One thing I often find really lacking from systems is rules for how to handle characters that are generated at higher XP levels that normal characters,

I mean, obviously actually spending XP is straightforward as hell, but how do you handle equipment? Influence? Corruption and Insanity? These things should really be covered, even if it's in a brief little sidebar. After all, DH is lethal, rolling new characters mid-campaign isn't particularly uncommon.

New characters should start at rank1.

There is no reward for the weak ;D

Seriously - my players are mostly of that kind who love to create characters and like it to dive into it.

Therefore the current mechanisms are ok for me.

I've always been really against forcing people to re-roll at Rank 1 in a game where the rest of the party is significantly higher. It creates no end of headaches for the GM (how the hell do you reasonably balance encounters for such a mixed party?), and it's going to end up either totally unfun for the low ranked player, or a cakewalk for the higher ranked players. Also, with how XP costs work, the lower player is never going to actually catch up, meaning he'll be fairly useless to the rest of the party for the whole game.

Even if you do this, spending lets say 5.000 XP does not take too long, does it ?

My issue isn't spending XP (that's easy), it's that there's no real provisions made for how to handle Influence, equipment, corruption, insanity, etc. All those things you should accrue over the length of a career, that you kinda miss out on when rolling a new character,

Tom Cruise is asking more about how to generate starting equipment and influence for such advanced characters, which always has been a problem with 40kRPGs, requiring estimation and vague guesses that often allow players too much or too little. Some sort of guide, or even just an 'if you die, tough luck it's Rank 1 for you buddy' would be nice, if only to clarify matters.

Tom, I never read your posts, my "Armour of Contempt" prevents this - that is the only way for me to get along with them ;D

Back to serious:

Thats something I would totally leave up to the GM and not tie to any character creation.

As a high-level character should always some kind of introduction that fits well into the campaign.

Accourding to this introduction I would just chose Influence, Equipment, CP and IP, or let the player roll dices, if it is not relevant.

No offense intended, GauntZero, but I don't think Tom is asking how you would do this.

He's asking FFG to clarify how they feel it should be handled, so that future generations have it in writing. That's what all of this (the beta) is about. We shouldn't be house-ruling already.

Yeah, I'm generally opposed to 'just let the GM handle it' for stuff as important as this. People WILL be rerolling, potentially multiple times per campaign. And not everyone likes to start at rank one, so rules for this kind of thing are important.

I dont think such a thing needs any official ruling besides GM decision.

Honestly, how often does this happen at all.

An average character has about 2 fate points and is not gonna burn one every mission, if he is not suicidial.

So, lets say he has to burn one every third session, which is still quite often in my experience, he would still play at least 9 sessions before the character really dies. If he has the opportunity to earn a fate point in between, or if he gets more carefull with less fate point (what was always the case in my games), this will be quite more than nine sessions.

So a rule for something that happens just sometimes, and is in my oppinion easily a GM decision, is not needed at all in my oppinion.

There are many other issues to clearify before this.

But thats just me.

My issue isn't spending XP (that's easy), it's that there's no real provisions made for how to handle Influence, equipment, corruption, insanity, etc. All those things you should accrue over the length of a career, that you kinda miss out on when rolling a new character,

I concur, it would be nice to have even a brief guideline for those who don't just want to wing it.

So, lets say he has to burn one every third session, which is still quite often in my experience, he would still play at least 9 sessions before the character really dies. If he has the opportunity to earn a fate point in between, or if he gets more carefull with less fate point (what was always the case in my games), this will be quite more than nine sessions.

I actually see a lot of fate burning in my games. I tend to run very lethal campaigns, balancing combat more around enemy resources, knowledge, and resolve rather than a close analysis of what would be fair to the PCs. This means that a subtle PC group has easier fights of course, but it also means that getting ambushed by squads of well armed soldiers totally happens.

I also see a lot of players who feel that their character should behave consistently even if they have lots or little in the way of fate points. The same player in my group has, when running a DW Champion, brashly engaged in combat even at 0 FP, and when playing a cautious techpriest in my current DH2 Beta test campaign, played very carefully while sitting at a comfortable 4 FPs.

In part that cautious play should come from good roleplaying, not metagaming the number of "lives" you have left. If that results in dying for the emperor? So be it. Bring on the rerolls (and a suitable guideline for doing them).

I'm going to get myself a reputation as a real attack dog, I fear, but I see a problem with any kind of 'wealth per level' style guidelines for DH. Ditto for influence or anything else. Many DH campaigns, even the standard I would say, aren't going to have the PCs steadily accumulating money, equipment, etc in any kind of organized linear fashion. Most games are missions where the acolytes will often be undercover, have equipment that fits the adventure, etc. That's one of the purposes of the Influence statistic is it not? To determine what gear they can obtain each mission for that mission? Unlike D&D or similar, where campaigns are steady accumulations, DH is episodic and quite presumably has lots of resets during a campaign (e.g. in terms of equipment, influence, etc.

If the PCs are on a stealthy undercover mission as hive scum and someone needs to roll up a new character, they're not going to get a plasma pistol when everyone is using stubbers, just because the game has reached Rank 6.

Short version I guess, is just that I don't see DH as a game where material wealth is tied to character power as you get in D&D or all it's ilk.

I think it can be consistent to be more careful after losing a fate point.

It shows that the character had a event that almost killed him, making him realize his own mortality a little more.

I also tend to throw my players characters ionto dangerous situations, but rarely without them deserving it.

Because of that they usually try to go to the limit, lose some fate, and behave more careful afterwards.

Thats because they really love their characters and would hate to lose them.

It can be considered even braver under this knowledge, if one tries to save hjis comrades in a dangerous situation, even if he has 0 fate....

Knasserll, I totally agree, actually. Wealth per level would be an ultimately flawed way to handle things. I'd rather see something based on setting Influence relative to the rest of the party, and then deriving starting gear from that value.

Honestly for DH I don't see a low rank character having TOO much of a problem rolling with a higher ranked groups. First off, the base stat's will likely not change much with the cost creep (which I do like) meaning lets say for combat, both different ranked characters will probably end up with the same 40% chance or so (unless the difference is rather extreme). Secondly, the starting equipment. With AP and the new wound system, even little laspistols are **** useful for scratching something to death, and if it's a key skill roll only the low level player can do, they can at least boost their roll with aid from the other players.

You could make a list of 10 things that could happen (some good some bad) and let players roll for every 2,000xp if you want some (can't think of the word I want, might edit this if I come up with it might not).

You could make a list of 10 things that could happen (some good some bad) and let players roll for every 2,000xp if you want some (can't think of the word I want, might edit this if I come up with it might not).

I dislike all randomness in character generation because it opens up the possibility that the stats I end up with have nothing to do with the character I want to play.

Also I've seen a few GMs who, when they see the {something} per xp rules for new players assume that they should apply the same to PCs.

I was thinking things like gain/lose a fate point, gain enemy/peer, gain some epic gear, you owe/are owed a big faver, gain corruption/insanity and on a 10 pick your result or ask the gm for something special. No stat loss (ok maybe d5 stat loss in place of 1 of the other results but we have 10 outcomes so no need to use that.)

If that doesn't work for you you could have something like the RT path.