A Guide to Warhammer 40k Roleplaying Games

[RedsandRoyals]

Hey all.

I've been peppered with questions from time to time about some of the various 40k Roleplaying systems, since I've run all of them at one time or another, and I figured it might be a good idea to post a quick guide to them for everyone to glance over. This isn't so much about how you play the game. Instead, it's to help you get a feel for what each of the systems is about, what you'll be doing in each, and where they can take you with expansions and supplements.

40k RPGs are all made by Fantasy Flight Games, and fall into three distinct settings; Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy, and, soon, Death Watch. I'll talk about all three in a little bit, but first I'm going to cover the basics of the system.

RT and DH (and, as far as we know, Death Watch), all use the same core mechanics, more or less, and are designed so characters, rules, and equipment can be used more or less interchangeably between the different systems. The basic concept is fairly simple. Each character has Characteristics, Talents and Traits, and Skills, all of which are used together to make the character, and the game, function.

Character Creation can be a bit clunky, especially when starting out for the first time, or at higher XP levels. Instead of a race (since it's usually assumed your human, more on this later), you have a 'Homeworld" that represents your characters advantages and disadvantages based on where they have spend most of their lives. Past that point, it varies between systems, but your character creation will end with you picking a class, with your choices limited by your homeworld.

Each game usually has 6-9 classes, and each Class usually has enough freedom within the career path to allow you to specialize your character further. The classes tend to break down into "Combat", "Support", and "Specialist" categories, which means players have a little bit of freedom when it comes to choosing how they want to play their role in the group.

The basics of actual gameplay are fairly simple, although the higher level your character is, the more complex it can get due to bonuses and abilities. The system is built around using d100s and d10s to make tests and perform character action and roll damage. Like a lot of RPGs, you won't be rolling a test every five seconds, but when you do, it's usually a fairly simple affair to see if you've succeeded or not.

Combat in the game is a bit more lethal than a lot of systems, and it's not unusual for a party member to be killed, maimed, or seriously crippled within a few rounds of combat. There are optional rules for reducing the damage available, however, and it will come down to how you group and GM want to play.

As always, if anyone wants to know more about anything I posted here, feel free to PM me.

I'm also going to pin this for now, since it's a general purpose guide to Warhammer RPs. Woz and RT, you're free to unpin it as you see fit.

Reds

[RedsandRoyals]

Dark Heresy

Additional Books: Inquisitor's Handbook, Creatures Anathema, Radical's Handbook, Disciples of the Dark Gods, Ascension, Purge the Unclean, The Haarlock Legacy Trilogy.

Dark Heresy was the first of the three systems I'll be discussing here to be released, and as such, has the "simplest" core book, and the most adventures and supplements. It's probably also the most popular and well known of the three, and the easiest to find a game for.

Dark Heresy puts you in the shoes (or combat boots) of an Inquisitorial Acolyte. Serving your Inquisitor, and the Holy Ordos, you can venture to Hive Cities, Feral Worlds, Deep Space, and everywhere in between in pursuit of the Daemon, the Heretic, and the Xeno. To put it a bit more bluntly, you're a grunt, working for a powerful master with few of the benefits that those who carry an Inquisitorial Rosette can command. You'll be doing dirty work for your Inquisitor most of the time, rooting out cults of Heretics and Xenos, following up leads, chasing suspects, and generally being at the sharp end of the stick when it comes to serving the Emperor. This is not the game for those who want to be able to declare Exterminatus.

That's not to say that it won't be fun and full of action. It's just worth noting that the game system as a whole centers around your team and the part they play, rather than the grand conspiracies that could burn whole worlds. This limited scope can actually be quite beneficial, as it can keep the game moving at a good clip, can keep everyone focused on the task at hand, and can make the immediate danger to the party seem very, very real, since their the ones putting their lives on the line to do what needs to be done. It does give the game a very distinct tone, however, so keep that in mind. DH games are also easier to GM, if either the group or the GM is new. The team's position in the greater scheme of things allows the GM to hand down orders and keep the team marching to the same beat, more or less.

