Hiyas!

Once installed, would a Tech Priest's re-breather come off (his/her face), or is it stuck there forever, without some type of Mechanicus ritual intervention?

Thanks!

L

I say that thing is an integral part of his/her/its body. Of course, it could be detached without harm (filters need changing from time to time!), but I think it is one of this "I alway wear this" items.

I've gotten the understanding that the mechanicus implants are far away from one-size-fits-all standardized types. Its more like each of them is a unique construction with unique mechanisms and qualities. Thus I've given my groups tech-priests large freedoms in deciding how their individual implants look like and operate on mechanical level. One of them has a facemask which is pretty much like a rebreather mask attached to one side of her skull. She can remove it easily by opening the tightening straps but its left hanging by the point where its attached to her jaw. She wanted this type of mask because her character is not of the strictest creed in regards of Weakness of Flesh so she actually eats solid food with her own teeth, no less.

Personally, I am of the opinion that such implants are meant to be permanent. A "built-in" rebreather is no different from an upgrade than a cybernetic limb. Which, as Gregorius mentioned, can of course still be detached for maintenance, but the operation will obviously have left its mark on the flesh below. Think the clones from the movie "Fortress", or the ascended human troops from the game "Half-Life 2".

I have, however, noticed that there is quite a large number of players who dislike such "disfigurement" (which seems to be a bit at odds with the very nature of a Tech-Priest) and thus treat the Mechanicus respirator more like a a normal gas mask, which does exist as well.

In the end, it seems to be a matter of how serious you take the idea of Grim Darkness™ in 40k. Talk with your players, gauge their preferences and see how either option would impact people's fun.

Lynata said:

And that is one of the best answers you'll get; do what is most fun for your players so long as it doesn't undermine your game. Obviously, some things, like letting the AdMech swap out his parts with the other players, or letting the scum have free access to Psyker abilities, is not going to sit well with the way this setting is typically portrayed and may ruin the feel of the universe for all involved, (or may not, both of the above ideas could be implemented in cool and creative ways) but aside from extremes one should always try to do what will make the game fun for the players - AND THE GM.

Never forget that you are part of the game as well, and as such you have to take your own fun into consideration when passing judgement. Many GMs seem to hold on to some guilt for their role as the ultimate power at the table and because of such let players push them and the game around too much. Remember that your players have already placed themselves at your mercy, and in doing so given you a vote of confidence in your ability to run a game both fairly and enjoyably for all. So long as you uphold your end of that bargain, and do your best to make the game fun, you also reserve the right to put your foot down and say "this is the way the universe, that you all agreed to play in, works".

In my games the Tech Priests are far from uniform in their appearance. For some their augmentations are mostly invisible - utilizing microcircuitry and nanites to do many of the things the more visible systems are responsible for, (generating electric pulses, sending information, etc.); while others may be heavily augmented in appearance, but crafted for beauty rather than simple functionality. (the Tech Priest's on a pleasure planet my players are currently visiting, for example, have beautifully crafted outer shells made of metal and ceramic shaped to resemble pleasing, androgynous, human forms. I describe them to players as "looking like iron angles; graceful, beautiful and mystical.") Yet the NPC they ran with during their stint in the penal platoon was heavily augmented; lacking one breast, with cables that fell from her head like hair and rimmed her waist like a flowing, animated skirt ... she had no mouth, but a vocabulator molded into her face and an iron arm mounted to her grey metal armature capable of bending, twisting and splitting itself into myriad useful shapes.

So, don't feel you have to be limited by a couple pictures in the book ... be creative and do what sounds best to you.

The face of my magos militant (Explorator Rogue Trader class) is a gold deathmask of his original face with crystal (best quality) eyes inlaid. No visible respirator but it is there (along with bionic lungs). The nature and appearance of the mechanicus implants should be worked out between GM and player.

Decessor said:

My game has two Techpriest characters running around.

The first is heavily and obviously augmented, originating from the Battlefleet Calixis. His original respirator implant essentially took the form of a Japnese-style mempo, the "terror masks" worn by Samurai in full armour. It could be detatched for maintenance and cleaning, but was otherwise always in place. He has since "upgraded" to full cyber-lungs and had his face restructured to account for the removal of the previously mounted mask. Since he also has best-quality Dragonscale Powerarmour inplanted he is still packing "redundant protection" from gasses even with the mask no longer implanted. He started out fighting with an adamantine staff (mono-staff with a much less silly name) until he got his utility manipulator limbs (hands) on an Omnissian Axe. He currently mounts 8 mechadendrites, including a plasma pistol, flame pistol, plasma-welder, servo arm and a full array of assorted tool and spcialty arms. His Utility Dendrite has a specially made "lathe blade" in place of the usual utility blade so that he can parry power weapons with it. This will be increasing to 16 dendrites soon.... Be afraid! It literally takes anti-tank weaponry to hurt him now.

The second is more of a researcher and "social dilletante" Techpriest from a hive world. Her augmetics are far more subtle and discreet, and in fact she has relatively few implants for a fully inducted Martian Priestess. In her case she never had the respirator implant, instead having cyber-lungs. Since she originates from Solomon it was a logical hardware substitution, since it is impractical to allow your Techpriests to die from environmental exposure on that world and require constant replacements. This is a rather odd character in that she uses the Techpriest advancement charts from DH but uses the Explorator attribute advance table from RT. (So she can buy Fellowship, but it is NOT cheap!). This character is our Magos' "lab assistant" and more or less serves as his anchor to humanity.

That golden death-mask with crystal lenses idea kicks some serious ass! Kudos for that!

I have only one tech priest in my current game, and her characters opinion on life in general is flesh is weak, the machine is strong, and has gone to great lengths to make sure that as much of her visible body as she can afford has been replaced by mechanical augmentation, even when I made the recommendation that the implant could be smaller. In the case of the respirator / rebreather she decided that her entire mouth area was covered over with plates and vents and that large tubes came out of the base the top of her throat and had large filters and tanks in them that hung down and then tubes that went down to her chest and directly into her lungs. her breathing is now totally automated and air only goes up her throat to speak, and it never goes down it. Point is, this is a pretty radical augmentation, and is not removable, except for the filters and chemical tanks. But in previous games i've had tech-priests that have made it clear that the parts are removable, but in this case the parts will only fit that one specific player, since every human is different the mounting and connection of these devices will be different, so they are not likely to be interchangeable, especially if the other player did not have the augmentation.

I also think that in the case of the augmentations they are considered "always on" and are only taken off when specifically specified by the player, and again in that case there would still be left over mountings, think of the original Darth Vader when Luke took off his helmet, or Gordi from Star Trek TNG, he had the little cerebral dots on the sides of his head, and Darth Vader had all sorts of clips and things for attaching the helmet and respirator.

Its usually best to talk it over with the player and see if you can come to an understanding.

Although on a fun note, if you have multiple tech-priests and one has a part fail, you can always try tech use to adapt one of the other tech priests parts to fit.