Kiero
2007-12-02, 01:01 PM
While it already has various fantastical elements to it (like psionics), has anyone ever tried using the Warhammer 40,000 setting for fantasy?
There's already easy precedent for this: there are feral and otherwise primitive worlds that never reached the "standard" level of technology that the spacefaring elites of the Imperium take for granted. Some of these backwaters are off the main spacelanes, others were never recovered during the Great Crusade (see Ben Counter's Daemon World), or were cut off by warpstorms subsequently. Not being self-sufficient, without access to the wider Imperium, they slowly degraded in technological terms.
Which means you have low-tech worlds, but still some of the other staples of the setting. Like psionics, daemonic possession and maybe sorcery and Chaos cults as well. Xenosbreeds like ork or tyranid incursions are a possibility too. And there's the ever-present archaeotechnology to be dug up. Imagine what someone might do with a plasma pistol while the weapon still held a charge.
You might say "why not just use Warhammer Fantasy", but that's a different setting. Sure there's some overlaps, but I don't like the baggage that comes with it, like skaven, elves and dwarves, a fixed map with nations on it. This is a blank slate where, depending on the characteristics of the world in question, you could have all kinds of variety.
Thoughts?
There's already easy precedent for this: there are feral and otherwise primitive worlds that never reached the "standard" level of technology that the spacefaring elites of the Imperium take for granted. Some of these backwaters are off the main spacelanes, others were never recovered during the Great Crusade (see Ben Counter's Daemon World), or were cut off by warpstorms subsequently. Not being self-sufficient, without access to the wider Imperium, they slowly degraded in technological terms.
Which means you have low-tech worlds, but still some of the other staples of the setting. Like psionics, daemonic possession and maybe sorcery and Chaos cults as well. Xenosbreeds like ork or tyranid incursions are a possibility too. And there's the ever-present archaeotechnology to be dug up. Imagine what someone might do with a plasma pistol while the weapon still held a charge.
You might say "why not just use Warhammer Fantasy", but that's a different setting. Sure there's some overlaps, but I don't like the baggage that comes with it, like skaven, elves and dwarves, a fixed map with nations on it. This is a blank slate where, depending on the characteristics of the world in question, you could have all kinds of variety.
Thoughts?