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Designing a campaign. If Tau are allowed in, does the setting have to be near the spheres? If not, how could the Tau ever get there? Have they ever hitched rides from the Eldar? Or, when designing campaigns, do we all just blow off that bit of the fluff?

Have your campaign take place somewhere near Tau space? All the factions can easily get there, but the Tau indeed have a bit of difficulty getting across the galaxy. And even if they could, why would they? There is nothing for them to gain on the other side of the galaxy.

Arent far sight's guys pretty FAR away?

are there any lore bits where the tau get sucked up into a warp storm and a thing happens?

if a warp storm can take physical objects like ships and planets then im sure it could take a bunch of fishcow men and spew them out some where else. they probably just wont have any support ever.

 Desubot wrote:
Arent far sight's guys pretty FAR away?

are there any lore bits where the tau get sucked up into a warp storm and a thing happens?

if a warp storm can take physical objects like ships and planets then im sure it could take a bunch of fishcow men and spew them out some where else. they probably just wont have any support ever.

Yea, but that really sounds like a "portal story" and really deprives Tau of their agency, doesn't it? Is it a fearless, intrepid Tau warrior or just a guy who got lost?

I was hoping, ideally, for a fluffy explanation of why the Tau might be exploring, other than "The warp storm magicked them there!!"

Getting Tau involved in big narrative conflicts without having to force the conflict to take place right next to or in Tau territory has always been a problem for storytelling, both on our end as players making narrative games/campaigns and GW's end as writers. Fortunately in 8th edition, they solved this problem quite well.

When the Chaos Scar (forget exactly what faux Latin name GW gave it) opened up and broke the galaxy, the giant flame wall the Ad Mech put around Tau Space to halt the 3rd Sphere of Expansion was put out by the Scar, opening up the galaxy to the Tau once again. The Tau immediately put together the 4th Sphere of Expansion fleet and sent them out into the galaxy. They were never heard from by the Tau Empire again (as of now in the story), resulting in the new current 5th Sphere of Expansion going on right now in the story.

In reality, they basically flew into the Warp through the Scar and got thrown all over the galaxy/eaten by Chaos/god only knows what. We know at least some of them survived as the new BA lore states that the Flesh Tearers and BA encountered a Tau colonization fleet well outside the Tau Empire. So, GW has (admittedly somewhat hamfistedly) created the perfect excuse for Tau being anywhere in the galaxy; the Warp ate them and spat them out somewhere else.

So, funnily enough, "The warp storm magicked them there!!" is actually the fluffiest reason for Tau to be anywhere in the galaxy outside of the Empire.

A disenchanted tau commander and his men going rogue "ala farsight" and ending up as hired goons for a rogue trader?

 GI_Redshirt wrote:
Getting Tau involved in big narrative conflicts without having to force the conflict to take place right next to or in Tau territory has always been a problem for storytelling, both on our end as players making narrative games/campaigns and GW's end as writers. Fortunately in 8th edition, they solved this problem quite well.

When the Chaos Scar (forget exactly what faux Latin name GW gave it) opened up and broke the galaxy, the giant flame wall the Ad Mech put around Tau Space to halt the 3rd Sphere of Expansion was put out by the Scar, opening up the galaxy to the Tau once again. The Tau immediately put together the 4th Sphere of Expansion fleet and sent them out into the galaxy. They were never heard from by the Tau Empire again (as of now in the story), resulting in the new current 5th Sphere of Expansion going on right now in the story.

In reality, they basically flew into the Warp through the Scar and got thrown all over the galaxy/eaten by Chaos/god only knows what. We know at least some of them survived as the new BA lore states that the Flesh Tearers and BA encountered a Tau colonization fleet well outside the Tau Empire. So, GW has (admittedly somewhat hamfistedly) created the perfect excuse for Tau being anywhere in the galaxy; the Warp ate them and spat them out somewhere else.

So, funnily enough, "The warp storm magicked them there!!" is actually the fluffiest reason for Tau to be anywhere in the galaxy outside of the Empire.

The 4th Expansion Tau are rescuing Leman Russ from the Warp.

You could always have a 'deep space' mission where a bunch of Tau are mapping the Galaxy or looking for more potential species for the Greater Good.

Tau Ships are about 1/5th the speed of Imperial ones iirc, so the Imperium takes about 4ish years to cross the galaxy (or speed of plot), extrapolating 20 years for Tau; it's feasible for a long duration mission, especially if they utilize cryo/stasis.

 GI_Redshirt wrote:


So, funnily enough, "The warp storm magicked them there!!" is actually the fluffiest reason for Tau to be anywhere in the galaxy outside of the Empire.

Doesn't change the fact that it is still an incredibly lame and boring excuse.
The galaxy is a very very big place. There is more than enough room around Tau space to set every campaign you could possibly ever want. If that is still not enough room, I guess you could easily justify Tau scouting expeditions throughout the Ultima Segmentum. That is almost half of the entire galaxy.

In the Blood Angel codex the T'au are hurled across the void by an empyric convulsion (warp storm). They start claiming worlds in the Red Scar. The Blood Angels put a stop to it.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 GI_Redshirt wrote:


So, funnily enough, "The warp storm magicked them there!!" is actually the fluffiest reason for Tau to be anywhere in the galaxy outside of the Empire.

Doesn't change the fact that it is still an incredibly lame and boring excuse.
The galaxy is a very very big place. There is more than enough room around Tau space to set every campaign you could possibly ever want. If that is still not enough room, I guess you could easily justify Tau scouting expeditions throughout the Ultima Segmentum. That is almost half of the entire galaxy.

