Games Workshop has announced a new Warhammer 40k roleplaying game, this time set during the Horus Heresy Civil War. The upcoming Warhammer: The Horus Heresy roleplaying game will let each player take on the role of a Space Marine Legionary Consul “leading a rag-tag warfleet bent on survival and vengeance” as they escape the infamous betrayals and atrocities of the Istvaan system.
The Warhammer: The Horus Heresy roleplaying game is being developed by Cubicle 7, an experienced studio that publishes the existing Warhammer 40k RPGs Imperium Maledictum and Wrath and Glory, as well as the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game.
The new game is set to release in Spring 2026, according to a post on Games Workshop’s Warhammer Community website on Friday.
This is the first time an RPG has been set at this pivotal moment in the Warhammer 40k timeline. For any RPG players who aren’t familiar with the Horus Heresy books, the Heresy takes place around the year 30,000, at the culmination of the Emperor of Mankind’s Great Crusade to conquer the galaxy.
Humanity has just spent several centuries kicking other sentient species into submission, so instead of war against the wide variety of alien monsters among the Warhammer 40k factions, the conflict is focused entirely on the civil war between the Imperium of Man and rebels led by the former warmaster Horus Lupercal.
That war kicks off in the Istvaan system. On Istvaan III, three traitor Space Marine Legions purge their ranks of any Imperial loyalists. Then, when Imperial retribution forces attempt to bring the traitors to bear on the world Istvaan V, they are torn apart by yet more traitors from other legions lurking in their rearguard.
Which of these two catastrophes the RPG will follow isn’t clear, because there were loyalist survivors of both, as well as forces late to the actual conflict who were caught up in the warzone. Playing the game, “your first priority is to escape, harried by traitors bent on your destruction”, according to Games Workshop’s announcement. Then you’ll have to regroup, resupply, and decide who – if anyone – you can trust.
Your main character, a Consul, is a Space Marine officer with a particular specialism. GW hasn’t specified which Consuls will be available to play in the RPG, but in the Horus Heresy wargame options include Moritat assassins, Librarian 40k psykers, and Master of the Forge techmarines, among many others.
You’ll also create a secondary character, “such as a Naval commander from your fleet, a Remembrancer assigned to record your achievements, or an Iterator tasked with enlightening newly compliant worlds with the Imperial Truth”.
This seems like a neat addition: Space Marines are purpose engineered to be adept killing machines, but that makes them very awkward characters for roleplaying outside direct combat situations. Secondary characters can cover for their deficiencies.
We don’t yet know which selection of Space Marine Legions will be playable. Thanks to how scattered and autonomous legion forces could be, there were loyalists in every legion at the outbreak of the heresy – well, except for the Word Bearers, they purged their loyalists decades before the conflict began. Roleplaying as a loyalist World Eater with a psychosis-inducing pain engine implanted in your brain who survived the purge on Istvaan III would be a hoot.
In case it doesn’t show, we’re very excited by this RPG’s potential. Cubicle 7 is on a roll with licensed Warhammer RPGs at the moment. Check out our interview about the upcoming Warhammer The Old World roleplaying game with senior producer Pádraig Murphy and creative director Dominic McDowall-Thomas to learn about another title that seems very promising.
Source: Wargamer
