and cartridges.

Oh yeah, just nice to have it "officially" for those GMs who don't want to figure it out and adds some fluff, maybe hunters carry a solid slug in one barrel and groxshot in the other

8. Well, a Poor Craftsmanship one would cost that much - it just has a slightly higher chance of blowing up before you want it to.

True, but this is just to fill the gap left by the much needed nerfing of the fire bomb. One idea is having a cheaper (20 to 30 thrones) which is just a firestarter and leave the thermal nade as a napalm nade, which increases versatility and offers more options, It just seems the choice now is between a cheap but weak weapon and an expensive but limited weapon, no middle ground,

9. The hell kind of knuckle duster does as much damage as a mace? The standard ones I got out of the Inquisitor's Handbook do 1d5-1 - the only reason you'd ever want to use them is because they deal technically two more damage than using your bare hands, and moreover, aren't more likely to knock someone out (Fatigue from unarmed attacks). They're great weapons for gangers and that's about it.

It is a reinforced shock knuckles, dealing essentially the physical damage of strong knuckles (1d5 let's say) AND the shock damage of the shock glove (1d5), combining that you can see where they came up with the 1d10 Shocking

10. A shock star's always able to zap people, and moreover it's kind of a specialty weapon as it is - all of the odd throwing weapons are. Compare that to the power discus, for example. Personally I'm not really sure why these weapons even exist other than to provide for some kind of use to the Thrown Weapon (Shock/Chain/Power) talents. You'll note that there's no weapon that actually uses these in any of the core Dark Heresy books, I had to bring them over from Rogue Trader's Into The Storm.

True, it is just to make them more affordable priced so they can see greater use, without being doomed to obscurity with too high of a price

11. My perspective has always been that if you want power armor, be ready to pay. If you want it to be useful for things besides a battle, be ready to pay more. "Mass produced" power armor like the generic patterns listed don't really have a lot of secondary characteristics presumably to keep costs down as compared to the more exquisite models like the Ignatus.

Understandable, it is just to bring a usefulness to the cheaper items while keeping the more expensive as superior.

12. Hear me out on this one. Compared to a standard sword, a bastard sword has +1 Damage and +1 Penetration for the loss of the Balanced quality. However, unless you have a high Strength Bonus, you have to use two hands to wield it. Of the generic Feudal weapons you'd be better off using a flail unless you can one-hand it, which is kind of the point, I suspect. Moreover, I notice you haven't really griped about the power longsword either - for a two-handed weapon that thing gives you exactly 1 more point of Damage over the standard power sword. A single point in each direction is a pretty big deal for melee weapons, or so the books seem to suggest. After all, an axe only gives you an extra 1 damage compared to a sword, but it actually takes a *penalty* to parry.

I fully understand, It is mainly just a fun thing to reflect the style of the "hand-and-halfers" switching from 1 to 2 hands and back, letting the people strong enough to use it, use it's full potential while still being inferior to weapons like chainswords.

Also, don't get me started on the power longsword, that is just one of the worst power weapons, especially when the Fervious longsword shows how to do a dedicated 2 hander that can block.

Seing as how you're suddenly (very) active here again, can I bump my request for a "shield cleanup"?

I started a discussion about it here , but I don't really feel we concluded one way or the other.

So, after some further research:

Hellguns: Cooling and Focusing stuff built in to a superior lasgun, uses a lot more energy a shot, equipped with a power backpack

Hot-Shot Lasguns: Souped up lasgun firing from overcharged packs, the gun wears out like crazy and needs to be replaced partially all the time

But here is the kicker, in Only War, they have a "Hot-Shot Lasgun" with a 60m range, Pen 7, BUT it requires a power backpack. So I suppoe keep the iconic superior lasgun with it's iconic power backpack. FFG seems to be going that way anyway.

Side Note: The IH describes autocannons as firing explosive shells, other books have autocannons firing solid slugs. Should the stat block have both? X for the IH explosive rounds, and use OW or BC for the solid statline

Here's how I saw it when I was playing around with the idea. Hotshot lasguns, by my examination of the fluff, just seem to be much more solidly built lasguns designed to fire more powerful blasts at the expense of relability.

