I have a deep intrest in the Adeptus Arbites in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I greatly enjoyed the Shira Calpurnia novels, about an Arbitrator and her delightful adventures in bringing actual justice to the universe, not simply unthinking pragmatism. Also seeing the terrible mid 90's film version of Judge Dredd during my formative years may have had something to do with it.

Anyway, while it is possible to play Arbites in Dark Heresy, my gaming group (with three major rules and systems people, a great regular GM, and a couple of decent part-time GMs) has universally decided that we like the actual rule set and flexibility of Only War a lot more than those of Dark Heresy.

I realize that the second edition of Dark Heresy may fix many of the issues my group had with the first edition, but none of us has shelled out for the beta, and we already have between three of us the full lines of all the 40k RPGs out currently, and we all have rent to pay.

I have attempted here to outline the basics of a regiment that I would consider using for an Adeptus Arbites campaign. Some differences between Arbites actions and IG actions would come into play, most importantly: Arbites operate in and among the Imperial population, while Guardsmen are somewhat outside the bounds of Imperial society. This would have a major impact on what conditions they had to move in, and would place importance on dealing with political oversight. Interesting possible storytelling opportunities, I think.

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Home World : Schola Progenium (3 points)

Commanding Officer : Bilious (2 points)

Type : Grenadiers (4 points)

Training Doctrine : Hardened Fighters (2 points)

Special Equipment : Vanguard (6 points)

Drawback : The Few (-5 points)

Total: 12 points

Favored weapons : Grenade launcher, Heavy stubber

Standard Kit:

• 1 Good-quality Combat Shotgun (Main Weapon), with 4 clips
• 1 truncheon (low tech melee weapon)
• 1 aux grenade launcher attached to the shotgun
• 1 suit light carapace armor
• 1 frag grenade
• 1 krak grenade
• 2 smoke grenades
• 1 Micro-bead communicator
• 1 deadspace earpiece
• 1 set of manacles
• 1 mantrap
• 1 Combi-tool
• 1 data-slate
• 1 9-70 entrenching tool (useful for breaching doors)
• 1 uniform
• 1 poor weather gear
• 1 rucksack
• 1 anointed toolkit
• 1 mess kit and canteen
• 1 bedroll
• 1 rechargeable lamp pack
• 1 Arbites badge and ID chip
• 1 Lex Imperialis
• Combat rations, 2 week supply

Per Squad:

• 1 Lascutter
• 1 siege auspex (updated in Living Errata)
• 6 demolition charges
• 2 grenade launchers (with 2 clips Frag and 1 clip Smoke (based on an interpretation of the Living Errata rule on ammunition for specialist gear))
• 1 Chimera transport with autocannon turret, hull mounted heavy flamer, pintle-mounted heavy stubber, camo netting and a dozer blade

Outside of the rules:

-I would give each character the skill Common Lore (Adeptus Arbites) for free in addition to those skills given by the rules as written. Seems like a common sense thing to do.

-I would allow people who carried shotguns to chose freely between standard ammo and solid ammo, since both are the same availability, and it would make sense to carry at least one clip of each kind anyway.

-In terms of mission gear, given that players would likely be operating out of a fixed fortress base, there would likely be some items (special ammo, some grenades, fuel, and intel) that would be much more available than to a regiment out on some battlefield at the ass end of nowhere, so it might be easier to acquire. But, as with any bureaucracy, some people would keep the good stuff to themselves, making some of the more rare or “shiny” stuff harder to get. Also, a barracks makes it easier for PC's to leave a bunch of their gear at home instead of carrying a bedroll and foul weather gear around a hive.

-As a GM, I would be a little leery of allowing in much of the support specialist careers.

• Comissar is right out since they don't have authority in the Arbites.
• Storm trooper would be out because of redundancy and the fact that I don't really like them.
• Engineseer is out because the unit would likely be operating out of a base, so they wouldn't need to have a tech with them. Good for an NPC, but not a player.
• Priest I can see allowing, as a sort of unit Chaplain, and liaison to the local Ministorium. I would have to make sure that there was a good story justification before allowing this, but I do think it could be fun.
• Ogryn and Ratling I'm a little mixed on. I really like both of these, as character types as well as for the variety they can add. However, the sort of campaigns an Arbites focused game would play would be taking place among the general Imperial population, which would place abhumans very much out of the ordinary. I would be very, very hesitant, and make my players consider and explain well why that character was present.

TL;DR version: I like Arbites, and I think this could be a good way to play with them. Any thoughts?

You might want to swap the Chimera for a Rhino. Stats are in Into the Storm (RT) or one of the DW books.

You might also consider tinkering about until you could somehow provide a bolt pistol for each, which as I recall is standard for them. I might be wrong on this part though.

I would get rid of everything that is used for an extended mission, if you are operating as arbrites you will at most be on patrol for a few hours, anything more and they would be issued additional equipment. Remember they have an HQ that they return to every day where they live, work, and has enough equipment for a small army, there is no need for them to be carrying all this stuff.

