Well, FFG might have to re-imagine the Eldar to make them playable especially if they were originally not intended to be so.

They don't have to. In the 40k universe, the stamp on humanity is "Sucks to be you!". FFG can just play this card and make it clear that being a human is not a good thing when your companions are people like the ancient Eldar. When done right, this could be actually even more interesting than a "balanced" race selection.

Chances are that the Eldar have some major flaw somewhere. It could be their underestimation of humanity by way of their ego or something.

I don't know where I've seen it originally, but in some fan-made expansion the Eldar has this Trait called Civilization Bound that gives him/her penalties when he/she is out in the wilderness. That is actually pretty cool.

In the hypothetical Eldar RPG, each player would presumably be from the same Craftworld. Therefore, I think "homeworld" selection would be more like regiment creation in Only War. Players would choose things like the size of their Craftworld, military strengths, cultural quirks, and any inherent weaknesses (ex. Iyanden has a very small population because it was invaded/boarded by the Tyrannids).

This game would also show the "inscrutable, perfidious xenos" in a new light. The reason the Imperium doesn't understand the Eldar is because humanity is so short-lived and unaware of other events in the galaxy. They might not understand why a group of Eldar might land on a random world, slaughter a single village, and leave immediately, so they view them as alien and incomprehensible. On the other hand, the Eldar would pity those humans for lack of foresight -- the Farseer had a vision telling him that one small boy in that village would become an Imperial Navy Admiral before turning to Chaos, setting in motion a chain of events that would doom the Craftworld to destruction. I think it would be really cool to see things from the aliens' point of view.

I read some material a while back (can't remember where) which inspired me to come up with a grand plan for the Universe. In the beginning there would have been essentially two races of xenos that created all of the other xenos races including humanity. I believe much of this is already in 40k lore but I was thinking of expanding upon it.

The evil race would have gone on to eventually create the Necrons and the goodly race would have created all other xenos building in a particular function to them so that they have a specific purpose within the Universe. This master race would then spend hundreds if not thousands of years teaching this xenos species what their role was that they needed to serve.

Then came humanity, the youngest of the xenos species but there was a problem. The evil of the two master races found a way to deal a proverbial deathblow to the goodly master race and so humanity never came to know it's parent or it's purpose within the Universe. This leads humanity to "go against the grain" as far as other xenos are concerned which causes all kinds of problems of course.

The two races would be the old ones (either made or uplifted the Eldar and orks) and the necrontyr (later the necrons due to the intervention of C'tan).

The two races would be the old ones (either made or uplifted the Eldar and orks) and the necrontyr (later the necrons due to the intervention of C'tan).

Yes, that is it! Thanks for the refresher.

I think if we really see what is going on here, the 40k system down the road could really become more tolerant of other xenos especially if humanity were to ever learn the truth of the matter. This would also mean that the Eldar would have to step it up a notch, grow up a bit, and take over the mantle that the Old Ones left behind.

It would be nice to have a supplement or game system that is xenos based during this time period.

I think an Eldar game could work better than a human game. For the first time ever having players try to game the system is just them showing how long sighted they are. I get that some of the stuff power gamers might do is hard to justify but the Eldar path system explains it better than being human could.

Clearly there is only one real answer to this question...

Warhammer 40,000: Only WAAAGH!

An own Eldar game line would be too much.

It would be best to make an Eldar Standalone "Core Rulebook" without any other supplements.

In this rulebook, options should be offered to:

- play an all-Eldar group

- play an Eldar in DH2

- play an Eldar in RT

C'Tan Shard: The RPG.

I still think that role-playing Jews working for the Gestapo, which is what Eldar in DH would be, is kind of a no-go-to place.

WH40K - Mid Hive Crisis RPG

As an citizen living in the Under- and/or Mid-Hive of an gigantic Hive City you and your friends struggle and try to survive the grim and gritty everyday life in the Imperium.

Beware the Inquisition!

Some careers: Scum Fixer, Clean Servitor, Mail-Servitor, Servitor Mechanic, Gambler, Once I've seen an Astartes Pretender (can climb the cereers to Now-I-have-really-seen-One-Career), Hot-Dog-and-Rat Seller, Hive Mutant and Much More)

I would like to see the Men of Iron as playable characters. An ancient robot who can still remember the golden age of mankind would be quite an addition to any Inquisitor's warband !