Character Classes are fairly simple. They consist of Adept, Arbitrator, Assassin, Cleric, Guardsman, Psyker, Techpriest, and Scum, with Battle Sister being added by the Inquisitor's Handbook supplement. Each class has it's own set of specialties, although Assassin and Cleric are the best "All Rounder' classes for those who want to try different things. Each class also has several different paths in their career tree they can pursue (a Guardsman can become a Scout, an Assault Trooper, or an Officer, for instance). Each of these paths unlocks certain abilities he might not have if he follows another, so a player should be sure of where he wants to take his character.

Dark Heresy also is the only system that forces each character to pay for their own weapons (We'll get to how that's dealt with in other systems later). As such, it's usually a good idea for the GM to let them loot, find, or be given higher quality weapons as the game goes on, since they're almost never going to be able to afford Power Weapons and Bolt Pistols on their own. Most of the weaponry and equipment you'll see, you'll be familiar with from the table top, although there may be a few surprises, and you can find more weapons in supplements like the Inquisitor's Handbook.

There are quite a few supplements to Dark Heresy. Creatures Anathema and Disciples of the Dark Gods hold a wealth of information on enemies for the GM to use, some Xeno and Heretic gear, and are great fluff reads as well. They give a very in depth look at each possible enemy, their motivations and skills, and outline possible adventure seeds. The Inquisitor's Handbook provides a great wealth of additional weaponry and equipment, new Home Worlds, the Sororitas class, and more information and plot hooks for you to use. I highly recommend it as the next thing to buy after the core rulebook. The Radical's Handbook provides new, more dark homeworlds and starting paths (such as the Mutant), some additional weapons and gear used by those who would turn the powers of the Warp against the Archenemy, a fascinating look into why some choose the path of Radicalism, and, most interesting of all, the rules for Daemon Weapons. Both Handbooks also provide alternate career ranks, allowing you to specialize and customize your characters even more.

That brings us to Ascension. This book isn't so much of a supplement as it is an Expansion. Once your character tops out their XP, then you move to this book. Here, you can become a much higher level, more powerful character. You can ascend from your current class to become a Crusader, Death Cult Assassin, Desperado, Hierophant, Interrogator, Judge, Tech Magos, Primaris Psyker, Sage, Inquisitorial Storm Trooper, Vindicare Assassin, or even an actual Inquisitor.

Once you reach Ascension, there's no more running about in gutters after hive scum. You're after Alpha Psykers, powerful Daemons, system-wide cults, and traitors of the highest level. You can recruit regiments of Guardsman to your service, create your own cells of acolytes, and condemn whole worlds to death. It's a very big change from the original DH, so I only recommend it for experienced players and GMs.

Reds

[RedsandRoyals]

Onward and Forward!

Rogue Trader

Additional Books: Lure of the Expanse, Into the Storm

I will start out by saying this is a harder game to run, before we get to anything else. I recommend this only if you have experience with the system used by DH and can manage a game group well. Doing this across the table, as opposed to online, is vastly easier.
Consider yourselves warned.

Now that your loins have been properly girded, let's talk about Rogue Trader. Taking it's name from the early addition of Warhammer 40k, you take on the role of Rogue Trader, essentially a licensed pirate and explorer, or one of the RT's trusted crewmen.

The feel of who the player is will be a vast change from Dark Heresy. Rogue Traders are swashbuckling figures with Warrants of Trade, documents that allow them go beyond the edge of Imperial Space, find riches, deal with Xenos, and even discover and claim whole worlds (in the name of the God Emperor, of course). This means your players will be characters of considerable wealth and renown, will have at least one Starship, and will quite probably command military assets, spies, adepts, and the like. In Dark Heresy, you were the grunt. Now you're the boss.

There are a few notable changes to the system from Dark Heresy. First, the classes. These include Rogue Trader, Arch Militant, Astropath, Explorator, Missionary, Navigator, Seneschal, and Void master. Each of these classes has a specific role to fill, much more so then most DH classes, but there is reasonable specialization chances within each class. Also, your starting gear will be superb (the RT has a chance to start out with a Plasma Pistol, Power Sword, and Stormie Pace), and your stats will be slightly higher, but you'll have less traits and talents, and your talents and skill will cost more to purchase.

