My Dear fellow Forum Dwellers...

Here I come, again, with some basic questions in a futile preemptive strike against problems that shall arise in my table of powergamers who can't strategize their way out of a paper bag.

I've been reading the adventure that comes with the Rogue Trader rulebook, and a question rose up: Voidsuits.

May a person wear an armor inside, or outside a voidsuit? Of course there is a more bulky and stronger version of said voidsuit with armor poitns. But (spoilers ahead) if they can't wear armor with the voidsuit, my players would have to rely on their wits and toughness bonus against the battles in the ice asteroid with the treasure-ship, and the battle inside the treasure ship! Not that I mind, but the battle would be a lot grimmer for them! Of course, I already know that a power armor makes a void suit, well, void. (Awful pun not intended). But what about the old flak, mesh and carapace?

The second question rose up when I was reading about critical damage. Some of it's effects, specially the energy-based damage, utterly destroy the fellowship of a character unfortunate enough to be hit by said weapons, frying and melting his/her skin, etc. Though, shouldn't the 41th millenium, with known rejuvenat technology, be able to fix, or at least help cosmetic damage through surgeries? Specially considering Rogue Traders who have means and money to reach the best doctors across the stars. Other than that, a "face" char that would be unfortunate enough to receive a blast that leaves his fellowship a mere scarred 5 would be better off dead, at least, my players think so.

Third question. The last time I GMed, a paladin attempted to defeat a being that could teleport itself using shadows... by grappling. The session ended with the players, unable to accept that a character that needed simply to think to poof away stormed out of the place screaming obscenities. Not wanting to have this same lamentable scene to repeat in this new system, I will ask straight away. A person grappled, even if he/she is a psyker who can fry people with their minds, or a person holding a pistol, a knife or, heck, even a digital weapon can't do ANYTHING besides try to slip off? It would be a bit anticlimatic if the chaos sorcerer who can level up mountains was defeated because the arch-militant gave him a hug... but if the rules say so, I shan't deny them, merely change strategies.

Void Suits: My interpretation has typically been that a standard void-suit can't stack with most armours. Some forms of armour might be able to be worn on the outside of the suit, but I'd impose movement penalties. Black Crusade added an armour upgrade called Vac-Sealed which allowed any full-body mesh, carapace or powered armour to count as void-sealed with a six hour supply. That said, it's your game. Just make it clear to the players which interpretation you'll go with at the start of the game and it won't be a big deal.

Critical damage and effects: Well, that's another one for you to decide. By RAW there's no way to recover such damage, but you could make it an Acquisition or somesuch.

Grapple: A Grappled target must spend one Half-Action on being Grappled, then they can attempt to Break Free, Slip Free, or Take Control. You could interpret the inability to take other actions as the grappling person stopping the target from grabbing their gun, or pressing their teleporter beacon, or even slapping them around so they can't focus on their psychic technique.

This is one of the reasons I love this forum. Efficient and fast answers. Thank you very much!

Remember though if you want, as GM, make it so that said Psyker was more likely whisked away by his Patron Daemon or something. Or give him Touched by the Fates trait.

PC kill their Nemesis and he spontaineously combust leaving but ash behind. Players leave congratulating themselves for defeating their Nemesis. Pan back to the ash pile, small movement can be seem as the ash is starting to combine back together in human shape.

Warning: GM fiat is not for everyone, consult your Doctor before using.

Hmmmm interesting... Interesting indeed...

*Wiggling fingers in a menancing and evil-scheming way*

Though, to avoid starting a new thread... I'm making an Explorator Npc based on Rogue trader as part of a mission involving the Dark Mechanicus, as the Npc may or not help them depending on their actions, (Relax fellow players, 'help' doesn't mean 'steal away all their action while they remain sat", far away from it.) and I've got intrigued by what I studied.

Are Mechadendrites... removable? There is a thread in the dark depths of this forum, but the discussion didn't went further. I'm thinking that, yes (jokes with forced removal aside), though there would be rites involved, and I wouldn't allow a player to "exchange mechadendrites" just because he has "one or two" mechadendrite traits. Like you can't place a video card on a usb port, each mechadendrite (I love writing it...) needs it's own port, rituals and a compatible "machine-spirit". But since the life of a Explorer needs him to meet less-educated or fanatical populaces, he could leave his mechadendrites at the ship (even though that for a techpriest, it would be the equivalent of leaving an arm behind...). Also there is the fact of upgrading his tenta- ahem, mechadendrites, replacing damaged ones, etc.

And what would the Maglev traits be useful for? Would the techpriest be able to hover over water? I don't see the need for such traits besides the obvious "jump-pack your way to safety from a fall" whenever you need regardless of your equipment, though again, I haven't played this game much. And yes, I know that there are mines, electrical-charged floors and other floor hazards, but they're too specific to justify buying those traits.

