PDA

View Full Version : WH:40k RPG?



faceroll
2010-03-03, 11:37 PM
Are there any warhammer 40k rpgs out there? I imagine there must be. Are they any good? What sort of mechanics do they use, etc.





I know I could probably just google about it, but this is easier and more interesting.

Ryumaru
2010-03-03, 11:40 PM
Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader; quick word of warning, though. Most of the canon xenos only really get featured in Rogue Trader, and in either game, you're all pretty much in the Imperial Guard range of power. No Space Marines or Tau for you. (You all play Inquisitors of Man and in Rogue Trader... yeah, space pirates. Argggg. Xenos sighted, me hearties!)

Cheesegear
2010-03-03, 11:41 PM
Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader; quick word of warning, though. Most of the canon xenos only really get featured in Rogue Trader, and in either game, you're all pretty much in the Imperial Guard range of power.

Eldar, Tyranids and Orks appear in Dark Heresy in the book Creatures Anathema.

Nevermore
2010-03-03, 11:44 PM
I am currently running Rogue trader for two different groups. It is an AMAZING rpg

Lycan 01
2010-03-03, 11:48 PM
Dark Heresy puts you in the role of an Inquisitor, Rogue Trader makes you a space privateer, and I hear there's a Space Marine game in the works... :smallconfused:

They're all D100 games with class and career systems and a "XP Exchange" method of leveling up.

The Tygre
2010-03-04, 01:28 AM
I'm personally gonna' say, I -love- Dark Heresy. I recommend in a heartbeat... if you've got the jink for it.

satorian
2010-03-04, 01:59 AM
I played a few sessions of another Warhammer RPG about 10 years ago. Loads of fun if terribly imbalanced. The mage race that looks like Grays of alien lore had recockulous spells like fold space. Still, if anyone remembers the publisher or name of the game, do let me know.

MickJay
2010-03-04, 05:32 AM
DH is a lot of fun, if unbalanced (make sure to get the errata, available online). Rogue Trader characters start at a higher power level, the game deals with planet-scale operations and endeavours.

RagnaroksChosen
2010-03-04, 08:31 AM
I've been looking at d6 space to run a 40k game. Just because a few of my players are jaded about percentile systems(d100)[to much cuthulu, i feel dirty saying that]

they have most the stats that would work out of the box just the fluff for items and abilities needs to be reworked.

lesser_minion
2010-03-04, 08:40 AM
Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader have been mentioned - they're based on WFRP 2nd edition.

There's also Inquisitor, which would probably work fine as a starting point for an RPG, despite being ostensibly a "narrative skirmish wargame". It's pretty detailed, however.

Beyond that, you'd be looking at homebrew and universal systems. A unisystem conversion would probably be interesting.

SpikeFightwicky
2010-03-04, 09:10 AM
Dark Heresy puts you in the role of an Inquisitor [...]


Not exactly. DH puts in the role of an Inquisitor's servant / operative. You're not so much an Inquisitor as an Inquisitor's $&*#@ (and statwise, are a little to weak to be part of the retinue). However, there's a book coming out soon (Ascension?) that actually lets you stat out and play as a full blown Inquisitor.

Fulkerin
2010-03-04, 10:59 AM
Another vote for DH. And all in all, the characters can get rather powerful, although not as good as a marine/inquisitor I suppose.

Also a little warning: The books are rather light on actually describing what fluff they're talking about rather than just mentioning it. If your already familiar with 40k, not a problem.

The Glyphstone
2010-03-04, 11:03 AM
FFG is, however, apparently planning on releasing Deathwatch at some point soon, letting you play the uber-bad@$$ xeno-hunting elite Space Marines that are 40K's closest actual approximation of the Reasonable Marines.

RagnaroksChosen
2010-03-04, 11:24 AM
Not exactly. DH puts in the role of an Inquisitor's servant / operative. You're not so much an Inquisitor as an Inquisitor's $&*#@ (and statwise, are a little to weak to be part of the retinue). However, there's a book coming out soon (Ascension?) that actually lets you stat out and play as a full blown Inquisitor.


As a player who's had a good gm and a bad gm playing dark hersay. I do have to say running it as an inquisitors hench men though fun can be a bit iffy. especaily when playing with people who are hardcore into fluff. I think we each went through 2-3 characters each with the inquisitor (both gms where hardcore 40k fans) before we decided to use the rules to play adeptus astartes(escuse the spelling).

Lots of fun if you do that or just play strait gaurdsmen.

PanNarrans
2010-03-04, 11:29 AM
Dark Heresy is great fun, if only for the EIGHT PAGES of critical hit charts. So much gribbly destruction...

SpikeFightwicky
2010-03-04, 11:42 AM
As a player who's had a good gm and a bad gm playing dark hersay. I do have to say running it as an inquisitors hench men though fun can be a bit iffy. especaily when playing with people who are hardcore into fluff. I think we each went through 2-3 characters each with the inquisitor (both gms where hardcore 40k fans) before we decided to use the rules to play adeptus astartes(escuse the spelling).

