The Touch of Destiny -Rogue Trader Recruitment

[Dakkagor]

Kardar233, I quite like the idea that our two characters met at some point and I got you hired onto the crew for your obvious abilities. What do you reckon?

[kardar233]

How would Lyei and Zachary meet? Lyei, is, to put it bluntly, low-hive scum, and hasn't ventured up and out until just now. Unless Zachary takes time to frequent the sump-gangs or is addicted to something, I don't see how that's likely.

I like the idea of having pre-existing connections, but I'm just worried about the logistics.

[Otterpot]

Here it goes...

Name: Gibani Saddler
Age: 35, Imperial Years
Gender: Male
Height:5'10"
Weight: 248 lbs
Occupation: Trader/ Smuggler

Appearance: Gibani is fat and of average height. He has a small bald patch in his bark-colored hair and pale skin. A thick moustache decorates his face and he often wears a thick coat over his basic attire.

Personality: Gibani is very personable and friendly, if you need something. Always trying to make a deal, fair or otherwise, Gibani will gamble and trade almost anything. To those he's not dealing with, he is wry and aloof.

Wargear: Autopistol (Concealed): A basic Mars-Pattern weapon that has seen better days. Gibani rarely maintains his weapon, but its on his to-do list.

Combat Knife: 8" blade, very well maintained.

Equipment: Pack of lho sticks, lighter, extra clip. Gibani is currently smuggling a small package of restricted lifeforms, known for the narcotics they produce.

Background: Gibani Saddler grew up in the lower parts of the hive with a very large family. The Saddlers were honest workers, taking orders and shipping goods all across the hive for the middle class and wealthy. It wasn't until Gibani accepted orders from gangers for drugs and guns that the family business became seedy. Pleased with Gibani's success at increasing the family's wealth, the family started to do more dirty jobs. Gibani became a dealing legend, selling nearly anything, guns, drugs, heretek, and flesh. At an extremely important sale, involving xenos narcotics, arbites commenced a raid, killing all but two of the Saddlers there. Gibani fled, telling his surviving brother to warn the rest of the family, and looked for sanctuary.

Gibani was soon sought out by a representative for a rogue trader. He now has been working for Jassmine for six months, helping with negotiations and making sure no one tries to low ball them. He also helps on the bridge when needed.

[Dakkagor]

How would Lyei and Zachary meet? Lyei, is, to put it bluntly, low-hive scum, and hasn't ventured up and out until just now. Unless Zachary takes time to frequent the sump-gangs or is addicted to something, I don't see how that's likely.

I like the idea of having pre-existing connections, but I'm just worried about the logistics.

my character was an assassin for a highborn hive house. Its possible he met your gang on assignment and maybe even hired them for muscle to help him fulfill a particular mission. Just a thought, mind you. He would also occasionally need access to drugs and other narcotics (though never for himself) and Lyei would again be a useful contact for that.

[Chiara]

Her most prized possession is her weapon. It used to be a standard-pattern Arbites shotgun, but ceased that existence when a captain of one of the Arbites hunter teams took a wrench to it and has been further modified by Lyei's technical expertise. It now consists of two stacked hand-tooled barrels, each supplied by their own magazine; one is lever-action, the other pump-action. The top barrel is rifled for extra accuracy with solid slugs, and iron sights have been mounted on it for long-range precision. She carries a variety of ammunition, including shot, slug, manstopper, armour-piercing and gas rounds. She is quite obsessive about her main weapon, and won't let anyone else touch or handle it.

As a sidearm, she carries a high-caliber stub pistol, a gift from her brother before he left. He taught her the intricate workings of handgun etiquette and she often repeats his sayings back to herself when working with it. It now consists of almost none of its original parts, except the skull-and-glass engraved dark wooden grip. She has replaced most of the pieces with custom-tooled pieces and changed many of the specifications, but it still remains a powerful and deadly weapon.

Whats wrong with a normal double barrle shotgun? Its too modified and hits a point of why be modified that much? A shotgun is a shotgun, regardless of pump or level. Either double barrel pump with two different ammo types or no shotgun.

The stub pistol, please state what modifications it does have. I do not like surprises.

Scourge Wings. Rather than the bulky jump-packs used by the Imperium, the Dark Eldar favour a lighter dark matter engine. Maneuvering is accomplished by a pair of mechanical wings which interface with the users nervous system, allowing them to operate the wings as if they were conventional limbs.

Are these worn all the time? And how did she re-aquire them? (If I missed it in the background, please slap me)

Everyone else: Wargear checks out well enough. I am sorry for lack of time. Have a big paper due Monday.

