Aight, with the demise of Warhammer Fantasy, and with me having collected all the (still available) books that have appeared (and will ever appear, may I add) for it, I turned my beady hamster eyes to the grimdarkiness that WH40k is.

I'll admit I did browse through WH40k codexes in the past, I especially remember having liked the Apocalypse handbook, and I had a certain deal of interest in the whole setting.I haven't read any books and don't think I'll stomach any - I mean, judging by the quality of the Fantasy books, it won't be worth the effort.

So, I've already bought Creatures Anathema, Disciples of the Dark Gods and The Inquisitor's Handbook. Today I've received confirmation that my DH and RT handbooks are already on their way to me - even though I didn't expect them for another three weeks. What else do I need to know to delve deep into the WH40k universe? Any sites worth recommending? Special geek resources of which I should avail myself?

Also, there's one issue on which I'd like to hear expert advice. When I pictured my WHF world, I always began with the common man and their common day - trying to figure out how would the whole world work from the perspective of an ordinary commoner. This served the purpose of preparing a contrasting background, something to which players could relate, to when things would already have gone south - the sort of emotional contrast between the usual and the unusual, which brings out the underplaying tensions and shows the unnatural in its proper proportions.

Now, I don't seem to be able to picture such an "ordinary" situation for the WH40k. I find it very hard to relate to the world, as it appears there is no normal life. The epic proportions of the setting warp things out and there does not seem to be an "ordinary day in ordinary lives". I mean, everything is war, and all the sourcebooks seem to focus too much on the martial side of things, omitting the mundane. Help?

For starters why not head over to Dark Reign? Its "the" unnofical 40k role play site, its full of plot hooks, background info and home brewd rules. Deffinatly a good place to start. Are you completly new to the 40k setting? You may want to read Ravenor or Eisenhorn (by Dan Abnett) both are really great intoductions into the setting and the sort of things Inquisitors get up to as well as a good read. You should be able to pick most of the setting and feel up from the I.Q and R.T Rulebooks although if you have any hardcore 40k fans in your group you may want to discuss their perception of the 40K setting so as not to upset them when you turn around and tell them their inquisitor is an ork.
Hmmm on the concept of the common man i don't really know what to say, try and focus instead on the enormity and scale of everything... this is an empire that actually has Cemitary worlds! The odd dead worker here or there isnt going to bother anybody...unless quotas start to drop. I'd say you can keep the grim and gritty of W.H just add a pinch more dispair and inhumanity (turning dead people into candy bars! Well corpse rations anyway). I dont know if your players would be intrested in what the average menial does...pretty much slave hours, slave wages and an early grave is all that most hivers get.
Woah went on for a bit there...hope some of this helps answer a few of your questions if youd like to know anything more just give us a shout.
Oh and while i remember Servants of the Imperium is a great little web-comic all about an inquisitor and his team well worth a hit.

I'll plug Dark Reign too, not only because I'm an admin there, but because it really is a useful site for 40k in general, and specifically DH and RT.

I'd also suggest getting at least Eisenhorn and Ravenor, as well as the Ciaphas Cain and Gaunt's Ghosts books, as they really are quite good, generally better than the Fantasy setting ones.

Lexicanum.com is also a good starting point for 40k info, that site is invaluable.

Alternatively, you can always ask us!

Good Sirs, may you ling love and prospero. Many felicitations for these helpful hints.

I have not been aware of the Dark Reign website and will certainly peruse it to its utmost. Lexicanum I have already managed to find on me own, but thanks for that as well.

As for Black Library books - well, I was perhaps a tad too harsh in my previous post. It is not that these books are completely unreadable. They certainly are, I loved the Drachenfels books back in the day as a teenager, and as recently as this year have read two or three further novels (the Knight of the Realm series and the Vampire Wars omnibus). It's just that my time for reading books is limited, so am forced to cut to the chase and go for the 'eavy 'itters first. And since Eisenhorn is a title I have already heard somewhere along the way, I'll be picking that up, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

As for my second question, I gave it a wee bit more thought and I have some ideas already brewing. Sure spurred me there, Dracones.

For instance, the huge and epic proportions theme - I already had the impression this was one of the crucial themes in the setting (couldn't be otherwise, if we're talking of Galaxy-spanning empires, eh) and I suppose that in conjunction with this, I'll try to play out the insignificance of the individual theme. A single man is but a dust in the wider cosmos, so there is some harkening to Lovecraft there.

Also, given its size and the overarching figure of the Emperor, it is no wonder that the Imperium cannot be anything but a tyranny. And thus, the heretics may play the "democracy is best" card, seeking to rip apart the monolithic structure that the Imperium is.

Reading up about the Emperor and the Golden Throne was also rather inspiring - the what has the Emperor done for me argument and the is he even still alive argument.

