Sorry for the lack of posts this past couple of weeks. Returning back to work after 2 weeks holiday was tiring, and plus I was redecorating the house, leaving no much time to write. So with the return blogging, I thought I would start with why I enjoy Warhammer 40,000 as a setting.
My history with 40K started in 1994 when a friend got for Christmas the 2nd edition boxed game. I was sucked in from the get-go. It had the grandeur of Star Wars, and the extreme violence and carnage of Judge Dredd, combined with the dark future of Dune (I had seen the film even at that age). But what I think really grabbed me was this sense of a future where the past, wrapped in myth and legend, had come back to threaten the future, as embodied by the heretics of the Chaos Space Marines.
Now at that age, I wasn't as clued into the satirical elements of the setting, but I could still see the absurdity of it all. The mirror of the Imperium to organised religion and Catholicism. The clear homage of the Adeptus Arbites to the Judges of Mega City One, and their need to enforce the law by brutal means. Given I was no fan of football, I could see the hooligan vibes in Orks and just how over the top they were as a faction. Chaos Marines invoked all the things I liked about horror. 40k was just this broad, vivid, smorgasbord of themes and styles, all clashing in larger than life battles. Perhaps the most powerful elements of the setting were the historical parts - the events that had led up to the current conflicts. The Horus Heresy. The Fall of the Aeldari. The Age of Strife and the Dark Age of Technology. All these events gave the setting a gravity and a sense that there were things to be discovered in the stories and background material. Each new book you read was a new clue. Each battle fought on the table was another entry in the long grinding history of the Imperium.
It was through the Epic Space Marine/Titan Legions games that I was further exposed to more of the setting, including more about the massive war machines known as Knights and Titans, and the planet splitting wars of the Horus Heresy. Playing Epic was a new window on these battles because the scale allowed you to represent nearly entire chapters of Marines fighting legions of Orks, or the swarms of the ever-hungry fleets of Tyranids.
While Epic allowed me to have a view of the setting, zoomed out, Necromunda was a window into the people of the Imperium. War was a facet of life, and just like the block wars in the pages of Judge Dredd and 2000 AD, Necromunda featured the gang warfare between rival houses in the crushing mega city of Necromunda. A hive city, miles tall, ancient, and filled with humans who would never feel the touch of fresh air or taste food that had not been recycled. It also drove home how each world, despite the galaxy-wide war, is each its own unique battleground and history to explore. The game Inquisitor was another narrow slice through the setting, bringing into focus the very philosophical and religious war at the heart of the Imperium.
While I may not play the 40K wargame these days (though I do plan after lockdown to play smaller-scale games of it), I do still play Necromunda, Adeptus Titanicus, and Blackstone Fortress. Each of these games is a window into the galaxy, offering different stories and heroes (and villains). Even now with the new editions, and the pushing forward of the metaplot of the game, such as the Great Rift, the return of the Ultramarine Primarch, and the Pariah Nexus, there is an enjoyment to be had as old mysteries are answered using callbacks to things I read over 20 years ago, and while also opening up new mysteries. Of course, this has got a bit more complex of late as I now write for the Wrath & Glory RPG, and that means delving into these mysteries and working out just what we are allowed to say in the game books, while also mapping out a small part of the Imperium.
40K is a rich setting, filled with numerous horrors and strange technologies, and one which can include a diverse amount of stories, not limited by the very narrow picture painted by the main wargame. And it is an exciting time to be involved in the setting as Games Workshop is revamping ranges, reviving factions, and presenting a more diverse view of the galaxy than we have seen before.
Comentários