Breaking into Warhammer 40 K

[PallentisLunam]

Okay, I have the books (40k, Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, Black Crusade, and Only War), I have interested friends. Where the hell do I start?

Some background: I am a D&D gamer. Mostly 3.5 and 5th. Several of my friends are more comfortable in 4e and only one of us has ever played Warhammer before. I have read the relevant parts of the 40k rulebook since I figured it would serve as a good base but I'm at a total loss for how to transition into a 40k game or which one would be easiest to start with.

[GrayDeath]

My first go would be to read some 40k novels.
See which ones you like best and choose the splat accordingly (if you love Horus heresy go Marine, if Gaunts Ghosts is more to your liking go only War etc).

Generally speaking (as the System is ... a bit wonky) where you stand in the fluff is far more important for an enjoyeable 40k experiance than D&D. :)

[PallentisLunam]

Okay.

What do you mean by the system being wonky though?

[GrayDeath]

Well aside from the fact that its a very old style D100 System that requires you to assign MASSIVE amounts of bonuses (as the +/-0 is defined as "immediate, stressful action" or somesuch) if you want your players to achieve anything at all, its also on one hand really deadly, on the other however starting characters tend to be quite ... bad at most things unless aforementioned -20 or more bonus to the target number is assigned.
Gritty and low power Characters in an insane GothicWarTOrn Galaxy. ^^

Its a simple case of system being REALLY unfit for fluff".
They avoided it a bit with the massively powered-up SM`s but for the rest....expect to die early and often. ;)

Thats what happens if you slap a system that works perfectly well in a low power Horror Setting (Call of Cthulhu) to ... just about anything else, sadly.

[eru001]

Read some of the novels to get a feel for the universe, then pick a spot that interests you to use as your starting point.

I recommend either the space wolves or Caiaphas Cain novels as good starting points as they both explain the universe in ways that are helpful to those unfamiliar with it. (and are also great stories.

[Beleriphon]

Well aside from the fact that its a very old style D100 System that requires you to assign MASSIVE amounts of bonuses (as the +/-0 is defined as "immediate, stressful action" or somesuch) if you want your players to achieve anything at all, its also on one hand really deadly, on the other however starting characters tend to be quite ... bad at most things unless aforementioned -20 or more bonus to the target number is assigned.
Gritty and low power Characters in an insane GothicWarTOrn Galaxy. ^^

Its a simple case of system being REALLY unfit for fluff".
They avoided it a bit with the massively powered-up SM`s but for the rest....expect to die early and often. ;)

Thats what happens if you slap a system that works perfectly well in a low power Horror Setting (Call of Cthulhu) to ... just about anything else, sadly.

In fairness that's basically how it works in universe. Marines curb stomp things and guardmen die by the billions.

[Geddy2112]

They avoided it a bit with the massively powered-up SM`s but for the rest....expect to die early and often. ;)

I second this, and would suggest a Deathwatch one shot to get your feet wet. You are chosen among space marines(who manage to live and win in a universe where everything dies fast and horrible), and it is a nice "here is your stuff, go kill stuff cause you are the best" with plenty of grimdark.

In addition to reading the novels, you can probably find older versions of the respective army codexes for dirt cheap. They are outdated rules, but each codex has a TON of fluff and most cover not only the army in question, but how they relate to others. Space marines, eldar, tyranids, orks, and chaos are the bread and butter of the 40k universe. Then go from there.

[Beleriphon]

In addition to reading the novels, you can probably find older versions of the respective army codexes for dirt cheap. They are outdated rules, but each codex has a TON of fluff and most cover not only the army in question, but how they relate to others. Space marines, eldar, tyranids, orks, and chaos are the bread and butter of the 40k universe. Then go from there.

I suggest going Tau. Nothing beats mind-controlling-space-hippie-communist.

[GrayDeath]

I second this, and would suggest a Deathwatch one shot to get your feet wet. You are chosen among space marines(who manage to live and win in a universe where everything dies fast and horrible), and it is a nice "here is your stuff, go kill stuff cause you are the best" with plenty of grimdark.

In addition to reading the novels, you can probably find older versions of the respective army codexes for dirt cheap. They are outdated rules, but each codex has a TON of fluff and most cover not only the army in question, but how they relate to others. Space marines, eldar, tyranids, orks, and chaos are the bread and butter of the 40k universe. Then go from there.

