As far as I can gather, nearly every piece of technology used by the Imperium is based on an STC. According to the fluff, thousands of STC's have been found but ther are stil thousands out there waiting to be found.

The tech preist in my group is always on about STC's. Either talking about modifying one or talking about finding one.

As a GM I should help him if it is his characters ambition to find such a device. The thing is that I have no idea how to go about coming up with an STC.

Here is how I imagine it:

An STC is like a data-slate with all the program info and digital blue prints on it. It gets plugged into a cogitator attached to a forge/workshop and left for X hours while it produces the item. The product the rolls of the end of a production line.

The problem I'm facing is "power levels". Obviously I don't want him questing for ages, going through hell and then finding out that his new STC is actually a coffee machine but on the other hand I don't want to unbalance the game. The way I say it is that STC's are meant to be cool and cutting edge. The only examples I've found are grossly overpowered. The tactical nuke pistol being the prime example.

Anyone have any ideas?

The STC doesn't have to be anything useful to the party, just something the tech-priest would want. You could arrange it so that all the benefits the PC gains come from the fact that he simply found an STC template and presented it to the order. This would bring him great respect and renown within the Cult Mechanicus and related organizations. The STC doesn't have to be too impressive. A cogitation engine that is 3% faster and uses cheaper materials. Hull plating that dissipates more heat. A battery that recharges itself by absorbing kinetic energy (like those ones in watches). The fact that it's and STC is what's important.

In keeping with the theme of 40k you could simply do one of two things (amongst the billions of options out there).

You could follow Atilla's advice and have the STC be a minor tech upgrade that would make him well liked by the tech priest community, and maybe give him a cool payout in the form of the Peer talent, bonus xp or some such. I personally tend towards this type of GM'ing but that's more of a subjective personal taste thing since some players would feel jilted and burned by the lack of zomg uber powerzz z

Or you could have him find something much more exciting. I wouldn't ever add something like a tac nuke pistol. Perhaps a new type of terrifying bolt round, personal shields tied to a lightweight fusion pack etc, a fully autofire palmsized las pistol that has all the punch and none of the bulk. But you could then have the STC be corrupted by chaos, AI or something else horribly xenorific. You know the kind of thing that upstart acolytes get dropped into a lightless soundproofed room for and the next time you see them they are Billy the mind wiped ag-laborer or skull servitor 102BX-24323.

The interesting and powerful things in the galaxy tend to come with a hefty price tag. Forcing your character to make a choice of power at the risk of heresy is pretty juicy.

You basically have 3 options, the PC's find a useful STC (in an immediate sense, ie. Hot shot las shots in a clip).

The PC's find an STC that has a less useful function (as said above, a more effeciant cogitator, efficiant means of mining metals).

The PC's find an STC telling of something now Heretical (a sentient for of machine?) and must decide what to do with it.

Or, they don't find an STC

STC's doesnt have to be blueprints. STC-technolgy could also be found in the form of a machine, built by human hands during the dark age of technology. Its a pretty common practice for th Adeptus Mechanicus to salvage such machines and using them, without having the slightest idea of how to build more of those machines.

N ote Standard Template Constructor is a massive computer system that provided construction blue prints for colonists. One of the key things of these computers are that the AI was able to convert the blueprint to match low materials, and tech levels. These computers are tech heresy, and often insane/corrupted. What people are looking for is print outs, and saved copies.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/STC

Remember that there's a difference between archaeotech and an STC template. The status and riches imparted by finding an STC template are always going to far outstrip their worth as a source of equipment to the character. Whole worlds have changed hands over some templates.

Archaeotech, then is probably better suited to your requirements. They're 'just' pre-dark age of technology artifacts, and could come in whatever form you want. I'd imagine that if a member of the Ad-Mech got hold of one, they'd still want to take it apart and reverse engineer it though. They are more like holy-relics to the Adeptus Mechanicus than anything else.

