Remember that not all or even most of your descendants will directly inherit your Warrant; depending on how long you live and when you inherited it, it may be a more reasonable assumption that the most promising of your grandchildren or great grandchildren to be the heritor. The 40k galaxy is immensely dangerous at the best of times, and there are numerous examples in the fluff of lines ending or being bequeathed on far flung distant relations due to the rate of attrition and uncertainty with warp travel and communication. In the Enforcer series, the Warrant to be passed winds up in the hands of a minor noble on a backwater world, the result of an illicit liaison by a Rogue Trader passing through. Even with a double handful of children and grandchildren, picking the best of the survivors will likely be a crapshoot. I think you would be best served to draw a clear line of succession and seal it with a blood signature, with addenda ejecting from consideration anyone who starts offing family members.

Writing Rokugani Names in Kanji
緑岩人の苗字の書き方 (Rokugan-jin no myōji no kakikata)

A while ago I posted a version of this list of family name kanji on the AEG forum, filled in mostly by me but with a lot of interesting discussion and input from other posters there. Most foolishly, I made updates right in the original post and didn't keep an offline copy, so the whole thing is stuck behind the Great Wall of Mystery/Apathy now. It took a while, but my annoyance at not having access to the list has eventually come to outweigh my annoyance at having to type it all out again, and I've reconstructed it as best I could from memory--fortunately a bit faster than creating it in the first place.

The original list was a work in progress, and that's definitely still true. Let me know if I've missed anything, or if you have any suggestions for more optimal renderings.

Disclaimers
- I'm not a native speaker of Japanese (and on a basic level my kanji reading is probably pretty inflected by Chinese).
- Rokugan Is Not Japan anyway, and using kanji probably isn't entirely canonical (sources differ). This is just for funsies.
- Please please don't use this to get a kanji tattoo ("don't get a kanji tattoo" is almost never not good advice, anyway).
 
So what is this good for?
I originally started working on it because I wanted to create "seal" graphics for RPG characters. (EDIT: see this post downthread for some tools for generating seals.) You can use names in kanji to sign in-character letters as gaming table props, decorate character sheets, make deck backers, in artwork, whatever. These days I sometimes even use name kanji as part of my brainstorming process when coming up with NPCs and the like.

But what about given (personal) names?
EDIT: see this post downthread for some more personal name resources.
In the original version of this post I was able to link to a bunch of threads on the AEG forum full of advice and inspiration for choosing given names for L5R characters. Alas, all fallen behind the veil of oblivion now. If you've got favorite resources, please share! I might try to dig up some links as I've got time/inclination later.

Once you have got a name, in general, as long as it is pronounceable in Japanese (that is, it would be possible to write it out in the syllabic alphabet), you'll be able to represent it with kanji one way or another, even if—like some of the names below—you end up with a purely phonetic transliteration.

Try taking your character name to WWWJDIC and typing the English spelling into the search box (for this purpose, don't tick the "Search using romanized Japanese" button), then select "Japanese Names (ENAMDICT)" from the drop-down menu. You'll get a list of names that match all or part of the pronunciation you've used. Names marked with (s) are surnames, (m) are masculine, (f) are feminine, (p) are places and so on. You can select entries to examine the meanings of individual component kanji. If you don't find what you're looking for right away, try varying the length of vowels in your search word (o/ou, u/uu, i/ii, e/ei).


A Note on Methods
For L5R families whose names come from "real" modern Japanese ones, I generally grabbed the most commonly used written form according to this surname dictionary. For some families less common versions have been used, if they seemed much more apropos to me or other posters on the last version of this thread.

For the most part, to avoid unintentionally doing something ridiculous, I tried to stick to "real," existing names whenever possible--including place- and personal names if necessary.

When fabricating kanji for names that just don't exist in the real world, I played around with WWWJDIC and the surname dictionary to try to make sure I was (as much as possible) using kanji that are reasonably common in personal and family names, with plausible pronunciations. Some are... probably more plausible than others, but so it goes. Pronunciation of kanji used in names is often very idiosyncratic in any case.
 
Key
Entries are in the format:
Name - kanji - pronunciation (if different from the L5R spelling) – meaning

I've also included the kanji for the clans' totem animals, except when that's exactly the same as a Minor Clan's ruling family name, in which case I didn't bother to put it in twice. The Great Clans ones weren't made up by me; they're from... Great Clans.

† = this is a "real" name or word, but not actually a surname (might be the name of a place, a personal name, or other noun)
* = this kanji combo is totally made-up (and would probably be gibberish to a Japanese reader)

In the pronunciations, long O and U vowels are written with macrons (ō, ū), but you might also have seen the same sounds written "ou" and "uu." Couldn't remember which spelling convention I used in the original list...
 
If for some reason the kanji don't display properly, try changing your browser's text encoding (usually in the "View" menu). Unicode should work, as long as your OS is new enough to have Asian fonts installed by default.



