Has anyone used Necrons as anything other than souless killing machins… despite them being literally just that? Looking over their background fluff it seems that there could be some great roleplaying potential regarding them as individuals. The Lexicanum makes it seem as though individual Necrons, at least those that have not died several hundred times, might still retain individual personalities.

I suspect you are in for an earful, AG . The new 'Chatty Cathy' interpretation of Necrons tends to polarize people into 'LOVE it' and 'HATE it' camps (for the record, I'm in the second camp)...

It is the Lords and such of the Necrons that have the personalities. And whether they are chatty or not depends on their personality (Are they gloaters or into mind games).

Of course the average Necron warrior would have as much personality as your average PC.

I suspect you are in for an earful, AG . The new 'Chatty Cathy' interpretation of Necrons tends to polarize people into 'LOVE it' and 'HATE it' camps (for the record, I'm in the second camp)...

So did their fluff chage somewhere along the way? I guess everyone’s has by this point. I’m assuming they used to be mindless killing machines? The way I read it, on the Lexicanum at least, is that they’re essentially digital code trapped in mechanical bodies. They retain their original persdonalities, at least for a few dozen lifecycles, however eventualy their rebuilt code breaks down to its base functions and they’re just another mindless cog in their great war. They can’t truly die and so cannot ever rest; it seems like a great opportunity to intorduce some truly tragic figures into the game…depending on how trigger happy the party is upon initial contact.

At the risk of completely ripping off some old Star Trek epsiodes, I’m imagining a tomb world that has succumbed to decay with only a handful, or less, Necron warriors remaining who attempt to make peaceful contact with group. Maybe the world is rich with natural resources or maybe a crashed Black Ship lays in ruins waiting for someone to pick it clean, whatever the reason the group is planetside when they discover the entrance to a massive underground complex and its lone inhabitants.

I think part of the dissonance comes from the part where Necrons were created to fight the Great War against the Old Ones. The Necons' masters want to destroy or devour anything that can create a warp presence (ie humans, eldar, Orks, ect) and have only awoken because its time to start culling the young races again.

Personally, that sets up a huge barrier to conversation between a RT and a Necon (even if they do have some personality left... Which I'd ascribe more to the leadership than the grunt warriors).

Maybe, and that's a big maybe, a small group might be interested in bartering for something, but given that they're immortal, don't need food or supplies, have inertialess FTL, and their Tomb Wolds are impregnable fortresses, I just don't know why that would be.

Having the RT help them topple a rival? From how I understand GW's current fluff, the high ranking Necrons seem to regard humans either as cattle to be slaughtered, or pawns to be used. If you're fortunate, you are amongst the latter. Not that this would mean you're getting spared forever, mind you.

But if you really want to draft a campaign leg around collaborating with Necrons, this is the approach I'd recommend. Have the Necron follow up on some elaborate plan where the RT and his/her resources and connections would come in handy (even if just as a distraction), bait the players with something valuable like an ancient relic that the Necron doesn't really care for anyways, and of course have the Necron never convey the entire plan or the entire truth - just as much as the players would need to know, with them having to figure out the rest themselves.

You could even have the Necron act through a proxy - another human controlled via implants like a Mindshackle Scarab - and only have the players realise later on who they are actually dealing with...

Yep they've definitely changed the fluff a bit which makes quite a bit of sense. For a wargame having mindless machines to fight is fine but for a role-playing game that's rather a bit of a snore.

From memory (and it's a bit scratchy) at least one of the leadership of the Necrons at the Pillars of Eternity (From Black Crusade's Tome of Fate) is interested in learning lore on becoming alive again as being in a cold lifeless body for all eternity is not really working for him.

Using a similiar concept you could come up with your tragic scenario Ale Golem, with your remaining necrons searching for some meaning to their existence, especially if they have been separated from the Ctan so long that they are no longer directly under their influence.

With the sharing of different technologies and ideas there could be a great deal of mutual benefit for a Rogue Trader retinue and the necron contingent. Perhaps introducing new code to the necrons will increase their personality range and allow them more autonomy or with a tech savvy enough crew may be able to do some re-programming or introduce new technology to mimic some aspects of a living created. For their own part the necrons can provide advanced artifacts and technology to the crew, especially if the crew consists of explorators, arch-heretics and/or augmentists who would be fascinated by such things.

A cybered up PC struggling with rising corruption might find the necron phylactery really useful for example.

I do like the idea of a Mindshackle scarab, and trading an unnecessary relic or two for some greater goal. That's a Necron plot I can get interested in. Also, it would make a bit of sense I guess if the Necons were relentless killing machines on the battlefield, but more nuanced in their deeper goals.

On an unrelated note: what's the beef with Space Marine Centurion Armor? I'm genuinely curious here, since the last SM codex I have is a couple generations old at this point, and all I've seen are the pictures on the GW store. From starting in 2nd Edition 40k and looking to now, one might get the impression that the Imperium is starting to reinvent a lot of technology...

