Was having a chat with some friends about Teleportariums, and it raised the following interesting topic: none of us can recall any instance in WH 40k fluff where a Teleportarium has been used to deliver something (or someone) from somewhere to the Teleportarium itself. Like let's say teleporting a Rgoue Trader away team from a planet back to the ship. All the Teleportarium uses we recall are with stuff being teleported from the Teleportarium to a location (and never back).

So, anyone know of any such situations?

Not sure if this is any help, but I recall teleporter beacons being a requirement for accurate lock-on. The transport would probably still work without them, but you'd have a healthy risk of things not being in the same shape as they were before.

In fact, it is said that beacons may even be required just for a safe teleportation FROM the ship to somewhere else. Suits of Tactical Dreadnought Armour have them as a built-in feature to increase accuracy.

"Although teleportation can be far from accurate, it is often the best way to get Terminators into the thick of the fighting quickly. Teleportation is a barely understood science and the technology is far from perfected. Many chapters of Space Marines - such as the Space Wolves - have a healthy distrust of such things and refuse to use it."

- WD #303, Space Marine Terminators

1.) In the Caiphus Cain novels the main character and a team of Terminators teleport out of a Necron Tombship onto a space marine battle barge which saves his life and the sabotage caused by the team cripples the ship.

2.) In the Soul Drinker's 1st novel the Mechanicus teleport onto the station they just captured and steal a priceless artifact and then escape by teleportation before the marines can retaliate; their team consisted of servitors.

3.) In the Tome of Fire trilogy one of the Salamanders Librarian uses his powers to "teleport" them off of a derelict ship with extra suits of power armor. I know it isn't the use of a teleportatium but the power is similar in many ways.

I can't think of examples where things have been teleported as the technology is so rare that its usually only used by Space Marine chapters or the AdMech. On the same note the use of atomics is only done in the fluff by the loyalists of Krieg to destroy the chaos renegade faction that tries to take their world over, the use of five nukes turns Krieg into a deathworld.

Further beaming to teleportaria happens in one of the early Ragnar novels (I think Blood Claw, but it might have been the original Space Wolf); part of the Ravenor trilogy (offhand, I think it's the prologue to Ravenor Rogue, but it just might be the opening of Ravenor Returned instead); I believe in the culmination of one of the BloodQuest graphic novels, and certainly in at least one of the other graphic novels (I want to say Daemonifuge, but if so it must have been book 2, maybe 3; it may even have been in Inquisitor:Ascendant).

I'm reasonably sure I remember it from one of the short story compilations as well, but I can't remember for certain.

In all cases of beaming (back) to a teleportarium, they required a strong, clean signal to lock on to- hence the use of Teleport Homers, although iirc a powerful (ie- ground to orbit/intercontinental range) vox signal can work in a pinch.

I think I vaguely recall teleporting items other than Atomic devices away from the teleportarium being mentioned briefly in old, old fluff (may have been one option of deploying CAT recon drones into space hulks, come to think of it), but mostly it's just to risky a technology to squander on simple cargo delivery and pickup.

(I also recall some speculation a while back that absent the cleanest of locks, the teleportarium would try and scoop up any contiguous object at those co-ordinates, which meant that people in or on a building were at greater risk of breaking the teleportarium as it tried to beam up an entire building. IIRC, they pointed to the bit from the Ragnar as support. I love the idea, and have incorporated it as canon in my own games, with the result that anyone wanting to be beamed up from concrete or rock needs to either carefully time and choreograph the beam up with their teleportarium crew so that they jump and get picked up in mid-air, or move to soil/break up what they're standing on with krak grenades/melta bombs etc and have someone ready to sweep out all the dirt/rubble that gets beamed up with them)

and certainly in at least one of the other graphic novels (I want to say Daemonifuge, but if so it must have been book 2, maybe 3; it may even have been in Inquisitor:Ascendant).

I'm reasonably sure I remember it from one of the short story compilations as well, but I can't remember for certain.

Daemonifuge did have a few teleport scenes, though the only one where a transport was made TO a teleportarium chamber was during the Golgotha's transfer. That being said, it does seem as if the transport of the Grey Knight Terminators did not happen from a "blank" surface to teleportarium, but rather between two teleportarium platforms - at least judging from where Ephrael reappears:

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I've added the bits about how it feels to be "in" a teleportarium beam in a thought that it may serve as inspiration to some. Obviously, as with any and all such minor details of 40k fluff, they are not to be misunderstood as some sort of gospel, so gamemasters should not feel constrained or bound by them - but if you like it and think it fits your existing perception of the setting, why not go and adopt it.

As for a second teleport occurrence in Daemonifuge, there is this scene in which an Inquisitor has an Assassin sent down close to his location.

So pretty much 'Oh ****, I'm mildly inconvenienced by the situation, Scotty beam me up' moments are rather hard to pull off unless the target has a Teleport Homer or something similar, correct?

