Tweaked Item Acquistion (First Draft)

By Cymbel, in Dark Heresy Second Edition Beta

Now, this is a quick first draft, combining the DH 2.0 system with some bits added in from Rogue Trader, while keeping the idea of limited ammo acquisition (which makes sense with Dark Heresy). In Addition I have included rough rules for base ammo, SP benefits from boxes of ammo, other ones work as normal.
Availability / Requisition Modifier
Ubiquitous / Automatic
Abundant / Easy (+30)
Plentiful / Routine (+20)
Common / Ordinary (+10)
Average / Challenging (+0)
Scarce / Difficult (–10)
Rare / Hard (–20)
Very Rare / Very Hard (–30)
Extremely Rare / Arduous (–40)
Near Unique / Punishing (–50)
Unique / Hellish (–60)/GM's discretion
Craftsmanship / Requisition Modifier
Poor / +10
Common / +0
Good / -10
Best / -30
Scale / Requisition Modifier
Personal (1) +10
Group (2-5) +0
Team (5-10) -10
Acquired weapons come with one full clip of ammo and a box of ammo (related to ammo caliber) and for every degree of success on the test beyond the first, an extra box of ammo. Successful requisitions for non standard ammo gain 2 boxes of ammo plus one extra box for every degree of success beyond the first
For grenades, drugs, and other single-use items garner three items, plus one extra for every degree of success on the test beyond the first.
Ammo Rules
A successful Requisition test for standard ammunition yields two boxes of ammo, plus one extra box per degree of success.
A successful Requisition test for unusual ammo gain 2 boxes of ammo plus one extra box for every degree of success beyond the first
Combined Acquitions
Certain weapons and equipment can have upgrades attached, when looking for an item that comes as such, compare the rarity of the individual parts and use the greatest penalty as the base rarity. Every additional piece added to the main item gives a -5 to the requistion modifier (An autopistol with a silencer is -5)
Ammo Boxes
Autopistol - 50 - Common
Autogun - 30 - Common
Stub Revolver - 30 - Abundant
Stub Auto - 40 - Common
Handcannon -10 - Average
Shotgun - 15 - Common
Sniper Rifle - 20 - Common
Heavy Stubber - 80 - Scarce
Bolter - 10 - Rare
Heavy Bolter - 60 - Rare
Flamer - 1 - Average
Hand Flamer - 1 - Scarce
Heavy Flamer - 1 - Scarce
Laspack -1 - Plentiful
Laslock Cell - 10 - Abundant
Hotshot Power Backpack - 1 - Scarce (should be changed though, as the backpack power supply is superior)

Arrows/Quarrels - 20 - Plentiful

Melta Canister (Pistol) - 1 - Very Rare

Melta Canister (Basic) - 1 - Rare
Plasma Flask (Pistol) - 1 - Rare
Plasma Flask (Basic) - 1 - Rare
Not touching exotic ammo for now, I did a mix of ammo quantities based on guesses to appropiate calibers and then some adjustments for balance. VERY rough still. Not sure how scale should work with the current items. Please feel free to change things around and suggest improvements. I just want something that makes more sense (Bolt Pistol and Bolter share same ammo, yet drastically different amounts, both shotguns have different rarities but share the same ammo. Stub revolvers get hosed beyond belief, not to mention arrows and quarrels are laughable as is, getting only 2 arrows to start with and tests giving you 2-6 or so. And some other issues.

tbh...I think its ok as is.

Only the re-introduction of money would make it better imo, but thats not gonna happen.

The one thing I dislike about Acquisition is the moment a PC with a higher Inf locates a desired item but his/her Acq Test fails and another PC with a lower Inf steps up to "buy" the same item (or multiples of said item), and his/her Test succeeds. Something that is out of reach of a higher-Inf PC's resources should, in that moment, automatically be out of reach of the lower-Inf PC's resources, and the Acq guidelines should specifically state this. Mind you, this is a personal opinion.

Can you buy multiples of any item? Besides grenades, drugs and ammo that is

My apologies; I was speaking from the BC/OW perspective. Someone says "I wanna get a re-breather", fails the Acq Test, then someone else says "Heck, I'll just try to get five of 'em. My Inf is only seven points less than yours. Can't hurt to roll, and if I'm successful at least we all have one." This is success fishing, and I don't like it.

Purchasing items in multiples has never resulted in one of my players getting more than one gun or more than one set of armor. Always the "essential" gear bits: micro-bead, photo-visor, re-breather, ammo, void/hazmat suits, etc.

These examples aren't shared from within a vacuum.

To be honest, I've completely ignored the (recent) Beta's Acq mechanic. Nimsim posted a very nice model that I then spent considerable time tweaking to my personal preferences. His model presented a scale for increasing Rarity (aka Availability) based on multiple item acquisitions that is not much unlike BC's, but he also presented a scale showing the amount of time acquisitions take to complete based upon total Rarity, and that is really what sold me on his Acq model. That, and the fact that it was presented comprehensively, with other sections' rules taken into consideration.

Could you link me to Nimsim's model? Also, I would HIGHLY reccomend looking at the beta model, then seeing the difficulties that acquiring even a glowglobe can be. It lacks any condition for multiples, the ammo system is borked (and will only get worse as more weapons are introduced to the system) and so on.

Yeah, calibers are often in DH games I am a part of too. And then when players get the more exotic guns, the ammo is different than more "baseline" models (normally when the damage changes is a good indicator for caliber) and the more uncommon guns have harder to find ammo, "Yeah, we only stock 5.56 and 7.62x39 here" for that powerful sniper rifle? "Oh, fresh out of .30-30, maybe you would be interested in this .308 Maccharius?" One PC of mine uses a handcannon rolled with the OW variant rules, it suffers from the "rare" drawback, so outside of the planet where it is made, I suffer a penalty to get ammo for it (and parts), because the caliber is an uncommon one (Let's say .460 instead of the more common .44 magnum)