[Help to design] In the 41st millenium there is only...

[Opellulo]

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

It's more like playing a game where the relative abilities of Space Marines and guardsmen are akin to how thye preform in the game rather than the fluff. The most 40K fluff I read the more outragious it becoes, but one of the things I really like about 40K is that everything is from the perspective of a brutal fasciest theocracy and the line between propaganda and reality is blurred.

In short I think it's very much in the theme of 40K's humour to have urban legends about the power of space marines passed around, about how they have 15 hearts, the abilty to regenerate their own head and a laser wang. To expand on the fluff Games Workshop once put out a Guardsman's handbook that advised if one found themselves in front of an ork with no weapons to wave their hands in front of it's face to confuse the beast enough to make a get away. The manual also praised the effectiveness of lasguns (which are ridiculed for being effective in game terms) indicating quite clearly that the fluff was a great exaduation of the setting's reality.

In this sense I would prefference the rules over the fluff in deciding how effective everything is. A single space marine would be more than a match for a squad of Guardsmen even with this mind.

Totally agreed with that: imperial society sounds a lot like a mockery about Thatcherian GB in '80: it's an involuting society that includes both fascist and theocratic aspect for humorous purposes not for logic "functioning". I think a more precise conversion would be using the TAU as paragon: they're a society built with more modern and logical means (they got REALLY TL11 railguns and power armours) that better traslate in GURPS ultra tech terms.

A point: while the WH40K setting warfare is very detailed, almost nothing else is well known: economy, society, travel, racial interaction... As a Master i would find very hard to bring on a campaign different than a continuos tactical fight.

just my 2 cents