Is it a lame and boring excuse? The Tau as a whole have no knowledge nor understanding of the Warp. Apart from Farsight and the Ethereals, the Tau don't know the true nature of the galaxy they live in. The Tau suddenly having that reality forced upon them by being thrown into the Warp, with no psychic defenses to speak of and no preparation for the horrors and nightmares they'll encounter there, then being spat out in some unknown region of the galaxy with no idea where they are, probably no way of contacting home or getting support, and having to survive with whatever amount of their forces didn't become Daemon chow while coming to terms with the reality of the Warp and Chaos, is lame and boring? To me this has the potential to be some of the best storytelling GW has ever done, and leaves some room for us players to write some great narrative campaigns and fluff pieces.

That ignorance is probably the only thing keeping them alive when they get shanghaied without a shield (being insignificant to daemons probably mean they dont really bother them)

asides from going full mass effect and giving them some ability to do actual warp travel they will always be kinda stuck in there own corner of the galaxy without some warp storm shenanigans.

 GI_Redshirt wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 GI_Redshirt wrote:


So, funnily enough, "The warp storm magicked them there!!" is actually the fluffiest reason for Tau to be anywhere in the galaxy outside of the Empire.

Doesn't change the fact that it is still an incredibly lame and boring excuse.
The galaxy is a very very big place. There is more than enough room around Tau space to set every campaign you could possibly ever want. If that is still not enough room, I guess you could easily justify Tau scouting expeditions throughout the Ultima Segmentum. That is almost half of the entire galaxy.

Is it a lame and boring excuse? The Tau as a whole have no knowledge nor understanding of the Warp. Apart from Farsight and the Ethereals, the Tau don't know the true nature of the galaxy they live in. The Tau suddenly having that reality forced upon them by being thrown into the Warp, with no psychic defenses to speak of and no preparation for the horrors and nightmares they'll encounter there, then being spat out in some unknown region of the galaxy with no idea where they are, probably no way of contacting home or getting support, and having to survive with whatever amount of their forces didn't become Daemon chow while coming to terms with the reality of the Warp and Chaos, is lame and boring? To me this has the potential to be some of the best storytelling GW has ever done, and leaves some room for us players to write some great narrative campaigns and fluff pieces.

You can make it good, yes. But usually, Warp storms are just used as a cheap excuse to have someone show up in a time or place where they should not be. It is used way too often and the whole explanation usually never goes further than 'they were there, got sucked in a Warp storm and now they are here!'. 'a Warp storm did it' is 40k's version of 'A wizard did it!'. Unless you put some work in it, it is just a lazy excuse that detracts from the quality of the storytelling.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 GI_Redshirt wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 GI_Redshirt wrote:


So, funnily enough, "The warp storm magicked them there!!" is actually the fluffiest reason for Tau to be anywhere in the galaxy outside of the Empire.

Doesn't change the fact that it is still an incredibly lame and boring excuse.
The galaxy is a very very big place. There is more than enough room around Tau space to set every campaign you could possibly ever want. If that is still not enough room, I guess you could easily justify Tau scouting expeditions throughout the Ultima Segmentum. That is almost half of the entire galaxy.

Is it a lame and boring excuse? The Tau as a whole have no knowledge nor understanding of the Warp. Apart from Farsight and the Ethereals, the Tau don't know the true nature of the galaxy they live in. The Tau suddenly having that reality forced upon them by being thrown into the Warp, with no psychic defenses to speak of and no preparation for the horrors and nightmares they'll encounter there, then being spat out in some unknown region of the galaxy with no idea where they are, probably no way of contacting home or getting support, and having to survive with whatever amount of their forces didn't become Daemon chow while coming to terms with the reality of the Warp and Chaos, is lame and boring? To me this has the potential to be some of the best storytelling GW has ever done, and leaves some room for us players to write some great narrative campaigns and fluff pieces.

You can make it good, yes. But usually, Warp storms are just used as a cheap excuse to have someone show up in a time or place where they should not be. It is used way too often and the whole explanation usually never goes further than 'they were there, got sucked in a Warp storm and now they are here!'. 'a Warp storm did it' is 40k's version of 'A wizard did it!'. Unless you put some work in it, it is just a lazy excuse that detracts from the quality of the storytelling.

When you're writing a story about most other factions, yes I agree with you. With Tau I find it to be a bit different, as like I said they have no knowledge of Daemons and the Warp. This gives you the opportunity to tell the story of a race discovering the truth of the galaxy and coming to terms with it in real time. Most other races can't do that. Think about it this way. If you write a story set in a D&D world (lets say Forgotten Realms) and you have your hero teleported via magic to a new part of the world just in time for him to have a new adventure and save the day, then it comes across as cliche and trite because teleportation magic is normal for the Forgotten Realms and it's just handwaving your hero to where they need to be as the plot demands it. But if your story is set in the real world and suddenly your hero is teleported by magic to some far off land just in time to start an adventure, that's more interesting because that is not normal in your setting, and part of the story (assuming competent writing) will involve the hero figuring out what happened and coming to terms with magic being real.

The Warp messing with reality and space time to magic people all around the cosmos is a tired hat for the Imperium, it happens to them every day. Its a brand new experience for the Tau, and will rock the very foundations of their society should the general populace learn of it. Just because a story is plain and cliche for one faction in the setting does not mean the same is true for every faction.

I had thoughts about writing some fanfic about this sort of thing- a Chaos uprising on a newly-Tau world that was kept largely the same so Water Caste tau could train in interacting with humans. Was gonna have a captured Imperial Inquisitor, a young Water Caste, and a Space Marine recently turned to Khorne-worship as my main characters.