A ratling? Interesting.

Mobster ratling, better make sure i don't break the law on their turf :P

@Klomster Yea, I figure it'll be easier to convince the crew to go along with a hostile take over of the ship if most of the mid-rank officers are on the take.

All that's left is to pick a suitable sniper rifle. I was thinking some xeno-tech he and Zuriel could bond over 'customizing,'

Hmmm, warp magic infused eldar soul-stone torturing warp sniper rifle that wails with doom?
A possibility.

Personally, I'd be happy with some Tau tech modified to take Imperium batteries.

I'll accept the character, and he can have all the standard-issue Guard war gear, I'd just like to know what people think of him using a rail-rifle and if they have any suggestions for an alternative; if they don't mind, then that's all good and well.

A rail rifle is a bit weird to get hold of.
And to keep ammo supply.

As for alternatives.
Hellgun sniper. Either just hot-shot pack or a proper hellgun sniper. It packs a punch.

The exitus is probably the best one.... but then again it's the exitus. So no.

Hmm, if you like being illegal.
Angelus bolt carbine. It's a rifle, one shot per clip. Goes well with a scope.
It fires stolen astartes bolt shells. Meaning in dark heresy it is a mean weapon indeed :P

Otherwise, having a regular slug rifle. One can load it with some interesting ammo.
Man-stopper, incindiary and explosive are just a few examples. Or toxic, toxic is fun.

Or for maximum lulz.
Get an autocannon, only load a single slug. Add scope. Eyyyyyy!!!

Or a lascannon :P

Looking on the rail rifle, i saw this.
"While a Rail Rifle is conceptually simple, manufacturing and fielding one presents several engineering challenges, requiring highly conductive materials with strong resistance to thermal expansion, efficient cooling systems, very precise machining processes, and methods of quickly servicing and re-machining the rails in the field to keep their interior surfaces in pristine condition. Even minor wear can have a significantly deleterious effect upon the weapon's performance."

Seems like too much of a bother to me.

Or you could come up with a local variant of hunting rifle.
Perhaps one planet had a big problem with roaming ogryns/big beasties. And developed a high calibre high accuracy weapon for sniping those sods.

Or a bolter. They are reasonably accurate, unless you fire full auto.

Personally i would have gone with a Bolt-rifle with a scope or a powerful las-gun. or something along the lines of the Vendacair rifle.

And, im not sure if a ratling could carry an autocannon, unless it was gutted to remove major components like the auto-loader for magazines and most of the cooling systems. Personally i expect it would be a bolt action single shot weapon, that would actually be quite versitile against any infantry and some vehicles. But then i would go with a Las-cannon for the same effect and not have to carry around the presumably heavy darts. Although if i find another game where i might play an Astartes ill keep this in mind

@Klomster I'd be fine with a big ass rifle, except I'd largely just have to make it up, as opposed to basing it in fluff... I mean, I could use something that actually exists as a basis, and modify it to be more inline with something from 40k, but by default I wouldn't have any fluff for it.

Personally, I'm looking for an alternative to las tech... mostly because the description of how they work, and the damage they do, just doesn't mesh with the reaction 90% of things in 40k give to it. "Oh, no! Flashlights!... lol!" isn't something you'd expect to hear anyone say about a thing that can cleanly sever a limb with a small explosion.

Yeah, the flashlight likeness is something i myself has gone away from after playing dark heresy.

Armed with a compact las pistol, i shot a guys arm, which was incinerated so fiercely that the entire torso was blackened with fire and the death throes of the poor sod makes people all around him panic.......

that was with the COMPACT las pistol.
Now imagine the las cannon! >:D

Anyway.

Personally i would have gone with a Bolt-rifle with a scope or a powerful las-gun. or something along the lines of the Vendacair rifle.

Vindicare assassins rifle is known as an exitus rifle.
The ratling isn't going to get an exitus rifle. Unless he does some FANCY dealings. Since it's created and distributed by the vindicare temple themselves. For use by their own assassins.

One cool big sniper rifle in dark heresy is known as the nomad.
It has some cool story and stuff. A bit fancier and has a slight bit more punch over a regular stub sniper.
If you want something from the lore that is.

I am sure there are equivalents of a barret light .50 somewhere.

So, basically a modified heavy slug rifle firing special ammo. Nothing complex but fully well with lore.
I can bring up some dark heresy ammo types and some effects if ya like :D

@Klomster Part of my problem, I think, is that even if I went with a hyped-up lasgun, it's still going to require a great deal of servicing, as all heavy-end lasguns do. The barrels wear out quickly, the cartridges tend to over charge, the power packs wear out faster if you use the highest settings, etc.

If I go with a solid-shot gun, though, I have to keep stocked in ammunition. Bolter-class ammunition would be massively expensive, bulky, heavy, and very hard to come by. However, bolter rounds also represent some of the best quality fire power in the Imperium. Their stopping power is ridicules, and massively undersold on the table top. My point being, anything roughly on par with that, performance wise, is going to have the same issues, but be even more hard to come by.

