A little while ago my group were discussing resurrecting some old inquisitor characters as DH characters. A relatively daunting task perhaps, but thought itd be good to give them a little back dtory on their way up the ladder as it were. The problem arises when one of our group wanted to play his old Kroot, Koopa. He was part of a very han Solo/Chewie duo with rogue trader character. And so, with fond memories brimming in my heart I sat down to construct them as a home world.

I hope they're kind of balanced, though i'm not hugely concerned. And remember, its a hell of a disadvantage playing what essentially amounts a silent character...

World Of Origin: KROOT Career Paths: Scum, Assassin, Guardsman

Kroot gain the skill, Speak Language: Kroot. However they lose the ability to speak any other languages (including Low Gothic). However they may still learn Ciphers etc, making communication possible.

Masters of the Hunt: Kroot characters start with the skills Silent Move and Concealment, and the Talent Heightened Senses (Smell). Kroot characters also start with the skills Acrobatics and Shadowing at basic.

Wilderness Savvy: Kroot characters start with Navigation (Surface), Tracking and Survival at basic.

Primitive: Kroot characters receive a -10 to all Tech-Use tests. They also receive a -10 Fellowship when dealing with any characters (NPCs or PCs) who do not have the Speak Language: Kroot skill.

Xenos Physiology: Kroot are obviously Xenos and not tolerated by large proportions of the Imperial population. They are also obviously Xenos and no amount of disguise or clothing will make them appear otherwise! They also feed on carrion (dead flesh) only. Whilst making food cheap, it can also have odd effects due to a Kroots strange mutability.
Kroot characters gain the Carouse skill, the Natural Weapons Trait and the Major Obsession (Flesh). Also note, as an odd quirk of their physiology a Kroot character will gain Corruption points equal to the first digit of the Corruption points of any prey it eats. Eg If a Kroot eats a character with 37 Corruption points, it will receive 3 Corruption points.

Starting Statistics:

Weaponskill: 25 +2d10
Ballistic Skill: 15 +2D10
Strength: 25 +2D10
Toughness: 20 +2D10
Agility: 25 +2d10
Intelligence: 15 +2D10
Perception: 20 +2D10
Willpower: 20 +2D10
Fellowship: 10+ 2D10

Wounds: 8+ D5

Fate: D10

1-4 5-8 9-10
1 1 2

Name Class Range ROF DMG Pen Clip RLD T Special Wt Cost AVB
Kroot Basic 80m S/-/- D10+4 0 15 2Full E Recharge 8kg 100 Rare
Rifle Unreliable

Class Range Damage T Pen Special
Melee - D10+1 R 0 Primitive, Balanced

Thoughts?

Write it up a little more, give some kroot backround and information on Pech. Reasons why they would be in Calixis. Explanations how the careers work for them (similar as is done for each origin world) find a picture and enter it into my creature contest.

I was working on a set of Xeno PC rules a while back - never got close to finishing them, though. The Kroot were one of the choices I'd presented:

Common Xenos Traits

Non-Imperial
This character was not raised amongst humans, and knows little about the culture and history of the Imperium. The laws, traditions, religion and superstitions of Mankind are unfamiliar and alien to characters with this trait.
The character suffers a -10 penalty on all Common Lore and Scholastic Lore tests relating to the Imperium of Man.

Speak Not Unto the Alien
This creature is a member of an alien species, viewed with a mixture of fear and loathing by those of other species, and significantly different in form and thought as to make any kind of social interaction a greater challenge.
This creature counts all Fellowship-based tests as being two steps more difficult when dealing with creatures of a species other than its own. Equally, those of other species treat their Fellowship-based tests as being two steps more difficult when dealing with him.

Alien Physiology
The Medicae skill is, as is only fitting, reliant on a working knowledge of anatomy. However, the overwhelming majority of human medicae are unlikely to be familiar with anything other than human anatomy, making the treatment of injuries and diseases afflicting Xenos more difficult. All Medicae tests to treat characters not of the same species as the medicae treat their difficulty as two steps worse than normal due to differences in physiology.
The Xeno-Medic talent group can reduce this penalty.

