I'm using the Serrated Query with all their unfettered technological know how and was designing an encounter in which a SQ team was sent into to retreive an "item" . Just to screw with the players ( and any las rifles, photovisors and data slates they have) I was thinking of deploying a low level EMP and then wondered if that might actually kill the tech priest character when he suffers from cardiac arrest as his implant fail.

Thoughts? Opinions?

I would definately assume that it would effect your TP PC. Much like a Psyker using Weapon Jynx. It just wouldn't be a good way to mess with the other PC's unless you found some way to "protect" the TP. Perhaps he was last to enter a room as it went off. Perhaps he was in a protective room away from the others investigating some technology that the group came past. There are many ways you can "split up" your PC's so that he is uneffected but nearby. But to have an EMP go off while he is nearby, not the wisest idea, unless you could even make him pass a tough... -20 test. Perhaps WP or T. Upon failing he is unable to move/shoot for 1d5 rounds. Who knows, but I am sure you can come up with a reasonable way to explain it.

That would completely depend on the tech-priest - or more precisely, on its tech-level. Remember that there are those whose internal reactor units are barely past the steam age while others are rather more advanced. Any priest whose implants go more than a bit beyond the 20th century would very likely be immune to EMP (that is, EMP that isn't sufficient to simply kill the organic material around the implant), either because of protection of his circuits or because of differing basis for the tech (optical chips from Shadowrun come to mind).

I agree with Cifer on this one.

EMP shielding is possible but tends to bulky with todays technology. But with improved tech (especially new materials) who knows how much room it would take up. It is even possible it is built in as a matter of course. Or maybe the tech is advanced enough that it operates in a way that emp would not effect.

Remember that the techpriests coil is a zeropoint energy device. Or at least so overunity as to have a absurd efficency rating (a billion% efficency would reasonable).

I'd still say it depends on how teched out the Tech Priest is.

I play a Tech Priest and actually turned myself into an EMP once. I stored power from Liam shocks in my systems and revered the charge of on my Omnissian Axe. After Pulling the two energies together I released it as a magnetic charge to shut down the power in myself (killing my character) and in the power armor of an enemy a Guard PC and I encountered alone.

To my relief, the weekend after the session where I basically killed myself the GM tells me not to bother with the new character I had rolled up. My Tech Priest activated (or woke up) on a dismantling slab in the local Mechanicus temple after having been dead for two days with a vision of Kain and (excuse me for not knowing the character's name) the tech-savvy chica who had digital-like singals flowing around her head almost like a halo.

Inginuity and self sacrifice seemed to work to my advantage that day. But a big enough charge would be able to shut down anything, even in the 40k universe. So long as it's stronger than the current it's working against.

Yes Tech Priests, or rather their implants, are affected by EMP blasts.

And if you use haywire grenades of in 1e:RT vintage, the haywire field not only fried all electrical systems in the balst zone but also blitzes the neural pathways of living organisms.

Not sure how you're going to handle the EMP burst though...scratch 1 fate point from the TP? No fate points left, roll a new character?

I would hazzard a guess that most cybernetics by default are to a degree EMP proofed and have backups or emergecy means to keep going. Probably moreso with Mechanicus implants than your standard medical replacement. I think there has been enough tech development to ensure this. Does this make them EMP proof? Not nessesarly, especially due to tech grades, retro-tech additions, and erradic construction. Does this mean that you can kill a heavily cybered individual via an EMP pulse. Very tough, but possible.

I would think that if a heavily cybered Mechanicus is hit by an EMP, life support would probably be uneffected or have backups that kicked in only because such systems are vital. Systems like extra limbs (or obviously mechanical limbs), mechanical assisters, connection ports/datajacks and other not so vital components would not be as sheilded.

Because we are on the subject of Adeptus Mechanicus cyborgs, there are two other factors to consider in the mix that they would potentially have than just some joe with a mechanical heart, or cyberarm. First is the potential for anti-EMP technology that not only protects, but can make an EMP do "unusual" things. The other thing to keep in mind is the ever present super secret Mechanicus Machine-Foo which may or may not be psykic, psychic, magical, or tech in nature (or perhaps all of the above!), that may come into play at the hands of a Mechanicus.

