Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay is a series of products published by Fantasy Flight Games. As the name suggests, it comprises a system (actually several systems) of role-playing games in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

The roots of the system go quite a ways back, all the way back to the Inquisitor role-playing game published by Games Workshop's Specialist Games division. The idea of role-playing in the grim, dark future was itself seeded by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which allowed role-playing in the grim, dark past.

All of the games published have a similar core system, with the stats of Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness, Agility, Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, and Fellowship (which are themselves based on the stats of the Warhammer 40,000 wargame), and a roll under d100 system for dice rolls, but otherwise have grown slightly apart, especially as later systems include fixes for weaknesses of the others. An exact mapping between the RPG and the wargame is impossible, as you can't translate a d6 to a d100 using integers, but approximately speaking, you can translate by multiplying a tabletop stat by 16.67 (or 17, to be even more approximate) or dividing an RPG stat by the same number; this will work for any stat following the standard mechanic of both games. Leadership needs a different approach because the tabletop uses a separate mechanic for it. The RPG uses a fundamentally separate, untranslatable mechanic for damage, so Strength and Toughness only translate for non-damage purposes.

Translating between Tabletop and RPG Stats: Choosing Stats

Tabletop Stat	RPG Stat
Weapon Skill	Weapon Skill.
Ballistic Skill	Ballistic Skill, Perception.
Strength, Movement Speed	Strength (No translation for dealing damage).
Toughness	Toughness (No translation for dealing damage).
Leadership	Intelligence, Willpower, Fellowship.
Initiative, Movement Speed	Agility.
Attacks	You can purchase talents to (poorly) simulate this, but there is no direct translation.
Cover Save	Cover (which acts as additional armor).
Armor Save	Not translatable; in the RPG, armor acts additively with toughness.
Invulnerable Save	Force Field.

Translating between Tabletop and RPG Stats: Math

Tabletop	RPG
Value	Intelligence, Willpower, and Fellowship	Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Perception, Agility, and Strength and Toughness (when not damaging)	Force Field
1	0 - 1	8 - 24	92 - 107
2	2 - 5	25 - 41	75 - 91
3	6 - 13	42 - 57	58 - 74
4	14 - 20	58 - 74	42 - 57
5	21 - 34	75 - 91	25 - 41
6	35 - 48	92 - 107	8 - 24
7	49 - 68	108 - 124	0 - 7
8	69 - 76	125 - 141	0 - 0
9	77 - 87	142 - 157	0 - 0
10	88 - 95	158 - 174	0 - 0
11	96 - 98	175 - 191	0 - 0
12	99 - 100	192 - 207	0 - 0

Notes

• Red values are theoretical, as the relevant Tabletop stat is impossible.
• Treat an invulnerable save of "-" as a save of 7.
• Treat AV9-14 as Toughness 6-11.

Fantasy Flight Games announced the end of their business relationship with Games Workshop on September 9, 2016, thereby ending this family of RPGs. Ulisses (which is also developing Wrath and Glory as mentioned below) has allowed the old FFG games to be sold on DrivethroughRPG, but will not be producing further updates for them.

Systems

Though the game-lines seem to be spreading faster than Orks, here are the systems so far:

• Dark Heresy, in which you serve an Inquisitor and investigate possibly-heretical goings-on. Prepare to die a lot.

• Rogue Trader, in which you are a Rogue Trader (or a member of the retinue of one). You sail around the Imperium and try to make lots of money.

• Deathwatch, in which you are a Space Marine serving in the Deathwatch. You kill xenos for the Emperor.

• Black Crusade, in which you get to be the heretic, either a Cultist or a full-blown Chaos Space Marine. You fight the servants of the Corpse God, and each other, trying to become a Daemon Prince.

• Only War, in which you are a member of the Imperial Guard. Prepare to die even more.

Fa/tg/uys at Work

Although we don't know who, it's quite clear that someone working on the books is a regular reader of /tg/. This has been made evident with printed mentions of LIIVI, Castus Grendel, Alice Boone and Commissar Dan in rulebooks and supplements, which have effectively made these /tg/ creations actual 40K canon. Godspeed, you flippin dudes.

Evidence

• 
  Exhibit A: Dark Heresy: Ascension
• 
  Exhibit B: The Radical’s Handbook
• 
  Exhibit C: Navis Primer
• 
  Exhibit D: Enemies of the Imperium
• 
  Exhibit E: Shield of Humanity

See Also

• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, the fantasy counterpart (now also published by Fantasy Flight Games)
• Wrath & Glory, the successor to the FFG 40k roleplaying series by Ulisses North America

Warhammer 40,000 Role-playing games made by Fantasy Flight Games
Dark Heresy - Rogue Trader - Deathwatch - Black Crusade - Only War - Dark Heresy Second Edition