A Brief Look at Warhammer 40k Role-playing Games from Fantasy Flight Games

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) hold the licence to produce role-playing games produced in both the Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WHFB) and Warhammer 40,000 (40k) settings. They produce one WHFB game entitled “Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay” and (currently) five 40k role-playing games with a degree of interchangability between them. These are Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, Black Crusade and the latest addition: Only War.

Each game is based around the same system but focused on a different aspect of the Imperium:

Dark Heresy: Inquisitorial Alcolytes and conspiracies

Rogue Trader: Rogue Traders and the frontiers of space

Deathwatch: The Deathwatch and space marine combat

Black Crusade: Chaos and a view from the other side

Only War: The Imperial Guard and human combat/war

Each game has core rulebook then a number of supplements featuring both adventures and expansions. personally I feel that these are some of the best books to ever come out of the WHFB and 40k universe: hardback, excellent production with glossy paper, lovely lay outs and beautiful art, almost all of which is new and to cap it all the content is second to none.

I haven’t seen a decent list of all the 40k products along with their published date and FFG product number so here it is:-

Dark Heresy

Rulebooks

Dark Heresy Core Rulebook (2008) (DH01)

The Inquisitor’s Handbook  (2008) (DH04)

Disciples of the Dark Gods (2008) (DH05)

Creatures Anathema (2009) (DH06)

The Radical’s Handbook (2009) (DH10)

Ascension (2009) (DH11)

Blood of Martyrs (2011) (DH12)

Daemon Hunter (2011) (DH16)

Book of Judgement (2011) (DH17)

The Lathe Worlds (2012) (DH18)

Adventures

Dark Heresy Game Masters Kit Booklet (2008) (DH02)

Purge the Unclean (2008) (DH03)

Tattered Fates - Book 1 of the Haarlock'’s Legacy Trilogy (2009) (DH07)

Damned Cities - Book 2 of the Haarlock'’s Legacy Trilogy (2009) (DH08)

Dead Stars - Book 3 of the Haarlock's Legacy Trilogy (2009) (DH09)

The Black Sepulchre – Book 1 of the Apostasy Gambit Trilogy (2011) (DH13)

The Church of the Damned – Book 2 of the Apostasy Gambit Trilogy (2011) (DH14)

Chaos Commandment – Book 3 of the Apostasy Gambit Trilogy (2011) (DH15)

Rogue Trader

Rulebooks

Rogue Trader Core Rulebook (2009)(RT01)

Rogue Trader Game Masters Kit Booklet (2009)(RT02)

Into the Storm (2010)(RT04)

Edge of the Abyss (2010)(RT05)

Battlefleet Koronus (2011)(RT09)

Hostile Acquisitions (2011)(RT10)

The Koronus Bestiary (2012)(RT11)

The Navis Primer (2012) (RT13)

Stars of Inequity (forthcoming) (RT14)

Adventures

Lure of the Expanse (2010)(DH03)

The Frozen Reaches – Book 1 of the Warpstorm Trilogy (2011)(RT06)

Citadel of Skulls – Book 2 of the Warpstorm Trilogy (2011)(RT07)

Fallen Suns – Book 3 of the Warpstorm Trilogy (2011)(RT08)

The Soul Reaver (2012)(RT12)

Deathwatch

Rulebooks

Deathwatch Core Rulebook (2010) (DW01)

Rites of Battle (2011) (DW04)

Mark of the Xenos (2011) (DW05)

The Achilus Assault (2011) (DW06)

First Founding (2011) (DW07)

The Jericho Reach (2012) (DW08)

Honour the Chapter (2012) (DW12)

Adventures

Deathwatch Game Master’s Kit Booklet (2010) (DW02)

The Emperor Protects (2011) (DW03)

Rising Tempest (2012) (DW10)

The Outer Reach (2012) (DW13)

Ark of Lost Souls (forthcoming) (DW14)

Black Crusade

Rulebooks

Black Crusade Core Rulebook (2011) (BC01)

Tome of Fate (2012) (BC04)

Tome of Blood (2012) (BC05)

Adventures

Black Crusade Game Masters Kit Booklet (2011) (BC02)

Hand of Corruption (2012) (BC03)

Only War

Rulebooks

Only War Core Rulebook (2012) (IG01)

Hammer of the Emperor (forthcoming) (IG04)

Adventures

Only War Game masters Kit Booklet (2012) (IG02)

Final Testament (forthcoming) (IG03)

If you want to read more about what is in each book visit the Fantasy Flight Games role-playing section.

This comes in at a total of 53 books (so far!). All of which are hardback except the game maters kit booklets. If you had all o these they represent a serious investment both in money and shelf space. FFG seem to have pretty much finished producing supplements for Dark Heresy after “The Lathe Worlds” but they’re still producing books for the four other games.  

Besides their role-playing element, I personally consider these books to be the spiritual successor to the background books such as Xenology, The Sabbat Worlds Crusade, The Index Astartes books et al, along with the articles in White Dwarf that covered background, history, campaigns and the like. This is something I wish Black Library was still producing but these FFG books provide a great substitute, even surpassing them in quality and depth.

If you’re interested in a massive fleshing out of the Warhammer 40,000 setting, without the narrative format of a novel, these are the best resource out there.