[RampagingRavener]

Are these worn all the time? And how did she re-aquire them? (If I missed it in the background, please slap me)

Not constantly - she wouldn't wear them unless she was going into a scenario where there was the possibility of combat breaking out. For average day-to-day life aboard the ship they would remain in her quarters. As for how she reacquired them, much like the rest of the equipment that was sold off, tracking down the individual who purchased them before they left the xenotech bazar and taking them back.

[SandQueen]

Whats wrong with a normal double barrle shotgun? Its too modified and hits a point of why be modified that much? A shotgun is a shotgun, regardless of pump or level. Either double barrel pump with two different ammo types or no shotgun.

Did some poking around with my husband's Winchester and my Remington 870, came to some conclusions:
1) Unloaded you're looking at 16lbs of gun. That's alot for something that it going to be driving into your shoulder and that you're going to be swinging around.
2) Combining the two defeats their own purposes. The main point of a lever action shotgun is that it's very easy to maintain and the internal mechanisms are child's play. But if you attach another firearm system entirely that vanishes. The main purpose of a pump action is that you can keep the weapon shouldered for followup shots (with a lever action, unless you're got really long arms, you need to unshoulder it).
3) Two weapons means twice the firepower but it also means twice the maintenance.
4) You could cut down on weight by having the pump action be a short barrel "Masterkey" type shotgun but then you'd also compromize how many shells it could hold and you'd remove any sort of mid range acccuracy.

Now the drawbacks of a double barrel shotgun are fairly obvious, you've only got two shots. This can be compensated however by taking two otherwise normal shotguns and attaching them. The problem with that though is that things get heavy FAST. While shotguns are not prone to mechanical failure if well maintained (Because John Moses Browning was a god), by strapping two together you're doubling the chance of something going wrong and compromizing your combat ability.

[kardar233]

A shotgun is a shotgun, but there are many variables in the kind of shot, rifling, cylinder choke etc. I took a page from the combination gun idea and used a pair of barrels for extra versatility in being able to resolve the tradeoff without the use of near-frictionless materials, which wouldn't be in common supply. Since each barrel uses its own action, she can utilize the advantages of each separately. And in this case, twice the barrels is not twice the firepower, it's twice the versatility, as firing both would kick harder than a burned Clydesdale.

I do acknowledge that I went overboard on this, so can we compromise?

For the pistol:
Polished throat and feeding ramp, shortened spur hammer, beavertail grip safety, extended safety, lowered ejection port, beveled magazine well, long skeletonized trigger and a scalloped front strap. These are all slight modifications to increase the ease of handling and use, which, while decreasing chances of operator error, shouldn't have major bearing on its combat operation. It's mainly something for her to fiddle with when she's not cleaning and polishing her shotgun. She carries it in Condition Two.

@Dakkagor: Yes, that could work. It would be a pretty straight-and-clear working relationship. Y'know, the ones where each person has a lethal weapon within second's reach at all times.

[SandQueen]

A shotgun is a shotgun, but there are many variables in the kind of shot, rifling, cylinder choke etc. I took a page from the combination gun idea and used a pair of barrels for extra versatility in being able to resolve the tradeoff without the use of near-frictionless materials, which wouldn't be in common supply. Since each barrel uses its own action, she can utilize the advantages of each separately. And in this case, twice the barrels is not twice the firepower, it's twice the versatility, as firing both would kick harder than a burned Clydesdale.

Why not just a single barreled, semi-auto such as a Saiga-12? Buckshot does not cause significant damage to the rifling of shotgun barrels. It does over time (as in thousands of shells) but shotgun barrels are easy to replace and can even be hand made if you have a good metalworking lathe.

You could still swap shells with ease by alternating them in the magazine, detaching magazines or swapping magazines. One of the advantages of shotguns is the fact that you can alternate ammunition in the same weapon with no modifaction.

[kardar233]

The main problem being the ineffectively large spread caused by using shot in a rifled barrel, which is why I decided not to go down that route without easy access to near-frictionless fluids.

[SandQueen]

The main problem being the ineffectively large spread caused by using shot in a rifled barrel, which is why I decided not to go down that route without easy access to near-frictionless fluids.

I have never had spread issues out of a rifled barrel. Neither has my husband who has been shooting for fifteen years. The truth of the matter is that most modern shotgun barrels are rifled. Not just to help with slugs but to keep the spread of shot controlled. Rifling helps keep shot in a neat cluster, at least for a while. Unrifled barrels on shotguns died out in the early 1900s. You can still get them but the question is why would you?

[kardar233]

Hmm, I've seen data that points to a literally exponential increase in spread size when firing shot through a rifled barrel; at 5 yards one set was looking at a 4" spread on a smooth Improved Cylinder choke and 18" with a rifled barrel, all of which were in a ring rather than a clump. At 12, the same weapon was firing a 4-inch spread on the smooth, and 25" with the rifled barrel.

