I've been toying around with the character creation system today and one of the things that I've noticed about it is that when it comes to playing members of the Cult Mechanicus your options are actually very limited, in the sense that it's Tech-Priest or nothing.

In fact I believe the only two Talents that are Mechanicus related that can be purchased if you're not a Tech-Priest are Logis Implant and Electro-Graft Use; however the only way listed of getting an Electro Graft is via the Mechanicus Implants trait which you get from being a Tech-Priest

So if you want to play a Skitarrii bodyguard for the parties Tech-Priest, a Martian Adept or a Mechanicus raised Assassin although you can puchase cybernetic upgrades you'll never be able to do purchase anything such as Mechadendrite Use etc. Things which going off the setting based on Black Library fiction are relatively common to come degree.

I've been mulling over the best way to do it and I think it would be looking down a custom Background route that grants the Mechanicus Implants Trait and allows the player to purcahse Tech-Priest only Talents as Elite Advances, but I'm struggling when it comes to how much that should cost. I'm leaning towards 300-400xp as although the Mechanicus Implants are nice by themselves flavour wise the only real benefit to them is the Respirator Unit which offeres a +20% bonus to resist airborne toxins / gas weapons and a framework that additional things can be built onto with the Talents (which as Elite Advances you'd expect to be at least 50-200xp more than the usual cost depending on suitability.

What do people think?

I would suggest looking at the Secutor alt level in the IH. That requires a 500xp upgrade for the Tech Priest. So I would think any non-Tech Priest class who wants a potentia coil to power mechadendrites would be looking at 500xp for that upgrade. Then they would need the mechadendrtite use talent for the specific model they want, reasonably priced at double what a Tech Priest pays. Then they have to buy the equipment, again double the cost is reasonable, then good luck finding the Tech Priest willing to do the upgrade.

I am actually playing a Skitarrii (Forge World Guardsman) that really doesn’t have any true cybernetics but I went with the idea that his ability upgrades were not just from experience. His Strength comes from vat grown muscle and Perception and Ballistic bumps are from implanted visual and audio enhancements in his eyes and ears. The Sound Constitution traits are the result of minor gland implants and armor mesh being woven into his skin. So while not truly mechanical upgrades it works until he can afford the real thing.

Actually anyone from a forge world is a follower of the cult by default, but the only true "members" are the tech-priests, much as clerics are the only "true" members of the Ecclesiarchy. Skitarri are basically just secuters with a specific job, from what I've read of them, so there's no reason you couldn't use that career to represent the Skitarri.

fruit&nut said:

I've been working on a supplement that covers a lot of this angle, in part because my group contains a Forge-born Guardsman, who I've houseruled to be a Skitarii Hypaspist (basic infantry). I posted a preview of the Skitarii Background and the Hypaspist Alternate Rank on this forum a while ago, but there's more beside that being worked on for the fan-supplement currently titled Ex Omnissiah Scientia .

I agree with Aureus.

Personally if I wanted to make a "lower" functionary of the tech-priests, you could go with a simple Guardsman or Adept lay out, toss in all the normal non-mechadendrite cybernetics you can (and slowly upgrade them from average to best), then slowly allow elite advances of certain talents and skills, to show that you've increased your standing within the Machine Cult.

Toss in some of the items from the Lathe Worlds from the IH and blamo, common Lathe world citizen.

But for a common citizen I wouldn't start them out the equals of tech-priests. The Tech-priests are very controlling of their technology, and don't just trust to it anyone who isn't initiated into the higher understandings and knowledges of the Cult. (It is a cult after all.)

Xathess Wolfe said:

There's a difference, though, between knowing the secrets of the Machine, and being blessed by having your impure flesh contain such wonders so that you can better perform your Omnissiah-given role in life. When I wrote up the Skitarii Background Package, I gave them a list of basic implants (non-functional but with potential to add upgrades to), similar to those possessed by Tech-Priests (with certain ones omitted and different, more combat-suited ones added instead).

The player of a Skitarius character should be under no illusions as to his character's knowledge of how those implants function, or indeed about how much knowledge the character possesses about the nature of the Machine in general... but that doesn't preclude them being similarly augmented to perform a role. From a game design perspective, it also allows Mechanicus-loyal characters to have access to things that other characters don't or can't have (at an appropriate cost) by making them upgrades bought with XP and reliant on the predetermined array of implants the character started with, emphasising the differences and segregation between the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Aureus said:

Really? I was udner the impression Skitarii were just "vanilla" soldiers with different training and a bucket of augmetics. Secutors are actual members of the cult mechanicus- warrior scientists, respected and venerated by the skitarii.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

How long until you release this fan supplement?

Salcor

Salcor said:

When it's done. I can't promise anything more than that. I'm not being paid to do this, so it all gets written at my own pace...

not trying to prod, just wondering how it was going that is all.

salcor

I always figured that the easiest thing would be to use the full reconstrution package from IH to represent the cybernetic augmentation a Skittari would have or the partial one if that was deemed to powerful.

I always figured that the easiest thing would be to use the full reconstrution package from IH to represent the cybernetic augmentation a Skittari would have or the partial one if that was deemed to powerful.

Considering that the reconstruction package has more drawbacks than advantages to your common player, I wouldn't reccommend that. Reflavouring talents and granting a few Elite advances sounds fine.

I supose it might need some adjustment, really though the only necesarily negative aspects are the lose of fellowship, a FP, and the IP gain with much of the rest being up to the GM I don't think it would be that hard to improve. Maybe drop the FP loss and amount of IP gained to show that it was a controlled process instead of a response to a traumatic incident and it should be a bit more attractive.

Agility is lowered too, right?

Also, need to find a magos biologus to enhance stats.

Yes, but I would think that the 2 AP, S and T boosts and the 7 talents they get should be enough to ballance that out I would think.

Uhm, isnt a Forge world born Guardsman, more or less a Skitarii hypaspist?

Varnias Tybalt said:

Close (and that's what I've used as a base for my background package and alternate ranks), but I personally felt (and my players agreed) that there was room for more distinction beyond just the homeworld choice.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Okay. Well I cant really help you in the matter. I haven't thought much of the Skitarii, except for my inclusion of them in a campaign I GM:ad a couple of months ago. And i depicted them as little more than combat servitors. Sure they were "sentient humans" but pretty different from normal Imperial Guardsmen (lets just say that the Adeptus Mechanicus in my games REALLY likes to remove unnecessary parts of a soldiers brain that contain "crap" like personality and individuality). XD

Varnias Tybalt said:

That rather reminds me of the Ad Mech superiors discussed in this:

new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp