Gantz the slaughterer said:

How do you justify awarding failure? The Imperium is even harsher on that than the real-world military.

Kshatriya said:

Award him with punishment? Either way, that man needs to hunt down his armour. That's not just some ceramite plate and fibre bundles those csm's have stolen - it's the honour of his chapter.

Each mission he takes that ISN'T hunting down his armour should result in renown loss. The chapter symbol on his carapace should be marked to display his dishonour. If he ISN'T fighting to get it back, he should have a penalty on Fel tests against fellow Astartes. If his armour was anything but Mk.7 then he's lost a relic that is older than the current (2012AD) span of human recorded history.

There is no reward here, only punishment. If he manages to heroically recover his armour and correct his mistake? Then he'll be rewarded… provided he shows remorse for what happened AND displays that he has grown as an Astartes in recovering it. If he brags about hilling the CMSs afterwards? He'll be punished again for a lack of respect for what has happened.

Personally, should a players own foolishness cost them their power armour like this, I wouldn't let them purchase from their chapter advances or use chapter squad or solo modes as a mark of the loss of honour.

And if it's Mk 8, welp, he just lost the brand spankin' new model.

Those are good ideas, kylan.

 The line you need to tread is at a certain point after you have piled on all these penalties, the player might as well not play his character any more. Lose his power armor, squad and solo mode abilities? At this point he is so utterly gimped he could fit in with a early to mid level rogue trader game pretty much. He will be complete dead weight to the rest of the squad.

If the mission immediately following the one where he lost his armor was not "penitent quest to get my armor back," he is playing his character wrong on some level.

 Sure, assuming that's a choice he gets to make.

Unholy_Ravager said:

True. I couldn't see one's superiors just being like "oh, you lost it, well ok nevermind, got something else for you to do." All Astartes are steeped in that tradition regarding their arms. If there's a mission in between, it had best be a zero-hour emergency right where the characters currently are.

I wonder if many GMs give their players options about what missions to follow? I made my players pick last time. Either way there will be some nasty consequences unless they find a method of going for both missions.

Kshatriya said:

If you don't give your players choices, how else are you going to give them enough rope to hang themselves?

The stripping of chapter advances, chapter squad and solo modes, isn't as harsh as potential punishments like cohesion penalties, inability to enter squad mode at all, or the like. If he's not hte leader (and, by the sounds of the players choices, he's not going to be allowed to be the leader for a good, long time) and not a tactical marine, losing his chapter squad mode isn't a huge problem. Losing solo modes are much more of an issue, I'll grant you, but it's still not that crippling. Losing the armour IS a big thing, but on the other hand it's not like the Deathwatch are going to have appropriate suits of power armour just lying around that they can cram him into. He has stealth trained, he has access to Deathwatch Scout armour. Depending on his character build, he might actually GAIN combat potential (requisitioning the Ultima and stealthing around the place is horrific at the best of times).

 I must admit, i didn't read that it was chapter squad mode abilities you suggested.

 I most ask however, where were the rest of the team both of these occasions?

Unholy_Ravager said:

In which case I totally understand your point! Losing ALL squad modes is way too harsh.

Unholy_Ravager said:

If he was acting alone, it's his fault…but also his Brothers for not keeping him in line or supporting him. Especially if he was not team leader.

Well, as for the first scenario as hes fighting several Chaos space marines, to be honest I probably would've tried as well. Should he just let them go? Ok, if the rest of the squad was nearby and he messed up before they got there, then yeah tactically bad situation, but they shouldn't have been able to loot  him without his teammates rescuing him.

I think there is more honor lost letting the traitor legions away without a fight (unless something insane like a whole army) than trying. The armor loss is, more or less, on his TEAM not him. Where were they?

Also, after that happened, yeah the next mission.. No rather, the new primary or secondary mission should've been to recollect the armor. Before they left the area. His battle brothers should've done that if possible. If not, reknown loss.

On the other scenario, being captured fine, but hes being rescued sometime isn't he? Or personally breaking free. Where is his armor? Either his rescuing party, or he himself should have tracked it down. If not only to have some protection while breaking out. If not, reknown loss, not as bad as regular armor though as they are marks of heroes.

As for penalties goes, that's what reknown is. He won't have access to high level gear because he ends up loosing it. But no space marine captain, commander of any kind or anyone at all would send a space marine without armor against chaos to reclaim his old one. That's simply put just stupid thinking.

Space marines are proud, the reknown loss and remarks about how he keeps loosing stuff, a general feeling of being frowned upon. That's punishment. If anything, I'd punish his teammates for not looking after their teammate almost just as much. Granted that it's not a player who doesn't care, or more or less doesn't get what youre supposed to be and do.

So, make the player understand what a dishonor it is. Make him loose reknown, make him feel through roleplaying that people are not satisfied with this. Make him WANT to redeem himself.

Also let the rest of the team loose some reknown as well, perhaps not as much but some, for not saving him in time (unless he ran off in secret without telling anyone). If this results in bickering in the group, add in a Cohesion penalty as the group isn't as well brought together as they should be. This should make everyone think twice about leaving a battle brother fighting chaos alone.

 Here's my issue with the not allowing him power armour because he lost his set - why would the Deathwatch do that? I mean yes to punish, but realistically if this Marine is to go on regular combat sorties to protect the Imperium from the gribblies of the universe why would the Deathwatch make it easier for their team to fail "Sorry Lord Inquisitor if we had a full squad in power armour maybe we'd have stopped the alien menace…but you didn't need that world anyway did you?". I totally agree he should be tasked with recovering his armour, in his own time between missions as it's not the Deathwatch's responsibility to bear.

I'd have him lose renown and issue him with a suit of Deathwatch power armour, I assume they have some around. Maybe have it so it doesn't work so good, use the Black Crusade rules to have it jenky and have it all black with no markings not even the Deathwatch honorific silver arm. That way he's marked out, he's punished but his lack of equipment isn't going to get him or others on his team and risk the very thing the Deathwatch is there to do. Cutting off nose to spite face much?

While the Deathwatch probably have spare suits of armour, a suitable replacement might not be ready at a momnet notice, after all there are certain rites and rituals that need be adhered to and such. So, his next mission he gets to choose wether he sits it out while the techmarines prepare his new armour, or he goes with whats available (ie scout armour).