I second this and suggest reading the first 3 Horus heresy Books (for simple Greatness of the Story), as well as ... jsut about any "Later Chaos" legion Novel, especially A Thousand Sons (in my eye incredibly well made split between "arguably nice guys" and the ultimate price of hubris.

Also, the Codices of third should be best regarding the compromise between fluff and price (second are best fluffwise overall but alst time I looked they were REALLY expensive).

Ignore just about anything 5th onward fluffwise, its gotten oversimplified sadly....

[PallentisLunam]

Thanks everybody.

Looks like I've got a trip to Half-Priced Books in my future.

[Chijinda]

For Deathwatch, there's Space Marine novels by the truckload. Although I would recommend the novel "Deathwatch" as a pretty good one that doesn't wank Space Marines TOO hard, while still portraying them as the respectable badasses that they are.


If you're looking into Dark Heresy, I highly recommend the Eisenhorn trilogy.


As for Only War, I'm gonna go against the grain and say Ciaphas Cain probably isn't the best example, as Cain is a little too.... "antick-y" for the average 40k Commissar. Cain tends to be more of the exception than the rule. I'd be more inclined to point you in the general direction of the "Last Chancers" novel. True that's a Penal Legion, but it had much more of an Imperial Guard feel to it than Cain's exploits, imho.

[PallentisLunam]

Gah! So much google-fu

[Gtdead]

If you like video games, playing the campaign of Dawn of War games is a great way to get the feel of the universe.

[PallentisLunam]

Actually playing Warhammer 40K Space Marine is what got me hooked on wanting to play in the first place

[Grim Portent]

Actually playing Warhammer 40K Space Marine is what got me hooked on wanting to play in the first place

In that case I'd suggest you do start with Deathwatch and have Orks be the primary antagonists for your initial game. Orks are a nice mix of lighthearted and grim, which is good for an initial foray into 40k, and you already have a basic grounding in what they're like from Space Marine.

A simple plot based around a Deathwatch Kill Team helping the Imperial Guard cripple an Orkish WAAAGH!!! by destroying/sabotaging things like fuel refineries, shipyards and munitions factories, climaxing with assassinating the Ork Warboss could be a fun and simple start to 40k RPing.

[The Glyphstone]

In that case I'd suggest you do start with Deathwatch and have Orks be the primary antagonists for your initial game. Orks are a nice mix of lighthearted and grim, which is good for an initial foray into 40k, and you already have a basic grounding in what they're like from Space Marine.

A simple plot based around a Deathwatch Kill Team helping the Imperial Guard cripple an Orkish WAAAGH!!! by destroying/sabotaging things like fuel refineries, shipyards and munitions factories, climaxing with assassinating the Ork Warboss could be a fun and simple start to 40k RPing.

This. Though I very strongly suggest getting the splatbook Rites of Battle alongside the Deathwatch core, and immediately implementing the revised weapon stats printed there; they tone down weapon damage across the board and make the game a far bit less like rocket tag. Makes combat more balanced, and really gives you the feel of a Marine just wading through enemy fire and dishing it out rather than praying a shot misses or hits.

[PallentisLunam]

Thanks again everybody. This has all been a big help

[ZamielVanWeber]

Warning: the ALL GRIMDARK ALL THE TIME setting of Warhammer 40k can make it difficult to take seriously, so try not to make it too serious or you may swing around into goofy.

[PallentisLunam]

Avoid caricatures. Got it.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Just let some levity in at times. Otherwise you may suffer an incident similar to the time my players accidentally turned a Chapel to the Emperor into a discotheque.

[The Glyphstone]

And from a thematic point, those matter. Allowing the occasional moment of levity or compassion makes the grimdark everywhere else stand out that much better.

[PallentisLunam]

Of course, a story always needs a splash of contrast.

I'm grinding my way through the Deathwatch Core Rulebook as we type.

[EccentricCircle]

Each game line does something slightly different. So its worth bearing in mind that a deathwatch game will be very different to a rogue trader game and so on.

