/40krpg/ - Warhammer 40,000 RPG General

So a friend wants to run DH 1st ed, and I asked why he isnt doing 2nd ed, and he wasnt really able to give a concrete answer and spouted a meme on top of it

I've never played it, why would someone not like it?

An unwillingness to learn a new system?

He may just like it better, I also do prefer DH1.

Help me world build for my campaign.
41 Pry is a decrepit orbital station situated in the lumen of a large asteroid on the periphery of the Ochre gas giant of Pry. Past its zenith and just operational enough to sustain a small population, Pry is a contentious subject within the Fortress of The Grand Precinct on Scintilla. "The Ignominious 41" is an apt colloquialism for the Mark 4 "Sacrosanct" class station in the Golgenna Reach, as it is used for the wholesale and often conspicuous distribution of class alpha and beta Iocanthan prohibitants by a plethora of void cartels and Kasabillica ventures, including the powerful combat stimulant derived from Ghostfire pollen. The cabal presiding over the station have almost unanimously been tangentially associated with impeachment and legally questionable ventures, but the evidence required to ratify a sanction is never enough; much to the disappointment of the single arbitrator on the station.

Sure, what do you need help with? Sounds like a pretty cool location.

I'm just being scrupulous and looking to build the setting up. I just want some suggestions to those nagging little questions I have when i'm worldbuilding. Questions like...
Why is it given the prefix 41? does it relate to its orbital location? How is Ghostfire Pollen made and transported to the station? What's 41's history? What's the population like and what are its customs and dialect? What jobs do they have? Who are the governors and what are their backstories? The station is somewhat dilapidated and disused, so what little traffic does it receive and from whom? and so on and so on. I just want pedantic little suggestions. Don't feel obligated to write out a full homebrew for me.

I wanted to do a relics of the dark age of technology game, but then GW blew away all my headcanon with the new Ollanius Pius story, so there goes that.

>new Ollanius Pius story
Oh fuck. Did they finally shit on the one human everyone agreed was an alright dude?

Tell me about your inquisitor's Veeky Forums

If the emperor was born in 8000 BC according to MoM, Ollanius was born in 15,000 BC, so he's older than any of us thought, even as a perpetual. He fought in the battles against the Men of Iron, and called it "simple and fun" compared to the Horus Heresy. He notes how the Men of Iron struck first, with nanomachine swarms and weapons capable of consuming stars, against the scattered and fractured Alliances of humanity during the DAoT.

My group is running a DH1 game, and as the psyker I want to go Templar Calix with a Biomancy specialization. Which rank should I swap?

>Why does it have the prefix 41?
It was originally the 41st colony founded within the near space of Pry (including colonies on Pry itself)
>How is ghostfire pollen made and transported to the station?
I am unaware if this is a homebrew plant or not, but assuming it is you could have large floating plants inside Pry that the cartels enter and obtain pollen than fly it back to 41. Once there just use heroin as the 'recipe'.
>What's 41's history?
Standard loyalist back story: Dreary mining/factory world, stayed loyal and saw little fighting during the heresy, been in decline ever since. If you want make it a 'way station' at one point for loyalist iron warriors.

He's a chessmaster-type character that works from the shadows. We communicate to him through various agents and, through them, is actually quite helpful. However, whenever we do anything good he takes the credit so our Influence doesn't budge. So far our characters haven't noticed, though I don't think mine would mind anyway since she's actually getting shit done.

Ghostfire pollen is the chief export from Iocanthos, a feral world in the Calixis sector. Ghostfire pollen is a key ingredient in many combat drugs and is a regulated substance by the Munitorum. Iocanthos shows up in the adventure in the back of the book adventure of the first Dark Heresy core book.

He claims he is with the Ordos Xenos and is extremely interested in acquiring and understanding xenos tech. He is actually with the Ordos Mechanicum and thinks that maybe, just maybe, the Omnissiah is a false god. He constantly is looking for cutting edge technology and "tech heresy" to add to his collection. While overall he's a pretty okay dude he's willing to sacrifice his acolytes by the drove to obtain AdMech secrets.

>If the emperor was born in 8000 BC according to MoM, Ollanius was born in 15,000 BC, so he's older than any of us thought, even as a perpetual. He fought in the battles against the Men of Iron, and called it "simple and fun" compared to the Horus Heresy. He notes how the Men of Iron struck first, with nanomachine swarms and weapons capable of consuming stars, against the scattered and fractured Alliances of humanity during the DAoT.
And somehow, people still get pissed when you say "Yeah, I'm completely ignoring anything that comes out of BL these days"

I actually rather like it. More objective information SHOULD mean less argument over established fact, especially when it deals with things that have never been looked at before. It's just that people cling to "feelings" and Your Dudes as a catch-all excuse when the game hasn't been about that for a very long time.