Directed Evolution: The Kroot
“Your strength will become ours”
The Kroot are a tribal species, seeming savage and unsophisticated, but with a deep and nuanced culture and a species imperative that makes them willing to act as mercenaries for almost anyone. They’re skilled hunters and trappers, highly effective scouts and keenly perceptive, and very adaptable to unfamiliar situations. This adaptability applies both on an individual, and a species level, with Kroot able to direct their kindred’s evolution by eating creatures with desired traits and selectively breeding to ensure that those traits are passed on. In a matter of generations, a Kroot Kindred can change radically.

Kroot Skills
All Kroot know the basics of their culture, and begin play with the skills Common Lore (Kroot), Survival and Speak Language (Krootish).

Kroot Traits
Kroot gain the following traits, plus the traits Non-Imperial, Alien Physiology and Speak Not Unto the Alien, described above. Record those two traits, and all of these below, on your character sheet.

Fieldcraft
Kroot are at home in densely-forested wilds, able to slip through and around the trees with stealth and speed.
Benefit: Forests, underbrush and similar terrain do not count as Difficult Terrain for Kroot, and when running or charging through such terrain, suffer no penalty to their Agility Test to keep their feet. Further, Kroot gain a +10 bonus to all Concealment and Silent Move tests when moving through forested terrain.

Keenly Perceptive
Kroot are blessed with highly acute senses, having not only keen sight and hearing, but potent olfactory senses and clusters of sensitive quills that allow them to detect approaching prey or enemies with little difficulty.
Benefit: Kroot have the Unnatural Perception (x2) and Unnatural Senses (30m) traits.

Capable Mimics
Kroot quickly pick up the basics of language, learning to mimic the sound made by other creatures and interpret their intent.
Benefit: Kroot treat all Speak Language skills as Basic skills, and grants them a +20 bonus on all Wrangling tests used to train or befriend animals.

Table 1-1: Characteristics
Weapon Skill (WS) 2d10+ 30
Ballistic Skill (BS) 2d10+ 20
Strength (S) 2d10+ 35
Toughness (T) 2d10+ 20
Agility (Ag) 2d10+ 25
Intelligence (Int) 2d10+ 15
Perception (Per) 2d10+ 25
Willpower (WP) 2d10+ 20
Fellowship (Fel) 2d10+ 15
Wounds 1d5+ 8

Table 1-2: Fate Points
1-4 1
5-8 1
9-10 2

I had intended to write up appropriate careers as well, and already had a set of xenos-specific skills and talents (lores, languages, variants of tech-use for Orks and Eldar, additional weapon training, peer and good reputation talents for xenos groups), but I kind of ran out of steam when it became clear that I still had a minimum of 4 career paths still to write, plus equipment, psychic powers, backgrounds, alternate ranks...

I wanted just to keep things as simple as possible (trying to minimise the effort as a GM), with as few new rules, hence the more or less direct port of Primitive and Wilderness Savvy. I also had a good long hard look at the original Exterminatus article on Kroot characters when deciding rules.

Your rules are probably better, but more complicated. Guess its a matter of taste. Whats interesting is that we both came up with the same fate table

I didn't agonise over background too much, as it was really designed as a homeworld background for one of my own groups specific characters. I'm sure that most players imaginations go into overload at the idea of a lone kroot merc plying his trade at the very arse end of Imperial space.

Seneca said:

Not to be contrary, but Kroot can learn Low Gothic - they have featured in at least two Black Library books and were able to communicate effectively, though I'm sure they would have a heavy "accent."

Haven't heard of Kroot, what books they from?

Kroot are a bipedal, sentient, mercenary race of what are basically highly evolved birds. They are spread throughout the galaxy and are employed by the Imperium and other groups. However the greater majority of Kroot society is part of the Tau empire and The Greater Good. So more often than not they will be fighting with the Tau as regular troops. Best resource for them off the top of my head would be the Tau Empire Codex for the minis game.

