Hey all. After playing almost exclusively D&D for the last 20 years, our group has decided to take the plunge into a new system. A couple of the guys are heavy into the 40K minis game, but it was never something I caught onto, primarily because I don't have the time/patience for painting all those cool minis.

Anyway, I know almost nothing about the 40K/ Dark Heresy Universe. I have picked up the core rulebook, but I am wondering if there is any references/sources you would recommend that would give me a decent understanding of this brace new world I am entering.

Also I'd like to pick up a couple of novels that would help me get a feel for the 'mood' of the universe.

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

Darren
Calgary AB Canada

dbezzant said:

Well, for information on Calixis you've pretty much got to read through the official materials in the Dark Heresy publications. On the other hand there are a number of sources that you can hit for information about the history and setting of the Imperium and the various other races in the game (though they're not really a part of Calixis unless you make them so!).

For general online sources, you could always check out the various Wikipedia:

Lexicanum | Wikipedia - Warhammer 40,000 | Games Workshop's Specialist Games

You can also try the various fan forums on the subject, but as soon as you do that you're going to delve into the realm of personalised interpretation. In short, some of the answers that you get might not be the ones that you would necessarily arrive at if you were to read the core materials yourself. Some of the more popular forums include:

Warseer | 40kOnline | Dark Reign ( Forums ) | Anargo Sector Project *

* Okay, that last isn't really what you might call "popular," but I just thought that I would throw in the self-reference. There are many others, such as Heresy Online, Bolters and Chainswords, etc., and you'll get differing opinions about what is good or bad about all of them. Again, though, you're probably going to get the full spectrum of answers, from official to unofficial, loving or hating a specific interpretation of the 40k universe, and all the variations in between.

dbezzant said:

For Dark Heresy themed games you might want to check out Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies. Sandy Mitchell's Scourge of the Heretic is a direct tie into Dark Heresy , but I would personally suggest reading that at the end of your forays into the 40k universe.

Another trilogy that I would also suggest is that of Watson's Inquisition War . You're likely to hear variable reports on this set, but it has been said—and not unreasonably—that if you want information on a functioning version of the 40k universe that is current, then check out Eisenhorn . On the other hand, if you want to get to grips with the original feel and flavour of the universe? You would be hard-pressed to find anything better, at least IMO.

The other 40k novels are, IMO, pretty much hit and miss. Be warned.

Kage

40k's universe can be learned quickly enough, but actually explaining it would be difficult and extensive, especially since, for Dark heresy, it varies hugely from planet to planet. Think of it as a feudal society in space, much like the dark ages. Instead of christianity, there's the ecclesiarchy, with the Emperor filling in for god.

A general guideline is that mankind was incredibly great and powerful around the year 30,000 or so, and reached a godlike level of technology. However, with the death, or near-death of the emperor, society decayed. Most of the technology's been lost, and what little is left, almost nobody understands, leading to the perception that advanced technology is mystical.

If I get into explaining it I'll be here all morning, so that's just a general guideline.

As has been mentioned, the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies are a damned good read, as well as being full of useful information and flavour regarding the Inquisition, who you'll be working for. Other than that, post any specific questions you have here, and I'm sure we'll al be only too happy to answer any question you might have.

Watch the first 50 seconds of this

Going shopping, will post more later

What could also be interesting reading materials are Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cains novel: they're a sort of autobiography of a selfish / self-centered comissar who turns out to become the hero of Imperium. They also depict Inquisitor interventions that I find really inspiring, in at least two novels (Hero of the Imperium & Duty Calls). In any case, the whole series is a must-read just for the overall humoristic tone.

From a Space Marine perspective, Graham McNeill's Ultramarine novel 'Warriors of Ultramar', the 4th Company is helped by Inquisitor Kryptman and a Deathwatch team. It's a real good insight on the decision taking process that an Inquisitor must get through in dire straits.

But also, February 2009 will see the reprint of the Inquisitor War trilogy. It looks a bit old, I've never read them, but who knows, it might prove enjoyable and may even give good materials to Dark Heresy.

Oh, and on a personal note, they are hard to find, but I think that the best source of inspiration for the Warhammer 40k universe are the background books, like the Sabbat World Crusade, Tactica Imperialis, and so on. I really enjoyed reading them. Great fun & lots of stuff inside.