She has large burn scars around her augemetic eyes. I'm around eighty percent sure she's a psyker, but we've never seen her in combat. A slightly radical pragmatist, I'm sure she has growing concerns about the fanatical ultra-puritan assassin/knight/former child soldier of Cell 29, who somehow has not only consistently failed to kill himself in a heroic last stand against heresy, but has been bringing the party to his way of thinking more often than not.

Most (though certainly not all) of what people complain about though isn't new objective information. It's information that's come out that flat out contradicts objective information that was already available. And is usually worse (but that's certainly a matter of personal opinion.)

In any case, that's why I like the 40k RPGs. People can have their 40k setting how they like it, and if someone disagrees, well then they can GM the next game with the setting how they like it.

Alright Veeky Forums, how's this for a regimental background.

131st Royal Vestan Dragoons “The Deadly Dandies”

The world of Vesta is a planet of the idle rich. It is a land of rolling green hills and palatial estates. Its population is made up of blue bloods and their retainers, servants, house guard, etc. While there are roughly ninety-five thousand noble houses on Vesta each vying for the favour of Planetary Governess the Duchess Lizbeth Helestel XXI.

Due to the planet’s political influence, Vesta was exempt from tithing to the Imperial Guard. However the 1st Royal Vestan Rifles was founded in response to the formation of the Macharian Crusade. Since then a total of 155 active Imperial Guard regiments have been founded, collectively known as the Royal Vestans. Every soldier is a volunteer and is typically wined and dined by a regimental recruiter directly from their noble house. Two primary reasons for volunteering is to alleviate the boredom of the idle rich or if the entire 20 year term can be served the trooper is virtually guaranteed to be named heir of their house.

The 131st Royal Vestan Dragoons were founded roughly two centuries ago as a traditional cavalry unit. The first complete deployment of the regiment resulted in 94% casualties due to a miscommunicated order to charge a heavily fortified artillery battery. After this massacre Colonel Boarwood II set about making sure the regiment would never fail a charge again. Utilizing his numerous contacts within the Adeptus Mechanicus and Departmento Munitorum he outfitted the entire regiment with Chimera Armoured Transports and reorganized them for armoured assault and close attack. Though they have completely abandoned their mounted roots enlisted officers still wear a horse hair plume on their helmets.

The 131st is organized into squads of 12 troopers and 1 chimera, which are in turn organized into 3 squads (alpha, beta, and gamma) per platoon, 4 platoons per company, 5 companies per battalion, with 6 battalions making up the regiment, at full strength the regiment can put 4,320 troops and 360 Chimeras into the field.

Due to their penchant towards finery, immaculate grooming, and general arrogance the 131st are often dismissed as a parade unit. Such insults are, more often than not, met with blades or fist as the so called “Deadly Dandies” will defend their personal and regimental honour against any slight real or imagined. While command tends to encourage this behavior as they feel it “keeps the troops sharp” they have strictly forbade duelling between ranks after, several decades ago, such an event caused the death of a Major and the subsequent collapse of an entire offensive front.

Tried to get some specifics but keep it vague enough for the players to fill in any blanks they want.

>there are roughly ninety-five thousand noble houses on Vesta
That's a ridiculously huge number, even if each House is under 500 members including servants.

A few friends want to try out roleplaying and because they're all fairly knowledgeable about the 40k universe I figured Dark Heresy would be a decent system to run for them. I haven't played 2nd edition at all, haven't even looked through the book yet, and am wondering what changed between 1st and 2nd and peoples general thoughts on the edition.

Wait too high or too low?

The Arbites "Precinct" is an ever-increasing hub of surveillance monitors, data-cortexes and filing cabinets as the lone Arbitrator tries his damnedest to finally catch the cabal red-handed, but they ever evade him... Yet.

Unbeknownst to him, there is also a small and relatively tight-knit community of a hundred or so mutants, downtrodden scum, wanted deserters and even a few rogue psykers who live in a hidden, decrepit area of the station only spoken of as the Blind Gut. Accessible via a combination of dusty air vents and long sealed off maintenance tunnels, the Blind Gut most closely resembles a small village, with its own bazaar and the watering hole going by the name The Jolly Gutter, serving the best rotgut booze on the whole of 41 Pry (its taste almost coming close to Amasec, and its recipe a closely guarded and rather digusting secret).

