Warhammer 40,000 RPG

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Warhammer
40,000 Roleplay
publication
Author (s) Owen Barnes, Kate Flack, Mike Mason
Original publisher Black Industries , Fantasy Flight Games
Original publication 2008
German publisher Pen & sword
German publication 2008
World and system
genre Science fiction
Game world Warhammer 40,000
Ascent EP purchase system
cube W10

Warhammer 40,000 RPG is a pen & paper RPG series, which is set in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. So far, five different scenarios have appeared: Shadowhunters (in the original Dark Heresy ), free traders (in the original Rogue Trader ), Deathwatch , Black Crusade and Only War .

History of origin

The original publisher of the RPG series was Black Industries . Shortly after the publication in February 2008, Black Industries announced that Dark Heresy would no longer be continued with the end of the current product list. At the end of the month, however, it was already clear that Fantasy Flight Games would immediately take over the publication and further development of Dark Heresy . The German edition was published by Feder & Schwert in cooperation with the Heidelberger Spieleverlag .

Control system

The rule system is based on the same principles as in the Warhammer Fantasy RPG . The player characters build on 9 basic traits, which range from 1 to 100. This is based on skills and talents that can be acquired in the course of the game to increase the chance of success. The entire game system only requires 10-sided dice .

The different scenarios can be played independently and are compatible with each other, so that crossover adventures with parts and characters from several systems are possible.

Shadowhunters

In Shadowhunters , players take on the roles of servants in the wake of an inquisitor whose job it is to track down heresy and mutants, and to eradicate the dangers that threaten the empire. In addition to these fairly easy-to-understand areas of responsibility, the game world offers more complex additional options for the game master to set up his campaigns.

The following can be used as player characters:

  • Scrap : This is one of the millions and millions of souls who have to live on the soil of imperial society. Be it as an outcast in the lowest, poisoned levels - the underhive - of a macropolis or as a pariah in a feudal world, these individuals fight daily for their survival.
  • Adept : Adepts are the people who hold the empire together at its core and keep the ancient machinery of the imperial authorities and institutions running. The spectrum of adepts ranges from the almost insignificant writer of a feudal world scriptorium to the personal secretary of a subsystem governor.
  • Arbitrator : The Adeptus Arbites staff provide the empire's police force. Whether within macropole worlds or on board huge space stations, the Arbites ensure compliance with imperial law everywhere. The hallmarks of the arbitrator are its dark full-body armor and shock baton.
  • Assassin : Assassins come from the thousands of imperial blood cults, remote worlds of death or the elite cadres of the imperial armed forces. The assassins encountered in the empire range from silent murderers who kill with their bare hands, to experienced, genetically modified snipers, to mutated psyker hunters.
  • Imperial Psykers : Imperial Psykers are considered pariahs on most Imperial worlds. Untrained and on their own, they pose a latent threat, as demons of the immaterial use untrained psykers as a portal into the real world. The black ships of the Inquisition comb the worlds of the Empire for psykers and train them in the ranks of the Imperial Army or one of the Imperial institutions.
  • Clerics : The preachers and priests of the Ecclesiary oversee the believers of the empire and preach the belief and cult of the God Emperor.
  • Soldier : One of the millions and millions of human soldiers who are drafted into the Imperial Army, Fleet or one of the countless Planetary Defense Forces every day.
  • Techpriest : The followers of the Omnissiah, the machine god, are masters at using the arcane technology of the empire. They reject the weakness of the flesh and try to replace their entire body with mechanical implants and prostheses in order to be a true image of the machine god.

Source and adventure volumes

A whole series of source books and adventure books have been published in English for Dark Heresy . A part has already been published in German.

