Imperium Maledictum is a Warhammer 40K TTRPG that’s all about the little guys

The Imperium of Man is the closest thing Warhammer 40,000 has to the protagonists, though they certainly aren’t the good guys. Humanity rules the stars, and in this far future the Milky Way isn’t exactly the better for it. life Useless, but at least humanity hasn’t been swallowed by bugs or reduced to nothing by the greater forces of chaos. In Imperium Maledictum, A tabletop RPG from Cubicle 7 Games, it’s your job to keep things that way. Play Gamez sat down with the game’s senior producer to talk about the setting, the factions, and how to hit the right level of Grimdark.

in the world of imperium maledictumTens of millions of people are banded together under the fascist state of the Imperium, their lives a yearning for an endless war machine. The sheer scale of human potential has created dense hive cities, filled with cartels, criminal organizations, Highborn Courts, cultist dens and crime scenes. maledictum The special is set in the Macharian Sector, a world under threat from the Great Rift that has torn the galaxy in two.

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Image: Fatshark

,imperium maledictum There was a particular kind of story we wanted to tell, which was very much from an Imperium-side perspective. It’s heavily combat driven – lots of intrigue and investigation and betrayal. It’s a grim and treacherous adventure, says Padraig Murphy, senior producer for Warhammer Role-Playing Games in Cubicle 7, in a call with Play Gamez. The game is similar to the environments depicted in Dan Abnett’s Inquisitor novels, the Warhammer crime novel line, and the co-op shooter. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide,

When you bring up Warhammer 40K as a setting, most people think of space marines, boltguns, and the massive emptiness that surrounds the nightmarish extraterrestrial zone known as the Warp. imperium maledictum goes in the opposite direction, focusing on the Imperium’s factions and the constant tension between them. another cubicle 7 game, Warhammer: Rage and GloryPower scales down to allow for more of the imagination.

imperium maledictum The player may be working for an Inquisitor, or perhaps a humble servant of the Adeptus Mechanicus machine cult sanctioned by Astra Telepathica, or they may be on duty to a religious church. All of these characters are downright squishy in comparison to your average Space Marine or Sister of Battle – a lapistal shot or a swift shiva is enough to take a player out.

It’s a side of the galaxy we don’t often get to see, especially around big events like the upcoming 10th Edition and Fourth Tyrannical War, the return of a Primarch, or the lore relaunch of cybernetic Nekron. “We go into real detail about the factions that make up the Imperium,” says Murphy.

Image: Room 7/Games Workshop

Each of the various Adeptus factions that make up Imperial society has its own strengths, goals, and priorities. The Inquisitors are the most famous Guardians, but they are not the only people pulling the strings and investigating issues in the Imperium. The Astra Militarum was a direct addition to the codex and novels on life in the Imperial Guard. According to Murphy, it was difficult to separate the other factions.

“If you want to give uniform treatment to the administratum, it — despite it being baked-in as part of the setting — is difficult and challenging,” says Murphy. “Like, what are interesting administrative stories? But what surprised us is that the more we dug, the more we came up with reasons for either faction’s patrons to be wrapped up in adventure and intrigue and drama.

Murphy gives the example of an administrative clerk who was able to talk his way into the backroom and intimidate other clerks into giving up information. In the brutal dystopia of the Imperium, the perfect document and seal can be as intimidating as an apparent threat, and the high-powered, transhumanist bureaucracy is the glue that holds every system together. The Imperium is a dense setting, where corruption and crime can run rampant even in the most mundane places.

“When you have so many possibilities in front of you, it is a thrill to overcome them. The fact that it’s so overwhelming means that whatever little bits of victory you earn should matter, and are worth celebrating,” says Murphy. The meta-narrative for Warhammer 40K explicitly calls the Imperium the cruelest and most brutal regime ever, and imperium maledictum Uses it as grist for storytelling. “The Imperium would be a terrible place to live. But it’s a fun place pretend To live.”

imperium maledictum was released on March 23rd and is available as a PDF on DriveThruRPG for $29.99. Players can pre-order physical copies of the original rulebook from the Cubicle 7 website, and they will be shipped in late 2023.