Lots of fun if you do that or just play strait gaurdsmen.

Yeah, it's a tad on the difficult side to do things 'Inquisitor's Lackey' style. As a first rank Guardsman (or any class), you're REALLY bad at doing anything (less than 50% chance to succeed just about every role). We switched to Rogue Trader when that came out and it's been very fun so far. You get a more 40K-ish feel in the sense that your character is quite powerful. I wouldn't mind trying an Imperial Guard version (many of the "classes" are part of the IG army). I felt in RT that I could actually back up my threats, where I desperately tried to find ways to resolves situations without rolling in DH.

lyko555
2010-03-04, 01:27 PM
Actually there is a player hombrew out there that sucsessfuly integrates playing space marines.
On another note the game is awsome but gritty

SpikeFightwicky
2010-03-04, 01:33 PM
On another note the game is awsome but gritty

This is 40K... Would it really be any other way?

RagnaroksChosen
2010-03-04, 01:33 PM
Actually there is a player hombrew out there that sucsessfuly integrates playing space marines.
On another note the game is awsome but gritty

Ya in one of our games the death toll put cuthulu to shame... and the gm wasn't even trying...

Tyndmyr
2010-03-04, 01:38 PM
One of the (slow moving) projects of mine is a 40k d20 RPG. Forum link's in sig, I really need to do an xenos update here soonly.

Lycan 01
2010-03-04, 02:10 PM
I've only had one player die in Dark Heresy, and that was because another player turned traitor and set off the contingency bomb I installed in the base of the Psyker's skull. :smalleek:

Gamgee
2010-03-04, 04:04 PM
Warhammer 200k. Basic Guardsmen of the Empire of Transcended Mankind wield the ever cheap, but effective quark blasters. Guns which created a super heated bubble of plasma at 7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit, and working on x-ray wave length. Capable of being directed any distance for instant death. Powered by qusar batteries they are mass produced for the endless cloned space marine grunts of the empire. The weapons are ineffective unless used en mass against the Xenos that threaten the mighty empire though.

Yea, I had a lot of time to think about this. :P

Lycan 01
2010-03-04, 04:09 PM
Wut? :smallconfused:

Talkkno
2010-03-04, 06:41 PM
Yeah, it's a tad on the difficult side to do things 'Inquisitor's Lackey' style. As a first rank Guardsman (or any class), you're REALLY bad at doing anything (less than 50% chance to succeed just about every role). We switched to Rogue Trader when that came out and it's been very fun so far. You get a more 40K-ish feel in the sense that your character is quite powerful. I wouldn't mind trying an Imperial Guard version (many of the "classes" are part of the IG army). I felt in RT that I could actually back up my threats, where I desperately tried to find ways to resolves situations without rolling in DH.

Your DM isn't giving out enough bonus to rolls then, more then half the rolls in published adventures are +10 or more bonus.

Volkov
2010-03-04, 06:47 PM
You have one of two options, use the existing games, Dark Heresy, Rogue trader, and soon, Death watch. Or take the fluff of warhammer and put it into a different system such as 3.5 D20 (4e is less homebrew friendly than 3.5) GURPS, D6, Exalted, or whatever.

The former is much easier, but the games are very Imperium focused, so if you want to play a hive tyrant, you sir are SOoL.

D Knight
2010-03-04, 08:45 PM
Dark Heresy is a ,well for lack of better term, bloody fun RPG. the first guy got his leg chopped off and then turned into a serverter. I as of yet have not played Rogue Trader but it was made but the same people so it will be fun. On a side note is there anyone on the forms running a RT game.

faceroll
2010-03-04, 11:44 PM
Not exactly. DH puts in the role of an Inquisitor's servant / operative. You're not so much an Inquisitor as an Inquisitor's $&*#@ (and statwise, are a little to weak to be part of the retinue). However, there's a book coming out soon (Ascension?) that actually lets you stat out and play as a full blown Inquisitor.

I have an idea for a campaign I want to run where a group of marine scouts and some elite guardsman (sykers and whatever) explore a spacehulk infested by chaos orcs (you know, what if the orcs were also into chaos? wouldnt that be scary!?) in Tau controlled space. I could use d20modern or GURPS, but I don't know GURPS well enough to do an adaptation, and I don't know enough lore to really put it all together good.

It'd be like Aliens meets the Warp.


FFG is, however, apparently planning on releasing Deathwatch at some point soon, letting you play the uber-bad@$$ xeno-hunting elite Space Marines that are 40K's closest actual approximation of the Reasonable Marines.

Hmmm, that could also be really cool, too. I'll have to keep an eye out for that.


One of the (slow moving) projects of mine is a 40k d20 RPG. Forum link's in sig, I really need to do an xenos update here soonly.

Sweet, I'll check that out.