Reading through the only war beta I noticed that there are some items who's purpose it seems is to only clutter up your character sheet and cause a large amount of annoyance for anyone trying to find their use.

But anyways do things such as these(grooming kit, dog tags, uplifting primer, etc) have any point? Or can they be left off of your charactershhet?

For the most part they are mentioned because your gear is meant to show that you are playing real soldiers, with real military gear that most real-life soldiers actually carry around with them. That being said, many of these things can be put to good use by creative players.

For example, while the Primer has lots of useless propaganda in it, some of the stuff is actually very useful, like the Medicae advice. I would allow someone who does not have Medicae as a trained skill, but searches for aid in his Primer a bonus to his Medicae test, for example. The razor that is part of a grooming kit could also be put to… unconventional use by more shady characters.

I remember the 40K novel Eleventh Hour, where the long term veterans in the trenches did their best to scam extra copies of the Uplifting Primer from the quartermaster's office. Appartently, toilet paper was in short supply on the front lines.

Everything is useful, if you are creative about finding a use for it and meaningful if you roleplay it as meaningful (or at least funny).

For a start it's a roleplaying game! Not everything needs mechanics attached!

Secondly, squaddies will, can and do make use of everything . Nothing is useless in the hands of a determined (and generally desperate) squaddie.

There is also the fact that if they lose any of that "Blessed Wargear" they can be put under sanction by the Commissar. If it happens too much they can even be executed. This is done in one of the Gaunt's Ghosts novels when a new grunt loses his lasgun. That was death right then, but if you lose your primer, three or four times… you could get shot.

I just got an idea, Poor Weather Gear, used to make a straw man army to make it look like the 20 guys holding that massive fort are really 40+ guys.

TCBC Freak said:

Unless your GM plays with kid gloves or you were fighting in ass end of no where against primitives, that really wouldn't work with the level of tech available. For example, competent human scouts would likely to have at least Preysense sights/goggles so they could tell that those scarecrows weren't generating heat. Most Xenos races would have similar or more advance tech or psychic abilities than humans that could easily see through that scam. Even Orks could tell that the strawmen were never patrolling or just flat out wouldn't care. Undoubtedly if Kommandos went ahead of the main force to do surprise attacks.

I think suggesting that your average imperial Scout has Preysense Goggles is pushing it. Those things aren't even standard gear for Space Marines (not that they would necessarily need them that much with their autosenses and improved senses), let alone the average Guardsman. A trusty pair of binoculars, yes. Preysense goggles? Unless they have been particularly clever with their quartermaster, no.

borithan said:

Meh, either way a decent scout with even just magnoculars, a telescopic sight, or a Ratling or someone else with heighten senses will tell that those dummies aren't patrolling, panning their heads, breathing, shifting in place, adjusting their grip on their gear, making small talk with passing guards.

LuciusT said:

Fifteen Hours. Good book.