Originally (like, 2nd edition 40k) hotshot lasguns were just lasguns that ate up their charge packs a lot faster in exchange for better AP, which is where I suspect Black Industries got the idea for a hotshot pack. Then it sort of hit me - why not just make a lasgun that uses hotshot packs as standard ammo?

In the present edition the principle rules change between hellguns and hotshot lasguns is range and penetration, so taking that into account some I ended up with the following:

Hotshot Lasgun:
Class: Basic (Las)
Range: 60m
RoF: S/2/5
Dmg: 1d10+4 E
Pen: 4
Clip: 20
Rld: Full
Special: Tearing
Wt: 5.5kg

Quite literally, we have a lasgun capable of rapid-fire that uses hotshot packs as standard ammunition. Depending on how much you want to fluff it up, you may also wish to add a targeter, gyro-stabiliser, or an alternate fire setting that gives you more firepower at the expense of eating up ammo even faster or a reduction in reliability. Either way, there's no backpack and it has a full auto setting, which are the salient points of interest as compared to the bulkier but more powerful (on a per-shot basis) hellgun. I would also like to point out that the end stats of this weapon are oddly similar to a bolter's, just with a much less costly (though also less versatile) ammunition supply.

As far as the autocannon goes, I'm really not sure what to make of it. As it is the autocannon is a strange weapon, very high damage and long range but fairly average penetration among heavy weapons. Personally, I think there should be multiple types of the things, but that's just me. Compare the shells loaded into a Salamander's autocannon with the ones on IG heavy weapons teams… they're like twice as big.

Don't forget Hotshot Lasguns wear out parts extremely fast and need constant maintenance. Isn't 20 shots a bit much knowing Hot Shot charge packs essentially fire their entire energy into one shot?

That is basically the entire idea of the hotshot lasgun in the first place - by Dark Heresy terms, it gives you the power of a hotshot blast that doesn't go up in one shot.

I understand, but as you mentioned earlier, they prolly don't exist yet in DH. Maybe going with the OW/Ascension style of hellgun is the best, you get hellguns and they have OOMPH but shorter range (which doesn't matter much in DH most fights)

First off, Giant List of Ammo, compiled from books, some good fan rounds (italicized)

Slugs (+1 Damage, +2 Pen)(Loses Scatter) From RT: Hostile Acquisitions, Commonn, Est Price 1/20 All Shotguns

_{[Described in Book]}

Shell (Birdshot) (-1 Damage)(+10 for hitting smaller targets) Fan (Self/Friends), Common, Est Price 1/20 All Shotguns

_{[Loaded with a smaller shot than normal, these rounds are often used to hunt smaller game birds, rats and anything too hard to hit with "grox shot" or a stub round]}

Frangible (Base)(Tearing, Primitive) Fan (DH Wiki) Scarce, Est Price 5/6, Automatic Weapons, Stub Weapons, Rifles, Handcannons

_{[These soft rounds break apart entering the body, but modern armor stops them well]}

Breacher Rounds (None)(Breaks open simple locks, Loses Scatter) Fan (Self/Friends), Scarce, Est Price 1/1, All Shotguns

_{[Designed for Arbites and Law Enforcerment, they can break through simple locks with a specially dense load fired at close range, useless for other purposes]}

Rock Salt (1d5 I, Pen 0)(Scatter, Primitive, Unreliable,S/-/- Only) Fan (Self/Friends), Ubitiquous, Est Price "Free" All Shotguns

_{[Loaded for those meaning to scare off and not seriously injure, these cheap self loaded rounds are ideal for a cheap way to scare off folks while giving them some pain]}

Rubber Pellets (Base)(Primitive, Deals Fatigue, S/-/- Only), Fan (Self/Friends), Scarce, Est Price 1/5, All Shotguns

_{[Meant for nonlethal takedowns with little overpenetration]}

Varmint Shot (1d10+2 I, Pen 0)(Scatter), Fan (Self/Friends), Common, Est Price 1/30

_{[uses Below as basic, essentially a low bore shotgun for cheap light vermin killing needs]}

Gelt Load (Base)(Primitive, Unreliable), Fan (Self Friends), Average, Est Price 9/1, Shotguns

_{[Not known for its power, few even in desperation make these, the cost of throne gelt used to make it beggaring. More often used for those seeking to give a message, killing someone with their own coin or having wealth be the death of them]}

