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[nenjin]

They've been mid-tier post-humans for basically as long as 40k has existed. Custodes and Thunder Warriors have always been stronger and tougher and the primarchs were vastly superior to all other post-humans in every way when they got introduced. Possible exception for the Custodes because they're mentally stable and immune to corruption which makes them better than the primarchs in some ways despite being less physically powerful. Then of course there's the Assassins, who're all post-humans through a mixture of gene therapy and cybernetics and more dangerous than a space marine 99% of the time while being harder to kill.

Everything you mentioned short of assassins originates and was created in the pre-history of 40k. I'd argue that your 99% figure is an opinion as well.

This is just GWS going "man we cock blocked ourselves making everything cool tied to the Emperor and ancient history where it can't be touched. How are we going to sell figs to a new generation of wallets? Fuck it, just create some nonsense out of whole cloth."

This and AoS are a pretty clear sign of GWS' thinking, and it fucking blows. It's like saying instead of Jesus --> God, you have Jesus --> SUPER JESUS --> God. It's the kind of thing a 14 year old thinks up when they're trying to arms race their friends.

[MrRoboto75]

Why are primaris basically Eldar aspect warriors but for space marines anyways

[LordBaal]

This wil lead to literal Sigmarite Primaris and you know it. It says a lot when you need to literally blow up your whole setting to start something new, its up there with the "it was all a dream" level of ingenuity. It says even more when you find yourself quietly crawling back to it when realized the mistake.

[Loud Whispers]

I just hate how much it deflates all the tension and sacrifice every other Imperial faction has had to endure just by existing. Every single time a character died, sacrificed their world or lost everything because there were no reinforcements is now redundant. There were always reinforcements available. The constant running theme that every loss is final, that the Imperium is being chipped away piece by piece - just ctrl z that shit fam. The fact that I suspect they only did this to move away from 'space marines' to copyright friendly 'primaris' doesn't make it much better

This wil lead to literal Sigmarite Primaris and you know it. It says a lot when you need to literally blow up your whole setting to start something new, its up there with the "it was all a dream" level of ingenuity. It says even more when you find yourself quietly crawling back to it when realized the mistake.

Age of Guilliman: Grimfinale 40k

[nenjin]

I just hate how much it deflates all the tension and sacrifice every other Imperial faction has had to endure just by existing.

Yeah. I think what bugs me is that it's a "super tech" that came out of nowhere, and makes all of the previous 40k look like a waste of time. Thousands of years and millions of deaths just so someone can essentially invent new tech, which isn't supposed to happen in 40k, to "solve" their current problems.

I guess GWS felt that waking up a primarch wasn't enough to move the story forward, there had to be something else to go with "new 40k."

[LordBaal]

Waking you Gulliman was more than enough for more than a couple of years. Heck a series of the primarch repeatedly yelling "YOU DID WHAT??" as a reply to everything while getting up to date could have been good for a year or so.

[Grim Portent]

On the rpg front, I've been re-reading some of the Dark Heresy plot ideas, in particular the Curse of Solomon.

CoS, as a story idea, is set on the Hive World of Solomon. Solomon is in the later stages of a Hive World's lifecycle, which is to say it's a shithole. Natural resources stripped, everything polluted, mutation growing ever more problematic and the inevitable death of the world looming over it's inhabitants.

The 'curse' is an entity, force or phenomenon referred to as the Beast, which preys upon the citizens living in the lightless wasteland of ruins and pipes that covers most of the planet's surface. The locals fear it, sacrificing outsiders, their own and even imperial officials to it in the hopes of staving off their own deaths, chaining their victims to the pipe network in remote places of their community and leaving them to the dark. It strikes only in the absence of light, so the inhabitants cling desperately to the light of promethium fueled lanterns to try and avoid it.

The Inquisition has several theories as to what the Beast is, most dismissing it as nothing more than local superstition created to cope with the oppressive suffering inherent to the area, some thinking it a cult or criminal syndicate preying on the locals, the actions of a piece of lost and foul technology that strikes at random, a monstrous xenos predator, or just an accident of the planet's own nature.


I've been thinking about what I would choose to be the Beast of Solomon, and I'm leaning towards the xenos predator angle, but with the twist that it's not there of it's own volition nor a natural inhabitant of Solomon. The Beast is the lead actor in a twisted black market video holo franchise, the syndicate uses augmetics implanted in the beast, and servo-skulls and cyber-animals to record it's hunts and kills, and then sells the images and holo vids, shed fangs and scraps of the victim's remains to the perverse and sadistic elements of the Imperium.

Of course the fear, the despair, the horror. Perhaps a more unnatural element has been drawn to the perversity? It's the sort of thing where I could take months to settle on a Beast I truly like.

