Ok, don't get me wrong. I like the Necron background fluff as expressed in their Codex and especially in Xenology. The whole Egyptian-robot theme and their ancient history that predates even the Eldar-Chaos struggle is interesting.

But all in all, I am a bit surprised that so many people here are Necron-lovers Requesting rules and stats on them, wanting to include them in their campaigns and build storylines around them ...

what's wrong with the other xenos races? I prefer Eldar, Chaos, Tyranids, Enslaver and the other aliens any time over the Necrons in a Dark Heresy campaign. Not to start a flame war, but I think Necrons are overrated!

I myself didn't like necrons, but the latest Ciaphas Cain novel really sparked my interest. Just the fact that Necrons pre-date any advanced living species is very interesting. They have mysterious precursor technonogy that no one really understands and that some people would kill to get their hands on. Or how would the inquisition deal with a situation where a hive city is built on top of a dormant Necron tomb. The mystery surrounding Necrons is great material to get the imagination going, and acolytes in trouble. You don't have to like them, but you need to deal with them, or if you can't deal with them keep them a secret so the people living on top of them don't freak out.

from france

never had a clues about why so many people loves them. don't see the point for creatures who can never be able to speack. so apart form a figthing distraction. may be they are good toaster and players wants roasted bread.

Necrons are one of the really evil species in the Warhammer 40k setting, For me, it is the idea of a soulless army of skeleton like beings, thats very nice for horror adventures.

Necrons, or at least the awakening of them and their tech, fit well into the mold of a DH adventure. Ancient and forbidden technology uncovered by archeologists, tech priests, radicals, etc. that awakens and is dangerous. Has a good horror vibe, whereas many other races are such huge all consuming threats- Tyranids, orcs, chaos invasion, that crafting adventures around them is a little different.

That said, I'll probably never use them if only cause my players know too much about them to make them mysterious and scary. Something like the slaughth (sp?) is more alien and threatening to them.

Because everyone loves ROBOTS!

I think Necrons would be good as a one off encounter, the PC's relaise they have stumbled into a Necon Tomb or encounter a de-powered Necron ship and so foth.

But I couldn't see myself basing an entire campaign around them. They re a little too linear in their motivations for my liking. Their background is fine I just don't thin kthey would work so well in the kinds of DH camapigns I like to run.

Visitor Q said:

I'm not so sure about that. The Necrons are entirely alien and have plans that humans may find incomprehensible. Past activities include inflitrating the Inquisition - that alone could spark and entire campaign. Their technology is so unknowable that it could result in almost any kind of scenario (for example the Halo devices could easily be of Necron manufacture). A heretical cult might worship a necron or regard a necron tomb or device as holy. Necrons can make for good 'Cthulu-esque' antagonists - their actions so bizarre as to render the acolytes confused and clueless, but they need to be opposed all the same.

Personnally I think the reason that everyone goes for the Necrons is that of the xenos that you mentions, most of them make a very poor investigation based bad guy. 'Nids and orks by themselves are very limited because they are so one dimensional. Nids invade and eat everything, orks invade just to kill everything. Eldar could make for some very devious long term investigation campaign hooks but they are borderline good guys in the 40k universe. Genestealer cults are also a good sutle xenos influence that spreads, that can contribute to a longer term investigations. Necrons and the Slaan being the two progenator species make for a even more sutle approach to a xenos threat. Also with the Cthulhu like campaign set ups archeology, the unknown alien technology and mentality leads to a more effective adventure set. This is my opinion of course. Unfortunately I the one dimensional nature of the wargame has forced way too much of the enviornment. Personnally I have to tone down the "Grim darkness" of the Imperium just to enjoy playing the game.

Salcor

Personally the I find the Necrons the single most boring thing in the entire 40k universe. They are not even much fun to battle on the tabletop IMO. You kill them, they get back up, kill them again, they stand back up, kill yet more, they stand up, force them to melee, they warp away. *yawn*

So you have this ancient menace that hybernates in hidden places (cool so far), then rises in soulless mechanical bodies (also kinda cool), they are utterly silent and never speak (dull) and then immediately set out to exterminate all life for some unknown reason (lame, and far more flat story-wise than 'nids). Basically we are dealing with silent skeletal-form Daleks. The story is so totally one-dimensional with these guys, and you don't even get to amuse yourself with retarded robotic cries of "EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!"

