Space marines in space

With 40K getting old, and a sixth edition probably on the way, I thought I'd ask a few questions and suggest some ideas, as a series, maybe with a title like 'flashes in a grim darkness'.

It's partly for the designers at GW, to lend a hand, even if we know they won't always want or be able to use the ideas. It's also for designers everywhere, who can add them to games direct. The point is to inspire and help keep things spicy.

The first is for space marines as a whole, who do after all look to be the buttresses holding the edifice up. Get them wrong at the edition change and it might end badly for shareholders.

40 OSR? (1.5)

I thought I'd be doing this weekly, but Tales from the Maelstrom forced the hand.

All 40K players reading this who want a sense of how Rogue Trader played - that's first edition of course, not the pure RPG - go have a read of this battle report. Even beyond the RT taster, there are arbites, rebels, alien mercenaries and a criminal mastermind.

I recommend the comments section too - Major Hazzard sums things up very well.

Last week's first full DIY 40K update is here, with plenty more links to fresh ideas.

If you've been following the recent creature features in these parts, like the living table and Humanspace gribblies, Tales have some very suitable miniatures. There are giant slugs here, representing sun worms, and if you're in the mood for winged insects after the cortical hornets today, you might like the waspquito here, used as a psychneuin.

Update: Re more narrative approaches, Warp Signal has put up a thoughtful post.

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