Okay, here we go!
_____________________


Great Clans
Crab - 蟹 - kani
Hida - 飛騨 - "flying gray horse" (there are many ways of writing "Hida" as a surname and this is far from the most common, but last time around other posters preferred it since it uses more dramatic kanji and was the name of a Warring States province)
Hiruma - 昼間 - "daylight room, dawn room"
Kaiu - * 界宇 - kaiyū - "boundary + building"
Kuni - 邦 – "country, kingdom, one's homeland, " (some posters last time preferred a bit more thematic set of kanji, so we collectively came up with the made-up alternative *究迩 - "study + get near to")
Yasuki - 安喜 - peace and happiness (or, at a slant, "happiness on the cheap")

Crane - 鶴 - tsuru
A sahina - 朝比奈 - morning + compare + what?
Daidoji - 大道寺 - daidōji - great way temple
Doji - 堂路 - dōji - temple path
Kakita - 柿田 - persimmon field

Dragon - 竜 - ryū
Kitsuki - * 木月 - tree + moon
Mirumoto - * 実留本 - "truth/fruit/substance + stay + root or essence" (modeled on the real name "Kurumoto 久留本")
Tamori - 多森 - thick forest
Togashi - 富樫 - abundant evergreen oak

Lion - 獅子 - shishi
Akodo - * 赤穂堂 - akōdō - "red grain-ear shrine" (Akō is a place-name)
Ikoma - 生駒 - the "horse" piece in Shogi; a noble clan during the Warring States period
Kitsu - 吉 - good fortune, auspicious divination result
Matsu - 松 - pine
Shimizu - 清水 - pure water

Mantis - 蟷螂 - kamakiri
Kitsune - † 狐 - fox
Moshi - † 虫 - mushi - bug/insect
Tsuruchi - * 弦知 - "bowstring + wisdom" (there is a real surname "Tsuruchi," but it incorporates the character for "crane," which seemed unnecessarily confusing)
Yoritomo - † 頼朝 - "reliant on the dawn" or "reliant on the dynasty" (personal name of a famous historical figure)

Phoenix - 不死鳥 - fushichō - "undying bird" (not really sure why they didn't go with the 鳳凰 hō-ō native to East Asian mythology--it's not fire-y enough, perhaps?)
Agasha - * 阿賀沙 - "ah + celebrate + sand" (totally phonetic, though "Aga" is a place-name)
Asako - 朝古 - "facing the ancient past; ancient dawn"
Isawa - 石和 - "peace of stones"
Shiba - 柴 - "firewood, brush, fuel" (common written form of this surname).
(However, some posters last time preferred the much-less-common "Shiba" - 司馬 - name of a Warring States clan; surname of a famous ancient Chinese historian, meant "minister of war" in very ancient China)

Scorpion - 蠍 - sasori
Bayushi - * 倍勇士 - baiyūshi - "twofold hero"
Shosuro - * 晶朱露 - shōsuro – "crystal scarlet dew" (totally phonetic, but used a long O since the original Shosuro is supposed to have named herself after the verb 称する shōsuru "to call oneself")
Soshi - 曽志 - "ambition of former times." (The most common name with this pronunciation is曾雌, lit. "once-upon-a-time female," but I didn't use that one because it actually seemed too on-the-nose for the identity-shifting Shosuro/Soshi--whom we know to have had a weakness for homophones and puns.)
Yogo - 余語 - "my speech/words"

Spider - 蜘蛛 - kumo
Chuda - 忠田 - chūda - "field of loyalty"
Daigotsu - * 大悟津 - "great enlightenment harbor" ("Daigo" or "Daigorō" is a somewhat archaic personal name)
Goju - † 剛柔 - gōjū - "firmness and softness," a real-world karate style
Kokujin - * 黒人 - this is actually the word used for real-world humans of African descent, so… nice going there, guys. >_<
Ninube - * 忍宇部 - "nin" (endurance) from "忍者 ninja" + place name "Ube"
Susumu - † 進 - "advancing" (personal name)
Order of the Spider - * 蜘蛛宗 - kumo shū - I'm afraid I don't remember which poster suggested using "shū" (which often designates Buddhist sects) here, but it was a good call!
Order of Venom - * 毒宗 - doku shū

Unicorn - 一角獣 - ikkakujū - lit. "one-horned beast" (or, in the Dawn of the Empire setting, Ki-rin 麒麟)
Horiuchi - 堀内 - "canal + within"
Ide - 井出 - "well + come out"
Iuchi - 井内 - "well + within"
Moto - * 元 - "source, basic element"; same kanji as the name of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty which ruled China in the 13-14th centuries
Otaku - 小宅 - "small house"
Shinjo - 新城 - shinjō - "new castle" (However, with the same pronunciation there's also神成 "divine achievement"—it's less than 1/3 as common, and much more likely to be pronounced "Kannari" instead, but perhaps more thematically suitable?)
Utaku - * 宇宅 - "building + house"


Minor Clans:
Badger - 穴熊 - anaguma
Ichiro - † 一郎 - ichirō - "firstborn son" (personal name)

Bat
Komori - † 蝙蝠 - kōmori

Boar - 猪 - inoshishi
Heichi - 平地 - "plains" or "peaceful land"

Centipede - 蜈蚣 - mukade
Moshi - † 虫 - mushi - bug

Dragonfly
Tonbo - 蜻蛉

Falcon - 鷹 - taka
Toritaka - * 鳥鷹 - "bird + falcon"

Fox
Kitsune - † 狐 - fox

Hare
Usagi - † 兎 - rabbit
Ujina - † 宇品 - a place name

Monkey - 猿 - saru
Toku - † 徳 - "virtue" (which of course makes the original Toku "Mr. Virtue, the Fortune of Virtue," but anyway)

Oriole - 鶯 - uguisu
Tsi - † 智 - there is no "tsi" sound in Japanese or Chinese, so best guess. Chinese "zhr"/Japanese "chi" - wisdom

Ox - 牛 - ushi
Morito - 森藤 - moritō - forest wisteria

Snake - 蛇 - hebi
Chuda - 忠田 - chūda - "field of loyalty"

Sparrow
Suzume - 雀 - tree sparrow

Tortoise - 亀 - kame
Kasuga - 春日 - spring sun

Wasp - 蜂 - hachi
Tsuruchi - * 弦知 - "bowstring + wisdom" (there is a real surname "Tsuruchi," but it incorporates the character for "crane," which seemed unnecessarily confusing)


