First of all, hi, I'm new to this forum as well as the WH40k universe.

From reading the RT core book I thought that warp storms were disturbances in the Immaterium that had no direct correlation to the material world. And one point, I think it is even mentioned that ships sometimes drop from the Immaterium back into reality in order to avoid particularly nasty warp storms.

However, I've just begun reading Lure of the Expanse and Edge of the Abyss, and both books seem to paint a fairly different picture, in that warp storms are very real (in the sense that they are visible and tangible) even outside of the Empyrean. From the top of my head, the crystal dome of the Hermitage is described as having a spectacular view of the Great Warp Storms, and in TLotE, the Explorers first lay eyes on their prize while observing a warp storm. There are many more references like that.

Now I'm confused. I'm set to start a RT campaign and I feel this is something that I might need to clear up, warp travel and space travel being somewhat central elements and all.

Help?

Both views are correct. At its simplest a warp storm is a disturbance in the warp. Most of the time, it is only a warp occurance, and can be avoided by returing to real space. However, a powerful enough storm, or a weaker storm in an area where the walls between the immaterium and realspace are thin, there can be effects that bleed over into real space. The Eye of Terror is the largest example, where the wall was destroyed, and any warp effect is in real space, but there are many other examples.

The storms that are the border to the Koronus Expanse arent real well defined, other then trying to cross one is a quick way to die. It is possible that the realspace effect of the storms is only a slight increase in gravity that attracts stray gas, and then smaller fluctuations heat the gas, making a nebula. It is also possible that the immaterium leaks through and even in real space you would get eaten by a daemon.

So, basically, a warp storm is whatever the GM needs it to be.

Ah, I see. Thanks, that helps a lot!

One of said warpstorms, the Screaming Vortex, is also going to be the setting of the upcoming Black Crusade game, so I expect that even if the other is just a Warp occurance, it's got more than a little bleed-over. Here is an article they released describing it.

Anything involving the Warp is, by it's very nature, undefinably chaotic. A Warp storm of such a small manitude that a Navigator may miss it altogether may well tear open a rift in realspace, and likewise a ship heading through the fiercest storm ever seen may come out with a fresh coat of paint. The whole point of the Immaterium is that it is utterly unpredictable and chaos in it's purest form.

The genius of defining it thusly is that it is the perfect GM tool. You can have it be anything at any time in any place with any imaginable (or unimaginable!) effect. So while the more common views are fairly rational, but that's because describing something that the human mind cannot understand is rather difficult to do. My favourite tactic: try make as mind-bending a scenario as possible. Perhaps throw some mini-portals (as per the game Portal) or temporal fluxes that involve fighting oneself through a mirror? Have fun with it.

Heh, last game i just rolled shoals and reefs for a warp occurence.

The Astropath was able to see gigantic sabres slashing down onto the ship. Just as a different visualisation.

What i never thought about: The players were deathly afraid of whatever was holding those two sabres...