ZillaPrime said:

Aside from the Tau, who only have the interest in the aspect of using Kroot and other aliens as slave warriors.

Personally I think all of the xenos bring their own potential to the game. It's unfortunate that he Tau don't feature in DH, but I understand that setting the game close to their territory would probably result in 'the Tau question' dominating issues too much.

Each of the xenos have different traits and can be used in different ways in a DH scenario. All are useful.

For me the best thing about Necrons (from a Dark Heresy point of view) is that you can break outsome classic hackneyed RP tropes. Not many races allow you to have ruin of temple that has been there for thousands of years on an Imperial world and still has the badguys inside it.

They've got a nice history, some good looking models but it all needs to be fleshed out with some new models. Hopefully the next codex will help sort it out.

IMO ... Necrons are the enemy that can't be understood qualitatively, that can't be reasoned with, that can't be subsumed. In other words, they are the "terrorists" of the grim dark future. They are the enemy that quickly makes everyone, even the 'warm fuzzy hippie types' understand that the only option to survive against them is to exterminate them 'with extreme prejudice'! They can't be undermined politically, they can't be undermined socially, they can't be undermined logically ... etc., etc.

In other words, if you want to survive against them, you have absolutely no choice other than to exterminate them utterly. Oh, and in case I didn't mention it, they are almost indestructible.

What better inducer of terror can you think of?

Aside from the awesome nigh indestructable terror angle and such like mentioned by everyone my reason is a very simple one:

James Cameron's The Terminator.

It's been one of my favourite films for yeeeears and ever since I saw that little free Necron Warrior on the cover of issue 217 of White Dwarf I fell in love with the idea of fielding an army of the guys in a game picturing in my head the images from the film where loads of T-800s are advancing forwards, unplacable, unstoppable and unrelenting towards doomed foes bearing the very vision of death!

Sister Cat said:

Don't the Tyranids fill that role nicely though?

Oh, and a Carnifex charging towards your party will instill Terror too!

Luthor Harkon said:

No. You're close, but you still missed the bus. Yes, everyone loves robots. Also, everyone loves the undead. So, what could be better then Undead or Robots? Undead-robots, complete with ghost-robots! The only two things tat would make them even cooler is if they were Undead Ninja Robots who engaged in Piracy!

Seriously, though. I didn't much like the necrons when i first heard of them. However, I didn't completely hate them. I liked the design and idea of legions of terminator-eqe unstoppable malicious robots but, at the time, felt that they would be better served as remnants of the Iron Men or some such. My views and opinions have since changed.

I like them, truth be told, C'Tan and all, now. The main underlying reason is I'm a bit of a conspiracy nut. Not the kind who has 20 locks on his door and special insulation to keep the CIA out of his head or who still insists the moon-landing was faked, but one who likes strange convoluted stories of conspiracy. The necrons give that to me to a point from their background and the fact that they exist. On top of that, however, they have a wonderful Lovecraftian (or Campbell-esq I reckon) vibe to them, far more then any other faction or race out there. They serve neigh unimaginable god-like entities (which are unfortunately usually depicted in boring human forms... but that's a minor quibble that wouldn't effect a game of RT or DH, 'cause if one of those comes into play, well...) which hail from the begining of time and the universe and have a bad habit of breaking physics with their bizarre particle sciences and non-euclidean geometrical hijinx. Mix in a healthy dose of old Egyptian trappings to all that and you have the perfect early 1900's pulp-horror with a thick coat of 40k painted over the top of it.

So, they have a very pulp feel to them, gods and sciences that hearken back to Lovcraftian ideals of unknowable ancient and mind breaking god like creatures from the outer stars who **** physics with geometry (I assume, well, they do in my world ;-) ), and, hell at least one god like being (The Outsider) who bears a striking resemblance to the terribly underrated creation of Campbell, Daoloth, the Renderer of Veils. Their wonderful pulpiness is why i really love the bastards. The fact that their existence makes links and suggestions to Lost Histories and Ancient Dark Conspiracies, Things that Awaken when the Stars are Right (and full of life) and all that is just icing on the cake.