Imperial families - 皇族 - kōzoku
Miya - 宮 - "palace," "royal personage"
Otomo - 大友 - ōtomo - "great friend"; a historical noble clan
Seppun - *節雰 - "section/season/moral integrity + mist" (in fact, I gather this family name was originally a play on 接吻 "kiss" for a sycophantic courtier character, but here's a rather more elegant possible homophone)

Hantei - * 范定 - pattern or law + establish, so "establishing the patterns [of society]." Rather loosely modeled on Chinese reign-period names
Toturi - 鳥取 - tottori - "bird + take"; both a surname, and the name of a feudal domain ruled by the Ikeda clan and later of a modern prefecture (there is no "tu" sound in Japanese, so the best we can do is something close-enough)
Iweko - † 依恵子 (1) or 為恵子 (2) - ieko - personal name which would have been written "Iweko" before spelling reform dispensed with the "we" syllable. I like these writing forms, which mean "reliant upon blessing" (1) and "acting for/embodying blessing" (2), depending on just how much divine mojo Iweko I has in your version of Rokugan.


Ronin families - 浪人の氏
Kaeru - † 蛙 - frog
Yotsu - 四津 - "four harbors" ( the original Yotsu could have gone by simply 四つ "Four," but if so, this would have been a nice way to pretty it up into a proper surname)

It's been a while since I posted one of these, but I am still continuing my readthrough of all my DH1 books. In turn I am still compiling questions and the ffg dev I had been speaking to is still willing to answer them.
Tattered Fates:
Is the Toughness Reduction of the Steel Clock, while it's invulnerable, permanent or temprorary noted in "Out of Time"? -------------- > I’d say the latter.
Will a person with the blood of Haarlock take the termporary toughness reduction? ---------- > It doesn’t list any restrictions, so I’d say they are treated like anyone else.
Is it the 9th or 10th hour that kicks in the possessed knife's effect? -------------- > 9th
Is Heron Mask's Resistance (Psychic) supposed to be "(Psychic Powers)" or is it somehow expanded? ------------- > The former.
Seems like either Vulpa's hand canon doesn't have enough pen or Grist's hand canon isn't doing enough damage based on their respective special ammo, opinions? ------------- > I’d use the profiles for those ammo types when firing the weapon with those ammo types.
Bliss is stated to have "Secret Signs (Occult)" however, there is no skill in the rules known as Secret Signs. Replacement? ------------ > No, this is just to say they are able to make and understand clandestine/furtive/disguised markings of an occult nature that others can also pick up on. It’s more for the GM to use than anything else.
Bliss also has Resistance (Psychic) as Heron Mask does, so same question as #4. ------------ > Same answer.
Concerning Protean Form. Is it 20 wounds inflicted in a round not going past Toughness Bonus? 20 Wounds in a single attack in a round past Toughness? 20 Wounds overall past Toughness in a round? ----------------- > 20 wounds that the being would suffer. So the last one if I read it right.
Concerning getting access to the Elite Campaign Package if you're a new character in a campaign, do you still need to spend XP to get access to the Package or are you automatically given access? ----------- > The latter.
If you have to spend to get access what is the cost required for the Haarlock Legacy package? --------------- > N/A
I've worked through Damned cities and am working on Dead Stars. About halfway through Dead Stars I'll send in some more questions from tattered fates and at the end of Dead Stars I'll send in my Damned Cities questions. Afterwards I'll work on Radical's Handbook.

The Kursian Sickle Sword is based on the sica more than the khopesh, and as it's used in gladatorial fights you can see why it does what it does.

BYE

GW has been trying to do away with Undivided more and more, and I personally find it ridiculous that they aren't instead reinforcing the idea that Unaligned and Undivided are two different things.
But yes, the fact that there are no Unaligned or Undivided Daemon Princes is utter and complete bullcrap.

I would suggest it was the GW who pushed this fluff. Disregard this "no unaligned DP" bullcrap and housrule it in your game.

The Black Crusade game master's kit includes a significant expansion to burning Infamy for more than just survival-one of the options allows you to sacrifce Infamy to reduce Corruption. You can reduce Corruption by 2 for each point of Infamy sacrificed via the False Repentance rule, or buy off Corruption points at 1 per 250 XP spent via the Ritual of Castigation.
 
On another tack, you can also craft a Simulacrum Effigy, acquired as a Very Rare item: that absorbs 1/2 rounding down of all external Corruption points gained with a Hard Willpower test, like from a warp rift or Sorcery exposure. However, it can break and flush you with the accumulated Corruption on a roll of 95-100, so the first 2 options are generally preferable.

Also remember that for a Rogue Trader, everything comes out of their pocket, and anything blown up is potentially lost capital-or a potential asset denied to an enemy. A dynasty is liable to set charges on a hulk or conduct an orbital bombardment on anything they do not want in order to deny it to their opponents. By the same token, what can make or break a dynasty is deciding what is worth fighting for-the group should never just find themselves in combat just because. There is always a goal, if only to escape an ambush, mishap or disaster. Think about why the PCs are there, in place of a negotiator, diplomat, or company of armsmen. The usual answer is either happenstance-getting caught with their pants down in a dangerous situation-or personally overseeing a task too delicate, complicated, sensitive, difficult, or simply important to trust even your best underlings.
Now with that in mind, encounters should usually not be as simple as 'kill them all'. Whatever task or situation drew them in should be more involved; an ambush will usually be either a small cadre of elite assassins, necessitating not simply killing them, but out thinking them and identifying their source-or an endless stream of soldiers trying to pin them down and overwhelm them, and the goal is to escape and understand the situation. For clearing a hulk or taking an enemy ship, your goal should be to fight onto the bridge and prevent the enemy from escaping or scuttling the ship-a time sensitive problem in confined combat, where numbers mean little and the quality of the team is paramount. You might explore an alien ruin in person, where unusual conditions could break the minds of lesser people or dangerous knowledge/tech must be prevented from circulating among the crew. While other comments here can provide a particular answer, think about why the characters are drawn into personal combat to begin with, and work back the nuts and bolts of the encounter from there.

