Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
 | This article or section is about something oldschool - and awesome. Make sure your rose-tinted glasses are on nice and tight, and prepare for a lovely walk down nostalgia lane. |
"In the nightmare future of the 41st millennium there is no time for peace. No respite, no forgiveness. There is only war."
- – Ad in Dragon Magazine 147
Remember when GW was good?
Remember when Spaaaaaace Marines were the coolest Wombles ever?
Remember when Warhammer 40,000 wasn't all about depressing GRIMDARK WAR at all times?
Remember when a certain furry wasn't yet a demigod but merely captain of a Codex compliant legion?
Pepperidge Farm Remembers. So do we.
Welcome to Rogue Trader. Make sure your rose-colored glasses are on nice and tight.
(Warning: Contains dangerous amounts of '80s. 987.M21987, to be precise. Its art and style possessed a sort of indefinable, hand-drawn aesthetic and charm that immediately set 40k apart. Best read when listening to George Michael, Starship, U2, and/or Belinda Carlisle).
Not to be confused with the Pen and Paper game by Fantasy Flight Games, the Kill Team 2018 expansion, or actual Rogue Traders.
Background
This book, the first supplement ever released for Warhammer 40k, was written WAY back in the day when all Games Workshop put out was Warhammer (RIP). As in the fantasy kind. People back then would look at you funny if you asked them which one they were talking about because THERE WAS ONLY ONE. Anyway, this archaic tome was created as a GW-supported add-on adaptation of Warhammer, so players could experience the new, futuristic world of Warhammer 40,000. Needless to say, some people thought it was pretty cool.
Just for clarification, this was written IN THE '80S. This book contains less grimdark and more hair metal than most Neckbeards could stand before raging, but luckily this book is a Venerable Dreadnought. No joke. It inspires awe and sometimes even manly tears in neckbeards, its legendary reputation has been passed down for centuries, and it has a wealth of information with which to aid anyone in their quests to create homebrew rules or craft inspired custom models. This includes how to make a Land Speeder out of a deodorant dispenser, so your army can smell as manly as it looks. Whether or not you do. The Beakie and the Squat call this book home. This is the impenetrable fortress which crusty old neckbeards sometimes fall back on to defend their arguments and rage about how things suck in 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th Edition; and its reputation alone makes all but the hardest-core troll or newest newfag concede defeat. This is where fluff reigns supreme, and everybody was awesome. It is also a book so enormous that most copies are lost from being used to moor battleships, as anchors proved insufficiently manly. It contains the MOST COMPLICATED THING EVER in the form of the Imperial Robot rules.
This is the original source of Warhammer 40,000.
At the time, this was the finished product, what the original creators intended.
This IS Warhammer 40,000.
Pre-Heresy
Forge World has released a long lineup of so-called "pre-Heresy" models inspired by art from this era. They started with powered armor, like the Mk. III "Iron" and Mk. VI "Corvus" patterns, and moved on to special weapons, including banana-mag-fed Missile Launcher, the old (and still horrendous) Flamer, and of course the AK-47 Bolter (but the magazine isn't completely unaligned with the ejection port anymore). They moved on to re-make the old Land Raider Spartan as the Land Raider Proteus and brought back the bubble-turret Predator Tank, and now that they're making a whole game line set in the Horus Heresy, they're going all-out. Even the Speed Stick speeder makes a return, as the Javelin Attack Speeder. These look just as amazing as you think they should, and really live up to the nostalgia; you just have to pay Forge World prices to get them.
See Also
Gallery
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ULTRAWOMBLES
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idk, a beakie eatin fish'n chips or summat, innit? (Actually, it's apparently a medic harvesting geneseed.(Nah. Look at those eyes; it's Miller time.))
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This was once a deoderant dispenser. With a little love, a little labor, and a little time in the Aspergarium, one can create a thing of true beauty.
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allahu akbar
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That's some pretty edgy shit. "Recommended for Mature Readers"
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OH FUCK YES
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YES, YES...
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space dorf bikers ... B-B-BAD TO THE BONE
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SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH .... Mad Max, dorf edition
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An ad for Rogue Trader Space Marine models, circa 1988. Features Brother Craig, aka "Johnny", the prophet of /wip/.
