Troubles with a GM

[Chijinda]

General Background: I've been playing a game of Dark Heresy for almost two years. This is our GM's first attempt at playing any kind of Tabletop RPG, but he's been doing it well enough. But in somewhat recent events I've run into a small issue with him, that I have been keeping under wraps for the most part, as I don't want to make a scene. In an attempt to keep this brief, I'll sum it up:

Our group was trying to hunt down a traitor Psyker. Said Psyker, hunting a daemonic artifact our group possessed, launched an attack on our group's ship, while half the party was away. He was able to tear through most of our forces with little difficulty but had gotten briefly stalled however, at a warded door that had been set up to keep the artifact sealed away. My character was the only one around to stop him (as the only other party member at the base was attempting to organize a proper counter-attack, and had instructed my character to follow him and keep tabs on what he was doing).

While I could have simply sat back and let the Psyker break through the wards, steal the artifact and be gone before the counterattack could be launched, I decided it would be far more in-character for my character to at least make an attempt at stalling this enemy, especially considering the Psyker in question had murdered someone very important to my character, right in front of his eyes. So, to buy a bit more time for the counterattack to arrive, my character approached him, and after stalling him for awhile with conversation was forced into a fight with this Psyker, that I, my character, and pretty much everyone at the table, knew was essentially an Ascension level Primaris Psyker. Ie. This was a guaranteed "lost fate point" scenario.

Not only was my character effectively one-shot by an Unnatural Willpower amped Psychic Crush (especially as my character was still recovering from a fight the previous session), but the GM decided that, for dramatic effect, the Psyker added insult to injury and blasted my character's dying, broken body out the air lock, into space-- effectively preventing the party from recovering the "body". As a result, my character's body was abducted by pirates who brought him back from the brink of death, they then spent the next several months torturing him into insanity until ransoming him off to the party. After looting him of all the possessions he'd had on him at the time (he was able to gain a few pieces of gear back from the Captain for "good behavior" to be fair).

On the other side of things, assuming my character to be well and truly dead, the party Scum decided the first order of business was to loot my character's quarters under the argument: "He won't be needing this anymore." Among the things he managed to rifle out of my character's quarters included the Force Sword that he had been building by hand, for (in-game and out of game), almost a full year. Each piece of that sword had been painstakingly acquired, generally at some cost to my character, with the general premise that, when it was completed, he'd be reminded of everything he had overcome to come to this point, every time he drew it. Such nostalgic premises didn't matter much to the Scum who went ahead and sold it on the next Hive for less than half of what it should normally have been worth. He also stole some other minor affects.

Summary of problem ends here

-----

Essentially what this is leading up to, is a feeling that I've been disproportionately punished for making what I felt was the in-character decision, rather than what would have been the "mechanically" safer choice (ie. To simply sit back, and keep an eye on the Psyker and let him get away). As a TL;DR, rather than simply losing the fate point I expected to lose by engaging the Psyker, my character gained a full level of insanity, has caused quite a bit of trouble for his new family (who were told that he had died in battle, before the party learned otherwise), lost a fair chunk of his possessions, including a decent amount of gelt that would have been going towards a replacement for the eye that had gotten torn out in aforementioned previous fight, and lost the Force Sword he/I had been working for half a year to assemble for.... well... the knowledge that I made the GM approved in-character choice instead of the one that would have let me keep all that stuff, and left my character at least as sane as he'd been before he confronted a guy way out of his league.

When I initially made a comment of this to my GM (largely in joke at the time), the GM assured me, he'd compensate me for the loss of at least some of my stuff, most notably the Force Sword, which even he considered to be a **** move on the Scum's part. About three months and maybe 4-5 sessions later, I brought it up with my GM, and his tone shifted to (and I quote): "Well, the game wouldn't be nearly as interesting if everyone only did what they thought would get the best results. In-character choices like that mix things up a bit."

Am I maybe being a little too whiny or entitled to feel that what my character went through was (in a meta-sense) disproportionate to the actions he took? Or is my GM in the right here? And if I'm not just being a whiny bitch about this, what would be the best way to bring up this issue with my GM without coming off as such?

[Hawkstar]

I suggest having the scum track down and return the force sword. If he refuses to comply, vent him out an airlock at the most convenient time.

[Fri]

I agree with your GM's assessment that it wouldn't be interesting if everyone got what they want all the time, even if what they want is "not so major setback." Your character is trying to fight a super powerful villain, what does he expect? Especially in a campaign like this.