On an unrelated note: what's the beef with Space Marine Centurion Armor? I'm genuinely curious here, since the last SM codex I have is a couple generations old at this point, and all I've seen are the pictures on the GW store. From starting in 2nd Edition 40k and looking to now, one might get the impression that the Imperium is starting to reinvent a lot of technology...

It's an old design rediscovered around M36 in the aftermath of the Age of Apostasy - the AdMech spent some time analysing it and eventually deemed it safe to use. The Marine version was called "Centurion" in honour of the Space Marine leaders during the Great Crusade. Unfortunately, there's not much more of a backstory to it than this, but at least it was retroactively inserted into an earlier era rather than stuffing it into 999.M41 or something like that (as this would get old real fast with the ever-increasing amount of stuff they get).

I do like the idea of a Mindshackle scarab, and trading an unnecessary relic or two for some greater goal. That's a Necron plot I can get interested in. Also, it would make a bit of sense I guess if the Necons were relentless killing machines on the battlefield, but more nuanced in their deeper goals.

On an unrelated note: what's the beef with Space Marine Centurion Armor? I'm genuinely curious here, since the last SM codex I have is a couple generations old at this point, and all I've seen are the pictures on the GW store. From starting in 2nd Edition 40k and looking to now, one might get the impression that the Imperium is starting to reinvent a lot of technology...

Many players of 40k find the centurions to be a cynical way of inserting a sort of Tau "Battlesuit" into the SM amory. Additionally, it seems to be out of place since terminators already do what it does essentially. I won't be adding any to my armies!

At the risk of completely ripping off some old Star Trek epsiodes, I’m imagining a tomb world that has succumbed to decay with only a handful, or less, Necron warriors remaining who attempt to make peaceful contact with group. Maybe the world is rich with natural resources or maybe a crashed Black Ship lays in ruins waiting for someone to pick it clean, whatever the reason the group is planetside when they discover the entrance to a massive underground complex and its lone inhabitants.

Sounds like a plan! If you're going to plagiarise, plagiarise something good!

The half-derelic tomb world trope still fits. Basic warriors, and even immortals, are still mindless killers, but the nobles aren't. The ranks that matter are:

Lord - Necrontyr Noble

Overlord - Senior Nobles

Phaeron - The rulers of tomb worlds. If you want the rogue traders to work from a position of meaningful strength, you might want to have the Phaeron have not survived the Long Sleep, or have been assassinated by one of his lords, or have succumbed to the Flayer Virus (the Necron versions of freddy kreuger have apparently suffered some sort of psychological breakdown)

Cyptek - Something new if you've not read the new books - Crypteks are the scientists and artificers of the necrons, and are the one party (other than automata like scarabs and tomb spyders) who stay awake, keeping stasis crypts, autodefences, etc, working.

A cryptek is quite a likely party to approach the explorers in a non "delete! delete! delete!" fashion. Firstly they're not lords so tend to be lower in the social pecking order but vital because of their skills, but also many have a better understanding of (and slightly less monumental arrogance towards) the races who have evolved since the Necrontyr empire fell. Also, he might well be the one dealing with them if the tomb is only partially 'awake' or still 'asleep'.

Some ideas:

• Classic Tomb Kings - some graverobbers broke in and stole a relic. He could reanimate a cohort of warriors and try and retrieve it, but (a) can't leave his post, and (b) that would involve waking one of the lords and their bodyguards and explaining that he lost one of the dynasties priceless relic-devices. This would be bad. Mindshackled agents (controlled through implanted micro-scarabs) are a perfect lead in to this, especially if the explorers have got their hands dirty in the Cold Trade before.
• The boss has gone mad - the Cryptek awoke as he does regularly to find his Phaeron and many, many others struck down by the flayer virus. They've murdered every sentient being on the surface of the world and started on the cats, ducks and capybara. Pretty soon, they're going to start attacking other worlds, and bring down the wrath of either the imperium or the eldar or both. The infection continues to spread throughout the population, spread along the Phaeron's command protocols through the tomb world's systems. The problem - the Cryptek can't shut them down, or cut them out of the net, because...well...the whole point of a Phaeron's authority protocols is that they overrride everything. The only way to stop the entire tomb turning into a nest of immortal, psychotic killers who'll spill out into the expanse hunting for blood is to hunt down and kill the Phaeron, then destroy his crypt before he re-animates. Unfortunately, those same **** authority protocols prevent the cryptek taking any active action against his lord. But he has control of the orbital particle phase web protecting the planet, and can threaten to turn the explorer's ship into drifting shrapnel unless they do it.
• The explorers could find themselves in the middle of a war between two tomb worlds, both half-activated. Their intervention could tip the tide - and they might be offered the unmissable chance to plunder the defeated tomb's crypts.
• The eldar actively hunt awakening necron crypts. If the players are an existing enemy of the eldar....they might find themselves stuck on the necron's side by default.
• Some necron dynasties - and particularly what's left of the Triarch, the old ruling dynasty - have set themselves up as 'gods' on primitive worlds to try and keep necrontyr culture alive. And yes, many inhabitents of their tribute worlds get dissected - physically, psychically, and mentally, as necrontyr crypteks of some dynasties try to isolate and identify this 'soul' malarky and transfer their lords back into 'real' bodies.
• Oh - and the ultimate in eldar-rage-inducing and 'extra-heresy' xenotech; the tomb world might have a surviving, functonal, Dolmen Gate. This device is a piece of necron technology used in the War in Heaven with the Old Ones and their servant races, designed to bore its way into the warp and forcibly create an artificial connection to the webway. The interesting thing is that any astropath with the explorers when they encounter it will probably recognise it; because it formed part of the last thing he ever saw with his own eyes...

what's the beef with Space Marine Centurion Armor?

