What You Will Need

A willing group of 3 players + 1 experienced and imaginative GM who doesn't baulk at improvisation usually works best. 1 player + 1 GM allows for very indepth role-playing, but with less possible scope for intregue and involved gang fights and competition. Any more than 4 players usually results in confusion as each player gets involved in too many things! As a general rule the more players if they are inexperienced, and less if they are veterans.

It is helpful, though not necessary, to have the books detailed below, as well as rule books, minitures and scenery. (I will be adding my own rules, though this will take a while as it is a fairly boring task and time is short as I'm currently studying an MA!) All of these sources can be bought or downloaded and the latter can be made. The Links page above provides alternatives to finding/buying these books as most are now copied on the Net. Obviously GW has a large range of models, but there are other options. The books you will need to find or download are:

Rogue Trader - for basic W40K rules

White Dwarf issues 130 (this issue contains background, most of which you will find on The City Hive page above), 131, 132, 137, 138, 142 - for Confrontaton rules and background in their draft form. (Confrontation was never released as a game.). You will find scans of 132, 137, 138 and 142 above. More will follow.

As an alternative to these out-of-print sources, you could use the Necromunda rules (which I think are too simplistic) and W40K rules (not exactly what you need, but better than nothing) as sold by GW, but they are less detailed an less interesting.

Other useful books:

Realms Of Chaos - The Lost and the Damned: This is a necessity for fully understanding the Chaos mythos of W40K, though my own page goes a long way in giving you the basics.

Realms Of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness: Same with this book. Both books are invaluable and contribute a lot of background and interesting ideas to W40 which have since been dropped or heavily diluted.

The Warhammer Companion: Contains information on Genestealers, Adeptus Astartes and Eldar, most of which can be found in recent edition of W40K, but some ideas from these have, again, been lost.

The Warhammer Compendium: Contains information on Imperial Guard, Adeptus Astartes, Robots, Vehicles, Equpiment and Eldar.

Dark Future: Highly useful if you are going to use roads, cars and bikes in the Spires.

White Line Fever: Advanced rules for the above.

Dead Man's Curve: Advanced rules for the above - serialised in White Dwarf issues: 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 112, 124, 125

These three books are a part of a separate game in their own right and not part of the W40K background or game. However they are very useful and make an excellent game in themselves.

Again, unfortunately, all of the above books are out of print! All of these games and books, the best things GW has ever released, are really rare and sell at inflated prices. Below are the books you can get which contain simplified rules and enervated background information from the W40K books above:

W40K Codecies (army lists)

The campaign links provided on this site are filled with background & character information that can be used with any rules system. Please look through them & use & change whatever you please.

Back To Front Page