On the other hand, I can see that the retribution is somewhat disproportionate. Though I mostly have problem with the party's scum and the tortured to insanity part. Your character being "dead" and kidnapped by pirates and everyone thought he's dead? In my opinion that's fair game in a Dark Heresy game I think, and is actually pretty cool and dramatic. If I'm you actually I'll let the character dead, since he did some awesome and dramatic heroic sacrifice, get another character, and maybe have the old character haunt that stupid party scum.

[Arbane]

I suggest having the scum track down and return the force sword. If he refuses to comply, vent him out an airlock at the most convenient time.

That seems totally appropriate and in-character.

And when he's sucking vacuum, you can tell him: "Well, the game wouldn't be nearly as interesting if everyone only did what they thought would get the best results. In-character choices like that mix things up a bit."

[Knaight]

Honestly, this doesn't seem like a GM problem here. The party scum is another PC, and that's the guy who completely screwed you over via selling the force sword. Other than that what happened was that you had a character do something reckless and stupid because it was in character, that went poorly for them in an interesting fashion, and then the GM engineered the situation such that you were eventually reunited with the party. That whole little arc is interesting, and it provides yet more ties between the character and the enemy Psyker. That part is fine.

Meanwhile, completely off to the side, one of the other players has their PC steal your characters most prized possession which is also the center of a character arc, and sells it. That part is somewhat less fine.

[Chijinda]

I should clarify, I suppose, that I didn't expect my character to walk out of that fight with all his Fate Points. I knew from the moment I declared: "I step out from concealment and begin to walk towards him" that my character's odds of survival had just tanked considerably. So that doesn't bother me. Even the blasted out the airlock wasn't necessarily unexpected. The pirate bit was.... unexpected but also kind of cool, especially as the GM used it as an opportunity to exploit my character's backstory a bit.

What bothered me most about the pirate episode, is that almost everything "interesting" about it involved the rest of the party, rather than my character (ew, that actually sounds really selfish, but hopefully you get my meaning). My character had a single conversation with the captain after regaining consciousness and then spent the next two sessions in a cell, being regularly beaten by whoever happened to be on guard duty if he so much as opened his mouth or stood up.

So it really did/does feel to me more of the GM going: "So yeah, I separated you from the party, dropped you a Fate Point, everyone you know and love thinks you're dead, now let me psychologically traumatize your character for a few sessions. Oh and you lose that gelt you were saving up for a bionic replacement eye." I doubt that is what the GM intended (as he tends to be a fairly reasonable guy), but in the heat of the moment, and anytime I think back on that, it really does feel that way, especially as I feel the only way I could have avoided any of it would have been for my character to sit back and let the traitor Psyker who murdered his father-figure in front of his eyes, just accomplish his mission and walk off unimpeded.

And then... yeah. The Scum bit was really frustrating. To the Scum player's credit, he did actually make a test for his character to see if his character might actually have second thoughts about selling the sword, but the roll came up as: "Yeah he values getting five years worth of paychecks all upfront, than he does his dead-friend's pet project."

-----

But points all well-taken. I won't bring the matter up with my GM again, and instead just see if I can maybe find a way to get started on a new Force Sword project. On the principles of revenge, the Scum, while initially quite well-liked by the group (or at the very least, a tremendous leap up from the guy's last character with regards to inter-party dynamics), has started losing his shine as he's been causing more and more problems for the party. So never know. It might not be too long before my character actually has justification for disciplining the Scum, Commissar style ;D (extra karma if he's able to assemble a new Force Sword by the time that becomes necessary).

[goto124]

My character had a single conversation with the captain after regaining consciousness and then spent the next two sessions in a cell, being regularly beaten by whoever happened to be on guard duty if he so much as opened his mouth or stood up.

Nah, it's not selfish when you get such an unreasonably small amount of game time. Just bad DMing and/or bad playering on the part of your groupmates.

[Jornophelanthas]

Let's list the grievances, and I'll give a brief opinion on each.

1. Character loses the combat without much of a contest.
This outcome was expected and reasonable, no problem here.

2. Character is jettisoned into space and gets captured by pirates.
This is an interesting twist to the previous point. It has story potential.

3. Character loses (nearly) all possessions he carries.
A logical result of being captured by pirates. The GM was apparently fair enough to give some of it back for "good behaviour".

