Greetings wana be Adepts of the Ominsire! Due to the seeming demand I got from the Commissar guide , ive done something similar to that for the tech priest Now again I ask you all to be Civil and this time, Keep things on topic! Also Im sorry if this is shorter or late, ive been a bit unwell, and lets say, ive had to get a tech priest of my own now to fix the toilet.
Basic info.
So what is a tech priest ? A tech priest is part of the Adeptus mechanicus which is part of the hole imperium of man, you know the “good guys”. His or her responsibility is to maintain all that advanced technology, like an electric fork, as well as gathering new technology ,or what really is requiring old tech from the gold age of mankind. New technology is something of a touchy subject and we will get into that. A tech priest is one of many designations given under the cult Mechanicus, this designation , there are many others but this will be the one you play in only war, your job is to fix stuff, while a tech priest will always have standing orders from the Mechanicus, your job in the imperial guard will to be to set up advanced equipment such as computers, vehicles ect, and maintain them. Well what is it about the priest part? Well the cult Mechanicus, is a religion that is tolerated in the empire and worship the Omnissiah . Basically seen as the robot brother to the emperor , so while tech priest work, they are often chanting hems and prayers to the machine sprit, lighting candles and waving around incense, Oil and fuel are now holy liquids, tools or objects of your god, and all technology is to be worshipped and held above that of man!
Your body is a temple for the machine spirt, and thus you must augment your body to rid yourself of as much flesh as possible. Most techpriest’s live vastly longer than humans, and resemble little more than the meet bags that walk the street.
I could go deep into the history of the Adeptus mechanicus but we would be here all night, and im sure I would have a knock on my door from games workshops lawers, with some very big and burley men behind them.
Whats the cult mechanicus ?
The cult mechanicus is a set of beliefs of the well religious kind that from the foundation of the Adpetus mechanicus . Even though they are citizens of the imperium and there for should worship the emperor, they kind of do not, but seen the emperor in some respects as there god. Or his cousin the Ommnissiah, who is the god of all technology. It values tech and knowledge and you know worships it. It’s kinda that simple. You a priest of technology.
Why are they in the imperial guard?
Well this is rather simple really, you know in modern military’s we have mechanics, scientists, engineers, scapper’s , repair men builders ect, even weather men and well of course women. Well you now have these guys, while you still have “normal” humans, in the grim dark, most people to do with this side of life, to do with technology are part of the adepts mechanicus.
Now in the guard everything that they use, is often made on a forge world, to their armour, dog tags to their boots. While some worlds will have manufacturing capability’s these will often be run, by you guessed it, our boys in red. The Mechanicus. Now the thing is with 40k, as guardsmen, you know how to clean your lasrifle, but you do not really know how it works. You know the holy cleaning rights, and maintained rights, but apart from that, you really do not know much.
The Tech priests are the guys that know. You see all imperial guard regiments will have some form of tech, from there lasguns, to their armour. Do not forget that commanders will often have a platoon of stuff, in a forward base, using computers or cogitators, to track troop movements, Vox communication devices to get reports, orders and relay them, the tech priests are the guys that set it all up. If you read the Cipas cain novels, there is a good few times this is shown.
The tech priest is there to pretty much do everything that involves more than knowing how to push a button and clean something. You really need to understand that in the grim dark future, it’s not really the sci fi we think off, it’s not star trek where scotty is going to up the flux thingy and the ship goes faster. It’s Mago blah bleep bloop is going to spend two hours lighting candles and reading of scripture to turn the engine on in the first place.
Now before you say! But my imperial guard regiment has no tech, they are just a bunch of knights from a fudel world, they do not even know what a gun is! Well you still would have techpriests there to teach them these things, and a whole bunch of priests and commissars to stop them going bat **** crazy when they see a big metal horse that breaths fire!
You are always going to have techpriests stationed with any imperial guard regiment. The guard often call them “cog” boys , in reference to the mechanicus symbol.
Ranks that would be in the guard.
Now before you say it what about a magos! Well, you could have one, but in the end really. I would say they are not going to be really fun to play. Now I know there are classes of techpriest in Shield of humanity, in taking about in the lore what you would expect to see.
Now first would the Logis, these are tech priest that deals a lot with data, analysing it . They serve the roll of a logistician , data analyst or statistician. They will forecast population growths, budgets, expenditure, ect ect. All that boring stuff, that I’m sure you can come up with. Now a guard regiment would most likely have a few of these guys dotted about maybe in the quarter masters office, but most certainly around regimental command, where things need to be kept track of. Why would this particular type of priest be with that squad ? well if the squad is often sent on scouting missions, missions to gain enemy Intel and data, or disrupt communications, this guy is handy to have around. Can you break a ten thousand combination lock in under two seconds? No did not think so.
Now you also have a Genetor, now these guys are you basic genetic scientists and bio engineers , you need a new hand these guys will grow you one. They have an obsession with organic life, and what better way to experiment, with endless amounts of test subjects then in the imperial guard. So many new limbs to grow! Ands spleens to look at! This rank also covers Xenobiologists , and one can easily understand why a few would be attached to a guard regiment, you get to study humans and other fleshy things. Win win really.
Now you have artisans and constructors! Well this one is kind of self explanatory. But for you humans who do not have a super computer for a brain I will tell you in easy to understand English. These metal me, build stuff? mmmkay? Your constructor will build anything from a pen, to a space ship, in different amounts of time of course. But you get the point; these guys will be building more complex fortifications, other than you know, a trench, new weapons, maybe even vehicles if the resources are there on the battle field. They control servitor assistants, for all their labour needs. That bunker will be up in no time! And I’ll give it a pool!
The Engineer.. most common tech priest, your guardsmen of the techpriest world. Jack of all trades, master of **** all. Im not going to go into detail about that, it’s talked about in the core rule book.
