To clarify, and I'm sure it's needed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvPhsfqkfc&feature=player_embedded

Basically, this Autumn Forge World next war book is coming out and it is Part 1 of the Horus Heresy. I know my housemate will be excited by the prospect of new models, Heresy Era Terminators and Primarchs (presumably).

And of course that wonderful fluff that FW writers are so good at. Don't think it's going to be as groundbreaking (as say the Badab war books) initially, as it will presumably be re-hashing the HH novels but I wouldn't be surprised if the later books are brought out sooner than their novel counterparts. 

 So what does a naked Primarch look like?

:0)

--

Horus Heresy the roleplaying game?

Face Eater said:

Yeah, I saw this too. I am very excited about this.

The Forge World books level peg with FFG books as my favourite works set in the 40k (now 30k) universe. The quality is excellent, and I really like their tone: the sort of dry, factual, historical approach. If they brought out a book a month, I'd buy it.

I agree it can't be long before we see a 30k RPG. The universe there is big enough and exciting enough for all sorts of adventures in that setting.

Perhaps FFG could put out an alternate settings book like Green Ronin did for L5R and White Wolf did for Exalted. The Heresy, the Badab War, perhaps a Black Crusade or Armageddon… rules for doing a game in a chapter or legion setting. Of course, that flies in the face of the "Deathwatch" moniker, but they really shouldn't let that stop them. Maybe a supplement for the Heresy that includes stuff for both Deathwatch and Black Crusade…

 I could see a model working that way. Be a good place to put some real rules for single Chapter units as well as historic background details and I can see a Badad War and Heresy, or even Great Crusade.

For other 40K rpgs (boo hiss) you could have Siege of Vraks for Only War, Age of Apostasy for DH (obviously not really touched on at all yet).

Of course there might be real licence reasons for not doing so, I hope not.

And of course, I almost dread to comment on this up in the face of 'Why no Xeno love'.

I see the "30k RPG" model working best as an update of Black Crusade. That game had a power level which permitted Astartes  to work well alongside non-Astartes, but I think the emphasis on Chaotic characters and the setting was a bit of a turn off for some people. 

Translate that system across to the Horus Heresy setting, though, and you've got all kinds of options: Navigator characters, Sisters of Silence characters, early assassin temple characters, Custodes characters…and of course marines from all 18 Legions. It would be a game which would give more flexibility than any of the other 40k lines. 

Plus, it would be in a true "historical" setting where players could have fun foreshadowing the events of the Heresy as they play…The more I think about it, the more I think a 30k RPG is an inevitability.    

Lightbringer said:

>Sisters of Silence

>Custodes

Day one buy.

Lightbringer said:

I think the last thing people would want in a 30k game is disappointing Space Marines.

If ever there is a time to truly embrace their legendary status…

Space Marines actually die really easily in the Horus Heresy series. Apparently Space Marines suffer from Inverse Ninja Law.

 Conservation of ninjutsu is a pretty fundamental property narrative. No one is free from it. Not Xenomorphs. Not Gods. Not Space Marines.

--

That said this is the time of legends - the War in heaven. God, Jesus, the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael etc. and the Heavenly host are battling Lucifer and his Fallen Angels for the fate of the megaverse. This is the Trojan war, and we are watching Achilles battle Hector outside the gate of Ilium.

This is it. These are the most heroic heroes the setting has to offer. We are statting Sigmar Heldenhammer himself and he'd better be something special.

(Course, this leads to the problem that the Heresy is really the story of the Emperor and his Primarchs, and any roleplaying game runs the risk of being like Pendragon at its worst when you follow around Sir Lancelot watching him do awesome stuff rather than doing awesome stuff yourself.)

(For that matter I have never liked the idea of First Founding legions - who thought it would be a good idea to codify that GWs house chapters are automatically more awesome than anything players can create themselves? Not to mention that players  can't create their own Primarchs!)

Basically, I think we need a game where people play Primarchs. And the Emperor himself. Or at least a special scenario where that happens.

Well, as far as I am aware, the original reasoning for the "lost legions" was to allow players to make up their own founding legions. Of course the Horus Heresy books have now made it official that stuff had happened to them before the books start, so that kind of squashes that now.

I dunno about Primarchs, but I think we can definetly be assured to see the Legio Custodes get models and stats. As this was the era when they were still running around, engaged in combat operations (however limited).

mfw the first rule in the book is "Space Marines get +1 to all stats, everybody else can go suck on it)".

But more seriously, depending on whether they want to cover any of the time when the Traitor Legions were still loyal, I would guess that the first book would roughly match up to the first 3-4 novels. With the Luna Wolves, Loken, et al., and the other famous heroes that we grew to love (or hate, like Erebus).

AluminiumWolf said:

That's your opinion, and I'll thankyou kindly to remember that.

borithan said:

Well, that is partially true, but like the whole thing with Grey Knights being made from 'the Emperor's Geneseed', it's always been one of the dark and obscure bits of 40K lore that those two Legions, and their Primarchs, did something really bad (which makes you wonder, considering the Horus Heresy). Even before the tossed noodle-incedent style references to them in the HH series.

+++++I dunno about Primarchs+++++

I would be very surprised if we don't see Primarchs (and the Emperor). There are already a number of companies making Primarch knock offs, they are not afraid to use them in the books, and a lot of people are looking forwards to getting their Primarch models.

+++++mfw the first rule in the book is "Space Marines get +1 to all stats, everybody else can go suck on it)".+++++

Someone on Warseer? used to have a sig that went something like 'The next version of 40k will introduce a new stat - Awesomeness. Space Marines are a 7, everyone else is a 1. Games are decided by whoever has the highest Awesomeness stat'.

I guess my problem is that I thought that was a pretty good idea.

AluminiumWolf said:

Wolf, that's the least of your problems :P

UncleArkie said:

I know I am a bit of a single issue poster, but, like isn't this what people really want from their Space Marines?

I mean, here we are coming up on the 100m Olympic final, and everyone is talking about the legendary athletes involved, and with the Olympics in general (in the UK especially) people have been building up the competitors - Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps. People like Chuck Norris hero worship stuff.

AluminiumWolf said:

Well, models I can definetly see, it's stats that I find iffy (for the Emperor too)

If you're going to stat The Emperor, you might as well find a way to stat Tzeentch next, or the Old Ones. While Primarchs are just as problematic as putting C'Tan on the table. They're freaking inarnate gods, they might as well have a special rule that automatically gives them the win. They're too powerful to stat up properly, beyond even how it is with Space Marines, and even toned down they will be absolutely sick to the point where it sucks the fun out of the game.

And I've said before, I love Space Marines, but Deathwatch has a pretty goood scope of their power laid out. Which goes just fine with my personal preference of having to actually fight for my character's victory (putting the literal in to "hard earned").