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Hey guys, been ramping up for DM'ing a Deathwatch session and I was trying to flesh out a couple side characters for the party to interact with. I got to thinking when I was trying to go over quirks and other details of some of the PDF and Guardsmen and I got to wondering about some things.

1) Bionics - I understand with marines that it wouldn't be unheard of for maybe 50% or more of a chapter to have at least one bionic limb, due to their long life span and the effort put into each of them to keep them combat capable. What about the Imperial Guard? I've not read many IG Black Library books, but the only guardsmen I know of with a bionic is Col. Straken. Is this something where only seasoned officers, or officers with strings to pull can get them? Would bionics be handed out to an injured non-commissioned officer or even platoon leaders (junior officers)? I know it's unlikely for your run of the mill red shirt to be given all the nice technical whatzits when they're expected to die in the hundreds if not thousands.

2) Augmentics - Stims/Chems/ and other nastyness like that. I figure medics would have a variety of substances to be used by their unit. Is it common for Imperial Guards to use stimms before combat? Would there be other forms of chemical augmentation that are Imperium Approved? Examples like human growth hormone in their MRE's, steroids, or maybe something to the effect of the Nazi pilots of WWII where they were actually given meth as a major reflex enhancer and means of operating beyond human norms.

This leads me to my last question:
3) I know that a IG regiment, once they are tithed and leave their planet will never return. I also know that many IG regiments when they are serving with other regiments and suffer extreme casualties that they may be shoehorned into a combined regiment. Would it be unheard of, or against Imperial Creed for a sorely understrength regiment that has just finished a campaign to report to a tithe planet and help them train their PDF to IG tithe? If such a thing were accepted, would the trainers remain on planet training further regiments, or would they ship off with their trainees to their assigned warzone?

My argument for #3 is that with a solid core of veteran officers and non-coms, you could get a greenhorn regiment with a solid core of leadership with experience in battle already. I was wondering in regards to #1 if a Sgt. Major of a understrength training regiment would be likely or unlikely to have a bionic limb, and the propensity of the trainers to push for usage of stimms and other chemicals.

Thanks!

All 3 of these points are valid.

1.) Bionics are given to any soldier to which the Imperium has the means to give. It just means that the soldier has fought and lost limbs like any modern warrior with a prosthesis. The only difference is that the majority of IG soldiers are not discharged, they continue to fight. (usually with a Medallion Crimson on their breast.)

2. Yes. In the older edition to the IG, you could buy an upgrade for stimpacks for any guardsmen. You could pretty much go where-ever you want with this - but be aware that creating a "bane" character is warrant for Inquisitorial pursuit.

3. Yes. The training has to come from someone - what happens to them after they have served depends on the world. In particularly brutal settings they'd do exactly what you thought - fight alongside the new recruits. In less constrained worlds, the veteran may live out his or her days training more recruits to simply retiring and joining civilian life.

Bionics are very common. The quality however is variable.

The bionics avaliable to a Guardsmen will vary according to his rank. An officer will have access to better quality then a footsoldier.

1. Bionics will get portioned out based on availability to the regiment, rank, status, and whatever else the chain of command/medics feel like.
2. Stimms/drugs of many kinds are very common in the IG. In Wrath of Iron the Commisar or the Lord General was addicted to something, and was in charge of the whole Task Force.
3. Yep

A lot of this is the same answer, but here goes...

1. Depends on the circumstances and the regiment. In Chenkov's regiment, I doubt anyone cares about the soldiery enough to give anyone a second go, but in Gaunts Ghosts, bionics are common enough for the rank and file to have some (though large, clunky ones), presumably because bionics happen to be more common on that crusade and because they are a specialist regiment. Likewise, vostroyans, who come from a technological manufacturing planet, seem to have better access to them.

2. Again, depends on the circunstances and the regimental practices. 40k features examples of primitve regiments who wouldn't have any chemical knowledge, gland warriors who have been engineered with chemical release glands to increase their reactions, and crazy units with drugs in their respirators. Some units would consider it crazy to give people drugs for combat use (Gaunts Ghosts), but have stimms, etc for medical use, some would give everyone combat stimms to stop fear (Savlar) but probably don't have that great medical facilities...

3. Yup, certainly possible. Old regiments may be 'reformed' from new recruits as well - so if the Bill's World XVII are understrength they may well just recruit a couple of thousand sould from the nearest planet. This happens in to the Ghosts twice, with the result that by the current point Tanith only compose about a third of the regiment, the rest made up of Vervunhivers they recruited and the Belladon who they were folded in with when both units were under strength. It also wouldn't be heard of for a severely understrength regiment to be returned home to re-found, with the (very) few survivors staying on as officers.

Alternatively, some Guard units are 'released from service' by being made the colonists of worlds they successfully conquer - in which case it's likely that they would form that new world's militia and PDF as well as being colonists...

My thoughts on these questions, based on my usual preference of GW fluff over other publications:

1) I don't think a blanket statement can be made. The individual regiments and their respective homeworlds can be so different from one another - just like you have regiments raised with horses or even spear and bow as opposed to tanks and lasguns, the medical knowledge and equipment of their medicae will be just as different. Other Imperial adepta such as the Adeptus Mechanicus or the Orders Hospitaller or the Imperial Guard's own medical corps may pitch in, but not every engagement/regiment is regarded important enough to warrant their attention and the usage of expensive skills and technology. Keep in mind that human lives are the most easily spent currency of the Imperium, and I believe wide availability of high-grade medical attention might be counter to this dystopian vision. As such, I would say this is a case-by-case decision influenced by a whole plethora of factors, ranging from the regiment's own reputation to how the injured soldier is regarded by his superiors (did he get injured in a particularly valiant assault or was he just unlucky?), as well as the mere personal opinion of his superiors and the people in charge of whoever would perform the surgery.

