Hey all!

An opinion question from you GMs (or whoever, frankly):

If you had an Explorator that has extremely high Tech-Use skill and the inclination to do so, how would you go about having them create or wildly modify their own servitors?

WOULD you allow this, period?

It seems like something that could get way out of hand unless handled correctly and in a balanced manner.

Or that could just be my innate GM paranoia...

L-

With adequate Tech-Use and Medicae an Explorator shouldn't have too much trouble creating a few servitors. If the starship is equipped with a Crew Reclamation Facility, then you have a servitor assembly line!

I would allow him to create a Servitor only if his Tech-use and Medicae skills were high enough. Medicae would be the most important skill as far as I know, specifically to graft the tech onto the body and also make sure the person being turned into a Servitor doesn't die on the operating table. A couple of questions you may have to look over as a GM:

Does the Adeptus Mechanicus allow people to make Servitors outside of Mars and Forge-worlds?

Would it be considered heresy?

Where is he getting the plans and tech to create a servitor?

Where is your Explorator getting the person to be turned into a Servitor; vat-grown human or criminal?

These things could create an Endeavor or PC quest if your Explorator really wanted to create one.

Eskilius Quinn said:

Her Tech-Use and Medicae is currently 61 base, without any advantages from outside conditions or extra help or equipment. I figure this is enough to allow for creativity by the player, but also give her rope to hang herself if things get out of control! ;-)

As far as the questions:

1. I am not totally sure. I can make a ruling on it either way, but with Forge-Worlds not always being nearby and Mars being FAR away, I figure it happens whether the Mechanicum allows it or not...

2. Probably! Although, a half-dozen other things she does would also be considered heresy to your average hardcore 'Orthodox' cogboy. Grist for the plot-thread mill! ;-)

3. Good question. I have not figured this out yet, and would be open to suggestions!

4. She's getting the bodies from crewmembers who died during a Daemonic incursion during their first foray into the Warp!

I definitely want to weave it into the story, not just say 'Yep! You make a Servitor!'...

What if the ones she makes are not 'pure' because of the lack of proper equipment or skill...They have tics and idiosyncrasies...

Perhaps she has not completely erased the personality inside the brain she is using for a CPU, and this causes...interesting issues.

I'm not sure on all of that, but you guys are giving me some interesting ideas!!!

L-

HPLustcraft said:

I'm sure you have your reasons, but generally it is just a routine task for an Explorator to make a servitor.

I agree with HappyDaze, asking your Explorator to make a servitor is about as meaningful as asking them to make a wrench. Why are you making this complicated?

- Tom

Of course, if the plan is to take one of their enemies and turn him into a servitor, well, it's not the 'turn him into a servitor' part that's going to be the problem.

Ladegard said:

Mainly because I wasn't sure how complicated it was to create a servitor, not one for general repair or anything 'disposable', but one I would actually need to stat up for her. The Mechanicum always have all kinds of rules and rituals surrounding tech, and she's already pissed them off with her Heretek leanings...

Also, I fear if I make the process too easy, it could get abused. She easily has it within her evil mind to create a mindless army loyal only to her or to create servitors that can do what the other party members do (or better), and I don't particularly want to deal with that...At least until I get more GM experience.

L-

PS - Making her enemy (the mercenary responsible for her sister's death) into a servitor is a GREAT idea, by the way...I will suggest that to her!

The Explorator in my group has created a small army of servitors. But they aren't really better than the humans the other players control.

Most of them are just the basic worker model. Tougher then humans but slower to react. If he wants many of them (more then 5) to act at once in difficult situations (combat or fast repiars) he has to make tech tests to control them or find some advanced tech parts to install. (Acquisition rolls). The same goes for combat upgrades. If he wants the servitors to be elite models, he also has to find the matching best quality body parts. I ruled that parts from living "patients" are better than organs taken from corpses to make the search more fun

Servitors are pretty much the 40k equivalent of light utiility vehicles and robots, and thus are found just about everywhere. All you need to make a servitor (and most any Ad.mech device that moves on its own) is a bit of brain matter from some living thing. Then you just make sure its higher brain functions are cut out (lobotomization is the common practice), then install cybernetics onto it alongside a cogitator that will 'train' the brain in its new task.

Generally servitors keep their torso, and head but get their limbs entirely replaced with purpose made parts, and have numerous other things wired in to them depending on their task. For example a heavy cargo loader might have its skeleton replaced with a partially external metal frame to which you hook large clamp arms, and replace its legs with treads. Something made to just carry messages between deck areas might be almost human except for its stomach being replaced with a vault, or it could be a torso mounted on a mobile armature.

