It’s Grim in the Far Future, Much Like Birmingham
If like me the main influence on your hobby
has been Games Workshop then you can’t help but harbour an inner fanboy that squeees in delight
every time a new range is announced or a new edition or supplement crash lands
on your table top. While we may have
issues with how management runs GW none of us can deny that the game developers
give us that sweet hobby hit we all desire.
My favourite range from Games Workshop is
Warhammer 40,000. 40k is currently in
its sixth edition and has been around in one form or another since the
eighties. Every large milestone White
Dwarf may pay lip service to what went before but rarely do they go into any
great detail about the past. So here we
are going to look at the beginnings of 40k and take a look at where it all
began, Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader!
Origins
In 1986 there was an announcement in the
pages of the Citadel Journal that Games Workshop were working on a science
fiction tabletop battle game that was billed as an opportunity to create your
own space opera full of all kinds of wild and weird characters and put them all
kinds of outlandish situations be it hunting warp vampires or visiting a psycho
circus! It would be another year or so
before the fruits of this labour were realised.
Rogue Trader was the genesis of the
Warhammer 40,000 (WH40K) game and universe.
It laid the foundations of the Imperium of Man, warp space and the denizens
that dwelled within and without its sprawling mass. From this RPG led skirmish game erupted the
behemoth that is WH40K today and it deserves some recognition.
When Eldar got their armour
from the tribal tattoo planet.
When Rick Priestly joined Games Workshop he
had already written a game called Rogue Trader.
Originally Rogue Trader was a spaceship and combat game set in a
sprawling medieval realm
precariously spread across warp space and populated by advanced humans, Ork
raiders and space elf Eldar. Rick had
even designed a number space ship designs that later found their way into Space
Fleet, a spaceship miniature game based in the WH40K universe.
Rick intended to develop the game as a pack
in ‘freebie’ to be mailed out to Games Workshop customers who purchased their products. This initial plan for Rogue Trader was put on
hold as Games Workshop wanted the first game of this series to be set in a
fantasy world. Games Workshop had come
about on the coat tails of the fantasy RPG boom of the 70s and 80s. Back then they predominantly sold other
companies products and White Dwarf was often filled with reviews and content
for other company’s wares.
This first ‘freebie’ game would eventually
become Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1st edition (WHFB) written by
Richard Halliwell, Bryan Hansell, Graham Eckel and Rick Priestly. From a pack in game that went out with orders
it morphed into a boxed game containing three booklets. The popularity of WHFB meant that Rick went
back and rethought Rogue Trader from the ground up. It was rewritten to include the WHFB rule
mechanisms and format. This created a
game that would be quick for players of WHFB to pick up and help to set a recognisable rule set that stretched across GW
products.
This development was interrupted once more
as other games demanded attention. GW
had won the license to 2000AD’s Judge Dredd which was released in 1982 which
Rick contributed to as well as WHFB 2nd edition which was released
in 1984. In an effort to keep momentum
on Rogue Trader going developments in the rule set of RT were folded into
WHFB2E. By this time Warhammer had
developed a dark and dangerous background thanks to the miniature’s coming out
of the studio and the accompanying art. However,
even after the completion of WHFB2E yet another distraction appeared in the
form of Warhammer Fantasy
Role-play.
Three guesses who this is.
By this point Rogue Trader existed in only
two places, Rick’s head and an early computer printout. GW had moved its development to the emerging
technology of personal computers. Rick
decided this was an opportunity for another rewrite but even when this was
completed there was to be one last hurdle to leap.
Games Workshop had acquired yet another
license. Coming from the same 2000AD
stable as Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper offered a brand distinction headache for
Rogue Trader. It was not a simple
fix. Simply calling the game Warhammer
40,000 wouldn’t do either as this was too similar to Warhammer Fantasy which in
these early days of GW’s development was still cutting a niche for itself. In the end the two likeliest candidates were
merged and in September 1987 it was White Dwarf #93 that heralded the release
of Rogue Trader Warhammer 40,000 (RT). This
was a bit of a mouthful so ended up being shortened to the familiar ‘WH40K’,
‘0-kay’ or occasionally ‘warty thou’. This is a tradition that exists to this day.
Development
There were a number of game play mechanisms
that could not simply be ported over from the fantasy rules and which required
new mechanisms all of their own. These
mechanisms have stood the test of time.
The first problem was with movement. In WHFB movement was strictly controlled and
was far more convoluted than it is now.
