Canadish:
I could see something like an "Inquisitor" game working.

The Inquisitors are alot like the Specters in their methods, power and accountability.

There wouldn't be any rallying going on, but some kind of investigation could be cool.
Maybe uncovering a Alpha Legion conspiracy within a Sub-sector?

Pick your talents at the beginning, Melee weapons, Ranged weapons, Psyker skills, tech skills, Interrogation, Leadership etc etc

The "morality" system would probably be a Puritan/Radical paradigm of some sort.
Do you use Chaos artifacts against Chaos itself, or remain pure and find another method?

"Squadmates" would instead be your Retinue, that grows as you gain more power and prestige.
Maybe as a Puritan you attract Ecclesiarchy members, and as a Radical you create DemonHosts.

Battles start easy, with you fighting cultists and other desheveled fools who've turned from the Emperor's light.
As things move up, they begin bringing in Daemons and vehicles. They start using smarter tactics.
Then by the end, the Alpha Legion is supporting them openly and the Chaotic Astates take every one of your powers and special requisitioned ammunition to defeat.
The Chaos War engines start pouring in and you need to start flexing your Political muscles and calling in the Guard and PDF forces.

It actually surprises me this hasn't been done, now that I think about it...

But hey, no one likes RPG's anymore, right?

Good idea. Pitch it to GW.

Puritan vs Radical could work. Puritans getting their equipment/companions from the imperium eg an adeptus arbites officer or ecclesiarchy blessed weapons, where as the radical will be willing to use xeno tech and a mutant companion. Psychic powers should be on a seperate scale though (just because you are willing to consort with aliens doesn't mean that you will be creating daemon hosts such).

Also the Inquisitor novels by Dan Abnett (both Eisenhorn and Ravenor) give a great look into how the Inquisition works.

If you mean in the sense of "Travel round the universe to gather what you need to destroy big threat" then yes, probably. Only difference is, you would not see any multi-species cooperation. Also battles in 40K, from my limited knowledge, are generally fought on an absurdly massive scale. The story of one soldier is incredibly insignificant, unless it's some kind of general, and then it would be an RTS, or RTT, which isn't "mass effecty" at all!

In conclusion, probably not.

xSKULLY:
you could set it in the tyrannic wars, im not big into lore but that period was basically everyone (except chaos and orc forces) teaming up to defeat the alien horde trying to kill and eat them.

i think a 40k rpg would be good but id want to see something unique not a ME3 knockoff remember WOW's negative impact and learn that copying something no matter how good it is, is a bad move

Would not work,
Cooperation between humans and aliens only happens in isolated case. You may have "reasonable" commander here and there, but cooperation at the highest level is impossible.

I would even argue that this is the only thing keeping the Imperium alive, everyone hates each other so much nobody is able to overwhelm anybody.

Dark Heresy style RPG might work though, but it can't be as action heavy as ME if they want to stay true to DH material

No. While I want a sandboxy WH40K game, one like ME wouldn't work at all.

Still, it wouldn't be like Mass Effect due to the lack of friendly factions or general normality.

Canadish:
I could see something like an "Inquisitor" game working.

The Inquisitors are alot like the Specters in their methods, power and accountability.

There wouldn't be any rallying going on, but some kind of investigation could be cool.
Maybe uncovering a Alpha Legion conspiracy within a Sub-sector?

Pick your talents at the beginning, Melee weapons, Ranged weapons, Psyker skills, tech skills, Interrogation, Leadership etc etc

The "morality" system would probably be a Puritan/Radical paradigm of some sort.
Do you use Chaos artifacts against Chaos itself, or remain pure and find another method?

"Squadmates" would instead be your Retinue, that grows as you gain more power and prestige.
Maybe as a Puritan you attract Ecclesiarchy members, and as a Radical you create DemonHosts.

Battles start easy, with you fighting cultists and other desheveled fools who've turned from the Emperor's light.
As things move up, they begin bringing in Daemons and vehicles. They start using smarter tactics.
Then by the end, the Alpha Legion is supporting them openly and the Chaotic Astates take every one of your powers and special requisitioned ammunition to defeat.
The Chaos War engines start pouring in and you need to start flexing your Political muscles and calling in the Guard and PDF forces.