Tracker Round (None)(Must make called shot to achieve adhesion, tracks for up to 2km), Fan (Self/Friends), Very Rare, Est Price 250/1, Stub Revolvers/Handcannons

_{[A Specialized round used only by investigators (often of the Inquisition), wishing to track a fleeing enemy to their base, an expensive method, but most heretics find it hard to find, due to the round's metallic polymer looking like another bullet hole with bent metal "pushing" from the site of impact. Requires a -40 Awareness to notice it being slightly off or a -20 Search test]}

Flare Shell (None)(Illumination Radius of 10m, Lasts 2d5 Rounds, Blinds at "blast" center), Fan (Self/Friends), Scarce, Est Price 3/5 Shotguns

_{[Often carried in emergency kits and survival packs. Cheap ones include a low pressure shotgun pistol which can only fire rounds like this, better ones give it a full shotgun pistol, offering superior defense and flexibility. Regardless, many hunters or wilderness trekkers make sure to carry several of these in case of emergencies, Acolytes carrying at least one shotgun use these often, being able to light up heretic positions to make it easier to take them out, as well as there other uses]}

Screecher Shell (None)(+10 to Awareness (Sound), Flash (at 30m), Smoke Trail, Single Shot Only), Fan (Self/Friends), Scarce, Est Price 3/5, Shotguns

_{[Almost like a miniature disposable screamer, quieter with the only sound coming from the shape moving through the air, they make noise, smoke and light, great for scaring off creatures, especially at starports]}

Glazer Rounds (Base)(Primitive at double range or higher, -2 Damage for ever range bracket over short), Fan (Self/Friends) Average, Est Price 1/10, Automatic Weapons, Stub Weapons, Rifles, Handcannons

_{[These are used by Arbites, Mercenaries, Bounty Hunters and Enforcers who wish to be able to kill their target, but prevent overpenetration. The polymer rounds are more likely to break against walls than shoot through and cause the loss of innocent life, but more importantly, less paperwork]}

Blanks (None)(Blanks), Fan (Self/Friend), Average, Est Price 1/20, Any SP Weapon

_{[These rounds are loaded with gunpowder, but feature nothing more than a wad or something to cover the top of the round. They can be lethal at point blank, otherwise find their use in live fire exercises, holo-recordings and anytime noise and fire is needed to disperse a crowd with a lower chance of incurring fatalities]}

Cryptus Shotgun Shells (Base)(Sanctified, Daemon/Warp Creatures must make +0 T Test, be blinded for 1d5 Rounds), DH (Daemon Hunter), Rare, 10/1, Shotguns

_{[Described in Book]}

Soubirous Power Pack (Base)(Sanctified, Can't be recharged), DH (Daemon Hunter), Very Rare, 150/1, Most Las Weapons

_{[Described in Book]}

PsyBolts (+1 Damage per Psy)(Sanctified), DH (Daemon Hunter), Very Rare, 100/1, All Bolt

_{[Described in Book]}

PsyFlame (Base)(Sanctified, -5 to avoid flames per Psy), DH (Daemon Hunter), Very Rare, 100/1, All Flame

_{[Described in Book]}

Bolt Shells (1d10+5 X Pen 4)(Tearing, +30 M, Loses Reliable), RT (Hostile Aquisitions), Rare, Est Price ???, Shotguns

_{[Described in Book]}

Gas Rounds (None)(Bloodfire, Choke, Stunner OR Toxin), RT (Hostile Aquisitions), Variable Availalibility, Est Price ???, Shotguns

_{[Described in Book]}

Flechette Rounds (+2 Pen)(1.1x Range), RT (Hostile Aquisitions), Rare, Est Price ???, Shotguns

_{[Described in Book]}

Toxic Flechette Rounds (+2 Pen)(1.1x Range, Toxic), RT (Hostile Aquisitions), Very Rare, Est Price ???, Shotguns

_{[Described in Book]}

Fyceline-Tipped Rounds (Pistol +0, Basic +1, Heavy +3 Damage)((Damage becomes Explosive), Very Rare, Est Price ???