4. Character is tortured by his captors, resulting in insanity.
Maybe a bit much. I don't know how severe insanity in this system is, but it still has story potential. You may get something out of it if you actively search for events that may trigger your specific brand of insanity, which would result in your character behaving differently than before the psyker incident.

5. Character and player are both sidelined for two sessions.
This is not okay, but probably more a case of bad pacing by the GM. I don't think this was meant as "punishment for doing something stupid". You should probably have mentioned to the GM that you were bored after the first of these sessions. At the very least, the GM could have given you a temporary character (NPC) to play while you waited for your actual character to return.

6. Another player steals the character's possessions, including a prized and valuable long-term project.
This is obviously the least acceptable event, but it's not the GM's fault. This one is on the offending player. I would suggest bringing it up in character with the Scum, demanding a solution. Also bring up out of character that he hurt your character concept, and that you would like his help to restore some of it. (Leave it up to him how he intends to help, but he should genuinely show some effort out of character.) The very least he could do is to relinquish the cash he received for your stuff to you - and you can still demand so in character. Do it publicly, it is likely the other players will support your claim in character. However, if you choose this route, you should consider his debt to you repaid.
Alternatively, if you wish to take revenge by hurting his character or in-game possessions in any sort of way (other than just being angry or intimidating), check with the GM first if this is okay. (The other player should have done this as well before he stole the sword, of course.)

Bottom line:
Yes, the outcome is rather harsh for you. But the punishment you received at the hands of the GM is not unreasonable. It's just unfortunate that poor pacing of the game led to inactivity on your part, while another player took advantage of your character's absence. Separate these three events.

[Solaris]

But points all well-taken. I won't bring the matter up with my GM again, and instead just see if I can maybe find a way to get started on a new Force Sword project. On the principles of revenge, the Scum, while initially quite well-liked by the group (or at the very least, a tremendous leap up from the guy's last character with regards to inter-party dynamics), has started losing his shine as he's been causing more and more problems for the party. So never know. It might not be too long before my character actually has justification for disciplining the Scum, Commissar style ;D (extra karma if he's able to assemble a new Force Sword by the time that becomes necessary).

Sounds to me like not only could you get some sweet, sweet revenge (hey, it's the Scum's fault for breaking one of the most important rules of all, and that is to not piss off the crazies), but also improve the table by killing off the Scum.
After all, it looks like the player's been getting better with each character, but reverts to type once he gets a little comfortable.

[Urist Mcmage]

i agree with what everyone else is saying, while perhaps the GM was a little harsh, the main point of concern is the scum who stole your sword.

[Geddy2112]

I will second the above- losing the fight, being thrown into space, captured by pirates-par for the course. Even being tortured a LOT is par for the Grimdark that is Dark Heresy and the entire 40k universe. If you got captured by Dark Eldar (or even Eldar Corsairs) it would be wrong for them not to inflict grimdark torture on you.

The DM troubles start when you are basically sidelined 1-2 sessions. You could still have been worked in, even being split off from the party. It was an opportunity for a really cool story arc-maybe your captors contact the group. Maybe you escape, maybe you become some horrid insane fleshmonster. Who knows, but lots of cool stuff. However, if you are sitting in a long session twiddling your thumbs 90% of the time, that is on your DM.

The worst part is the Scumbag Skum player. It is pretty par for the course for RPG characters to loot the belongings of the fallen. The standard operating procedure is "take and put to use the usable things first, sell the rest". I don't think you would be even close to mad if your Skum friend was wielding the force sword in your honor, or if another party member had it replace their standard power sword etc. Normally, selling "unused" gear is okay, but if you spent an actual year of games to have your character acquire and craft this sword, it is part of the story, and a gross insult to your character and the story. If your deranged and possibly mutant PC makes it back to the group, look for the sword. You will fail to find it, and when you find out what happened, either off the PC on the spot, or start a freaking crusade to hell and back to get it.

I once was a paladin in a group of toxic crap like this. Our rogue sneaked ahead and stole a suit of armor and a greatsword that was magical and had my deity everywhere. He was a goblin, I was a human-he put it in the bag of holding, then sold it for next to nothing. As a PC, I had no idea, but as a player, that form of downright insult is just bad form at the table. I don't care if his character "wanted the money"-it is bad form. That sword was part of the story; it can't just be sold off like that.