Playing as the Imperial guard means that the game will be a war movie that gradually devolves into a horror movie as the plot goes on and you move from fighting things like Orks to facing Chaos, Necrons and Tyranids. You start out with a mission or an objective, but everything goes to hell, and you end up realizing that you're in a call of cthulhu type setting rather than a straightforward military sci fi 'verse.

This gets even more extreme in Dark Heresy games, where the whole point is to investigate the nasty horror side of things. For that sort of game maybe write a murder mystery or investigation type game, which will quickly spiral out of control the more the players learn about whoever you choose to really be behind it.

Rogue Trader has been described as Mirror Universe Star Trek taken up to eleven. You still in the grimdark setting of 40K, but luckly you're rich and powerful, and thus a lot of the classic adventuring tropes simply don't apply to you. You can absolutely send squads of soldiers to do your dungeon crawling for you, while you sit around drinking brandy in your ships observation lounge. Your mission is basically to exploit and oppress the planets you discover, so you might get embroiled in politics and intrigue on a regular basis.

[Anonymouswizard]

Right, something that should be mentioned, at least in Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader, probably Only War as well, is that it leans towards Combat As War. Unless you are in Power Armour and they are using pistols (not entirely unreasonable in Rogue Trader) or a Space Marine you will want to seek cover, aim your guns, use autofire, use grenades, pray that they don't have more men than you, keep an escape route open, pray that you don't run out of ammo, stay in cover, make sure that the Adept hasn't gone down, drag the bleeding out Adept into cover to be patched up, stay far away from the psyker, and stay in cover. Although part of the setting limits Rogue Trader characters from actually deploying their ground forces regularly (a mixture between needing to make sure you are still on top and guarding the ship), there are cases where sending down a dropship of your men is the right call in a Rogue Trader campaign, and an extra 10 or 20 guys as guards should generally be fine.

[DarkestKnight]

I first got into 40k RPGs with Rogue Trader (have since joined an Only War campaign) and found it to be a nice midpoint in the power gradient. Being a sanctioned trader/merchant/pirate/heretic/criminal you get access to more of the neat tech/weapons options in the universe and you get to have a bit of say with what you are doing in long term plans. I've read up on the deathwatch and space marine systems and I'm not sure I like them from a PC standpoint. I'd rather play Rogue Trader (and below in terms of status E.G: Imperial Guard) because that really embraces the "GRIM-DARK": There are millions of people like me, who will take my place when I die, why should I be special?

In terms of atmosphere the GM for the Rogue Trader campaign did a lot of extra work behind the scenes to build up the world (all the players were already quite familiar with tabletop and extra lore) such has having Lictors show up as part of being Hallucinogen-ated merely because all of the players knew exactly how frightening they are. If the other players are as 40k literate you can really have some fun with this. (In terms of things going sideways we ended up playing peekaboo with corrupted Banshees and Warp Spiders on a haunted Craftworld. Joys.)

As for the Only War system I probably prefer it over Rogue Trader simply because of how the Talent System is handled (Less class based, more point buy) and it has smoothed out some of the hiccups in Rogue Trader (typos, missing references, etc).

I haven't run a 40k game, but hopefully a player's perspective helps.

[Malak'ai]

I second this and suggest reading the first 3 Horus heresy Books (for simple Greatness of the Story), as well as ... jsut about any "Later Chaos" legion Novel, especially A Thousand Sons (in my eye incredibly well made split between "arguably nice guys" and the ultimate price of hubris.

Also, the Codices of third should be best regarding the compromise between fluff and price (second are best fluffwise overall but alst time I looked they were REALLY expensive).

Ignore just about anything 5th onward fluffwise, its gotten oversimplified sadly....

Also Matt Ward-ified which means most of it is a complete load of steaming horse... Well... You know.

If you're wanting to learn about the lore of the 40K Universe, I'd suggest you look at these two YouTube channels.

Vaults Of Terra Mainly focuses on the Imperium and Space Marines... Also has a Roll20 Dark Heresy streaming on Steam (and then put on YouTube) going on right now as well.

Arch Warhammer More fluff on the Imperium, a little more indepth, but a lot less of them.

I know quite a bit about the Dark Angels, especially from 2nd ed time. They were one of my armies, the other being Eldar if you're wanting to discuss it, just remember, It's been about 16-17 years since I read the Codex, so some things may be a little fuzzy .