I don't believe this is the right place to put this but I see no Generic Warhammer 40K forum to toss this out so here goes...

I wonder what the next "Core" Warhammer 40K book witll be. It seems that for the past 4 years we have had a new Core book each year - and some guy (who may have been speaking out of his buttocks...) at the local gaming store mentioned 7 Core systems in all when all is said and done. Though he could not say for certain where he came by this tid-bit but he said "on the internet" which does leave this statment suspect...

But I cannot say for certain he is wrong or right...

I would love to see an Eldar Book or a core book devoted to the Imperial Guard but I may be dreaming...

Any thoughts?

tcabril said:

It would have been the one you get FIRST after you clicked "Enter the Forums --> RPG --> DarkHeresy".

Gregorius21778 said:

And even that would be wrong since the right place to discuss the next line of WH40k Roleplaying Books would be a generic WH40k Roleplaying (Sub)Forum and not the Generic Dark Hersey Forum.

Anyway I'm also quite interested in what line of books will follow after Black Crusade.
I think the Imperium (and most human / space marine) elements of the Game have been sufficiently portrayed in the games so I'm really interested in what would be the focus of the next core rulebook.

I agree that a Xenos book would be nice; I just have to hope that they do a good job of coverage. While I'm sure there are several people who would feel that one book shouldn't have to cover 5 alien species, or something, due to the limits of detail they could squeeze into the space, the risks I see, to me personally, should they limit a book to one race are horrifying. I love me some Eldar, but I suspect that someone would push for dumb Orks first, or perhaps the Tau, instead, and then I'd have to wait, and wait, and wait. Several races (Nids for instance) probably aren't appropriate as RP characters, while several other things (Lacrymoles) are only so very lightly touched on to fill in a whole book, so a various Xenos book would be preferred, to me.

If they didn't do that, then I am not sure what direction I believe they would go. The Inquisition is covered, along with investigation; intergalactic treasure-seekers is good, and Space Marines is also done. With a bit of tweaking, either IG or SM could be done, just by modifying existent material from Deathwatch, and some Dark Heresy, thus making "Ultramarines" (oh who am I kidding, the Blood Angels fanboys would win out here, too) quite doable. While I think a standing IG line might be fun, I don't know if the "average" character would be durable enough to stand up to the endless combat such a setting would likely command, and so much of IG is using groups like an individual, with so little emphasis on the lone person (he's completely expendable, by the thousands, if need be, if it gets the objective done, and few if any will ever remember his name), that it doesn't seem an RP theme would carry well (maybe an MMORPG, where multitudes play, and no player is ever, or will ever be important, internally, no matter their contributions, but straight RPG, to me, depends on a certain amount of "the actions of these characters, among millions of other people, will have massive impact on the state of everything"). Also, the risk of reasons to die could be harsh. Your GM is going to want to use various cool things as opposition, but the moment he springs Chaos on you, and the nastier the worse, it's a safe bet, fluff-wise, that the Guardsmen who live will have to be liquidated, in order to conceal the truth about Chaos being manifest on various worlds. In DH, I believe that the presence of, and employment through an Inquisitor, protects one's bacon, but unless this system would use such a mechanic, in which case it kind of is DH again, then the list of reasons your superiors might need you dead grows by the day (xenos philosophical contamination, Chaos corruption, genetic degradation, etc.)

I'll just hold out hope that they go xenos book, and that they don't follow their normal plan, and skimp on Eldar. "The fans have sung to thee, so please respond in kind?"

Another option would be to continue releasing splat books for the 4 existing games and then in a few years time or so release a 2nd edition of any of the games.

If I had to guess, I'd say an Eldar game is the most likely next 'core' game. I just hope FFG can avoid the 'demi-human effect' from D&D : defining aliens by a single human characteristic (Elves are Aloof, Dwarves are Dour, Half-Orks are Barbaric, etc.). That's pretty much unavoidable with Orks, who really only have one personality type (Cockney soccer hooligans on crack), but Eldar are supposed to be one of the most alien and unknowable of the 'major' races; I really don't want to see them portrayed as just humans with high Agility and cool equipment...

venkelos said:

Hmmm I am gonna say that having a xenos book that covers a multiude of different races...might be a problem. Cause you would also have to come up with specific careers for that race aswell as home origins aswell, Not only that but race specific psychic powers (if any) and talents aswell as skills,weapons, armour,gear and all the special rules for them.

Sorry if it seems I am taking an ant hill and making a mountain out of it but looking at the core systems now they put alot of work into making one race playable.

As for the IG rpg idea I think it could be pulled off with a few tweaks here and there. Besides there are alot of ahem "black library" books that ave imperial guard squaring off against chaos and not getting liquidated. I mean look a Cadia with in the lore that planet is exposed to chaos incursion pretty much 24/7 that planets population should have been liquidated over a million times (I apologise if I took your statement th wrong way just they way I interpreted it seemed abit rediculous).

I can see IG being done in a supplement for Dark Heresy, the way the Arbites and Echlesiarchy have been down (BoJ and BoM) so I can't really see them reelasing a core game based on it, same with Space Marines, as its fairly easy to work out with Deathwatch being aviliable and all being of the same chapter which is how a Space Marine game would work, would not really make for the most interesting of games, in my oppinion anyway.

Assuming a new core, and the likley fact that the only thing really left is for xenos to be done Tau, Eldar and Orks are the most likley to be done as they have enough variations to be interesting to make a game out of. Tau castes and other races, which could be broke down further. Eldar has craftworlds aswell as the different paths and Orks have tribes aswell as the different kinds of boyz.

Karmadef said:

As far as I know there's a book to be released this year (was actually anounced for last year IIRC) called Only War that focuses on Guardsmen and military campaign (kinda like BoJ but for the Military)

Thought that might be the case haven't really been paying attention to the upcoming releases, so missied BoJ and Hostile Acquisitions being released