There is a lot to learn, but it's all worth it.

Most things are just awesome, like stormbolters and chainswords and power armour and exterminatus. Bigger is better, and most things are pretty big.

You get faster-than-light travel (by travelling through hell), but there's no such thing as the Internet. The mobile phone has been replaced by people staring into crystal balls and flipping through decks of tarot cards. Humanity's population is such that the value of human life is next to worthless unless it is spent as part of some suicide mission.

Everything that isn't human is out to get you, including daemons and ghosts. All your fellow humans are potential worshippers or allies to the deamons/ghosts/aliens. You have to pray to a lightswitch to get it to work. Life expectancy in the army is fifteen hours.

Your god's (the Emperor) angels wear tank armour and carry a fully-automatic rocket launcher in one hand while their other holds a sword decked out with chainsaw teeth (or a sword that crackles with so much energy that just touching you with it will make you explode).

Some people are born psychic. You should burn these people as soon as possible. Unless they've been sanctioned, in which case you should only burn them if they start to get a nose bleed. After burning a psychic person you should probably shoot yourself just to be sure.

Locque said:

Actually, this raises a very pertinent point. If your friends have been into 40k for some time, the chances are that they've created their own intepretations of the 40k universe that might blend together various editions rather than just going for the "latest" published materials. For example, the 40k of Dark Heresy (2007+)is quite different to that of the Rogue Trader 40k (late 1980s, early 1990s), where feudalism was more of an over-arching concept and not the society, the religion angle was not quite so important (the "Church" wasn't even really mentioned and the "priesthood" were actually bureaucrats and soldiers of the Imperium!), and so on. Things have changed since those times, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, but there are still old foggies out there (me) that are influenced by the older materials, blending it with the newer material, and some young whipper-snappers who are influenced by the newer material and like some of the "coolness" of the older material, and all the variations between them.

Thus, whenever you've got to grips with the setting, you should also have a chat with the players to ask them what 40k is to them . That is, what do they expect out of a game of "40k RPG." If they're cool with playing Dark Heresy out of the box (latest interpretation of the 40k universe focusing on a small, but interesting, part of the larger universe, then run with it. You don't really need anything else other than the FFG product range, and in some cases the more you know about the 40k universe in its various incarnations the more confused you're going to get—the less focused you will become.

Of course, understanding what your players want out of the game is pretty much a given for starting up any campaign, let alone any new system.

Kage

Charax said:

HELL. YES.

Firewarrior was a great game, in some ways, but this opening sequence still gives me goosebumps. That and the intro to Dawn of War.

Evilscary said:

Talking about Dawn of War II 's long intro, I suppose

Shadow Hexagram said:

Talking about Dawn of War II 's long intro, I suppose

Actually I meant the original SM vs Orks from the first one. Still makes me smile, especially when the dreadnaught turns up.

Then have a look at this one, if you haven't watched it about a bazillion times already :

uk.pc.ign.com/dor/objects/14243516/warhammer-40000-dawn-of-war-ii/videos/DOW2_LEIPZIG2_081808.html

Evilscary said:

Heresy.

Emperor-damned heresy.

I played Fire Warrior almost until the end, but knew it would not live up to my expectations as soon as I picked up a lasgun.

Not played the game but the book was excellent - good author - gives a interesting view from the Xenos (Tau) point of view

His other work Lord of Night (?) is also a very good book and works well in showing how several different Inquisitors work and their retinues - also what happens to a favoured acolyte when her Inquisitor dies - excellent reads but seldom mentioned sadly.

Shadow Hexagram said:

Very cool as good as the intro to the first one

Wow! Thanks to everyone for their input. I am not usually much of a poster, more of a lurker, but I wanted to prepare for this new campaign.

I will go through your posts and let you know my thoughts.

Cheers

Evilscary said:

Not especially useful in explaining the setting though, is it? that's why I chose the Fire Warrior one (a game I would love, if it would install properly)

Anyway, other useful resources - I've tried to stick to primary sources rather than opinion-pieces or fan material because in any aspect of the 40K universe there will be a bajillion different viewpoints, so it's best to just go straight to what GW itself has written and make your own mind up about how to interpret it.

