Warhammer 40,000 RPG: Imperium Maledictum Core Rulebook

Imperium Maledictum is the latest 40k rulebook for people to explore the 41st Millenium. Players and GMs already familiar with the Fantasy Flight Dark Heresy, and 40k series will immediately recognize the d100 system, and recall many of the rules.
The latest set from Cuble7 is a combination of what the past experimented with, learning from what worked and avoiding what caused issues.

The setup of the group making their Patron first helps set the stage for what kind of game they will play. Introducing different factions for the players to have relations with, originate from, and have interactions with is a great addition for this book.

Overall, i am excited to find a group for this and get rolling for a campaign in this.

As a veteran of the previous Warhammer 40,000 (a Games Workshop wargames setting, now multimedia) Roleplaying Games, this RPG calls back to the systems and style of the 'Dark Heresy' RPG (1st ed 2008 and 2nd ed 2014). It is a d100 system where you play an agent of a powerful patron in the Imperium. The system is well structured around the party jointly creating a patron in a 'session 0' that sets the style of how they'll approach problems (whether they'll be discreet, whether information is their patrons primary concern or whether they are results driven). The system doesn't have levels, but characters earn experience (XP) that they spend on abilities. The focus of the system isn't combat, it's a mix of roleplaying in the Warhammer 40,000 universe whilst solving problems and occasionally getting into a fight. The balance between the pillars is important as characters are investigators as much as they are warriors.

The core mechanics are fairly straight forward. Roll a d100 and score equal to/less than your statistic. Building up these numbers is straight forward and the book is well laid out for character creation. I'd say character creation is where I would have my reservations. The process is clear and easy to follow, with enough lore there to give the player/GM a taste of what the decision means. There is an interesting system where players can randomly generate their character, but gain XP (the levelling up currency of the game). Doing this is fun and chaotic, but could lead to odd situations where there's significant overlap or character skills. This is somewhat offset by the extra XP gained to buy up in individual areas, but then the 1/2 characters who get to focus on the areas where there is overlap will gain a bit of a jump over their teammates. This isn't a huge issue in any way, but something to just be aware of. Some skill sets are valuable to double/triple up on and the system does have some options within the randomness that can help create some separation. This is something obviously recognised by the designers, so isn't an omission...just a point to note.

Combat has been streamlined significantly from previous edition now blending the 2d20 system's combat zones with a combat turn not feeling hugely different from D&D5e. It runs smoothly with a couple of dice roles. The more unique innovation is the systemisation of 'superiority'. The more prepared and informed a party is of a coming fight, the more superiority they have. The more they are caught unawares the less they have (a scale that runs from -3 is to 3 ish). Fights can end when the superiority of the party's situation forces the morale of the enemies to break (though not always). This provides an end where the main enemy is normally dealt with and their minions run off. It leads to some interesting encounter design where GMs need to be careful to strike a balance between difficulty of an encounter with how quickly it may end with a good role (as enemy 'resolve' is determined by the highest resolve statistic of their surviving people and most minions have 1. You also earn 1 superiority for killing an enemy leader). This speeds up the end of combat, which is a good thing.

For those familiar with the setting and conceptions about what this game is (out of the box, not including house rules). This game is centered around human characters, working on behalf of the Imperium, to work for a higher power. There are not (at time of writing) official options for aliens, forces of chaos or space marines. Future expansions may create this. This isn't a bad thing, per se, but may mean this isn't a game for everyone who wants to do something very specific in the system (I'd suggest Wrath and Glory, another Cubicle 7 Warhammer 40,000 RPG - a very different system, but with more options). House rules can always be created, but I would expect expansions to be available at some point.

As a physical product, the quality is good with thematic artwork and a well structured book. The writing is well done, and the product is both professional but also written with a love of the material.

All in all I would expect this to be a product that some are drawn to/pushed from by the Intellectual Property it represents, so many people will have already made a decision on this product. For those on the fence - it's a strong foundation that will probably be support in the future. It's not a 'dense' RPG of tricky rules, but equally it's not a primarily narrative system. The core mechanics are easy to pick up, but on a rare occasion a GM may need to step in during character creation to avoid characters being too similar. The system has some nuances that GMs will need to be prepared for like a limited number of enemy stat blocks, but a good basis to start tweaking them for greater variety and a fairly non-specific encounter building set of rules. All in all I like the product and find it easy enough to use as an experienced tabletop roleplayer and GM. I think it's ...