It actually surprises me this hasn't been done, now that I think about it...

But hey, no one likes RPG's anymore, right?

I generally dislike the Imperium for being so completely and utterly insane in everything they do, but I have to admit, I would play this game. Actually, I want to play this game. Why doesn't it exist already?

Working with quite a well defined setting would be hard. Especially when that setting is only war. I just feel it would be like making a Star Wars RPG about clone number 37824. What possibility do you have for a story that isn't the story of the clone's experience in battle? The 40K setting is best suited to shooters and Strategy, the latter which could be an RPG in sense. Your actions in battle control the outcome or the war but that would be the limit of it.

Phisi:
Working with quite a well defined setting would be hard. Especially when that setting is only war. I just feel it would be like making a Star Wars RPG about clone number 37824. What possibility do you have for a story that isn't the story of the clone's experience in battle? The 40K setting is best suited to shooters and Strategy, the latter which could be an RPG in sense. Your actions in battle control the outcome or the war but that would be the limit of it.

It can be done, I would really like a low power level, investigation style RPG like Dark Heresy. where you're basically playing the inquisitor's minion tasked with investigating daemonic corruption or alien infestation and the likes.

And remember while there is only war in 40k universe, some wars are waged much much more subtly

Ultratwinkie:
No. Warhammer races don't rally with each other.

Next question.

Hmm, I don't think it's as black and white as that. Eldar, the Imperium and Tau are likely to rally against the Tyranid threat, if not for a little while.

Oh, sorry, lets just get one thing straight, it IS the Tyranids that will win the war for the galaxy one day. The only race to stop them are the Orks, but that's only if they marshal a united front against them, which is impossible, because they're Orks...

The Wykydtron:
'S why I played Tau. Y'know the only conventional "good" guys in the entire universe.

Debatable, the only reason why the Tau are doing so well is because of the Ethereals, which have a "calming" effect on Tau, stopping them from in-fighting long enough to actually start an empire. Remember that the Tau are created by the Eldar to be nigh impervious to the threat of chaos due to their zero presence in the warp. Thus the Ethereals were seeded with a special genetic code, allowing for their abilities (which are tantamount to mind control); and were not with the Tau from the start, they simply appeared one day, which leads to believe the Eldar intervened with their creation.

m72_ar:

It can be done, I would really like a low power level, investigation style RPG like Dark Heresy. where you're basically playing the inquisitor's minion tasked with investigating daemonic corruption or alien infestation and the likes.

And remember while there is only war in 40k universe, some wars are waged much much more subtly

An investigation game would be very interesting but I don't think it'll use the setting to it's full ability. The setting could easily be changed to other unique ones such as someone investigating for British tattletales on board their Pirate ship, and similarly it doesn't use the setting to it's full capacity YOU HAVE BLOODY CANNONS!!! AND YET YOU CAN'T SHOOT OTHER SHIPS!!! A game like this would basically be fun for the fans who enjoy the setting already and not so much as a unique game. Nothing wrong with that, I would still like to play it but I don't see it as a 40K game as much a a game with 40K sticky taped on the cover.

If they wanted to make a RPG like ME3 with a shepard then two choices really there a grey knight or inquisitor both work in small groups so there are all your companions.

Sonicron:
Could work quite well, except for the 'allying with alien races' and 'gratuitous sexytime' bits. Excise those elements and you have the foundation for a solid game about an agent of the Inquisition.

[SNIP]

Do I sense a fellow Dark Heresy player/GM?

In any case, I love this pitch.

Indeed you do. Glad to know there are some other players around here!

Thanks.

I think it'd be possible, but less through forging alliances and more through deception and trickery to put the appropriate non-human forces in the right places.

Best part would be that no one could pitch a hissy-fit if it didn't have a happy ending, since 40K is suupposed to be a miserable and bleak setting.