Alternatively you could have the PCs find a very useful STC file, just not anything useful to them. Something like an STC for terraforming equipment, or an STC for high-quality and large-scale water reclaimation and restoration that makes water that actually tastes fresh and clean from much more toxic waters, with a side benefit of extracting promthium-product from the toxins. Stuff that would make them heroes to the Ad-mech, but not give them access to any equipment that's going to alter the game (except what they can get via their new and improved Ad-Mech contacts).

Even if an STC hold nothing the acolytes can use, becomeing heroes of the the admech does have some benefits, and if you feel like it, you could award them with one of the most prized forge gift like a plasma pistol or a omnissian axe .

The original STC systems (for the old Rogue Trader rulebook) didn't build anything. They just provided construction plans. Their advancement was that they could be told what you needed and what you had on hand to build it and they provided the plans to do just that... got a pseudo-Victorian tech base and need to build a tank. Tell the STC and bingo, plans for a steam powered battle tank. Unfortunately, no working STC systems have been found. Over the centuries, they stopped working. Most of what remains are generations old copies of copies of copies of original printouts produced by the STCs. Finding a new set of STC plans would be a wonderous find. Finding an actual working STC system could change the entire nature of the Imperium.

Or at least that's the way it was in the old days.

STC's are pieces of knowledge broken down to such a basic, rudimentary form that even those who have no background in engineering could build something like a Baneblade following them. Only the most important pieces of Imperium technology were commited to this form before being scattered so no single calamity could destroy them all. Some are just for a single weapon or item, others have been rumored to contain even more vast archives that could compise the greatest bulk of human knowledge out there.

Even the STC's that have been found are incomplete or only copies of copies of STC's found and destroyed or lost long ago.

It's entirely possible to allow the group to find an STC for a powerful weapon platform, like stable plasma weapon technology, without it unbalancing the game. The Mechanicus are still sitting on designs they found centuries ago determining if they dare restore that lost tech. In all likelyhood while they would receive heroic status with the Mechanicus the designs would be swiftly sent to Mars for evaluation.

Or make the STC something broken and incomplete. Even in that state it is still consider a holy relic, the return of which would still gain the group allies among the Mechanicus.

Archeotech is tech leftover from the Dark Age of Technology and earlier but typically without any instructions on how to build or even operate it properly. Many instances of functioning archeotech are Tech Priests preforming the same prescribed actions that their predecessors did without a true understanding of the tech. In fact dogma states it can be a sin to even try.

I've recently read the first Gaunt's Ghosts novel and it takes an interesting approach to what the STC is so I thought I would chime in.

From what I've seen and read on a broad base of the fluff, STC technology entails both software and hardware designed to work together.

Most STC material, (about 99%) the Mechanicus have on hand is data, blueprints, programs, and design specs. This is considered partial aspects of the whole STC. It's from these materials they are able to build most "STC" equiptment by "hand" or plug the data into an autolaithe or constrution system/assembly line.

Apparently the "holy grail" of STC is a complete a fully integrated hardware/software production machine system that is specifically designed to work with integrated software data to create a specific item. Usually components, destroyed examples and such are what are usually found. "Complete" systems are unheard of and usually do not function if found. Fully functional complete systems are so rare that when one is found, that discovery rocks the entire Imperium. Such things are only found once every few thousand years. The last complete and fully functional STC system found and maintained by the Mechanicus, according to the novel "First and Only", creates lightweight, ultra-high tech folded steel blades, with percision razor edges. This system has been "recently" supplying various Space Marine chapters with said blades in many sizes and shapes.

It is also quiet possible that on the hardware end, working STC tool components may be retrofitted to work in Mechanicus assembly systems, or by an individual as a high tech tool. It's pretty easy to see a Mechanicus character or NPC jurry rig a STC microwelder to act as a manualy operated tool for construction, or as part of a cybernetic limb.

As far as it is known, full STC systems only produce one specific item. However it is possible that there could have been a "universal" construction system at one time. However such things are the stuff of legend.

Does this mean that other concepts and ideas surrounding what an STC is are not legit? Absolutly not. You are talking about thousands of years of tech creation, so other aproaches to what an STC is, be it cannon or creative, are very much useful. Nothing says you can't come up with your own version of what an STC unit entails.

The problem with STC's is simply time.