This is an area that begs for a rundown in a future DH supplement. Till then it's up to the GM as to how he wants to treat it.

Some EMP effects are somewhat easily countered in a number of ways depending on the type of EMP it is. Problem with science fiction is that they tend to be fairly poorly researched and implemented and we end up with life imitating art so to speak.

Your tech priest will be quite safe against the most basic set of high discharge pulses caused by something like lightning and large electrical arcs even if you do use a 'high tech' aspect to your tech priests using contemporary IC's and circuit boards somewhere in their makeup. I get people every day to fit that kind of protection on very advanced stuff which is much more complicated than most science fiction writers can comprehend and makes up the backbone of comms networks. The simplest fix there is to have them well grounded, circuit breakers and there's probably a good reason now why more than a few tend to wander around with some kind of big metal stick

(these people work around dangerous machines on a regular basis, it would make sense they have their little rituals and necessary equipment to avoid being zapped by or at least minimise the effects of it)

The initial pulse though of something like a nuke going off, he's going to be in a bit of trouble as they're quicker than contemporary, solid state, IC based technology can counter, but that's the least of his problems because, a nuke just went off. Fortunately, I don't think people running around in 40k have hand-held nuclear devices they can hurl at each other to blow up each others computers.

Creating a non-nuclear EMP can be done in a couple of ways I know of, neither of which are capable of generating that initial, very high intensity pulse of the nuke, they can however produce something similar to the pulse of a lightning strike and a very small, slower pulse lasting into the hundredths of seconds which is essentially punting the absolute crap out of local areas magnetic fields from its displacement and then they bounce back in how they where after its finished. The upside here for the tech priest is that for the most part, very much rooted in the old analogue school of electronics construction and it is much, much more resiliant than solid state equipment we are much more familiar with now to the effects of an electical spike.

It doesn't necessarily mean its a good thing though! Analogue has its own degrees of sensitivity to voltage and amplitude which will cause errors so to speak and I think he'd probably still end up on his arse twitching like a roach for a little while if he's got a fair few implants in him. People do survive high voltages if they are well grounded and it is channeled away from sensitive organs like the heart, they don't enjoy the experience, but they can live. For the definatives there on people being electrocuted, you'd really need to ask a doctor, Im not.

I would only allow shielding for good quality enhancements.

As for killing Tech Priests with EMP? Is that really fair? Personally, I think some kind of stunning effect would be more reasonable. Perhaps give a Toughness test at -10 to resist being stunned for d10 rounds. If the tech priest fails by 3 or more degrees, they also take d10 damage directly to their wounds.

I'd also make anyone with cybernetics make the same check for each of their augmentations (with +10 for good quality, +20 for excellent), but if they fail only that augmentation is paralysed. On a failure by 3 or more degrees, it is paralysed until a tech use roll is made to fix it.

The way I have been dealing with EMP in both Dark Heresy and Shadowrun, is that EMP will shut down cyberware/computers/anything electrical, but they immediately reboot after the pulse passes.

So the Tech Priest and anyone else's cyberware may have anywhere from a momentary glitch (1 round inop), to manually having to reboot/restart the device (really low quality ware), dependant upon the quality of the device. Things like cogitators may loose the current batch of data that wasn't written to hard memory, so partial memory loss could be a result.

Things like Power armor and equipment for use in a battlefield, especially the battlefields of 40K, would be hardened against EMP. I imagine EMP causing devices get used frequently in the grand melee's that are 40K battles.

BlacKat

This is one of those funny areas where the canonical material is somewhat inconsistent.

The first point to make is that a Haywire device is not an EMP - it's something far more sophisticated, that uses field generation technology to affect devices within its sphere of influence, whereas an EMP is indiscriminate and consists of electromagnetic emissions.

The second point to make is that Imperial technology at the level usually found in tech-priests is far beyond the point of being affected by EMP. It's all based on biological gel processors, crystal-core technology and quantum pathways. It's no more likely to be affected by an EMP than a human brain. Less likely, in fact, as it's also solid-state.

However, it is also worth observing that there are canonical instances of the Tau using EMP against Imperial technology (which is odd, as their own tech is, technically, less sophisticated than Imperial tech).

