This is my first post on this site, so hello.
I was very impressed with the Thousand Sons Sorceror and Alpha Legion Archetypes provided in the excellent Tome of Fate supplement. Nevertheless, I am greedy and quite impatient for rules on the other iconic traitor legions. So I have decided to houserule some starting packages and post them here. First up are the Emperor's Children. I will try to post a legion every week or too. If you like these rules, feel free to make a request for the next legion I will post. Any constructive criticism or feedback is welcomed. Enjoy!
Emperor’s Children Starting Skills, Talents and Gear
Characteristics Bonus
: +5 Perception, +5 Fellowship, +15 Corruption, + 9 Infamy
Starting Skills : Acrobatics, Awareness + 20, Charm, Deceive, Charm +10 or Deceive+10, Command or Scrutiny, Dodge +10, Forbidden Lore (Warp) or (Daemonology) or (Heresy), Scholastic Lore (Occult) or Trade (Chymist)
Starting Traits : Noise Marine or Obsessive Perfector, Slaves to Pleasure
Starting Talents: Ancient Warrior, Air of Authority or Lightning Reflexes, Crippling Strike or Hip Shooting or Iron Discipline, Jaded, Heightened Senses (any), Deadeye Shot or Radiant Presence, Enemy (Iron Hands), Exotic Weapon Training (Noise Marine Blastmaster, Noise Marine Doom Siren, Noise Marine Sonic Blaster) or Minion of Chaos.
Starting Gear: Legion Bolt Gun, Legion Bolt Pistol, Four Legion Frag Grenades, Five doses of any drugs of Extremely Rare or lower availability, three clips for each Bolt weapon.
Noise Marine: The character has chosen to embrace extremes of sonic distortion, not merely as a form of sensual pleasure, but as a means of destruction. The character begins play with either a Noise Marine Blastmaster or a Noise Marine Sonic Blaster and Doom Siren.
In addition, when in combat, he may project a hideous Psychic Cacophony as a free action. Enemies within a number of metres equal to his Fellowship bonus X 10 suffer a -10 penalty to Willpower and must make a Willpower test at the beginning of each turn. Failure results in a -10 penalty being applied to all checks made in that turn. Failure by two or more degrees incurs a level of fatigue. Those with a Psy rating who fail this test cannot manifest any psychic powers in that turn. This is a mind-affecting psychic-based power, so any talents, traits, or equipment which offer resistance to warp-based attacks or psychic powers will apply. Also, as the Psychic Cacophony is drawn from the Warp, the character does not actually need any equipment on hand, such as a Doom Siren, to manifest the power (Note: Psychic Cacophony is adapted largely unchanged from the power of the same name from Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos , page 118).
Obsessive Perfector: True to his Daemon-ascended Primarch, the character is obsessed with achieving perfection in a chosen field. Choose a Characteristic. The character gains the Unnatural Characteristic (Chosen Characteristic) Trait (+2). Furthermore, this characteristic and all associated skills are always considered True aligned for the purposes of purchasing upgrades. Finally, he gains one Best craftsmanship item of Very Rare or lower availability. This item must be associated with his chosen sphere of perfection.
Slaves to Pleasure: The followers of Slaanesh live to pursue his mandate, the experience of pleasure. Whilst pursuing their chosen pleasure they come alive with vitality and power, and they are capable of incredible feats as they seek out that for which they thirst. When dealing with matters unconcerned with their desires, however, their jaded souls are less inclined to action. Choose a favoured pleasure from the chosen list. Whilst the character is actively seeking out or experiencing this pleasure, he gains an extra degree of success on all successful checks, as though he had spent an infamy point. In addition, he adds his agility bonus twice to initiative checks as his desires spur him to action.
The downside is that when he is not actively seeking out or experiencing this pleasure he grows restless and agitated as addiction gnaws at his soul, and he subtracts -10 from all checks.
In addition, Slaanesh despises monotony and encourages innovation. Over time, the sensations that the character derives from his chosen pleasure will wither and fade, and he will have to seek new forms of gratification. At every ten Corruption points gained, the character ceases to gain the benefits of this power from his chosen pleasure (though he still experiences the drawbacks), and must choose a new fetish in order to benefit from these effects again. Once his Corruption reaches 100, he may choose a final and permanent devotion, even if it is one he has already experienced in the past, as ascendance unlocks new, secret potentials previously unknown.