And still on the Maglev train (pun not intended), would the potentia coil of the Tech-Priest be recharged through Electrical Succour? I know that this trait only removes Fatigue, but it would be rather... silly if only the flesh could be "recharged".

I've also been thinking... Ferric Lure... Ok, giving the spoilers (and I hope that my players don't see this forum), the explorer in question is located in a feudal world to study how societies far away from the Imperium develop, also on the lookout for a heretek cult that might ruin his work and, to keep people away, he pretends to be a "sorcerer", hovering here and there, doing tricks and such, the first giveaway of his true nature being the fact that any psyniscience test would reveal the ruse. Though, one of his tricks would be using Ferric lure in an opposed way, repelling instead of attracting, to give a "force push" trick. Would it be viable? And how would it be done? I'm thinking in using the normal psychic power for rules, but from a different origin.

Lastly on the subject of the Tech-Priest, where can I get good designs of power armor, both for tech-priests -and- "normal" people? Mind you, including the helmet. I've been suggested to look from medieval armor to a Zaku (Yes, from gundam) design! A friend of mine told me that good designs could be found in... Warmachine! I branded him heretic since then...

And one of the things that made me favor a tech-priest from Rogue Trader rather from Dark Heresy as a npc, were the traits. Not that I will make him juggle a heavy bolter with the auto-stabilized trait while he has a twin-linked melta pistol mechadendrite (as much as I'd love making such a char, perhaps I will play him when another person GMs RT...), but these traits are missing on DH, I only have the core rulebooks, are those traits located somewhere on the DH supplements?

And on a sidenote... Jump Packs, how do they work? Rule-wise, I mean. I know that they can mimic the Flier trait up to a minute... but other than that... what? The rulebook tells me of unlimited jumps, so it means that a character with a jump pack can simply move to any point of the combat map? What about charges, combat traits that enable shoot-on-the-move? Also, do the pilot needs to make a test for each action?

Personally, I'd enable said traits, he'd be able to jump away on the battlefield at his whim and to follow the rules of the flier, also enabling aerial charges that doesn't damage the user upon fall due the nature of the jump pack, but for each action, I'd make the player do a Pilot Test (and he'd quickly turn into a noisy, flashy target), but what are your thoughts on it?

ALL OF THE QUESTIONS!

First off as a general note, there's two ways you can play the various Mechanicus traits. I like your perfectly reasonable extrapolations of other ways that they could work, and you could easily houserule that they can work in reverse as you have described. On the other hand, knowledge and progress is forbidden in the 41st Millennium, and most fluff about Tech-Priests doens't have them understand that they're magnetically compelling various objects into their hand, but rather they perform a sacred Rite that results in the Omnissiah granting them the blessing of doing things a certain way. An Explorator who discovers that by doing the Rite of Ferric Lure BACKWARDS repels objects instead of attracts them would probably be labelled a Heretek. I view the idea of recharging the Potentia Coil in a similar fashion. They understand how to channel it in certain ways, but without Heretek knowledge they can't actually apply anything that they have in new or exciting ways. That's my view on the Orthodox approach anyway, and if you want to houserule in your own way I am all for that, just make your Explorator "discover" these new and exciting ways, and then not receive the applause he was expecting from his fellow Explorators.

Maglev traits are useful for two things. First they ARE an excellent way of intimidating people or convincing them of your fantastic powers. Second, when you describe how stylish and effective they are to your Tech-Priest and they balk at taking them, during their next exploration have them come across a floor that's been electrified or booby trapped and make them find a way to cross it. Don't make a big deal about it. Just point it out to them. In combat it really is not that great since it makes you a pretty obvious target, but with proper applications of cover it can also get your Explorator where enemies might not expect. It also is useful if you absolutely need to get down a cliff quickly.

Removable Mechandrites is tricky. In The Lathe Worlds there's an Alternate Rank called Factor of the Lathes (which I adapted as an alternate rank for my Explorator) that has the ability to attach/remove Mechandrites because they were specifically designed to be removable so that he looks less Tech-Priesty. It's a specific talent that is given to the Factors, and it inflicts Fatigue on them every time they attach/remove something, so my inclination is that Mechandrites are usually meant to be permanently attached. Presumably looting a Mechandrite would involve subduing its machine spirit for use in your form.

I believe Jump Packs only require you to have the Pilot (Personal) Talent, and then can be used freely. If your players try to do something tricky then a Pilot test is probably required, but for non-combat use I would say that they shouldn't have to test every round. I tell my players that they can move up to 10 squares with a Jump Pack based off of Flyer 12. 1 point to get in the air, 1 point to land, 10 for movement. That's assuming they can just do a nice, parabolic arc through the battlefield. If they can't, then they have to test Pilot, and if they fail they roll Scatter for where they ACTUALLY land.