Which is why I wanted the rail rifle. Their standard clips hold over a hundred rounds, so just two of them would last him years. The main issue is maintenance, but surely he could use his connections to get those while he's in the area he got it from. Beyond that, he'd have about 5 power cells, so his maximum shot count at any one time would be fairly low, but still good enough to give him options. The big thing would be finding someone who can make it Vastly easier to charge the batteries back up, as opposed to leaving them on the imperial-to-tau converter plug he could have gotten from rogue traders who live on/around Tau worlds.

after doing some research on sniper rifles i would lean towards a needler rife or exitus rifle (which wouldnt really be an option) above most things. They are versatile and can be just as devastating as a bolter to infantry or heavy infantry. Assuming i was unable to get a Necron weapon or something absolutely retarded like that.

But thats just me.

I get your point.

Going with the deathwatch rules for a rail rifle (because i like to use the system for comparisons)
The rifle does 2D10+10 Pen 9. With overheat rule and devastating.
Overheat we all know, devastating is that it lowers morale of squads it hits.

That damage value is roughly on par with an astartes melta gun. Les pen, more raw damage.

It also had clip size 16.

So looking at a wiki (since the deathwatch book happily only provided stats, no fluff >:( .) It is true it has over a hundred slugs in its system.
It also states it uses an entire power cell per shot.

So i guess one would look at it more like a clip is 16 power cells and no one ever bothers with reloading the weapon since 100 shots in a heavy sniper rifle is a lot.
I think you will change the barrel long before that. Meaning the weapon might never be reloaded since the tau deem the troops should have a replacement rail gun before it runs out of ammo.

I dunno, i guess you could use a rail rifle. I'd deem it as unreliable. So it has a higher overheat/jam chance.

Oh right.
Looking i see the needle rifle. That's an accurate sniper weapon. Imperial ok as well. Toxic goodness also.
Bit weedy on the damage though.

Looking through the rules, found the lacrymole.
About as powerful as a strong, tough and very agile human. It's fellowship stat is bullshit though at less than a human on an infiltration alien.

Other alternatives.
Found a subsonic armour piercing needle rifle variant.

Here's the nomad :P Hits as hard as a regular sniper with ap rounds as standard :P



Multilaser :P

The autocannon actually only weighs 55kg's :P
About the same as a regular ratling :D

There i found a weapon i want one day.
Rad cleanser >:D
And my beloved dragon scale power armour. I still want to play a character that has this :(

Anyway.
I know you want the flintlock/laslock musket :P
With scope of course ;)

Oh well. It seems i've gone through most.
Except one.

The galvanic rifle.
While it technically is fully legal, many mechanicum operatives will think "Wait, isn't that one of our guns?" and if some skitarii (as in mechanicum armed forces) see you with it, expect a thorough questioning.
Normally this one is a no no to get, but i guess with such a crime syndicate, it could perhaps be gotten hold of.

Probably as much of a hassle as the rail rifle though.

I dunno about other alternatives.

@Sophrus The needle rifle variants are potent in combat, but have the out of combat negatives of both a longlas, and an anti-material rifle. Their design makes them work largely like lasguns, which means they need batteries and a high degree of maintenance. They also need specialized ammunition, that is far from standard issue and would probably be harder to get ahold of then any variant of bolter ammunition. They're also limited to use as anti biological infantry weapons only.

The suggestion is appreciated, but Vespin isn't like Oskar. He's not got the muscle needed to pack around enough variety of weapons choices to deal with multiple enemy types as needed. So, whatever his gun is, anything it can't engage is basically immune to him. While I don't mind him not being able to take out a tank, his gun needs to pack the kind of punch that can take out a Tau crisis suite, or an ork warboss, because as a high-ranking sniper those would be his assigned targets, enemy high-command.

Edit:
@Klomster If it's that major an issue, I'll probably end up going with a modified Type XIV, that will incorporate a number of systems from an Ultra Pattern Mk IX. Technically, both are light-based weapons, so putting some money into the hands of the right tech priest, he should be able to get the best of both worlds.

Added most of his war gear. Nothing too far out there, I should think.

Edit: Went ahead with the kit bash. The more I thought about how to make it work, the more the idea grew on me. Besides, it's not worth arguing over.

So. When are we getting a move on?

When whoever's turn it is goes?

I've been waiting for a 100% okay from JB to finalize Vespin before I make his intro post. I assumed he was going to get something up before then, to depict Vedius's actions and kill the ork.

I'll get a post up today, and yes, Vespin is accepted.

@Sophrus What would you say the over-under is on Oskar knowing/knowing of Vespin? And what about the other way around? Given they're both protagonist tier characters on the same ship.

Yeah it would make sense. Oskar probably knew him, probably got some illegal arms or goods from him occasionally.

Before being put in prison anyways.