What makes 40K your fave sci-fi/space fantasy setting?

[Panzer]

I think what snagged me was how 40k was the anti Star Trek. It’s such a middle finger to this rediculous notion that because we are in the future that we are in some kind of enlightened place.

 

No, we do shoot those aliens because they are different.

 

No, that’s not a computer system running my armor, is a spirit that has to be honored and prayed to.

 

No, there is a God, the Galaxy is His, and you don’t get to just disagree.

 

Throw in bad ass knights and guns... ok... 13 year old Boldthreat was in.

However there was a time in the 40k history when our future was all enlightened and advanced and stuff. 40k is basically the future of the future and who knows what the future of Star Trek will look like.

Also we don't just shoot aliens because they are different. We shoot aliens because wizard daddy told us that it's what we have to do for survival and not everything that runs a system is a machine spirit either.

 

Edited.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Trek, not Wars, sfPanzer.

[Panzer]

Ah crap, my bad.

[Exilyth]

Star Trek, Star Wars, what's the difference?

 

They're both about some group of people visiting various planets in a world filled with vastly advanced technology, who encounter more or less humanoid extraterrestial lifeforms (which are each modelled after a different culture) in a quest to secure their own survival and/or forward the goals of their own faction.

 

They're also both more bright and optimistic than the universe of 40k:

In the grim and (noble-)dark future, everyone is a redshirt, people on advanced worlds pray for the proper functioning of their pocket calculator (which is the size of a fridge) and diplomatic meetings are held at gunpoint if at all.

[Lord_Caerolion]

At the risk of getting off-topic, and not being a fan of Star Trek at all, the difference is that in Star Trek the "good guys" are the galactic power, and many of the episodes were about faffing about the galaxy and exploring, with occasional bouts of finding rival powerful groups. Star Wars was dominated by the Galactic Empire, so a bit more towards the "grimdark" rather than the noblebright of Star Trek.

 

EDIT: Basically, Star Trek is about a Rogue Trader in a universe where Chaos doesn't exist, the "kill all xenos" policy doesn't exist, and the Heresy just never happened.

[Marshal Rohr]

The Imperium is xenophobic because the aliens dominated and enslaved humans for millennia. The Xenos are as genocidal to humans as humans are to them. Not because they are different.

[Brother Tyler]

To get us back on topic, the Warhammer 40,000 universe isn't my favorite fantasy/science fiction (actually, science fantasy) setting. However, it is an excellent setting for a tabletop miniature wargame for a number of reasons:

• Setting so far in the future and fictionalized that there's no need to try to reconcile events/organizations/places/people
• Diverse factions and sub-factions that allow for appeal across a broad range of people
• Ability to make any faction/sub-faction your own, whether collecting a known organization or creating your own
• Setting to ridiculously over the top that there's no need to try to rationalize morality

The Warhammer 40,000 setting is good for setting up the hobby - collecting, assembling, painting, and playing wargames with miniatures, pure and simple.

[Marshal Rohr]

To get us back on topic, the Warhammer 40,000 universe isn't my favorite fantasy/science fiction (actually, science fantasy) setting. However, it is an excellent setting for a tabletop miniature wargame for a number of reasons:

• Setting so far in the future and fictionalized that there's no need to try to reconcile events/organizations/places/people
• Diverse factions and sub-factions that allow for appeal across a broad range of people
• Ability to make any faction/sub-faction your own, whether collecting a known organization or creating your own
• Setting to ridiculously over the top that there's no need to try to rationalize morality

The Warhammer 40,000 setting is good for setting up the hobby - collecting, assembling, painting, and playing wargames with miniatures, pure and simple.

It definitely my favorite, though the Expanse is a close second. The individual engagement and of the hobby is so unique in a way Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc just can’t be. The Dan Abnett voxcast had a good point about this. People will tell Dan ideas for comics and he gives them the ‘oh that’s nice’, but when people tell him ideas for 40k sometimes he is impressed by them. I can’t think of a scenario where someone could go up to Kevin Fiege and say here is this background I created for my role play game about the Avengers and have him consider it to be valid or valuable.