[nenjin]

Sounds like.....a Night Lord traitor marine that got trapped on that world and decided to set up shop. The setting sounds perfect for them, just like "home." Give em some lightning claws so it's "beast-like."

Or maybe they lost their mind and touch with reality. Also pretty in keeping with Night Lords.

Alternatively, a rogue Raven Guard? Since they have the power of darkness in some limited capacity.

There's an older story featuring the Doom Eagles where they land on a planet and after doing some fighting against rebels or something, and people on the planet keep ending up exsanguinated after the fighting is over. Of course the Flesh Tearers were also present on the world, and they find a mad Flesh Tearer living in a sewer, preying on the populace and drinking their blood.

I think whatever you do, it's probably important to subvert expectations. That's why I wouldn't go with a custom xenos unless you're really going to breathe life into it. Or a formless energy thing like a spirit or daemon. To my extremely jaded and cynical brain, that's too easy, too expected.

I also suggest the above idea because some of my favorite short stories involve Astartes, Loyalist or Traitor, who get cut off from their brethren and have to get along. Sometimes they're way more interesting/terrifying/powerful alone among a bunch of humans than as part of a squad, Chapter or Legion.

[Grim Portent]

I'm averse to using chaos marines as a throw away enemy. Not everything needs to be tied into a major faction, but when major factions are involved it should be in events of some significance rather than a few scavvers on a dying world being dissapeared.

If I was to make the Beast something to do with Chaos, it would probably be an aspect of Balphomael, the big bad daemon of the Calixis Sector, but it really doesn't fit his MO. Or the MO of any of the major chaos factions in Dark Heresy for that matter.


Solomon is framed to some extent as a world where the suffering is entirely the fault of humans, of superstition, of paranoia, of indifferent overlords driving things to ruin. That the Beast is an actual thing is treated as something of an out there afterthought, with the other suggestions, such as murder cults, accidents, general ill health and so on being treated as more credible. I feel having the beast be real but not at fault strikes a nice mid-ground and could lead into a plot involving the Beast House or Amaranthine Syndicate.

[nenjin]

Not everything needs to be tied into a major faction, but when major factions are involved it should be in events of some significance rather than a few scavvers on a dying world being dissapeared.

I think that's the subverting expectations part, myself. Yeah you'd assume the presence of a major faction enemy would be revolving around a "big deal." But that's where you subvert the expectation. It's not an invasion, it's a lone actor, like the universe's most perfectly adapted serial killer. Like Sherlock Holmes if Moriarty were criminally insane and had a bolter.

Just a suggestion though, there's no wrong answers in an RPG.

[Grim Portent]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My difficulty focusing on any specific project has lead to me painting Zodgrod Wortsnagga.

Wortsnagga was part of the new Beast Snaggas* Ork release, after several decades in which I don't think he was even in the codex anymore. His old metal model is truly ancient, but his fluff and wargear are the same as they are now with one exception. He no longer has an 'airy squig as a wig, he has now stapled hair on instead, which does contribute to the mad scientist look.

Wortsnagga is a Snakebites klan ork, one of the two characters they had in the distant days of yore before both got dropped. Specifically he is a runtherd, one of the orkz tasked with growing, training and directing gretchin, snotlings and squigs and he is very good at it, able to turn even gretchin into decent soldiers. He is unusually fond of his elite gretchin even by runtherd standards, having fired a mek through his own shokk attack gun after said mek fired some gretchin through during a battle. While the other orkz found the feat of squishing the mek small enough to be fired through a gun designed to use snotlings as ammo very impressive, it was a problem since they were in the middle of a battle. Wortsnagga was exiled and took his supa-runtz with him to sell their services as Freebootaz.


*Beast Snaggas being a transparent attempt to sell a Snakebites themed army but without the models being Snakebites exclusive.

[LordBaal]

A rasta Ork... I've seen it all oh Emprah...

[Grim Portent]

His old hair had the classic janky 80s mini look.

[Loud Whispers]

DIGGANOBZ

[Grim Portent]

Painted up the new version of the Emperor's Champion.

Spoiler: Front (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Side (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Sword (click to show/hide)

Borrowed a pair of extremely tiny tweezers from my SiL to apply the transfers on his tilting plate and kneepad, and managed to get a better result with transfers than ever before, so now I feel the need to look for a set of small cosmetic/hair removal tweezers for future use.

The champion is famously low on adornment for a space marine, especially a black templar. Other than the golden laurel wreath all iterations of the Armour of Faith bears they actually have less ornamentation than any random initiate is likely to have.

EDIT: Assembling the crusader neophytes from the same box set, and I'm pleased to say the BTs have kept up their medieval predecessors habit of giving their squires stupid haircuts.