I think a mass effect type story of gallivanting around the galaxy can easily be done. Of course it couldn't be as epic in scope as Mass Effect simply because the fans of WH40k wouldn't stand for something that would so DRASTICALLY change the progress of the universe. I think if anyone ever read Atlus Infernal could easily see a story about a group of rogue inquistors and crew, going to one far flung hereatical world to the other working as a video game. I would personally love nothing more then to be chased by costumed circus performers through the streets of some chaos infected world as Czevak and then getting back to my ship to have to negotiate with some of my crew that are on the verge of kicking me into the vacuum of space because of what i'm essentially having to trick them into doing. That'd be an awesome place to start for a Bioware RPG on WH40k.. though more likely a Relic RPG. How we love Relic ^_^

80Maxwell08:
That was the whole point of it existing to critique the horrors of war and socialism. Hence why humanity in Warhammer 40000 is based more off Soviet Russia than the U.S. or the U.K. where it originated from.

Actually, the Imperium of man is a fascist dictatorship, wherin communism would focus on social services and the furthering of the people within the society; If you are born to a poor family on a hive world or a forgeworld, you work till the day you die, their average lifespan is much shorter than ours today, and if a general can get the upperhand on an enemy in battle, he would happily exterminatus an entire populous, killing billions without a thought.

Frankster:

Puritan vs Radical inquisitor morality maybe?

Now THAT is a good idea. I already tried to execute one of my friends in Dark Heresy for "extreme radical actions of willing exposing himself to the taint of chaos both mentally and physically". Damn GM let him fate point out, then gave him the damn fate point back.

Hopefully we will get this in Dark Millennium Online, if it ever actually happens.

GameCalmer:
so your saying there isn't like a "council" in the 40k universe, where all the races meet and discuss diplomacy

The closest you would get to the Council is The Cabal, and they don't usually meddle in the affairs of galactic politics. More often the approach individuals giving them tasks to move the universe along the path they want it to go. Like when they told Alpharius to support Chaos during the Horus Heresy under the assumption that letting Chaos win would allow Chaos to consume itself.

Didn't work out so well.

GoaThief:
No, because I don't like the fanatical Nazi bigots. Chaos are actually (or were, depending on viewpoint) the good guys, you know. So if I could RP as a agent of Chaos attempting to liberate people from their evil overlords I'm all for it, otherwise no.

I think a Warhammer RPG would be more suitable, especially as it would scale better.

Not quite the good guys, but more the eye openers. The real good guys are the Renegades. They abandoned the Imperial Dogma, but they haven't committed to Chaos either. Pretty much the Space Marines turned Space Cops who protect the innocent out of a sense of justice rather than propaganda.

The Imperium doesn't actually want to kill all aliens, just all Xenos, sapient aliens. They're perfectly fine with the hypertech space-orangutan Jokaero, for example, and even let them tinker up things for the Inquisition to use.

The Imperium also allows the Rogue Traders to do whatever they wish with any xenos they come across, even get them to join them as elite troops or trade with them (As long as it is within the interests of the Imperium).

The player could be a minor Rogue Trader for this kind of game but otherwise the xenophobia of the Imperium would prevent it from making any sense.

Space Marine game play (+ Cover system?), with a Dawn of War 2 gear system would be awesome, just don't do another game revolving around the Space Marines or Chaos because IMO they are overused. Make one about the Eldar, Necrons or even Tau because they're all cool races that have barely been touched in the games.

KingofMadCows:
They could make a game where you play as a Primarch or even the Emperor of Mankind.

The sentence "Shut up and take my money" comes to mind!

Espeically if you could choose your order, rather than having to play as an ultramarine (not that there is any problem with that order). I would enjoy a deeper look in the 40k universe. Plus, it is not all empire, there are rogue planets and rogue traders. You could do an awesome story using the rogue traders alone.

Frankster:
It's worth remembering that Imperium doesn't hate and despise ALL xenos, just 99.9% of them.

They are quite cool towards the jokaero for example, whose planet and species is granted a special status sparing them from being exterminatus in return for their juicy digital tech which ends up being used by imperial officers and the inquisition. I guess exceptions like this are only possible though because IOM really doesn't view a single planet of mechanically gifted orang utans to be a threat.

But yeh there will hardly be an me type scenario where a random imperial super soldier goes around recruiting major xenos races. That simply ain't gonna happen, not least because the IOM wiped out or unrooted just about every major xenos race that could have qualified.

Anyways a mass effect type rpg in 40k could be cool (minus all this talk of alliance with xenos, that's just heresy), but for morality and interrupts, NO paragorn, only a choice of what type of renegade :P
Do you burn the xenos with holy flame, rip them to shreds with a blessed chainsaw or flay them with mind bullets? MORAL DECISIONS

Puritan vs Radical inquisitor morality maybe?