On the topic of teleport homers, just exactly how bulky and hard to set up are they?

On the one hand, Deatwatch core seems to imply they're rather small (listed at weight 0), but on the other hand, Games Worksop's Terminator boxed kit comes with a huge (and by the looks of it heavy) Teleport Homer ( http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100621074831/warhammer40k/images/8/84/Sm-terminator-squad.gif )

You could say the unreliability of the teleportarium is what makes it "balanced" for RT.

As for the homing device .. that could be where the aforementioned "there is no canon" clause comes into play; as previously mentioned different sources will tell you different things when you look at details such as these.

That being said, perhaps there is a difference between a teleport homer and a teleport beacon? Like I said in the first post, GW Core fluff (from the White Dwarf Index Astartes) describes Terminator armour as having the homing device already built into the suit, so perhaps that thing there is just a sort of booster for safe retrieval? To further build upon your comparison to Star Trek, the difference between a commbadge and a pattern enhancer , as far as transporter locks are concerned.

This way, you could perhaps say the homing device is about she size of au auspex or so.

I'm pretty sure the homers built into the TDA suits are for "easy" retrieval. I always saw the big bulky one from the set to be a heavy duty combined terrain auspex and ground-to-orbit vox, to be pre-planted by troops on the ground so that the teleporting unit is beamed in accurately and (relatively) safely.

From decriptions elsewhere (particularly the Ragnar Blackmane books), I believe a stand-alone teleport homer is roughly the size of an auspex, yes. Maybe a little bulkier to make sure there's enough gain to punch a signal up to orbit- maybe the size one of those 80s cell phones, the ones with the carrying strap and pretty much a car battery?
Pure speculation on my part, of course.

You could say the unreliability of the teleportarium is what makes it "balanced" for RT.

The thing is there isn't much in the rules to represent the unreliability. The 'one per session' suggested limit in ITS usually means most players will keep it as a 'get out of jail free' card for when things get iffy, as opposed to actual, interesting uses.

You could say the unreliability of the teleportarium is what makes it "balanced" for RT.

The thing is there isn't much in the rules to represent the unreliability. The 'one per session' suggested limit in ITS usually means most players will keep it as a 'get out of jail free' card for when things get iffy, as opposed to actual, interesting uses.

For rules, I'd suggest that unless they have a Teleport Homer (which is an incredibly rare piece of archeotech only reliably known to be part of Terminator armour, which only Space Marines can use properly), it takes anything from an hour to several hours to set up a proper, relatively safe beamup/beamdown.

Beaming down without preparation could result in you being beamed into a wall, or being fused with your fellow comrades.

Beaming up without preparation could result in the Teleportarium locking onto everything and his mother, including other nearby organics and solid objects (such as an entire building).

Setting up a (heavy?) Teleport Beacon (which might include some localized Advanced Auspex and communication capabilities) on the other end alleviates this greatly, reducing it to mere minutes, but the Teleport Beacon cannot be moved once set up.

This would allow the Teleportarium to be used to perform tactical or strategic manoeuvres, such as beaming a Stormtrooper contingent into an enemy base that have no idea that you are in orbit, or is not expecting an attack, and it would allow the players to pull off flamboyantly amazing acts, such as beaming into a high-society ballroom to impress the local nobility.

But it would also mean that the more silly/ridiculous stuff that can be done with the Teleportarium "as-is", which doesn't even appear to truly conform with fluff in most parts, simply wouldn't be feasible. Beaming nukes into a moving ship, using it as a get-out-of-jail-free-card, etc, etc, etc.

And if they still choose to use it that way, there should be three tables: One for beamups when they don't take precautions, one for beamdowns when they don't take precautions, and one to simply roll on every time the teleportarium is used, no matter what (even the most well-aimed beaming carries the risk of having a daemon piggyback on the stream, or give you some mild corruption (or insanity) as you flicker through the warp).

The Emperor's Finest (Ciaphas Cain) has cain and Jurgen extracted from a hulk by teleporter - the lock relayed by a C.A.T. (see space hulk).

Essentially, you can beam 'out' without a lock (at some risk) and can beam down to any locator signal, even just an open vox channel.

Beaming back up generally requires a beacon with some accurate auspex coverage - hence teleporter-to-teleporter is common - although one dastardly heretic in the Ravenor series was able to teleport up based again on an open vox channel - albeit with the ship not, at first, being able to tell which biosignature was him.

Also, note that teleporting is a reeeeeeeeaaaaaaally unpleasant experience. There is a reason most astartes insist on wearing terminator plate when doing so, and the only ones who don't are the super-duper warp-proof grey knights .

Post emergency teleport extraction, Cain is essentially lying on the floor flopping around like a freshly landed fish for about five minutes.