Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (PC) - Turn-Based CRPG

[Zealot]

So what is Warhammer exactly? Is there any lore I can read about?

[Zetanio]

Warhammer 40k is a tabletop wargame played with miniatures from the late 80's. The best description of the setting is actually on Wikipedia now that 1d4chan has died again for the 10th time.

Setting

Most Warhammer 40,000 fiction is set around the turn of the 42nd millennium (about 39,000 years in the future). Although Warhammer 40,000 is mostly a science-fiction setting, it adapts a number of tropes from fantasy fiction, such as magic, supernatural beings, daemonic possession, and fantasy races such as orcs and elves; "psykers" fill the role of wizards in the setting. The setting of this game inherits many fantasy tropes from Warhammer Fantasy (a similar wargame from Games Workshop), and by extension from Dungeons & Dragons. Games Workshop used to make miniature models for use in Dungeons & Dragons, and Warhammer Fantasy was originally meant to encourage customers to buy more of their miniature models. Warhammer 40,000 was originally conceived as a science-fiction spin-off of Warhammer Fantasy. Although the games share some characters and tropes, their settings are separate.

The setting of Warhammer 40,000 is violent and pessimistic. It depicts a future where human scientific and social progress have ceased, and human civilisation is in a state of total war with hostile alien races and occult forces. It is a setting where the supernatural exists, is powerful and is usually untrustworthy if not outright malevolent. There are effectively no benevolent gods or spirits in the cosmos, only daemons and evil gods, and the cults dedicated to them are proliferating. In the long run, the Imperium of Man cannot hope to defeat its enemies, so the heroes of the Imperium are not fighting for a brighter future but "raging against the dying of the light".[18] Through constant sacrifice and toil, the Imperium delays its inevitable doom. The tone of the game's setting, exemplified by its slogan "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war", shaped the "grimdark" subgenre of science fiction, which is particularly amoral, dystopian or violent.[19]

As the setting is based on a wargame, the spin-off novels and comic books are mostly war dramas with protagonists who are usually warriors of some sort, the most popular being the Space Marines. The Imperium is in a state of total war. All its worlds, if not warzones themselves, are heavily burdened by wartime taxation and conscription.[20] Entire worlds are dedicated to industrial production, and therefore dead and polluted worlds where people barely survive, growing crops and livestock (which may be as dangerous as enemies of the Imperium) or defending a certain point of space (therefore turned into giant fortresses where every man, woman and child are dedicated to defending the world).

The source of magic in the setting is a parallel universe of supernatural energy known as "the Warp". All living creatures with souls are tied to the Warp, but certain individuals called "psykers" have an especially strong link and can manipulate the Warp's energy to work magic. Psykers are generally feared and mistrusted by humans. Psykers may possess many dangerous abilities such as mind control, clairvoyance, and pyrokinesis. Moreover, the Warp is full of predatory creatures that may use a psyker's link to the Warp as a conduit by which to invade realspace. But for all the dangers that psykers pose, human civilisation cannot do without them: their telepathic powers provide faster-than-light communication and on the battlefield, they are the best counter to enemy psykers. For this reason, the Imperium rounds up any psykers it finds and trains them to control their abilities and resist Warp predators. Those who fail or reject this training are executed for the safety of all. Those who pass their training are pressed into life-long servitude to the state and are closely monitored for misconduct and spiritual corruption.[21]

[Zetanio]

There is a fucking shitballs metric ton of lore, half of which is no longer cannon.

The Horus Heresy books do a pretty good job of introducing some of the major players and the Emperor/general universe at large.

[Zetanio]

All you really need to know is that you support the Imperium and the Emperor is a living(?) gawd that you should be worshiping but not as a god.

[Zealot]

I remember playing a Warhammer RTS game for SNES but it was a medieval fantasy setting and also impossible to beat. I am intrigued by this dark and malevolent future.

[Zetanio]

i don't know that they ever released anything on SNES. Definitely PS1 and PC though

[Zealot]

That PS1 game is what I'm thinking of, I looked it up. Shadow of the Horned Rat.

[Qalbert]

[Drai]

also note that Orks are not to be confused with Orcs, one is a fantasy creature, the other is an evolved fungus that spread via spores, the also FIGHT FOR GORK AND MORK!!! WAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!

[Andalusian girls]

i thought you was joking at first Zels asking if there's any lore you can read about. dozens of games, hundreds of novels, giant codex lore dumps for every faction with each fresh edition, it's one of the densest, most lore-heavy settings in the world entire at the moment. dangerous rabbit hole.

once i was like you, merely intrigued by a grim and malevolent future, now i am reading through 63 books to conclude the pivotal prequel event that takes place 11,000 years prior to the present setting. tread carefully.

[Cyn]

That PS1 game is what I'm thinking of, I looked it up. Shadow of the Horned Rat.

Shadow of the Horned Rat was fucking brutal.

[Zetanio]

also note that Orks are not to be confused with Orcs, one is a fantasy creature, the other is an evolved fungus that spread via spores, the also FIGHT FOR GORK AND MORK!!! WAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!

MORE YELLOW MEAN MORE BOOM! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

i thought you was joking at first Zels asking if there's any lore you can read about. dozens of games, hundreds of novels, giant codex lore dumps for every faction with each fresh edition, it's one of the densest, most lore-heavy settings in the world entire at the moment. dangerous rabbit hole.

once i was like you, merely intrigued by a grim and malevolent future, now i am reading through 63 books to conclude the pivotal prequel event that takes place 11,000 years prior to the present setting. tread carefully.

that's a real fuckin rollercoaster of a reading ride.

[Zealot]

Now decidedly unsure if that makes me more or less interested.

Sent from my SM-N981U using Tapatalk

[Andalusian girls]

under few circumstances should you begin with the Horus Heresy series, it's kind of the ultimate test of 40K lore nerdery and the biggest series reading commitment most anyone will make in their lives. that said it fucks and it's where i began books-wise, but i already had a solid grounding from vidya and wiki skimming.

there's a lot of lore youtubers you can give a listen while doing other shit like Luetin, Baldermort, Majorkill are all fun enough, and/or could dive into the standard reading entry points of Eisenhorn, Gaunt's Ghosts, Ciaphas Cain, whichever most grabs your fancy.

[Odesseiron]

Okay I've been looking at this game a while. Pathfinder never really connected with me, but I'd be will to give this a go.

I know Warhammer lore goes deep, but for this game specifically is it like "You need to know ABC XYZ or you're fucked" or can you enjoy the story without having spending the rest of your life reading everything about it?

I also tend to wait on this devs games because they're buggy as fuck for the first year. But I'm more curious how much background I "need" on it.

[Andalusian girls]

nah you don't really needa know shit, there are frequent little lore pop-ups in game that will give you the quick and dirty run-down of all relevant business.

just go in knowing you're a conquistador of a space-faring human empire and aliens are mean and demons exist and you good

[Zetanio]

yeah the compendium popups will fill in 90% of the blanks. Have a very basic "This is a grim dark setting and the universe is generally not amazing" understanding going in and you're money.

[Meresgi]

These video series are amazing lol

[6souls]