The reason I could see Kroot not being the 2nd Career Xenos is mainly due to how they work in fluff and in reading of them. Kroot dont fight in mixed units and will only fight under a shaper so that they are able to more directly gain those traits which the race needs to survive.
Then perhaps the Shaper will be the playable character?
I'd have to be a shaper just to be on the same kind of level as the rest of the party. The PC isn't going to be the average grunt. We know of at least one Master Shaper, Agnor Prok, who could join and even lead other units (Tau in this case). It's true that they usualy stick to their own kind, but the same could be said for Eldar and Orks.
Ah, but also in the readings of many fluff randomness and stories and GW itself. Orks will fight under those who are strong, well if a Rogue Trader is strong then I can see an Ork Freeboota working with him for "stuff". Eldar Rangers also have worked with Rogue Traders and the Imperium if it advances their Craftworld's agenda's. Kroot have the whole eat the dead thing and get better, so in game terms: I dont know how I would make that a game mechanic and if it wasn't there. Then you have this massive problem in taking out a very iconic part of the Kroot mindset. I can also see Shaper being one of the tiered paths of the Kroot. The other....I have no idea.
Rant on Eldar in the Calixis and Kronus Expanse:
Considering the only bloody craftworld in the Calixis Sector and Kronus Expanse is Kaelor (God help us all), I'm praying to god that if Eldar are chosen they have a way to pick your own craftworld and not be from that one. For those who are wondering: Kaelor is the craftworld that CS Goto created and they are just.....yea.....not eldar...they are Slanneshi worshippers and horrible. So hopefully Fantasy Flight shall make them better and not horrible.
Kroot have the whole eat the dead thing and get better, so in game terms: I dont know how I would make that a game mechanic and if it wasn't there. Then you have this massive problem in taking out a very iconic part of the Kroot mindset. I can also see Shaper being one of the tiered paths of the Kroot. The other....I have no idea.
Lots of strong trait advances that are mutually exclusive (so there's more variety but not too much more power) and require eating someone or something possessing that advancement? Or perhaps lowering the XP cost of an advancement if you eat something with the advancement?
That's not too hard - and when N0-1 already mentioned the Ork comes with a lot of support for his squigs and gretchin...
DrgnScorpion said:
]Considering the only bloody craftworld in the Calixis Sector and Kronus Expanse is Kaelor (God help us all), I'm praying to god that if Eldar are chosen they have a way to pick your own craftworld and not be from that one. For those who are wondering: Kaelor is the craftworld that CS Goto created and they are just.....yea.....not eldar...they are Slanneshi worshippers and horrible. So hopefully Fantasy Flight shall make them better and not horrible.
Goto? Nah, he was condemned as a heretic, savagely beaten with the butt of a multilaser and repurposed into a lav-servitor. All records were expunged, and Kaelor is now an entirely different Craftworld. One that doesn't suck.
The Gods of Chaos do care, i'm so glad that Tzeetch got a hold of him then and tossed him to Slanessh where he belonged.
For the Kroot Advances, it could be interesting and everything.
How many xenos careers did they say were going to be in the book? I'm concerned it's just going to be Orks and Kroot.
Two, it is going to be Orks and Kroot. Likely others will be releaced in other supplements, but that's all for the Xenos section of the handbook that covers vehicles, equipment, alternate careers, etc.
Quicksilver said:
Two, it is going to be Orks and Kroot. Likely others will be releaced in other supplements, but that's all for the Xenos section of the handbook that covers vehicles, equipment, alternate careers, etc.
Thanks for the information, Quicksilver.
For all of the discussion about how Kroot haven't had warp tech long enough to have reached the calixis sector/koronus expanse - has nobody considered that Kroot Merc doesn't neccessarily equate to "unit of kroot travelling on kroot vessels". It could be a small unit of kroot using borrowed/stolen/bought ships, or even booking passage/sneaking aboard imperial ships.
There's long been lone kroot working as mercs for other races and factions ,see the Inquisitor game.
Kasatka said:
For all of the discussion about how Kroot haven't had warp tech long enough to have reached the calixis sector/koronus expanse - has nobody considered that Kroot Merc doesn't neccessarily equate to "unit of kroot travelling on kroot vessels". It could be a small unit of kroot using borrowed/stolen/bought ships, or even booking passage/sneaking aboard imperial ships.
There's long been lone kroot working as mercs for other races and factions ,see the Inquisitor game.
