I was wondering, am I the only person tired with constant Calixis-sector books? Some of them, like Inquisitor's Handbook, have tiny bits of material that is really usable to us using our own sub-sectors.

Creatures Anathema, as an example, I would have loved to not see all those Calixis xenos, but instead also have the Tau or some other "big" xenos.

Now I see that the next books to be released are three pre-writs...

I mean, I hunger for more DnD-styled books, like a generic monsters guide, a generic guide to cults etc. etc.

Anyone else bothered with this?

Not really, since you can use nearly all the material for other sectors too. Only the Tyrant Star is the definition of Calixis- everything else, worlds, cults, monsters can be used for other random sectors. As for Tau they are as limited as the Calixis sector as they are still confined to a tiny section of space near the Damocles Gulf. 99% of the Imperium will never know what Tau are, but Eldar, Chaos and orks can show up anywhere.

SJE

I wish they'd give us more info on the pre-imperial human and xeno civilizations. Stuff like long-thought extinct species renewing ancient raids against imperial outposts to even ancient Dark Age of Technology humans awakening from deep cryo. Perhaps a general in the Old Terran Empire thought to outlast the warp storms and awaken immediatly after their end. By some freak mistake he gets up 10,000 years later and is really pissed. This might be because of the fact that he knew the Emperor personally and after investigating the cyro tanks found out it was him that sabotaged them. Now he's here to end his colleagues's "little empire" and restore Ancient Terra to its proper glory. Add to the fact that he was the guy who outsmarted the Iron Men and the Imperium is screwed. Just another day in jolly old Inquisition eh?

Creatures Anathema is hardly a Calixis Sector book. While a lot of the fluff mentions Calixis Sector, its not like Calixis is the only Sector with Orcs, Tech-Heretics, Eldar, Chaos Beasts and the like. The only part of CA that I would say is definatly Calixis is the normal beastie section, and even then its not hard to extrapulate the stuff from a Calixis Death World to another Death World in a different sector.

Same with the Inquisitors Handbook. Sisters of Battle are definatly Imperium Wide, same with the Black Priests. Ravenour has an Alcolyte that is definatly very much like a gunslinger. In fact, there are very few classes and tiers in the IH that isn't usable in other sectors. Even the Chaliced Commisariat while being a creation of Lord Hax, says straight out that its not unique in existing, but is only unique in its brutality.

The weapons and items are all pretty much standard Imperium Patterns if you read them, except for maybe the feral and fuedal worlds, and even then I don't see them being especially unique.

So far, none of the books are so totally Calixis centered that they can't be used in another sector. While the fluff may definatly be Calixis, the numbers and the origins are Imperium wide. So I'm not quite sure when you say you want a "generic" book.

I guess what you want is simply a book, with "Anteater" and numbers. "Daemonspawn" and numbers. Personally I like it this way, where you get t he same stuff you would get from a generic book, but with much more entertaining fluff.

I would tend to disagree; the dark heresy game is set in the calixis sector. I'm hoping for lots of the material to flesh out this particular setting.

MysteriousGrey said:

I wish they'd have a book that focused purely on lost civilizations with the Calixas Sector. Also by focusing on the Calixas Sector they have a chance to really represent the galaxy of 4000k acurrately. The universe is ancient and every bit of space has been occupied and traversed by countless beings, many beyond humanitys limited imagination. By giving Calixas all their attention they give it a deep and rich history that befits such a sector in the game.

While know that species such as the Tau would have little to known prescence int CS, I wish they'd give us some more mercenary races like the Kroot. Maybe even representations of Ancient Empires reemerging to seek their vengence on the Imperium, smelling its weakness like jackels to the kill.

There's another school of thought (mostly my own) that leans towards the fact that the Calixis Sector has never really been mentioned much before in any 40K literature... It's a creative RPG, not an ironclad set of rules that must be strictly followed. You want Tau? You are free to come up with your own stats. Sure it could be challenging, but world and creature creation are central to the role of the GM, and they never said the role of the GM would be easy. In fact, if you want background information on other sectors, there's an entire library (a black one, in fact) with an incomprehensible wealth of information already out. There is nothing more satisfying than creating your own encounter/creature/world and knowing that the experience was both fun and entertaining to your group. Everything that comes out in the rule books is meant to stimulate your imagination - that's why there are always those little "fluff" points, tantalizing hints and hooks of stories waiting to be finished.

My main point is: no one is going to hand you everything on a plate because they shouldn't need to. And, personally, I wouldn't want them to. If you work for what you enjoy, you'll actually enjoy it more. Weird, eh? I swear my parents tried to teach me that once...