They are for the most part, a pile of their component materials, you look at something simple, non-mechanical and how hard nature is to it, for example an eqyptian pyramid which was the state of the art in architecture 4000 years ago. Large, impressive and completely unfathomable for the most part even now how they managed to stack that many rocks, that high and with that much precision. But for all intents and purposes, its had a fairly hard life compared to how it was when brand new!

The STC era ended 18,000 years ago... for something simple to survive that long it has to be under extraordinary conditions.

For something to survive that is mechanical even semi-intact, the conditions have to be something very, very special. So while your tech priest might have a yearning to find something like that, his search will lead him more towards the ranks of scholars and historians to fill in the other half of the mystery- location of one that could possibly survive and conditions which would afford that. Something by my reckoning would be easily passed onto apprentices for several generations.

ClockworkGecko said:

I honestly think that First and One really represents Abnet not completely understanding the 40K background. Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the guys who thinks Dan Abnet is a great author who has brought some good things into the 40K universe, but First and Only isn't one of them. He admits that he made mistakes, like not really understanding the role of Commissars in the Imperial Guard command structure. The Men of Iron were IIRC his take on the Necrons, who had not received at detailed backstory at that point and his understanding of STC technology was, in my understanding, flat wrong.

(Bit off topic sorry ) I think I really need to read that book again!

There has been a bit of talk on these forums about the iron men from that STC being Necrons or Necron-like. I really didn't make that interpretation at all! What was it about them that made you think "Necrons!"? Granted I read that book many many years ago now and so may have forgotten/missed some detail but even at the time I don't ever recall thinking any necron-thoughts.

(Back on topic, sorta) In that Ghosts book the reward for finding the fancy sword STC was that the guys that found it had a number of planets named after them. Yes I know this was "early Abnett" but it still sounds like the right level of reward, you gotta remember that in the Edicts of the AdMech faith finding a STC, even one that is only partly working, ranks pretty darn high on their list of priorities. Some elements of the AdMech see this as their ONLY priority.

I would either have my group find a tainted STC a la Abnett or the STC is no longer operative but examples of what it last made are available, like a warehouse full of uber efficient zero point energy modules (Stargate Atlantis was on last night, first techy thing I thought of).

The second option would still be a mighty find and, provided they let the AdMech have them instead of selling them on the black market, would result in some awesome rewards, ranging from (as previously noted) a fancy plasma weapon, omnisian axe to their own starship depending on the quality and quantity of the find

As I understand it the idea that Iron Men ought to be necron-like seem to come from the hints given in the Necron codex that human STC technology was inpired by the study of Necron relics on Mars. The Horus Heresy book Mechanicus even goes so far as to suggest this situation was diliberatly enginered by the Emporer to provide humans with the technological equipment they would need to launch the Great Crusade.

As for the original post, I think as Ursca suggests archaeotech is perhaps a safer bet than STC system if you are worried about power levels. A good way to introduce the archaeotech might be to really play upon the religious significance these items have to the Mechanicus. IMO these objects should be treated as magical and holy even by High Magi, and ought to inspire awe and a good amount of superstitious dread in ordinary citizens. I feel that even tech preist PC's should have little understanding of just how exactly these artifacts work. The shouldn't be out looking for a tactical-nuke pistol but rather be on a quest to find the holy lance of Qutaal VII, a sacred and terrifing relic that has the power to raise whole cities to the ground in purifying fire.

Hope this helps.

AH.

Lupinorc said:

Big, skeletal humanoid robots... pretty much sounds like the Necrons to me.

Remember that First and Only predates the Necron codex by a few years. When it was written the Necrons where just a small model line with a couple of White Dwarf articles. Those articles just said that they were mysterious robot-men who had appeared from nowhere, destroyed a Battle Sisters convent at the edge of space and vanished. The whole "C'Tan, War in Heaven, older than dirt" business wasn't even a glimmer in GWs eye at the time. Abnett, who admits to not being as well verse in the 40k backstory then as he is now, made a guess... a guess informed by classic SF tropes. IIRC, the idea that the Necrons were remnants of the Dark Age of Technology was one of the guesses back then. It could have been true but, in the end, GW went a different way. The Necrons became what they are today, but the idea of the Men of Iron lingers.