Units were formed up into base contact and where one model went they all
went. This would not do for RT where
models would be moving freely in loose skirmish formations. The answer was coherency rules. Models could move
freely up to their own movement value but would have to stay within two inches
of each other with detrimental effects applied for any models that strayed outside
this range.
The second was the idea of true scale which
was confusing weapon ranges. Real life
weapon ranges were far too long to allow any kind of tactical difference
between weapons. Most guns’ true ranges
meant they would all have a chance to hit enemies from a board length
away. A decision was made to use
abstract ranges so that on the tabletop there was a clear delineation between
different weapon types.
The only problem with using abstract ranges
was with vehicle models. Depending on
the size of the vehicle it was entirely possible that a pistol shot may not be
able to hit a model a vehicle length away.
Originally Games Workshop did not intend on making any plastic vehicle
kits so this problem was accepted as nobody really expected vehicles to see
much use and Rick was not in
favour of seeing them on the tabletop either. Rick Priestly reiterated his stance on
vehicles again recently during interviews for the Beyond the Gates of Antares
Kickstarter.
Not shown ‘Suck it knob head’ artificer embellishment
picked out in gold leaf.
The third problem was with representing large
or unusual rates of fire. This led to
the development of templates. Though
common now this was a new idea for its time.
In the beginning any weapon that fired more than one shot such as rapid
fire, exploded on contact such as a missile or which laid down a spray of liquid such as a flamer used a
template. A template would be placed
where the shots were deemed to land after any deviation and hit models beneath
it. Rick had to sell the idea pretty
hard though he maintained that it fit into one of his important game design
principles, a game rule must not only reflect what happens but the way in which
it happens. Eventually a compromise
brought about the idea of ‘following fire’ where a weapon continues to role for
damage against models in the same unit until it fails to wound. Not a mechanism that would see wide use in
future editions.
The final new mechanic was the idea of
weapon strength. RT used the same method
of checking attack strength against a target’s toughness characteristic with a
modifier to the model’s save linked directly to the strength of that
attack. In a futuristic world where even
the simplest weapon may contain enough power to kill a man or even leave nought but a pair of
smoking boots a rethink was needed. The
result was the link between strength and saving throw to be severed and instead
the modifier would be dependant on the weapon type instead. Along with this was the introduction of variable
damage. This meant that while two
different weapons may have similar strength their ability to cut through armour and the damage
they would do if the target failed to save would differentiate them.
From there it was necessary to introduce
rules for vehicles which would not be found in WHFB. Even though it was not envisioned that
vehicles would be a huge part of game play they still required rules should the
player wish to use them. These original
rules were not very different from those governing regular infantry with only
movement being significantly changed. In
fact the familiar armour value system of today was not present at all with vehicles more
closely resembling monstrous creatures with high toughness and multiple wounds
with a critical hits system to represent systems damage. There were even rules for flyers!
The last thing to resolve was
equipment. At the time (and even as now)
rules were written to accommodate models.
Rick wanted to stop the possibility of having to release new rules for
every crazy creation that would find its way out of the studio so decided on standardised
equipment. Therefore every Space Marine
had a bolter and the threat of ten individually armed models all requiring
their own special rules and considerations were averted.
This kind of thing was entirely normal
Tone and Influence
Compared to today’s ‘grim-dark’ and
dystopian vision of the far future Rogue Trader was somewhat irreverent. Inspiration was drawn from Sci-fi writers and
television programs from all over the
70s and 80s such as Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Star Trek,
UFO, Philip Jose Farmer, Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Space 1999, Frank Herbert,
Michael Moorcock, Arthur C Clarke & Philip K Dick. The irreverent attitude from the stories and
characters of 2000AD also had a large influence especially considering that Games Workshop had its own Judge Dredd game during
RT’s development. A lot of the artists
from 2000AD contributed to the artwork in the book and the GW team worked
closely with some of their writers. Both
groups would even meet up at the local watering hole the Salutation Inn.
Looking inside the book there are many
examples of a tongue in cheek sense of humour running through the visions of the far
flung future. Space Marines with humorously offensive
messages etched on their armour, cigar smoking pot bellied anti-grav surfing squats, Orks in
general, giant space wasps and killer squirrels!
Some of this irrelevance has even survived
to this day lest we forget the Black Planet of Birmingham which gets no light
from its sun meaning it receives few visitors and as a result has become
linguistically and culturally isolated.
Currently Birmingham
One of the greatest heroes of the 41st
millennium owes his origins to such light hearted humour.
Pedro Kanto the current chapter master of the Crimson fists was a named
character used in the very first RT battle scenario ‘Battle
Despite this the brutal and bloody violence
of this future is evident in the artwork.