Yes, this means servitors are actually fairly horrific, especially considering how ubiquitous they are in the imperium, but it's the best option they permit themselves. But making them is easy if you have a tech priest who has been deemed holy enough to perform the proper rites.

I would allow a group's explorator to make one so long as he had tech use, and medicae and the ship had a servitor reclamation facility. However, if he wanted something more than a simple mono tasked one I'd require further trade skills, such as armorer. I'd also make specialty parts an acquisition test. Things like special weapons, exotic chassis, and highly specialized 'upgrades' aren't things you'd generally find in your average servitor factory.

He might also need to beseeh a higher ranked ech priest for permission to make 'holier' patterns.

So uhmm actually making your typical servitor is background work in my opinion. But something dangerous or that actively makes their lives safe should require some investment. Just like getting a new guncutter.

George Labour said:

Good points and ideas, all! :-)

L-

You're welcome. Fortunately for you I recently had to cover a lot of the oddities of 40k's technology with my group I GM for. Even the one's familiar with 40k weren't as deeply read in the fluff so I had to explain why there were no robots (openly used by the imperium), what a machine spirit was, and techno weirdness like that.

Just have to remember servitors are made for just any purpose, especially hazardous or repetivtive, can be made from any living thing, and there are no robots made by the adeptus mechanicus.

Oh and autonomous machinery is kind of a major heresy. Try and make one and you'l end up as servitor AA892B7 on some trash hauler.

George Labour said:

True! Because of what happened during the Dark/Golden Age of Technology with the Men of Iron, they no longer allow anything that doesn't at LEAST have human brain tissue hooked up to it!

If you try to make true AI, I think it's called the Heresy of the Silica Animus!

L-

I think that's just making a machine that pretends it's human, but it could also mean the creation of "Abominable Intelligences" (A.I.)

Also servitors don't all use human brain tissue. Cherubs, and many of the other flieing types use various avian bits since they already know how to fly.

If you have the inquisitor's handbook for Dark Heresy they have rules for psyber familiar and cybered up animals and servitors there. The book of blood and Martyrs adds a few combat and faith themed types including the arco flagellant.

Which just inspired a potential endeavour for any RT group. Find a deathworld with fearsome predators of various sizes and types, then capture them for servitor use. Imagine a gun servitor wired with the brain of a T-rex equivalent, or an octopus like creature modified for zero g combat.

Of course, some might call that tech heresy as it smacks of the most hated sin the adeptus mechanicus belieives in...progress.

George Labour said:

These two ideas are frickin awesome, I just imagined the Octo-servitor in a very dimly lit zero-g corridor. The only thing the PC's can hear is the heavy breathing from the things breath-tubes, but there's too much echo in the hall to pinpoint the **** things location and not to mention it has a chameo-suit (sorry about the spelling). Someone gets close enough for it to grab them and BAM multiple grab attacks and one wicked bite.

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I could definitely see a Heretek creating something like this as a guard servitor.

-Mike C

Well if the species was sanctioned as genetically pure then you could use the actual animal without it being heresy. Just because we've only seen birds and canines made into servitors doesn't mean we don't have others.

In fact the first time I read about murder servitors in the RT core book I immediately thought of octopedal monsters....with mohawks for some reason.

First mate: M'lord, the orks have boarded the cargo decks, and that last shot disabled our grav plating in areas B12 Through H1900. What do we do?

*Rogue trader wraps his hands around the jewel encrusted railing that surrounds his solid platinum command chair, then speaks* "Unleash, the octopius-killlottus! We'll show those Xenos the meaning of fear, and get all those **** jars unstuck at the same time!"

*First mate swoons at the thought of such horrors*

Eskilius Quinn said:

1. Yes, there is even a ship component to recover crew casualties by making the dead guys into servitors.

2. No, but probably quite hilarious if you turned a eldar lord into a waitbot. Mutated or chaos filth being turned into a servitor wouldn't be a good idea.

3. Check the availability of the item in question. If a servitor is (Scarce) assume the Difficulty of making one is probably a bit higher assuming parts, skills and equipment are available.

4. Anywhere he can get away with it i suppose. If he has access to a Genetor's lab vat grown is an option. Criminals and Press Ganged Crew (see component (Crew Reclamation Facility) are abundant.

5. Specifically the acquisition fo the Crew Reclamation Facility, mechanical parts for the servitor chassis and augmentics, and STC/sanctioned plans from a Forge World source (perhaps his Peer(AdMech) could come in handy.

