Imperium Maledictum RPG Warhammer 40,000: Imperium Maledictum > A Review

[Lord_Ikka]

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. 

[DukeLeto69]

I never played a single game of any of the FFG RPGs but I own every single book for all five systems because the lore sections were superb.

 

have you managed to take a look at the lore in IM? Any good?

[Lord_Ikka]

I haven't really gone in-depth, but it looks pretty good. I'll give it another look tonight or tomorrow and focus on the fluff.

[Lord_Ikka]

IM creates(?)/focuses on the Macharian Sector, a vast swath of stars that were conquered by the Lord Solar himself in Segmentum Pacificus. There's even a giant tomb for the Lord Solar on the planet Macharia that is orbited by his fully operational Emperor-class battleship (hilariously called out in the text by the narrator as a questionable use of naval resources). 

 

The book does a good job of laying out the various factions and their purview/place in the Imperium. While it does specifically have parts that concern the Macharian Sector, such as factions' bases and leaders, the overall outlook of each faction is well-covered and explained so that even those new to the universe will understand. What is really nice is the background on the Macharian Crusade and its aftermath. In the Macharian novel series, you get a tank crew/individual view of the crusade, rather than a comprehensive overview. You get that here and it is pretty good. 

 

Overall, you can get a lot of good background from the IM book- while it is mostly focused on its created sector, the fluff in it is pretty well-written and will be enjoyable to read for both seasoned 40k fans and newbies. There are plenty of story hooks for experienced GMs to use in IM or incorporate into the older FFG games, so even if you don't get the book with the intention of playing IM there is some value there.

[DukeLeto69]

I was sold at “background on the Macharian Crusade and its aftermath”. A must buy it seems!

Edited April 7, 2023 by DukeLeto69

[Marshal Valkenhayn]

How gracefully do you think it can handle playing, say, an Ogryn? One of my favorite aspects of Only War was that you could have one of those beasts in your party and they were monstrously handy in a scrap, but also felt really fluffy and fun to have around. Fear of tight spaces, being chummy with the rest of the group, etc.

 

Not sure how I feel about STR being taken away from damage. If it still uses weapon skill to land the hit, then it makes strength even more of a dump stat. Still, won't know until I actually take a look myself. Maybe some of the good talents are strength locked, or there is some other boon.

[Mazer Rackham]

On 4/7/2023 at 2:20 PM, Marshal Valkenhayn said:

Not sure how I feel about STR being taken away from damage. If it still uses weapon skill to land the hit, then it makes strength even more of a dump stat. Still, won't know until I actually take a look myself. Maybe some of the good talents are strength locked, or there is some other boon.

 

I don't have the book, so I make an observation from experience only: I think if it's removing STR from CCW damage, it's a good idea. It certainly removes a bit of confusion and duplication with regard to the 'Adversaries' statlines and weapon profiles.

[Marshal Valkenhayn]

35 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

 

I don't have the book, so I make an observation from experience only: I think if it's removing STR from CCW damage, it's a good idea. It certainly removes a bit of confusion and duplication with regard to the 'Adversaries' statlines and weapon profiles.

Yeah. I don't hate it as a change off hand, but I will want to get a copy for myself in the next month or so and get a better feel. Degrees of success adding to damage was a thing you could get through talents in one of the versions, or maybe it was a weapon mod? I seem to recall a friend using a Long Las and aim action to do some pretty crazy stuff. And there was another player who wielded 2 pistols and conveniently forgot a lot of his penalties most of the time. Where as my first character was a Crusader with a chainsword who was, not very efficient with action economy and had an unfortunate habit of getting lit on fire by enemies and spending all of his time failing WP rolls and burning. I eventually got my hands on a flamer and spent the rest of the campaign lighting my enemies on fire with no talent investment and doing better than I ever did with the chainsword.

 

DH was not one of my favorite roleplay experiences, and devolved into mostly goofy prat falls and us blowing things up.

 

Later on I had a much better time with Only War though, with all of us playing soldiers and generally campaigning around being ill equipped scavengers fighting on battle fronts that our superiors kept expecting to kill us, but showing back up slightly more mismatched and better equipped every time. 

[Lord_Ikka]

On 4/7/2023 at 7:20 AM, Marshal Valkenhayn said:

How gracefully do you think it can handle playing, say, an Ogryn? One of my favorite aspects of Only War was that you could have one of those beasts in your party and they were monstrously handy in a scrap, but also felt really fluffy and fun to have around. Fear of tight spaces, being chummy with the rest of the group, etc.

I think it would basically depend on how flexible your GM was. There aren't any specific rules for an Ogryn, but given that the system is fairly similar to FFGs RPGs it shouldn't be too hard to port over an Ogryn base character from Only War and fit it into IM. You might have some difficulty in finding good Talents for the Ogryn, but even then I think with some judicious modifications it could work.

