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Thoughts on Imperium Maledictium from me. I haven't gone in-depth in the book, but read mostly around through the main "player" portions like character creation, combat, and the new Patron section. I'll put my overall opinion in, then focus in on the sections I looked at a little more in-depth. For reference, I'm coming at this from the perspective of player of the older FFG 40k games and other systems like D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, etc... , rather than newer Wrath & Glory game (which I haven't played). Overall, it looks quite good. If you are familiar with FFG's 40k games, you'll slot into this one easily, as it has not only the same attribute system but also the same test system (d100 rolls and rolling under for passing). The test system will be very familiar to FFG games players, but with some minor differences; what FFG called Degrees of Success are now called Success Levels (for every 10 you exceed or fail the test by) that have a table with outcomes predicated on the number of Success Levels you have. A new Test mechanic is now Advantage and Disadvantage that will be given by the GM to the players based on environmental traits or other things: Having Advantage allows the player to reverse their 10 and 1s dice (so a 71 could become a 17), while Disadvantage forces a player to reverse them. Its a very thematic and quite fun little system that can give some of those horrible rolls you get turn into your favor if you're lucky. Cubicle 7 clearly wrote the book to be easy for new RPG players to pick up, with the layout being very friendly and most of the information presented in a straightforward and clear way. Only real issue for me was that there wasn't a table for reference for Talents to get a brief look at what they do- it is a minor issue but something that I use often in my games to quickly check to see if a Talent is something I want to pick up rather than leafing through all the descriptions. In general, it seems like a very good refinement of Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Only War systems- it has the same style and general game systems, but the wording is clearer and overall play seems to be less muddled. Patron system New system that has a major impact on gameplay. Your Patron will be your party's sponsor and guide, the person that gathered you together and gives you missions/goals. This Patron is created by both the players and the GM, so this will definitely form the initial idea of what your campaign is going to be- whether you pick a Patron that is going to require quiet investigators or gung-ho doorkickers will set the tone for the whole thing. Each Patron has a Faction (that can be different from the players' factions) that they are a high-ranking member of and within that faction has a specific duty within that faction. Each individual will give out Boons to the party that give much needed help (such as supplies, reinforcements, or other bonuses) and will have Liabilities (chosen by the GM secretly) that may negatively effect the party or the party's interactions with the Patron. Available Factions and the set of Patrons within them: Adeptus Astra Telepathic (Astropath/Sister of Silence) Adeptus Mechanicus (Forge Lord/Magos Biologus) Adeptus Administratum (Departmento Munitorum Ordinate/Tithe Prefectus) Astra Militarum (Lord-Commissar/Senior Officer) Adeptus Ministorum (Arch-Confessor/Canoness) Inquisition (Ordo Hereticus/Xenos Inquisitor) Imperial Fleet (Voidship Captain/Port Commander) Rogue Trader Dynasty (Diplomat/Trader Militant) Infractionists (Criminal Mastermind/Guildmaster) ** Infractionists those that work outside of the law/Imperial bureaucracy, so criminal groups, those that were born in the Underhive, or suffered some tragedy that removed them from a "normal" life. Think of them like the Scum career for Dark Heresy. Character Creation Very familiar to FFG 40k- you have to roll up your Characteristics and select/roll an Origin (such as Hive World, Void Born, etc...). A note- any time you have the option to choose something in character creation you also have the option to roll it randomly; if you do roll randomly you'll gain experience, making the process a bit less risky than simply rolling and hoping everything will work out due to the experience gain giving you some ability to maneuver the character around. After you finish your characteristics/origin, you'll select your Faction (same set as the Patron factions) and then Role that you serve your Patron as. Both Faction and Role choices will give out Skills/Talents/Gear at character creation, and along with your Origin will form the basis of what/who your character is. Advancement is more fluid than the old Career system, as rather than a clear set of Skills/Talents/Characteristic Advances that you can gain as you level up, you instead have kind of an open option of all to choose though depending on what they are they may be Restricted to certain Factions or have prerequisites to gain (such as Psychic Mastery or Void Navagation). Faction choices are the same as with the Patrons, here are the Roles: Interlocuter- Investigators and diplomats, specializing in social situations Mystic- Psykers that use Warp powers Savant- Scholars who use knowledge to help, beneficial in a society that doesn't really like knowledge spread about Penumbra- Assassins and covert operatives, the sneaky rogues of the group Warrior- Fighters skilled with various weapons Zealot- Unswervingly loyal characters with wills of iron (or an extreme lack of self-preservation) Combat Mostly similar to old FFG stuff, though there are no longer half actions- you get a Move and an Action. The list of Actions are pretty familiar to any RPG player, nothing really new or different, though instead of adding a possible bonus to damage with characteristics (Strength for a melee attack for example), you add in your Success Levels (SL) that you rolled to hit with. What is new is the Superiority system, which gives out bonuses depending on what level of superiority your group is at from 1-3 (so on a test you can gain 2 SLs in addition to what you rolled, which could turn a miss into a hit or a hit into something really nasty by upping damage). Superiority is vs NPC's Resolve, and can be effected by stuff like fighting on home turf, critically injuring a player, or losing the NPC leader- not only does the party gain the SL bonus for having Superiority but the enemy can also flee/surrender if the difference between Superiority and Resolve is high enough. Damage and Wounds are treated fairly simply- if you have equal damage to your max wound trait you pass a Fortitude test or fall unconscious and any wounds over that convert into Critical Wounds (which are rolled on various tables depending on location) and if you gain untreated Critical Wounds more than your Toughness Bonus (typically 3-4 for PCs), you die at the end of the round. It is a pretty decent system and should be good for narrative combat without bogging everything down in a Last thoughts From what I've read, I like the book/system. It's fairly open-ended in the fact that it is basically combining every human-based FFG 40k RPG (so not Deathwatch/half of Black Crusade) and making everything a little more concise and easy to follow. I think that you could easily use Imperium Maledictum (dumb name, should be something shorter/easier to say) and tack on any extra stuff from the old RPGs to make whatever type of game you want. Cubicle 7 took all the good parts that FFG made, threw out the bad/confusing wording, and made a really slick system. In fact, I'd recommend anyone wanting to do a Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader game to instead use IM, it really does seem that good. There are probably going to be some issues with it, but without playing a game and just reading through the book right now I think it is a better option for those that want to play a 40k RPG than any of the old stuff just based on the more open "career" paths and various minor corrections/clarifications/simplifications of the old systems.

A little bird told me about this, but I put in a requisition for a Psychic Hood... With thanks to @Xin Ceithan Announcing Warhammer 40,000: Imperium Maledictum! – Cubicle 7 (cubicle7games.com)

Article. First somewhat major announcement from Gen Con for Warhammer 40,000 - a new, lower level role-playing game inspired by Dark Heresy. Adventures will release as free-to-download PDFs, with faction-specific materials being published after release; Astra Militarum, Inquisition, Ecclesiarchy, Astra Telepathica, etc.