Well I know The Lathe Worlds is out in Canada, I bought it in Winnipeg over a week ago.

Am I the only one dissappointed in how little material there is on the Lathe Worlds, in a source book called The Lathe Worlds? Six or seven pages (including art and NPC's) out of 144? Couldn't FFG have cut some of the minor demenses and added some more detail on Het? Iocanthos got more of a write -up in the main book.

That gripe aside, what's in there is good.

I have a question for the future. What will a crimson guard wish to be when he grows up (hits ascension)?
And Lathemaster too fot that matter.

KommissarK said:

Honestly I would add the two togeather. I know it might get to be a little much when all is said and done, but if they can get it from two different sources by all means let them have both.

ShadowRay said:

From a mechanical standpoint, being guardsmen and scum respectively they have the following options :

Crimson Guard : Inquisitor, Interrogator, Crusader, Storm Trooper and Vindicare

Scum : Inquisitor, Interrogator and Desperado.

Now comes my subjective and debatable point of view :

For the Venatorii, I'd probably rule out the Vindicare, as they don't really match well. If your Venatorii likes integrated melee weapons I'd rather point him to the Crusader, otherwise you can ask your GM to houserule the Storm Trooper to instead match the Crimson Guard's chosen armory, or you can start coming up with a convoluted reason why the Calixian Conclave would accept a Crimson Guard as an Inquisitor. They can make pretty decent ones though, especially when combined with Legate Investigator(which they can take), and well… Have you thought what the Lumen talents would look like with unnatural willpower?

For the not-space dwarf, you can either shoehorn him into the Holy Ordos, and a squ-*BLAM* short, stocky and bearded inquisitor is a funny thought. Otherwise you're stuck shoehorning him into the criminal mastermind career.

I don't think that I'll play any of them anytime soon. It was just something that was bugging me because these two doesn't really fit in their 'normal' path.
The answer will be found when someone will actually hit ascension.

Got my hands on a copy today!

Guess I wasn't looking hard enough.

In any case- comments: Where are the Arch-Hereteks!? Amicus?! Nomen!? Least they talk about Malygris… But the book sure spoils them techpriests (D'uh!)

I think that the armory is… lacking though… compared to the other books… Not to mention the implants again, are a bit scarce… Lets not talk about the Tools and Gears…

The Alternate Ranks were Fun- Granted, I agree that the Crimson Guard is overly powerful, but I guess we'll have to impose some massive Rp restrictions pretty much the same as the Battle-sisters.

I didn't like the Lathemasters… I don't think they fit in the universe… even if you plug in a different name on them… and what the hell is wrong with the cult of the pure form? Seriously? Try as I might, I don't see why anybody would ever want to go in there for any reason without some massive boosting. Maybe its because I already did the whole "vat-grown" limbs as replacement - I figured it would be a basic courtesy on behalf of the Inquisition if the acolytes lost limbs and did not want to be indebted to the Mechanicus or couldn't afford the Mechanical Limbs. But I guess these guys can, for some reason, use a Melta at rank 2? It seems that the mechanic for the two talents doesn't quite work out for it to be anything but a penalty.

The elite advances were cool- but why isn't discordant a Background package instead? Can you imagine a Discordant Untouchable or something? Would be quite horrible.

The last chapters, detailing the locations and some NPCs- those were cool, always an interesting read.

Overall though, I felt that Book of Judgement had the same number of pages- but was able to do much more with them. Don't ask me why. One thing I felt was lacking were the Universal Laws… Book of Judgement had two pages worth of Imperial Judgement… This Book skips some laws! I understand you can find all of them on the internet… but this is basic information that should have been present somewhere.

The new Art is really cool though- and Integrated weapons are a good idea (If a wee-bit overpowered in the hands of the right people No pun intended!)

Overall, the book isn't my favorite- but it wasn't a waste in that a) I am a collector and b) My Tech-priest player will make a lot of use of it in terms of the new talents (which are epic), the new weapons, the new augmentics- and will likely leave everyone else in the dust.

Saldre said:

I was just reading that particular part of BoJ last night. Two pages of infractions punished by Execution. Amusing to be sure, but I don't know if it was the best use of space.
Then again, maybe there just wasn't as much to be written on the Calixian Adeptus Arbites as there was the Calixian AdMech. I have no doubt that a ton of stuff was left out of The Lathe Worlds for word count considerations.

I got the impression they were trying not to retread to much territory here. Nomen Ryne, Amicus Tole and Vathek have all be touched on in previous books but Malygris has only be vaguely alluded to. It was nice to finally understand why he was so bad.

Are Skitarii not included then?

Unfortunately not- but the Crimson Guard are the next best thing.

