Hello, first I apologize for my english is not my first language.

That said from a Local board in Argentina a few question regarding fatepoints could not be answered.

1_Can I use a fatepoint to give a +10 bonus to an adquisition test or reroll it?

2:_Can I give a +10 bonus several times with the use of multiple fate points?

3_Can I give the +10 bonus of Exceptional Leader to an adquisitions test?

I normally would say no to all of those questions, but fortunatelly on the board linguistics and lawyers lurk frequently and found the following text.

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From core Rule book page 233 Fatepoints:

A Fate Point can be used at any time ,
either on the character’s own turn or in reaction to the action of
another character. Spending a Fate Point is a Free Action .
Spending one Fate Point allows for one of the following:
• Re-roll a failed test once. The results of the re-roll are
final.
• Gain a +10 bonus to a test . This must be chosen before
dice are rolled.

From Core rule book page 271 Adquisitions tests:

To succeed in an Acquisition Test , the Explorer must roll
equal to or less than his Profit Factor on 1d100. This roll is
modified depending on the Availability, Craftsmanship, and
Scale of the acquisition:
• If the roll is equal to or less than the Explorer’s Profit
Factor, then he has acquired the item.

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Acoording to this adquisitions test are perfectly legal targets for fate points, does anyone read about a rule or designer comment clearly outruling these?

From the same discussion we went for initiative...

4_The initiative skill of the fate points can be used on space combat initiative?

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Page 233 Fate points:

A Fate Point can be used at any time,
either on the character’s own turn or in reaction to the action of
another character. Spending a Fate Point is a Free Action.
Spending one Fate Point allows for one of the following:
• Count as having rolled a 10 for Initiative.

Page 212 Initiative on void combat:

Initiative
At the beginning of the combat, the captain of each ship rolls
1d10 and adds his ship’s Detection bonus (the tens digit in its
Detection characteristic). Bonuses that apply to a character’s
Initiative in Structured Time (regular combat) do not apply ,
otherwise Initiative in space combat works the same as regular
combat (see page 236).

Page 234 Initiative on structured time:

Step 2: Roll Initiative

At the start of the first Round, each character rolls for Initiative.
Each character rolls 1d10 and adds his Agility Bonus (the
tens digit of his Agility characteristic). The result of the roll
applies for all successive Rounds in the combat.

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Now my questions are:

If the capitain of the ship can spend fate points for initiative?

If the Space combate initiative is rolled for the ship(whose has no fatepoints) or a character(who have fate points)?

If the use a the fatepoint be considered a bonus and why becuase the wording is very clear about not being a bonus just counting as rolled?

Montazghul said:

I'm from the same Argentinian board, and to make this question clear, I want to add that he means spending multiple Fate Points for the same action (like spending 2 FP for a +20, for example).

1. Can I use a fatepoint to give a +10 bonus to an adquisition test or reroll it?

Yes to both. If you fail an acquisition test and spend a fate point to reroll you are essentially throwing out the first roll for the second. That's perfectly legal. The same is true with spending a fate point to improve your chance of success as acquisition rolls are modified by such things as craftsmanship, availability, and scale. They can be further modified by use of such things as the commerce skill.

2. Can I give a +10 bonus several times with the use of multiple fate points?

No, as I understand it you can only get the bonus once; you can't stack it. There are multiple examples in the system where stacking doesn't work so much so that they are the more the rule than the exception in my opinion. If it says you can spend a fate point to get a +10 bonus to a test then that's all you get.

One could however spend a fate point in conjunction with the commerce skill improving the opposed roll's potential degrees of success and inflating profit factor. Then spend another fate point to provide a +10 bonus to the acquisition test. Since these are two separate tests it would be perfectly legal I think.

3. Can I give the +10 bonus of Exceptional Leader to an adquisitions test?

This one seems very situational. Assuming you follow all the rules for Exceptional Leader and the person making the acquisition is properly motivated by the rogue trader I would allow it. The exceptional leader bonus should be role played in my opinion. This would mean an acquisition test that would normally just be a bunch of rolls depending on your group would actually have to be fleshed out.

There would need to be a trader/merchant and some chitchat about pricing that the rogue trader doesn't like. Maybe he makes a fuss and tells his seneschal or whoever is making the acquisition rolls to just make it happen or don't bother coming back. He could also try promising them something if they make the deal happen.

4. The initiative skill of the fate points can be used on space combat initiative?

Sure I don't see anything that would prevent it and since it says the captain of the ship rolls initiative it would be him spending his own fate point to get it. This is slightly situational though the captain won't always be on the ship. I would say any member of the retinue or crew currently in command of the ship rolls initiative for the ship and thus would have to spend their own fate point to get a 10.

If they are crew its up to the gm whether or not they actually have any fate points to spend to do it (probably not though).

My thoughts, hope it helps

1. According to the RAW yes, you can use a fate point for Aquisition tests. Similiarl it can be justified fairly easily as an Aquisition test is how well the player can barter their resources / favors with a merchant they're purchasing from (not much different from bartering or commerce).

2. As for spending multiple, the RAW does state (I'll have to do some digging to find it again) that you can't do this I believe. I'll make another post if I can find it, if not disregard this as it might just be old rules from DH.

3. As for the "do it better" I don't allow this for most things outside of combat as it's to easily abused otherwise (since it's technically spamable then, though you may wish to just rule it "once per scene" should an out of combat situation occur).

Now as for initiative, I'd allow a re-roll via fate point on initiative, but certainly not a +10 (and degree's of success would make no sense) since it isn't a 1D100 test. Anyways it's not the "ship" spending the fate point to go faster any more than it is the explorers "gun" spending a fate point to shoot earlier in combat.

Dark Bunny Lord said:

Yes, but using a Fate Point with your gun only allows you to act faster in combat. In space combat you shouldn't be able to spend a Fate Point to allow 50.000 people go first.

Maese Mateo said:

Dark Bunny Lord said:

Spending a single Fate Point to allow 5-10 actions to go first is still a very powerful effect, and I don't think it should be allowed to keep the balance of Space Combat.

How many fate points do your players have exactly. With all the situations with which to spend them during a session using one to get the upper hand in a combat situation that could result in the death of every person aboard the ship doesn't seem like much of a big deal to me.

Essentially, initiative in space combat, since it is rolled by the captains represents the captain's ability to issue orders to his crew not so much his crews ability to react to them. They aren't moving faster so much as they are given a head start because the captain is barking out orders faster than the other guy.

Don't forget initiative is 1d10 +ships detection (the ability to see what's going on outside). Just because they spend a fate point to get a 10 on their initiative doesn't mean they automatically win. One could just as easily be outclassed by a ship with high detection that rolled ok for initiative.

Slight edit there it is 1d10 + the ships DB i guess (the tens digit of their detection). Still a 10 doesn't guarantee success.

PCs already have so many advantages in space combat. By RAW it looks like they can Fate init, but by balance I don't think they should be able too.

Ki_Ryn said:

Yes, that's what I think, too. Which is why I won't allow it in my games.

If the PC's want to speed up their initiative in space combat, I'd ask them all to spend a Fate point or none, since they're all getting the bonus.