[Lord_Ikka]

15 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

I don't have the book, so I make an observation from experience only: I think if it's removing STR from CCW damage, it's a good idea. It certainly removes a bit of confusion and duplication with regard to the 'Adversaries' statlines and weapon profiles.

 

14 hours ago, Marshal Valkenhayn said:

Yeah. I don't hate it as a change off hand, but I will want to get a copy for myself in the next month or so and get a better feel. Degrees of success adding to damage was a thing you could get through talents in one of the versions, or maybe it was a weapon mod?

So it looks like I made a mistake- as far as melee goes your character's Strength Bonus is baked into the weapon's damage and that will be added to the SLs for the total damage.  Melee combat can be either resolved by the defender Dodging, or by an opposed WS test so it looks like this for a melee attack sequence-

Fighter A (Attacker) targets fighter B

Both Fighters then makes an Opposed Melee Test and Figher B can choose to Dodge to try to avoid the attack or just do the test using their WS

Total up SLs and then compare differences (for example A gets 3 SL and B gets -1)

Winner does damage - here Fighter A wins by 4 SL

    *Note, defenders actually can damage if they win and score a Critical (which is rolling doubles on a positive SL)

Total up damage - Fighter A's weapon does X damage (where X equals base damage + the fighter's Strength Bonus) + you add in the difference in SLs to the damage (here 4)

If Fighter A is Strength 42 wielding a chainsword (damage 3) the total damage would then be 4 + 3 + 4 = 11. 

Then you look up where the wound hit (same mechanic as FFG for table, reverse your roll and see), and apply armor to reduce the damage.

 

The major difference looks like it is a more interactive combat system, where both parties in melee actually roll off instead of just the attacker and the defender having a chance to react via a Dodge. 

[Mazer Rackham]

Interesting.

 

2 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said:

Then you look up where the wound hit (same mechanic as FFG for table, reverse your roll and see), and apply armor to reduce the damage.

 

No TB reduction?

[Lord_Ikka]

Nope, just the armor reduces damage. PCs do get more wounds than in FFG (depending on stats) - Strength Bonus + (2x Toughness Bonus) + Willpower Bonus = Max Wounds. And unlike FFG games, you don't have get any negatives by gaining wounds unless you start getting Critical Wounds (caused by either gaining wounds beyond your Max Wounds or suffering a Critical Hit from an attack). Once you are at Max Wounds, you have to take a Test or fall unconscious and if you pass you then can either move or do an action, not both. This lasts until you heal at least one wound. 

 

Toughness bonus increases the amount of Critical Wounds you can take before you start Dying- if you have more untreated Critical Wounds than your Toughness Bonus, you die at the end of the round. Critical Wounds work similar to the old way- bad stuff happens if you take one, up to instant death. 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Lord_Ikka

[Mazer Rackham]

Sounds like we need an example of play in the Nook....

[Xin Ceithan]

I am still working through this one, but I quite,Ike this one so far…

 

the background is very nice and as Lord_Ikka pointed out, they really give the various factions and locations a lot of thought and starting off points for things to do.

I especially like how they work in the influence of the Macharian Crusade and its aftermath and especially how the sector is currently coping just coming out a sort of post-Circatrix opening blackout. 

[DukeLeto69]

Can we get the physical book yet or just the ebook so far?

[Lord_Ikka]

Currently Cubicle 7 is stating Q4 of 2023 for the physical copy, so probably around November would be my guess.

[Brother Hellion]

It sounds like a fun book reminiscent of FFE books back in early 2010s. I'm glad they cleaned up many of the confusing words and streamlined the rules(Though a little unsure as to Superiority system as it seems to complicate matters at first glance).

 

My main gripe is the little to no material for people that loved to play DW/DC in the day. I know DH 1&2 scratched at the Call of Cthulh itch and Rogue Trader feed one's space pirate fantasy, but what truly captured the essence of the Warhammer experience was pretending you were a 7ft tall super soldier clad in power armor battling against hordes of aliens/daemons/mutants and the like. That feeling that you were participating in those massive table top wargames as a character brought things full circle. Its why DW/DC was the most popular WH TTRP at my game store at that time compared to Dark Heresy or even that imperial guard one; all of the players were wargamers that wanted to play characters based from their armies or from factions they liked to read about. 

 

I'm not saving Cube 7 won't post a DW/DC update down the line, cause they would be shooting themselves in the preverbal foot if they didn't, but IM is not a book I'd go out of my way to buy right now. Maybe after the holiday rush or if I get tired of D&D(Haha no that won't happen). At least it sounds way better then Wraith and Glory, which I feels like a water down version of the WH Fantasy roleplay game with more complicated rules.