I like the Calixis Sector as it lets me play in the 40Kiverse without worry of being second fiddle to Eisenhorn, Ravenor, Cain, Gaunt and other characters in the established universe canon. I also like the fact that it is the frontier of the Imperium.

Anything can happen. Why create your own sector? I just use my own systems within the Calixis Sector.

I too am a great fan of the Calixis Sector. It's a clean slate in some ways, freeing the players and GM from having to worry about various other bits of fluff and novels. It's also something that's been designed with Dark Heresy in mind; less outright conflict, more insidious threats, the unknown horrors of the Halo Stars nearby and it's own range range of unique problems for acolytes to deal with. Part of the reason I snap up every book that comes out is to obtain more information on Calixis.

I'm another one in the "happy with Calixis" camp. They were given a whole sector to go nuts with and they've been delivering. Like folk have said just adjust a couple things and they can apply elsewhere.

On the Tau front has anyone else looked at the picture in Creatures Anathema of the Enoulian and thought "oh look a Tau!" then read it and realised it's more like a snake-man or something?

I understand there's also an intellectual property aspect as well.

GW has given FFG the rights to the Calixis Sector. With it they can make any changes that they want without having to worry about stepping on other sources of 40k canon. Any tie-ins to other regions of space requires GW's approval, just in case GW already has plans for the sector in question.

Most of Dark Heresy is broadly applicable to games set in other sectors. I can understand the Tau lovers wish for more Tau stats (I'm not part of that camp), but there is more than enough info out there to wing stats for Tau equipment (pulse weapons=rapid fire plasma gun light). Rogue Trader is definitely a game more suited for having a lot of Tau material (and Demiurg and so on) and I do hope that it is included (minus the power up that the Tau get on the table top to make the game balanced).

Endar said:

i want more calixis stuff, expand the universe from there.

I tend to view the Calixis sector books as more of a 'template'. They can act as reference books for me, should I choose to base my campaign in another sector somewhere else in the universe. There is certainly plenty of room for me to do so, should I wish to make a custom built campaign setting. And I could even find plenty of material from any one of literally hundreds of other books and products in the 40k product line.

what I wouldn't mind seeing next is some sort of book or .pdf along the lines of 'sketches' of various sectors. the problem isn't finding material for a custom campaign, it's that I find it difficult to easily locate the book that has background material I would find most useful. some sort of 'master index' listing say....tyranids or genestealer cults.

I actually wanted to crush the Tau, not love them...

You see, I'd rather have "real" fluff on the 70 pages they use for Calixis fluff, fluff tied into the big 40k universe.

I wrote my own sector, you can just do that if you don't want Calixis, but don't want the players rushing to Armageddon or trying to stop Eisenhorn or something.

It's probably mostly the fact that we now get 3 books (more) of Calixis adventures. I sorta miss the DnD styled adventures, so short they fit into a comic-book-size-book, rather than huge hardcovers.

I mean, they could do more with the planets, classes, ships etc. etc. but they focus energy and time on building this Calixis sector. It'd be fine if the system was "established" (we can't field Space Marines), but the system is very new and FF seems more concerned with Calixis than the expansion of general WH40k stuff. At least, that's my humble opinion.

And of course, I could write Tau myself, but then again, I could just write the entire system myself and not buy any books at all. I don't wanna write the stats myself, I wanna look in a book and find them.

weaver95 said:

I've also run into the problem!

Endar said:

FFG isnt allowed to do "general" 40K fluff, they are allowed to play with the Calixis Sector.

Endar said:

Good. Thats nice to hear, so what are you complaining about then? You want general 40K info, go to the black library.

Endar said:

Then dont buy them.

Endar said:

I understand, its your opinion. But again, FFG is allowed to play in the Calixis Sector and thats about it. So they focus on that, they are probably required to be either very vague or only specific if they stay within the confines of Calixis.

Endar said:

You wouldnt need to write the entire system yourself, you could just use D6 or BRP or another established open system. Heck there is already a fanmade Alternity book and a fan made D20 book for 40K you could play them, they are generic and have Tau and what not. Im sorry you are not enjoying the Calixis Sector, its a shame. Im sorry FFG isnt producing what you want. I wish it was otherwise. But truthfully, Calixis is the framework of the game and setting, it is the backdrop FFG is allowed to use and it is where the game will be.

As you said, you have your own Sector, Im happy for you. But it doenst mean the existing material isnt good, is irrelavent or is the by product of FFG not being concerned with 40K expansion and only interested in Calixis.

Id love to see Commissars, Space Marines and a Sabbat Worlds Campaign Guide. Id love to see a generic 40K RPG rule book and Xenos/Malleus Manual, but truth be told Id rather get a 3 part adventure cycle supplementing the game then nothing at all.

