Hi. I would like to know if there are separate rules regarding fear, insanity and corruption for tech-priests. I am only asking because I have a player who is playing a tech-priest with left-half of his brain replaced by bionics and he says that it has been "Emperor-blessed". Every time, I ask the players to roll for a fear test, he says "Tech-Priest", meaning he's got cybernetics & half-bionic brain (I really didn't know about his half-bionic brain until recently) and is immune to fear. So, from my understanding, he says he's immune to fear, insanity and corruption. Also, he's been replacing body parts with cybernetics & bionic versions. Should I make him roll to see if he gets the replacement (as if buying equipment, armor or weapon)?

I'm actually getting a little annoyed because he keeps on saying "Tech-Priest", whether I get them to roll a fear test or not. The thing is that he knows more about the 40K universe than I do, so every time he power-plays (that's the word), I just have to take his word for it. However, I have my doubts on certain things he says, especially about the fear & insanity issue. I also think that he shouldn't be immune to corruption, just because he has an "Emperor-blessed" half-brain. Do "Emperor-blessed" body parts, artificial or otherwise, exist in 40K?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Andy

SC_Andy said:

He is absolutely jerking you around. There is no way to avoid corruption and insanity, only to reduce it's effects through high level Talents. So if I were you, I'd grant him one insanity and one corruption per every two points that every other character has cumulatively gained. IE, if you have three other players, and they have 12, 8, and 10 insanity points, respectively, then give your tech-priest 15. On top of that, he needs to buy cybernetics, the same as any other character, so if he's been gaining any mechanical benefit (pun intended) from the free augmentations that are granted the Mechanicus, the next gaming session you should have them start malfunctioning, requiring a series of skill tests involving a wide variety of attributes to ensure he fails some, and have the failures result in massive detriment to his character. Furthermore, ask him for the page number of any rule or item he asks for from now on, and if he can't produce it, he has to spend a fate point to reflect "The Emperor's Displeasure." Not only is he making game rules up, he's doing it incorrectly. No Mechanicus would call anything "Emperor-Blessed" when it comes to machinery. They worship the Omnissiah, the Machine-God of Mars, to the point of Heresy by Imperial Creed. They're only tolerated because otherwise they would likely destroy Terra as the Enginseers disabled every vehicle and ship in the Imperium not under Mechanicus control.

The most important rule within any roleplaying game is undoubtedly this: The GM is the almighty lord of all he surveys. His holy word is law, His divine Will shall be done. In other words, if a player irks you by taking advantage of any part of the game system that you deem unfair or are even suspicious of, veto it. If they don't like it, then next encounter make a secret roll, fudge it, and have it be a bullet taking out the offending piece of gear, or a Daemon popping out of the ground and swallowing the offending player's character. Then calmly ask if he'd like to burn a fate point to have the Daemon only eat the bull the player keeps spewing before moving on. You sacrifice your time to do the most thankless job in roleplaying history, so don't take any crap.

To further elaborate on what was said above:

I think what the player might be referencing is actually represented by a talent. It is called The Right of Pure Thought and can be found in DH pg 121. However, this talent replaces the right side of the brain (there is no mechanical benefit from just replacing the left per the RAW), is a high level talent only becoming available at rank 8 to Tech-Priests who take the Magos branch, and costs 200 xp. He should only have that talent if:

1. His character is Rank 8 or higher
2. He is playing a Magos in an Ascension game (which you probably shouldn't be running if you had to ask this question)
3. or you let him buy it as an elite advance

If none of those conditions are true, he could not have such a talent and can not claim "tech-priest" to get out of fear tests.

Further, RoPT only makes one immune to the effects of Fear, emotion, etc. They can still gain insanity, do not lose the insanity they have, and can still gain corruption from a verity of sources even if they are now immune to Warp Shock.

My advice:

• read up on ALL talents that are Tech-Priest only, get to know them.
• Go over the advancement tree for them and get to know that.
• If you inherited this game/character's from another GM, end the campaign as soon as possible while still giving the players a good ending and start a new one with fresh new characters, rank 1 so you can grow with them.

This is why the GM always needs to know the rules better than the players!

How very helpful of you. Anything relevant to add to the conversation or are you just being a troll?

To the OP: I agree with previous posters. "Tech-Priest" is not a get out of fear/insanity/corruption free card. The tech-priest might have the 'Fearless' talent, but that won't mitigate all insanity or corruption. He might have 'Armor of Contempt' thus reducing corruption by 1.

Not knowing the character rank limits how much we can help that isn't pure speculation. As the GM, next time he pulls the 'Tech-Priest' card ask him for the specific Talents he has allowing this, or if you want to, ask for all the Party's characters sheets. This way you can audit the Tech-Priest under the guise of 'looking for what Gear(weapons/armor/misc) might be useful or looking for hooks(lores/peers/etc)

bogi_khaosa said:

This is purely speculation, but perhaps the player in question is thinking of the cranial circuitry implant that ALL tech priests get from character creation. This has no in game benefit save for the fact that it is a prereq for the RoPT. Like others have said, I think the player is jerking your chain, but he might be operating under this false premise. However, seeing as how he knows the universe, I would say that this is a stretch. Just my two thrones.

