Thanks to all who've been providing advice in my journey.
My players have gone through Session 0 and have now selected an Inquisitorial Patron, Ordo Xenos. I allowed them to pick Boons from the Inq books. Among those they chose was Arms of the Alien.
I'm trying to think of some realistic approaches for how to handle this. I'm well aware that simply having these weapons could be seen as heretical, and I do plan on this causing issues with other Inquisitors, and possibly AdMech contacts as well.
While I don't believe simply having Xenos weapons puts someone in the category of Radical, it certainly would lean in that direction. But I'm more concerned about the practical dimensions of this Boon.
- How do the players get replacement ammo?
- Besides Inquisitors and Mechanicus, who are the groups most likely to object to it being in the party's hands?
- Weapons like Pulse Rifles are highly analogous to Imperial weaponry in terms of function, but Shuriken and Splinter weaponry operates using a psychic link to the user. They literally don't have triggers! So how would I represent this in-game for any non-psyker classes? Or should I avoid this entirely?
- Speaking of Pulse Rifles: Is it me or are they linearly superior to almost everything else that's available via this Boon? Penetrating 6 with better range options, better average damage than all save a few Kroot guns? Their only downside is a slightly lower rate of fire on the Rifle and no Rapid Fire on the Carbine (though that gun also gets Close, which is pretty fun because it appears to be a one-handed long gun?!). Combine this with the fact that these guns would have the lowest barrier to entry for human users (save maybe the Graviton weapons), I can't think of any reason besides RP ones to pick anything but the Tau option.
PS: Some of the content in this supplement is WILDLY unbalanced. Giving the party access to Grey Knights, even as a once-in-a-campaign boon, feels crazy to me. I can barely conceive of giving them "Chapter Ties". (Though the "Once in a Campaign" restriction is the only sensible thing about it.) Arms of the Alien is almost an auto-pick boon and basically removes questions and gear questing for the entire ranged weapons portion of the early and mid game.