Post by voidtrekker on Mar 7, 2008 18:18:42 GMT
What do you do with conflicting 40K Fluff/Rules?
The Squats/Zoats/Slann exist. No they don't.
Robots are a major facet of life in the Imperium. Except that man fought a war with intelligent machines millennia ago, and now they are no longer produced.
Marines in Inquisitor can rip a genestealer apart barehanded. In 40k or Space Hulk, the marines are the ones who get ripped apart.
etc., etc.
Personally, I have no problem with this or the other endless contradictions which make up the various editions of 40K and the other games set in this universe. In fact, I think they are a benefit to a good rpg like Dark Heresy or (to a lesser extent) Inquisitor.
To my mind, the Imperium is paranoid, and also fragmented by bizzare views on the part of its rulers, the various "philosophies" of the different Inquisitor factions being a case in point. These people are very capable of shifting the truth, and certainly have the wherewithal to make this happen.
So, what I have done is this. I have told my players that the universe is -largely- what the 40K fluff (out of any of the rulebooks or WD articles) says it is. However, where there is a contradiction, such as between different editions of the game, anything goes, and only the GM knows the truth.
For example:
What happened to the Squats? They never existed? The 'nids wiped them out? The Imperium wiped them out? There are still a few around, maybe fighting the Imperium? What really happened?
In my Dark/Heresy universe, the Squats still exist, though this is not common knowledge, and certainly not player knowledge. They were not QUITE wiped out by the 'nids. In fact, some of them still exist behind the 'nid lines. These have put their marvellous technologically oriented brains to creating some fascinating anti-Tyranid weapons that... well... if you want to find out more about them, you'll just have to play my game.
In any case, they are still there; they can eventually be discovered, and can provide some really neat "treasure" to the PC group that finds them. Meanwhile, the debate rages on in the Imperium as to what happened to them, with some Inquisitorial factions stating that they never existed at all (feearing that the Imperium did wipe them out, and that some worlds would get jumpy thinking that the Imperium was capable of destroying its allies, or letting them be destroyed in such a cold blooded fashion).
So how do you handle such contradictions?
The Squats/Zoats/Slann exist. No they don't.
Robots are a major facet of life in the Imperium. Except that man fought a war with intelligent machines millennia ago, and now they are no longer produced.
Marines in Inquisitor can rip a genestealer apart barehanded. In 40k or Space Hulk, the marines are the ones who get ripped apart.
etc., etc.
Personally, I have no problem with this or the other endless contradictions which make up the various editions of 40K and the other games set in this universe. In fact, I think they are a benefit to a good rpg like Dark Heresy or (to a lesser extent) Inquisitor.
To my mind, the Imperium is paranoid, and also fragmented by bizzare views on the part of its rulers, the various "philosophies" of the different Inquisitor factions being a case in point. These people are very capable of shifting the truth, and certainly have the wherewithal to make this happen.
So, what I have done is this. I have told my players that the universe is -largely- what the 40K fluff (out of any of the rulebooks or WD articles) says it is. However, where there is a contradiction, such as between different editions of the game, anything goes, and only the GM knows the truth.
For example:
What happened to the Squats? They never existed? The 'nids wiped them out? The Imperium wiped them out? There are still a few around, maybe fighting the Imperium? What really happened?
In my Dark/Heresy universe, the Squats still exist, though this is not common knowledge, and certainly not player knowledge. They were not QUITE wiped out by the 'nids. In fact, some of them still exist behind the 'nid lines. These have put their marvellous technologically oriented brains to creating some fascinating anti-Tyranid weapons that... well... if you want to find out more about them, you'll just have to play my game.
In any case, they are still there; they can eventually be discovered, and can provide some really neat "treasure" to the PC group that finds them. Meanwhile, the debate rages on in the Imperium as to what happened to them, with some Inquisitorial factions stating that they never existed at all (feearing that the Imperium did wipe them out, and that some worlds would get jumpy thinking that the Imperium was capable of destroying its allies, or letting them be destroyed in such a cold blooded fashion).
So how do you handle such contradictions?