I would switch the grenade launcher to 1 per squad, also not an auxiliary attachment. A grenade launcher is a situational weapon for arbrites, you don't see modern riot police all carrying grenade launchers because it would be overkill (even smoke grenades or tear gas can be lethal) the goal of the arbrites is to keep order, not kill everyone. Yes you may end up killing some who fight back but for the most part you will not be giving summary executions in the street.

It looks to me from the gear that your arbrites are just looking to kill people, not just keep order.

I'd want to see the Judge that come with this, carrying the bolt pistol AND combat shotgun, the power maul, maybe a suppression shield, if he's got room, or a follower for that, and the ability to purchase their Authority ability. Not sure it's the game I'd want to play, but I've always found Arbites to be rather cool, and agree that, in most respects, OW lends itself well to fielding such a group. They might also be able to get those robot dogs I've seen in Inquisitor models.

This is not something I'd want to see without a lot of my own firepower, backing me up.

I deliberately tried to keep the base set-up within Rules as Written, to provide a solid base for any alterations. In my opinion having a know basis keeps thing at least more orderly.

Regarding gear overload: Most of it would be left in the barracks. If needed, it could be brought along, but most of it would be unnecessary for most missions.

On Vehicle: The doctrines give a Chimera, in fluff Arbites use a Rhino. The Deathwatch books are 3 counties away with the guy who owns them, so I went with what I had. In actual use, almost certainly a Rhino.

On Killing people v. keeping order: probably would need to develop some less lethal ammo types and disabling weapons

Here's one little thing, though. How involved would your players be, as Arbites. Some people like to look at them as "grimdark cops", enforcing the laws, catching criminals, and all that, but as I understand it, Arbites are NOT really cops. They don't care if you steal something, or kill a man; they get involved when you do something, or don't do it, that threatens the whole world. Like Commissars for Government, they can enforce the Imperium's laws (tithe, praise be the Emperor, psyker purge) on the world's leaders, and people. If riots happen in opposition to the law, they can stop it.

Certainly, in the grimdark future, riots and big problems can be rife, but it is my view that they don't deal with most of the day-to-day "little problems". Certainly, I could be wrong, but that's how I see it. Something like the uprising that led to secession in Severus's territory, for instance. (I'm guessing he must have killed most of his Arbites, to protect his coup.)

Something like the uprising that led to secession in Severus's territory, for instance. (I'm guessing he must have killed most of his Arbites, to protect his coup.)

From what I've heard on the interwebs, the Arbites were actually corrupt and helped him get rid of his rivals. Not sure if that's what the books actually say, but judging from past experiences I wouldn't be surprised to see an Imperial faction being treated "a little differently" in FFG's fluff.

As far as player involvement is concerned ... I think it shouldn't take much to get the Arbites involved in various day to day activities. You just need to make sure that the Imperium as an organisation is somehow directly involved in the crime. For example, whereas the Arbites may not care for a band of thugs robbing a store, this changes rapidly as soon as they also turn to the Administratum office next door, or a priest of the Ecclesiarchy commands the criminals to stop and gets a fist in his face in return.

Regarding gear overload: Most of it would be left in the barracks. If needed, it could be brought along, but most of it would be unnecessary for most missions.

Hmm, it also just looks unfitting for me, as it is in essence just a huge load of crap with a very small chance of coming in handy during a patrol. A lot of these items wouldn't be used at all , and the rest could be made available from an armoury or general storage room in the precinct without being permanently assigned to a single Enforcer.

But this is also a matter of interpretation - and as you said you wish to stay fairly close to the RAW, the current list is probably more compatible with the original Only War stuff.

Pfshh, please, this is 40k.

This looks pretty cool. I don't have the book handy to check- does this Homeworld grant Fellowship Aptitude? If not, I'd try to contrive a way to shoe-horn it in.

I agree that a Rhino would be more appropriate for a transport than a Chimera.

Speaking of stuff from other books, stats for Arbites' signature Executioner rounds are in the Dark Heresy supplement Ascention . I recommend avoiding most of the gear from DH 's Book of Judgement , especially 'stacking' armour- it quickly turns into cheap'n'easy power armour...

Just a quick note: The Arbites are indeed covered fairly extensively in DH2b. As a bonus, The new DH basically uses the only war style character advancement and combat mechanics (As well as other things!). Before you spend a lot of time on your OW conversion you might want to think about DH2. It'll be coming out before too long and the beta is still available.

Neat idea. I always thought the OW ruleset has a lot of potential for adaption into different themes. Now someone needs to start a hive gang counterpart, too.

Already done-

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/91337-40k-open-system-titan-legions/

Looking at starting characters stormtrooper looks a perfect place to build a standad patrol arbitrator from, a tough, schola trained grunt with takedown.

I've gone over this set with my regular group a little, and we've come up with several changes from this baseline.

1: Add Scrutiny to the basic Trained Skills list for everyone.

2: Rhino instead of Chimera.

3: Need to develop some new Specialties.

On another note: I tried to use the Rules as Written as much as possible, but in play this set would be heavily altered. I also only used Only War because no one in my group has yet shelled out for the DH2 beta rules. If it turns out DH2 is a better way to achieve this, then this will have turned out to be an interesting exercise in theorycrafting, which is rarely ever a true waste of effort.