[DaedalusMkV]

4. Character is tortured by his captors, resulting in insanity.
Maybe a bit much. I don't know how severe insanity in this system is, but it still has story potential. You may get something out of it if you actively search for events that may trigger your specific brand of insanity, which would result in your character behaving differently than before the psyker incident.


This is Dark Heresy. Sanity is for the weak!

More specifically, accruing a decent number of Insanity points is actually very helpful in-game, since hitting certain thresholds of it give you immunity to Fear effects. Because Fear 1 is pretty common, and rolling poorly on your Shock results can be absolutely debilitating, getting the 20 Insanity points required to be immune to it is definitely a good thing. 40 Insanity is also usually a good thing, since the Minor Disorder you get out of it is usually more of a fun roleplaying quirk than a major hindrance, especially in a setting as screwed up as 40k, and Fear 2 is also very common, with most minor Daemons having it, and a lot of witchery generating it. Hell, someone at 80 Insanity is totally immune to all Fear effects ("I see worse every night when I go to sleep..."), which is... Well, not a minor problem at all, considering how badly messed up such a character's psyche is at that point.

Actual terminal Insanity is basically only achievable via mind-manipulating Psychic Powers in Dark Heresy, since the more insane you are the more difficult it is to get more Insanity. Corruption is always the more dangerous of the two alternate-lose-condition tracks, since it does tend to pile up more and more as you accumulate it.


I have to agree with most of the rest of the thread here. That said, I do think that completely shutting down any attempt to do anything while you were imprisoned by the Pirates was a bit of a **** move on the GM's part. I think if he'd actually given you interesting things to do instead of sitting around waiting to be rescued while the rest of the group dealt with interesting consequences you would have been a bit happier about the whole thing.

[Knaight]

The 1-2 sessions of nothing changes this considerably, at the very least getting an NPC to control for the two sessions should have happened.

[Segev]

You haven't shared what insanity your PC now has, but whether it's true or not, he could play on it and his genuine anger over the loss of the sword.

Confront the Scum, possibly in private, and tell him that he is going to recover your possessions that he sold, and return to you what he has not. He is going to repair or replace anything he has damaged. From his own pocket.

Then, if he squirms and wheedles, be merciful: tell him you'll consider forgiving the rest if he recovers your sword. Make it clear by whatever IC means you like that the Scum's life and livelihood depends on it. Perhaps he'll find his own things broken or lost (sold). Perhaps you'll simply hurt him a lot.

And meanwhile, your character both seeks out more parts for his sword, and seeks to find what happened to it. That is a good quest. When you find where it is, it becomes the Scum's job to get it back. Take him with you to recover it, and sell as much of the Scum's stuff as you have to to recover it. Breaking the Scum mentally, spiritually, and physically if he resists paying out fiscally.

Of course, if the Scum is properly penitent, little of this will be necessary; he'll already be trying to do whatever he can to recover that sword, at the very least, once he knows what it meant to you. (That's assuming he's a good friend and person who is sorry and wants to atone. If not...well, see the rest of this post above.)

[Chijinda]

Unfortunately, my character learning of what the Scum did with the Force Sword coincided with a space hulk the size of a small moon crashing into the Hive that he sold it in. While my character is more than a little angered at this, suffice to say there are more pressing concerns, and he and I both would have doubts the party would look kindly on him melting the brain of the party's best stealth agent/party negotiator over a sword, however special to him, under the circumstances.

Though after the last session where he actually started a massive shootout between the party and a street gang because the street gang's attractive young daughter wouldn't sleep with him, he may have slightly more of a leg to stand on when all of this is over.

Though no, the Scum is not the least bit penitent about it. His argument was: "Dead people don't need swords", and when my character brought up the fact that he was standing in front of him, his follow-up statement was: "That's not what the records state" (as my character was officially reported as K.I.A. so I'll probably have to deal with clearing that up once the Space Hulk thing is dealt with as well).

[BootStrapTommy]

Question. Did your "sacrifice" actually prevent the Psyker from achieving his goal? Or was it in vain?

[Chijinda]

Question. Did your "sacrifice" actually prevent the Psyker from achieving his goal? Or was it in vain?

In-character there is no real way to know. The last thing my Psyker saw before he blacked out, was the reinforcements arriving and the Psyker having to escape. Also in-character the party basically just calls my character an idiot and ridicule him for the fact that he thought he could do anything against that guy.

