Running a 40KRPG oneshot as the Tau

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>>49436137
Obviously the NOBLE AND SELFLESS WISDOM of the Ethereal demands that this piteous fanatic be prevented from pointlessly sacrificing even more of his fellow Gue'la and delaying their prosperity.

Anyway, I think that running a manhunt for a lone but law of ninjitsu'd Astartes is a pretty solid premise for a one-shot, providing an obvious boss (in about the right power level for a squad of Tau oddballs to take out) and a reason that escalation isn't really possible.

Where I stumble a bit more is what the Astartes themselves is likely to be thinking in this situation. Despite the Tau being well, pretty much the nicest xenos to be occupied, an Astartes certainly isn't likely to be talked out of continuing a one-man war if necessary. So in a typical Imperial World (For arguments sake. I'm not sure I want to contend with the issues of operating on a Forge or Deathworld, a Hiveworld MIGHT be fun? Probably not, especially since there are damn good reason the Tau can't invade Hives) what are his priorities? What's a good plan to single-handedly fuck up a Tau invasion force? Space Marines generally have a reasonable amount of care and compassion for man, enough that it's unlikely that his plan is "Get the human population to continue fighting even in futility so that they die with honor".

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But yeah, my point being that while pic related is cool and I'd even like to implied it happened at some point, it isn't likely to be fun or provide much agency, not to mention would be a fucking nightmare to represent on tabletop (I have enough miniatures borrowed right now to do the whole thing as full terrain full miniatures which is a RARE TREAT INDEED).

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It should be feasible for them to have one or two dodgy battlesuits between them, which obviously gives them the ability to go toe to toe with a space marine for a bit, or completely take him out with them if they manage to get the drop on him (unlikely). Otherwise the others may be souped up fire warriors, but firewarriors nonetheless. Power armor is far from impervious to their weapons, but their fire isn't going to be lethal to the creature underneath in any short timeframe, and while their own armour would be the envy of imperial guardsman, it's not by enough to be worth much more than a plank of wood when taking bolter fire. I expect them to have to run like bitches if this guy catches them on the wrong foot.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure what sort of Imperial units would be *fun* to fight. The flashlight brigade are a given, but a flashlight firefight from opposite sides of a warehouse where the PCs have much better flashlights and marginally better armor isn't that interesting.

Do any of you guys have experience sending PCs up against tanks? A Leman Russ that's running out of ammo and fuel with some footmen seemed like a fun inclusion, but might be overkill since most of its guns would instakill anyone who isn't in a crisis suit. It's a oneshot, sure, but I don't know whether the binary nature of the encounter would be that great. It's pretty hard to even be smart and flank for a safe kill on a Russ when it can spin pretty fast and has sponsons. Obviously they might just be able to markerlight the thing and launch some seeker missiles at it from over a hill or something, but that is again pretty binary.

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>>49436137
>>49436291
>>49436556
>>49436791

Nigga this all you?
Damn son.
tl;dr

>>49436137
You do know they published actual rules for Tau player characters right? It was a PDF FFG released for Rogue Trader.

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>>49438835
Sometimes a man just doesn't want his thread to hit bump limit before getting an answer. The first 2 posts are what matter.

>>49442238
Those rules are:
- For Rogue Trader
- Just a single career path which is some kind of trader
- Contain rules for equipment, which the Tau are totally reliant on, to the extent of pulse carbines and pulse rifles.
- Could just as well have been a psi-resistant human

anon...

Holy shit.

I like the lone surviving a starter idea.

Make him a raven guard. Have the PCs sent to investigate a possible imperial resistance cell in a waterworks or the like and they find the earth caste builder assigned to refurbish the plant dead and partly eaten. If they try to leave the marine has used the earth casts memories to seal the exit. Have the space marine be the spooky sewer monster.

Marine objective is to kill the xenos for their supplies.

PC objective is to figure out its the space marine and not a wild animal in time to escape with the knowledge and their lives. Heroic holding it off while one of them escapes for the greater good optional.

>>49443875
Oh man, see this is what I meant about Imperials being great horror fodder. I'd totally forgotten about the omophagea or whatever it's called that lets them eat brains.

What kind of supplies do astartes need? They're pretty good on food and water given they can eat pretty much anything, ammo is a concern but Tau weapons aren't really sized for them (Though I guess they might be aiming to arm the resistance with them, or maybe wire up battlesuit weapons to their suit), and their backpack power cell can probably run for almost a decade given it's an atomic reactor supplemented by solar.

Waterworks is nice, provides enough movement hindrances for the larger suits that wouldn't be a problem for the marine, and plenty of chances for mooks to get the jump on them etc.

And given it's an imperial facility there would be people living in it, therefore people to shake down info etc.

Pretty solid. Thanks.

>>49444209
What the marine wants in specific doesn't matter, given he'll be taking it from the cold dead hands of the party. Raven guard also like their hit and run attacks so having him thin them down one by one is fluffy and pushes them to fight as one or perish alone.

>>49444294
I mean like, if they at any point go back to investigate a slain ally after initially escaping. Or leave cameras or whatever.

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>>49436791
I think scions or another sort of storm trooper would put up a good challenge.

Interesting idea anyway.

Several cells of Imperial cult are subverting the population but PCs find out that one of the cells is in fact a genestealer cult but can't tell whether it's normal or not for humans.

lol fuck off Tau faggot

You could get a lot of roleplay mileage from the complexities of racial integration. Make them conquer a small city, and then make them the police force once the battle's over. Tau cops in a richly detailed, newly subjugated human city? Grade A high-intensity social play-material there.

Maybe the marine is down to just his chainsword, but he's in close quarters, Your only chance is to try luring the bastard into the open, or at least somewhere where you can shoot at him for a while.