Source books

  • The Inquisitor's Handbook (2008) / The Inquisitor's Handbook (August 2009)
  • Disciples of the Dark Gods (December 2008) / Disciples of the Dark Gods (December 2009)
  • Creatures Anathema (February 2009) / Anathema: Creatures (February 2010)
  • The Radical's Handbook (December 2009) / The Radical's Handbook (May 2011)
  • Ascension (March 2010) / Agents of the Throne (October 2011)
  • Blood of Martyrs (November 2010) / Blood of Martyrs (2012)
  • Daemon Hunter (June 2011) / Demon Hunter (2013)
  • Book of Judgment (2011) / The Judge's Book

Adventure books

Haarlock's Legacy :

  • Tattered Fates - Book 1 of the Haarlock's Legacy Trilogy (June 2009) / Haarlocks Legacy 1: Threads of Fate (February 2011)
  • Damned Cities - Book 2 of the Haarlock's Legacy Trilogy (June 2010) / Haarlocks Legacy 2: City of Damnation (February 2011)
  • Dead Stars - Book 3 of the Haarlock's Legacy Trilogy (May 2010) / Haarlocks Legacy 3: Dead Stars (June 2010)

The Apostasy Gambit :

  • The Black Sepulcher - Book 1 of the Apostasy Gambit (February 2011)
  • The Church of the Damned - Book 2 of the Apostasy Gambit (June 2011)
  • The Chaos Commandment - Book 3 of the Apostasy Gambit (January 2012)

Independent :

  • Purge the Unclean (October 2008) / With Fire and Sword (April 2009)

Free trader

With free traders , the player characters are free spaceship captains or their advisors. The game takes you on a search for prey in unexplored and dangerous regions of space.

The following can be used as player characters:

  • Free Trader : The lord captain of a spaceship . The free trader is usually an immensely wealthy, diplomatically versed and charismatic descendant of an imperial dynasty .
  • Enlightened Astropath : The psykers are used on board spaceships either individually or within an astropath choir for interstellar communication through the immaterium. The astropath has strong psychic powers, which are similar to the spells in fantasy role-playing games.
  • Explorator : These members of the Adeptus Mechanicus are well versed in the use of arcane technologies within the Empire and have bionic prostheses . They search for lost or extraterrestrial technologies on the worlds they visit with their free trader.
  • Magister Militaris : These battle-hardened veterans of the Imperial Army or Fleet often serve their free traders as high-ranking officers or bodyguards . The Magistri Militares have extensive combat knowledge and can handle (almost) all weapons .
  • Masters of the Void : Mostly members of the Imperial space fleet or experienced spacemen from merchant ships, the Masters of the Void provide the free trader's pilots and gunners . They are experienced in handling small dream ships, but can also steer the fleet's battleships, which are kilometers long.
  • Missionary : The members of the Adeptus Ministorum, the ecclesiarchy of the Empire, spread the cult of the Emperor on newly discovered worlds or ensure that the imperial cult is properly carried out on the ships of the free trader.
  • Navigator : The navigators are mutants and are the only representatives of the human race to have developed the ability to navigate through the immaterium using their third eye. Without the navigators, only small jumps through the warp would be possible and the empire would collapse. In addition, the navigators have powerful psychic powers.
  • Seneschal : The Seneschal represent the collectors of knowledge within the free trader's coterie . The spectrum of the Seneschal ranges from the scientifically experienced detective to the introverted xenolinguist.

Deathwatch

In Deathwatch you play the elite units of the empire, the Space Marines , who take action against their enemies with powerful armor and large-caliber weapons. Unlike normal, Space Marines of different orders fight in a unit called Deathwatch . The Deathwatch units are subordinate to the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition.

In contrast to its predecessor, Deathwatch does not use any individual careers. The basic player characters are created using the order and specialization options .

Order : Based on orders of knights , the Orders of the Adeptus Astartes are the associations of the Space Marines of a legion . The orders are tightly organized militarily, usually have a homeworld or home base and their own fleet. At the time of the foundation of the orders of the 1st foundation during the Great Crusade by the Emperor there were 20 orders or legions. After the Imperial Civil War known as the Horus Heresy , the remaining loyal orders were broken up into a main and several successor orders, from which the player can choose.

  • Black Templars : The Black Templars are Zealot fighters, firm in their belief in the God Emperor.
  • Dark Angels : The Dark Angels are considered to be tactically savvy fighters. The order has a dark secret, however, as part of the order defected during the war of brothers and sisters and their home planet was destroyed.
  • Blood Angels : The Blood Angels are considered good hand-to-hand fighters with a tendency to bloodthirstiness. Due to the brutal death of their primarch Sanguinius, they are mentally unstable.
  • Space Wolves : The Space Wolves are strongly based on popular Viking culture. Space wolves are mostly long-haired berserkers with enlarged canines. They are considered honorable but easily irritable fighters.
  • Ultramarines : The Ultramarines are based heavily on ancient models. You are tactically adept and attach great importance to militarily impeccable doctrine.
  • Storm Wardens : A successor order drawn up by Fantasy Flight Games.
  • Further orders are to follow.

