Has anyone ever done a career write-up for the Tau? I think it'd be fun. A player I'll be adding to my game soon really likes the Tau and if anyone has written up a career for the Tau I'd really like to see it. I've not found anything on DarkReign40k.com and that's the only site I know of to look at.

It could be done like how the Kroot were with their different "races" within the same race (greenskin kindred, hunter kindred, etc.)

Fire Warriors would be similar to the Arch-Militant.
Water caste Tau would resemble the Rogue Trader career with all their social skills.
Earth caste Tau would look a lot like Explorators skill-wise (without all the gaudy machinery adorning their bodies).
Air caste Tau would be a lot like Void-Masters.

WhiteLycan said:

While I like your idea, I'm not entirely sure of the viability of it, hence why no one else has seemingly done it. If you have a Tau on your ship, he probably had to leave the Tau, and their ways, which is very rare for a Tau. The Tau are not really as "benevolent" as they often first appear to be, and if one could decide to leave, he would not have many friends left behind him. Resupplying his Tau gear might be tricky. While Tau gladly want others to join them, the opposite is not really true. More importantly, though, if the character isn't "close" to an Ethereal, somewhere, they are likely to slip into their more violent, more bloodthirsty state (the writeup for Commander Flamewing, in DW: Mark of the Xenos, describes how he and his men know when the last Ethereal dies, and they lose it. For some time, they are just crazy, and then, right at the last minute, they feel the blessed aura of peace, and know that an Ethereal has come into range, along with a force that bales Flamewing and his few survivors, out of the fire and Nids). Your Tau character would need to put up with this same annoyance, I would think.

If you do get around it, remember that, seemingly, Earth-Caste are homebodies, and probably wouldn't want to go adventuring, as much, and Air Caste are frail, often needing grav-stabilization stuff to allow them to operate in "normal" gravity. While they could both be good in their own environment (Earth on ship, in the workshop, and Air in a cockpit, flying something), Fire and Water Caste, however, could make some interesting character ideas, if you could get around the little annoyances.

Maybe your adventuring Tau would have a little vial he has to sniff every now and again.

I think with respect to Tau, they are just worse than humans on an individual level. On a strategic scale, they have an edge with their progressive science and logistical support. In an RPG where you control one whole dude, perhaps not so much.

On the other hand, when I write rules for aliens, I want them to play very differently to humans. I dislike the "rubber-forehead alien" trope, though I do know 40k succumbs to it quite a bit.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_3DolKosvUX9hdzpWgK7jpM-pxsiVsV3HoNePiK4YhY/edit?pli=1

An edited version of Tau PC's. Mind you, I used the KISS (Keep It Simple) version. Hope it is helpful.

Two words: Farsight Enclave

The biggest problem I'd have with a Tau PC is all that "greater good" business… Your average Tau simply can not disobey an order from an Ethereal; they'll suicide without question if an Ethereal orders them to. That means there needs to be a darn good justification for why the Tau is on a human's ship. Since the Farsight Enclave is, effectively, Tau pirates sans ethereals, that makes a rogue Tau plausible.

As for game stats, Deathwatch has stats for Fire Warriors. It should be possible to extrapolate from that. Fire Warriors are a bunch of weedy gits, but man, do they ever have a nice gun.

Cheers,

- V.

There can be any number of reasons as to why a Tau character is on a RT's ship.

1) The Tau were attacked by someone else and RT rescued them. For the time being they will help the RT, until contact is made with other Tau at which time they will probably leave.

2) The Tau were exploring, got lost, and the RT rescued them. Same as above.

3) The Tau's are part of a trade agreement. An Ethereal or a Water Caste member (more likely the later) asked/told the RT to let his people work with him/her and watch what they do, then the Tau will allow trade if all is well upon completion of the allotted time.

4) The Tau are part of a lost civilization. Say, since humans have come into contact with them, ships with warp drives might have been used to transport some Tau people, or at least were used in close proximity to the Tau (like a battle, and the ship had to use or intentionally used it's Warp Drive). The ship(s) was lost in the Warp along with the Tau, they crashed landed on a planet, and poof, a lost Tau colony sprang up. Could of been Imperium Trader's getting lost, Navy ships in battle with Tau with a Warp Explosion happening, or Chaos ships wanting to drag along Tau ships into the Warp with them for some crazy fun times.