Out of character, the GM has stated that yes, it was a pointless death, because it was never in his script for the guy to actually succeed at this juncture and the point of that bit was to show that we had something he wanted (the rest of the party figured out exactly what it was while my character was still thought of as dead).

[Kane0]

Player logic always makes me laugh.

Got wiped by a clearly superior foe?
The world is a dangerous place, 'tis to be expected.

Spaced and enslaved by pirates?
Unforseen, but at least its a cool story for the kids.

Spend months (sessions) doing nothing, slowly going insane?
That's cool, gives me time to think.

But take my sword?
Nobody. Nobody. Steals my stuff and lives.

Just bide your time, then at an appropriate moment unleash the crazy. Go absolutely mad and pull a full Henderson for just a little so you can vent, then recompose yourself and game on.
You are a frustrated player running an insane character in a Dark Heresy game after all.

[Kesnit]

And then... yeah. The Scum bit was really frustrating. To the Scum player's credit, he did actually make a test for his character to see if his character might actually have second thoughts about selling the sword, but the roll came up as: "Yeah he values getting five years worth of paychecks all upfront, than he does his dead-friend's pet project."

Letting the dice rule is a nice idea, but doesn't let the player off the hook. The PC didn't know you were alive, but the player did. The player obviously knew taking the sword was a jerk move because he rolled in order to put the blame on the dice. ("I wasn't going to be a jerk, but the dice told me to!") It's no different that someone playing Chaotic Stupid making the "it's what my character would do!" excuse.

Given that recovering the sword is not possible, I would recommend working with the DM and the Scum player to retcon that event. The Scum finds everything else in your room, but the Force Sword was somewhere else. (On second thought, don't give the jerk player the option to contribute. He had his chance and blew it.)

[Hawkstar]

Unfortunately, my character learning of what the Scum did with the Force Sword coincided with a space hulk the size of a small moon crashing into the Hive that he sold it in.So return to the site, and recover the sword from the wreckage!

[Kane0]

You do have a means of tracking your sword, dont you?

Dont you?

[goto124]

Recovering the sword should be something that's possible if the DM isn't being a total jerk like the player. Okay, maybe I'm wrong, but you could always... well... ask the DM.

Might need to have a talk about (or with) the player who threw away the sword, too. Has that been done?

[Anonymouswizard]

Pointless death is pointless, but player initiated so I'd let it stick if I was on either side of the screen. The nice thing is that your character DID get some important information from the encounter: this psyker is far above your paygrade, tell your Inquisitor that there's an alpha-level (I think, maybe just a high beta) psyker possibly in possession of an artefact that you were meant to guard. Your Inquisitor should do one of the following things:
-Ask you to get more information (what artefact do you think he's in possession of, or wants, where is he)
-Assign you better gear as a one-off to help even the odds.
-Once you have enough information he'll probably realise it's above your level, and escalate as much as he can.
In the end the death is a) in-character and b) useful(-ish) to the party, so no reason to blame the GM for it.

The pirates are a decent addon, but ideally the GM should have either let you escape, had it be a single scene and got you back with the group ASAP, or allowed you to 'join' the pirates so that you were doing something.

Insanity: the torture should have been worth 1d10 at maximum. It's not the mind-breaking stuff that gives giant amounts of insanity. Still, not the worst thing.

Possessions: gear lost to the pirates is basically unavoidable, as long as you were allowed to keep your weapons and armour you should be able to cover most losses in a session or two (my characters never keep more than their weapon(s), their armour, a communication device, any mission equipment and any addictions on them when going on a mission, with the addition of a computer for hackers). The Scum did two horrible things:
-He looted your room and, as far as I know, did not submit an inventory to whoever owns the building. This might cause havoc for whoever does the bookkeeping if some of the stuff he stole wasn't yours.
-The took personal belongs and money that were yours and did not return them to your family.

My suggestion? Total up the value of everything the Scum took, including Throne Gelt. Go to the party Adept (you do have an Adept, don't you?). Have him requisition the correct forms. Fill them out and have the Adept help you with the bureaucracy.

Ready?

Supply the Scum with an invoice for missing equipment, enforceable by an authority you deem fit. I suggest at least the Adeptus Arbites, but try and get the Inquisition if you can. Mention that the form is on file and if he loses it you can get a copy in 3-50 working days. He has *insert length of time here* to come up with either the original items or Throne Gelt equal to their value, or else his current possessions and all future earnings are forfeit until such time as the debt has been paid. If he fails and the Inquisition blocks the cause of justice, take the Scum to court. Ideally get an Inquisitor who likes you to replace the judge (Adepts are your friend!).