Except that there aren't just occasional individual Kroot mercenaries in the Koronus Expanse... there are warbands of Kroot in the Expanse, in spite of the difficulties of them getting there.
As an aside, a stolen Imperial ship wouldn't do them much good - Imperial warp travel is pretty much the only warp travel that can cross vast distances with any degree of safety, and that's only really through Navigators (Orks are everywhere; they don't need to travel vast distances to find a fight, and Eldar don't use warp travel except over short distances when absolutely necessary). Without a Navigator, safe travel is short-range only.
Of course, none of this precludes Kroot hunting and eating Navigators in order to try and breed that ability into their children...
DrgnScorpion said:
Considering the only bloody craftworld in the Calixis Sector and Kronus Expanse is Kaelor (God help us all), I'm praying to god that if Eldar are chosen they have a way to pick your own craftworld and not be from that one. For those who are wondering: Kaelor is the craftworld that CS Goto created and they are just.....yea.....not eldar...they are Slanneshi worshippers and horrible. So hopefully Fantasy Flight shall make them better and not horrible.
You're very, very wrong. But it's actually a good thing. Kaelor was invented for Dark Millennium CCG and had a number of stories written about them by Dan Abnett himself. And they are awesome. Also, Goto's book has to be set pretty far back in 40k's past and Kaelor has refomed back to following the Path since then - so it's irrelevant. Here have a read for yourself:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070704030514/www.sabertoothgames.com/40k/fiction1.asp
What, no Slaugth PCs?
Into the Storm is "On the Boat."
N0-1_H3r3 said:
Kasatka said:
For all of the discussion about how Kroot haven't had warp tech long enough to have reached the calixis sector/koronus expanse - has nobody considered that Kroot Merc doesn't neccessarily equate to "unit of kroot travelling on kroot vessels". It could be a small unit of kroot using borrowed/stolen/bought ships, or even booking passage/sneaking aboard imperial ships.
There's long been lone kroot working as mercs for other races and factions ,see the Inquisitor game.
Except that there aren't just occasional individual Kroot mercenaries in the Koronus Expanse... there are warbands of Kroot in the Expanse, in spite of the difficulties of them getting there.
As an aside, a stolen Imperial ship wouldn't do them much good - Imperial warp travel is pretty much the only warp travel that can cross vast distances with any degree of safety, and that's only really through Navigators (Orks are everywhere; they don't need to travel vast distances to find a fight, and Eldar don't use warp travel except over short distances when absolutely necessary). Without a Navigator, safe travel is short-range only.
Of course, none of this precludes Kroot hunting and eating Navigators in order to try and breed that ability into their children...
Deathwatch canon would seem to have them arriving in the western reaches of the galaxy via the Jericho Reach.
Nojo509 said:
Into the Storm is "On the Boat."
Cheers!
Errant said:
Oh, don't get me wrong - I know how they're in the Expanse, but my point was that conventional methods of travel are comparatively unlikely.
Nojo509 said:
Into the Storm is "On the Boat."
What does on the boat mean in this case? At the printers? En route to retailers?
Don't get me wrong I am excited either way, just one equates to jumping joy happiness the other to nearing jumping joy 
Alexis
*smiles*
It usually means on the boat from the printers to their distributors.
Well then here is to hoping my FLGS hears something soon.
I am eager as all get up for this book.
Alexis
*smiles*
N0-1_H3r3 said:
Thought they already did that roughly back around the time of Taros or there-abouts? Ships going missing, navis nibbled and Kroot suddenly turning up wtf nowhere.
Back to topic.
As implausable as Kroot being out in this part of space, they aren't a bad species to use for players characters as they are pretty much like the Ork in that there's not a lot that's real complicated about either species in terms of them having fairly simple, human-istic behaviour, tend to fight with little or no provocation and look different enough that you can't just throw a cloak over one and pretend its a human.
MKX said:
N0-1_H3r3 said:
Thought they already did that roughly back around the time of Taros or there-abouts? Ships going missing, navis nibbled and Kroot suddenly turning up wtf nowhere.
Taros was part of the Third Phase expansion, which hasn't happened yet in the Rogue Trader timeline.
Gobbo said:
One of the things we tried to do - specifically Ross and myself (he wrote the Kroot, I wrote the Orks, as noted in the Designer Diaries) was do more than present two slightly different brands of "savage xenos mercenary". Orks are large, noisy and violent, with an inclination towards intimidation and brute force... Kroot are much more subtle, favouring stealth and their natural aptitude in the wild to hunt their prey.