_{[Described in Book]}

Stun Shells (Base)(Gains Shocking, Loses Scatter), RT (Hostile Aquisitions), Scarce, Est Price 10/1, Shotguns

_{[Described in Book]}

Incediary Rounds (Base)(Damage becomes Energy, Firestarter ), RT (Hostile Aquisitions), Rare, Est Price ???, All SP Except Shotguns

_{[Described in Book]}

Toxin Saturated Prometium (Base)(Grants Toxic Quality, Flamers not meant to handle toxic loads become unreliable ), RT (Hostile Aquisitions), Rare

_{[Described in Book]}

Micro Blast Needles (+4 Damage)((Damage becomes Explosive, Tearing, Loses Toxic), RT (Hostile Aquisitions), Extremely Rare, Est Price ???, Needle Weapons & Dartcasters

_{[Described in Book]}

Toxic Shot (Base)(Gains Toxic, Jams = Qielder takes 1d5 damage, ignoring Armour and Toughness), RT (ItS), Scarce, Est Price ???, Any SP or Flamer

_{[Described in Book]}

Mono Arrows/Quarrels (+2 Pen OR Pen 3 Fixed)(Loses Primitive), Fan, Average, Est Price 1/1 or 2/1, Arrow/Quarrel Weapons

_{[These arrows/quarrels have a small monomolecular edge, giving them an edge capable of penetrating even advanced armors. Most often used by those who obtain to a creed or prefer the silence and no tech involved with these archaic albeit effective weapons]}

Toxic Arrows/Quarrels (Base)(Toxic, Keeps Primitive), Fan, Scarce, Est Price 1/1, Arrow/Quarrel Weapons

_{[Coated with a simple necrotic poison, to up the lethality, used on Fervious and other feudal worlds, very common on feral worlds whhere every edge is needed. Assasins use these to up the power of these silent weapons, making it easier}

Toxic Mono Arrows/Quarrels (+2 Pen or Pen 3 Fixed)(Loses Primitive, Toxic), Fan, Rare, Est Price 2/1 or 3/1, Arrow/Quarrel Weapons

_{[These arrows/quarrels have a small monomolecular edge, giving them an edge capable of penetrating even advanced armors. Most often used by those who obtain to a creed or prefer the silence and no tech involved with these archaic albeit effective weapons, combined with a necrotic poison they give assassins the ultimate edge in simple yet effective silent technology, letting them loose a single strike to take their quarry out]}

Barbed Rounds (Base)(Crippling 1), BC, Scarce, Est Price ???, Any SP

_{[Described in Book]}

Dumdum Rounds (+2 Damage, -2 Pen)(If Pen 0, +1 Damage instead), BC, Average, Any SP

_{[Described in Book]}

High Grade Promethium (Base)(+20m Range), BC, Scarce, Est Price ???, Any Flame

_{[Described in Book]}

Metal Storm Rounds (-2 Damage, -2 Pen)(Blast 2), BC, Very Rare, Est Price ???, Any Bolt

_{[Described in Book]}

Purified Plasma (Base)(Loses Overheating), BC, Very Rare, Est Price ???, Any Plasma

_{[Described in Book]}

Stalker Bolts (-2 Damage)(30m Range, -30 test to hear with Awareness), BC, Very Rare, Est Price ???, Any Bolt

_{[Described in Book]}

Hot Shot Charge Pack (+3 Damage, 4 Pen Fixed)(Tearing, Single Shot, Loses Reliable), BC, Average, Any Las Basic/Pistol

_{[Described in Book]}

Handcannon Special Rounds (-1 Damage, -2 Pen)(Can be fired in one hand), Fan (Self/Friend), as stub rounds otherwise

_{[These are a similar caliber to those used in handcannon rounds, but feature a less powerful round. These give the user of a handcannon flexibility, they can use powerful rounds capable of stopping a light transport or a ganger in their tracks, but for other situations they can use their same weapon, for noticeably cheaper and much less stress on their wrist]}

Hostile Acquisitions does have a lot of interesting stuff in it - I really need to go trawl through there and see what I can backport over.

As far as Black Crusade goes, I really don't feel it's within the scope of a Dark Heresy supplement to grab onto stuff from other game systems. We may differ on this issue, but I really don't think Black Crusade and Dark Heresy can be compared the way Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader or even Deathwatch can - they really changed a lot of rules with it, some probably for the better (Unnatural Characteristics, for example, make significantly more sense in their use).

My homebrewing ideology is a fairly conservative one - take congnizance of anything you try to create or import and observe what it will do to the game; keep sight of the original intentions of the people who published the material; when in doubt, don't change it.