Saldre said:

I wouldn't say it that way since Crimson Guard are intended to be a unit of high-end Skitarii (that still retain humanoid forms) unique to the Lathe Worlds.

Blood Pact said:

They may know the most about Technology, but I bet they would have "moral issues" taking out that same Technology. My Imperial Guardsman, with Demo skill has no issues, and lots of Demo!!!

Saldre said:

…

I feel completely horrible that I missed that… even though it said Tech-heresy… Woah… Going back there, the first word that jumps on the screen is Amicus Tole.. I will admit that I searched for the Hereteks in the end of the book, the part with… stats…

I take back everything about the Hereteks and this book

Now to read these segments- slowly this time.

A long, loooooooooong scroll ago I have read TECH - WITCHES

Is their anything NEW on them?
'By this I mean "something not covered in Creatures Anathema" or "Radicals Handbook"? And by "something" I mean "anything"

Thx

Unfortunately not- it reminds us that Amicus Tole left the mechanicus first then the Logicians second to create a new cult [Tech-Witches], and it mentions how the cult was purged in Sinophia and driven to Cyclopea by a magos Juris of the Lathe-Convenant Council and the Inquisition.

No Cell Directives?

Nope.

BYE

THE SQUATS ARE BACK, BABY!!! (sort of)

For those of you who've got a copy, lookup the Lathemaster advanced career and tell me they don't sound suspiciously like the Squats of old.

Blackjack Rackham said:

They don't sound like the Squats of old.

Yeah. They ain't Squats.

They're the descendants of the original inhabitants (human colony) of the Pondus system, taken by the Lords Dragon, further genetically altered, kept in stasis and then returned (mind wiped) to their former homes as a ready-made workforce.

BYE

Short fellas with a funny knack for technology? I'd like to think they are, yeah.

Yeah, they ain't Squats (except they are subrace of humans adapted to a high gravity world, they can shrug off extreme environments, they've got a knack for machinery, they form into family oriented clans called "cores", they have darksight, they demand respect,…).

How anyone could draw parallels between them and Squats is beyond me.

mrady said:

The Lathe Worlds allows 4 levels of The Flesh if Weak for a total of 800 XP, while Ascension also has 4 levels with a total price of 2000 XP. Allowing the two to stack would give a naked Tech-Priest (well, Magos at this point) a shocking AP8! Add Dragon Scale and some other nifty bits (such as Armour-Monger and Armour Plating), and nothing save for a lucky Melta blast will be able to harm him. It might be interesting to note that stacking this talent to 8 points would kick Exemplar of Metal in the bottom, since EoM only gives 7 points of TFiW.

So I don't think that adding the two together is a viable idea, it would certainly cause some concern both from the players and the GM. A more viable option is refunding the XP spend on the Ascension level version of the Talent, but that might retroactively mucks up the whole learning progress of the Tech-Priest.

There's also the fact that you had to become a Rank 12 Magos to get The Flesh is Weak 4, but now Rank 8 is enough. Makes sense to me, really, it's just that it causes some minor technical confusion.

And now for something completely different!

The new Luminen Talents are quite nice, I like the larger variety and especially the Shield/Barrier, but there is no mention of their relation to the Ascension level Electro Illumination Paragon Talent. Does this Paragon Talent contain all the new Luminen Talents as well, or just the old ones and we have to buy the new ones separately? If the Paragon Talent includes the new Luminens, then the Paragon Talent is extremely cost-effective.

(To be honest, I've just bought the PDF version and have skimmed through the bits that were of suddenly interesting to me, but what I didn't notice and correct me if I'm wrong, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of how the contents relate to Ascension's contents.)

I wonder that nobody mentioned Ryboth ("reboot"?) by now. Assuming that the majority of the 40K fans are although fans of the post-apocalyptic (hey, look at all those communites on spacehulks, warworlds and the liked) Ryboth must be a dream come true.

Radioactive wastes, uncontrolled and half-deleted servitors, half molten or fully forgotten remains of Tech-Factories and Machine-Temples, dangerous mutants, a population of scavengers and raiders (good and bad and ugly) and some surviving Tech-Priests all in the mix. Subterran live, insert-what-the-hell-you-like ecosystem excuse and an orbit so littered with debris that only ace pilots and pirates dare to cross it…

…well, I totally know now where the final lair of the Heretek will be. Marcharyn Marches.

It so reminds me of "M.a.r.k. 13" (the movie, not the bible quote)

EDIT: What I do miss, so, are any suggestes rules for the Radiation hazard. While p.127 of the provided adventure (have read it yet) provides radiation rules the surface of Ryboth cannot be that deadly.. in adition, it seems to be less of a problem by night..proberbly no ozon layer left or some other sun related threat…perhaps still radiation incoming