Space Marines are blown apart, shot and burned in many different and
grisly ways. Severed heads sit alongside
hideous mutants and beneath it all the oppressive and overbearing authority of
the Imperium is ever present.
Background and Rules Development
The background section for Rogue Trader
includes a great many concepts which are staples of today’s lore. The Emperor and the Imperium are present as
well as warp space and psykers. Space
Marines are there though the idea of
primarchs and the Horus Heresy would come later and be
woven into the proto-epic game Adeptus Titanicus.
Orks and Eldar were at that time alien
pirates and raiders. Orks and Gretchin
were represented though without a lot of the flavour and additional troop types that are
common today. Eldar did live on
craftworlds but were more akin to corsairs.
The Tyranids even appeared though the only unit that was included or
even had a model was the Hunter-killer which today would be recognisable as the lowly Termagaunt.
Races which are no longer to be easily
found within the Warhammer 40,000 universe include the Slaan, Squats and
Zoats. Slaan have found a home within
Warhammer fantasy as servants to the star spanning old ones who are now a
connecting thread between GW’s main franchises.
The Squats continue to be popular and controversial amongst the
fandom. Space Dwarves are cool but
because GW could not find a way to make Squats anything other than futuristic
versions of their fantasy counterparts they were quietly dropped from the lore
during second edition. Zoats were a
slave race of the Tyranids back when the idea of the Hive Mind was not fully
formed. They exist today as an enigma
that appears every now and then. Look
for them in the current sixth edition rulebook in the xeno section.
Nothing to see here, move along. No sir I do not know who or what a
Demiurg is.
Then there are some parts of RT that made
it in because there was an existing miniature that could easily represent
something else. Jokaro exist because GW
produced an orangutan model, Dave the mayor of Mega City 1!
The original intention was that players
would convert their own miniatures from fantasy figures available at the
time. This was one of the reasons that
fantasy archetypes find prominence in the Warhammer 40,000 universe with Orks
(Orcs) and Eldar (Elves) as major races.
Despite this there was a need to populate the universe with models that
represented the units that could not easily be represented or to act as a guide
to the aesthetic that was relevant to each of those races.
As the game increased in popularity the
studio began to develop and release more models. With the release of Slaves to Darkness and
The Lost and the Damned came Daemons and Space Marine Renegades. Craftworld Eldar, Squats and Genestealer
cults appeared as White Dwarf army lists Tweaks to rules for Space Marines and
vehicles would also appear leading to the vehicle data fax that introduced armour values. Imperial Guard infantry appeared during this
time while Orks received both a background book in ‘Waaargh the Orks!’ and what
was effectively the first codex with ‘Freebooterz’.
Rogue Trader started as a games master led
skirmish RPG. As the popularity of RPGs
waned the role of games master was phased out with games being played between
two players alone who would manage their own game. Not until Inquisitor appeared would Games
Workshop reintroduce the role of the games master.
Eventually rules development would lead to
the release of the ‘Warhammer 40,000 Battle Manual’ which was the prototype for
Warhammer 40,000 second edition and would lead to the massed battle game that
it has become now.
Uncanny!
Legacy
Today Warhammer 40,000 is a recognisable piece of science fiction and
wargaming culture. The universe
germinated in Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader has exploded in scope and there are
hundreds of books, numerous comic, video games and even one short film that
expands upon the stories that are being told on the tabletop.
Background wise we see a lot of ideas that
have not seen much exposure since the RT era coming back into fashion. Look in the sixth edition rulebook and you will
find once more mention of Squats. There
is a picture of a Zoat and an Ambull in the xeno section. Jokero accompany Inquisitors and graviton
guns are being wielded by Techmarines on battlefields across the country. At Forge World RT designs are reborn in the
shape of miniatures for the Horus Heresy while Eldar Cosairs strike from the
pages of The Doom of Mymeara.
Though the WH40K of today is a vastly
different beast from the narrative led RPG skirmish game it began as its basic
rules mechanics are still present. Psi
points, the fantasy hand to hand combat system and flyers are not new ideas but
throw backs to RT. In White Dwarf 400
Jervis writes part one of a two part look at adding a games master to your
games reminiscent of the narrative led play of RT. Is this time to revisit those early
years? I certainly think so if only to
learn what else we can import to our modern games to enhance our hobby
experience.
Lee
Sources: Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader (obviously) WD #94 & #95 'Tales From The Maelstrom blog interview with Rick Priestly'.
Wow, that was a great article. Brings back so many great memories. Thank you.
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