The Transmechanic , well the guys that really fix stuff.
A rune priest, guys that turn stuff on. Which involves candles , spiritual runes, a lot of incense, some weed, knows !
And the lexmechanic. The guy that records stuff.
All these can easily fit into a Only war game, and a Imperial guard regiment, now as a Techpriest, which one do you more fall into ?
How should I play a Tech priest?
First of all what type of tech priest are you ? look at the ranks above. Okay? You picked? Good, now if you are anything other than a Genetor, you should not really care about human life. You may make friends with humans, but at the end of the day, you worship machines and wish to become one. So you are more interested in the kit they are wearing. You may push guardsmen out of the way, from a sniper, but only to protect his most holy of flak vests.
Be geeky and anal about stuff. When you guards men want to turn on a piece of tech, insist they must use the correct runes and rights, make sure they are doing it properly. I do not mean every time someone turns on a light. But when they start up there tank, want to access a cogitator ( computer) that sort of things.
Sound smart, and be confident in what you are doing, make things up about how this piece of technology works, no one else knows how to use a thermo flux netron spoon, but you do.
Be very interested in repairing tech, and be upset when it’s mishandled and abused.
Also get distracted. If the guardsmen, are wanting to go investigate something, and you are more interested in this planets heating ducts, because it’s different from what you know, make a little scene out of it, you stay there, they go down the corridor, your staring at the ceiling the sgt, puts his head around the cornor, and whistles “ here cog boy!” and you shout “O h yes the mission I forgot!”
Be rather cold and blunt about things.
Also if played well you can have some great moments of comedy . There was a time when my squad was under fire, and I was attempting to fix the engine of our tank, all of a sudden I rolled amazingly well, our tank lunged folward at top speed, ramming our ork attackers into a river , one of the crew shouts “ you pimped our ride cog boy!” my reply was “ I am only doing the Ommnissiah’s great work ,but you must define “pimped” for this vessel, so I can save it in my data banks”
What should I do player wise to support my group.
Now you are the smart one, so go for things to help your group tech wise, tech use as high as you can, forebidden laws, common laws, logic, talents and traits due with repair, operate of all kinds. Weaponsmith is a good one. You can not get that plasma rifle borris? Ill just go make you one. Also look at the classes in Shield of humanity, and aim for one. It will help guide your path.
What you should not try to be. Is a space marine. I strongly suggest not going for a combat role, leave that to the others. By all means get yourself enough to defend your persons, but aim for more of a support character. Do not go running around with a power axe shouting for the Ommnissiah.
How should I deal with The Tech priest as a Gm?
Easy, much like the Commissar, the tech priest is a big part of an Imperial regiment. As discussed above, with the ranks, all these fit into a Regiment, there are others, but these are the key ones. You are going to have them at regimental command, you will have them, at the platoon and company level.
First what type of regiment does the group have? Unless they are full on Cavalry, or line infantry They are not going to have buckets of the guys, they will still have them, but most likely around ten or twenty . Anything else, you will have anywhere from fifty to a hundred, with dozens of servitors. A Full imperial armoured regiment, is going to need a lot of oil, and candles.
But I have to Tailor my game to them! Look, if you are playing only war, and it’s all about the combat, you are kinda doing it wrong. Only war should be 60% combat, 40% other things. The techpriest is going to be useful in all sorts of situations, and I cannot even begin to list. Wait you can not thing of any? Okay. Building cover, opening secure locks, helping repair vehicles, building well anything, Fixing equipment, recording data, analysing statistics, driving, flying , recovering, Realising the ommnissiahs great works from heresy ,acquiring technology and so on and so on.
Look if you got some one that knows remotely what they are doing, at some point they are going to ask to go through a door or look at a coggiator, but because there character has no idea what they are doing, that’s when the tech priest steps in, they will create things for you. If you are going down a set list of okay, the players go from point A to B and do this this and this, and you dnt allow the players to explore and you are just so linier, pen and paper rpgs are just no for you. The players will do the work for you, all you need to do, is nudge them in the right direction.
Why would they be with this squad?! Well any number of reasons, They could have a vehicle, there you go that’s the main ,one , they may encounter something at needs the techpriest, in a urban envoirment or ship or well something. The squad may have to do some building. You know it’s just like the commissar, so many ways, that if you really just sat and had a brain for a few moments, you would get it.
There are some reasons to stop your players from taking the class, if the group is lop sided, but at the end of the day, it's a skill set the guards men will not be able to replace, the operator, does know a few techy things, but he or she is , only human. They will not be able to lift a cars engine out with there own hands. Everything is going to take ten times longer, and it's going to slow the pacing right down if you break down and need to wait ten hours for your operator to fix a track of your beloved tank.
How players should treat the Tech priest
With suspicious respect. You know they are your life line to anything techy, but still they do not quite worship the emperor and they are not quite human. And they make a lot of noise.
Edited by CommissarWilliams
However, I digress. I must say, I like seeing these guides. FFG Would have done well to flesh out (mech out?) thought on Roleplaying the various troop types as you've done and help players that may not be as familiar with 40K the means to best appreciate their characters. Kudos. That being said, I'm uncomfortable with the strict degree you indicate given specialities should be played. I appreciate that your guides typically represent the ideal Commissar and Enginseer from the tabletop and fluff, but does that necessarily work in an RPG? The TT has very strict rules and necessarily so. It's a wargame. For the RPG, it's a story driven by the players and a concrete "you must play like this" approach has never worked well in my experience. I get a guide that suggests possible points to include to bring a character to life and make them interesting, but I disagree that characters MUST BE played this way, so long as your players are having fun, get on well, and a cracking story is told. Thoughts?