The first supplement for the Warhammer 40k RPG Imperium Maledictum, the ‘Inquisition Player’s Guide’, is available for pre-order now – Wargamer was lucky enough to receive an early PDF copy from publisher Cubicle 7. Though the book has a clear focus on Inquisition-centric adventures, lots of the content will be valuable for any group of players – and we think the new rules for familiars will be particularly popular.
Imperium Maledictum has a place in our guide to the best tabletop RPGs, despite only having a core rulebook in print so far. We adore the Warhammer 40k setting, and IM does the best job of threading the line between investigation and peril, narrative and lethal combat, of any Warhammer 40k RPG. While the core book provides a great overview of the setting that will be useful to 40k fans and total newcomers alike, we’ve been eager for more in-depth resources for specific Warhammer 40k factions.
The Inquisition Player’s Guide, alongside the Inquisition GM’s Guide, seeks to rectify that with a host of setting information and new rules for campaigns that will see players act as the disposable acolytes of a terrifyingly powerful Inquisitor.
That includes new Roles for characters to adopt, new Boons and Liabilities the party’s Patron might provide, new gear both sacred and profane, new psychic talents, systems for measuring how subtle you’re being in your investigation, rules to handle long-term endeavours like infiltrating a cult…
But forget all of that – the book also adds rules for familiars, and frankly that’s the main event. It doesn’t matter how grim the setting or vicious the wildlife, you can’t stop RPG players from assembling a personal menagerie of pets.
In my home Imperium Maledictum campaign the party’s Patron provided them each with a servo-skull, and despite servo-skulls being (at least theoretically) non-sentient, they’ve fast become the party’s mascots. The Tech Priest’s skull, Jones, is basically a portable data storage device that occasionally says “I remember my wife”. If anything happened to Jones, the party would revolt.
The Inquisition Player’s Guide has a bestiary of nine pre-generated familiars, including the psychic Gyrinx kitty, vat-grown and unnerving Cherubim, inscrutable orangutan-like Jokaero, and Cyber Mastiff good boy. In the event you’d rather have a Sump Croc or Millisaur or something else, there are rules for creating familiars totally from scratch.
Familiars can serve all kinds of roles, whether that’s combat or more nuanced support, and there are rules for acquiring them, caring for them, and paying for their upkeep.
Familiars can gain experience on their own, and if you have the solars to burn you can upgrade them to a cyber familiar, replacing much of their fragile meat body with hardened mechanical components. For even more of your hard earned coin, cyber familiars can be upgraded with extra augmetics, like adding a full surveillance camera to their optical system, or lining their jaws with tiny chainsaws.
40k psykers with the money and influence may also be able to acquire a psyber-familiar, a warp-attuned creature that works a lot like a DnD Wizard’s familiar. Just owning a psyber-familiar makes a psyker better able to handle the power of the warp, and with training it’s possible to see through the familiar’s eyes, relay psychic powers through them, and more.
It’s been a long wait for this expansion, but our initial impressions are positive. It doesn’t fundamentally change the power level of the game – you won’t be suiting up as Space Marines any time soon – so if you prefer high-powered adventure, this won’t convert you away from Wrath and Glory. But for fans of investigative games of any kind, this may well hit the spot.
Speaking of pets in Warhammer 40k, have you seen the Good Boy coming in the next Warhammer 40k Kill Team box set?
Source: Wargamer
