Is WH40K just not roleplay viable?(Or perhaps am I unlucky?)

[agentmanatee]

Disclaimer

THIS IS NOT AGAINST ANYONE, I AM ASKING THIS BECAUSE OF MY EXPERIENCES, I BLAME NO ONE FOR THE FAILURES OF ANY RPS I HAVE BEEN IN

THAT aside, I am an avid fan of the WH40K universe, its lore and its characters. It is rich, detailed and is large and varied enough to contain a large variety of RP plots an ideas.
IN SPITE OF THIS
Most all WH40K RP's I have been in have either not taken off from an interest check or not gotten very far. I will be the first to say I have ended one or two myself as the DM for various reasons, but at other times they just seem to... not work.

Is there a reason for this? Or have I just been unlucky? Something about the universe I'm missing that makes it hard to do for RP?

pls send halp!

[Vilageidiotx]

I don't know much about Warhammer, but didn't that originally start out as tabletop? I would think it would be especially open to rping. It could be that there isn't much of a WH fanbase on this forum.

[Rin]

@VilageidiotxBoth Warhammers started off as tabletop games, but they're wargames, not RPGs.

@agentmanateeAnyways... I dunno, I think interest in the setting is kind of waning thanks to GW being really, really stupid with how they handle it (at least what happened to my beloved Fantasy hasn't happened to 40k... Yet). Aside from that (it's more of a personal thing for me, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are other people who feel the same), I guess... It's a bit same-y a lot of the time? Most of the 40k RPs I see popping up seem to be either based on the Guard or Space Marines. And even then...

Actually, it might be due to how the way the universe is set up, you kind of have to focus on a single faction, otherwise you end up with everyone killing each other in the first few posts. The universe is full of rich lore, but unfortunately you only ever get to use a tiny fraction of it in any roleplays because of that. Also, to people who don't pick up on the dark humour inherent in the setting (which seems to happen far too often, honestly) the setting can come off as too relentlessly bleak and uncaring, to the point that there's nothing your characters can really do to make a difference and thus it eventually boils down to "what's the point?".

I mean there are probably ways around this, like... I dunno, RPing the entourage of a Rogue Trader or a radical Inquisitor, or something, and intentionally playing up the humour in the setting a little bit (think Ciaphas Cain) to make things seem a teensy bit less bleak and hopeless... But hmmm.

[NuttsnBolts]

40k is a very rich environment and you can have a really interesting and in depth story if your fellow players are up to it. After all, there were a few games about the universe, Dawn of War and Space Marine, both of which had deep stories of hardship, loyalty, betrayal and plenty of action. Thats not counting the books, which some of them from what I've heard are REALLY GOOD!

I just think that most people don't see that side. All they see is the war aspect; The slashing, shooting and tearing apart of Orcs, Tyranids, Eldar and Men; so they loose sight of the story which is what should be the main focal point.

Out of curiosity, how open is the RP? Are you allowing people to choose from multiple races or one race? Are they all on the same division or different squads? And what sort of motivational goal have you seen for the players?

[agentmanatee]

Well, as stated by @Rin its hard to allow for multiple races in most of the RP's, as nearly everyone in the galaxy wants everyone else dead. And, while I have nothing against Rouge Trader's or Inquisitors, they are such a small minority in the universe I'd rather not limit myself to them for 'racial diversity' purposes XD

As for Rins points... yea, I can see that. Seeing as I DO appreciate the Dark humour of the universe, and enjoy the Everything-is-fucked-oh-shit-grimdark-gur, I guess I can see others not being able to see past all the... well murder. And the lack of diversity can also have something to do with it...

I guess it really must be a matter of temperment, and there may just not be enough Grimdark-gur people here on the guild for it...

I dunno, I love the setting, and hope that the one I want to start now does... though I aint sure.
On that note... anyone have any WH40K RP's they are in goin? Or planning? Cause... I'm up for most things in the universe

[Rithy]

I think one of the issue with Warhammer RPs is that it attracts people on so many different levels and different expectations.

Some people go in expecting a super-serious grim, dark experience; others because they just wanna shoot and slash things up in a cool action adventure; while others just go with a comedic, dark homur approach to the whole thing involving all manners of shenanigans.
Because a RP can't necessarily follow all of these effectively, it creates the danger of creating rifts between player expectations, and so people who may feel that their expectations are not met are apt to leave the RP.

There's also a great difference between people's knowledge of the lore of the universe, and I've seen many of the more experienced WH40K players often get ticked off and lack the patience to deal with players who potentially only have surface knowledge of the universe, and leave RPs if they don't feel their high standards are met.

Also, I dunno if it's right or not, but WH40K often lends itself to more serious settings; and from my experience, it is much more difficult to run a serious RP than it is to run a comedic one, as it seems to be easier to motivate people/bond with them in a comedic one :P

I'm currently in a Warhammer RP at the moment, and I'd say it's the bond of interest between the players that are really the key to its continued existence.
That said, the mood is a bit light-hearted, and I dunno if it'd fly by the grim dark standards xD

[JDolan]

Having run this setting in the past on other sites I'd also like to add that given the sheer scope of the world, getting characters that meaningfully coexist quite interestingly can be...a pain. And while everyone is united in service to the God-Emperor in the RPs, usually...the details are often so disparate that except for the Emperor, there's rarely much that really binds people together. I find too that allowing inter-departmental characters and interactions cause problems too unless there's a very good reason to throw everyone together and a very tightly-controlled narrative. There's only so much that an Mech-Priest and a Commissar can realistically interact about unless both are written exceedingly well.

There's also the sheer matter of scale as well. In a world where millions of people are required to operate a single warship, there's also the general issue of finding a way to balance an interesting character that you want to use to push a narrative forward, with the fact that realistically speaking, even the most 'interesting' or 'senior' characters people play are the tiniest cogs in the machine.

[agentmanatee]

I would like to thank everyone who gave advice to me here, and helped inform me of many of the risks inherent to running a game in the expansive universe of WH40K...

THAT BEING SAID

Those of you who do enjoy the setting, I woiuld like to advertise the RP I have only just opened the interest check for but I feel has great potential! Stop on by! Give it a look! I promise it won't hurt!

http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/90583-the-fate-of-the-cursed-wh40k-space-marine-rp/ooc

@Vilageidiotx@Rin@NuttsnBolts@Rithy@JDolan