Of course, only a select few are privy to the location of the Blind Gut, among them many associates of the cabal and the void cartels who often use the bazaar to buy and sell the station's famous illicit goods, but if you know just the right thing to ask, you can pay one of the Gut Guides to lead you through the treacherous journey down there - blindfolded, of course, for your own safety, but mostly that of the Blind Gut's inhabitants. See, were the lone Arbitrator ever to find out, all hell would break loose, as the Blind Gut could provide him with just the evidence (and guilty parties, of course) he needs and so desperately searches for.

>Your Dudes as a catch-all excuse when the game hasn't been about that for a very long time.
And guess when 40k as a game and setting turned to shit.

I wanna run an Ordo Chronos game with recursive reality shifting, like Sliders meets Groundhog Day. The plan is to have the players board a Space Hulk that flickers into and out of reality every seven days. PCs find a doorway to a warpglass orrery of the system they currently inhabit. The orrery has a miniature space hulk. Each sphere of the orrery has a symbol corresponding with a door on the wall. Players that go through the doors find that they can alter events that will have occurred the next time the hulk flickers. The big goal of mission 1 is find out about the orrery. Mission 2 is to change an event for the Inquisitor. Mission 3 is a deep delve into the orrery to change events in the distant past, stopping an assassination of a particular general from the crusade that established the sector some 5000 years ago.

For myself, I've played 1e with my group literally since it came out. We've worked with this system for the better part of a decade, and truth be told we have so many house rules, tweaks and little understandings about the rules that we genuinely don't see the point in switching to 2e. I've also heard 2e's fluff is less interesting. The Calixis Sector is a really lovely campaign setting, I adore it.

It's a non-hive world with 155 active IG regiments made up entirely of highborn. I was concerned that 95,000 would be too low. But I figure with rejuvenate treatments that noble families would probably have something like 6 active generations at any given time.

It's literally this pic the planet.

So how does the world support itself? Does it? Is it every noble in the sector's vacation home, which they only occupy every third decade?

Mission 4 is to evade the extremely competent killers that suddenly turn up.

Twenty sessions and a great deal more Radicalism later, Mission 5 is to return to the space hulk and stop their original PCs from completing Mission 3.

The PCs are unaware that Mission 2, completed by their past selves, will in fact ensure that their future selves cannot complete Mission 5.

You support it citizen, with your hard work and unambitious dreams. Now get back to the pollution factory, its time for another 14 hour shift because that misery isn't going to assemble itself.

That was kinda the plan. I originally wanted them to encounter themselves in combat, but decided against it. If I run it, I'll have them spot themselves several times but only encounter themselves fully when they have to reassassinate the general.

The big twist will be that the general will die on a world they'd never visited before. Their alternate universe selves will be his protection, a mission that they never received due to a prior successful mission.

End game is to collapse the orrery into itself using the doors and the hulk. It'll cause their mad Ordo Chronos inquisitor to gain temporary insight into the underlying mechanics of the universe and become a Daemon Prince. The agents will then be given knowledge of how they were secretly being used to gather evidence against the newly ascended Prince, unwitting sleeper agents for a Malleus inquisitor.

This sets up for the next campaign.

This is some Singularity shit right here.

Go for it, then story time it.

Make the General Vostroyan, to complete the Singularity vibe.

Reminds me of a mission my GM ran for his other group. They had just finished this mission, involved destroying a cruiser commandered by Chaos and were pretty hurt, burned a lot of Fate.

So their Inquisitor let them take a month, all expenses paid on a paradise world. You know, beaches, resorts to the horizon and beyond. Partly because he was a nice guy, partly because it would take him that long to sift through the data and determine their next mission.

Anyways, they wind up RPing part of this paradise world until the whole resort gets hit by kill squads sent to assassinate them. So they have to Die Hard their way out of a situation without their normal gear or weapons. You know, kitchen knives and priceless wind bottles as weapons.

They eventually escape when an Inquisition agent (actually the head of the kill squads) 'saves their lives' and helps them get out, so they trust him, unbeknownst to them, an Inquisition war is brewing.

I just really like the variety of worlds available in 40k. I get tired of hive world after hive world.

*wine bottles
Teach me not to proofread my posts

You guys have any good greentexts/stories saved?

How do you make your players care about the NPCs?

theallguardsmenparty.com/secret.html

I was reading this earlier today, it's a new installment.

