Two threads of interest: one with positive impressions, one with negative ones.

I never liked the original anyhow, this has me happy I really don't play 40k now, so I don't have to re-invest in new books if I was a hard core player.  Reminds me of WoTC with the every few years make everyone buy new books and start over again crap.  Now maybe just a revised edition to bring it in line with the rest of the books series out there but a whole new game is to me stupid and a sign of the future of the rest of those 40K game books to come.

The 40k universe has been more thoroughly fucked over than the World of Greyhawk post-Gygax.

I realize this will probably make some folks think I'm a pure Tau weeaboo [strike]because I am[/strike], but using them as an example: the original fluff text for them says an Imperial Survey found their homeworld 5000 years before "present day", and they were stone-age at worst and bronze-age at best in terms of technology and society.  They marked the planet for Exterminatus, to make it a suitable world for Imperial settling.  Then the Eye of Terror opened, a warp storm happened nearby, and they kind of put it aside.

Well, 5000 years pass, here come the Tau as we know [strike]AND LOVE![/strike]them today: superluminal travel, tech that on the whole makes Imperial technology look like the garbage it is, and so on.  Problem is, someone (at GW) forgot that a technological society progressing that fast - even factoring in technological plateaus - would in short order be jumping past the Empire and Eldar (that being the case if I was the Tau Etherials and saw the shithole that the ol' Milky Way was, I'd point my race at the sky and GTFO).  So they quickly had to retcon that the warp storm that surrounded Tau space meant 50000 years had passed (yep, it's "Warhammer 55k" from the Tau perspective) for them while only 5000 had passed for the rest of the galaxy, so it took the Tau fifty millennia to reach their current tech plateau thus making the Empire [strike]the bunch of weepy mary-sues they really are[/strike]still just as technologically advanced and would be moreso if not for the Age of Darkness and Age of Apostasy and other fun times.

Kinda makes WG8-WG12 look like a page or two of bad ideas from someone's home campaign.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;674611The 40k universe has been more thoroughly fucked over than the World of Greyhawk post-Gygax.

I realize this will probably make some folks think I'm a pure Tau weeaboo [strike]because I am[/strike], but using them as an example: the original fluff text for them says an Imperial Survey found their homeworld 5000 years before "present day", and they were stone-age at worst and bronze-age at best in terms of technology and society.  They marked the planet for Exterminatus, to make it a suitable world for Imperial settling.  Then the Eye of Terror opened, a warp storm happened nearby, and they kind of put it aside.

Well, 5000 years pass, here come the Tau as we know [strike]AND LOVE![/strike]them today: superluminal travel, tech that on the whole makes Imperial technology look like the garbage it is, and so on.  Problem is, someone (at GW) forgot that a technological society progressing that fast - even factoring in technological plateaus - would in short order be jumping past the Empire and Eldar (that being the case if I was the Tau Etherials and saw the shithole that the ol' Milky Way was, I'd point my race at the sky and GTFO).  So they quickly had to retcon that the warp storm that surrounded Tau space meant 50000 years had passed (yep, it's "Warhammer 55k" from the Tau perspective) for them while only 5000 had passed for the rest of the galaxy, so it took the Tau fifty millennia to reach their current tech plateau thus making the Empire [strike]the bunch of weepy mary-sues they really are[/strike]still just as technologically advanced and would be moreso if not for the Age of Darkness and Age of Apostasy and other fun times.

Kinda makes WG8-WG12 look like a page or two of bad ideas from someone's home campaign.

1) You Tau loving scum weaboo (you know  they were promotional faction for Japan right? Of course you do.)

2) You forgot to mention the other Retcon regarding Taus such as sterilisation and concentration camps, that were created in order to ensure that nobody dares to think that there may be a decent culture in W40k universe.

Quote from: Rincewind1;6746161) You Tau loving scum weaboo (you know  they were promotional faction for Japan right? Of course you do.)

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT

Quote2) You forgot to mention the other Retcon regarding Taus such as sterilisation and concentration camps, that were created in order to ensure that nobody dares to think that there may be a decent culture in W40k universe.

Pfft.  More Imperial propaganda.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;674636I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT

It's okay man, it really is. Say, when are you planning to marry your waifu?

That's yours btw?

QuotePfft.  More Imperial propaganda.

I have it on good sources from Failbaddon himself I'm afraid . But joke aside - I actually rolled my eyes slightly the first time I heard about it. I did not like Taus very much or their fluff, but it simply felt to me like...unnecessary I suppose? I mean, Empire (sorry, Imperium) is shitty anyway, and no matter of moral relativism in the setting will change that. I'd rather still take a risk of being sterilised over a life where I may never drive an exoskeleton.

Quote from: Rincewind1;674644It's okay man, it really is. Say, when are you planning to marry your waifu?

That's yours btw?