Based on Ascension, when generating a new character at rank 9 and up, you give them 8d10 Insanity points, minus 1d10 per point of willpower bonus. Given you have to expend 15,000 XP to get there, including increases to willpower and buying off insanity, kinda hard to come up with a range. Instead, maybe take a look at the transition package "A Mind Repurposed" for characters with immense accumulated Insanity. The package is supposed to be a last resort to save a valuable servant on their last legs mentally, and their new Insanity score of 1d10+4 could be interpreted to be "as good as it gets" for a grizzled veteran. That seems to be a good starting point  for an Insanity 'floor' for someone who has advanced that far without expending the time and experience to actively purge their insanity.

Based on Ascension, when generating a new character at rank 9 and up, you give them 8d10 Insanity points, minus 1d10 per point of willpower bonus. Given you have to expend 15,000 XP to get there, including increases to willpower and buying off insanity, kinda hard to come up with a range. Instead, maybe take a look at the transition package "A Mind Repurposed" for characters with immense accumulated Insanity. The package is supposed to be a last resort to save a valuable servant on their last legs mentally, and their new Insanity score of 1d10+4 could be interpreted to be "as good as it gets" for a grizzled veteran. That seems to be a good starting point  for an Insanity 'floor' for someone who has advanced that far without expending the time and experience to actively purge their insanity.

What Bheader said: in Rogue Trader, you are not worried about the minutiae of transactions-if something is not worth an endeavor or strains your resources enough to force an upkeep test, then it is assumed to be worth so little to be beneath the overall notice of your dynasty. And if, say, you were going to loot a bunch  of bolters or vehicles or whatnot, remember that they will still eventually require an acquisition test-because that test also allows for a complete supply chain to keep those resources available indefinitely, unless they are reduced or damaged enough to require an upkeep test to keep them in good repair. That means replacement parts, munitions, fuel, and a complete logistics chain providing trained recruits and support staff. Now, there is certainly a market for selling unusual tech or weapons, but that is usually on an individual basis, and almost never for cash-favors, information, introductions, negotiations, and items that cannot be had for any price of mere coin are what you deal in as a dynasty.
 
It can be a little weird for a group coming over from a different game, since most others encourage you to pinch pennies, hunt down every errant gold piece, and steal and sell everything that is not part of the terrain-then sell the terrain to someone with more money than sense. Try to impress on the group the scale of the game-you are not a collection of adventurers looking to strike it rich and make a name for yourself; you are already famous and wealthier than most people could wrap their minds around. You measure your wealth not in personal weapons and armor, but in armies, fleets and entire planets you control or own outright.

I have had RTs go looking for Crusade-era battlefields just to pull true Sol-system manufactured Legion equipment out of the sand and see what still works. Assuming the machine spirit isn't cursed or otherwise warp-tainted, the rest is just part replacement, and any ship equipped with a Labratory should be able to manufacture the small parts needed to get equipment up and running again, though probably not to the same quality as the original part as the replacement is most likely an inferior material. If the RT is running around in a ship equipped with a Lab, Manufactorum, and Small Craft Repair Bay, and converts all of them to refurbishing Astartes equipment, and has a way of aquiring the rare and difficult to process ores that make up most Astartes equipment, and the local tech priests are cool with bringing the equipment back into the fold of the Omnissiah without notifying their superiors, I would say go for it. Just remember to hide the goods when Astartes, Inquisitors, or well-studied RTs are in view.
 
Half the fun of the 40k universe is the backwardness with which technology is viewed, but it can also be a huge pain when trying to do some simple reverse engineering. It would make one guilty of meta-gaming, but aquiring a Heretek to help get around this problem, and conveniently purify the machine spirits without sending a report back to mars, would go a long way towards that Astartes gear everybody wants.
 
So, it would seem that finding or fixing the gear isn't that much of a problem, but using and keeping it that makes the issues. A keypad positioned at a marine's solar plexus would be head hight or more on an unmodified human, and likely the buttons would take many dozens of pounds of pressure to activate. This brings the image of a character hammering at the panel with the butt of their pistol trying to punch in the correct key sequence. Weapons would be similarly difficult, with frames much too long and thick for normal arms. A true scale SM blade weighs roughly 60 lbs... a normal human would find it impossible to do anything more than drop it on a target. The recoil of Astartes bolt weapons is stated many times to be capable of breaking an arm or wrist even if care is taken firing the weapon. Power armor of your own will mitigate these factors, but not eliminate them... Astartes weaponry is simply built an order of magnitude beyond regular human stuff. That is the whole point of the Astartes in the first place...
 