Here's my favorite

make them helpful

Only make like 3-4 of them max, and make them each do something different. A Support Crew, if you will. They should be there if needed for advice, but not really interject, and have personalities similar enough to the players that they feel comradeship, but different enough that they're not mirrors.

No players, comrade. They've all decided they'd rather play Pathfinder, so I've gotta run Pathfinder.

I hate Pathfinder.

Tell them you're running 40k, and if they don't like it, they can find another GM. Your fun is important, too.

Or are you going to pull the "they're your friends and you don't want drama" excuse"?

I know your pain, all my local group would play was 5e and Pathfinder, I stopped showing up at meetups and eventually they booted me out because someone couldn't let go of shit that happened when we were in high school together.

I hate this province so much.

Remember kids, if they aren't willing to at least TRY a new system, find new friends, because they are what kills tabletop.

East or west?

East.

Think "skidmark," its a good enough descriptor.

Oh no, I already laid that shit down. They whined and complained and ran a one-shot that sucked moose dick. I got dirty looks throughout the entire session, the looks of "This sucks, it's your fault we're all having a bad time, why are you playing, you're the GM."

We usually have 4 PCs and forever GM (me). They ran a one-shot with 2 GMs for 3 PCs and it was literally the worst session of any game I've ever played.

Hold up, they resented you for wanting to actually play yourself for once?

Bail. NOW. Having no group is still better than inconsiderate, self-absorbed assholes ruining it for you.

Any pre-made macros for Roll20 DH2? Or will I have to make 'em from scratch?

Ever done DH over one of a voice things like Skype our face time? I really don't want to play a slow ass online game, but I have no reliable players.

Still leaves me with no one to play with. I guess I'll write out the adventure and make a little module for others to play. Such is life.

>Do you think it could work better or be converted to Black Crusade?
Our GM is running The Soul Reaver for our Black Crusade group. We've turned terrorists and disinformation agents to get what we want, and prepare to backstab every single Dark Eldar who shows any inclination of doing the same.

After all, even Chaos hates the vile xeno.

t. A cuck who cant stand up to his "friends"

See, the whole "you meet yourselves as NPCs" thing is kind of unsatisfying in a time travel game.

But "Oh shit, you mean those events that occurred six sessions ago were set in motion by us NOW in THIS session? What kind of FUCKED UP MIND GAMES ARE YOU PLAYING? How did you DO that?"

That's very satisfying. It requires just the right amount of vagueness, gaslighting, cold reading, and trickery, but it's worth it just to see the players realize that they /somehow/ closed a timeloop in an RPG without any railroading involved.

Ever considered just asking people here to play instead?

I'm sure there are plenty of people in the Warhammer 40k RPG general who would be happy to play with someone competent running 40k.

It honestly doesn't sound like they're your friends, they just like your campaigns.

Can someone share some of your most insidious plans on killing pc?
Something that wouldn't be lame and could be overcome if the players are smart

Everyone hate the vile xeno

When you're creating characters, do you prefer to get talents, a load of known skills, or pluses in a couple of skills/advancements?

I'm a GM completely new to the systems (playing Dark Heresy 2E in case there's a difference), and trying to figure out what I should suggest for my players.
Side note, coming from Fate/Shadowrun/D&D, it feels really weird that unless I give them a bonus, they'll probably only pass one in three rolls

>do you prefer to get talents, a load of known skills, or pluses in a couple of skills/advancements?
It really depends on the character. Combat-heavy acolytes will probably focus on talents whilst most knowledge/social-based acolytes will be taking more skills. There's a few skills that are almost crucial though, like Awareness, Atheltics, Acrobatics, Dodge and Stealth.

It's more about what Aptitudes your character has though. If they're going for close combat then Weapon Skill, Strength, Offence, Finesse and Defence are what they should pick up. If they want something more brainy then Knowledge, Intelligence, Fieldcraft, Tech and Perception are what they should focus on. If the acolyte has the right aptitudes then they won't run into situations where a talent or skill they want/need is priced too high.

>it feels really weird that unless I give them a bonus, they'll probably only pass one in three rolls
To begin with, sure, they're green recruits. After a while though, PCs will each have a couple of things that they can consistantly succeed at. They can also assist each other and use Fate points for re-rolls, so it's not all doom and gloom.

I'd picked up the aptitude thing, though they're all completely new to non-level-based progression, so I'm guessing it'll take them a few sessions (and some prompting) to really get the hang of being able to up Deceive before they try to infiltrate the group of cultists, and so on.