"Bionics is not an exact science in the Imperium, and many are clumsy and inefficient machines, while the best can replicate or even improve upon the performance of the original limb or organ."

If you would like to read more about bionics and implants, scroll down to the armory section of this PDF hosted on GW's website:
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2350169a_m1320029_Inq_Rulebook_part_1.pdf

2) The only thing "common" to the Imperial Guard is the lasgun. There are, however, individual regiments who are heavy users of augmetics, such as the Savlar Chem-Dogs - a penal regiment issued with chem-inhalers dispensing a drug that raises the trooper's aggressiveness.
On a sidenote, the Allies actually used more amphetamines than the Axis, and they were not issued to pilots alone but also the infantry (such as the USMC in the Battle for Tarawa).

Here's some fluff quotes that may be of interest to you, though, taken from GW's Inquisitor RPG:
"The more dubious Imperial Commanders do not think twice about subjecting their Guardsmen to atrocities which would be considered barbaric by many, such as forced addiction to certain combat drugs, or the implantation of adrenal and endochrinal glands that turn the soldier into a frenzied killing machine."
"A few companies of the Lostok 23rd were modified by the Techpriests to fight in this hellish warzone, incorporating many organs and drug-secreting glands that enabled them to survive unprotected, as well as boosting their combat abilities and aggressiveness."

3) This is a very grey area, and the information on this is scarce enough that there will be much room for speculation. Personally, I believe it does not fit to the Imperial Guard's modus operandi - unless the planet is already a warzone and these veterans help train a militia. Generally, however, the Munitorum generally has very little interest in the worlds of the Imperium beyond them paying their tithes, and raising a fighting force that holds up to the Emperor's demands is the sole responsibility of the Imperial governor. According to Codex fluff, understrength regiments simply keep on fighting until they are completely destroyed, merged with another regiment, or complete their tour of duty and settle down on a world they just conquered. Individual veterans who grow too old for a regiment that is still on active duty are dropped off at a Schola Progenium to become Drill Abbots and train the next generation of progena. Keep in mind the potential "culture shock" and the utter dissimilarity of regimental tactics when you just drop off a bunch of vets to train soldiers from a completely different world. It's got to be difficult enough when regiments get merged - though I imagine that this is somewhat negated by the individual soldiers mostly still keeping to their own people, thus resulting in breaks on company level rather than within a squad, and the Munitorum may prefer merging regiments hailing from the same world wherever possible.

Addendum: You are playing the Deathwatch RPG, which already takes a lot of liberties from Games Workshop's vision - so perhaps the case could be made that it's no use to stick to established fluff (regardless of whether there actually is a conflict or not) anyways, when the very setting you are playing in already deviates from GW material. So unless you have discarded these changes to the setting, perhaps you too should be aware of the option to simply "make stuff up" depending on what you believe fits best. So for example, for question 1 my advice would be to look more at the NPCs you want to flesh out rather than the intricate details of background information which conflicts from source to source. If you think your players would think it's cool for a veteran to sport a bionic arm/leg/eye, go for it, for such small details in appearance add character to an NPC, similar to an eyepatch for pirates.

Fantastic responses all around! Thank you guys very much for your input. I think good ol' Sergeant Major Merriwether Hawthorne is going to be a fun one for me and the players alike.

I had always anticipated Hawthorne and the remaining officer cadre of the Acerian 257th to have been fairly distinguished in their last campaign, but not enough to had been promoted to the Segmentum level of command. That was the only reason why I had even considered a Sgt to have bionics. I was contemplating an arm and a leg at first, but based on what I am hearing I think I'll leave it with a clunky leg (good for door breaching and giving the greenhorns a kick in the arse ).

As for why the vets are not on their homeworld or being reformed into a reconstructed regiment. I that may have fallen back on how well the Colonel had performed on his previous campaign. While not being promoted to a Sector's staff of Generals or Lord Generals, he may have been given a 'second chance' or even pulled some strings to have his second chance 'trained how he wants them trained'. So far I had envisioned the Colonel, his XO, 2 Captains, and the Sgt. Major having actually survived or been able to continue serving.

I did not intend to turn the vets into any sort of regiment like the Chem Dogs. But I did read a bit on them after you guys mentioned them. I guess I was wondering if vets, particularly officers or higher ranked non commissioned officers especially would be prone to more stimm/chem usage.

I do understand that the Deathwatch RPG takes a different view of the lore, for the most part I have tried to keep this campaign as true to it as I could find/or already knew about existing lore. I've also placed the campaign on the northeastern fringe to give an additional buffer for any discrepancies until I am more familiar with all the little nuances of the lore and get used to the role of DM (never done it before, am nervous as gak about it). One thing that is my saving grace in this is that only 1 of them is really familiar with the lore, one is somewhat familiar, and two have almost no clue of it.

Other interesting to note on the WW2 reference I made, never knew that about Ally forces. The more you know!
Oh and Arbitorian, you should know I was inspired by your posts on the arbites and one of the characters I created was a judge (and the only way for the Kill Team to have any motorized transport if they play it off right).