Given that there have been a fair few messages talking about alien PCs, I thought it might be fun to ‘wish list’ some characters/careers that we would like to play as. I appreciate that this is probably mere wishful thinking. I just really want to celebrate some of the interesting possibilites offered by playing as an alien, something I really would like to do.

The desire to play an Eldar PCs seem to requently get a mention, and I reckon, as I (and probably others) have said elsewhere, that they could very easily be covered by the core RT mechanic (playing as a pirate prince and his/her senior crew). I do think that a DH based Eldar game could work very well too – you are underlings working for a farseer who wants to recover treasures, stop humans doing something etc. I suppose both could be done with one supplement fairly easily, with the RT based one giving each character a lot more XP to start off with.

Anyway, these are some careers (in no particular order) I thought would work well:-

Ranger/Pathfinder – scout, sniper, survivalist, lots of knowledge about non-Eldar.

Seer (with a possible option to become a spirit seer) – Eldar wizard, lots of cool spells, lots of premonition powers; possible career ranks as a spirit seer, to focus more on talking with the dead, and making spirit stone powered constructs (i.e. a career option with fewer destructive spells, but lots of miscellaneous powers); he may have some cross over with bonsingers (for making the wraithbone constructs the spirit stones go into).

Bonesinger – Probably the nearest thing to an ‘engineer’ type character. Maybe could specialise in making different wraith bone constructs (I assume on a ship he would focus more on making the ship work properly); possibility some cross-over with the spirit seer class.

Emissary – A character perhaps a bit like the seneschal who specialises in dealing with non-Eldar, and probably has human contacts and allies; probably a fairly good secondary fighter, has lots of knowledge, and buckets of charisma. This career might also exist more as an alternative career to the ranger; i.e. a ranger can either become a pathfinder (a super ranger), or an emissary. Either could work (each, in effect, would be variances on the ‘path of the wanderer’.)

Skald/remembrancer/priest – This character is on less firm ground, as I am by no means a true Eldar buff, but I imagine the Eldar priestly class as having a story telling/performance element (though not the same, the harlequins put on plays about Eldar mythology etc). Anyway, a mish-mash career which combines knowledge of Eldar mythology and history, possibly has skills in performing arts, some light fighting skills; possibly (a bit like the priestly classes in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) having bonus skills dependent on his favoured area of expertise – so someone who specialises in myths on Kurnous might have some more survival skills etc (I know most of the Eldar gods don’t exist anymore…)

Fighter (aspect warrior?) – The main fighting character. I don’t know whether one would want to use the aspect warrior type (I know them to be a very ‘craftworld’ thing), but either way, these would be very good fighters. I do think (whether strictly an aspect warrior or not), having the fighter being super good at one thing (maybe even one set of weapons), and kind of ‘meh’ at other fighting roles would be quite characterful.

Pilot/helmsman – a lot like the void master career, very good at piloting ships, shooting ship mounted guns, knows how ships work etc. Perhaps with some cross-over with the bonesinger.

Anyway, these are things that spring to mind.

Also, I thought something that would characterise Eldar quite well would be to take elements of the ‘paths’ into character creation. Each character would either (in effect) be walking their 2nd path (or 3rd, 4th etc in higher powered games), and so have a load of skills from an unrelated career, OR take a boost to their current career (i.e. rather than effectively starting with 2000xp spent as a ranger ranger and 3000 as a seer seer, just having 5000 as a seer). This could be very interesting for character development, so in the above example, the first Eldar went off for a wild wandering phase, getting a knowledge of the galaxy, and then went home and become all bookish (just like a gap-year…), whilst the 2nd eldar was really keen on scholarly pursuits, and went off to seer school at the first opportunity. We might also have 'non-combatant' former paths (things one could imagine your character having back home, but not really suitable to a heroic RPG) - so your character could have picked up a few skills from having once been a painter, or a gardener, or a librarian or whatever.

Adding to this, the concept of ‘exarch’ could be added – i.e. ordinarily, an Eldar changes paths after a bit, and becomes pretty good at everything over his/her very long life time. So, after about 3/4 ranks in one career, he/she would have the option of changing path OR becoming ‘lost’ on one path. If they made that choice they could no longer change paths, and so would lack the breadth of many Eldar, but would be able to unlock many powerful abilities – each career would have an ‘exarch’ mode (e.g. farseer for seer), where unique and super powerful (and specialised) abilities would be unlocked.

A note on ship roles – I at first thought of having a ‘pirate prince’ character (who was a lot like the rogue trader character), but after thinking about it (and given that I think changing paths is a cool eldar thing to do), the title of ‘pirate prince’, or whatever, would be tied to an individual, not a career (I see no reason why a seer could not command a ship, or any other career for that matter).

Anyway, I hope a lot of this doesn’t seem too naïve. I just want to play an Eldar remembrancer pirate prince (quoting Eldar myths while massacring mon’keighs seem quite swish)… It was just the product of an idle 50 minutes typing when I really ought to be working….

All best for now

David.

I think I read somewhere around here that Plushy had written homebrew rules for Eldar.

