I currently play a Techmarine in our campaign and we are currently playing the 3 part campaign. We try to incorperate rpg moment so the game just doesnt become a game where you roll dices to kill stuff. It's challanging mainly because Spacemarines ain't knowned to sit around sipping tea and talk about "important" stuff.

Jokes aside, we try to incorperate social elements into the game to make it more fun for our group. As i said, i play a techmarine, and we have downtime where we can do stuff in the game and i was thinking of, what can techmarines build. What are they allowed to do actually. We had a discussion that they aint allowed to modifiy excisting stuff, like armour and such but can build now it's (que next planet destroyer with a big red button saying "dont push").

I have ideas of what i do like to build, having a servo-skull platform where i can place my MUI heavy bolter on to control it so i dont need to place it down with a tripod all the time, so it floats around me more like a sentry gun, well it's an idea.

But am i allowed to construct this, i know i can't do it before i get renown enough to get an servo-skull, but after?

Also Artificer Armour? As i understand it, there are really no fixed generic ones, all are "special" in their own way so is it possible to craft your own armour with the blessing of who ever you need to have, to give it your own spin? I was thinking of a MK8 armour (I love the looks of them) tailored for an Techmarine with the power unit hooked up to the internal power unit as a backup if the primary pack fails. Also maybe some other things? Are there any clear rules on how you can build stuff in the game, and which pages are the located at if so? The reason i want to build my own armour are plainly just for making your mark on the "world" having build something very unique and make it's own history and such.

I know that Techpriests have huge restrictions on creating new stuff, they can modifie but new stuff are a big no no. But as i have read in fluff and such Techmarines are the opposite. The make stuff up, not modifying?

Thanks for all the help

There is no reason a Techmarine should not be able to construct items or devices of his own making, or modify existing ones. But, this doesn't mean the techmarine is or should be allowed to build fancy stuff for free. The Artificer armour talent for instance is a good example. You aren't getting issued a set of armour, you're building it, but you have to pay XP for the talent.

There is a cost to manufacturing items. This can be considered both the time, effort, and materials to make them. Since space marines don't normally have money the materials can be simplified to XP, or rare items of import or advanced nature found during a mission (Space marines are not concerned with the accumalation of wealth, but if a tech marine finds a couple of tons of adamantium in a heretic store house he's more than justified to take it to be used by the Deathwatch, or given to other imperial forces for political reasons).

Generally the XP cost for creating or modifying an item should be equal to already established guidelines (for instance: signature wargear or 500xp for every 20 req worth of an item). This XP cost should be taken as an Elite Advance for each project. For things not easily identified through the standard armoury you'll have to talk to your GM and get him to establish a req level. Be sure to check the req-availability chart on p139 of DW rulebook for some guidelines on req cost (super rare stuff is going to be really costly).

A techmarine should also be limited in what he can make based upon his renown. A Rank 1 Techmarine should not be able to manufacture (in this case requisition rare materials needed to manufacture) items which require Famed renown, etc. The Deathwatch just won't be supplying you with the raw materials, schematics, or manufacturing tools until you prove yourself.

The effort to make or modify something is your tech-use or other tests. Building something should always be an extended and should work similar to the repair rules in Only War _{(which I'm not going to repeat here as I'm certain I wrote them in the forums a year or so ago to begin with)} .

The time is similar to the effort. Complicated stuff takes more time, the more time or complicated the project the more extended tests you should have to make.

Extended tests should be recorded, the number of failures or successes should relate to the final product. Multiple major successes would make the product better (possibly Exceptional or Master if the average degrees of success are very high), or worse (less damage, volatile, jams easily, etc. for high average of failures). Once the final product is finished its base can no longer be changed (can't "improve" the negatives from excessive degrees of failures for instance) but any normal and legal mods (prey sense, red dot, etc.) are possible.

Thank you for the input. Yes i do know i need the required renown and such, thats a dead give away. But there are a lot of do's and don'ts in wh40k when building stuff. So you dont get branded for being a heritic and such. And i havent found a clear set of rules for crafting. most stuff are very vague. But, if i craft a Artificer armor do i need to roll a new background for it, or do i use the existing one i have, or can i make my own set of history of it? within the guidlines of it all that is.

I've always ruled:

The artificer armour you craft with the techmarine talent is not exactly the same as standard artificer armour and is a brand new suit of armour. Therefore it shouldn't gain any armour histories. Much the same manner a suit of MK8 is too new to have imprinted anything which can be considered a "history".

On the plus side, your GM can decide to develop your new armours history after your style of over the course of many missions.