'Cept that problem of killing their opressors, mankind. Note, this was before they got xenophobic and such

I demand, DEMAND, that Call of Cthulhu include playable Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath!

I have to wonder how much stock FFG put in this brand anymore. Black Crusade's support dried up incredibly fast, Only War hasn't had much to speak of either, and this beta was handled pretty lazily. I wouldn't be surprised if the 40kRPG line dies out for a while if DH2e doesn't sell pretty well.

The tabletop 40k is also waning in popularity (and in quality too IMHO) so for one I could understand FFG's lack of interest in continuing the 40kRPG line.

I wouldn't be surprised if the 'a-team' has been shifted onto Edge of the Empire development. Star Wars is more of a lucrative IP than 40k, to be sure. And the differing levels of attention and care paid to DH2e vs EotE is pretty damning.

I wouldn't be surprised if the 'a-team' has been shifted onto Edge of the Empire development. Star Wars is more of a lucrative IP than 40k, to be sure. And the differing levels of attention and care paid to DH2e vs EotE is pretty damning.

You wouldn't at all be surprised. Because it's true. Take a look at Edge of the Empire's credits.

In the interest of being fair...

FFG have the fortune of EotE being a refined version of the mechanics used in WHFRP3, whereas the DH2e beta v1 included attempts to integrate mechanics from EotE and completely divergent RoF/RoA and Injury mechanics, and other things that had no prior test bed. FFG also have some very big names from current and previous SW RPG contributors and LFL consultants chipping in to help. No one at GW seems to be willing to put their name on anything in the newest 40K RPG aside from IP management credits...

Meanwhile the original DH corebooks has people like Dan Abnett, John Blanche and Rick Priestly in the credits. Kind of a shame how things have changed/

As always; FFG must be willing to PAY these big authors for their time and use of their names. That's undoubtedly part of the problem.

Okay, I won't say that those three aren't good, far from it . But BIG? Compared to who? What they write is hardly mainstream.

IT does seem odd that GW doesn't want to help their franchise grow on the RPG market, but when you play the tabletop games you get used to them doing nonsensical stuff.

Dan Abnett wrote some fairly highly regarded comics for Marvel. I guess they're making a movie or something.

IT does seem odd that GW doesn't want to help their franchise grow on the RPG market, but when you play the tabletop games you get used to them doing nonsensical stuff.

True that. I was hopeful that the 'surprise' announcement a couple months ago that GW was experiencing a big drop in sales would shock them out of their current direction, and inspire them to look at what worked in the past as a template for how to pull out of their downward spiral. But no- they are just 'doubling down' on bad ideas while proudly refusing to listen to any consumer feedback. " White Dwarf sales are in the toilet? That can't possibly be because of our content, so it must be because of the size of the magazine. Brilliant! Just change the size, keep the content as is (nothing but ads for upcoming minis and one battle report), and sales are sure to take off!" No , say the fans, we stopped buying WD because it no longer contains any useful information. The old issues that we loved collecting had all kinds of articles covering different aspects of the WH/40K settings- that's what we want! "I-can't-hear-you-I-am-always-right-I'm-a-designer-you-are-a-peasant-la-la-la-la..." GW's current 'head-up-their-butt-ness' is starting to remind me of the dying days of TSR- another industry giant which, convinced that its dominance in the market would be perpetual, refused to adapt to an environment with growing competition and eventually went bankrupt...

IT does seem odd that GW doesn't want to help their franchise grow on the RPG market, but when you play the tabletop games you get used to them doing nonsensical stuff.

Well, let's keep in mind that this is a question that is several years old - ever since Games Workshop closed down Black Industries and hung out Dark Heresy to dry. If FFG hadn't negotiated licensed continuation, the whole line would have ended right there. That probably speaks volumes.

I fear I have to agree regarding GW's grasp on the business side. I don't know how much of this is influenced by investor pressure, but there have been so many missed chances over the past years ... :/