Inquisitor

This is why you're here. This is the game that GW made that inspired Dan Abnett to write a series of implausibly popular novels which in turn persuaded GW to make them into a 40K army which sparked enough interest in insufferable twelve year olds going "Yay, Grey Knights", thereby convincing GW that anything remotely connected to the Inquisition was automatically The Shiznit and provoking them to create Dark Heresy.

All the while forgetting Inquisitor itself, but que sera, sera.

Inquisitor Living Rulebook, Part 1

As you won't actually be playing Inquisitor, the first nine pages are all you'll really need, but the descriptions later on are quite handy if you want an explanation into what an Auspex is and why Conversion Fields are fun.

Inquisitor Living Rulebook, Part 2

Pages 2 to 33 are what you want from here - the character archetypes. while they don't translate directly to Inquisitor, they do give you a hell of a lot of information and really help with getting the feel for each archetype.

Faction Sourcebook: Thorians

Unless you're especially interested in how the Inquisition was formed, or the Thorians in particular, pages 23 to 28 are all you need to take from here - extensive background into what the Inquisition is and how it operates.

Explorator Warbands

A good introduction to the Adeptus Mechanicus

Necromunda

A game of gang warfare based on an earlier version of the 40K ruleset. Useful for imagining the mix of technology and squalor that the Imperium lives in.

Necromunda Rulebook

Pages 59-73 contain most of the background. much of it is specific to Necromunda itself (A Hive World relatively near Earth/Terra), but themes can carry over quite easily. Almost everyone detailed in Necromunda would classify as Scum in the Dark Heresy system.

Computer Games

Unlike most movie-to-game transitions, many of the games bast on Games Workshop's universes are quite faithful to the setting - almost certainly due to GW's legendarily tight control over its IP. While they all take liberties in some respects, they get around 90% of the stuff right.

That, and because they're designed for people not necessarily au fait with GW's universes, they are a good starting point for learning about them - unlike Dark Heresy and some other GW games, which presuppose that the reader has significant prior knowledge of the IP.

Fire Warrior Intro Movie

Narrated by Tom Baker, this gives a concise overview of the state of the Imperium of Man

I'm not going to include Dawn of War here because, frankly, I don't think it's relevant. Seeing a bunch of Space Marines pummel Orks gives you no extra insight into the setting, and it explains nothing - it's just superfluous eye candy, especially when you're going to be playing Dark Heresy.

Films

There's only one 40K "Movie" - it's called Inquisitor and is a short proof-of-concept piece that was put on limited VHS release a while ago - I managed to snag a copy (one of only 1000) and I quite like it, but the effects are pretty shoddy and the production values are dire. I'm sure you can find it on Youtube but I won't link you to it because a) It's GW's copyrighted material, and b) I paid for it, I don't see why I should help you see it for free

Thematically, for the 40K universe think of Event Horizon and Starship Troopers if they were directed by Tim Burton in his usual overly-gothic style

Other

Obviously, the best starting place for an insight into the 40K universe would be the 40K rulebook - it's designed to introduce people to the setting, and it does so very well - but it's a tad(!) expensive for something you're only using for background.

the Codex Imperialis was part of the 40K boxed game a long time ago, and still contains a lot of useful material on almost every aspect of the 40K universe. Some things have changed in the setting since it was published, but overall it's still a very good introduction to the universe.

Da Boss said:

Wash your keyboard out with soap! Fire Warrior was a terrible novel- oh, I'm a Tau shas'ui, I can shoot anything from a pulse carbine through to an imperial missile launcher and astartes bolter. And I can kill a greater daemon of Tzeentch by throwing my helmet at it!

That said, Si Spurrier is a good author, and Lord of the Night is good

Also- the intro to Rites of War is excellent. Still gives me a chill today.

Titanicus by Dan Abnett is an excellent glance into the Adeptus Mechanicus and Titan Legions as well. It lacks any real form of the Inquisition, but if you want to see how maybe a tech-priest would act or have an interest in them at all, pick it up. Dan Abnett is generally a sure pick for a good novel and his writing has improved greatly over time. If someone else hasn't metioned it, his Gaunt's Ghost s series is one of the best Imperial Guard entries as well if you're interested in the footsloggers of the Imperium.

Darren, I'm looking for some players for DH in Calgary as well. Drop me a line and maybe we can set something up.