Which brings us to the Space Marine Equivalent. Ten guardsmen have an even bet against one marine, all other things equal & constant. I hold 6 stormtroopers (roughly) to be equal to the marine. Put those troopers in power armor, and give them (standard) bolters and chain weapons, it is about 4.5. Bionic/cybernetic/genemod light on the base stats, it becomes 3. Heavy mods and it becomes about 1.75, but you are spending a horrendous amount of time and Thrones, probably setting up breeding programs or sourcing candidates from fitting planets, similar to the Astartes (I have always thought new Custodes are grown for the purpose, not born, and this is why they are able to perform better than an industrially produced Astartes) and this is just to get the troop quality that even approaches what a Space Marine can apparently do. Losing a single dropship would be a tragedy, with billions of Thrones worth of soldiers, equipment, training, and mods going up in smoke... So as inevitably as every RT goes on a quest for SME troops, they go for equipment as well.
 
Recovery of anything possessed is obviously not allowed, as the machine is basically a daemon now. Kill it with fire, move on. Tainted machine spirits can be scrubbed and replaced, but it is a long process and the new spirit is going to be quirky for an amount of time proportionate to the size and complexity of the machine. Starships take centuries, vehicles decades, weapons and armor a few years or a decade and change with something like power armor. Astartes power armor, other than scout armor, may not be worn by regular humans, ever, unless they take genemods that make them have hulking(?) size, like the people the armor is designed for. Even then, it must be modified to be used by someone not blessed by the Emperor with nearly unbreakable bones and muscle as dense as steel. Melee weapons are unusable by humans unless the human is in power armor, and has a strength value over 50 (after the armor bonus is added), or has unnatural strength x2 or (2), depending on which unnatural system you use, and under either system the wielder still gets both a -10 to WS and the weapon is unwieldy unless strength is above 60, and has unnatural strength x2 or (4), like the Astartes that are supposed to be swinging it. Firing an Astartes bolter without power armor or unnatural toughness or blackbone bracing and the user must test toughness +15 or suffer a broken arm from the recoil. Grenade throw distance is quartered out of armor, and plasma overheat is twice as lethal unless the user is in power armor and has unnatural toughness. No special rules for vehicle use, unless you wish to occasionally check toughness or take fatigue due to the vehicles being designed or occupants that are literally impossible to injure or fatigue with a rough ride.
 
From this standpoint, Land Raider Battlettaxi is definitely a possibility, as long as you don't drive it around in front of anyone that knows, explicitly, that you are not allowed to have it. Given the feudal nature of the Imperium, and the flamboyant reputation of RTs, I would think the Planetary Governor or IG General would still not do more than raise an eyebrow at the vehicle for fear of levelling a false accusation at an individual capable of razing their entire world. Just don't let Astartes or Inquisition see it... or a Throne agent... and you should be safe from the whole "The Emperor decreed thusly: only Space Marines can have Sweet Rides" issue

Rhinos are in common use with numerous forces including Sisters of Battle and Arbites. Valkyries and their variants can deploy from orbit, and are stated to be able to make orbit for retrieval in their technical specs. As others have said above, it really is a difference of expertise and resources on the supply side-you can build a small fleet of valkyries for the price of 1 thunderhawk, and do so with a much lower base of knowledge, skill, and manufacturing capacity. On the demand side, the sad fact is most humans cannot take advantage of the advanced systems-inferior pilots delivering carapace armored veterans who fall in a hail of small arms fire that Astartes would shrug off, while units with power armor get outflanked and butchered by heavy weapons wielded by better trained or more experienced troops. There is simply no reason to take already expensive vehicles and equipment and replace them with vastly more expensive improvements that are more difficult to manufacture and maintain, for generally marginal gains in performance. Same reason you don't have Tempest Scions and Guard Grenadiers wielding power armor and refractor fields, even though the production runs are large enough to make it possible-even the best regular soldiers provide inferior return on substantial investment. Equipping one unit for the cost of 5 or 10 becomes a serious problem when their combat performance fails to match; that is before accounting for enhancing the problems with smaller units-losses from mishap or poor planning are magnified and leave less room for error. Also the role intended-Valkyries are general purpose, Thunderhawks are slow, heavy transports designed to punch directly through AA fire and expect to take numerous hits on the way in. The Chimera is an APC designed to protect a squad and provide support fire; a stock rhino is an APC to get Marines from point A to point B faster than hoofing it when other transport is impractical, with the armament and armor protection almost an afterthought. When Marines expect to come under concentrated fire, they use Land Raiders. The Predator is a light tank, designed for a handful of precision strikes before redeploying-not sitting there slugging it out in a pitched battle. Every piece of tech they use has a specific purpose, fulfilling it and either advancing or withdrawing; Astartes use almost nothing besides bolters, grenades and missile launchers that could be accurately described as general purpose, while most of what the Guard and Navy uses is general purpose to a fault.
 
TL;DR-Logistics wins wars, life is cheap, and in 40k where handheld/man-portable weapons can reliably bring down anything smaller than a titan, it is rarely worth the expenditure for best of the best equipment, especially when it may be corrupted or captured and used against you. Thus, Astartes and specialists like the Inquisition get the best toys; they know where and when to use them, and take good care of them.
 
Also, most mature Marines seem to be between 7.5 and 8 feet tall barefoot, with only the scouts still growing at 7 foot. Combined with the altered body type-barrel chest and limbs, wrists almost as big around as the waist on a bog standard human, and basically being a generally rectangular block of muscle; even a large human in the range of 6'6'', 300 pounds and built like a professional athlete will look like a scrawny adolescent in comparison. Add in the power armour, with Astartes armour being larger in relative size to account for the additional systems and torso reinforcement; even with that same huge human in appropriate sized power armour, that size gap widens. When you wonder why you cannot just use Astartes tech, think about just how massive that size gap is, between an average human-5'9'' to 6'0'', trying to use something meant to be comfortable for someone in the 8'2''-8'6'' range, more than twice as broad and deep, and keyed to relatively clumsy gauntlets that can crush plate steel like tinfoil. Adaptations can be done, but not easily.
 