Clutch_Halthos said:

The OP did say that this player, in regaurds to his implants, "has been "Emperor-blessed", so... well...

I just took a look at the Tech-Priest talents and I believe what my player is referring to is "The Rite of Pure Thought", where the tech-priest with this talent is immune to fear, pinning and emotions. However, as this is a level 8 advancement and the last time I checked, the players are not at level 8 - they are at most level 5 or 6, I wondered how he got this. And, no, I did not permit him to get this as an elite advance. He didn't even ask me. The thing is, this player does not show any respect for me as a GM and tends to do things, like getting this implant, without consulting me.

Assuming I let him keep this implant, is there any way for me as GM to introduce a situation where he might be affected by insanity & corruption (without a fear test), in effect by-passing the immunities of the implant?

At the moment, the players have just encountered a logi-daemon-possessed tech-priest, though they don't know it yet. I might use this as an excuse for them to test for insanity/corruption, and I want to include the tech-priest.

Thanks.

Andy.

Why let him keep it? The impression I got from your post is he has been doing this from the start of your game, I would call him out on it. I would then take the average of the other players corruption/insanity totals and apply that to his character. Letting him keep it is just reinforcing his lack of respect. If you don't want to make it retroactive, have this big baddie they are about to be attacked by rip the implant from his head and give him some insanity/corruption from that.

Ask yourself this: Are you having fun?

If so, by all means let him keep it. And keep using his knowledge to empower himself beyond the rules. So long as you as GM provide a challenge with the chance to kill, it doesn't really matter how overpowered a particular character is - there's always a bigger fish.

If not (and you're posting on these boards, so I think it fair to assume this is more likely), step aside and talk privately and directly to the player (do not pass Go, do not... y'know) about your discovery and the lack of respect you feel it shows. Tell him that the rules are there as much for balance as for fluff (making the game more enjoyable for those who aren't the techpriest), and tell him that if he wants the Rite of Sateesh or whateveritscalled, his character can earn it through normal experience gameplay through the Adeptus Mechanicus, OR he can be potentially eternally marked as a Heretek if he tries to bypass the requirements set out by said Adeptus Mechanicus. Earn the right, or earn a very powerful foe's enmity. THAT's the sort of danger a pompous, overreaching tech-priest can fall into and make for an interesting, story-driven way to get something more powerful at the cost of a more esoteric but GM-determined weakness.

If he continues to try to cheat, AFTER you've spoken private and directly to the player, THEN consider bringing it up as a group - Tell them Player A (For *******) is bypassing the rules and using your inexperience against you, which is not fun for you. Tell them that you want to have fun as much as they do, and for that to happen, they need to either give you due respect for doing all that hard GM work, or they need to find a new GM.

Just don't be afraid to walk away if you stop having fun playing the game. If you're not having fun, I don't really see the point in playing.

Just to clarify, there is no talent, implant, trait, effect, anything, that grants immunity to Corruption. Even at Ascension level (that is to say as an Inquisitor) the best that can be done is to reduce any Corruption gain by 5, and again this is a talent available to players who can crush your entire group of Acolytes (tech-priest included) without breaking a sweat, and if fact rule over as many of equivalent servants as they want. So your TP is never immune to corruption, ever, under any circumstance. One option for giving him insanity and corruption is by having warp-twisted tech involved. Just reading certain data-slates or plugging your Electrograft into certain cogitators is enough to warrant dozens of Inanity and/or Corruption points from the exposure to the raw truths presented. Bet it would teach him a lesson if his mechanical brain got corrupted and he start sleepwalking and performing heretek-al acts while blacked out, only to find they suddenly have a warp-engine rending reality in their hab-block. The only option would be to remove the implant, potentially crippling his brain and invariably resulting in the loss of intelligence.

He can't gain Insanity from fear, but things like Xenos writings or Tech, proof of heretical viewpoints or the fact that a heretek improved an STC design would be enough to warrant him gaining some, since it would seriously impact his cogitation to find the basic parameters of his entire function are wrong, calling into question everything he knows. Call them "404 Points" instead of Insanity if he argues. Have fun paying him back for jerking you around.

SC_Andy said:

What else has he cheated his way onto the character sheet ?

Other advances he hasn't paid for and/or doesn't have access to. Auditing them will take too much time, especially if he doesn't remember what he rolled for his starting characteristics. That character is simply too tainted by his cheating to worth your time fixing.

At this point, the kindest fair option I can see is to tell him to rebuild the entire character from rolling for characteristics* all the way up to his current xp. Maybe let him keep his current gear. Then give him the average of the groups IP and CP and retcon that character to having been there the whole time.

*Or use the point-buy system mentioned in RT and DW.

Telling him to roll a new character or kicking him from the game are also valid responses to his cheating.