I've been toying with the rules again, looking to make the Renown rewards more tactile for the players and to negate the need to make all mission objectives easy to determine in the "blind scenarios" (where the players must discover plot elements before they are able to determine or attempt to complete an objective). Feedback appreciated.
The Issues to be addressed
First issue - the "One for all and all for one" approach to Primary/Secondary/Tertiary objectives. Needing to complete all objectives to receive recognition means that in more complex missions, missing out a less obvious objective (or believing it to be complete when it's actually more complicated - tricksy Tau…) turns your glorious and triumphant return to the Watch Station into a debriefing where your Captain grumpily points out "you missed a spot…"
Second issue - Rites of Battle. The fact that the suggested reward for suffering a "terrible wound" in order to save a battle brother is +2 Renown promotes a certain degree of "jumping in front of bullets" and calls of "that could have killed you!" - at times with multiple brothers making the jump, hoping to take the wound for the glory of the Emperor. Likewise, the potential for "defeating a numerically superior foe without firing a shot" granting +1-3 Renown does lead to rather a lot of pre-emptive shouting at the enemy - hoping they'll run away - rather than just getting down to blowing away the heretics with good ol' bolterfire. In short - the fact that these rewards can potentially add more Renown for a single scene than you typically would receive for completing a mission in full skews the balance rather. Having the Ultramarine stop the Space Wolf and Dark Angel from squabbling every few missions is not worthy of as much reward as completing all your Primary Objectives (though both are +1 Renown according to the tables).
Third issue - Oath of Glory. What do all characters want in the early game? Access to the cool toys in the armoury. What's the quickest way to get there? Oath of Glory. Every. Mission. Always.
The Proposed Solution
Bigger numbers. This allows for more granularity. A few points awarded for minor achievement is less of an issue when the goal is further away.
First - all Renown Requirements for all gear, honours, advanced specialities and anything else listed where it's used as a prerequisite are multiplied by 10 across the board.
Second - mission objectives are awarded renown individually. A single Primary Objective is typically worth 5 Renown, a single Secondary Objective is typically 3 Renown, whilst Tertiary Objectives are 1 Renown each.
Third - taking inspiration from Rites of Battle's approach, failure should not be tolerated. Any Primary Objective that is failed reduces the Mission Award by 5 Renown. Secondary Objectives are by nature less important and semi-optional - failure to complete one reduces the Mission Award by 1 Renown. Tertiary are almost entirely targets of opportunity and do not result in penalty if missed.
Fourth - using these values as baselines so that the players know what to expect, you can tweak the awards to suit your mission. Maybe the two Primary Objectives for a certain scenario aren't entirely equal - one is slightly more Primary than the other. Maybe one is simply more glorious - slaying the Chaos Lord in his throne room is definitely going to be more widely reported than the fact you got the data-core back in one piece, though both would be Primary objectives… In contrast - perhaps one of the Objectives is absolutely essential and failing that specifically would have greater consequence (for instance, killing the Lord, but failing to stop him from opening the Warp Gate). In that case, the failed objective penalties can be scaled (+5 for "Killing the Lord", +11 for various completed Secondary/Tertiary but -10 for failing to save the planet from the daemonhorde - a total of +6, which in this system is less than glorious but still recognizes that you fought against the oncoming doom). The key here is to use the adjustments sparingly and make sure the narrative lets the players know which are really important in the briefing. After all, the Watch Captain would probably mention that whilst you're off defeating Lord Braxaltharn, you really should make sure he doesn't do anything silly like open a rift into the immaterium and doom the planet to the hells of the warp.
Fifth - Oath of Glory. This Oath has become less of a swear word in my mind (previously mentally referred to as "F@#*ing Oath of F@#*ing Glory") since the adjustments. It remains exactly as it was (+1 Renown per Primary or Secondary Objective completed) with the addition of "and +1 Renown for any Tertiary Objective completed without the aid of your battle brothers". Suddenly the Glory-hunters become a little more interested in doing things that would be considered glorious - such as defeating a Tyranid Warrior in single combat or a lone Devastator standing at one of several breaches in a defensive line, holding back the oncoming cultist horde whilst his allies cover the others. There is still a compelling reason to take the oath if you're really hungry for Renown, but in the grand scheme, it's a more marginal benefit - best to use when you don't really want the abilities offered by other oaths rather than something worth giving up the whole oath-selection mechanic for quick advancement for.
Finally - Rites of Battle suggested renown bonuses remain roughly the same, though perhaps you can afford to be a little more generous in some cases. These are all nice little "extra" rewards for doing something that adds to your personal legend. They shouldn't be invitations to take stupid risks in return for disproportionate reward or to approach a situation in a non-logical way because you expect it to be more rewarding to do so.
Losing Renown
Another perk of this system is that you get to reduce the rewards when they screw up, so they know that they screwed up (without the more obvious indicators, like a scything talon through the head or being trapped on a planet being dragged into Nurgle's backyard). I do however rarely impose a reduction of their Renown beyond what they started the mission with. Players tend to dislike their characters ending up with less than they started with, so if they do happen to end up with a negative total for the mission, I normally count it as zero total and possibly add a suitable "black mark" to them in another way (having the "Enemy (Lord Ebongrave)" talent is a much better way to remind them of the time they crashed their boarding torpedo into an asteroid after mistaking it for the Ork Rok they were supposed to assault on his behalf, than taking some of their toys away via Renown reduction). If they act in a way unbecoming of the Deathwatch however, all bets are off. Corruption and long term reduction of Renown is entirely appropriate for a team that crosses the Emperor's most holy line and starts sleeping with Eldar or something (and no, we're not getting into the viability of "Space Marines sexy-time" discussion again…)
TL: DR Version
Given the wall of text - this seems necessary. Short version is to have lots of small rewards, worth varying amounts each, with all the Requirement numbers being scaled up by a factor of 10. Easier to reward small events, differentiate importance of objectives, control rate of Renown game to match your planned campaign.
Thoughts?