Hallo there,
after GMing a long Dark Heresy campaign, soon I might be able to join a Deathwatch campaign as a player: yet I’m not a Warhammer 40.000 tabletop player and thus need a bit of advice about all things Space Marines.

I think I’ll make my PC a Raven Guard, a chapter I like mainly because of their background: as a class, I took the Assault and Devastator guys into consideration but still need something explained.
- Assault Marines look fine, at least in their usual bolt pistol+chainsword combo: yet I’ve understood that these weapons could be an exception among the Raven Guard Assault Marines, since the lightning claws (which I can’t stand, style-wise) are their common choice. So, how odd were an Assault Raven Guard carrying a bolt pistol and a chainsword?
- I’d surely like to be the guy carrying the big gun like a Devastator Marine does: but does a heavy bolter match the stealth tactics a Raven Guard is trained to use? What other heavy weapons would be more likely for them?

Finally, in my searches over the Internet for pieces of information, I’ve read that the Raven Guard use older pieces of gear: does it mean that, beaked helmets apart, they still wear the Heresy-era studded armors? Is this just an appearance matter or does it also have any spin-off on the way this older equipment works? I mean, is the gear more likely to malfunction or underperform and such?

Perhaps these questions find an answer in the First Founding handbook but sadly I haven’t had a glimpse at it (neither our soon-to-be GM nor any of the other players got it yet and I want to be sure the campaign starts before buying it eventually): anyhow, are this handbook's contents somewhat useful to flesh out a Raven Guard PC or can it be skipped entirely?

Thank you for any advice!

I'm not a big fun but....

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Raven_Guard

for your question:

- Assault Marines look fine, at least in their usual bolt pistol+chainsword combo: yet I’ve understood that these weapons could be an exception among the Raven Guard Assault Marines, since the lightning claws (which I can’t stand, style-wise) are their common choice. So, how odd were an Assault Raven Guard carrying a bolt pistol and a chainsword?

The favorite weapons of Raven Guard Force Commanders are Lightning Claws and it is a common sight for their command squads to also be equipped with these weapons in addition to their Jump Packs.
your assault marine was ok with chain and bolt.....(look at the first picture in the wiki page)

- I’d surely like to be the guy carrying the big gun like a Devastator Marine does: but does a heavy bolter match the stealth tactics a Raven Guard is trained to use? What other heavy weapons would be more likely for them?

it depend of wich type of guerrilla are you doing in the mission......you want to set a trap?

take two dev in "V" line with bolter,...etc......

- Finally, in my searches over the Internet for pieces of information, I’ve read that the Raven Guard use older pieces of gear: does it mean that, beaked helmets apart, they still wear the Heresy-era studded armors? Is this just an appearance matter or does it also have any spin-off on the way this older equipment works? I mean, is the gear more likely to malfunction or underperform and such?

personally I suggest armor from mark 4 to 6 with the "skill of the artificer

Rites of Battle (one of the expansion books) actually has mechanical effects for the different types of armour. The older ones tend to have less armour and are missing some of the special systems. The armour for which Raven Guard are famous for is Mark 6, which has one less point of armour on the chest, but otherwise is actually better than the standard mark 7. The helmet gives you another +5 to awareness (the famous "beaky helmet" has extra sensors in the beak), and I think +5 to agility (which is frankly absurd).

Truthfully, I wouldn't worry about the armour much. Mark 6 armour is "more" common in the Raven Guard, but that doesn't mean that mark 7 isn't common either. "Beakys" are more common in the Raven Guard, but they don't wear them exclusively. Also, many of the elements of armour are interchangeable (particularly for mark 6 and 7) so getting mixtures is fine. Now, I am personally a fan of the "beaky" helmet, as it looks better and it's the original (all Space Marines wore them at first, which is why for most of the 1st edition 40k the standard Ork term for Marines was said to be "beakies"), so when my Raven Guard rolled a mark 6 helmet (for his otherwise mark 5 armour) I was very pleased (the +5 to awareness was an additional bonus, but I would have wanted it regardless).

On lightning claws: they are not the norm in the Raven Guard. They are liked by leaders and the elite among them, but standard Assault Marines use the same weapons as all other Assault Marines, ie normally the bolt pistol and chainsword. Lightning claws are far too rare to go issuing to bog standard troops, even in the Space Marines.

Another thing to keep in mind is that wielding 2 melee costs less XP than bolt pistol+chainsword.

Berengario: Keep in mind that Lightning Claws aren't available to a beginning DW character anyway. For a beginning Assault Marine gear load-out, I would go with either Bolt Pistol/Chainsword, or two Chainswords.

As Kshatriya mentioned, pistol/sword costs more xp, but is more flexible. Two melee weapons is lighter on the xp, but more restrictive, as you won't have any ranged capability.

By the time Lightning Claws become available, Assault Marines have plenty of other good melee options, such as the Power Fist, Thunder Hammer, Power Sword, and Power Axe. You'll have plenty of time to figure out which one you want, but in the beginning you really should make the decision on whether you are going to be a pistol/melee type Assault Marine or a two melee weapon AM.

Cheers!

Quick Draw and dipole mag-locks solve the restrictiveness issue.

@OP: Raven Guards (RG) aren't just stereotypical Lightning Claw users (aka Kayvaan Shrike). They do use a variety of other weapons and means. The chapter however prefers a modus operandi of Stealth and "Surgical Strikes". They strike hard and strike fast, moving unseen, preferring guile to brute force.

As pointed out by the others before, there are certain in game prerequisites such as renown and acquisition in order to obtain said pair of Lightning Claws so new players at rank 1 would not normally gain access to those weapons (to reflect the weapons being rare and few).

RG assault marines do also utilise bolt pistols & chain swords. RG may also utilise devastators or weapons to suit their modus operandi pattern. Like Gantz has mentioned, its the method they fight; they may use tactics of drawing enemies into fire, which would suit the role of a devastator. Its not always about stealth.

As for armour wise, the RG have many Corvus MK VI armour but they do have the Aquila MK VII Armour as well. Rites of Battle also lists stats and bonuses for older armour. That aside, in DW, every character has to roll up/decide on his armour history. So the bonuses conferred differ from marine to marine.

Thank you all for your very helpful pieces of advice: as told, even though I love the setting I'm not so well acquainted with either the Space Marines or the Deathwatch RPG so I really needed suggestions and explanations like the ones you gave me.

Reading your comments I've realized the character concepts I have in my mind aren't too wrong and, although still needing some filing, they both could appease me: a bolt pistol and chainsword carrying Assault Marine (I don't mind the higher XP costs: "style" is still the keyword for me) or a heavy bolter carrying Devastator Marine. Now I only have to talk with the other players in order to understand which of them will fit the team better.

I'm looking forward to playing this game!

Thank you!

Hm. A bolt pistol might be better in melee in some circumstances like Hordes (where the damage bonus from SB doesn't factor in) or with special ammo.

While the RG are a flexible chapter and would be remice to try and remain silent all the time you can get away with additional items.

For a Devastator you migth want to take a Astates sniper or Stalker Bolter with your heavy weapon for quitely knocking off scouts and guards before breaking out a missile launcher or heavy bolter for a direct loud attack.

For an assault marine why not pick up some blind grenades. While blasting around on a jump pack is itself not stealthy but at least you can obscure yourself for a while.