As for a Rogue Trader, the sky is the limit, and how much you are willing to invest determines your kit. The Land Raider is one of a comparative handful of things permanently out of reach; add to that list Titans, Ordinatus, Cybernetica robots, a few pieces of Mechanicus war tech that is probably more trouble than it is worth to keep functional, and the specific equipment used by the Grey Knights and Adeptus Custodes. Pretty much anything else that is not tech heresy is negotiable, though the cost varies widely; remember that designs are sequestered both as security measures and to preserve the power of those who hold them. If you want, only time and resources will restrict you from fielding entire armies clad in power armor and force fields, wielding plasma guns as standard weapons with special and heavy weapons rarely seen outside Astartes; deploying from thunderhawks, drop pods and stormbirds; entire companies teleported directly to the battle field, alongside StormLords for APCs and regiments of superheavies deployed as general purpose armour; to match or exceed almost any force fielded outside the Sol System.
 
Now, how much are you willing to spend?

Chain weapons and average quality carapace armor are in regular production everywhere, though the Guard and PDF make do with Lasguns, stamped steel melee blades, and flak armor because of the economics. Guard units end up far flung and frequently have to make do with locally sourced equipment, so chain weapons are usually for officers and carapace for a few veterans. A typical Civilized World-not even a Hive World-will frequently have several million to tens of millions of PDF under arms; wholly impractical even with locally produced equipment more complicated than a Lasgun. And, quite simply, better tech is wasted in the hands of glorified militia. Few worlds besides Fortress Worlds with have the training regimen and discipline to make full use of it, and those worlds have economic pressures of their own replacing losses. Same reason carapace is not standard; a waste for PDF who might go centuries without serious action, and no guarantee of steady replacements for guard units deployed across the Galaxy. For you, having someone on hand to repair it or forge replacement parts alleviates most of those concerns.
 
Hotshot weapons are interesting. Most of them are produced of Forge Worlds because of the higher difficulty, but other planets like Cadia can still produce their own. That seems like a good investment for your character; it won't put a Magos' proprietary inclinations in a twist, and a skilled artisan with the right tools can make them in a reasonable time frame. Mesh armor, on the other hand, is murkier. It does not seem to fall within standard Imperial tech, so most of the examples are salvaged Xenotech or based on alien designs. That could present a problem, though a character with the inclination could probably produce it with a large enough investment of time and resources. The question is why-apart from the light weight and lack of obtrusiveness, there is little to recommend it over a specialized bodyglove or more standard heavy armor. For the same outlay of resources, you could get pretty far down the road towards Power Armor.

Well, by and large, the Mechanicus is extremely territorial regarding any technology advanced enough to require a solid foundation of the underlying principles. They have no problem with lasguns and the like because they can be reliably replicated by rote with only moderate technical skill and knowledge; what you are talking about is a step beyond that. While there are skilled, non-heretic artisans outside the Mechanicus, they are not common and tend to be specialists; such as shipwrights, demolition experts, or crafters of assassination tools. One of the maxims of the Mechanicus is "Knowledge is Power: guard it well." Dealing with them is usually about striking a deal for equipment, rather than blueprints. There are several stories in the fluff of Forge Worlds spending millennia trying and failing to trade for STC designs, and eventually settling for hodgepodge variants or lesser designs; that is how you get the proliferation of equipment like the Macharius heavy tank, replacing the Baneblades that cannot be constructed by most Forge Worlds.
 
As for your character...remember there are some things beyond even the Mechanicus: most archaeotech cannot be replicated anywhere, and many more technologies are known to very few of the highest level Techpriests. Volkite, Grav, and Plasma weapon production is at a virtual standstill, losing almost as many weapons each year than are fabricated. Some, like Inferno pistols and certain combiweapons, may be beyond all but a handful of artisans, most of them on Mars. Crafting them with anyone besides a skilled Magos with the resources of a full Forge World is simply not going to happen. In terms of fluff, you can forget about Grav, Volkite, and Plasma weapons, along with Inferno Pistols. That said, the biggest draw of being an artisan is being able to customize your equipment and crafting custom munitions on tap, instead of spending several fruitless sessions trying to scrounge up your next load of specialty bolt shells and grenades. Obtaining blueprints should be a major undertaking involving a great service to the Machine God, and tacit approval of your work by a high ranking Techpriest before disseminating the plans.

Chain weapons and average quality carapace armor are in regular production everywhere, though the Guard and PDF make do with Lasguns, stamped steel melee blades, and flak armor because of the economics. Guard units end up far flung and frequently have to make do with locally sourced equipment, so chain weapons are usually for officers and carapace for a few veterans. A typical Civilized World-not even a Hive World-will frequently have several million to tens of millions of PDF under arms; wholly impractical even with locally produced equipment more complicated than a Lasgun. And, quite simply, better tech is wasted in the hands of glorified militia. Few worlds besides Fortress Worlds with have the training regimen and discipline to make full use of it, and those worlds have economic pressures of their own replacing losses. Same reason carapace is not standard; a waste for PDF who might go centuries without serious action, and no guarantee of steady replacements for guard units deployed across the Galaxy. For you, having someone on hand to repair it or forge replacement parts alleviates most of those concerns.
 
Hotshot weapons are interesting. Most of them are produced of Forge Worlds because of the higher difficulty, but other planets like Cadia can still produce their own. That seems like a good investment for your character; it won't put a Magos' proprietary inclinations in a twist, and a skilled artisan with the right tools can make them in a reasonable time frame. Mesh armor, on the other hand, is murkier. It does not seem to fall within standard Imperial tech, so most of the examples are salvaged Xenotech or based on alien designs. That could present a problem, though a character with the inclination could probably produce it with a large enough investment of time and resources. The question is why-apart from the light weight and lack of obtrusiveness, there is little to recommend it over a specialized bodyglove or more standard heavy armor. For the same outlay of resources, you could get pretty far down the road towards Power Armor.