To use a quote, "There are reasons, they are threefold"...except there are actually four:

1. It's a powered exosuit around a powered exosuit, which seems like a silly concept at a basic level.
2. The marine 'steps into it' from the back whilst wearing his (presumably) aquilla-pattern plate. Why is there not an aquilla-pattern helmet protruding (or even an aquilla-pattern with some additional ablative plating around it) but instead something unique?
3. The background states that it "doesn't interface with the black carapace" so you have no direct neural control, but the designer's diary stats the marines arms are folded across his chest behind the chest plate (supported by the fact that the image used in the 'centurion honour' is of a marine with his arms folded across his chest). So if he's not using neural control and not using his arms, how is he controlling the arms of the centurion warsuit?
4. Finally, explain to me how the pilot aims the hurricane bolters without using the phrase "shimmy like a drunken bellydancer".

What really bugs me is that I've seen the original concept art for them at Games Day - the initial idea was devastators in what are essentially weaponised techmarine servo-harnesses with loads of "bolt on" ablative plate* - each devastator holds two heavy bolters, each one in one arm supported by one of the servo-arms, with big underslung ammo feeds. Only pencil sketches, but they looked badass . Which actually makes it worse, somehow.

* In the same way as the Heresy-era shoulder pad is an additional plate riveted on over the armour so it can be replaced easily; there were plate-over-plate shoulder pads, chest and greaves.

[...]

On an unrelated note: what's the beef with Space Marine Centurion Armor? I'm genuinely curious here, since the last SM codex I have is a couple generations old at this point, and all I've seen are the pictures on the GW store. From starting in 2nd Edition 40k and looking to now, one might get the impression that the Imperium is starting to reinvent a lot of technology...

It's a Space Marine... inside of a Space Marine.

It's described as being an in-between between Dreadnoughts and regular Space Marines... which is what a Terminator Armour is all about.

The entire concept is ridiculous, but more than that, it's superfluous.

Those are pretty good reasons.

Back on topic: how are the Necrons' ships controlled? Is it a similar system to a tomb world or is it mentioned at all? The Cryptec seems like the best bet for the OP's request, but it'd be interesting if the ship commanders were a little more free willed than their tomb world cousins.

It's not mentioned specifically, but much like a Tomb World, I'd assume - a Lord, supported by (in the case of larger ships) a number of subordinate lords, along with one or more Crypteks to control those systems too complex to be automated (the inertialess drive, for example) because the Lords certainly wouldn't be able (or willing) to.

The number of actual crew required is unclear. Certainly there's a hell of a lot of warriors and immortals aboard, but I would imagine they mostly just stand to and wait to advance onto enemy ships; the ship itself (give or take any canoptek automata) will do most of the flying.

There are some great ideas in here and I'll be happily stealing them. Has there ever been any description about what a Necron sounds like? Also, the one fear I have after letting the group stomp around inside a tomb world overrun with Flayed Ones is the gear that they'll obviously acquire. I'm not worried about thermal or "power" weapons like the Hyperphase Sword or Warscyth and the more esoteric stuff can just be hand waived as locked up and not accessible or simply not found during the adventure. I'm sure they'll be on the lookout for gauss weapons and I'm thinking of allowing them to find enough to outfit one large scale conflict, such as one in a Grand Endeavor, and then the weapons will be drained with no access to adequate power supplies. If they sell them before using them they’ll gain 2PF while selling the used up armaments will only net 1PF.

Do Necron weapons have clips/batteries? I always pictured them as being powered by the same power source as the Necron wielding it. Which would make for a handy way to keep looting to a minimum: as soon as you detach a gauss weapon from its' owner, it becomes a bit of sculpture...

The Black Crusade book for Tome of Fate has information not only about Necrons and their equipment, but how to handle it when players try to use it. It is in a sidebar in their equipment section. Short answer, it is difficult to use and tends to short out any power supply you use with it. The Necrons can also phase it back if they know about. it. It is dangerous and risky, but some of their equipment may be worth it. Personally, I see a lot of it like the Rad Cannons of the Rak'Gol. Mount it on a servitor and use it as a mobile heavy weapon platform, so that when it blows up you don't lose anything valuable.

For me Necrons are just an ancient alien race of killing machines. You can if you are crazy enough to try steal some of their stuff but you won't gain an understanding or respect from their leaders. They have nothing you want and despise the living races. Great big bad evil guys though.