I could see a flowchart working. At the top you have starting encounter and clues within it. On the side you have a checklist for encounter types to check off as you run them. I don't know that you need to make it a decision tree so much as a having each square be an encounter with a list of clues found in it with the lines leading out to the different encounters those clues in turn lead to.

Depending on the scope of the sandbox, it's a good idea to track things like time line(s), factions and locations as separate, super-imposed flowcharts using colour coding. That's what I do, at least.

In my experience with the influence system it is really weird. I had an IF of 40, I gave my players a +10 due to location, their Inquisitor's Ship, and I got Enforcer light Carapace, but failed to get a Hot-shot lasgun, a Best quality lasgun, and a Targeter, but one of my other players who also had a IF of around 40 got Light Powered Armor, a Powerfist, and a Cybernetic, and failed to get a shotgun, my last player who had a IF of around 35 got a Hot-shot lasgun, a motion predictor, but failed to get Stormtrooper Carapace. So I went from having one of the highest IFs in my group to having the lowest cause of 2 REALLY bad rolls, and now I am one of the worst equipped.

That's what you get for randomly rolling for equipment. The DM should have just handed out gear in that situation, or "you get X items of rarity Y or commoner" or something.

The item acquisition system is a bit of a mess.

If they REALLY wanted to simplify it, they should just eliminate random rolling for acquisitions and provide a list of narrative modifiers you can add to equipment in order to acquire it. No rolling, you just have to get the number to equal your influence. So you subtract the rarity from 100, add your influence, then add modifiers to get the total back to 100. Stuff like limited uses/ammo, needing to be returned, belonging to someone else who wants it, etc. Dark Heresy is a personal game. The modifiers shouldn't be about scale and city size; they should be about weapon illegality, dealers who have a grudge against you, etc.

The problem is the slavish devotion to the d%. No game system should ever have been based around that die.

I spent a slow afternoon once, re-writing (RT-)aquisitions to use PF+4d10. Means you have to re-define how the roll work, but gives you randomness on a nice bell-curve.

Never finished it though, got distraced by a pretty girl.

In one of my RT campaigns, we've had quite a lot of jokes about the RT's bankman, and how sometimes he's apparantly got a gf (and is happy and willing to let everything slide) or how "Oooops. Looks like my bankman caught up with us. Oh well, no more aquisitions right now I guess."

Well, that, and I had to start a side-story about a feud on Idumea, when they consistently couldn't buy Plasma Torps there for several sessions in a row.

missed this tread the first time around, some very interesting ideas in here.

myself and my group quite liked influence when it was introduced in Ascension, but we have always used it alongside Thrones.

When we were testing character creation last night and I told them about influence now being a stat they were quite happy - right upto the point I told them that thrones had gone. I still feel that these two systems can operate side by side to make the game system even more flexible than it already is.

On a different note, when reading the Seeker Role description out to my players last night it specifically mentions bounty hunters - something that we have had a few times in previous campaigns - how exactly would you be rewarded for the bounty in a moneyless system? - this is not to start an argument but a genuine question just to be clear.

Regards

Surak

On a different note, when reading the Seeker Role description out to my players last night it specifically mentions bounty hunters - something that we have had a few times in previous campaigns - how exactly would you be rewarded for the bounty in a moneyless system? - this is not to start an argument but a genuine question just to be clear.

Bring in bad guy, get 1-5 (or whatever) Influence. Pretty simple.