Nah; I wish.  I'm doing good to paint the factory stock minis and models I own (and I don't play 40k).

QuoteI have it on good sources from Failbaddon himself I'm afraid . But joke aside - I actually rolled my eyes slightly the first time I heard about it. I did not like Taus very much or their fluff, but it simply felt to me like...unnecessary I suppose? I mean, Empire (sorry, Imperium) is shitty anyway, and no matter of moral relativism in the setting will change that. I'd rather still take a risk of being sterilised over a life where I may never drive an exoskeleton.

Yeah; I use the Tau (and the minis and fluff) as drop-in guys in sci-fi games when I run such (usually under Hero system), so whatever Games Workshop is doing doesn't really concern me all that much.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;674247The fist of Mont'ka is here!

Hey! The Marathon symbol on his chest! Awesome.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;674674Yeah; I use the Tau (and the minis and fluff) as drop-in guys in sci-fi games when I run such (usually under Hero system), so whatever Games Workshop is doing doesn't really concern me all that much.

Drop them in Castle Delve!

Quote from: thedungeondelver;674611Well, 5000 years pass, here come the Tau as we know [strike]AND LOVE![/strike]them today: superluminal travel, tech that on the whole makes Imperial technology look like the garbage it is, and so on.  Problem is, someone (at GW) forgot that a technological society progressing that fast - even factoring in technological plateaus - would in short order be jumping past the Empire and Eldar (that being the case if I was the Tau Etherials and saw the shithole that the ol' Milky Way was, I'd point my race at the sky and GTFO).  So they quickly had to retcon that the warp storm that surrounded Tau space meant 50000 years had passed (yep, it's "Warhammer 55k" from the Tau perspective) for them while only 5000 had passed for the rest of the galaxy, so it took the Tau fifty millennia to reach their current tech plateau thus making the Empire [strike]the bunch of weepy mary-sues they really are[/strike]still just as technologically advanced and would be moreso if not for the Age of Darkness and Age of Apostasy and other fun times.

I actually liked the "these guys seem nice, but actually they're being manipulated by someone" thing. It gives them some bite to go to a "Tau civil war"-type storyline, when the populace realizes it.

But seriously, retconning their time passage? That's stupid. The Tau, as they were, were a great reflection of the early days of humanity in space, before the Eldar and the Emperor fucked it all up. Now they're just another ancient empire? That's boring. A high-tech race that knew of the concept of "research" is COOL in 40k.

This says it all:

Quote from: Ladybird;674683But seriously, retconning their time passage? That's stupid. The Tau, as they were, were a great reflection of the early days of humanity in space, before the Eldar and the Emperor fucked it all up. Now they're just another ancient empire? That's boring. A high-tech race that knew of the concept of "research" is COOL in 40k.

Honestly I think the Tau would've been better suited to a whole new game, not set in the 40k universe but using similar rules, but if that was ever on the table at GW they likely would have vetoed it because it would've diluted output of the WHFB/LotR/WH40k money machine.

Still, having the minis and the fluff (from which I can pick and choose), again, gives me a pretty cool alien race to drop in to my seven-layered burrito of a sci-fi setting.

Quote from: Benoist;674682Drop them in Castle Delve!

"We are impressed with the 'squat', Eldar and human group you have assembled!  Join us, and we can leave these dismal caverns - the stars will be yours as you work side by side with us!  No...?  A pity.  So be it.  For the greater good." (two segments of pulse rifle fire)

Quote from: thedungeondelver;674688Honestly I think the Tau would've been better suited to a whole new game, not set in the 40k universe but using similar rules, but if that was ever on the table at GW they likely would have vetoed it because it would've diluted output of the WHFB/LotR/WH40k money machine.

Still, having the minis and the fluff (from which I can pick and choose), again, gives me a pretty cool alien race to drop in to my seven-layered burrito of a sci-fi setting.

For me, it comes down to, if you have a bit of light in your setting, it makes all the darkness seem even darker in comparison. But hey! Each to their own.

I think my favourite 40k race may be the Stryxis (From the Rogue Trader RPG), but that's at least partially because of how much fun I had hamming them up while running them in a game.

Quote from: Ladybird;674860For me, it comes down to, if you have a bit of light in your setting, it makes all the darkness seem even darker in comparison. But hey! Each to their own.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from.  I have a feeling that the more grumbling from ANGRY MARINES! there is the more evil the Tau will become, right up until we start seeing "Plague Tau" "Chaos Tau" or find out the Tau are working with/for the Necrons/C'tan, or they just wipe them out like they did the Squats...

QuoteI think my favourite 40k race may be the Stryxis (From the Rogue Trader RPG), but that's at least partially because of how much fun I had hamming them up while running them in a game.

I'm unfamiliar with them.  

-The "I wish I still had my beakie marines" DungeonDelver.