MalikCarr said:

I reccomend looking it over, there is so much neat things there, another full auto laspistol, a las "shotgun", stealth long las, an awesome combat shotgun, other new SP and Bolt weapons, new upgrades (weapon and armor), including lathe forged armor and a turning your guns into rail/coilguns and even more!

I do understand what you mean with the game mechanics of BC, but a lot of the equipment stayed similar, which is what you are covering so far. I can follow the conservative policy, but so many changes work so **** well. Like Dumdums, shocking, unnatural chararecteristics, lasguns.

But yeah, an easy trap to fall in with homebrew is to make too many changes, which I applaud you for working to avoid while not being overly stifled by it.

My personal ranking for compatibility is:

Dark Heresy > Rogue Trader/Only War > Black Crusade > Deathwatch

I lean away from DW because the focus on no humans at all, while in BC it is clear what humans use and what marines use, which (as long as you mind what is Chaos gear), makes it mesh better with DH in my opinion. Still, there ARE changes. I think you have to see what is changed and WHY. Why did the developers feel that they needed to change X rule or piece of gear.

For lasguns, well, they were falling behind, the stepchild compared to SP weapons (with their tons of different ammo and full auto), a few las weapons stood out (like the long las, especially with a hot shot pack making a 1d10+4 Pen 4 Tearing Accurate weapon) but they fell behind.

Unnatural characteristics, well, the multiplying effect for one and a simple boost in the tens category was unbalancing. TB 4 x2 =8, TB 5 x2 =10 for a Marine, and that is before you go into Psykers with WP.

DumDums fell behind manstoppers, now they are useful without taking away what makes Manstoppers good (extra pen)

And so on, we shouldn't take every change, but we should see WHY they made the change, how it affected balance and what happens with it mixed into DH.

May I make an alternative argument here?

Deathwatch and Dark Heresy can actually slide right into each other, *assuming* your Acolytes (or rather, Throne Agents) are sufficiently meaty that anyone playing an Astartes isn't drastically more powerful than the others. In a straight fight the Space Marine has a number of advantages as compared to a normal human, even one with good kit and a lot of rank advances, but he's not that good at infiltration and can't really investigate worth a ****.

I'm actually so confident in standing by this position that I'd like to point out how Daemon Hunter, with an almost nonchalantly casual section break, hands over rules for playing as a Grey Knight, then has an entire segment on how you can integrate them with an Ordo Malleus party, or do the "character switch" routine where the Grey Knights get called in to do the massacreing after the acolytes have done the investigating.

The other thing I would like to put on the table is the idea that, at least by my measure, Dark Heresy should not be a primarily combat-heavy game. As Inquisitorial minions you'll be bringing down the hammer on scummers, but you have to actually identify and isolate these people first, which in a well-developed campaign will result in a lot of interaction, exploration, and generally getting your hands dirty on the more "ick" aspects of Imperial society.

For a personal example, let's say we have a Throne Agent who's well equipped and prepared to smash faces in various situations. He's got a plasma or bolt pistol, a power sword, and a carapace suit or armored bodyglove and the stats to back it up. Now, while uncovering evidence of cult activity, our Agent has to go down to the low hives and start plying with the narco-gangers that he suspects are being used as unwitting footsoldiers and couriers for the cult. As Eisenhorn taught us, a sudden Inquisitiorial presence along the feelers of a well-developed cult will quickly cause the cultists to scatter like roaches when you turn the light on - to wit, stealth and subterfuge become the order of the day.

So, away go the Inquisitorial vestments, and our badges of office should only be thrust into someone's face in the most dire of circumstances. Now, with that taken care of, we're going down to a poor drudging-class area - mysterious strangers with shiny bolters and light-bending chameleoline cloaks are probably going to raise about as much alarm as a cherub-carried flaming banner of the Seal of the Inquisition. To fit in with the drudgers you more or less need to become one. Moreover, in an area where weapons are either controlled or prohibited entirely, having a very nice weapon confiscated by the local enforcers - even if you do pay them a bribe - is an embarassing way to lose that Best Craftsmanship Hellpistol.