I'm going to use the following cobbled-together crafting rules for Explorators in a PBP game i'm setting up now:

*Forgive the formatting please.

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For a player, or even an NPC, to manufacture an item the following method is sanctioned:

Quality

• Unless specifically stated the craftsmanship of any object or retainer providing a service is considered Common.
  The modifier applies to both creation of an object from scratch and modification of an already existing object.
  Poor +20
  Common +0
  Good -10
  Best -20

Parts and Availability

• Availability of parts needed for creation of an item is that of the scarcest item needed to manufacture the object.
  
  • See RT-Core p.111

For Example:
If Lord Vimes wanted a Best Craftsmanship Power Sword manufactured and if even one item needed in its manufacture was of Near Unique Availability the modifier for creation of the power sword and its scarcity would be Near Unique.

Cost

• GM assigns cost based on materials. This is an acquisition roll and must be made before the item is created to represent gathering the materials and tools required for manufacture.

Difficulty

• GM assigns difficulty based on task:
  
  • 
    Trivial +60 (making a club from a branch)
    Elementary +50 (demolish internal wall)
    Simple +40 (adding a laser scope to a rifle)
    Easy +30 (making a spear)
    Routine +20 (Custom fitting armour, )
    Ordinary +10 (Compile map from pict-records)
    Challenging +0 (Raze a small structure, tailor clothing)
    Difficult -10 (Paint portrait, Repair engine)
    Hard -20 (Repair data-slate, design small vehicle, add vision enhancement to helmet)
    Very Hard -30 (Design building or large vehicle)
    Arduous -40 (Design spaceship)
    Punishing -50 (Repair Complex Cogitator)
    Hellish -60 (Improve STC design, Design Starship)
    

Skill

• Assigned based on task. Usually a “Trade” skill.

Duration

• GM assigns appropriate roll increment (time step)
  
  • Increments:
    5 Minutes
    1 hour
    6 hours (work-cycle)
    1 day
    1 week
    1 Month
    1 Year

Work Faster! -1 Step = -20
Take your time! +1 Step = +10

(Going the other way just reverse the signs)

Assistance (GM's Option only)

• No more than two others, with the required skill(s), may assist in the creation or modification of an item. The assistant(s) must be with the character during the process. Only one dice roll is made in any case. Each assistant reduces the Time or Difficulty (never both but one can reduce Time and one Difficulty) by ONE step .

Tools

• No Appropriate tools Might be impossible or -30
  Poor (incomplete toolkit, cramped garage, etc) -20
  Common (armourer’s bench, garage, kitchen, tool-kit) +0
  Good (Good Workshop, Tool-room, Good Garage, small lab) +10
  Best (Best equipment eg. Machine Cult, Specialist Lab) +20

Fate Points

• Up to ONE Fate point may be spent in the creation of an item per game session per player. Assistants may NOT spend their fate points to help with the process.
  
  • Spending a Fate Point allows for the ONE following:
    
  • Re-Roll a failed test once (results of re-roll are final).
  • Gain a +10 bonus to the test (this option must be chosen BEFORE the roll).
  • Add an extra degree of success to a test (may be chosen after the dice are rolled).

If a character chooses to BURN a Fate Point the test automatically succeeds but the TIME required may not be reduced and the material and cost requirements may not be altered from 'base'.

Required Successes

• GM decides number of successes required. If a player needs 10 successes to manufacture a Best Craftsmanship Boltgun from scratch and makes his first roll but it is only 6 successes hes going to need to spend more time and effort and make another roll to represent continuing work on the item.

Example, Snub Pistol

• Anna Dara Artu needs to build a replacement Snub Pistol. She hasn't much time so she goes for Common Quality. The parts are Common aboard ship or can be easily made with devices found aboard. The cost isn't really a problem and acquisition tests aren't needed as all the parts are aboard ship or can be made, they automatically succeed. The task is Ordinary (+10), just the assembly of a pistol from parts and some minor manufacturing - custom trigger and a cylinder. Trade (Armorer) skill is required, in which she is Trained and her Int is 50. The GM tells her it will take an hour to make the weapon and she decides to try and make it in 5 minutes (a modifier of -20). She has an amazing workshop aboard ship with which she can make almost anything (typical of vessels that travel the void), +20. Anna has no one to assist her with the Time required or the Difficulty of the task +/-0. Anna decides NOT to use any Fate points to modify her roll or alter the roll after it is made. GM requires 2 successes for Anna to complete the pistol. She rolls a 20, scoring 4 successes (50+10-20+20= 60). Of course, this one lacks a laser scope.

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