Well, by and large, the Mechanicus is extremely territorial regarding any technology advanced enough to require a solid foundation of the underlying principles. They have no problem with lasguns and the like because they can be reliably replicated by rote with only moderate technical skill and knowledge; what you are talking about is a step beyond that. While there are skilled, non-heretic artisans outside the Mechanicus, they are not common and tend to be specialists; such as shipwrights, demolition experts, or crafters of assassination tools. One of the maxims of the Mechanicus is "Knowledge is Power: guard it well." Dealing with them is usually about striking a deal for equipment, rather than blueprints. There are several stories in the fluff of Forge Worlds spending millennia trying and failing to trade for STC designs, and eventually settling for hodgepodge variants or lesser designs; that is how you get the proliferation of equipment like the Macharius heavy tank, replacing the Baneblades that cannot be constructed by most Forge Worlds.
 
As for your character...remember there are some things beyond even the Mechanicus: most archaeotech cannot be replicated anywhere, and many more technologies are known to very few of the highest level Techpriests. Volkite, Grav, and Plasma weapon production is at a virtual standstill, losing almost as many weapons each year than are fabricated. Some, like Inferno pistols and certain combiweapons, may be beyond all but a handful of artisans, most of them on Mars. Crafting them with anyone besides a skilled Magos with the resources of a full Forge World is simply not going to happen. In terms of fluff, you can forget about Grav, Volkite, and Plasma weapons, along with Inferno Pistols. That said, the biggest draw of being an artisan is being able to customize your equipment and crafting custom munitions on tap, instead of spending several fruitless sessions trying to scrounge up your next load of specialty bolt shells and grenades. Obtaining blueprints should be a major undertaking involving a great service to the Machine God, and tacit approval of your work by a high ranking Techpriest before disseminating the plans.

Hoo boy...what a mess. Your group is going to have to pull off the 40k equivalent of a political fumblerooski; If they have already lost a bunch of profit factor and are using psykers so openly, you can bet there are sharks circling. Other dynasties will take one look and assume they are teetering on the precipice of heresy, and be getting ready to pounce-with a story of your guilt ready to hand over to the authorities for post-facto legitimacy. Assuming you do not want to play through an excommunicated dynasty, you need to do something about those cultists fast-even if they are personally loyal, they will end up as no more than pawns in one of Tzeentch's schemes to corrupt them all. You need to figure out a way to kill them all without razing whatever is left of your resources; deploying them planetside under false pretenses then vaporizing them with an orbital strike is an old Malleus standby for tainted troops-a good place to start.
 
That first part of my above post is something your players will have to sell to the Ordo Hereticus, after burying the hatchet. With that much smoke, there will be Inquisitors poking around looking for a fire. Convincing a Hereticus Inquisitor to sign off on an internal purge should hopefully allay interest from the Ordo Malleus and keep them from taking an interest. Hereticus types tend to be straightforward and are less likely to go digging through a case that seems closed. Whatever you do, your group is complicit in chaos activity, which is a death warrant by any Malleus Inquisitor, and they will dig to to bottom and find everything a Hereticus Inquisitor would gloss over or take for granted. Remember you have essentially no chance of fooling a Malleus Inquisitor-the few that are not powerful psykers employ them as standard, and they have means and influence beyond any other group in the Imperium. With the Malleus Remit, they can exert complete power and judgment over your dynasty, anywhere, beyond even the reach of the High Lords of Terra, and no one can countermand their orders. If a Malleus Inquisitor looks at this dynasty, they will all be declared Excommunicate Traitoris, and then you are playing Black Crusade. So, talk with your players before the next session and figure out which way they want to take this. If they want to continue this campaign without going completely renegade, they will need to clean house, then pull a fast one on the Ordo Hereticus in order to keep the Ordo Malleus from taking an interest. Done right, it could be an excellent Grand Endeavor, racing against the clock to save their house from certain destruction.

End of the day, the only group that can officially handle the Inquisition is the Inquisition; if your group is unable or unwilling to arrange an accident, tragedy, or negligent discharge of a firearm, you need to find someone to pull rank on an Inquisitor sizing you up for a pyre. A big question is how much the group knows of her alignments and methods. If they find out she is an Oblationist, they can safely finish her and ship her corpse to the Ordo Xenos with a note that your dynasty expects to be fairly compensated for doing the Ordo's job for them. If they do not think they can take her or there are too many Imperial witnesses, they can send a message to both the Ordo Xenos and Ordo Malleus; file an official report with her superiors concerning your suspicions of her allegiances and methods. Make sure to attach an addendum offhandedly mentioning you also contacted the Ordo Malleus, to short circuit the knee-jerk response of the Ordo Xenos to rub you out as well to save face. The Ordo Malleus usually takes point on all radical Inquisitors  if it seems their own Ordo is not bringing them to heel in a timely manner, but make sure you have all your ducks in a row. The responding Malleus Inquisitor will give your dynasty a good once-over on general principle, and will not be dissuaded by practicality or circumstance. Pretty much any Malleus Inquisitor not under cover or traveling with a crusade or expedition will show up with their own capital ship and military contingent, and no orders or inclination to respect the Warrant of Trade.