Now, on the other hand, why do we even need all that artillery in the first place? If narco-gangers are the most dangerous thing we have to deal with, they're likely wearing only the rattiest of personal armor and fairly unremarkable weapons - shotguns and stubbers at best, knives and hammers at worst. A plasma pistol is overkill in every sense of the word. On the other hand, a cheap stub automatic loaded with dum-dum bullets will blow a huge hole in an unprotected ganger, and in a pinch, can be thrown in a refuse bin when you're heading back up-hive and the enforcers have a weapons checkpoint set up. Moreover, if you're down there for a while, bolts are likely to be very hard to come by, if it's possible at all, while stub rounds and shotgun shells would be a much easier proposition.

Something that you must not lose track of is the nature of prosecuting heresy. If your expectation is to crash through the front of a den of cultists and massacre everyone there, then by all means you should bring the most firepower possible, preferably guns with a full-auto setting and Tearing. If Traitor Marines are coming at you with legion chainaxes in hand, I hope you've brought something with a very high penetration score. But for everything else, much more humble weapons will not only do the job, they may well be preferable considering the social constraints and unintended consequences of looking like you're ready for war in an environment where nobody else is.

If you look at combat in absolute terms, rather than subjective and situational ones, you'd actually want to skip most of the guns out there - they have low or no penetration, don't add much damage to the 1d10 roll, can't end out a crapload of projectiles at once, and don't have Tearing. However, if absolute combat is your primary goal, why aren't you playing Deathwatch…?

I fully get that, that is why such a compendium is great, to see that huge variety of guns to be had in the Imperium, for many different purposes. But while acolytes may be investigating where to drop the hammer, they often don't get that luxury. If you encounter xenos heretics creating horrible monstrosities and actually run into one while probing the area (following corspe collectors), when that massive aggressive beast drops on you, you are glad your trusty handcannon loaded with your favorite round is at your hip, because a quick draw and a shot got it to back off for a moment. When you follow a lead and burst into the grisly lair, knowing you can't turn back, the rot has spread too far, you have no backup and it is up to you. You take your trusty shotgun, load a blazer shell on top and take them out. When you are injured and down, you hold your handcannon in one hand and grip the shotgun in the other, firing both to save a fellow acolyte.

You don't need excessive power of a bolter or a flamer, you don't need carapace and power armor. But may He help you if you do not come prepared. Mesh inlaid in your duster, maybe a hardened body glove beneath, a good sidearm on your hip, a knife on the other, some admantine knuckles in your pocket and a compact shotgun hidden in the folds, some ammo in a pouch and rounds on your belt. It may be a bit too flashy for some locales, but you can adapt, but without being decently armed and armored, what chance do you have to do His will?

And having a spare weapon hidden on you never hurts, a knife inside your boot, that aquila pendant becomes a punch dagger, a 4 shot magnum derringer in your pocket (Cop .357 derringer).

Our group tends to go for the good end of lower gear, enough flash to be noticed, but looks more like a decently equipped merc at worst or a civvie with a nice gun at best, only using available weapons to the average person. We have some heavier stuff, but we keep it away unless we know we are going into full combat.

Anyways, on a parallel system note, DW slots right next to DH, BUT it doesn't slot INTO DH, you can't swap stuff between them. Just like Grey Knights work with the Ordo Malleus, but are not the Ordo Malleus. So when I put it last, it doesn't mean from a RP perspective (which would be great, coming in as the DW or GK to get your purge on), but from swapping gear out, it falls behind in last place. Humans can't expect to easily weld Marine equipment and that is on the rare chance of getting some.

The whole fun with so many different guns is knowing about them and how to use them. Taking a scalptaker with you to a Noble's hunting floating barge would be a faux-pas, not so much with a Howdah Flametongue or Fatebringer. However that same Flametongue would stick out somewhere else. Investigating billeted guard on a transit sation you may want to wield a service pistol or something that officers frequently wear. Investigating a tech cult in an underhive you may strap your handcannon to your back, keeping it out of sight until needed under your underhive rags.

