So does anybody actually actively play both? Almost all of my players I GM for are also active tabletop players. I kinda assumed it was the norm but after reading a lot of threads on the forums. It seemed we were a unique blend. Honestly most of us found this RPG to be the best investment due to the fact we have all of the miniatures we could ever need. The only difference it feels like is simply the mechanics and we use a DnD battle mat instead of the usual terrain.

I actively play both. I delight in collecting bits and bobs from all the races to throw against my players on the map, and I've thought about possibly using an actual 40k game board to kind of create a 3D battlespace for the RPG.

Uhhh ... not anymore. In good part it's just a matter of finding the time amid work and other hobbies, but in all honesty I'd also say that whilst the background has remained fun, certain rule mechanics, army support (or lack thereof) and miniature cost have kind of thrown me off that track years ago. The game world still having a rather unique appeal is the reason for why I remain open to RPGs such as these as well as the computer games, if they're good.

Other than that, I'm pretty much just watching from the sidelines, hoping that some day GW gets their gak together.

Here's to plastic Battle Sisters lol. Sorely needed. I'd consider defecting back from Chaos if they were suitably economic.

As is, I have a large IG force, a few loyalist Marines, a rapidly swelling Chaos army, and the beginnings of a Dark Eldar force.

I think I have a problem.

Here's to plastic Battle Sisters lol. Sorely needed. I'd consider defecting back from Chaos if they were suitably economic.

As is, I have a large IG force, a few loyalist Marines, a rapidly swelling Chaos army, and the beginnings of a Dark Eldar force.

I think I have a problem.

Maybe if they got a real codex, too?

I've played 40K before, a number of times, but consider myself fortunate. When I was in college, back at the turn of the millennium, one of my good friends was way into 40K. He dumped a lot of money, time, and effort into large amounts of six, or so, separate armies, and if you HAVE bought and painted 40K, you can imagine how much that much IG, SM, Slaanesh, Orks, Necrons, Nids, and a smattering of Eldar and Tau that all cost him. He didn't have anyone to play it with, for the most part, so I tried to learn. I really like the game, but find my own strategic thinking to be under par for playing, and he frequently trounced me. It's also where most of what skill I have in model-painting came from, as he occasionally wanted help painting all those things, and after doing the bulk work on a number of Ultramarines, Guard, and Gaunts, I found myself in a good position to sort of suggest it be fair if i got to paint some Zoanthropes, and Marneus Calgar. Lord McCragge is still one of the best jobs I ever painted, even if possibly not up to his skill.

The benefit here was that I didn't have to pay for armies. Once I graduated, I didn't know anyone who played, so anything I would've bought would have just sat. I buy the occasional piece now, to paint for fun (done a pretty good Karamazov, Abaddon, Maugan Ra, and a few customs I wanted; someday, I'll finish my RT, Aedan Qel-Drake, but I'm lazy, and he's high-skill required). So, I enjoyed playing, without the full investment. I have some stray Guard, and such, but no tanks, or full army.

As for the RP, this isn't one I've gotten to run, due to my current friend pool not knowing about 40K, and not liking some of the things they HAVE had to listen to me babble about. It actually surprises me, in a number of ways, the sheer number of people who can post here saying this is what they are playing, but they, and their crews, know next to nothing about 40K. Oh well, at least they hopefully enjoy themselves.

The Sixth Ed Sisters Codex is pretty **** good actually. They're a solid competitive army list and only really lack deep strike capability. The problems arise from the sheer expense of running Sisters.

I would not say they are competative. Not even slightly. They are competent and in the majority of games can do just as good as any other army. As soon as you start getting to competative tournament levels though is where they fall by the way side.

I wonder how good the new admech army/armies are... Especially the one that lets you combine units from skitarii, cult mechanicus and imp Knights and they get all their upgrades for free and weapons loose the "gets hot" rule.

The Skitarii are amazing. Particularly rocking the Doctrina Imperatives. I field them alongside my Iron Warriors CSMs.

I came to WH40KRP s from the tabletop game (and I came to the tabletop game from GW's skirmish games: Necromunda , Mordheim , GorkaMorka , etc). My interest in 40K peaked with 4th Edition, and has steadily declined from there. I still love the universe (hence I'm playing DH and DW ), but GW's current "Everyone gets a ___" trend is so nakedly money-grubbing and detrimental to playability that I've transferred nearly all of my mini-gaming efforts over to Privateer Press' Warmachine .

We discussed using a full game table as part of the OW campaign. We decided against it though since it tended to slow the game down too much. I just find it kinda nice as my last RPG game was DnD. I remember my friends always struggling to keep up with getting minis for all of the monsters needed. What is that need a couple of Valkries on the map? Done. Need a disabled Baneblade that your party has taken over to use it's still very functional guns? Let me just open my mini case up. We even been talking about just pitching in for squads of Krieg, and Elysian drop troopers for the sake of all having our own minis when we play as those regiments.

...I remember my friends always struggling to keep up with getting minis for all of the monsters needed. What is that need a couple of Valkries on the map? Done. Need a disabled Baneblade that your party has taken over to use it's still very functional guns? Let me just open my mini case up.

Two words: cardboard templates. Any vehicle that I don't have the mini for (-which is most of them) gets represented on the table by a to-scale cut-out made from cardboard, with enough details drawn on with a Sharpie to make it obvious what it represents.