Of all the alien races in 40k, a Kroot is probably one of the better choices for a Chewie sort of alien counterpart to a Rogue Trader or Smuggler type. They tend to be a little more feral in their society than a Wookie, however they have a good grasp of technology and they do have at least a passing understanding of other cultures. They are common enough that they would be recognized and somewhat tolerated over other aliens in The Empire. Though as xenos they would still be uncommon and suffer typical penelties. And yes they can and do learn other languages, though it's up to the particular individual if they want to make this factor known.

fluff wise the kroot ARE xenos and it is not tolirated through out the imperium EG you are doing a standerd misson and you rock up to a hive world, dont you think the kroot would stick out as being an ALEIN !!!

schoon said:

Kroot pick up languages very quickly and have a knack for mimicing sounds and postures, in the Ciaphas Cain books he meets a Kroot and while the Kroot does sound strange he can speek low gothic with ease.

Of course as Jigaz pointed out if he shows himself on an Imperial world him and anyone with him will be arrested and executed for having dealings with Xenos. Not a good character to play in the Imperium.

The kroot are indeed xenos and should be treated as such. on a standard mission they are going to struggle socialising etc on any imperial world. But that is something for a GM to decide, not rules. The rule were a reaction to a players desire to play a kroot character. Hes quite asware of the roleplaying 'penalties' that this entails. And as he's meant to be part of a weirdo smuggling duo out beyond the Emperors light in the first place, i'm sure its not a big deal.

In fact I quite like the idea of the duo struggling to find a 'safe port' where they can go, and the kroot isnt going to get zapped out of hand by a random fantaic. Sort of like Bespin City meets Lucky Space. A Kroot may be a difficult character to play in the Imperium, but that doesn't automatically make them a bad character to play in the 40k universe

Good point thought though about the languages. I'd quite forgotten their mimicry ability (thats what you get for writing rules at 230am). I'll probably discuss it with the player in question and see what he wants to do. The original (inquisitor game) character was created and played log before Sandy Mitchell put pen to paper for the good of the Imperium, and we;d decided it was more fun for the kroot to make inarticulate animal noises that could be understood only by his chums. Just like Chewie. Or Sooty.

Quite frankly I dislike the idea of Kroot speaking Low gothic. Mimicry maybe, but use of language implies comprehension and understanding. I don't buy it. I think i prefer my Kroot to snarl

I'm not sure if they'd be considered canon or not, but the Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War games (Dark Crusade and Soulstorm) have the Kroot speaking a highly-gutteral English. This could be used in game terms to mean they speak poor Low Gothic.

Halveric said:

That's drawn from Canon. Kroot are very good at picking up new languages.

From the original Codex: Tau, page 11 - "A Tau'cyr amongst the Kroot", an in-character study of the Kroot from a Tau perspective:

"Although their own language is a mixture of clicks, squawks and hoots, the Kroot are superb mimics and are able to link sounds to a particular piece of body language very quickly. Last rotaa [a Tau unit of time, equivalent to a day of about 15 hours] I spent a few decs [Tau unit of time, equivalent to about 90 minutes] teaching a Kroot youngling to speak Tau. He could make himself understood by dark-time and is now one of our escorts."

Odd Tau units of time aside, that essentially means that a young Kroot picked up enough of the Tau language to make himself understood in a matter of hours, and by the next day was capable enough with the language to be one of the escorts for the Tau research group.

from france

in the book "inquisition" an illustrated guide to the secretive protectors of the imperium one inquisitor work with a kroot( orechiel jena page 65). and the kroot entry says tah they work for the empire as bonuty hunter and mercenaries hor hire. it say the empire not one sectors of the imperium. so for me it 's not probleme.

Letrii said:

they are in the first Ciaphas Cain omnibus that i know of

They're part of the Tau empire according to the TT game, they're more mercenary like though. Though still part of the empire.

They're on the other side of the galaxy from teh Caliixis sector, so if DH is your only knowledge of 40K, you'll probably not have heard of them

Anyways, I really like the given rules, both of them The roleplaying problems more than make up for the stats

cyclocius said:

Sorry to point out you are actually wrong there. The Kroot don't consider themselves to be part of the Tau empire. They consider themselves mercenaries to all races. But with the Tau they are really careful that they don't run into any Kroot mercanaries at all from other races as the Tau are nice(ish) to them. This is why you can't take them as commmander Farsight. Because the mercanaries don't want to be seen with him as that would violate their "contract" with theTau.

