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So me and my gaming circle recently played through our first mission, written by yours truly. One glaring issue that appeared was the fact that krak grenades deal such an insane amount of damage to single targets. While we only had 3 PCs they stocked up on as many krak grenades as possible just for giggles and promptly went on a killing spree blasting their way through all the major mooks without any trouble. In fact, without even taking damage from them. My question to my fellow Dakkanauts thus is:

Does anyone have similar experience and if so, what did your group do to fix the issue? I'd rather not play the "oh sorry, the Deathwatch is experiencing a shortage of grenades" card for every single mission. Is there a way of preventing grenades from mashing through larger adversaries without making them completely useless?

Well the GM can say no. There would also be a realistic amount of Grenades that a Marine could carry.

To put it another way: Don't let your players walk all over you.

Alternatively try throwing some big nasties at them. Even amend the stats to give them a better Dodge (unlike other types of grenades, Krak Grenades are really easy to Dodge due to the lack of large blast radius).

And then, every now and again, kill one of them just to prove that you're the one in charge. Zoanthropes are good at that. Warp Lance = One-Shot Dead Marine.

H.B.M.C. wrote:And then, every now and again, kill one of them just to prove that you're the one in charge. Zoanthropes are good at that. Warp Lance = One-Shot Dead Marine.

That's the issue though, I did. The Big Mek that I threw at them had a Kustom Gun that would more or less melt anything it hit, but he kept missing even at point blank range... And was promptly krak'd to death despite me "forgetting to mention" that he had a 90- chance to dodge grenades. Any more stacked odds in the Big Meks favour and it'd approach the level where it'd be blatant plot armour. Guess I'll go with the "not more than this" grenade limit, it makes sense.

Why not just include a plot device such as... -

1. Placing them in an area where a large explosion could theoretically kill every one?
See that big mek? You can duke it out with him in hand to hand or you can grenade him... but the room smells like gas from a busted pipe Might not wanna set all that off...

2. Limit grenade carrying? Sounds lame to me. They don't sell duffle bags in the GrimDark?

Don't let it become vanilla or into a pen and paper version of WoW. Work on developing a method in which to defeat grenades. Were there any survivors who could let people know what your party did? Why not have the next set of baddies they face off with recognize their use of grenades and slip a sabotaged 'nade into their stock pile. Maybe they catch it and now have to suspect their entire supply. Then that becomes a plot bunny towards --- who the hell just sabotaged our nades and why?

If worse comes to worse; let one of them cook off in a PC's hand after getting hit with a stun blast or something.

Just keep reaching for ideas!

Have 'em stalking aliens within an old mine. Mines don't like explosives.

Give a realistic carry limit for grenades. Also require combat webbing or something else to increase the carry capacity for grenades. One shot req items tend to fail if you throw enough at them anyway.

close quarters? Blast radius weapons don't like small spaces...

Also always remember that enemies can and do learn at times. If they're appropriately stupid they might only learn to minimize losses by sending out 1-2 people to attract grenades.

Basically, encourage the idea that they're for rare big chunks, bunker clearing, etc. and not a default weapon.

Give them an enemy with a baseball bat and have him hit the grenades back at them.

Your Friend Doctor Robert wrote:Give them an enemy with a baseball bat and have him hit the grenades back at them.

You, sir, are my hero! Why didn't I think of this sooner?! The hilarity!

AlmightyWalrus wrote:

Your Friend Doctor Robert wrote:Give them an enemy with a baseball bat and have him hit the grenades back at them.

You, sir, are my hero! Why didn't I think of this sooner?! The hilarity!

It could lead to the ugly situation where the players want to return the favor, assuming the rules don't already allow for this.

Well I havent done Deathwatch(yet) but I have GM'd plenty of d&d, so you could say logistically they are limited on the amount of grenades that the armourer is willing to give them, just because they have requisition to buy them does not mean the armourer is willing to empty his stores of krak grenades for one squad. Another option is have an ambush that involves a poo load of said Krak's so that the group realises they 'taught' the GM something bad, they tend to stop being so spammy on things in my experience when you throw it back in their face with change

Carrying Capacity is obviously the best solution, in the game I run my PC's are allowed to carry 10 standard magazines for a boltgun, 3 grenades of two types for a maximum of 6 grenades, one primary weapon, one sidearm and one melee weapon, and their other supplies like medkits and whatnot.

In situations with high heat, like fires, plasma weapons overheating, standing in geothermal energy facilities, and other situations similar to what I listed, add a chance for grenades to potentially cook off and explode on rigging. The rulebook says nothing about grenades bieng waterproofed, so run a chance that one submerged in water for an extended period of time has a greater chance of bieng a dud based on a percentage roll.

I think i'ld play the GM Card and tell them that the Codex says you can't just facemelt everything with the grenades As long as they are not Space Wolves they'll listen..probably xD

Since i tell them to only talk ooc if there is absolutely no way around it and give bonuses for good RP etc. stuff like that works pretty well in my group.

edit:

Carrying Capacity is obviously the best solution, in the game I run my PC's are allowed to carry 10 standard magazines for a boltgun, 3 grenades of two types for a maximum of 6 grenades, one primary weapon, one sidearm and one melee weapon, and their other supplies like medkits and whatnot.

Also, this ^^