End of the day, the only group that can officially handle the Inquisition is the Inquisition; if your group is unable or unwilling to arrange an accident, tragedy, or negligent discharge of a firearm, you need to find someone to pull rank on an Inquisitor sizing you up for a pyre. A big question is how much the group knows of her alignments and methods. If they find out she is an Oblationist, they can safely finish her and ship her corpse to the Ordo Xenos with a note that your dynasty expects to be fairly compensated for doing the Ordo's job for them. If they do not think they can take her or there are too many Imperial witnesses, they can send a message to both the Ordo Xenos and Ordo Malleus; file an official report with her superiors concerning your suspicions of her allegiances and methods. Make sure to attach an addendum offhandedly mentioning you also contacted the Ordo Malleus, to short circuit the knee-jerk response of the Ordo Xenos to rub you out as well to save face. The Ordo Malleus usually takes point on all radical Inquisitors  if it seems their own Ordo is not bringing them to heel in a timely manner, but make sure you have all your ducks in a row. The responding Malleus Inquisitor will give your dynasty a good once-over on general principle, and will not be dissuaded by practicality or circumstance. Pretty much any Malleus Inquisitor not under cover or traveling with a crusade or expedition will show up with their own capital ship and military contingent, and no orders or inclination to respect the Warrant of Trade.

Hoo boy...what a mess. Your group is going to have to pull off the 40k equivalent of a political fumblerooski; If they have already lost a bunch of profit factor and are using psykers so openly, you can bet there are sharks circling. Other dynasties will take one look and assume they are teetering on the precipice of heresy, and be getting ready to pounce-with a story of your guilt ready to hand over to the authorities for post-facto legitimacy. Assuming you do not want to play through an excommunicated dynasty, you need to do something about those cultists fast-even if they are personally loyal, they will end up as no more than pawns in one of Tzeentch's schemes to corrupt them all. You need to figure out a way to kill them all without razing whatever is left of your resources; deploying them planetside under false pretenses then vaporizing them with an orbital strike is an old Malleus standby for tainted troops-a good place to start.
 
That first part of my above post is something your players will have to sell to the Ordo Hereticus, after burying the hatchet. With that much smoke, there will be Inquisitors poking around looking for a fire. Convincing a Hereticus Inquisitor to sign off on an internal purge should hopefully allay interest from the Ordo Malleus and keep them from taking an interest. Hereticus types tend to be straightforward and are less likely to go digging through a case that seems closed. Whatever you do, your group is complicit in chaos activity, which is a death warrant by any Malleus Inquisitor, and they will dig to to bottom and find everything a Hereticus Inquisitor would gloss over or take for granted. Remember you have essentially no chance of fooling a Malleus Inquisitor-the few that are not powerful psykers employ them as standard, and they have means and influence beyond any other group in the Imperium. With the Malleus Remit, they can exert complete power and judgment over your dynasty, anywhere, beyond even the reach of the High Lords of Terra, and no one can countermand their orders. If a Malleus Inquisitor looks at this dynasty, they will all be declared Excommunicate Traitoris, and then you are playing Black Crusade. So, talk with your players before the next session and figure out which way they want to take this. If they want to continue this campaign without going completely renegade, they will need to clean house, then pull a fast one on the Ordo Hereticus in order to keep the Ordo Malleus from taking an interest. Done right, it could be an excellent Grand Endeavor, racing against the clock to save their house from certain destruction.

It was all Tzeentch's fault. A powerful cult Magus turned several NPCs into pawns to throw the group off his trail, and allow him to finish corrupting their holdings before triggering a cataclysmic collapse. Turning them against righteous Agents of the Throne was a bonus. Expect the group to be violently disabused of their delusions at the hands of an enraged Malleus Inquisitor Lord heading up a Black Fleet; with regiments of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, requisitioned Astra Militarum and Astartes forces, and several worse things only at the disposal of the Ordo Malleus. No matter how bad the group thinks they are, the Malleus always have the last word and no one in the Imperium can gainsay them. Survival most definitely not guaranteed.

It was all Tzeentch's fault. A powerful cult Magus turned several NPCs into pawns to throw the group off his trail, and allow him to finish corrupting their holdings before triggering a cataclysmic collapse. Turning them against righteous Agents of the Throne was a bonus. Expect the group to be violently disabused of their delusions at the hands of an enraged Malleus Inquisitor Lord heading up a Black Fleet; with regiments of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, requisitioned Astra Militarum and Astartes forces, and several worse things only at the disposal of the Ordo Malleus. No matter how bad the group thinks they are, the Malleus always have the last word and no one in the Imperium can gainsay them. Survival most definitely not guaranteed.

The novel "The Emperor's Finest" has Commissar Ciaphas Cain attached to a joint Mechanicus/Astartes mission of the Reclaimers chapter in their efforts to track down a space hulk centuries after the fact. Because Hulks drift along currents, and may spend centuries in realspace, the Mechanicus uses some advanced tech in conjunction with a navigator to identify the likeliest currents then drift, while tracking the most likely course through both the warp and realspace. They catch up fairly quickly, due to the Hulk having made several long realspace drops.
 
Orks are unfortunate-if they make it aboard, they are likely to trash most things that would be worth salvaging, reducing them to scrap before rebuilding them as Ork tech. In addition to classic genestealers and Chaos forces, Hrud infestations are likely. And keep in mind that many Space Hulks are large enough to house multiple enclaves of nasty stowaways-only an Ork infestation is likely to grow large enough on its own to take control of a Space Hulk.

You are correct; in BFG Holo and Shadow fields are functionally identical, forcing a right shift on the gunnery table and providing a 2+ save on a d6 against everything else without piercing. Much more powerful than the equivalent in Rogue Trader.