When Dark Heresy made its debut as the first official Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying game, I was mostly busy with raging (on the internet, no less!) about how the limited focus on playing acolytes of the Inquisition wasn’t exactly helpful and didn’t do the universe justice.
(So somewhat out of spite, I went on to use different systems for Warhammer 40,000, as I had before the advent of Dark Heresy.)
By now, we have known for some time that this year Only War is going to be the fifth installment in the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay trilogy. And there was much rejoicing. But mixed in with all the pleasant anticipation, I hear quite some of the type of criticism I voiced myself regarding Dark Heresy. Why does it have to be five separate game lines? Why can’t there be a consolidated game, collecting all the information in one volume? Why isn’t there more modularity, allowing us to mix and match themes and focus areas for our games, without having to cobble together two or more systems?
Certainly, that sounds like a perspective for a new edition of the game(s).
While I continue to share the idea behind this, nowadays, I wish for something different myself:
If there is to be a new edition, streamlining five(!) game lines into one, then a simple “collected edition” can’t be the be all end all of it. No, what I’d rather like to see then is a complete overhaul, a completely new game, even.
An equivalent to the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Rolepay.
A new, different game – not the same old pages, just stapled together in a slightly altered format, with some changed details sprinkled in for good measure.
Is that just me?
As long as we are still waiting for the next, a consolidated, or even an all new Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying game, we are going to continue publishing some content for the current games. Two of our four entries this week are going to be for Dark Heresy (well, one of them for its German cousin Schattenjäger, but anyway):
English articles
On Monday, we present the Suicide Operative, an alternate career rank for acolytes looking forward to an explosive end.
On Friday, we follow up on Shadoms fantasy setting Nydele, with a third article portraying the individual countries of that magical continent.
German articles
On Monday, we translate the Suicide Operative into German.
On Friday, the original of the third Nydele article will appear.