I've been wanting to introduce some space hulks, what are some of your favorit descriptions and/or pictures?

I really like the ghost ship from rogue galaxy, and wish I could find a larger picture of that ship.

What is this Rogue Galaxy?

Just look on this page:

http://www.roguegalaxygame.com/

It looks interresting. To bad, I don´t own a PS2. I am sure, this game could give some great inspirations for a RT-campain (although it seems to be much less "grimdark" than the galaxy of 40K).

I thought that some of the "Kustom-built" space hulks shown in the pages of White Dwarf and in the Battle Fleet Gothic Rulebooks were VERY cool. Obviously there are no standard space hulks, but I thought some of those were pretty great examples.

Yeah, every one is different, but have a bunch of them to choose from and it's likely one will fit your game plan. I never had any white dwarf, I could never justify 60 dollars a year for it. And I've got plenty of books to read.

As for Rogue Galaxy, with a few exceptions (the ghost ship looks cool. like a failed craftworld) I dont think it would make a good place to look for inspiration for a role playing game (ironic since it IS a role playing game hu?). It was decently fun, and getting your weapon upgrades was annoyingly adictive and time consuming. But there's so much grinding and so little space piracy that unless you wanted to just rip the plot out and transport it's setting it's not going to be much use. It's art gallery would be more helpful. (If it has one, I dont think so.)

I've browsed over a few websites but most only have a few people's work, a few of the designs are cool, but nothing like a big selection. Deviant art would probably be my choice if the search function didn't suck and bring you everything you weren't looking for.

There are actually 2 kinds of Hulks: the "amalgam" type and the "single vessel" type. Both have their merits, even if different ones.

The "single vessel" type takes a lot from the "phantom vessels" of marine lore. The "Mary Celeste" and "Flying Dutchman" come immediately to mind. They are part of the collective consciousness and immediately bring undertones of adventure and mystery when mentionned. Hulks of such nature, simply need a proper mysterious story and a description making them look like derelicts which shouldn't possibly be still sailing the stars while it is obvious that they still do... The actual description will highly depend on the nature of the vessel itself, which can be anything from a small Imperial trader vessel to an Eldar Craftworld (such as Craftworld Saaremaa from the GW Canada campaign "Wrath of the Righteous")...

But these are not what comes to mind first when someone mentions the words "Space Hulk" in a 40K environment.

"Space Hulk" in 40K immediately brings the image of a collection of different vessels from various origins in a random arrangement, often mixed with other space debris such as asteroids. Making a description of such a "thing" can be quite hard... I know of very few representations of such Hulks, but one which comes to mind first appears in issue 57 of Warhammer Monthly, in the Kal Jerico story " Above and Beyond " (Part 2)...
The interesting aspect of such Hulks is that, by their very nature, they don't even need a backstory to be mysterious. The mere fact that they are an amalgam of vessels from xenos and Imperial origin, each lost in the Warp, each with its own unknown story, each with its own treasures, makes them instantly gain dark, ominous undertones while suggesting possible riches. One thing must be made clear somehow, that this "thing" came from the Warp and may re-enter it at any moment, taking anyone foolish enough to be on board with it and exposing him to the Perils of the Warp unprotected by the (flimsy) Geller fields of an Imperial Vessel.
But the most important part of a description of such a Hulk, IMHO, would be to convey the random nature of its interior arrangement. It must include passing from one type of environment to another, from Imperial-style claustrophobic corridors to organic-looking cathedral-size rooms of unknown xenos origin, simply by going through a hatch... Or going "up" a shaft of which one vertical wall was obviously once a well-trodden floor... Etc...

Hope that helps...

Space hulks look like this:

Action_Carl said:

No it does not; that is another game based on W40K (Space Crusade?).

Space Hulk featured plastic terminators and genestealers only, and the board sections were individual corridors and rooms with freestanding doors.

DW