On page 36 of the book it expands alittle bit on the rules for this implant. I am not familar with alot of the novels and had thought that the eatting of enemies was more of a Blood Angel thing, and it seems borderline heretical depending on the foe. I assume one would not eat a daemon, if a player did I would be adding some corruption points. I did however, have a character eat a portion of a Death Jester. I gave him access to some information based on that, but also added 1d10 insanity points. Has anyone read anything about this ritual, I did not find it in Lexicanium, or has anyone else done something differant with their games?

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=212&efcid=3&efidt=399430&efpag=0#399434

look at this little topic maybe it could help you

Ya I already read that prior to my post, I was more interested in side effects of eating certain enemies. Its all good though I realize this forum really is just people trying to prove they are smarter then someone else and not really helpful so I am no longer going to post or bother with it.

I had some players eat some Tau brains to learn things in the first mission I ran. I just had them make a simple will test to get the information they were after from what they were seeing and left it at that.

If they went to eat something touched by chaos, like an ork, daemon, or chaos space marine, well...there'd be corruption points coming at the very least. It's a tool to be used, not something to be abused in my opinion.

Orks aren't touched by chaos. But their unique biology brings problems of a different sort, which could translate into insanity points (or corruption if your take on it extends beyond warp causes).

yes eating orks could lead to a nasty fungal infection

a question on daemons when slain dont they dissolve / disapaite back to the warp ? therefore nothing to eat?

I feel its a power that should be used as a last resort and any information should come at a cost

Hardrainfalling said:

The dissolution into the warp need not be instantaneous. And there is at least one reference in Rogue Trader to "a daemonette's toenail", implying that it is at least possible to keep some daemon parts beyond their defeat. In any case, eating what is effectively condensed warp stuff is a recipe for corruption in spades.

To be honest Nimon I was suprised when I read about this organ as I have been playing GW games for *cough* 21 years and I have never heard of Space Marines eating thier enemies. I admit I havn't been as up to date with my knowledge over the last couple of years so a new rule or snippet of back ground information may have come out without my prior knowledge but the thought of a space marine being able to eat another creatures flesh seems disturbing.

I plan on running a DW game soon, having run a short but successful DH game a couple of months ago, and I will probably have to look at this games mechanic as it seems very open to interpretation, and may take it out of the game all together...... it not being fitting imho.

Opps posted before I had finished ranting there.....

If I do decide to keep the game mechanic in my game then I would definately want to rule that insaity points will be earnt by an individual marine who cosumes flesh from a 'non-human' creature, as below

• Imperial Guard - No insanity point gain as these are human. The only change to this would be if they are Chaos tainted Imperial Guard then insanity points might be given.
• Necrons - Obviously being made of metal these are a no-no!
• Eldar - These are humanoid but still alien xenos so yes insanity points anyone?
• Orcs - In the far distance past of GW, orcs were grown like fungus. This is hinted at in the various orc codex's where their ability to heal and take metal grafts onto thier bodies is atributed to some weird fungal spores in thier blood, so IP's here we come. You could rule that the individual marines gets a disease maybe?
• Tyranids - IP's a definate for this one I reakon. Also you could figure in a rule, depending on the mission, that the individual is noticed by the Hive Mind and acts as a beacon for a small group of Nids to attack the group at a later date.
• Dark Eldar - Same as Eldar I reackon
• Tau - IP's a definate as they are xenos and to be honest fairly unknown or understood by the imperium.
• space Marines - I can see where this may arise in a game, where the players may need to access information from a fellow battle brothers body. I would say that the act of eating a fellow battle brother should also inpose a IP cost

Finally the biggy........

• Chaos - This is 100% definately the way to earn IP's. This could be cultist, currupted Imperial Guard, Chaos Marines, Lesser Deamons, Greater Deamons, warp tainted creatures.... anything which has touched or been touched by the warp will definately give a player IP's with out a doubt.

As for the duration that the bonus is retained for, this was answered by decPL (Basic skills (Int) mod x hours).

Hardrainfalling, in reply to your question, I have always believed that deamons do dissipate and return to the warp when killed. This is definately true of what I call lesser deamons (nurglings, plague bearers, bloodletters, jugganauts of Khorne, deamonettes, pink and blue horrors), as they are composed entirely of warp energy and are sustained by this so when killed with disipate entirely. Others creatures which are touch by chaos (mounts, cultists, Chaos marines (With exception of Thousand Sons as they have no physical body inside thier armour) I would say are able to be munch upon.... tasty!

Hope this helps. Bit of a rant I know and it's my first ever post so just be patient with an old gamer

Something that perhaps is relevant to the conversation. On p179 of the Dark Heresy corebook, a panel titled "Closer Than Flesh" describes the potential consequences for making telepathic contact with an insane and/or corrupt mind. Make a willpower test or gain D10 in relevant points, two tests if the target's IP/CP are double the telepaths. Not exactly the same thing, but if a Space Marine is absorbing the thoughts and memories of a person it might make for a decent starting point for gauging IP/CP gain.