So return to the site, and recover the sword from the wreckage!

Yep, this is what you should be doing while waiting for the invoice to be ready.


You do have a means of tracking your sword, dont you?

Dont you?

Who needs one? Just hire a few thousand peasants to scour the wreckage, it shouldn't cost more than 1/5 of the sword's value, and if one of them steals it and sells it you can probably then buy it for less than 1/10 of it's market value.

[goto124]

I'm curious as to why the GM had allowed the player to sell the sword.

[Chijinda]

The nice thing is that your character DID get some important information from the encounter: this psyker is far above your paygrade, tell your Inquisitor that there's an alpha-level (I think, maybe just a high beta) psyker possibly in possession of an artefact that you were meant to guard. Your Inquisitor should do one of the following things:


Unfortunately that was the "important figure to my character" the Psyker killed and who he betrayed. As additional backstory, the Psyker in question was our Inquisitor's right-hand man, and my character's mentor figure, up until the point he stabbed him in the back. The group's generally been on a Warpbent quest for revenge since.


Go to the party Adept (you do have an Adept, don't you?).

Sadly no. The party consists of two Guardsmen, the Scum and a Psyker (my character).

----

On searching the wreckage for it... our characters don't get a lot of downtime, even here. Searching through the wreckage has become a part of our current mission (where we last left off). Also, from little things we've been finding, it's likely the Space Hulk was Genestealer infested, so....


I'm curious as to why the GM had allowed the player to sell the sword.

As an additional clarification on why I was a little peeved with my GM-- My character hadn't actually quite completed the Force Sword. He was almost there, but he still needed to forge the blade. On the mission prior, he'd found a material he felt would be a suitable material for the blade, but lacking the skills to craft a blade himself, he gave it to the group's armorer to see if he could do something with it, using the plans for the Force Sword that he had on his person.

It was after my character's "death" that the Scum visited the armorer, for an unrelated reason, and, during their chat, the armorer basically told the Scum: "Listen, I was making this for the Psyker, but I don't think he exactly needs it anymore" and handed over the blade. Without that, I actually genuinely don't think the Scum would have sold the weapon, since all he'd have found in my character's room would have been a weird sword hilt with a whole bunch of add-ons he wouldn't understand. Because he had been given the blade of the weapon beforehand, and the armorer had told him my character had commissioned it....

[Garimeth]

Hmm my biggest issue with your GM is that he let the Scum take your stuff. He should have said something along the lines of (OOC) "Hey guys Chi's character isn't actually dead and is coming back to the party so leave his loot alone."

IDGAF what that character would do or not do, and I equally do not care about the Player's dice excuse (because that's all it is, an excuse). The GM is responsible at the end of the day for letting it happen. If I am the DM all I have to say is "that doesn't happen". Bam. Done. My game, and I don't want to run a game where my players treat each other like that, don't like it - find another GM. Just my two CP, errr... gelt?

EDIT: Just saw where you said the GM gave it to the Scum. If I was the Scum I'd "hold onto it to remember Chi." Just to not be a douche, but yeah your GM is the one to be mad at here if he had the armorer give it to him. I would have beef too.

[Anonymouswizard]

Unfortunately that was the "important figure to my character" the Psyker killed and who he betrayed. As additional backstory, the Psyker in question was our Inquisitor's right-hand man, and my character's mentor figure, up until the point he stabbed him in the back. The group's generally been on a Warpbent quest for revenge since.

...I'm not sure if your GM realises how ****ed you are. Your current order of business should be three things:

1) acquire the Inquisitorial Rosette. This should either have been on your Inquisitor or in a safe place where he could get to it easily. Forget sorcery, that Rosette is the most powerful thing your character will be able to hold. Used sparingly it will basically requisition any resource you wish from the Imperial government. Ideally one of you will have been named as an interrogator, which legitimises your use of it until it can be returned to the proper authorities.

2) find the Inquisitor's will. This should dictate who their possessions were left to (this is ideally where your character is given something by the Inquisitor to remember him by, if the Inquisitor was a psyker I wouldn't be surprised if you end up with a force sword). It should also tell you either who he appoints as his successor as Inquisitor, or who he wants your cell to go to after he dies.

