Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Character. Particularly the ability for a unit to have variation between armies.

I opened up the Adeptus Mechanicus Codex and got two very different experiences from the Electro-Priests and the Ruststalker sections. Let's go with the bad first.

The Bad
The Electro-Priests come in two flavors Fulgurite (Motive Force Takers) and Corpuscarii (Motive Force Givers). These are two differing philosophies, but the section is very definite on how Electropriests behave.

All Electro Priests have the following

Electoos

Omnissiah's Tears

Are either Fulgurite or Copuscarii

There is mention that these two factions were once at civil war with one another, but now it's mostly a rivalry with small groups of agitators actually fighting one another. But there is no depth. No mention of other sects that have different trappings to help spur creativity. There isn't even mention of a named Electro-Priest who I could use as a jumping off point for a creative character. Some people may say not having anything definitive allows for more room to explore, but I'd at least a couple of examples to get the creativity flowing.

The Good
Now for the Good. Ruststalkers used to just be Skitarii Assassin's back in 7e. But then they added one extra section that makes me appreciate them a lot more lorewise.

Legends Told In Binaric Code:

However, this has not stopped a few clades from distinguishing themselves, and if their deeds and heroic efforts are not recognised by their masters, they are at least made note of by their foes... Clade R2-111 attacked during the acid rain season, using the deluges to cover their infiltration.They developed distinctive dripping rust patterns that the greenskins grew to fear, naming them the Rust-rippers... Several clades from Stygies VIII have earned similar infamy amongst their foes, including those clades known as the Crimson Blades and the Skullmarks. These unitsseem to have gone rogue, often bearing unusual markings and appearing unbidden amongst other legions that have been summoned to battle.

This adds so much more variation on the Ruststalkers. I've come up with one of my own Ruststalkers who has been doing their own field repairs, but has since recognized that most of their body is no longer their original. Another group are made of Skitarii combined with animal DNA.

I need them to make sense within the setting and have a reasonable introduction. For example the Stormsurge, it goes counter to the way Tau supposedly did things and largely doesn't make sense to me especially the idea that some versions had exposed crew which screams easy killing to me.

The other example is Centurions who just appeared in the game one day but had apparently always been there but not for named Chapters which was incredibly lazy seeing as I thought of an explanation in under five minutes. Namely Centurions were an attempt to create mass production Terminator armour that was unsuccessful but did end up with the stop gap of Centurions that was unused by BA etc because they have piles of old Terminator armour.

pm713 wrote:
I need them to make sense within the setting and have a reasonable introduction. For example the Stormsurge, it goes counter to the way Tau supposedly did things and largely doesn't make sense to me especially the idea that some versions had exposed crew which screams easy killing to me.

The other example is Centurions who just appeared in the game one day but had apparently always been there but not for named Chapters which was incredibly lazy seeing as I thought of an explanation in under five minutes. Namely Centurions were an attempt to create mass production Terminator armour that was unsuccessful but did end up with the stop gap of Centurions that was unused by BA etc because they have piles of old Terminator armour.

Centurion armour built for a fully armoured marine to wear is silly and looks silly.

Imo they should have been developed as a stopgap for a paucity of dreadnoughts. Marines too injured to fight put in sarcophagi but without a shell to be inferred into. They built light dread suits to install them into so they could still fight. And just like a dread, Thier head look weird. But contextually it make sense.

Hellebore wrote:

pm713 wrote:
I need them to make sense within the setting and have a reasonable introduction. For example the Stormsurge, it goes counter to the way Tau supposedly did things and largely doesn't make sense to me especially the idea that some versions had exposed crew which screams easy killing to me.

The other example is Centurions who just appeared in the game one day but had apparently always been there but not for named Chapters which was incredibly lazy seeing as I thought of an explanation in under five minutes. Namely Centurions were an attempt to create mass production Terminator armour that was unsuccessful but did end up with the stop gap of Centurions that was unused by BA etc because they have piles of old Terminator armour.

Centurion armour built for a fully armoured marine to wear is silly and looks silly.

Imo they should have been developed as a stopgap for a paucity of dreadnoughts. Marines too injured to fight put in sarcophagi but without a shell to be inferred into. They built light dread suits to install them into so they could still fight. And just like a dread, Thier head look weird. But contextually it make sense.

Either way is better than just going "oh look at these things that have been here all along" really.

pm713 wrote:

Hellebore wrote:

pm713 wrote:
I need them to make sense within the setting and have a reasonable introduction. For example the Stormsurge, it goes counter to the way Tau supposedly did things and largely doesn't make sense to me especially the idea that some versions had exposed crew which screams easy killing to me.

The other example is Centurions who just appeared in the game one day but had apparently always been there but not for named Chapters which was incredibly lazy seeing as I thought of an explanation in under five minutes. Namely Centurions were an attempt to create mass production Terminator armour that was unsuccessful but did end up with the stop gap of Centurions that was unused by BA etc because they have piles of old Terminator armour.

Centurion armour built for a fully armoured marine to wear is silly and looks silly.

Imo they should have been developed as a stopgap for a paucity of dreadnoughts. Marines too injured to fight put in sarcophagi but without a shell to be inferred into. They built light dread suits to install them into so they could still fight. And just like a dread, Thier head look weird. But contextually it make sense.

Either way is better than just going "oh look at these things that have been here all along" really.

Almost all new Imperial units pre-primaris were introduced that way. To me its fine if its reasonable enough to have existed in the first place or wouldnt have made a huge impact in the setting, like tank variants for example.

Units like centurions though would have been mentioned as they are so different to other SM units and since they arent Admech, where random things are unexpected, they would have definatley been in the spotlight more and pergaps would have changed the outcome of entire wars if they really were around, like during Dal'yth and such