Corpus Conversion and You

By Darth Smeg, in Dark Heresy House Rules

I find the Errata to Corpus Conversion too harsh. When it first came out, I apllauded the change, as the pre-errata version was much too powerful to my tastes. But we've played the game for years now, and nobody ever uses it. Even when they were faced with Demons and Life-or-Death situations.

People would rather burn Fate Points, it seems, than suffer PERMANENT Toughness loss.

So I want to change it. Again.

My suggestion is thus:

The Errata for this talent (Errata, p7) is replaced by the following addition:

“The damage taken to fuel your powers this way cannot be treated with psychic or ordinary healing, nor will cybernetics or other infusions speed the slow and natural healing of these wounds”

Suggestions? Thoughts? Have you played with Corpus Conversion working differently? Do tell!

Darth Smeg said:

I find the Errata to Corpus Conversion too harsh. When it first came out, I apllauded the change, as the pre-errata version was much too powerful to my tastes. But we've played the game for years now, and nobody ever uses it. Even when they were faced with Demons and Life-or-Death situations.

People would rather burn Fate Points, it seems, than suffer PERMANENT Toughness loss.

So I want to change it. Again.

My suggestion is thus:

The Errata for this talent (Errata, p7) is replaced by the following addition:

“The damage taken to fuel your powers this way cannot be treated with psychic or ordinary healing, nor will cybernetics or other infusions speed the slow and natural healing of these wounds”

Suggestions? Thoughts? Have you played with Corpus Conversion working differently? Do tell!

Truth be told, Corpus Conversion was used only rarely by any psykers in my group. The two times it was used was in a non-combat situation. (Telepathy) Pre-Errata it was ripe for abuse, but for some reason most of the player's avoided it. Risk averse player's I suppose. Post-Errata makes Corpus Conversion a total write-off. No one purchases it. I might as well take a black marker to the book and mark it out.

Your solution is elegant. The talent might get 1 or 2 uses per session. I approve.

I had always considered making the power inflict levels of fatigue that could not be replenished except by natural rest. That path seems too lenient though.

I can't take credit, as the author of these rules (T.S. Luikart) expressed that this was always his intention with the original rules, before he through experimentation and playtesting arrived at the Errated form.

(Though even that was not quite as he intended in the end, as he allows the decision to be made after you have rolled the dice, increasing the usability somewhat, as well as having CC be a free trait available to all Psykers)

@Darth Smeg: I'm sorry but can you explain the solution of what T.S. Luikart is being credited for, because I don't understand what you said for fixing Corpus Conversion. All I'm reading is that you can't speed the process of the damage you take when using this talent by means of psychic, ordinary healing, cybernetics, and so forth, but the damage is perminant Toughness lose though. So I'm having trouble understanding what you mean.

Sure. "My" soultion is to use regular damage (wounds) instead of Toughness, as was the original (pre-errata) wording of this Talent.

My only change is to let this damage stick around longer, as it is not just natural cuts and bruises but the (un)fabric of the Warp seeping through and consuming your flesh.

But it turns out that this was always T.S. Luikarts intention all along, it just didn't make the first print. According to a post I can't be bothered to search for now :)

But then, before the errate was made, he had played around with it some more (and didn't go blind), and arrived at the much more punishing version we all love to hate. Of course, crucial elements missed the "printing" this time around too, like the fact that he intended you to be able to use (and pay for) CC after you had rolled the dice.

Oh ok I see what you mean now, you take it as wounds and the only why to heal the wounds is through natural healing with rest and sleep. That's cool and good alternative to how CC is now. I would even say that it should take double the time of natural healing to regain back the lost wounds.