Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[mediocrepoet]

Warhammer fantasy is indistinguishable from some other random fantasy setting. Doesn't mean it's bad. Just much more generic.

You've got it backwards. The random fantasy settings are indistinguishable from Warhammer fantasy.

Warhammer isn't unoriginal because it did it when it was still original.

~3 decades after LotR
~1 decade after forgotten realms

meh.

I think you can lay a lot of criticisms at the feet of WHF, but comparing it to Forgotten Realms? Really?

I suppose it depends on what you mean, exactly, but the Old World has never felt even remotely similar to Faerun to me. Between monsters like trolls that can dissolve you and/or your weapons and armour in their stomach acid if you pierce their bellies and Chaos corrupting and mutating people, including the nobility who might use wigs and masks to conceal it, inquisitors and witch hunters purging people, etc. it wasn't really going for the FR or Tolkien style thing.

WHF is a pretty dark setting that hadn't quite gotten as silly as 40k. 40k was a gonzo spin off that just pushed everything to 11 so you could have the Space Imperium fighting the Space elves and Space orkz. My main takeaway from reading WHF TTRPG stuff is that the world is screwed and it's more about how long you can delay the inevitable than actually winning. I'd say that if I was going to compare it to a D&D campaign setting, I'd probably compare it to something like Midnight which was a third party setting that basically took LOTR and assumed that Sauron won and went into what the world is like after that.

 

[Aarwolf]

btw looked party members. why all human girls except albino mutant navigator are some sort of black and brown mystery meat?

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only Netflix adaptations.

The Emperor protects!

 

[fantadomat]

You were implying the west could only remake stuff I was asking what Bulgars are making/have made. Of course you delve straight into your fantasies.

Ahh we have our own culture and we keep it for ourself,we don't sell it like a cheap harlot like you westoids. I really don't give two shits if you know or not about shit we had made. I am not here to educate your ignorant westoid arse,if you really want to know you could just google that shit up and be done with it.

 

[Alpharius]

You could do that "hopeless last stand" thingy even in 40k warhammer

point is it's really hopeless. no astartes drop pods in the last minute.

There's always hope, even without astartes. Age of strife provides a huge bag of deus ex machina endings.

See also: emperor of mankind.

I haven't kept up with WHF in ages. But I kinda/sorta know what Age of Sigmar is. Did they introduce the 40k Emperor in it?

I dunno alot about Age of Sigmar, the premise never interested me alot. Has nothing to do with W40k though, or Age of Strife. Age of Sigmar is a separate setting? Or some sort of offshoot of Warhammer fantasy? I don't remember the specifics.

But yes, the Emperor took over Terra in the Age of Strife (though he may have been alive much longer), which kinda marks the end of that age.

Oh I was confusing Age of Strife with Age of Sigmar. Thanks for clarifying.

Yeah, it's some sort of reboot of WHF that brought in the end times and made it more edgy or something. I think I read that they were trying to draw more interest / the 40k crowd into buying WHF stuff as well and instead didn't, but irritated people who were into WHF, so GW just sort of screwed themselves with it.

Age of sigmar is like chaos won but then all the gods(including sigmar, ork, scaven, elven, dwarf, nehekara gods, Nagash etc. and ofc chaos gods too) teleported everybody to the new worlds or some shit like that. The end times books and some of the rest of the warhammer fantasy books were not that bad, but the age of sigmar ones that i've read were absolute shit.
There is like a bunch of worlds, some of them "homeworlds" of the races (as in warhammer 40k planet replacements) and the gods may teleport armies between them to fight. There are also these sigmar warriors like fantasy space marines.
Something like that, didn't read too much of it and likely never will.

 

[Fedora Master]

The end times books were not that bad

Yes they were

 

[rusty_shackleford]

nearly every single novel written based on tabletop RPG material is absolutely terrible

 

[Cryomancer]

~3 decades after LotR
~1 decade after forgotten realms

meh.

In LotR and Forgotten realms, you would never have things like an Witch Hunter using powerful blackpowder weapons hunting an Wizard which is unaffiliated with the colleges of magic as magic is too dangerous and casters far more specialized and after blasting the Wizard's head, hunting chaos cultists which suffered mutations.

• The supernatural(not only magic) is vastly different
• The tech level is different
• The state organizations in most places is different
• The threats are different
• Religions and cultures are different
• Fantasy races are extremely different
• The IRL inspirations are different. The empire is clearly inspired by Germany
• (...)