But thanks for the help, good to know I'm not steering them too wrong

This actually reminds me of a game I want to run in Only War, sort of a combination of Aliens with time warping powers. Orbital research station around an odd ocean world suddenly drops out of contact, except for a garbled Distress Signal. Troops get sent in, and start encountering strange and weird shit and everyone is missing, probably end up fighting Dark Eldar and so initially the thought is that it's just a raid but for some reason the DE are still there. They get garbled messages and assistance from deeper in the vessel, which clears the way for their advance deepr and deeper in, and the course of the game eventually leads to them discovering the truth about the research, that the planet below is alive and is a massive psyker and is warping space and time, and eventually they'll reach a point where they reach the final control center where the distress beacon supposedly came from, only to realize that it hasn't been sent yet, and they're the ones who both set it and, eventually, were the ones assisting themselves in trying to get to the center.

Not sure where it goes from there, desu.

I'm GMing a DH2e game am putting down a bunch of talents for a player who wants to focus on a 2 handed weapon brutal killer without sucking compared to a dual wielder finesse route.

This is what i got for now

TIER 1
- Giant Grip (Aptitudes: Weapon Skill, Offence; Prerequisite: Strength 40): Use a 2 handed weapon with one hand but lose any benefit gained from talents concerning 2 handed weapons.
- Wall of Steel (Aptitudes: Weapon Skill, Defence; Prerequisite: Weapon Skill 30): Parry normally when using melee weapons with Unbalanced quality with 2 hands.

TIER 2
- Sweeping Attack (Aptitudes: Weapon Skill, Offence; Prerequisite: Weapon Skill 40): When making a Standard Attack with a 2 handed weapon, you can hit a number of enemies in range equal to WSB.

TIER 3
- Crushing Strength (Aptitudes: Strength, Offence; Prerequisite: Strength 40): SBx2 when using a 2 handed weapon.

Are they too weak? Do they combine in disruptive ways with other existing stuff? Other opinions and ideas?

What's some OP shit you can do in Only War?

>Side note, coming from Fate/Shadowrun/D&D, it feels really weird that unless I give them a bonus, they'll probably only pass one in three rolls
The system is designed so that it's easy to get bonuses. Close range is +10 or +20 for point-blank, aiming is +10 or +20, accurate weapon is another +10 on top of that, a large target is another +10... It's fairly easy to get +30 or +40 to BS rolls.

Play a techpriest.

Combat wasn't actually the one I was worrying about, it was more that me saying things to the effect of 'well, you failed the roll and didn't find the extra clues, but you still got this really necessary one' is gonna become a lot more obvious

Well, remember than +0 is a challenging test. An ordinary test would be done at +10 and an easy one at +30.

>ordinary is +10
I wish our fucking GM would remember this.

Also, our Tech Priest has roughly a 90% chance of passing a challenging test, so of course every single thing he wants to do is -30 to -60 it's infuriating.

I had a GM like this, not for WHRPG though... It was basically worthless to specialize in something because the difficulties rose with your skill, not the inherent difficulty of the task itself or things where so hard you needed an exceptional success no matter what skill level you had to begin with.

Rename giant grip to ogryn grip.

Whirlwind of death already exists.

Just use a thunder hammer or derivatives.

>Crushing Strength (Aptitudes: Strength, Offence; Prerequisite: Strength 40): SBx2 when using a 2 handed weapon.

>Have 60 strength
>get this talent
>use a thunderhammer
>+18 damage for strength bonus because x2 becomes x3

Chaos was fucked.

>Rename giant grip to ogryn grip.
Great idea.

>Whirlwind of death already exists.
It's more of a single sweep that hits more target (thus only one attack roll), rather than many different attacks. I should really specify it doesn't hit targets that are more difficult to hit than the first one.

>Just use a thunder hammer or derivatives.
and
I didn't remember that weapon and i don't like it. It has incredible damage and penetration, versatility being both one-handed and two handed (with a bonus) and nice extra effects. It's basically "the only right choice" for two handed builds. I think i'll change it too.

I will certainly specify the talent doesn't stack with weapons that double the strength bonus.

Soon going to play my first game of 40k, we're running Only War. Are there any tips for playing/CharGen? I'd like to make a demolition specialist, are there any recommendations for doing so? Thanks.

I forgot: thanks for the feedback.

I've got a Black Crusade game coming up soon, I've played a few times as a pirate prince and a noise marine, so I figured no more slaanesh this time around.

I wanna make a khorne character that's vaguely like Doomguy. Absolutely brutal, fast, and skilled with tons of guns and a chainsword.

