Hi, after reading alot of posts i have begun to see a lot of hate for ratlings even to the point in one post someone even said that they were all dead in the universe. I can see a reason why anyone would hate the ratlings as they seem to be balanced and not really a big problem to any group other than the fact some people seem to be unable to find a RP way of fitting them in with a group ( but IMO they can be attached to units as recon/sniper support, or even a Cook for high ranks such as the commissar's personal cook etc). They also seem to add a little (no pun intended) light relief from all the grim faced troopers with a jaded past that seem to haunt the ranks. Can anyone help me understand why they are so disliked and unwanted? 

I'm not sure, since I actually quite like Ratlings, personally, for exactly the reasons you say. They're good at their job, they're balanced, and they help provide a little lightheartedness in a group.

Ratings aren't dead. Not by a long shot, and whoever told you that needs to go back to Warhammer 40K school. The race that GW killed off in 40K was the Squats. Basically space dwarves, like Eldar are space elves. Then GW lost their sense of humour and killed them off. 

Ratings aren't dead. Not by a long shot, and whoever told you that needs to go back to Warhammer 40K school. The race that GW killed off in 40K was the Squats. Basically space dwarves, like Eldar are space elves. Then GW lost their sense of humour and killed them off.  And Ratlings seem pretty good to me, though none of my players really ever go for sniper characters, turning towards either interaction based or combat based instead of a ranged specialist. :(

Our GM ruled that they are dead in our universe, and it's probably because they are portraited kinda like a halfling in space with a sniper rifle. Comic relief.

My GM is the same, told me that Ratlings had no place in his game.

He's the GM, it's his world, so my response was "Okay".

So I'm now playing a Weapon Specialist and I persuaded my group to take Sniper Rifle as the favoured basic weapon of our regiment.  I still get BS and Finesse as aptitudes and due to a duplicate picked up perception so I have everything I wanted in a sniper.  (although I'm playing more as designated marksman)

My only real "loss" is that my companion can't do "set up shot" so I'm vulnerable to dodging.

My orginal concept and my character being much more sociable and playing being "Private walker" with requisitions and the like but I'm happy with what I ended up with.

Hate is such a strong word, apropriate, but strong.

People do seem to be prejudice against the short, and after Peter Dinkladge did such sterling work for the cause.

They balance well in that they are they size of a gretchin (about) but can be one of the highest damagers out there and their much better sneakers than anyone else that lets them survive.

I like the little blighters. Part of the key source for 40k was taking existing fantasy tropes and adding grimdark until they are covered in blood and genocidal. Applying the same rules the Ratlings is all that's required. Maybe have them beaten up by other soliders but show their worth in massive numbers of confirmed kills. Instead of having Bilbo baggins go on an adventure you have a vengefull murderer who's mother was raped by Dark Elves.

I think abhumans are an important addition, they do for the Imperium what 300 does for the ancient Persian army. Establishing that it's 10's of thousands of light years across and an incredible variety of people (other than just changing the outfit, someone put in another skin tone for Emperors sake). I had another thread about it prior to the game coming out.

Of course, with all abhumans they are supposed to be rarer and just not appropriate to allow into every regiment. Normally abhumans do have their own regiments but it's not hard to imagine that there might be a abhuman slum within a hive or city that has troops drawn from.

I thought the hate was coming from the fact that he is the designated sniper unit of the game, and for some reason, people wants to play human snipers now.

Braddoc said:

Well people do get jelly, but I think that's just down to the specific sniper comrade (other than a higher base BS and better stealth, which is fair enough) but limiting your Weapon Specialist to a sniper rifle does suffer a comparitively but does the job well and has a LOT more flexibilty.

I just assume Kender have ruined all types of halfling for most roleplayers everywhere forever.

Gokerz said:

*shudder*

As for snipers, I was happy to let my players take the comrade advances of the ratling as a human weapon specialist. I was against ratling because I feel like they interfere a bit with unit cohesion. However, if a player was keen on it, I'd let them. Ogryn, on the other hand, that's a no go.

Personally I dont like ratlings, or Ogryns for that matter though i prefer people playing ratlings to ogryns. This is not just my opinion but my group's opinion as well. Its not that we hate them it is just that they dont really seem to fit. I would much prefer to have my group play a character with depth rather then "here is gun, here is enemy, me shoot enemy," like an ogryn would play. There are also ways to make the weapon specialist class exactly the same as a sniper or an ogryn if they get enough experience. I would rather they play a human character who is good with a long las then a ratling who is only good with a long las. plus if i allow ogryns and ratlings then everyone will want to be one and it would make for a very boring adventure.

Characters are as deep as you role play them.  Ogryns are simpletons, but there's more than one way to play a simpleton, jsut got to work a bit for it, really…

Braddoc said:

yeah but to me ogryns and ratlings just dont fit in the Imperium, i never liked them in the tabletop version and i still dont think they fit in the RPG version. plus there is a way to get similar builds from other specialties.