And 40K is just in the distant future. Saying that WHF is like Faerun is as silly as saying that 40K Is like starfinder(shit) or Machinations of the Space Princess(great).

nearly every single novel written based on tabletop RPG material is absolutely terrible

Can someone mention good exceptions to that rule?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Can someone mention good exceptions to that rule?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Bonds

Also the basis for a goldbox game so it's a good codex book recommendation.

 

[Tyranicon]

nearly every single novel written based on tabletop RPG material is absolutely terrible

Can someone mention good exceptions to that rule?

Good books are exceedingly rare. As a general rule of thumb, ambitious writers generally want to create their own settings rather than provide content for established IPs.

IIRC, Malazan Book of the Fallen was originally created by Steven Erikson for his homebrew AD&D campaign or something. Not sure if that fits the criteria, but the worldbuilding and attention to detail in Malazan blows anything officially tied to D&D out of the water.

That being said, I'm not personally a fan, even if I respect the strength of the writing.

Can someone mention good exceptions to that rule?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Bonds

Also the basis for a goldbox game so it's a good codex book recommendation.

Ah, Jeff Grubb! To my eternal shame, once upon a time I counted myself a fan of MtG's Phyrexian/Weatherlight saga, even despite the horrible writing quality of the books. The Brother's War by Grubb is one of the better written ones. I wonder if it merits a re-read.

Unfortunately, probably not.

 

[Serus]

nearly every single novel written based on tabletop RPG material is absolutely terrible

Can someone mention good exceptions to that rule?

Good books are exceedingly rare. As a general rule of thumb, ambitious writers generally want to create their own settings rather than provide content for established IPs.

IIRC, Malazan Book of the Fallen was originally created by Steven Erikson for his homebrew AD&D campaign or something. Not sure if that fits the criteria, but the worldbuilding and attention to detail in Malazan blows anything officially tied to D&D out of the water.

That being said, I'm not personally a fan, even if I respect the strength of the writing.

Can someone mention good exceptions to that rule?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Bonds

Also the basis for a goldbox game so it's a good codex book recommendation.

Ah, Jeff Grubb! To my eternal shame, once upon a time I counted myself a fan of MtG's Phyrexian/Weatherlight saga, even despite the horrible writing quality of the books. The Brother's War by Grubb is one of the better written ones. I wonder if it merits a re-read.

Unfortunately, probably not.

Except Steven Erikson "masterpiece" is mediocre imo. At least the first tome is - haven't read more for obvious reason. It is like Black Company except with "epic" bloat and you don't have the first two good books, it goes straight to being mediocre. Fits well with the rule. Also doesn't really count even if you consider it decent.

I'd say some/few (mostly Abnett's) books in wh40k universe are ok. I was very surprised to find it. I planned to read 1 or 2 to see how bad they are but some turned out to be ok. Most are trash though, obviously. A few first Abnett's Gaunt series or the first trilogy in Horus Heresy series (later books are often trash) are decent science-fantasy. For Gaunt series it probably helps that there is little lore about emperors, gods, etc. included - just military "almost SF" but with orks and chainswords. Not even that "dark" other than the war being portrayed as nasty business. Interesting enough I haven't found anything similar in Warhammer Fantasy despite liking Fantasy p&p RPG and not WH40k.

 

[Harthwain]

A few first Abnett's Gaunt series or the first trilogy in Horus Heresy series (later books are often trash) are decent science-fantasy.

I read Horus Heresy - Horus Rising and found it to be not worth reading. First two books from his Eisenhorn trilogy are OK, but not something I would strongly recommend (suffice to say I didn't buy the last book). I am surprised it's recommended so much whenever I hear someone mentioning it. Gaunt's Ghosts is a decent series though. It's not mindblowing, just solid enough to read through.

 

[Reinhardt]

I read Horus Heresy - Horus Rising and found it to be not worth reading.

pretty much nothing about spehs mahrins worth reading. abnett's strong point is him usually writing about other things. marines should be like those 3 guys from salvation's reach - force of nature. good to have on your side, but completely alien to normal humans.

 

[Serus]

A few first Abnett's Gaunt series or the first trilogy in Horus Heresy series (later books are often trash) are decent science-fantasy.

I read Horus Heresy - Horus Rising and found it to be not worth reading. First two books from his Eisenhorn trilogy are OK, but not something I would strongly recommend (suffice to say I didn't buy the last book). I am surprised it's recommended so much whenever I hear someone mentioning it. Gaunt's Ghosts is a decent series though. It's not mindblowing, just solid enough to read through.