The Jokaero are also not sentient according to the lore, they are basically animals that build neat tech wihtout knowing how it works and such.

I'll play an Inquisitor game only if it allowed me to execute absolutely everyone I want with zero repercussions.

GameCalmer:
so your saying there isn't like a "council" in the 40k universe, where all the races meet and discuss diplomacy

Nope! :)

No seriously, just about everyone is a xenophobic mess. When they DO team up, it's begrudgingly at best. true on an individual level there are people who look past that, but one of the most used imperial credos is "Burn the heretic. Kill the mutant. Purge the unclean." Oh aliens are considered unclean >.>

The Wykydtron:
-snip-

The emperor provides all Imperium space faring ships with the beacon of the astronomicon so that they can navigate through warp space when jumping. Without the emperor in his current position, the worlds of the Imperium would fall into disarray due to no trade, communication etc. It would essentially go back to how it was before the great crusade. And in that state, the Imperium would fall. The emperor, while he was alive, actually sought to get rid of all religion and superstition because he knew what it did in the hands of the wrong people. But, as time went on after his incarceration in the golden throne, the Imperium worshiped the emperor as a god as a means to control the masses. Also note that there is a flaw in the mechanics of the golden throne which will mean that the emperors life support will eventually fail. Once that happens, the emperor is no longer tied to earth and can freely roam the warp raping the chaos gods as he pleases. The Eldar have a similar prophecy regarding Ynnead, the god of the dead. When every last Eldar soul has been committed to the Infinity Circuit, Ynnead will be born and have the strength to kill Slaanesh.

You really know -nothing- about 40k, do you?

40k is probably the most bleak and depressing setting there is, only challenged by the Lovecraft mythos. At least with Lovecraft, Humanity is just a speck to be ignored, in 40k everything wants Humanity dead, and the Humans are oppressing each other into the dust. There is no peace or justice among the stars, there is only war and the laughter of thirsting Gods.

The Asari would get rounded up and put into concentration camps by the Imperium. They'd make biotic amps in the morning and get gassed in the afternoon. Turians might be allowed to live for a time, but only so they could be thrown at the Tau or Necrons or Tyranids, and even that's doubtful. More likely they'd just get exterminatus'd so hard their grandparents would feel it. The Volus, Hanar, and Elcor would be steamrolled without the Imperium even noticing. Salarians would get run over by every side unless they joined the Tau. The Quarians might survive if they're smart and just run as fast as they can as deep as they can into Segmentum Obscurus and hide. Geth? Yeah, the Imperium fights the -Necrons- on a daily basis. They aren't going to be afraid of the Geth and they sure as hell aren't going to -not- kill them.

The Imperium is Evil. Every faction in 40k is balls out, no debate, EVIL. There might be good individuals among some of the factions - (Namely the Imperium, Tau, and Eldar), but those factions themselves are horrible and evil. The Imperium are a fascist theocratic, paranoid, xenophobic oligarchy, the Tau practice genocide and sterilization on populations that refuse to submit, and the Eldar would sacrifice the lives of every other being in the galaxy if it would save a single Eldar.

They're the -heroes- of the setting. The villains - namely Chaos, Necrons, and Dark Eldar - are worse. Much worse. The Necrons being determined to wipe out everything alive in the entire universe, Chaos...well, it depends on where you go, but you're effectively dying no matter what. The question is whether you're going to just get beheaded, raped to death, mutated into a horrific abomination, or infected with horrible plagues, or all of the above. And the Dark Eldar? They basically have to make a snuff film every day or die. And they like it.

Orks and Tyranids are frankly not that bad. They're basically just cosmic forces of nature. Hell, you could really consider them to be the heroes. They don't bear anyone any malice, they're just doing what they do.

Man I really want this game. And use the Deus Ex : HR dialog style (purity and radical would affect how people would react to you in the world). This would get people thinking on what to say when they want to preach radical ideas or to hold fast to the imperial creed.

Also make it possible to turn your followers against you if you make certain choices. Like your acolyte may try to contact your rivals if he thinks your getting to big headed about radical ideas.

Dam throwing cash at the screen does nothing.