[Spleenex]

I'm not sure that 40K is my absolute favorite, but it's definitely up there. For me, there are three main reasons for this:

 

1) It's vast - in terms of space, time, population, or just about any other category you want. It's also intentionally under-mapped - all of the source material can be considered unreliable from a narrative perspective, and often goes out of its way to point out the lack of knowledge of the characters. Heck, even the in-universe dating system has an integral component that measures the uncertainty of an event! This vastness and uncertainty mean that there is a TON of narrative space for people to play in. The 40K setting is really more of a meta-setting, in that it provides a basic skeleton to hang your own creativity on. 

 

2) Its physicality - I've always loved working with my hands, and have been playing with Legos and building models since well before I stumbled upon 40K. Being able to build, customize, and physically hold a representation of one slice of the universe is incredibly evocative and immersive. For me, this is a feedback loop, whereby manifesting a bit of my imagination in a model generates more ideas and drives more imaginative thought. Sure, other IPs have associated models or even games, but few, if any, approach the breadth, depth, and quality, and customizability of the kits associated with 40K.

 

3) The setting itself is just FUN. I love Star Trek. Always have. But man, can it get stuffy and full of itself sometimes. 40K emphatically does NOT have that problem. Its unapologetic, un-self-serious, bombastic, flamboyance is just a blast to revel in sometimes, and provides a nice counterpoint to the sometimes anodyne seriousness of Trek and other IPs. Also, I like that the setting is messy - that more than anything else gives it a sense of verisimilitude that many other sci-fi(/fantasy) IPs lack. 

 

3a) Related: its also fun to explain the setting to people unfamiliar with it and watch their face as they try to absorb it in all its absurdity. "What did I do this weekend? Why, I built a model of a semi-self aware murder bot that literally runs on prayers and deploys from space cathedrals to fight the minions of literal demons from space. You?" I think I smelled smoke coming from someone's ears once.

 

  

[Boldthreat]

The Imperium is xenophobic because the aliens dominated and enslaved humans for millennia. The Xenos are as genocidal to humans as humans are to them. Not because they are different.

Perhaps I worded it wrong, but I don’t think I did... very well could be the case. Admittedly.

 

I don’t think you are wrong. At all. My statement, to me, was a simplistic generalist view in regards to the xenophobia of 40k as a whole in regards to other science fiction settings, without trying to comment on the very specific in lore reasoning on why it exists.

 

The same with regards to machine spirits and computers applies to Panzers comment above as well.

 

What I was trying to convey is the initial things that I picked up on as a 12 to 13 year old boy, prior to the vast amounts of lore I would consume post that period. I’m 34 now. One of the first quotes of 40k that stood out to me was, and I’m paraphrasing as I’m at work:

 

“Do not ask, why kill the Alien... ask why not”. 3rd Edition SM codex I believe.

 

Now freeze that right there without all the other lore and justifications that would later manifest for me as a reader... that’s so awesome! At 13 years old what was like that? I hadn’t read Dune yet. I hadn’t even read Starship Troopers or Hammers Slammers yet. This kind of talk was huge to me. Prior to this my main exposure to science fiction was:

 

Battle tech - More so than warhammer for many years. I loved the inter house warfare. I loved the meld of old and new. I also loved the complete absence of aliens... minus one novel.

 

Wing Commander - another beloved science fiction setting. If the universe said Boldthreat... we love you so much you get to pick your next life... do you want to fly a Rapier in the Kilrathi War, pilot a Enforcer battlemech in the 4th Succession War, or be an Imperial Fist at the battle of Terra? My God, I’d be locked in indecision for eternity.

 

Star Wars - the movies. Never got into the books. Never really cared for it honestly. I felt I got more out of Wing Commander and Battletech. Mark Hamil, to me, is Christopher Blair first, Luke Skywalker second.

 

Star Trek - ugh. I honestly can’t tell you if I ever liked Star Trek. I did when there was a battle though. Ironically Starfleet Battles was one of the first table top games I played. A hold over from my Father.

 

Aliens - not the first movie. It was great. But the United States Colonial Marine Corps heavily influenced me. Hell I think Pvt. Hudson and Corporal Hicks had as much to do with me joining the Marine Corps as did Love of Country.

 

I’m side tracking. Warhammer was different to me. On a very basic level. Heraldry, not camo. Even though Battletech shares this somewhat. Xenophobia, not intergalactic enlightened communities. Hate idealized as a religion over peace, prosperity and science.

 

I’m not trying to delve into the intricacies here. I was just trying to portray the very basic level themes I picked up on and was mesmerized with as a child, before any other realized understanding of the in lore universe.

