Musclewizard said:

Well Musclewizard, I guess to summarize this debate there is no right or wrong answer.  GM discretion is advised.  

Fgdsfg said:

That's just my interpretation of GW material, of course, and I'd prefer the more permanent solution simply because it is more "grimdark", which I feel is a very important element of the franchise's style. I'm well aware that various licensed publications may propagate different visions, though. And that's not even touching on the idea that it may even vary within the setting itself, from one world to another.
In the end, GMs and players alike are perfectly free to pick an option they are most comfortable with, and/or think of as the most fitting.

I really doubt the Imperial Creed cares much about gay sex or abortion. Really unimportant compared to ABHOR THE WITCH and SUFFER NOT THE XENOS TO LIVE all that stuff that will actually doom mankind if not followed to a T. That being said, individual cultures/worlds might have strong opinions. But the overall Creed as a whole? I can't see it.

Can't see tying the tubes for every woman. Too much work for medicae and downtime for the patients. The Imperium is a ruthless bureaucracy but even the most hardcore general knows that a soldier recovering from major surgery is generally not fit for duty., and their goal is to keep their soldiers in fighting trim for when they actually have to go fight. The medic probably deals with IUDs or some kind of long-term contraceptive patch that might last years. More likely to give all the men vasectomies but that still seems really inefficient and pointless. The Imperim may have a lot of people, but there are still frontier/colony worlds and they can always use MORE people.

As for bearing children, I seriously doubt most Commissars are going to put a bolt in the head of a pregnant Guardsman, or even really punish them, because to me it literally makes no sense to do so. Doesn't really serve as a disincentive to sexual activity (seriously, people will still have sex even if sex will be punished with boltering) and I don't think Commissars are completely retarded when it comes to boltering people. The pregnant woman would probably be shifted to different duties in the regiment as the physical situation makes her less suited for line work, then rotated back in once she's all healed post-birth and the child is either given to the Schola or raised by the regiment like Whiteshields.

Of course, these are my thoughts on GENERALLY how things work. Specific regiments might have different traditions after all.

I totally agree with you Lynata.

Now, lets get into perspective the majority of how wounded soldiers are "fixed."  They are given cybernetics for crying out loud.  The whole modern concept of major surgery tying the tubes, snipping them, or something similar to this effect may, in the Warhammer 40,000 year, not be as drastic as surgery is today, the year 2012.  I mean, heck, in Dan Abnett's books the sniper recon guy (I'm thinking Mad Larkin but that's not him) had his eyes replaced with cybernetics.  For RT's and other powerful individuals (Inquisitors..???) cybernetics are also common replacements for limbs.  And, lets not forget, the Adeptus Mechanicus.  I mean, come on, their whole torso is a power conduit. Not to mention, have you ever rolled to see if the surgery is successful or not with any cybernetic replacement for a character in Warhammer 40k?  All it is, is poof you have cybernetic limb now.  In our day and age, that kind of surgery is beyond our scope, but obviously not in 40k.  So, once again, get off the concept that it would require massive surgery and huge bed time recuperation to make it a long term solution, but it could be easily reversible if/once desired/appropriate.

And aren't we talking about the whole IG that sends millions of soldiers and veterans alike to storm sci-fi castle walls, only to have enough dead pile up to finally  get over the top?  Or am I missing something here?  Yes yes yes, obviously not every IG commander is going to utilize his soldiers like this (or else Only War would flop), but the majority of them do.  I'm sorry, that is the setting we play in.  The true and finale game setting is ultimately up to the players and the GMs, but like Lynata and a few others stated (myself included), it's grimdark.

Happy hunting though everybody. 

And I see GM's being evil about this too.

GM says "So Stephani, your getting jiggy with the commander so you can have that nice lasgun you wanted right?"

Stephani replies in a shy manner, "Yes."  

With an evil grin on his face the GM states, "Okay, roll I'm rolling to see if you get pregnant." 

"Why???" Stephani exclaims. 

"Did you ever tell me you took your pills today?" the GM asks matter of factly. 

Stephain then does the Epic face palm effect.  

1 month later in-game time.  GM looks over at  Stephani and says "Stephani, your character now has morning sickness.  You have 1 Fatigue point that cannot be removed until you give birth."

"I hate you……"

Hence, why a permanent solution should be in effect.  

It could be as simple as swallowing a simple pill - but I suppose that a series of injections, say over the span of one week to a month and using oversized syringes with creepy long needles, might be more in keeping with the setting's style. ;)

Perhaps this, too, depends on the individual regiment and their homeworld's level of medicine, though! From what I've been reading in the studio material, the only universal item is the lasgun, and where would a bunch of Feral or Feudal Worlders get a proper medic if not from their own people?
… and now I have this image in my mind about a regiment of superstitious half-naked tribal warriors that go into battle accompanied by shamans filling the role of medicae. >_>

Depends on the regiment I belive

Nameless2all said:

So a permanent solution should be found, despite it being dealt with differently for every world/regiment, because the example GM is a dick?

How about the GM just not be 'That Guy' instead? Seems a better solution to me.

Hey, I just don't want fights/debates/arguments/violent incidents occurring over something as silly(important too) as pregnancy in-game.  Because then you have to deal with abortion incidents (if you allow it), the commissioner executing females who are pregnant (if you allow it), females using the pregnancy to get out of the front lines, losing a perfectly good soldier for so so months, the soldier having pregnancy complications that leave her permanently disable (or near so, because complications can arise)., etc. etc etc.  I've already mentioned that this is my POV, and that GM discretion should be advised.  Some of these could be incorporated into great role playing experiences, others into important character defining moments, and if that is your cup of tea then I'm happy for you.