I'd love to tie in the wargame with the RPG somehow. I'm just...not sure how I'd go about it. Maybe use it to resolve how background "cinematic battles" play out.

Name your squads, name your sergeant's/unit leaders/HQ choices (ok a bit tricky with tyranids, I'll admit. "I call the big one, Bitey" ) Maybe use an injury systhem like Necromunda had for in game casualties. Give each player his (or hers) own squad/unit/vehicle and they are in charge of that while you as the GM controls the oposing army. (Turning it in effect into some type of multiplayer game) And fight a narative campaign.

I'd advise to have a look (if you can) at the old rogue trader (40k 1st ed) and realm of chaos books, back then warhammer 40k had a lot more narative and RPG influences. For something more recent, check out GW's Inquisitor game.

I'd love to tie in the wargame with the RPG somehow. I'm just...not sure how I'd go about it. Maybe use it to resolve how background "cinematic battles" play out.

Yep, that is pretty much how we do it. We have a few IG players that we watch as their battles fold out. Depending on the extent of the defeat or victory we will add that into our campaign. It is pretty safe to assume since we are just on one planet, they will be fighting on the others. It doesn't even have to be directly a IG only thing either. If your campaign has Tau in it, and you witness a game of Tau vs Eldar or something. You could say if the Tau win, they managed to secure that planet and now sending more forces to your planet. If they are defeated, you could weaken the overall Tau force on the planet, stating they had to pull some units out to assist on other fronts.

Do you remember old battle reports in White Dwarf (maybe they still do this, I have no idea, haven't seen an issue for years and years)? They'd have a simple graphic representing the battlefield as well as rectangles representing units and such? I have used that style of tabletop gameplay to represent a platoon-level combat in Only War. Mondo-mat grid, cut out some rectangles for each squad in the platoon ... some Chimeras graphics, some Warbuggy and enemy unit rectangles, a few smaller circles to represent important characters or targets. The battle then played out using the Formations combat rules from Enemies of the Imperium.

I let each of my PCs control a squad, the squad's Chimera, and then their own PC. After a few rounds of combat, the focus of action basically zoomed into where the actual players were as this was the most vital part of the combat and the rest was abstracted away.

Ahahhahahahaaaa! battle reports in white dwarf! ahahaha! Sorry, these days it's really just a 32page product catalogue.

But back in the 90's and early 00's they did some real nice battle reports, some even had a bit of backstory and turns decribed from the characters point of view. Those were the good old days.

Yeah, even before the split up (White Dwarf, Visions, etc.), I usually only remember one little battle report, and a lot of pictures of painted stuff.One of the last ones I remember was when Tyranids 6E came out, and they had to fabricate a ham-fisted scenario there for the Eternal Swarm to have a chance, since they did, and still sort of do suck, on the table top (oh third party lawsuits and transports ) When they had a new dex land, they'd do something cool, but that wasn't as "common" as it is now, and even then, it was Fantasy, at least half of the time, which I don't like (and possibly ignorantly wish had stayed further away from the 40K game I liked more), but that's just endless whining on my loud part. I DO, strangely, enjoy hopping onto youtube, and watching the battle report, part-play videos some folks do, if they are playing armies I enjoy. Guard don't usually seem to win, but it frequently chalks up to simply poor dice rolls, and one super-heavy blowing up, taking out another, next to it.

If I had more IG minis, and the opposition forces to stack up their foes, I might take the time to use them for a game; I liked having them around, often, in D&D, just so we all knew where people, friend and foe, were, but it could also be troublesome to bring. Oh well, I usually find visual aides to be helpful, if not always necessary.

But back in the 90's and early 00's they did some real nice battle reports, some even had a bit of backstory and turns decribed from the characters point of view. Those were the good old days.

Oh man, I remember when White Dwarf would actually incorporate entire pages full of cool background (fun fact: 50% of all SoB fluff is in WD) and short stories, or how they'd add cardboard scenery pieces as a freebie, tips how you could create your own board pieces with household items(!), or how they'd offer rules for special scenarios or alternate takes on units such as Blood Pact IG or Frateris Militia zealots.

You know, back when it actually was about a hobby , rather than making a sale.

Or flat out make your own vehicle! WD 132 had an article with rules and DIY guide to make your own Baneblade!

Of course there are some real old school RPG fans out there who hate anything from WD 100 on, because it used to be about D&D, Cthulhu and roleplaying and now its all this minis and wargames junk, man!

lol I like to do after action fluffy type stuff myself, but sadly haven't tied any of it into RPG. I've been running Chaos Marines though, with Warpsmith Karsus and his underlings. Small, elite, kill-team esque forces and the like.

It comes to something when my total model count is 33 in a 1850 point game. I must be the kind of player that GW hates lol.

Oh man, I remember when White Dwarf would actually incorporate entire pages full of cool background (fun fact: 50% of all SoB fluff is in WD) and short stories, or how they'd add cardboard scenery pieces as a freebie, tips how you could create your own board pieces with household items(!), or how they'd offer rules for special scenarios or alternate takes on units such as Blood Pact IG or Frateris Militia zealots.

You know, back when it actually was about a hobby , rather than making a sale.

Ah, yes, the good old days...