3) realise that the Scum's player initiated PVP, and don't feel bad about not helping him if he goes of scouting and gets into trouble.


Sadly no. The party consists of two Guardsmen, the Scum and a Psyker (my character).

I'd never leave the warp without one, the Administratum is vast, but different playstyles are cool.

The Adept is also the strangest character to play effectively. You'd ideally end up with not only a lot of Lore skills but also a lot of peer talents. I can understand people going towards other archetypes.


On searching the wreckage for it... our characters don't get a lot of downtime, even here. Searching through the wreckage has become a part of our current mission (where we last left off). Also, from little things we've been finding, it's likely the Space Hulk was Genestealer infested, so....

Until you guys get jobs or a new Inquisitor, you're basically on nothing but downtime. :smallwink: (I assume you have a new employer then)


As an additional clarification on why I was a little peeved with my GM-- My character hadn't actually quite completed the Force Sword. He was almost there, but he still needed to forge the blade. On the mission prior, he'd found a material he felt would be a suitable material for the blade, but lacking the skills to craft a blade himself, he gave it to the group's armorer to see if he could do something with it, using the plans for the Force Sword that he had on his person.

It was after my character's "death" that the Scum visited the armorer, for an unrelated reason, and, during their chat, the armorer basically told the Scum: "Listen, I was making this for the Psyker, but I don't think he exactly needs it anymore" and handed over the blade. Without that, I actually genuinely don't think the Scum would have sold the weapon, since all he'd have found in my character's room would have been a weird sword hilt with a whole bunch of add-ons he wouldn't understand. Because he had been given the blade of the weapon beforehand, and the armorer had told him my character had commissioned it....

Ummm.... the armourer should have known to at least wait until your next of kin could be contacted, or, I dunno, used it in another sword?

[BootStrapTommy]

You are a frustrated player running an insane character in a Dark Heresy game after all. The world is your oyster. Eat It.

Then gouge the Scum's eyes out with the shells.

[Chijinda]

...I'm not sure if your GM realises how ****ed you are. Your current order of business should be three things:

1) acquire the Inquisitorial Rosette. This should either have been on your Inquisitor or in a safe place where he could get to it easily. Forget sorcery, that Rosette is the most powerful thing your character will be able to hold. Used sparingly it will basically requisition any resource you wish from the Imperial government. Ideally one of you will have been named as an interrogator, which legitimises your use of it until it can be returned to the proper authorities.

2) find the Inquisitor's will. This should dictate who their possessions were left to (this is ideally where your character is given something by the Inquisitor to remember him by, if the Inquisitor was a psyker I wouldn't be surprised if you end up with a force sword). It should also tell you either who he appoints as his successor as Inquisitor, or who he wants your cell to go to after he dies.

3) realise that the Scum's player initiated PVP, and don't feel bad about not helping him if he goes of scouting and gets into trouble.

Due to the particular circumstances of our Inquisitor's death, his Rosette is very likely lost, though it may be something for my character to check around for. A will, though. I never actually thought of that. Yeah, that's going on the agenda of things to scope around his office for. So far we've only been looking through his stuff for reasons why his right-hand man would betray him, and who might have prompted him to do it.




Until you guys get jobs or a new Inquisitor, you're basically on nothing but downtime. :smallwink: (I assume you have a new employer then)

Possibly, except that the Psyker and his gang isn't leaving us alone. He's sent assassins after us on several occasions now, and at least twice they've come very close to killing us. Downtime isn't something we have as a leisure while he's out there, and, with regards to my character and the Scum's character at least, he knows characters that are important to us, so yeah. We can't exactly take this lying down. We don't have a new employer, though in the wake of his death, an old contact of his got in contact with us and basically told us he might have a lead on who's backing the Psyker, so we've been trying to follow that lead, ever since.




Ummm.... the armourer should have known to at least wait until your next of kin could be contacted, or, I dunno, used it in another sword?

Probably should have, but didn't. I just have to deal with the consequences. My GM is known to mess with us on occasion, or play pranks on the party from time to time, and I'm assuming that's what this was intended to be-- I think he didn't expect the Scum to grab it, run off and sell it.

As far as next of kin is concerned though, my character lost contact with his family years ago. He did marry into a noble family about half a year ago, but I don't actually think the armorer knows that, as he did so under an alias, to cover up his very "not noble" background (details on that particular can of worms can be found in the newest General 40k thread in the Older D&D and Other Systems board).