Perhaps Cifer's answer provides a degree of explanation: Imperial tech-priests are indiscriminate in their regard for technology. Whether it's steampunk or zero-point energy, it's all an aspect of the Machine God and may find itself incorporated into their devices and selves. So it's possible that neural implants based on silicon technology may well fail under the impact of an EMP. I think it would be a very foolish tech-priest indeed, however, who chose to have a potentia coil, inductors or bionic organs based on silicon technology.

R.

I'm going to have to agree with PrecinctOmega on this one.

It's a mistake to think of Imperial technology too much in terms of today's capabilities and effects. Just because tech of our time is affected by EMP, there's no reason to assume that Imperial tech would have the same reaction.

On the other hand, there's no reason to assume it would be completely unaffected either.

If it were my table, I'd rule that it might stun the Tech Priest for a round or two if he fails a Toughness test (Difficulty dependent on the strength of the EMP effect), but that's about it.

Actually, if we're talking rules, I'd suggest that he lose D10 Int and D3 random Talents. Maybe one turn of stunning, tops.

R.

I should add: temporarily, not permanently - tech-priests have back-ups!

R.

I really like the idea of a tech priest having to reboot.

"By the Emperor we need this door open? Is he back up yet?"

"No Sir the indicator still says loading with a spinning disk."

Wow. Thanks all! Lots of really useful stuff here.

That was all very helpful. Incidentally you probably saved the tech-priest from a total "harshing" (I can be vindictive sometimes)

I'd have to agree with the upthread that unless the EMP is powerful enough to screw with meatboys, it won't mess with Tech Priests unless they've got more augmetics than just what's basic for their Career. Since Tech Priest implants heal with the Priest and cannot be targeted idependently of the Priest (you don't, for instance, aim for the respirator so much as for the jaw). Given these characteristics of the Mechanicus Implants, I would have to say that EMP would have to be powerful enough to affect a normal person to affect the Implants, and the Implants would be affected as harshly as the rest of the person.

Well, I recall an article for Inquisitor (about archeotech, iirc), which indicated that an Alpha-class military EMP device will shut down/fry bionics. I believe the exact quote is '...God-Emperor help characters with bionic lungs or heart...'

I know, Dark Heresy is not Inquisitor, but it does give us a precedent.

All that said, I have had a similar situation occur while my group were playing through Rejoice for you are True! (minor spoiler warning)- the party psyker, while trying to play around with Spectral Hands, called up the Tech-scorn psychic phenomena. Theodosia, the heavily bionic'ed hitman was within range. I ruled he fell down, stunned, and had his bionics shut down for 3d10 rounds. Until they started up, I ruled he was subject to suffocation and additionally had to take a Toughness test each round or suffer an additional wound per degree of failure. 2+ degrees of success and his bionics would reboot successfully, but with d5-2 levels of fatigue.

that's harsh stuff. I wouldn't have been quite so mean.

@Alasseo - The article was the one about the Tau Water Caste emissary and is the one I meant when I indicated the use of EMP technology by the Tau. That particular idea has caused me a lot of problems re-writing the rules for bionics.

That said, I think your call on tech-scorn was about right. Warp effects aren't EMP - they work on a completely different level. There is, after all, a whole othe slew of reasons the Adeptus Mechanicus don't like psykers quite aside from the ones preached by the Imperium. Microtelekinesis is a major threat to AdMech interests.

R.

It would be easy enough as a GM to rule that certain critical bionics/enhancements are innately shielded partially from EMP. Heart, lungs, and other crucial life support devices, etc have enough integral shielding (as well as shielding from the host body) or back-up capacitors to prevent a total loss as a result of an EMP blast. They can still provide the barest of minimums of low-level energy to keep the person barely alive. I would expect unconsciousness or a coma-like suspended state (to minimize power consumption) until the devices come fully back on-line. No need to worry about character death from a single EMP blast this way, but it certainly does hamper them and could lead to death from other causes, such as the enemy coming in the mop up.

I would probably play it that a tech-priest or any other heavily augmented character is stunned for 1 round and takes a level of fatuige in the presence of a powerful EM (based on GM discretion). Mostly just for flavour, 40k is a pretty soft sci-fi after all.