Specialization : This includes the specific areas of application of a Space Marine.

  • Apothecarius : The Space Marines field doctors. They care for the wounded and extract the progenoids of the fallen in order to obtain genetic material for the creation of new Space Marines.
  • Storm Marine : The storm troops of the Space Marines have a attached to their power armor Jump Pack, with which they can be catapulted into the enemy ranks. Due to their sociable fighting style, they are equipped with close combat weapons.
  • Devastor : The heavy fire support. Devastors are usually armed with heavy weapons such as heavy bolts or laser cannons.
  • Librarian : The Librarians are the psykers the Space Marines. They have devastating psychic powers and a great knowledge of the past of their order and the empire.
  • Tactical Marine : The Tactical Squad's marines are the workhorses of a Space Marine Order. A tactical squad is usually equipped with bolters and one or more light support weapons.
  • Techmarine : The mechanics of an order take care of the vehicles and equipment of the Legion. Trained by the Magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus, they have a close relationship with the servants of the machine god.

Further specializations can be made by the rank of the fighter.

Black Crusade

In Black Crusade , players can slip into the roles of a Chaos trailer. As eternal opponents of the empire, the gods of chaos offer a whole range of characters: from human, renegade psykers to chaos-space-marine warlords.

The players must decide on a 'race' - human or marine - before choosing the archetype.

The following can be used as player characters:

  • Champion (Marine): The military leader of a squad of Chaos Space Marines.
  • Chosen (Marine): A Chaos Space Marines veteran chosen by the Chaos Gods.
  • Forsaken (Marine): A Chaos Space Marine acting on her own. Forsaken usually have extensive contacts.
  • Sorcerer (Marine): The Chaos Space Marine Sorcerers are potent psykers.
  • Apostates (human): Apostates are people who have turned away from the Empire and now serve the Dark Gods. They mostly hold high-ranking civil or military positions.
  • Heretek (human): Apostate machine seers or Magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus are known as Heretek. These individuals were driven by their urge for knowledge beyond the limits set by the Imperator and Adeptus Mechanicus and now hire themselves out to enemies of the Empire.
  • Renegade (human): The mass of the corrupted are called renegades. This includes everything from defected Imperial officers to cultists from the Makropoladel.
  • Psyker (human): Psykers are outcasts on most worlds and live on the margins of society. Driven by a burning hatred of imperial society, many find themselves in the arms of chaos.

Only War

In Only War you play a unit of Imperial soldiers. The players can choose between twelve different character classes to do their service on the battlefields of the 41st millennium. In addition to the normal human soldier, the player also has the option of playing an Ogryn (a sub-form of people with high muscle strength and poor understanding) or halfling (a sub-form of people of small stature but with high visual acuity).

The character classes are divided into two categories:

Guardsmen : Regular troops, including:

  • Heavy Gunner : Trained with all types of heavy weapons, this class provides fire support to the unit.
  • Medic : Trained in medicine, it is the duty of the medic to keep its allies alive.
  • Operator : Trained in the use of vehicles of all types, the driver of the unit.
  • Sergeant : Trained in tactics and leading people, he is the leader of a unit.
  • Weapon Specialist : The common soldier, an all-rounder .

Specialists : Troops with special roles, including:

  • Commissioner : The commissioner's job is to maintain morale and to drive the soldiers to the front.
  • Ministorum Priest : A clergyman who inspires the troops and fights with a two-handed chain sword.
  • Ogryn : Associated with the race described above, a melee monster.
  • Halfling : Associated with the race described above; a sniper and infiltrator.
  • Sanctioned Psyker : The magician of the 41st millennium, taps the warp to defeat his enemies.
  • Storm Trooper : A deadly ranged fighter used in shock attacks.
  • Tech-priest Engineer : An armored mechanic from the Adeptus Mechanicus.

There are more classes and alternative paths for existing classes available, which can be picked up during the game.

Basic rules

Web links