As for the slave hours, slave wages and the general worthlessness of human life - now, that's a juicy bit. Obviously, if I was a hiver like that, I'd be nowhere near happy and thus another avenue of approach for heretics is created. Despair may, in turn, lead the disgruntled populaces to revolt. And revolt leads to retribution - inescapable retribution, given that the populace cannot hope to muster sufficient forces to withstand the sort of power the Emperor is able to bring to bear on them.

Then, there's the question of what really qualifies for a heretic. With the sort of absolute power the authorities wield, corruption and false positives would not be a rarity. The bit about good-willing Magos who simply wants to revive the technology of a glory past being the sort of possible opponents player characters may face was also rather inspiring. Why, of course - who said that we're the good guys! We may think we're the good guys, we may say we are, but these things don't always have to coalesce with the outcomes of our actions, when you look at them objectively.

Yeah, thanks again guys, I got some ideas going, the cogs are turning now and I'm looking through my collection of soundtracks to compile the sort of inspirational soundtrack for 40k. I was also happy to read somewhere (might have been Lexicanum) that the Dune cycle was one of partial inspirations for the setting. Aight, that's me putting my nerd hat on and spewing forth a mass of logorrhaic doodles. Uhm, yeah.

I'd like to help - or at least blurt out my views - however I'm feeling particularly inarticulate atm, so this may not be very coherent.

The state of the average man;

a) Varies by planet, so there's no overall 'average' or 'normal' person/lifestyle. The best first step, I would say, is thinking about it on a planet-by-planet basis. There's a section in the Core Rulebook (pg 249) listing a few different classes of world such as Feudal, Forge, Developing, etc. Think about the history of planet, it's resources and what purpose the Imperium has set it to. There are a multitude of examples sprinkled through the various DH books (Core Rulebook pg 286-307, 323-326), illustrating the vast differences that can exist between planets in the same 'class'. IE, with Agri(farm)-Worlds, there's -

Dreah; (pg 323) Famed across the entire sector for its dullness, boasting grey skies, soil, plants and animals. The inhabitants exhibit evolutionary changes to match, with skin, eyes and hair the exact same shade as their surroundings. Traders make a fortune selling dyes and hallucinogenic in the black market, as Dreah's inhabitants are amazed by, and quickly become addicted to, the colours experienced within. The planetary Governor is trying to crack down on the trade, without success. (On an unrelated note, it seems to me that providing these items legally, as rewards, would garner a better response and tithe.)

Spectoris; (pg 326) A world with a surface all-but-completely consisting of water, the sole Imperial habitat is constructed atop a submarine peak. Two million people live in this habitat, farming the 'Complete Ocean' for its teeming hordes of aquatic life. Dark legends surround the world however; that sentient xeno-forms of vast size populate the unexplored depths, or that the water-world is in itself sentient.

Heterodyne Station; (Inquisitor's Handbook, pg 139) Once a forgotten feudal world, a century ago the planet was ceded to the Adeptus Mechanicus. The AdMech are ruling with a light hand, subtly influencing its development and infiltrating the planetary elite with advisors. As a result the world has thrived, with primitive technology existing side-by-side with the techno-arcana of the rulers of Mars. It is a world where gengineered and implant-augmented beasts pull ploughs across field seeded by hand, and liveried gun-servitors patrol stone-and-mortar fortresses.
A few differences there, eh? The theme and/or design methodology seems to be; pick some bizarre 'truth', and design a world about it

b) Varies by indoctrination. All throughout the Imperium, there is one truth; The Emperor is the Divine Saviour of Mankind. This is true whether he is worshipped as the Protective Flame from the Stars or the Nurturing All-Father or the Baleful Slavemaster or whatever (sorry, made these up, couldn’t be bothered trying to find published examples). Some things to keep in mind for this religion is that it's a blending of all RL Earth religions, be that directly or indirectly.
Directly, it seems (IMO) for the most part to be a blending of Christianity and the 'religion' of Communism. I'll touch on a couple of reasons why I believe this;
Saviour Figure (Christianity/Jesus, Communism/Chairman Mao)
Incorporation/Usurpation of beliefs (Christianity/converting the 'pagans')
Acceptance of Conditions (Christianity/Heaven, deservance of, Communism/Each according to ability, work for greater good)
Indirectly, well all I'll say here is that the Imperium strives to accept any beliefs short of outright Chaos worship, so some of Earth's will certainly be in there.

Wooooah/Blurgh. As promised, I'm now unsure where I'm going with this or what my original intent here was. Hey, I'm a Gemini, we're supposed to flit from grand task to grand task, accomplishing not much at a time. ;p
Hopefully this will help a little, and I'm sure it will at least spark some discussion (ie, 'I agree, always thought that...' "No, thats completely wrong, they actually...").