Remember, GW was more then willing the axe the entire game. Give FFG some props.

Peacekeeper_b said:

First, I won't buy them, but I would RATHER have seen the time and money spent elsewhere. However, now that I hear it's GW's fault, well, not shocked.

I didn't say I'd have to write an entire system, i just don't follow the line of reasoning called "you can just write it yourself"

And the last thing, true that, point struck me hard and clean. I was one of those peeps waiting from the first whisper of a release, watching the game be pushed, what, a year an a half before release?

All I'm doing is voicing a different opinion than yours. No need to get all "experienced and hard-assed" on me.

Endar said:

Well I'm with Peacekeeper on this one. Short of Roleplaying stats for a few common aliens, you have everything you need in the books. You have Eldar and Orcs at the least, and you have in the GM guide a outline on creating alien species, which is a fairly cheap way to create all you want.

Course what I hear is "I want I want and I want it now" with the forgetting that this is an ongoing line, with two more lines coming out, with Rogue Trader and Deathwatch, and it is possible that your other aliens will be coming out in one of these lines. We at the very least know that Rogue Trader is moving on from the Calixis Sector, and my guess would be that Deathwatch will continue on from these places as well.

So my suggestion is be patient. 40k Roleplaying is a constantly evolving area, much like your DnD is, where every month it evolves a bit more.

I quite like Calixis, and in fact I would love FFG to write a big fat "guide to Calixis sector" suppliment. I understand where you're coming from, it would be nice if they could do more general 40k stuff, but they can't and Calixis is pretty good.

I think historical suppliments would be awesome, like: play during the Age of Apoctacy or something, that would be cool.

Count me among those who love the Calixis sector as well.

I really love that there's this focus for all the "fluff" and it helps the books they write actually sound more like stories than like a boring encyclopedia (encyclopedias get boring even when they're about fantasy and sci-fi - you might enjoy a few topics, but reading the entire thing is usually a shore).

When I read they were about to publish Creature's Anathema I thought "****, another Monster's Manual, some encyclopedia-style book with tons of different stats and short descs that translate into ways to hurt the PCs/give them loot and xp..." And instead I was very pleasantly surprised with the format FFG chose, with all of that thing I figure is what you guys call "fluff", which is what really makes me wanna go through the whole book in one go the first time I pick it up. And then later I can come back and grab the stats/equipment/etc. I might need. All the story seeds are pretty cool as well. While I doubt I'd use any of them exactly as they are presented (vague as they may be), they do get your imagination going.

Agmar_Strick said:

I'd quite like a calaxis guide as well. There are tons of planets here to work with but next to no info on most of them.

I wish they' d do a book on the horrors of the Halo Stars. For all the Imperium knows, there might be a giant empire right next door. I just finished the novel Zoe's Tale so the idea of an alien Conclave uniting to fight the Imperium sounds really cool at the moment. I wonder how the players are going to react when their foes start shouting "FREEDOM!" or "FOR THE HOMEWORLD!"?

I can understand the complaint, but if you look at all the years of DnD, up until 4E the base setting was Greyhawk. Now it was generic, but in a way so it the Calixis sector. It is one sector of the Imperium the statement "In the future there is only war" is not necessarily true. It is fairly stable from the Imperium's perspective. In addition there is a lot of good fanbased stuff out there for Tau and Necrons. I play Tau, I love the grey skinned anima guys, but they are not available and to be honest I am glad they aren't. The books released to date actually have a lot of good generic info for you to base your games on. In addition, the Forge World books also provide some excellent fluff for different parts of the Imperium. I for one hope they continue with the Calixis Sector, although I hope that they would restart the fan-submissions for the systems that Black Industries did. I am sure with Rogue Trader we will see a little bit more of the picture and maybe a new periphery of the Imperium, (although I will be fine if it is just the halo stars.) Good luck with what you are looking for.

P.S. someone in another thread asked for a book about the lost civilizations of the Calixis sector. I would love to see something like that, with info on the aliens, and human empires that were crushed during Drusus's crusade.

Salcor

Honestly I don't know why we couldn'y have some Tau as the enemies as I recall some fluff in BFG saying they had smugglers spreading their goods with the help of Rogue Traders across the Imperium. Perhaps some exotic Tau slaves for particularly debased xenophiles? What about Tau scouts and inflitrators journeying to the Calixas Sector to observe certain phenomena like the Tyrant Star? My point is that if the Eldar who the fluff states have an aversion for the Calixas Sector are given official states, it isn't so absurd to have Tau there aswell. Plus they would make excellant opponents for acolytes with all that advanced equipment and stratigem.