Seeten said:

I have! They're hiding over in the Black Crusade House Rules section, right at :http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=271&efcid=3&efidt=668982

Archetypes for the Aspect Warrior, Seer, and Corsair prince.

I should consider some kind of Harlequin option.

Plushy,

Thanks for this - I've had a read of them (just once over, not going through in detail) and I think they look a great start. If I get chance (which, to be fair, is unlikely in the near future), I shall try and make up a couple of characters from your post, and see how they play out on a one-shot game.

Anyway, I do suppose that doing Eldar well is a task beyond the odd half-hour to an hour I can put in at present…

Many thanks,

David.

I'm glad you like it!

Honestly hoping FFG gives us an Eldar game at some point. The silly Craftworlders aren't my favorite, but if they let me play a Warp Spider I'd buy it one day one.

They have to eventually give us an alien PC game - there can't be all that many more human only games left to do (I seem to recall a joke somewhere on the forum about an RPG about the adeptus custodes, playing hanging around on Earth not doing much).

As well as generally being my favourite 40K people (I quite like Kroot too), what really appeals to me about the Eldar is the paths - that over time one will become good at a lot of things, or really rather good at one thing. Though I realise with a lot of elite advances one could play (for example) an arch militant who 'found God', and effectively became a missionary, I quite like the potential for radical career changes that the Eldar paths would give (but that these would never be forced - one would always have the choice to specialise).

One thing I really loved about 2nd ed. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (I haven't actually played 3rd ed yet) was the possibility to radically alter career if you so wanted. One character I really enjoyed playing was this tough as nails soldier who for a while was this hard drinking brute, who then had a near drowning experience, and became a very spiritual priest of Manaan. Changing paths could be a really interesting hook for character development, and one that could be wonderful if done properly, (why did the striking scorpion go and become a spirit seer? what got the pirate prince to chuck it all in and become a ranger?). It could be great.

Also, as I have said, it could work really well as a RT level game or a DH level game - the possibilities really are endless.

And yes, warp spiders are cool (though I recall in the wargame one had a 1/6 chance of being swallowed by the warp whenever the spider made a jump - a warpspider PC might chew through his fate points quite quickly I fear). Personally, I really like rangers (and exodites, but they would make a great 2nd or 3rd expansion).

Oh well, I had better get back to my translations now. No sleep for me tonight…

All best,

David.

I think the power level would be right in line with Black Crusade; better than normal people by quite a bit, but still afraid of an Astartes. The Path system sounds interesting for me. Going with established mechanics, the concept of getting lost upon one's Path could easily be an Insanity point mechanic. Corruption would be easily done, with tests chancing the Eldar's soul. The character concepts are pretty solid (there's a ton of Aspect Warriors, plus Corsairs, Seers, Rangers, those who do the more mundane, and even the enigmatic Harlequins.) I'm not even a huge fan of the Eldar, but they make the most sense as our first xenos. Although I would prefer to see a full Dark Eldar game, I am well aware that I am in a unprofitable minority. Let's hope they do a good job with it.

Or fix Ascension.

Note: N01_HER3's Warp Spider pack had them take Corruption whenever triples were rolled on movement.

Shadow Spectres are an exciting new Aspect also.

Always had a soft spot for Banshees, even if I didnt like Eldar Close Combat troops much.

I agree that a RT sort of power level would be best, though an Eldar game could work at any level, just like humans really - 'guardian' type characters would suit a DH level, aspect warriors, warlocks and rangers a RT level, and exarches, pathfinders etc a space marine level - they could all be done very easily. In any future game (and what I would do if I designed one for personal use anyway), I would be inclined to start characters off at a DH level, but allow them to buy a lot more characteristic upgrades (at least +30 points, rather than the max of +20 for RT and DH), so that one could very easily use the same book for any level of play. In a 'DH' game, PCs might be on their first path, for a RT game their second, and for DW level on their third or fourth. Just a thought…

I know I keep harping on about 2nd ed warhammer fantasy roleplay, but I did love it, and one of the many things I though was really great was that the same system allowed one to run a character right from being a chimney sweep or a night soil man right through to being a wizard lord or a knight of the inner circle without too many difficulties. I would quite like the epic character arc of running an Eldar from being a painter or a gardener on Kaelor (or wherever) through being a guardian, to becoming a ranger, then a seer etc, etc. The Eldar, through their paths, seem a lot more socially mobile than humans in the 40K universe, making running an 'average' Eldar from civilian to farseer kind of plausible, whilst I can't imagine on a human hive world the average hiver (no matter how gifted or lucky) could work his way up to being planetry governor, or whatever.

And Shadow Spectres are cool (the models are nice too, like always crazily priced, but very nice all the same).

I still love rangers more though

All best,

David.

I'd like to see stats for a new Koronus exclusive sentient being. possibly even a non bipedal creature

Cornwallis said:

Loxatl: the Ass-Kicking. Seriously, mercenary heretical lizard assassins? That may be the coolest sentence ever typed.

Plushy said:

Sounds like a White Wolf game ;-)

Would be really sweet if we got rules for playing these though