As for their silence, not all are silent. The Lords could communicate if they so chose to (though it's usually a bad choice when they do), but I imagine that wouldn't happen much and I wouldn't want it to. Silence, in their case, is a good thing. If they could or would communicate, it wouldn't add anything and actually take away from the setting and mood. If it can communicate and you can understand the message, then it becomes a bit more known and a bit less mysterious. The more known something is, the less frighting it is (especialy in a role playing session) as you have some ground work to begin Forming a Plan or some other form of tricking your self into feeling like you can exert control over the now known thing and lessen the danger posed by it.

The silent killer has a definite place in most horror stories, though it depends on what kind of story and the roll of the nemesis. Being relentlessly stalked by a wraith, having your squad of guardsmen you brought for security quietly disappearing only to fall down on your camp latter in pieces, seeing the shape of something vanishing through the walls to that strange keep you're here to investigate, having that same shade suddenly impale Sgt Grutz from behing and then whisk him away at incredible speed, again vanishing through a solid wall as poor Grtz makes a terrible wet thumping sound when he hits the wall and slides down it, the slick red trail of is blood contrasting with the afterimage of It's glowing green bell-fire eyes. The room behind Gertz where the phantom thing disappeared has five walls, all strait and they all meet but the angles of the corners are all acute adding up to only be 180, not 360 as they should for a proper enclosed room. And then the psykers start complaining that they're having trouble sensing things and that "things are getting way too real!" Come on, tell me that's not the makings of some good horror.

Either way, handled properly, they'd make great antagonists in a pulp, survival, or slasher styled horror story. Hell, just take a look at good old fashioned slasher fair Halloween. Myers worked because he was a big, slow (unless you weren't looking at him, then he can teleport and the next thing you know, you're all stabbed up), silent and nearly unstoppable killer -wait, I think Michael Myers was a Flayed One!

LeBlanc13 said:

True. I guess in the end, it comes down to which you think have more 'cool', or more terrifying ... bugs or robots. Me, I like both.

The problem with 'Nids is the Hive fleet is such an over whelming menace. So other than genestealers it's hard to use them. Of course 'stealers rival Necrons for the favorite DH bad guy. Personally I also like the eldar as the players never really know if they are they on your side or against you. Heck they could be trying to save your life by maiming you.

The Necrons on the other hand are a compulsory party-killer. If you use the Calixis sector and the 815.M41 date, and it seems most people do, you have to kill your party if they encountered Necrons. Or at least mind-wipe them - the first Imperial-Necron encounter was in 897.M41 which is still 80 years ahead.

Idaan said:

You mean the first Imperial-Necron encounter where people sort of realised what they were facing. I'm fairly certain that sporadic encounters happened, but if they're on opposite sides of the galaxy, and no reports or maydays occur because your troops/civilians are all dead, and there is no video evidence (as there was with Sanctuary 101), then you wouldn't know what you were facing.

If there were any Inquisitorial survivors from an encounter, what would they put in their report? Robots. Now, quite how many stashes of Iron Men, robots made by hereteks, or whatever, do you think there are across the entire galaxy?

Our group ended up awakening then blowing up a planet with a Necron Tomb Ship buried on it.... our bad! I suppose we should be mind-wiped now.

......brrrrrrrrrrt.......

Wait, what was I talking about?

The fact that people ask for Necron stats and stuff doesn't mean they won't use other races. It simply means there is little DH/RT material on Necrons.

There is no need to go asking for home-cooked stats for Eldars and Orks since both are well represented in sourcebooks. Tyranids have a wonderfull Apocrypha supplement that has everything.

As on Necron suitability into DH I have to say one thing: For many GM and players DH is essentially a horror-genre game and Necrons are the only table-top Codex which is basically written with horror-genre specifically in mind. Eldars, Orks, Tyranids and Tau are written more into "combat-genre".

Polaria said:

Not everything, but I'm working on it. The new Tyranid codex presented an assortment of new creatures to incorporate, but between [CENSORED BY THE INQUISITION] and preparing to move house next week, I've not been able to get as far as I'd have liked with it.

The Laughing God said:

Because we hate our players and want them to suffer for questioning us so we try to cook up rules for our favourite robot friends.