Remember also that only the AdMech really knows whether or not something his Heretekal, so you could just be lied to by your Explorator who says that this is a super-rare Archeotech pistol, when in reality it's something he cobbled together. An actual Magos wouldn't care about that distinction, but knowledge is kept so carefully hoarded that with a successful bluff, other people might believe it as well.

Inquisition Only stuff would be similar. It's presumably based off of existing STC-patterns, so most people wouldn't know that it's meant to be Inquisitor-only. However that means if someone DOES know its origins, then they may demand it back, or think you murdered an Inquisitor to get it, and behave appropriately. I generally disallow acquiring Space Marine gear because they're not scaled for human use, though one of my players once did try to acquire a suit of Space Marine Power Armour so that he could try and return it to the correct chapter to get in good with them.

IMO long time periods don't make fights epic, they make fights unrealistically long-winded and boring. Sometimes people need to step back from the rules and say "is this believable and also fun?" If not, why keep the 30-min duration of a VU turn (which actually has no in-game significance unless the GM wants to enforce a particular timer, and even then that timer needs to keep the stupid long turn time in mind).

While 30 min turns are a bit of a stretch, WH 40k ships are slow and cumbersome in fluff.

For example I recall a scene from 'Tome of Fire' trilogy (3rd volume I think) where a Salamanders Battle Barge makes a 45 to 90 degrees turn (no idea what's a Prow gun's firing arc in fluff) to bring it's Prow Nova Cannon to bear on a new target. During the turn, it gets hit by several salvos (3-4 IIRC) from the same ship. Assuming a ROF of 1-2 rounds per minute (similar to WW2 Battleship guns), that still puts a Battle Barge's turning time in the range of several minutes (probably 5-10 minutes for a full 180 degrees turn). Still, long enough to make helmsman's agility irrelevant IMO.

I sometimes think that Piloting tests should be based off of Command rather than Agility, because it is probably an effort of coordinating the thousands of slaves manning the engine decks, but then that would give the Void Master even less to do.

The fluff may make Agility irrelevant. Changing the crunch makes the whole career much less relevant. The latter is worse than the former.

Int makes sense in some ways, problems in others (particularly for the Void-Master). The VM doesn't necessarily make sense to have (or need) high Int to do its primary job, but making piloting a voidship key off Int probably requires the VM to have Int on the cheap (or at least medium), or be competing with really strange classes to fill the "best ship pilot" role.

I'm not changing any rules..... yet..... But an idea did cross my mind while reading this. Maybe the VM can have a special talent that allows him to use Agility instead of Int for certain skills and/or actions. This can be a result of his natural intuition of flight mechanics, gravity, etc, as it's more second nature to him then the regular helmsmen. More of a gut instinct of "this feels right," rather than "I know X thruster needs Y ratio for C seconds to complete this turn faster." Just food for thought.

No offense, I can't help but see that as an air-breathing mermaid situation.

Not particularly fond of changing Attributes/Characteristics for relevant checks; it usually feels like someone just trying to min-max. No accusations here, but I like to believe that SOMEONE (who might've been overridden 9/10 times by the others) working on the design team tried to make each Characteristic have its fair share of uses, in different aspects of the game. Sometimes, this flops:

Orks in D&D 3.0/3.5 take considerable Charisma penalties, as do Jaffa in Stargate SG-1 RPG. Both cases suffered from a fact that, while being heinously intimidating, and known for their terrible wraths, any attempt to actually MAKE an Intimidate check was doomed to fail, as the -4 to -6 Charisma penalty crippled this, and every other Charisma-based skill they might have. D&D made a feat that allows the user to sub Strength bonus for Charisma bonus, for Intimidation checks, while Stargate just said that Intimidation's relevant skill was either Strength OR Charisma, player's choice. I liked both of these, more the later one.

Still, having played Saga Star wars enough, sometimes I actually didn't want to see yet one more talent that let the Force-user sub Use the Force for yet another skill. Here, I'm not sure. Yeah, a huge ship moves because you pushed a button, not because your reaction time is amazing, and knowing WHICH button to press is more important than how fast you pushed it, but Piloting ANYTHING often resolves to be your reaction time; in a fighter, that would matter, and since they usually try not to shift the mechanics any more than possible, EVERYTHING else gets the same rule. Would a shoulder-mounted plasma caster on a Predator's arm still use Dexterity in d20, or switch to Intelligence, as it is a computer-operated piece of hardware?

Usually, the Void Master is built for piloting, and built to get Agility; it's their Characteristic of choice, I'd guess. Better to leave it so that they work. That's my opinion, anyway. my story Void Master, Arin Trenn, makes his way in the galaxy defending the Passage of Judgment from attacks in his fighter craft, along with the rest of the Emperor's Pauldrons squadron. I don't particularly see him as very bright, beyond growing up around ships. Like so many, he only knows as much as the Tech-Priests tell him, and doesn't do the time-honored practice in other canons of tinkering with his own ship. His reaction time, however, is top-notch.