I never thought of the Iron Men as Necrons, closest resembelance was they were tough men made of metal.

The Men of Iron are part of what destroyed the Golden Age of Technology. They were sentient machines that for some reason turned upon their makers. Hence one the reasons sentient machines are completely forbidden by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Deimos said:

Yes, that the story implied in fluff appendix in the 3rd edition 40k core rules and stated in First and Only. To the best of my knowledge there were no Men of Iron in 2nd edition 40K, though the Necrons made a brief but largely undefined appearance. In Rogue Trader (aka 1st edition 40K) robots were actually a unit available to Imperial armies, though they did include organically based neural chips even then.

Reading this topic is frustrating. I know we're playing a roleplaying game where nothing should limit our imagination, but some of the interpretations of STCs are in contradiction of established background (including, apparently, Dan Abnett's version of them).

STCs are NOT manufacturing devices.

A Standard Template Construct is just a machine that produces plans or templates. They were taken by colonists in the great waves of expansion that spread out from Terra in the Dark Age of Technology, probably one per colony. They were designed to be the repository of ALL human technological knowledge up to that point and were intended to allow the colonies to maintain a certain level of technology.

The background on STCs is pretty well summed up in the Lexicanum article about them. They are gigantic, interactive databases that can produce the PLANS to build anything within the confines of local material availability.

Need a tractor but don't have petroleum on your planet? The STC can generate a plan to build something that runs on biofuel.

Need a nuclear power grid? The STC can produce a plan for it.

Finding a functioning STC is the holy grail of the Adeptus Mechanicus because in theory just ONE of these machines should contain plans for virtually anything. However, in the 41st millennium, STC data exists only in multi-generational hardcopy or broken/fragmented devices.

Steve

STC = Google Image Search mixed with Wikipedia text

What's to say that STC represents everything we all have presented here in this thread, and what others have written for the fluff and the novels? Something that encompasses many aspects rather than just one. I think that makes the best sense overall, and it fits in overall. In fact it makes the whole concept fit well with the fact that for the most part only bits and peices of anything related to STC survive. However said bits and peices are found, treasured, and put to good use. Yet nothing is exactly the same when it comes to an STC find. This makes the best sense to me, and allows for a lot of creativity with the subject while not invalidating others ideas.

ClockworkGecko said:

An interesting question and fundamentally the problem with games based on an established, but not always consistent, setting.

What's to say that STCs aren't everything we've all said? Well, I can honestly say that the original Rogue Trader background says they aren't, because it says clearly that an STC is an advanced database of plans and doesn't say anything about it being a manufacturing center. However, you can honestly say that First and Only says clearly that an STC is a manufacturing facility. To which I could argue that Rogue Trader is more "true" because it's the original background, to which you could argue that much of the old Rogue Trader background has been superceeded by newer material, etc, etc, etc, ad nauseum. It's a little like Star Wars roleplayers having flame wars over the number of Jedi who survived the Clone Wars and which Star Wars novel and comic is or is not canon and what degree. Which is to say, it's insane. Go with what you like. The GW canon arbites won't be showing up at your gaming table with combat shotguns and shock mauls because your game has a different idea of STC than mine does.

Just blanket coat them with the 'artifact' brush. Archeologists in the real world would save and pamper the musings of a Egyptian pharo written on preserved papyrus the same way would the pharo himself or the chariot he drove. It's all incredibly old and gives a phsyical insight into the cloudy history of mankind.

In 40k an STC set of plans detailing the construction of a new antigrav tank is as precious to the adeptus mechanicus as the manufacturing STC shed that has said plan loaded into it's 'last program' database. On one hand they would have to try to emulate most of the parts with sanctified tech parts, and on the other they would have to hope that tech-priest Booker T Wells doesn't fall asleep on the 'delete last program' button because then it's bloody well gone. In either case the STC would cause the finder to either be exalted, murdered in their beds, lavished with their heart's desire or perhaps all of the above.