Which is why I said in the TT version AFAIK there's no rules for using Kroot with any other army, but I've not touched the TT game for about 3 years

cyclocius said:

There is now or atleast there was but the article isn't online anymore... I have no idea what GW was thinking with the new website. Ah well.

GW made a new homepage? The old one worked, I'ma gonna check ot now

Wow, that's just ugly But yeah, I've not touched the TT game since roughly....the Cities of Death release.

cyclocius said:

Couldn't agree more. Cities of death rock though bad time to stop i guess. Oh wait this is slightly off topic ..... sorry.

Could make for an interesting story. I think you could disguise the Kroot as someone's pet in many cases. Considering the general ignorance of the masses they might not even know that the Kroot is highly inteligent. Though if it's running around with a las pistol or other advanced equipment that perception wouldn't last long. If the Acolytes are overt for whom they work for they could probably get away with it a bit more than if they were trying to be covert. Also a Kroot acolyte would probably mean their inquisitor is Ordo Xenos. I don't see a member of the other two branches taking on a Kroot long term. Could be fun to have the Xeno inquisitor, or another one, decide to perform a vivisection on the Kroot and have the Acolytes try to evade or even do a rescue.

i have read the entrie tau codex and lots of other books with tau and kroots, and I mean kroots are one of the most awesome races there is, (reminds me of reptiles and i love reptiles) and if it is okay i would like to corret some things. the thing about the kroots only speaks there language is not entirely true´, in the book "For The Emperor" with commisar Ciaphas Cain he is being rescured by a kroot that he can totaly understand and later when he meets the kroot again it speaks high gothic too him so the normal troops can't understand the kroot, and they also communicats to the tau by speaking tau, so normaly the speak low,high gothic and kroot and tau so they speak a lot of languages. some kroot also acts as mercenary for both chaos and orks and eldar, they primary don't care who they fight for just that they gets payed, thies mercenary are carful to aviod any tau forcese. and aslo the kroots are not very agile creatures in there profil in the codex they got 3 in initivitiv the same as gaurdsmen, and it also says under there descreption that they perfer a dirct battle but that donsn't say they don't like to go on hunting, so i don't think that they sould start with acrobatics and 25 agility maybe insted 25 perception as the like to hunt, and they do not "only" eat they dead, eating the dead enemy that the kroot has deafeted is a large part of there cultur yes, but they also eat the dead because it is a easy meal. it is only the shapers that eat the dead to get the next gerneration to by something special like the shaper needs some tought troops so he finds so orks and kills them and tells his kroot eat that and they do, the kroot in some parts of there DNA the aeres are blank so there is room for others, so when they eat they separate some parts of the eaten DNA and it is then delivered to the kroots DNA in a dorment cell so it can be tranfied to the next generation. so the next kroots are gonnna be more tough then the last. primaly the shapers do this because they got some understanding of this process and so knows what the kroot are gonna eat, this process can only occur when the DNA are gettning no more air and for that to work you need your victim to be dead. but for normal food they eat living things as much as dead. and in the book the kroot also explains to Cain that they can eat evrthing but not this corrupted flesh as he puts it (in this part the kroot is refer to genesteels hybrids)

Not to belabour the point but Gav Thorpe's 'Kill Team' has Kroot speaking Low Gothic just fine, too. But if you want the char unable to do this, then cool: they're a pretty Darwinian species with their accelerated evolution/adaptation - your Kroot exiled himself from his tribe because his inability to speak properly and linguistically adapt was taboo and wouldn't have been tolerated for long....

Plenty of good RP possibilities there for his having been rescued by the Rogue Trader and pledging an honour debt, Chewie and Han stylee....

[Oh yeah, regarding the Inquisitor game's take on the Kroot - the True Fanz weren't too happy with how they were represented; they were a bit feeble in truth....]