Assume that I'm playing a Rogue Trader who so far has Pistol Weapon Training (Universal) and Melee Weapon Training (Universal). If I take an Exotic Weapon Proficiency talent, am I restricted in taking an Exotic Weapon that is either a pistol or a melee weapon?

No. Exotic weaponry is always so divergent from typical forms of combat that your other proficiencies have no bearing on it.

Thank you.

Using this thread and avoiding starting new ones... On the Exotic Weapon Training. Isn't it a bit too restrictive that whenever a character buys, for example, "Shuriken Pistol" proficiency, he has to buy -another- for "Shuriken Launcher"? I admit I only have the Rogue Trader Core Rulebook, so if there are alternate rules or weapons, I don't know them (And would thank if someone enlightened me about those things.)

I mean, paying 500xp to only use one class of alien weapon, ending being bound to use 1000xp to be able to wield a basic weapon and a side-weapon of the same "origin", isn't it a bit too much? (And considering Rogue Trader, undoubtedly you will end finding far, far better weapons than the xeno or exotic ones...)

That's entirely up to your GM. With the way weapon training talents are formatted, you could easily create weapon training talents such as Exotic (Shuriken) including all shuriken weapons. Personally, though, I'm very careful about weapon training talents that allow PCs access to new classes of weapons, as they can change a character's entire combat style to something much more powerful in some cases.

Personally, I tend to allow Weapon Training (Digi) to cover all digi-weapons, as otherwise Melta is the only one anyone's ever going to bother with, and looted digi-weapons that are not melta will never see use.

After Rank 3 or so, I think I'd allow anyone to take Weapon Training (Shuriken). Still, think carefully before you make a talent too powerful.

There's certainly precedent - I think the Ork characters get one exotic weapon training talent that covers all orky weapons - but strictly speaking every exotic weapon needs a seperate talent.

I think Orks squeak by because Exotic Weapons shouldn't be exotic to their makers; Wookiees get Bowcasters as rifles, not exotics, because they make and use them much more. The variety of weirdness some alien weapons have, even among the same class, compared to the rote-crafted, cookie-cutter STG weapons of the Imperium, I can see each xenos weapon maybe needing a Talent. In other games, they don't always give Humans Universal Training, even in their own weapons.

In the end, of course, you should try what you want, and see how it goes. Some weapons are specialized enough that I would say "yeah, that ONE weapon needs a Talent, such as RT Charlabelle Armelan's Harlequin's Kiss, while others, like Shuriken Weapons, I MIGHT say a class-wide Talent is available. Of course, I would require the character to play around with several different shuriken weapons, to cover training with them, and the idea of finding enough Eldar, and killing them, AND taking their weapons, isn't so likely, with Eldar so much more willing to run away (in my games, anyway; I like them, so they might get to survive a smidge more often).

Using this thread and avoiding starting new ones... On the Exotic Weapon Training. Isn't it a bit too restrictive that whenever a character buys, for example, "Shuriken Pistol" proficiency, he has to buy -another- for "Shuriken Launcher"? I admit I only have the Rogue Trader Core Rulebook, so if there are alternate rules or weapons, I don't know them (And would thank if someone enlightened me about those things.)

I mean, paying 500xp to only use one class of alien weapon, ending being bound to use 1000xp to be able to wield a basic weapon and a side-weapon of the same "origin", isn't it a bit too much? (And considering Rogue Trader, undoubtedly you will end finding far, far better weapons than the xeno or exotic ones...)

That is correct. If you buy Exotic Weapon Training (Shuriken Pistol) you have to buy Exotic Weapon Training (Shuriken Cannon) if you want to use both.

This is also completely idiotic .

Ask your GM if you can buy Exotic Weapon Training (Shuriken) , referring to all Shuriken -type weapons. This, of course, with the stipulation that to use certain Exotic Weapons, you would also need to have the appropriate proficiencies, such as being able to use Pistols for Shuriken Pistols, or Launchers/Heavies for Shuriken Cannon.

There's many cases like this where the Exotic Weapon Training talent doesn't entirely make sense, but that's because the system doesn't make that much sense to begin with . I have my own ideas for how this should work, but it'd be hairy to work into the Career/Rank system in Rogue Trader and requires revising every single weapon individually.

But yeah, ask your GM if he'd allow you to use all Shuriken-type weapons with a single Exotic Weapon Training based on the argument that it makes perfect sense. But technically, by Rules-As-Written, you got it right. You'd need a whole bunch of them, one for every single weapon, even if they are functionally identical.

That Shuriken Pistol? One Talent.

The Shuriken Catapult? Another Talent.

And the Shuriken Cannon? Yet another one.

So no. Houserule that ****.

I'd agree. A 'talent' covers a field in which the challenge of using it effectively is different. For a weapon in the 40k universe this falls into two categories:

1) The class of weapon it is (Pistol/Basic/Heavy/Mounted*)

2) The type of weapon it is (Bolt/Las/Melta/Shuriken/Necrotic/Orky)

Theoretically, therefore, you need two talents to use a specific weapon with no penalty, and having one should help (A competent pistolier may still burn himself with a plasma pistol but he'll probably still hit, whilst a plasma gun wielder will know how to judge firing/venting but won't be a good shot one-handed).

Which ones you get 'free' under the banner of Astartes/Legion/Universal/etc of course, is a different matter.

* A personal bugbear; you want a different talent for using two slightly different calibre needle weapons, but upping to massive vehicle-mounted weapons with completely different control interfaces is apparently fine.