I also think Eisenhorn trilogy is mediocre. Some nice ideas but it reads strictly as something that is only meant for fan(boy)s of the setting while Gaunt's Ghosts, if they were made in an original setting, could perhaps be readable (and sell) on their own. Of curse Gaunt's series is not "mindblowing". It is still only a book series based on a game, p&p rpg on not.

 

[Tyranicon]

Obligatory shoutout for the Ciaphas Cain books. Not great by any means, but they're lightweight, comedic and schlocky like the old sci-fi books of the 60s. I believe the author directly compared them to Lensman or something.

I think the Horus Heresy books are very dudebro. Whether that's good or not is up to your tolerance for how "badass" and "dramatic" spess marhines are.

 

[Reinhardt]

Obligatory shoutout for the Ciaphas Cain books.

they declined hard late tho. lost that "light" feel.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Hey niggers, after two weeks I am once more able to continue my Alpha playthrough.

You have your own palace on Dargonus - the capital of your empire. You can decide stuff about the planetary politics and other affairs while talking to your governor.

Other than that the planet has its own quest line centered around a possible heresy and sedition among the lesser nobility - it appears however that it might be not in the Alpha (it should trigger after you deal with both Janus and Kiva).

You also start another quest line here dealing with Dark Eldar - it turns out that they took over your prison planet and turned it into a huge gladiator arena.

Dark Eldar ships are hands down the hardest to fight, they cause massive damage (though fortunately they have limited arks of fire) and their larger ships become invulnerable after taking each hit (ie you can only hit them once every turn). Here you can see the shadow field working - the ship at the botom of the screen got hit and is now invulnerable.

Once you get to the prison planet, you can (if your stats are good enough) get the prisoners (who now serve as gladiators to Dark Eldar) to join you in liberating the planet - in any case most of the xenos flee and you will definitely get to see them later.

 

[Storyfag]

You have your own palace on Dargonus - the capital of your empire. You can decide stuff about the planetary politics and other affairs while talking to your governor.

View attachment 32096

Aaaaargh, why is it so BRIGHT?! It burns! IT BURNS!

t. luj1

 

[Tomas]

Hey niggers, after two weeks I am once more able to continue my Alpha playthrough.

You have your own palace on Dargonus - the capital of your empire. You can decide stuff about the planetary politics and other affairs while talking to your governor.

View attachment 32096

Other than that the planet has its own quest line centered around a possible heresy and sedition among the lesser nobility - it appears however that it might be not in the Alpha (it should trigger after you deal with both Janus and Kiva).

You also start another quest line here dealing with Dark Eldar - it turns out that they took over your prison planet and turned it into a huge gladiator arena.

Dark Eldar ships are hands down the hardest to fight, they cause massive damage (though fortunately they have limited arks of fire) and their larger ships become invulnerable after taking each hit (ie you can only hit them once every turn). Here you can see the shadow field working - the ship at the botom of the screen got hit and is now invulnerable.

View attachment 32097

Once you get to the prison planet, you can (if your stats are good enough) get the prisoners (who now serve as gladiators to Dark Eldar) to join you in liberating the planet - in any case most of the xenos flee and you will definitely get to see them later.

Yeah chasing the Doucheari across the galaxy is fun.

 

[Tomas]

The end times books were not that bad

Yes they were

They were written.

 

[luj1]

You have your own palace on Dargonus - the capital of your empire. You can decide stuff about the planetary politics and other affairs while talking to your governor.

View attachment 32096

Aaaaargh, why is it so BRIGHT?! It burns! IT BURNS!

t. luj1

Wow. That looks incredibly shitty. Visual aesthetic screams Pathfinder.

Thanks for showing me.

 

[luj1]

mediocrepoet

Lover of mediocrity. Just like your name.

 

[ga♥]

nearly every single novel written based on tabletop RPG material is absolutely terrible

Can someone mention good exceptions to that rule?

The Dragonlance Legends trilogy, is very decent.

 

[Grunker]

Gaunt's Ghosts is p. good.

 

[Norfleet]

this discuss reminds me modern cinema about medieval - "everyone, even kings, wore black and brown robes smeared with shit!"

Bah, that's hogwash. Everyone knows that the way you could tell someone was a king was that he DIDN'T have shit all over him.

 

[Norfleet]

btw looked party members. why all human girls except albino mutant navigator are some sort of black and brown mystery meat?

It's in the FUTURE. Being brown mystery meat is expected. I mean, white people were only invented 6-8kya, so go back 40K years and white people hadn't even been invented yet. They're clearly just a fad.