5) It's possible the Tau were prisoners on a human ship, and since they crashed landed about 200 years ago, all hostilities have seized and they've coexisted since them. Unless of course it was Chaos, and who knows what happened.

6) Or a combination of the above listed options. Mind you, an Ethereal is never going to be present on a RT ship, because that would mean one could finally be captured and handed over to the Inqusition. I wouldn't even allow Ethereal's to talk to RT's, unless they have a fleet of ships guarding him/her.

7) The Faresight Enclave have discovered a Warp Gate created by who-knows-who, and have used it to colonize worlds that the RT has discovered.

The possibilities are limited by only what you can imagine. If you don't want Tau in your game, then you don't have to. GM discretion is advised.

Couldn't the Rogue Trader Dynasty itself be aligned with the Tau Empire instead of the Imperium?

Cheddah said:

For a handful of minutes, and then the Inquisition will come down on their heads. Rogue Traders are powerful individuals, and many THINK they can get away with anything and everything, but the monolithic bureaucracy that gave them their "get out of mediocrity free" card didn't do it just to hand out some insane resources, and hope for the best. They have ways on keeping tabs on RT's, and there are a few acts that even the Warrant of Trade itself can't protect its bearer from answering for.

If you cut all ties with the Imperium, publicly, you have just signed your own death warrant. Inquisitors, Navy, Bounty Hunters, and other Rogue Traders will be gunning for you, forever. Eventually, one of them will get you, and get a nice, fat reward for taking you down. Numerous places will be beyond your access, for fear of running into any of these people. Now, you could certainly try to be quiet about it, and hope no one notices, but there are several perks of Tau friendship you might have difficulty capitalizing on. If you walk around with a bunch of their guns, gear, ammo, and/or ship upgrades, people will wonder where you got it. Stories only hold for so long. One EASY dead end for you would be right out of Lure of the Expanse. Your ship has a population of thousands, perhaps, and any one of them, whom you might have picked up at any number of recent stops at bases, could be an Inquisitorial agent, collecting damning data, and forwarding it covertly to their master. Eventually, they will come for you, and you can't watch every soul on your ship. If you aren't getting such things from the Tau, what good was it joining them? They really won't value your life much more than the Imperium did (THEY gave you a void ship), and you might not like their ways much over your own past ones. This, of course, assumes your other party members can roleplay it. Any Missionary would have to be executed, and many Armsmen, former IG loyals, probably as well. The RT really has little control over his ship's Navigators, Explorators, and Astropaths, each of which have prior obligations, and many reasons not to betray their homeland. Any of them could cripple your efforts, if they felt patriotic, and all would be hard-pressed to side with you and the vile xenos over their own God-Emperor, hater of aliens everywhere. If your ship can't go, warp-jump, or send/receive messages, you are in trouble, and any could deposit you, or incriminating evidence, right in the lap of the Imperium.

In summation, most any amounts of sedition/treason really won't go on for very long, unless your GM really wants it to. The galaxy is a grimdark place, and the Imperium doesn't really like to share. Certainly, Hostile Acquisitions would say you CAN be evil pirates, tainted by the warp, and often found lounging around nearly naked, beautiful aliens (why be Captain Kirk otherwise), but you have to roleplay being VERY careful about it, because all it takes is one mistake, one slip, or one angry, disgruntled crew member to bring everything crashing down.

This is why I have a problem with Hostile Acquisitions. They have Secessionists, Hereteks, Charlatan's, and other BC type characters, but no set rules on how PR is affected by their actions. Obviously, if you are a known Secessionist, your warrant is now in tatters and/or is now controlled by someone else in your Dynasty. How does this effect your current PR? No idea, because they didn't even cover any of that in the book. You are just going to have to Houserule all of it as a group.

Nameless2all said:

Fgdsfg said:

Proff Ractor, obviously. It's what Scooby-Doo calls Profit Factor.

PR?

writtenstuffbecauseitrequiresmetohaveaminimumamountofletters

Coming from the guy who's name is Fgfdgsdadf.

PR= Profit Rating. Or, as it's called, Profit Factor (PF). So I call it Profit Rating in my games sometimes. I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.