So our team may stick out overall, especially with the diverse nature, but we try to be covert and part of that role is the right gear, photovisors stick out more than photosunglasses (awww yeah), a bolt pistol more than a handcannon, carpace more than a mesh duster (cloak), a heavy automatic combat shotgun more than a 6 shot folding stock model pump action (with some wear on it), a sword more than the inferior heavy dagger. But the mission dictates the gear (though my arbites hated the feudal world where her guns had to stay hidden at all times because of a local ban) like any good acolyte knows. But a handful of different shotgun shells and another of some special handcannon rounds can really save the day for an acolyte, if you can't get a bolter and a flamer, grab a bolt shell round and a blazer to help you out. That is why I place such importance on special ammunition, without it acolytes gear in some missions are the same as their foes (or worse) and we lack the backup and numbers the foe has, a good acolyte works to stack the deck in their favor before the battle starts.

Side Note: Don't tell my Metallican Arbites to discard a good stub revolver, are you tryng to make her cry? (Though I agree on that point and I wish more GMs had NPCs react to carried gear, though one GM of mine is pretty good in that respect, though not perfect)

Malik as i promised here is copleted Macharian Almanac

I incorporated both of your compilations in one book. Hope you'll like it.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=125&efcid=46&efidt=780379

Gustav:

I actually feel kind of like a jerk for even posting this, but it may please (or infuriate…) you to know that I've just finished a "v2.1" of the Macharian Handbook - this incorporates some of the material from The Lathe Worlds, Daemon Hunter, The Book of Judgment, and Rogue Trader: Hostile Acquisitions that didn't make it into the first version (or in the case of Lathe Worlds, wasn't out yet). In addition to more content I also went back and fixed some spelling and grammatical errors that I've been tabulating over time.

By the way, the "Almanac" looks pretty **** excellent if I do say so myself; the heavy metal binding really gives it some character.

I can't wait to see 2.1!

Oh, just navigate to the front of the topic, I've deleted the previous version and replaced it with the new one.

(that should stop any jerks linking to it on Dark Reign at least for the moment anyway >.>)

Great news. Almanac was ready 2 months ago and our GM agreed to use only this book for "shopping" and after that we found that there are no entries for some materials from lathe worlds and so on.

To what extent the new file is changed? My almanac is just different tooking binder so i can replace pages easly but at first glance i dont see any changes. Even page count is the same.

Unfortunately I didn't really keep a changelog as I went (upon retrospect this would have been a good idea).

Anyway, all told the Handbook grew by about 30 pages, with the biggest additions being new Exotic weapons from The Lathe Worlds and Hostile Acquisitions as well as a bunch of new ammo types and Solid Projectile weapons. Bolters and meltas didn't really get much out of it at all, I'm afraid, and there's a couple new armours but not much there either.

The biggest piece of original content is the expanded Availability tables, which were largely cooked up by me. With Availability extending to Ubiquitous and Unique (Dark Heresy only goes from Plentiful to Very Rare), I had considered porting the Rogue Trader Availability table, but that one is done literally backwards compared to Dark Heresy - Availability Tests take *less time* on larger worlds, but the fastest you can make an Inquiry Test for a piece of gear is one day. Presumably this refers to a Rogue Trader sending his minions down to a planet to find a piece of swag he wants; either way, I think an Acolyte could do better if he was looking for a cheap gun or a stab-light than one day worth of shopping at the bargain bins! So, the expanded Availability tables are mostly an original product of mine.

New rules and weapon qualities, along with better bookmarks and sidebars got put in too. Also, as usual, I have filled in spaces with more pretty non-GW/FFG illustrations (thank you assorted Deviantart contributors, please don't sue me).

Great work MalikCarr, we use your book in our campaign too, thanks a lot for making this compilation!

One minor minor request, can you make the odd numbers appear on the right side of the page and even numbers on the left side, to keep it in book format? :-)

So Galaxy of Guns grew by 30 pages? Wow nice ill have to buy more sheet protectors.

I might be mistaken but for me link in the first post still leads to the old one, i mean 150 pages long.

If I ever make a dedicated print version I plan on doing this, along with reversing the background as well so that the one corner missing a wing motif flips also.

This will require some messing around with the page construction, however.

EDIT:

Attn Gustav:

Weird, it seems to still be linking to v1 even though I deleted that file from my Google drive. IT'S TRUE, GOOGLE RETAINS EVERYTHING FOREVER, AAAAAAA

Anyway it seems to be fixed now, try it again.

Great. I bought sheets so i can expand Almanac. As usual can you send me unlocked version?

Done and done, friendo.

Great to see it! I am eagerly devouring it

Malik do you plan to expand your compilations even more in the future? Using content from Only War for example?