This is obviously a touchy subject, and my previous example was meant to be funny or at the least put a smirk on someones face, but still give someone an insightful situation that will occur with pregnant female soldiers.  So, if my previous example offends anyone, please disregard it as such, because that was not my intent at all.  I apologize for the inconvenience.

There's a couple of ways of doing it:

Castration, or if you're from a slightly more backwards planet they might just slam the family jewels between a couple of half-bricks and the 22nd Squeaky Man Division is born instead of the 22nd Rampant Fornicators and Childcare facility. Problem with altering nuts is there's less testosterone and when there's less testosterone, you're less likely to butcher the living shit out of your fellow heretical man, xenos or each other. Diddling womens bits to not-work is slightly more difficult and figure if they're being that randy, the Dept Munitorium will roster them off to 'Colony Training' where they can f**k, bake bread, fight and breed all they want.

Just being in the Army. For those of you who are unfortunate enough to know what that is, basically at any point the soldiers even look mildly relaxed someone will decide that you need to run 20-30km with full kit or some other horrible, physical activity to the point that at the end of the day, lifting a fork in a mess tin becomes a sheer act of will. The thought of jumping up and down on anyone with any kind of vigor is even less. Plus there's the other great military tradition, which has mostly fallen out of contemporary armies in favour of the above practice and that is 'Aggressive Aversion Therapy'. Also known as corporal punishiment and in the case of the Imperial Guard, plenty of capital punishment!

Dropped a las gun charge pack and lost it?- Thats a beating!

Forget to bring enough ammo and ran out in a battle?- Thats a beating!

Modified your weapon without permission?- Thats a beating and after we've finished beating you, you'll be shot

Left wargear on the battlefield and didn't retreive it? You get shot

Didn't salute an officer?- Thats a beating, 90days solitary and another beating when you get out

Traded your lamp pack for a roll in the hay with one of the natives?- you get shot

Basically the Imperial Guard will beat the f**king crap out of your miserable hide for what we in the nice, politically correct era we're in, would consider only trivial offences or offences that aren't your fault and part of the mechanism. Applied fairly, this kind of enforcement does actually work to some degree, the ramifications of too much or too little I'll leave to your own research. But for the game purposes, the IG is a horrible, shit place to work even when you're not expected to kill a carnifex with a flashlight and very nearly as dangerous.

Dey put stuff in da grub? Playing on an old soldiers tale that they put Bromine in the rat-packs to make you want to screw things less, might actually be true in 40K where the Dept Munitorium supplies all your vitals and needs. They also decide what you do/don't need! If they decide you don't need to be dipping your wick in your fellow soldiers, they're perfectly in their rights to never give you an erection about anything, ever because they do actually own you like a piece of meat. Of course if the force gets lost in some alien wilderness for 100 years and they run out of normal food and go native, breed and create a new society when they're next discovered. Well its just a bonus really that there's more warm bodies to tithe and send off to the next war!

MKX said:

 Ok, I agree with Nameless2all that there is alot of augmentics and prosthetics that you can get in the grimdark future:

Gaunt's Ghosts- Merrt gets a big ugly jaw after his got shot off, Domor gets big binocular like eyes with different visual settings, Gaunt also gets new eyes after Only in Death but they are more advanced and look just like normal eyes except they can heat see and all that crap, Mad Larkin gets a prosthtic nalwood foot after Gaunt cuts it off to save him from being stuck under a tank wreck.

Also in the Ghosts it's mentioned that the follower camps have whores, wives and girlfriends for the soldiers during their time off and out of combat zones or during warp transit: YOU NEED TO KEEP SOLDIERS HAPPY otherwise one commissar and a few high officers won't stand a chance against half the regiment that want to stick it in something and are therefore pissed and have lasguns: in an intense firefight, who's going to notice if you shoot the commissar in the back?

Again from the Ghosts: Gaunt gets a son from the remains of Vervunhive after he screws an uphive lady. Since he is the highest ranking officer there there is no one to say you can't do that and he gets away with it. Also Meyn and Rawne both have been Jessi Banda's sexual partner and she hasn't gotten pregnant so I guess there are either condoms or morning after pills so that you can't get pregnant. And Caffran and Criid were also together and she never got pregnant either, so whichever way you want to explain it go ahead. It's your discretion and as people have pointed out: you always need cooks and medics and you can always put her as an adjundant to a senior officer who never goes into battle but stays in the bunker overlooking everything.

 Now here's a thought: What if the Commissar is being romantically pursued by one of the grunts? Does s/he refuse outright, or keep them at arms length the whole time, or allow it on the basis that the relationship isn't allowed to interfere with their professional careers?

Either way, it will be fairly obvious who will wear the pants in that relationship.

Boss Gitsmasha said:

Well assuming anyone could fine one of those scary bastards actually loveable I think the Comissar would do his best to get the grunt away from thinking about love and instead have him refocus on fighting.
I think this would be achieved probably by some sort of verbal violation akin to "that" scene from Full Metal Jacket with possibly some additional beatings thrown in for good measure.
Of all the elements in the Guards I'd expect Comissars to be the ones that would disagree the strongest with relationships within the Guard (except maybe with camp followers).

 I dunno, Commissar Cain seemed like a pretty nice guy.