Varknarvost said:

From the 5th edition space marine codex:

"Omophagea - Space Marines can gain part of a person or creature's memory by eating its flesh. This special organ is implanted between the thoracic vertebrae and the stomach wall. It works by absorbing genetic material from the meal itself."

So it just seems you've missed it.

BrotharTearer said:

Yep, those chapters ain't called Flesh Eaters, etc. for nothing. It exists since 40k RT era, btw. 40k Compendium, originally from the WD, I believe.

Alex

ak-73 said:

I like the idea of inflicting insanity loss for it, 1 point base, but D5 or D10 for stranger, more alien, more crazy things. Plus some corruption for eating corrupt creatures D5 for corrupt chaos follower, D10 for something possessed. After all SM's have difficulty obtaining insanity and corruption so it's only fair to help them out.

And yes there are chapters who eat their enemies all the time but they aren't exaclty know for their sanity.

In fact the Flesh Tearers, for example, might not have as much a problem with the Black Rage if they didn't insist on chowing down on all of their enemies.

Just putting it out there Seth, don't shoot the messenger.

I like to use this to overcome language barriers. Chow down and you can at least have basic understanding of what the enemy is saying. If they're friendly, you just need to convince them to sacrifice one of their own to improve your working relationship.

Also, I'm not very fond of the efforts to slap Insanity and Corruption points for using this implant as it's intended to be used . That just reeks of GM dickery.

One of my players made the mistake of chowing down on a deranged, drug addled dark elder flesh zealot.

BAM, 10 insanity points.

HappyDaze said:

Yeah, 1 IP per use means after 100 uses you're gone. I think the organ works much better than that.

Now I tend to think swallowing Tyranids with their unstable genes is not a good idea. Anything tainted by Chaos rules itself out for any marine. But xenos? That's what the organ is made for. Kill them, eat them, use their knowledge against their brethren. It's not meant to be politically correct.

Alex

HappyDaze said:

It's an option but one that should carry risks. Personally I'm in favour of willpower checks of varying difficulty to resist IP/CP gain from insane/tainted/xenos minds.

Decessor said:

I'd like to think that if it was intended to carry risks then that would have been written into the rules. Since it's not, then there shouldn't be any risks beyond those necessary to take down the foe you intend to eat.

Agreed.

And besides... The Imperium isn't politically correct in any way.

• It is ruled by an all powerful junta (in the name of an allegedly divine dictator) that treat the citizens like natural resources.
• There are NO female Marines!
• Racism is a way of life and a highly priced (nay, essential!) personal trait

I can go on and on. But the point is that anything non-demonic that's not human is food or fertilizer.

I wouldn't give the marines insanity for eating their foes. Not even for eating humans.

Eating anything touched by the Warp on the other hand...

You're mistaken if you think I'm arguing from a point of view of "political correctness". It's precisely because Warhammer 40,000 contains so many horrors I think absorbing memories should carry some risk. What happens when a space marine is exposed to utterly heretical or alien views and belief systems? Not just exposed but absorbing them in detail? If there are flaws in their hypno-conditioning and strength of character, they could start to question their own beliefs. Marines still go renegade 10,000 years on from the heresy so those factors are far from perfect. The sheer conditioning against anything heretical should filter out most of the risk, but I don't believe it should be an entirely safe process.

Decessor said:

If it wasn't fairly safe , the marines wouldn't have been exposed to such risks. I can see that under unusual circumstances it might cause Insanity (corruption even more rarely because no marine will not devour anything tainted by the warp). But you would assume that marines aren't just given the zygote - they would be trained to use it to gain xeno knowledge too. They would be trained to master the alien voices in their head.

If the xeno is too alien/dangerous, it might be a different story (I would rank the nids among those). But eldar or tau? Or most of the minor xeno races?

Alex

Actually, my though is eating human brain works, but not anything else. Let's be honest, I don't think human genetic is compatible with Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau or Tyranid. We are all assuming that brain all function similarly in intelligent beings, but it's very possible that all species brain are compose of different material and function differently.

ak-73 said:

p278 of the core book includes examples of what does cause insanity gain in SMs and one of them is "exposure to dangerous alien devices or schools of thought". The same section also warns that "only the most terrible of sights or outcomes warrant more than a few points". So there's an argument for IP gain from aliens whose motivations are different from but comprehensible to humanity, if not necessarily very often or in huge amounts. Training and willpower should certainly stave off these effects though.

Heck, if I ever down a Hive Tyrant, I'm ripping that *****'s heart out and devouring it before the light goes out of those cold alien eyes and ROARING a challenge to the Hive Mind via long range telepathy. IP be damned, which, btw, you shouldn't be assigning for this, the knowledge doesn't last long, so neither should any defects.

had one of my players eat the brains from the dead convict labourers in the extract mission last night

funnily enough he didnt learn much , he then chowed down on a nid warrior and got some nasty visions and a corruption point for his troubles