Miscellaneous Questions

By player1197498, in Dark Heresy Rules Questions

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1. Dark Heresy caps test adjustments at +/- 30. The sleek new elegant Black Crusade cap them at +/- 60. Is there an official judgment on what the "core" cap should be? I'd guess the latter because the book is much newer.
2. Needle weapons do extra damage in the form of wounds, but the rules say that when you dip below your wound threshold, you go to the critical hit charts. That seems weird to me, since the fleshette needles are really doing poison damage, but the result of a good hit by one is going to be "leg blown off" or something similar, which makes no sense. How should it work
3. Just to clarify, whenever you take a wound that goes past your toughness bonus and armor, it essentially makes a tick mark against your total wounds, but at first there is no appreciable affect. It's only when additional ticks drive you past your wound threshold that you get the hurt on you via the critical tables. After that first critical, any hit that does any damage will require a new critical roll. Do I have this right?
3. Fate points are regained at the start of each session. The book also mentions that a GM can award them for good role playing, etc. Are these awards more permanent fate points or do they act like the refresh that occurs at the start of the session.
4. Is there anything non-psychics can do to deal with combat damage? I known you can spend a fate point to get 1d5 back. Anything else? Willpower? Combat drugs? Helpful nanites
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1 errateaed to +- 60 iirc

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With regard to 2, the effects can be described in a different fashion with the same result. The leg blown off situation you described (pretty nasty at 8 critical wounds, with a chance of death too!) could be represented differently. "As the needle drives past your armor into your skin, you feel a quick rush and a burning sensation. The toxins coursin through your body cause the arteries in your leg to burst, rupturing your leg and leaving only a bloody stump in its place."

With 3, there is no new critical 'roll'. You just add the new damage to the previous. So if you had 2 points of critical damage, then take another 3 points of damage (after armour and toughness bonus soak), you would be at 5 points of critical damage. The effects are cumulative regardless of where the hit lands. The book has a concise example on page 201.

WIth 4 (labeled 3 again, regarding fate points), awarded fate points are permanent. That said, the GM has ultimate decision on fate point refresh and allocation. So you might not always recover fate points at the beginning of a session. (In games I play in, fate points are typically refreshed between missions, which can span a session or few.)

On your last point, anyone with the medicae skill can attempt to test that skill for first aid. Damage recovered varies based on how heavily damaged the person receiving care is. On success, lightly wounded heal the Int bonus of the person performing the test, heavy and critical recover 1 wound. Failing by by 3 or more degrees, though, can cause damage or death (page 104 of the book for the skill).

A stimm (drug) can also be used to temporarily ignore effects to characteristics from damage or critical damage.