Okay, so I am new to RPG's both as a player and as a GM. I own most of the rule books for Rogue Trader, Only War, Black Crusade, Dark Heresey(1st e) and Deathwatch. My family has finally agreed to entertain the idea of playing one of these games with me. I like to think that I have a decent amount of knowledge with the 4ok universe, but my family has none. I will have both male and females players. up to three players total. I was wondering if there is any suggestions as to which universe to introduce them into the 40k universe while also keeping it easy for all of us having no RPG experience. (I mostly collected the books for a personal collection point in hopes eventually I'd find someone to play with). Any suggestions or feedback is greatly appreciated.

If you want to introduce D&D-style dungeon crawls in the far, far future, then play Dark Heresy. If you want a grander scale without having to worry about the minutae of personal combat then Rogue Trader is your baby. I would absolutely NOT go with Deatwatch, Only War, or Dark Crusade for a new group.

I'd say Dark Crusade is right out. That takes both the most lore knowledge and the most experienced gamers, IMHO.

I actually find Deathwatch to be the most Dungeon Crawl in Space, but if you're talking about mixed family startup, that's probably not really going to be what you're looking for. Deathwatch is all about playing super-warriors, so that's got to be what everyone wants to play. On a similar note, Only War is really only good if the everyone likes pretending they're in Band of Brothers.

Like Errant, I'd stear to Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader - They're the most freeform in what you can do, and what kind of characters are involved. Dark Heresy lets you explore 'regular' life in the 41st millenia and do a lot of investigative and social encounters across the social spectrum (but particularly the lower side). Rogue Trader is all about scale and freedom, letting your players act as explorer-princes out to make a fortune, full of exploration and upper class parties.

Without really knowing the personalities or interests of your family, that's the best I can really do.

I'll take advantage to pitch my idea of a good Deathwatch campaign, and that's for a bunch of post-grads or career-and-family players that have moved on with their lives and don't see their old gaming buddies much anymore. It doesn't matter who shows up for the next game session because each is a one-off that only lasts for that one session. They don't even need to be related adventures, since the Deathwatch is a bunch of firefighters that move from system to system putting out whatever fire needs tending in that system. You show up, you play. You don't show up, no big deal; there's a completely new adventure next game session.

But that doesn't really sound like a family game.

Deathwatch might be the easiest for unexperienced RPers, since its more or less hack and slash. DH is alot more investigation type. Rogue trader is a beast of its own and the players need to know the world to grasps what power they have.

Any of the 40k rpgs can be run as hack and slash, and any of them can be run as more roleplay focused. That's down to GM and players.

What they said. Personally if I had to randomly pick one, I'd pick one with what I'd know I'd do the one off DW idea, but that'd be because it was a safish can't miss option IMO. I think the safest thing to do is pitch them your ideas. Do they want play a kinda gritty James Bond in the future sorta game, a Platoon/Band of Brothers type game, do they want to be Space Rich, or do they wanna be devil worshiping space terrorists?

A lot of people can enjoy a good investigation story and DH or RT is good for that. Also allows for the female players to have a "fit" - DW is not as accommodating.