I don't know what you mean by

Unrifled barrels on shotguns died out in the early 1900s.

, but I just quickly checked two commonly-made modern shotgun designs (M500 and M4 Super 90) and they both use smoothbore barrels as standard.

I'm sorry for taking this discussion off track.

[SandQueen]

Hmm, I've seen data that points to a literally exponential increase in spread size when firing shot through a rifled barrel; at 5 yards one set was looking at a 4" spread on a smooth Improved Cylinder choke and 18" with a rifled barrel, all of which were in a ring rather than a clump. At 12, the same weapon was firing a 4-inch spread on the smooth, and 25" with the rifled barrel.

I don't know what you mean by , but I just quickly checked two commonly-made modern shotgun designs (M500 and M4 Super 90) and they both use smoothbore barrels as standard.

I'm sorry for taking this discussion off track.

by "died out" I ment that few people use purely smooth shotun barrels anymore because they lose accuracy with slugs.

I have no idea what data you may have been seeing. Must have been obscenely short barrels or poorly made ammunition. The only time I have ever seen an 18" spread at 5 yards was with a smoothbore double barrel with the barrels cut down to 13 inches.

PM if you want to keep talking shotguns

[Dakkagor]

yes, please. Something about your whole conversation is scaring the *&%$ out of me.

Kardar233: cool. I imagine its a case of neither liking each other, or even really trusting each other, but each being known quantities to the other.

[SandQueen]

Something about your whole conversation is scaring the *&%$ out of me.

thank you for the quote, lol

[SylverClaw]

This is why I never play a gun-nut, as tempting as it is. Someone always comes along who knows a terrifying amount more than you do.

I'm happy with my blinged-up glorified flashlight and pokey-stick.

Psiarceon will let all the "norms" do the leg work anyway. He'll just stand at the back laughing manically at your futile efforts and reminding you that all your works are as nothing in the infinite expanse of the uncaring, unreal universe.

I wonder who'll be first to shoot him in the back!

[Chiara]

I like your laspistol SylverClaw, reminds of Rogue Trader days for some odd reason...and it makes sense for a Navis Nobilite to have such a unique weapon. Its not overpowered and we can resumably assume that if the power pack is worn down too quickly, it still has a recharge drawback correct? However, the shotgun....seems like it'll kill the user before the intended target......

Sand Queen seems to know more than I do and I can't see why I couldn't be clipped with what I was asking. Sand Queen, thank you for educating me. I actually wikkied what you mentioned and I see your reasoning very well. It went with my assumption. It was overboard, bulky and would be stupidly overpowered. More than likely rip the girl's arm off.

kardar, I asked for you to de-rig the shotgun. I quote myself 'A shotgun is a shotgun, regardless of pump or level. Either double barrel pump with two different ammo types or no shotgun.' I also believe I said this in the wargear section: 'Please do not really consider a weapon for your character just because you want a 'cool weapon'.' The shotgun of insane combination falls into 'cool weapon' catagory. Please revert to a simple shotgun or please use another weapon. I am not trying to bully you, I am paying attention to wargear. Comply or no approval. Simple no?

RampagingRavener, thank you for the explanation.

[SylverClaw]

I like your laspistol SylverClaw, reminds of Rogue Trader days for some odd reason...and it makes sense for a Navis Nobilite to have such a unique weapon. Its not overpowered and we can resumably assume that if the power pack is worn down too quickly, it still has a recharge drawback correct?

That was what I was aiming for with it. Like an old-school digi-weapon but not so cheesey. Just picked one benefit (no ammo) of the digi-weapons and ran with it.

Being archotech I imagine it's prone to fits of not working whenever you need it most. In other words, yes - over enthusiastic trigger work will upset its machine spirit.

More "normal" characters than I thought for this game. Was expecting a flood of xeno and psykers.

[Luthor's Shadow]

Got to always have something to break the characters up from the normal. Can I edit my equipment?

I want a triple barrel lasgun with underslung grenade launcher, a scope, modified stock, recoil compensators, a one shot melta on the right side of the weapon and a one shot plasma on the other side. It also comes with a tripod and a warning on it saying: Gun will explode upon firing. Good luck!



I personally try to use a character that I've fallen for or I create a new one. Lilia is a rich character with background and lets be honest, chiara's warning about Xenos characters only if you are serious, I think that helped. Its hard to roleplay a Xenos character. You truly have to think like one.

May Insanity Grace your Day

Luthor's Shadow

[Soulless Enigma]

Chiara, since you've said nothing about Keruuh, I'm assuming either that he's fine or you missed him because I edited him in. Just thought I should check.