Character Generation and how you acquire goodies is also fairly different. An RT Character is considered to have 5,000xp (as opposed to the 0 a DH character will start out with). That said, 4500 of that is pre spent on your 'Origin Path". This is where you decide where your character is from, what their life has been like, what they've experienced, and why they're out in the Koronus Expanse as, or traveling with, a Rogue Trader. You'll pick up talents, stat boosts, and maybe a little Insanity or Corruption over the course of this, but overall you won't be as solid as a DH character that got to freely spend their 5k XP, so it's a bit of a trade off. Better stats and gear, worse skills and talents.

Being a Rogue Trader is about getting your hands on some snazzy stuff, and to do that, Fantasy Flight has introduced Profit Factor. This is a score (such as, say, 50), that you attempt to roll equal to or under to acquire something, be it a platoon of Guardsman or a Lasgun. Modifiers apply for the rarity or quality of what you're after, so getting a tooled up Lascannon is much harder then snagging a dozen poor quality Autorifles. Your profit factor increases as your RT makes business deals, conquers worlds, or plunders ancient riches, but can also go down if you stretch it too much or you suffer a misfortune, so be warned.

Now, I mentioned space ships above, and yes, you will almost certainly have one to start with, and a chance to get more. You spend "Ship Points' (which are determined with your Starting Factor) to purchase a hull, anything from a small transport to a Cruiser, and then select and, if necessary, purchase components to add to it, until you've either filled it with as many components as it can have, or you've added as many components as you can power at any one time. Naturally, there is starship combat too, although I suggest having a map and models for this, as it can be confusing.

The reason I said above that this game is best suited for an experienced GM is because the scope of RT is so grand. The players can be conducting business deals to start a grain trade on one world, then launch a successful conquest of another in the span of a single session. Be prepared to deal with things like invasions, Byzantine political processes, extensive negotiations, and the like, with a bit of dialog, a brief outline of what the character does, and a bit of dice rolling. Contrast that to DH sessions where you can spend a whole game in a single Hive, and you'll see what I mean about the scope.

Also be prepared for your party to split up, with the Archmilitant launching that invasion while the Seneschal finishes up that grain deal, and the whole time the RT and the rest of the crew are fighting off Eldar raiders. It can get a bit hectic at times, especially when armies and fleets come into play, so be sure to take careful notes on what's going on.

Lastly, supplements. Lure of the Expanse features a very good "Race for the Treasure" style story, and also gives stats for Eldar weapons, tech, and enemies that you don't get in the main book. It's well executed, and is actually quite enjoyable to run and play.

Into the Storm is a different can of worms, and those worms are made of Win. Not only does it add more ships, weapons, extensively expand the character generation and add the ability to customize your warrant, vehicles, air combat rules, and expanded social interaction rules, it also adds Orks and Kroot as playable races. Yes, you can be an Ork Freeboota or Kroot Shaper. I strongly recommend this book, even if you just play DH, since it's got so much useful stuff in it.

Reds

[RedsandRoyals]

Reserved for Deathwatch

I picked this up today, and want to spend a few days absorbing it before I risk posting anything.

Reds

[ElegaicRequiem]

I was told we might get the RT update today. We'll see how that turns out.

[Gerner]

Maybe this one should be updated?
Been running a Dark Heresy campaign for almost a year now.
That's what put me into 40k tabletop.

Tried rogue trader as well, so much fun.

P.S. Been roleplaying for over 10 years now.

[RedsandRoyals]

I should get around to updating this, shouldn't I? I'll see what I can do this coming week. In the meantime, Gerner, any thoughts or experiences you want to share about the systems?

Reds

[Adam Selene]

I picked up the Dark Heresy book recently, I found that you really have to buy one of the other books as well; because the basic missions... well they seem kind of basic.

It was also fairly expensive but after being disappointed by GW so much of late the book felt like great value for money.

Now all I need is to find time to get a group together, the privately owned shop 'Mind Games' is a great place.

[Machine Gun Kelly]

Aug 19, 2011 19:45:54 GMT -5 RedsandRoyals said:

I should get around to updating this, shouldn't I? Reds

Yes you should.

[RedsandRoyals]

I'll try to do it tomorrow night. Also, I'll have to reserve a space for Black Crusade...

Reds

[Machine Gun Kelly]

So how many tomorrows do we have to wait for?