Gen Con: Warhammer 40K’s new tabletop RPG explores pulp mystery

Warhammer 40,000 features powerful, transhuman warriors fighting against terrifying alien creatures. But the most fascinating characters in Warhammer 40,000 are those caught between. The Black Library books show that Inquisitors Gregor Eisenhorn (and Gideon Ravenor) are incredibly powerful psykers. However, they wouldn’t be able to do much without Harlon Nayl, an ex-bounter hunter, and Kara Swole, an acrobat. Similarly, author Dan Abnett’s Horus Rising This is made all the more terrifying by the fact that its events are seen through artists’ eyes and journalists such as Solomon Voss or Euphrati Kaeler.

Cubicle 7/Games Workshop

Cubicle 7 revealed Friday at Gen Con that it would be expanding its 40K-themed line of role-playing game to include ordinary people who work for more powerful patrons, such as Nayl or Keeler. Named Imperium Maledictum, this new game was inspired by previous d100-based games published by Black Industries — including classics like Dark Heresy. The new subject stands out against the characters of higher-tier status in this game. Wrath & Glory, Cubicle 7’s marquee 40K-themed tabletop RPG. Expect close combat and delicious pulp narratives.

“With Wrath and Glory, you’re more action-focused,” creative director Emmet Byrne told Polygon ahead of the announcement. “You’re playing archetypes and units from the tabletop [wargame]. Imperium MaledictumIt is [about being] much more lower-level investigators trying to work against — or work within — the mechanisms of the Imperium.”

Each player will create a party, which is a type of warband. Players are bound to one powerful patron for each member of the party. That patron could be an Inquisitor, like Eisenhorn or Ravenor, or it could be a remember of the Imperium’s powerful religious caste, known as the Ecclesiarchy. There will be many options available for players. But the most important thing is how a patron can drive the campaign forward. They will be responsible for the warband’s quests and objectives as well as the resources they have at their disposal. But they will also invest the characters with the authority they need to break through the Imperium’s crippling bureaucracy.

“In Wrath and Glory, if you’re a Space Marine you do whatever you want,” Byrne said. “A regular citizen on the street is not going to tell you you, ‘No, you’re not allowed into this bar.’ Whereas [Imperium Maledictum] is very much about your influence, your personal influence.”

Players will be able to use their character’s backgrounds to earn boons. Maybe they attended the Schola Progenium and have connections to scholars, or the aristocrats funding their research. They might have been a petty crime victim in their past and have therefore access to criminal bosses and gangsters. Players will need to make use of every social connection they have available to achieve their patron’s goals.

But sometimes they’ll need to make a show of force to get the job done.

“At some point, if you wish, you can take out your symbol of your patron and start waving it around,” Byrne said. “‘Hey, I’m really important!’ If your patron is an Inquisitor, they might not like that because word will get back to them that you burned down the barn and you brought attention on them, that kind of thing. […]How do you know when you have hit the right button [say], ‘Hey, I have this powerful patron.’ And even then, people might go, ‘I don’t care.’ It might be actually worse.”

It Imperium Maledictum line of role-playing products is expected to begin rolling out in the fall at the earliest with a core rulebook, a game master’s screen, and a boxed starter set. At the same time, official adventures will be released in PDF format.

“One of the things we started doing a few years ago was we stopped putting adventures in our books,” Byrne said, “with the thinking being that after you run that first adventure they become kind of dead pages in the book that you have to keep lugging around with you.” Instead, those expensive pages will be filled with more source material, tables, and background details about the setting.

Byrne indicated that this line would soon expand to include books on weapons and vehicles. Cubicle 7 is set to begin publishing books on factions, which will include information about working with the Inquisition and the Astra militarum as well the Ecclesiarchy and the Astra Telepathica. These books will then be enhanced with additional adventures. You can follow developments on Cubicle 7’s official website. More details will follow at Gen Con Friday.