[Brother Eleysium]

The thing that has always turned me on to 40K, and what initially got my attention was, surprise surprise, Space Marines. At the time I was big into Battletech, and the new Wizkids click game Mechwarrior Dark Age. One of the guys I played with mentioned he had recently gotten into 40K and I should check it out since I had started painting my clicks and had always enjoyed painting my Battletech models. I hopped on line with the little information he provided, and the Ultramarines/Black Legion were both love at first sight.    At the time I didn't realize the depth of each Space Marine Chapter/Chaos Legioin, or the fact that they were only two of many options. The proposition of what appeared to me as an army of "Masterchiefs" was just too big to pass up.(I realized later that Masterchief and Spartans in general have nothing on Space Marines)So, giving the Chaos Marines just simply looked cooler, I purchased my first box. At the time the battlebox was roughly $300, but it came with 2000ish points, a Codex, and a rulebook, so it was a steal by comparison to today's boxes. 

 

From the moment I opened the box and cracked open my first rulebook I was hooked. It was then I realized how deep, immerssive, and most of all DARK the universe is. Even in times when I did not play the game due to disgust with GW and the current state of the game in one form or another, I ALWAYS read the books and lore. I even hobbied Marines from time to time just to get my fix when I wasn't playing 40K at the time. I have read countless Fantasy and SciFi universes out there, and there is no setting as involved, in depth and at the same time open for interpretation the way 40K is. Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Star Wars, and even my first true love LOTR pale in comparison. On top of that, the model quality is bar none the best out there. I don't always agree with how some of the models are designed or how they look/fit into the universe, but, they will be top shelf every time.(I pretend finecast never happened)

 

I have spent countless hours sitting over a desk building, painting and designing my own special Space Marine hero based off some piece of lore I just read, and envisioning his own great deeds as I create him. For Chaos I imagine his role in the Heresy, and the 10,000+ years of foul deeds he has committed. Even the standard rank and file marine has his own history to me as I create them. I always aspire to give them all their own unique look and feel, as if they were their own "man." 

Without the lore, and unbelievably epic sets of novels, 40K would be just another tabletop to me. 

[Medjugorje]

I could make a huuuuge text or simplify: KNIGHTS IN SPACE !!!! Black Templars !!!

[Lexington]

I don’t know that 40K is such an obvious favorite for me as it once was. Not that anything’s come along and eclipsed it, but more because of how it’s been mashed and beaten to fit into a little box that makes so many other spec-fic franchises so unappealing.

 

At its best, tho, 40K had that real and tangible and human feel. Some of that was an offshoot of how many other settings it cribbed major elements from, some of it probably comes down to the smaller scale it had to operate at originally, and a whole lot more has to do with the lucky coincidence of so many varied and talented creators with a variety of perspectives who helped shape the universe during its primordial phases. Someone (I think A D-B?) has said that 40K is meant to be like a future history, with all the creaky assumptions, individual perspectives and inaccuracies that come with that field, and I think that captures what made it work so well, when it did. It felt like a actual place, with a broad galactic narrative, but also a million smaller stories that barely had to acknowledge it. The universe felt large and real and alive in a way that few such things do.

 

Plus, like, it has Orks, and Orks are the friggin’ best. Obviously.

[Silas7]

 

Genetically engineered fanatical warrior monks fighting xenos, mutants and heretics with swords.

And even then. It may not be enough.

 

 

 

-----

 

Why I like Warhammer? It shows what we can be at peak. But also shows how human nature can sabotage even the best of times.

 

Yet we endure.

 

 

Until the main body of the hive shows up, that is.

[b1soul]

A lot of Battletech fans here. I remember one novel (Highlander Gambit) and the early 90s cartoon series, but never stuck to me like 40K

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

The gothic elements set 40k apart for me.

[b1soul]

Were there flying skulls and babies before the Heresy?

 

Also, does the Imperium lobotomize babies to make cherubs?

[Vykes]

Man, I can't even play some edgy card or hipster card here. Honestly, the straight answer 20-some years ago is the same answer is now.

TL;DR: Space Marines.

 

Longer answer:

The reasons have changed and the focus has a bit, but in the end, genhanced post-human super soldiers wearing mega-plate, wielding chainswords and running off to fight the worst the galaxy can throw at them is still immensely appealing. Especially when the worst the galaxy can throw at them is usually, more of themselves. Admittedly, everything about them is so steeped in that mystic age of greek mythology melded with the 'angels of death' that I struggle to find something more interesting and iconic than the GW Astartes when I think of the concepts in general.

