I have a pretty big question regarding something that I would very much like to know if there are some official thoughts on regarding playing Black Crusade, and that is if they deal with how Chaos Space Marines can operate on Imperial planets without drawing attention to themselves? Because this seems to me to be one of the great question marks when planning campaigns regarding his game and I would be very interested to hear if there is anything on the subject. The same can probably also be said to be of interest regarding mutated humans but the issue of Chaos Space Marines is the one I'm mostly interested in.

The Nu-crons and their Tomb King-mimicry is not a change I'm very keen on either.  However, I'm confident there isn't anything in the scenario that we can't just overrule and the adventures will hold together just fine.

My preferred version of Warhammer 40,000 is the one presented in the classic Rogue Trader book.  I've liked some of the changes to come since and thought a fair few have been quite bad ideas, but the joy of the role-playing games is that the universe is the one you want to play in and not the one Granda Wendy's insist on selling this edition.

So don't fret it, I'm sure at of us will be looking for ways to use classic 'crons too.

HappyDaze said:

How were space marines in RT? Link or a short summary would be great.

Ghaundan said:

Space Marines were death row prisoners (mostly from nastiest bunch of the Imperial Army) that were bionically/genetically altered and then hypno-conditioned to serve the Emperor/Imperium rather than the 'recruit as a boy into the quasi-monastic order' as they are now.

Gurkhal said:

There are a few suggestions for having CSMs 'blend in' ranging from impersonation of Loyalist SMs to disguising oneself as a servitor to simply hiding out of sight (in the black decks of spacecraft and later in the hinterlands and mine tunnels in the case of this adventure). It's perhaps a paragraph and few other scattered sentences though, nothing too major.

One of the other things you can do is hope for illusion of normalcy when you roll for your first gift.

HappyDaze said:

 

Masquerading as a servitor is certainly not something that I had thought about before but I suppose it could work pretty well if you've got the stuff needed lying around - or within reach...

Still looks like something that might be interesting although I'll probably wait for some reviews before I make a decision.

HappyDaze said:

Sounds like this is what inspired Starcraft's marines as they're almost entirely made up of resoced criminals and during war time almost anything gave lifetime duty as penalty. Curious, but I can see how that's appealing (and made the stuff I managed to find about the old rogue trader fluff make more sense)

Out of interest, what Necrons are in the book, as in which specific units?

BYE

No one? No one can tell me which Necron units are in this book?

BYE

Sorry. I'm moving and packed the book in a box. I know there are warriors, immortals, cryptek something (like a scientist), a c'tan shard, scarabs, and some more stuff.

A C'tan shard?! That's...That's overkill to say the least.

HappyDaze said:

A Necron scientist? xD

HappyDaze said:

 

Hmm..

the "guise of a loyalist" seems a valid option... as long as the CSM in question can alter his Servo Armor in a fitting way. A servo-armor that was retro-fitted to match to some mutations might not do the trick, so. Crap claws, anyone?

Disguised as a Servitor? This would need to be a bulky servitor. Heady-Duty model and/or combat slugger. CSM are LARGE, as far as I remember. And adding complete "fake-suits" of metal on top does not make them smaller.

The option of "staying out of sight" is one I would consider problematic as a GM & Player alike. It separates the group. 


All in all, I generally say one should NOT include CSM in a game that is not "Vortex based" where the only longer contact to Imperial Space is for a raid/war OR if the CSM in Question is a member of group like the Alpha Legion (who are known from TT-Fluff to be into such kind of "loyalist impersonment".
 

Gregorius21778 said:

Hogwash I say! A CSM becomes no more problematic than a human at 10 corruption. At which point the humans start sprouting wings, horns, giant auras of warp flame, burning skulls, glowing eyes, extra limbs and daemonic features. At that point, being big and tall is not as a big a problem as being so infused with baleful energies that it leaks out of your pores in multi-colored arcs of lightning and flame, which is a problem likely to afflict both races equally.

Also, keep in mind that Servitors are, a lot of the time, made from humans to begin with. All you need is a few bits of convincing metal, maybe a face plate and some suitable armor and you can easily pass off your CSM friend as a giant walking murder servitor. Sure it was made from a big hulking brute. That's what you get when you custom grow them in vats! Hell, he can even keep his weaponry. Combat model, after all!

Likewise, while obvious mutations pose an issue, keep in mind that a majority of mankind has never seen a space marine to begin with, and the idea that they can fall to Chaos is forbidden knowledge that definitely is not something anyone short of the Planetary Governor is privy to. Angels of the Emperor, after all. So in other words, long as you scrub off all the "DEATH TO THE CORPSE EMPEROR!" and eight pointed stars off your power armor, maybe give it a new coat of paint, you're set for posing as a loyalist. Unless you run into an Inquisitor or a loyalist Space Marine, you'll be fine. And, well, if you run into a loyalist space marine or an Inquisitor, your humans are gonna be in just as much danger, considering both tend to be trailed by Corruption detecting psykers.

So yeah. Mutations are the real problem, for humans and CSM alike. Both can, of course, be solved through the be all, end all solution. Custom sorcery Rituals and psychic powers!