Emperor’s Children Devotions
The Cacophony: The character is addicted to the pleasure of sounds. But not just any sounds: the character craves extreme and often bizarre forms of auditory sensation. Extremely loud and distorted music, grinding industrial machinery, the ear-piercing screams of the dying, heavy weapons fire and explosions are good examples of the kinds of sounds he craves. As a general rule, the sound must be at a level that would damage normal human hearing. When noise is present on such a harmful scale, the character derives the benefits of this power.
The Agony: The character’s chosen pleasure is the physical suffering of others. Whenever others are in pain within sensory range of the character, whether friend or foe, the character derives his pleasure. In addition, when the character is actively causing or attempting to cause physical suffering to another he benefits from this power.
The Suffering: The character derives pleasure from emotional pain as distinct from raw physical agony. Whenever someone is in mental distress, whether it be fear, apprehension, despair, or guilt, the character derives the benefits of this power. Whenever the character causes or attempts to cause emotional suffering in another, he derives the benefits of this power.
The Forbidden: The character craves the giddy thrills of breaking taboos. This devotion is very context-dependant, and depends on the prevalent cultural taboos that surround the character. Should he be on a world in which cannibalism is the greatest taboo, he will start to crave human flesh. Should the greatest taboo be self-mutilation or scarification, he will crave the desecration of his own flesh. For as long as the taboo is being transgressed, or for as long as the character is flaunting his transgression before members of the locally dominant culture, he derives the benefits of this power. Note that in certain civilizations dedicated to chaos, such as daemon worlds, the greatest taboos may be such things as mercy, forgiveness, passivity, or self-sacrifice.
The Feast: The character derives pleasure from the fulfilment of greed, but he is neither a miser nor a hoarder. Instead, he enjoys lavishly disposing of the wealth which he receives, glorying in excessive and conspicuous consumption. When seeking, acquiring and disposing of resources, the character gains the benefits of this power, with some exceptions. When seeking or acquiring resources, the character does not gain the benefits of this power if the resources in question are urgently required for survival. Instead, they must be extraneous to his actual basic needs. So if the character was stranded on a death world with no equipment, and sought to discover a lost weapons cache, he would not enjoy the benefits of this power. On the other hand, if the character is already well-armed but decides to seek out a gilded relic blade for its aesthetic qualities and for the purposes of ostentatious display, when he would benefit from this power. Likewise when the character uses resources he must do so wastefully in order to benefit from this power.
The Flesh: Long ago freed from the rigid indoctrination of his loyalist counterparts, the character is indeed free to fully enjoy the pleasures afforded by his superhuman biology. The character is addicted to the sexual pleasures sacred to Slaanesh. When actively seeking or engaging in these delights, the character gains the benefits of this power.
(Note: I will not engage in the tired old ‘do CSM/SM have sex?’ debate. Interestingly though, page 33 of the starter rulebook packaged with the new Dark Vengeance TT set rather heavily implies that Chaos Space Marines do indeed possess carnal appetites: ‘Freed from the oversight, dogma and traditions of their Chapter, these renegades fully indulge the impulses and desires of their superhuman bodies…’)
The Martyrdom: The character takes perverse delight in his own suffering, injury and annihilation. Burns, cuts, lacerations and fractures are to him as sweet as a lover’s kiss. When he deliberately places himself in harm’s way or suffers wounds, fatigue or some other painful injury or sensation, the character gains the benefits of this power.
The Crown: The character glories in the domination of others, taking pleasure in controlling the fates and the wills of those around him. Whenever another character or NPC is doing the character’s bidding, the character gains the benefits of this power. Not that the task assigned must involve some risk, otherwise the character cannot achieve satisfaction.
Note: players are encouraged to work with the GM to create unique devotions for their characters.
Emperor’s Children begin play aligned to Slaanesh
Note: there are obviously some forms of depravity that you don't want to touch even in an RPG like Black Crusade, and it almost goes without saying that people should use their discretion and establish appropriate boundaries within the roleplaying group.