My big question is what archetype should I use for this? I'm thinking a Renegade, a Frost Father, or a Khorne Berserker. Anyone have ideas for archetypes or builds? What talents and skills to get? Obviously I need the biggest shotgun available.

This.
Present day 40k has pretty much been reduced to GW jerking off about how great chaos is, and even retconning chaos' greatest defeat into a victory.

I don't know why any still bothers to follow releases outside of FFG (or at all, now).

Make a regiment that every player is interested in playing. Talk to your gm while building the regiment to determine what's going to fit into the campaign.

Weapon specialist would work well for demolitions.

Chemdog or whatever the fuck the drugged up psychopath from tome of blood is called.

Obviously no one RIP AND TEARS HUGE GUTS like a Khorne Berserker, but you'll probably find him lacking on the firearms side of things.

Alright, so I'm having a hard time grasping this.

How the hell does the Administratum work? Why can Imperial nobility do most anything they want (within reason - by which I mean 'no heresy and no breaches of the Lex Imperialis') when there's a centralized authority they're ultimately expected to answer to? Why do nobility have ANY clout with Imperial authority when ultimately, what the Administratum says goes? How does Imperial politics work when planetary nobility are effectively removed from that entire part of the equation because planetary governments get no say in Imperial matters?

And no cop-out answers, like greentexting a reply to the tune of 'expecting logic out of 40k.' If the Administratum were completely superfluous, the Imperium wouldn't have stood for 10,000 years. How are Sector Governors and Subsector Governors selected? Where's the line between planetary and Imperial authority? How can the Imperium reliably enforce any decisions made from on high?

>How the hell does the Administratum work?

it doesnt

Clearly it does, or the Imperium would've collapsed a long-ass time ago. Civil administration is a fundamental necessity for an empire of any size, nevermind one on the scale of the Imperium. The Administratum needs to function, even if the meme of 'it doesn't work' is endemic to the fiction.

>Why do nobility have ANY clout with Imperial authority when ultimately, what the Administratum says goes?

Because the Administratum has limited resources, and ultimately only cares about what happens in individual planets if it would affect their tithe.

Chem Hunter of Messia, its basically a Renegade with 4000 more points and nice bonuses to drugs.
Keep in mind a renegade has like thousands less XP than a frost father because of advanced archetypes and stuff, make sure the campaign is using advanced archetypes or basic archetypes first.

What Ive managed to glean is that Planetary Governments (which are usually a nobility and hereditary, but not always according to the mrb) are allowed to run their planet as they see fit so long as they meet their tithe and obey Imperial Law.
The tithe and Imperial Law is set by the Administratum, Imperial Law is enforced by the Arbites.

Particularly wealthy families can buy influence into the higher echlelons of the Administratum leading to higher level appointments, like subsector administrator.

The power of veto and the ability to overrule planetary governors doesn't mean they concern themselves with the day to day activity of even sectors, let alone planets.

They might say "you need to meet the tithe" or "produce more weapons" or maybe something else, but beyond that they fully expect the governors to handle literally everything else and give zero shits about how its done.

Alright. Follow-up question.

How do you make an adventure centering on the Administratum interesting, and full of political scheming that isn't completely fucking petty, and also isn't just an extension of the shit-eating noble politics that define planetary-level power structures?

The Administratum and Imperial matters are automatically a cut above the common nobility if anything we've seen is accurate. They don't kowtow to the nobles. The nobles eat shit and put up with what the Administratum says, whether they like it or not.

But there's got to be internal divisions within the Administratum that aren't inherently heretical and don't break the law unless things escalate way too far in the ensuing conflicts. How do you make the tax collectors an interesting and politically-divided bunch? What would they even be divided over if all they do is collect the taxes?

How do i combat Heretek? Do i use my cybernetic power to play faux-marine or do i carry around the biggest, fanciest, most techy gun and blow people away?

Yes.

In all seriousness, though, you've got two broad ways to go and one specific. Either go melee combat monster and abuse that you get access to all the cybernetics as well as free parry with Utility Mechadendrite (leaving your hands free to be power fists) or get the biggest, heaviest gun you can find and tote it around and take advantage of all the neat bonuses you can get like semi-permanent Telescopic Sight from your Optical Mechadendrite or just be dead shooty and kill shit. Weapon-Tech is godlike, ESPECIALLY in Black Crusade where you can declare it after hitting an attack.

The third option is to become a techno-sorcerer and become the metal wizard. In that case, get psybernetics, mount random magic shit in your pants and worship Tzeentch.