I know there are sub-humans/mutants known as Beastmen in the 40k universe but I'm at loss at how they potentally differ from the Fantasy Beastmen. Or are they the same stuff more or less?

Any info would be appreciated. And yes I've read the article on the Lexicanum but it was pretty short.

Dunno if they are still canonical species. They used to be a part of W40K army lists for Chaos and I always figured they were more or less the same as their WFB counterparts.

I for one kind of miss them in the 40K universe and will certainly include a member of their race in one of my upcoming adventures. I draw lots of inspiration from the Beasts of Chaos army book for WFB. Ofcourse in the 41st millennium the Beastmen could be fitted with chainsaws and other crude and nasty bionics

The Laughing God said:

Yeah I kind of figured it might have been something like that. Shame they went away.

The Laughing God said:

Do you know if they were counted as Abhumans or as mutants? Because I'm thinking of maybe doing a small project to both write up NPC:s with Beastmen and also perhaps make some kind of template that could be used if one would like to play a Beastman character in a Radical Dark Heresy, or a Black Crusade, game.

So far I'm thinking of a mixture between the Fantasy Beastmen, Wheel of Time's Trollocs and Shapeshifters from World of Darkness. So that even while the Fantasy-style Beastmen would be the most numerous there would be many other sub-divisions of Beastmen.

The Laughing God said:

Ofcourse in the 41st millennium the Beastmen could be fitted with chainsaws and other crude and nasty bionics

Sounds awesome! Beastmen with guns are just as cool as greenskins with them.

IIRC Beastman units were mentioned in an article about abhuman units which could be substituted for regular guardsmen in one of the 2006 white dwarf magazines. In that article I believe they benefitted from the furious charge special rule.

blackwell said:

Thanks. I take it from this that they are classified as abhumans and would be more tolerated by the Imperium than mutants are.

If anyone else has something feel free to step forward.

Gurkhal said:

I know the article Blackwell is talking about- it specifically states that beastial mutants with horns and hooves are put to death at birth, and are not included in the Abhuman troop type in the article.

'Way back in 1st Edition era, Beastmen were treated as Abhumans able to be fielded with Imperial Guard armies, but from 2nd Ed. on they have been strictly Chaos mutants. The last appearence I remember them making is in the 'Lost and Damned' army list in Codex: Eye of Terror , where they are reduced to an upgrade that can be applied to Mutant troops: "Burly, Beastial, and/or Goat-Headed".

They make for good Adversaries, though. I ran a mission a while ago where the Acolytes were investigating a disappearence of the population of a small town on a frontier world. It turned out that a Heretic had used the town as a hide-out while he tried to translate a book of sorcery. He accidentally invoked a curse that turned the population of the town into Beastmen. I started with the Beastman stats from WHFRP , and tweaked them to fit my scenario:

BEASTMAN -

WS: 40 BS: 20 S: (8)45 T: 40 A: 35 Int: 20 Per: 35 WP: 25 Fel: 15

MOVE: 3/6/9/18 WOUNDS: 15

SKILLS: Awareness+10, Concealment+10, Shadowing, Silent Move, Tracking+20

TALENTS: Melee Weapon Training (Primitive)

TRAITS: Beastial, Brutal Charge, Unnatural Strength (x2)

WEAPONS: Various crudely make stone-age weapons (count as Club: 1d10+8 I; Primitive)

ARMOUR: None

GEAR: Primitive jewlery

CHAMPION-

As above, +5 WS, +5 Wounds; Furious Assault and Iron Jaw Talents. Armed with Great Weapon (2d10+8; Primitive, Unballanced)

BRAY SHAMAN-

WS: 35 BS: 25 S: (8)45 T: 40 A: 35 Int: 35 Per: 40 WP: 45 Fel: 20

MOVE: 3/6/9/18 WOUNDS: 18

SKILLS: Awareness+10, Concealment+10, Intimidate+10, Psyniscience, Scrutiny, Shadowing, Silent Move, Tracking+20

TALENTS: Melee Weapon Training (Primitive), Sorcerer, Whispers of the Hidden Ones* (May substitute Per for Int as a requirement for Sorcery)

TRAITS: Beastial, Brutal Charge, Unnatural Strength (x2)

WEAPONS: Various crudely make stone-age weapons (count as Club: 1d10+8 I; Primitive)

ARMOUR: None

GEAR: Primitive jewlery

ARCANA (Psi Rating 2): Deja Vu, Fearful Aura, Healer, Inspiring Aura, Spasm, Psychic Shriek, See Me Not, Gift of Rage* (12; Full Action; Cause willing creature to become Frenzied; Each degree of Overbleed can effect an additional creature)

This depiction is much more primitive than the Beastmen in WHFRP , who are true 'people', with more-or-less 'average' intelligence, and metalworking skills. My Beastmen are first-generation mutants, degenerated to crude barbarism. Unnatural Strength was pretty much essential, if their Primitive weapons were to have any chance of threatening Acolytes in modern armour.

Adeptus-B said:

Good stuff this, thanks alot for sharing! I can definietly see the point in making them mutants and with Beasts of Chaos and all that would make alot of sense as well. I'll agree that they should probably be called mutants. I hope you won't mind if I steal some of your stuff and throw it at my players.

I like your scenario but why would they have lost their human intelligence as well?

It seems more likely to me that imperial citizens, having turned into beastmen overnight, would flee into the wilds as they know pretty well what the Imperium has in store for them. But I'd think they'd take their arms and stuff with them….

That certainly would make for a better story as well with the acolytes having to decide what to do with once loyal citizens whose only crime is to have been near a heretic (there but for the grace of the emperor walk I….).

ranoncles said:

My thinking was that the same Chaos influence that mutated their bodies would also degenerate their minds. That fits into the classic 'horror movie' atmosphere I was shooting for with this scenario. And my party aren't real big on 'moral delimas'- their traditional response is "Kill 'em all and let the Emperor sort 'em out!" During this very scenario, they bullied a local landowner into lending them some of his guards to help them assault the Beastmen's cave hide-out, then killed the guards afterwards 'just to be safe'…

I forgot to include Speak Language (Debased Low Gothic) under the Beastmen's Skills.

Beatmen existed far far before any actual chaos codex. They used to be abhumans in the flavor of Squats, Ratlings and Ogryn. ie: Imperial units.

I dont recall if they were part of the chaos-ey lists at that point. I dont have my old RT books here in NZ sadly.

Imperial Beasman mini - http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16101160/images/1314600080793.jpg