New GM but Vetern 40K'er Help Being Fair to PCs

[junkygood 4]

So, I am very familiar with the 40K universe and I can describe the environment and encounters with great detail keeping with the lore, but I am having two major issues as a new GM:

 

1) The PCs want to explore the entire sprawling Hive City and I need good techniques to keep them on track, yet still retain the feeling of  enormity in a Hive City. I feel like I am describing this exciting world, but telling them to keep to the task at hand.

 

2) The PCs are constantly trying to pick up items from dead NPCs or are looking around for requisition depots to upgrade their gear. How can I limit this, but still present them with the rewarding feeling of getting loot?

 

I know all of this comes with time and practice as a GM, but if any of you vet's out there have some tips I can use in my campaigns I'd appreciate it!

 

 

[madMAEXX 84]

1) Use in game methods to put pressure on them. Make the time count. Remind them (through NSCs) that they are on a deadline (If they are. If not, give them one). If they REALLY want to go off track and explore someplace else, it might be best to let them do that and improvise a way to get them back to your story from there. You can shift the location of a clue or a NPC that has not yet appeared in your game to the new location without much hassle.

 

2)Let them have it. But remember that every piece of loot has a history that comes with consequences. That chainsword might have belonged to some hive ganger and now his big bad brother is on the hunt for his killer. That boltpistol might've been stolen from an Arbites. The really cool and epic powersword just has this little rune on the blade that looks suspiciously chaotic. You can come up with lots of fun and interesting stuff. And then confront the players with it. Give them a chance to circumvent these consequenses. They should be able to see the rune if they are looking closely at the sword, for example.

As for the depots: They just don't have what they want. And remember that requisitioning things takes time as well. It's not just walking in there and taking the stuff.

[Gregorius21778 249]

Hi there

 

2) The PCs are constantly trying to pick up items from dead NPCs or are looking around for requisition depots to upgrade their gear. How can I limit this, but still present them with the rewarding feeling of getting loot?

 

Sponsor your characters. Give them equipment matching the requirements of the mission. Make sure that most of the items they find are not necessarily "better" then what they have. Stick those to the people who are "Leutenant NPC" or such. You might want to use the forum search, there must be literally DOZEN topics on that matter by now

I made good experience with the Inqusition -official- looting heretics and seizing there belongings. My characters (as a cell) where looting as they saw it fitting and in the aftermath, "clean swats" would swope in to seize the belongings of the heretics (so they did not need to stuff it all away themselves). BUT this was method of the Inquisitor to get additional funds! They knew that they were to hand over everything they took at the end of the mission, but were allowed to official request certain items. That way, I was able to keep a "cap" on the loot while allowing them "toy time" during the mission. OH, and my players liked it a lot when they were actually able to KEEP something.

In regard to point... let them face the mundane! Make it look interesting, but in the end it is a dead end. Sure, they can go on, but it is not getting more interesting.

 

[n00b f00 70]

Madmaexx took the words from my mouth basically. These are 2 semi universal issues. Indulging players without getting off track. With the getting lost thing let them wander off a bit but drop hints when they're getting too far off their objective.

 

When it comes to loot it depends on the tone you want. What I do is, I mostly let my players keep what they loot, while tossing in an occasional complication. That sword is an valued heirloom of some big shot nobles etc. But I mostly play rogue trader so that's par for the course. The other important factor is not putting anything too cool within their reach or occasionally cheesing and going with the classic "Oh it was destroyed in the fight." So you know, hassle them about anything cool. Don't put down anything too cool. And if all else fails just have their boss be a jerk about what gear they are and are not allowed to use.

[ThePhoenician 3]

Other than the time pressure, I tell my players that everything has consequences.  These consequences can be subtlety loss, the current mission or goal could become more difficult as the enemy has more time to prepare, etc.  In general I try to let the party do what they want, I want them to have freedom. 

 

It seems like my players always want to scavenge equipment no matter what game I'm gming.  What I do is enforce the carry weight strictly which usually prevents them from accumulating too much.  If it’s a rare weapon you can also have very little remaining ammo left.  The limited ammo and carry capacity makes some weapons just not worth lugging around in the hope of eventually getting ammo.  Sometimes you just need to be harsh with the players; if they spend too much time trying to requisition weapons and equipment, you can make the mission/portion become more difficult or even a failure which will result in a loss of influence because they took too long.  If all else fails, you can give them structured requisition times in which every period of time (example: every other session) they can attempt to requisition a number of items.

[Magnus Grendel 11,674]

Precisely. The players acquired a best craftsmanship plasma pistol.... a lethal weapon, but with a custom powercell they couldn't replace containing a both low and unknown number of remaining shots. Cool, but not gamechanging.

 

Also, if the Inquisitor keeps close tabs on the group, then he's likely to want the chaos runesword/astartes bolter/whatever from the heretic's hideout as evidence.

[mda821 7]

When it comes to new players, you have to be careful not to scare them away from loot and whatnot. When i first started 40k RPGs, my GM let me get away with a decent amount of loot whoring, but instead of a direct punishment, like corruption or getting killed by some avenger, he had everyone look down upon the action. Make it apparent that you won't get far wearing the armor of your enemies and fallen allies. While you CAN take that carapace armor of the soldier you just killed, unless you get it repainted and have all the symbols scratched off, you are going to look like the big scary soldier you killed.  In addition, you don't need to leave a lot of high-quality loot for PCs to find. I have had many PCs killed by hive mutants with autoguns. Its possible to have challenging encounters without challenging enemies. When you do this, even if you PCs loot 10 autoguns off their enemies.......who's actually going to trade for them. In a militaristic setting, the standard assault rifle will be in every household. When your PCs show up at some store or depot to trade in their loot, just have the shop owner or quatermaster say "why the hell would i want more _____? I'm up to my augmetic eyeballs in goddamn ______!" balancing loot is a tough task, but it can be done tastefully.