 

Now I get to be honest: 40K used to have a tremendous appeal to me back when I was some soul-sucked intolerant sapling in the 90's who wanted the hyper masculinity and black and white morality where everything may have been a shade of grey and I didn't see it for the political satire it was. Now all of the Imperium this, Emperor that, Kill-kill-kill,  memetic over-the-topness has bled its appeal dry. Some love it, I don't. The new Gulliman 40K era has turned the setting into something I relate to a lot more, and enjoy a lot more, because it comes close to the setting I actively enjoy now.

 

I'm a total sucker for the grey morality and death of dreams but spark of hope narrative of 30K and the Horus Heresy. It's presented like John Milton's Paradise Lost IN SPAAAAACE and I absolutely adore everything about that concept. The loss of real heroes, the slow understanding of conflicts being more than surface deep, and bad guy characters that suddenly and sometimes uncomfortably make a whole lot more sense when you empathize or start to at least play the devil's advocate. Horus Lucifer Lupercal, big points there. Also, less major player xenos as a distraction helps with what I always felt was a stronger central narrative of man vs. himself. I never liked xenos siphoning off attention, (even if I rather like the Tau conceptually, and Orks are such a classic staple I still like 'em).

 

But one thing 30K and 40K have in common as a setting, is their sheer scale. I love it. You can write in a piece of fluff and so long as its somewhat consistent, it seems plausible. They do it with their themes and fiction all the time: mash up a lot of pop culture and historical references, and they all fit together in something that blindingly big. Anything can happen and be a blip on a radar or a significant undercurrent. And it's all so large that you can set up your own mini-setting within it, then play it straight and it all still works. It's a great sandbox for that type of story telling and world building in miniature wargaming in particular.

 

I mean, I happen to love some of our D&D/D20 modern homebrew sci-fi settings and put them up there with 30K, but mainstream, not much comes close. New Star Wars I guess? -shrugs- it's a distant second. Most of my other favourites are limited to a few anime series, and 'near-future modern' as a setting gets me typically more than sci-fi or fantasy. Most of them have the commonality that it's not just humans or some rubber-headed demi-human aliens, but you get into post-humanism or matters of society, civics, and morality that get represented more interestingly and poignantly. That style of conflict and story telling is more attractive to me.

[gideon stargreave]

Read the front of the rulebooks.

 

Knocks the piss out of "in a galaxy far far away... Etc"

 

 

More seriously, the little details in the art are what makes it. The chapter serfs, and cherubs and scuttling creatures pushed aside by mighty heroes and terrible monsters.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

Were there flying skulls and babies before the Heresy?

 

Also, does the Imperium lobotomize babies to make cherubs?

 

I don't think there were cherubs pre-Heresy, though I could be wrong.

 

I could be wrong again here, but I'm pretty sure they use mostly cloned babies, since they're basically servitors, and servitors are mostly vat-grown.

[Wulf Vengis]

In most cases with 40k the heroes are also terrible monsters.

 

I'm not sure how many servitors are vat grown but i know many space marine servitors are failed aspirants or people who have somehow upset the chapter techmarines. In fact many are people who owed a debt to their planets society, either criminally or financially.

 

Nothing is good, nothing is evil. There are only varying degrees of guilt.

[armarnis]

Came into contact with the 40k universe when i borrowed space hulk for pc (on only 2 floppy disks, lol), its handbook had the "opener" of 40k printed at the first page and i was instantly hooked, these lines give me goosebumps still, even after such a long time.

 

Then i got my hands on.ian watsons inquisitor books and since then i never managed to escape this burning galaxy.

[b1soul]

Ah, the Ian Watson era of 40K lit...how things have changed. Really does feel like a different setting.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

I got into 40k in the late 90's, loved it ever since. I like how it has exploded since then. Star Wars and Star Trek and post apocalyptic type movies (Mad Max/Road Warrior) were my thing before I got into it. 

[gideon stargreave]

I like it for the reasoned discussions between fans, for the stress free gaming opportunities and the lack of gatekeeping of Canon.

 

 

 

Actually though, I like that the creators are less obsessed with "correct" than the community. It's a beautiful monumental shared art project for those with eyes to see it, and a setting to explore for longer than I'll be alive.