Can a TP reprogram servitors to be their own? I have a TP in my group that wants to attempt this but I have not been able to find any rules on servitors other than the few pages in the IH. Am I missing something or should I just create a house rule to fill the gap?

If you mean can a TP reprogram a servitor to follow the TP's commands then yes. I do not know of a direct rule with regards to this idea, my best bet is to house rule it. The only thing I would add is make it difficult most servitors are prisoners, or people born on hive worlds with disabilities. These people are then mind wiped and reprogrammed to serve a certain function. If your TP was trying to make a servitor stop guarding one area and move to another in the same compound then I would say that is possible. If your TP was trying to take that servitor and make it part of a ships targeting system, it would be much, much more difficult. Remember servitors have brain matter as well as computer components as AI is considered heresy within the priesthood; and that brain matter is also reprogrammed after being wiped and as such would be very hard to change without a lot of very specialized equipment. As I said not impossible but not something you could do in 5 minutes.

I had my group's Techpriest and Adept team up to do exactly this in the Dust and Ash mission. They had a best-quality dataslate plus their own considerable skills and cybernetics available to the task. The combat heavy-hitters moved in and would pin the Servitor in place (including the mighty Techpriest using his servo-arm) then the Adept would rush up and jack the Dataslate into the captured Servitor. The techpriest would likewise jack himself in. Then they got to make Tech Use opposed rolls against the Servitor's WP (the Adept providing assistance, thus +10 on successful roll). I made use of the demonic posession rules here since hacking a Servitor is by game mechanics more or less the same idea, so 5 or more MOS over the target meant they had succeded in subverting the Servitor to their command. They retained all the same programming and purpose, but now answered to a new master! Of course until the task was finished the Servitor continued to thrash, stab and otherwise try everything within it's power and programming to prevent this from happening. It also helped that the team's Psyker kept jamming the twin-linked heavy stubbers....

I asked the same question in the RT question forums in http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=161&efcid=3&efidt=311822 with no responses for a week now... ^^

I really like the mechanic of treating it like possession.

While not entirely pursuant to the subject, I thought I'd chip in to offer some advice on how to keep your smart chars from hacking servitors. Personally I have tried to avoid letting my group do this. More often than not, they make sure the servitor survives, in order to sell it and buy more guns, or to make a massive army of combat servitors.

Easiest is simply to say that the OS of the servitor is genelocked to the baddie. Simple, easy, and they wont remember to bring back a thumb to reprogram his servitor. Another fun way to dissuade the PCs is to run a scenario using the evil servitors found in Disciples of the Dark Gods (I think that's the book, it may be Creatures Anathema). Regardless, the PC's hack a particularly choice servitor (think prototype AdMech combat servitor) in order to use it. Simple enough. Unfortunately, they "fudge" the operation, and activate a time lock on the servitor, making it stuck in stand by. While they wait for the lock to expire, the servitor gets possessed, escapes, and the PC's have to hunt it down or risk the displeasure of their master.

Edit: fixed some grammar and spelling stuff

Thanks, I think I will introduce both the possession and gene-lock ideas. That way the TP can obtain one or two relatively minor servitors, yet still be unable to amass an army or a powerful servitor, unless I turn it against them of course...

I've discussed this with the player who runs a Tech-Priest in our group. He actually has a Servitor, has had since the beginning, a technical Servitor with a Melta-Cutter named 'Pug' (he started with three... but two of them died to Ork Nob w/Power Klaw). Given that the campaign we're in has a heavy Adeptus Mechanicus bent (so far they've fought renegade Tech-Priests twice, and next up they're going to a Forge World to speak to the (possibly heretical) Magos) they've run into a lot of Servitors.

So far it's never been a case of attempting to reprogram them - even when they've been fine deactivated and just waiting to be 'hacked'. Mostly it comes down to time, in that I don't let my players sit around trying attempting time-consuming actions (like reprogramming a Servitor) when they're meant to be running for their lives or are in the middle of a fight, and so on.

We have discussed taking a more 'mystical' 40K angle to it, with the player spending or even burning a Fate Point to auto-convert a Servitor to his side - like having a Praetorian Battle Servitor looming over you, but you stand before it, plant your Omnissian Axe into the ground and scream something like ' In the name of the Omnissiah - You will submit! ' . Obviously not something I'd allow every time they came up against Servitors, but it could make for an interesting character moment to see him force a Servitor into obeying him through sheer force of will.

BYE

Most of the baddies my group has gone up against that employ servitors in battle have been HereTeks of assorted variety, and while our resident Techpriest is moderately comfortable with petty-radicalism he would not contemplate making use of their heretical creations (the undead servitor-like Bodysnatchers with xenos neural tissue implanted was particularly offensive to him!). However, during Dust and Ash some of the baddies were making liberal and heavy-handed use of highly upgraded combat servitors (twin-linked heavy stubbers and a powerblade, standard!) and after several scraps with these things (pun intended) they decided to take a little tactical gamble and try to subvert a few of these things (detailed in my earlier post). He expended all of them in battle with the previous owners and more of the same. Since the group had already long-since figured out that particular group were Logicians he considered it to be especially appropriate justice to turn the HereTeks' own tools against them in a display of Martian superiority.

More mundane servitors are usually ignored or reduced to slag, so it is usually not an issue...

Ive found a file in Dark Reign site that will handle all your questions about servitors ( No i didnt write it but i sure as hell am using it ). It gives full servitor creation rules ( inclusing override ) the necessary skills to do so as well as how to make and even upgrade different types of servitors for more customisation options.

Where abouts is this? I searched for Servitor and found a homebrew character sheet (I'll stick to my own...), but no Servitor rules. Do you remember what it's listed under?

BYE

i went looking for the file today so i could tell you right where to go...i only use and DL things from here and the dark reign site.....but i cant find the file now...i got it before the big crash they had...so im guessing that it got nixed somehow during the restoration of the site....if you want i can email you a copy of it...just let me know

Yes that would be good...

There appears to be no private messaging service at this website, yet I can a Flash animation. How does that make sense?

BYE

You can PM people, they just have to be on your friends list first.

If you still have that file handy Cobramax any chance you could share?