Search Results for: Warhammer

How to Worldbuild a Good Sandbox: Four Rules from the Warhammer 40K Universe

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I’m working on a sandbox Space Opera setting. Sandbox is the tricky part; a “sandbox” is a storyworld that lets you tell (or experience — if you are a gamer) all sorts of different kinds of story. Essentially, I’m building my Discworld. Oh, you say, just make it big with lots of different kinds of settings plus spare blank spots on the map. Yes, that gives you lots of flexibility (though less than you’d think). However, the stories won’t be —…

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New Treasures: Warhammer: Lords of the Dead

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I really enjoy these Warhammer omnibus editions. They’re a tremendous bargain, for one thing. They typically contain 2-3 full length novels, plus the assorted short story or two. I’ve collected more than a few, and while I especially enjoy the science fiction offshoot, Warhammer 40K, the straight-up Warhammer volumes have proven to be a reliable source of modern sword & sorcery, most notably the tales of Gotrek & Felix, C. L. Werner’s Brunner the Bounty Hunter, and Kim Newman’s The Vampire Genevieve. I’m…

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Only War for Christmas: How to Defend Warhammer for Teenage Boys

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Older relative: “Well I’m not buying him  (nose wrinkle) Warhammer.” Fellow parent: “Oh God, Warhammer. We’re trying to steer him away from that!” Another parent: “But it’s sooo expensive.” It’s the run up to Christmas and people want to know what older and teenage boys want, and — just like with books — the boys, the geeky ones at least, want the wrong things. Except of course, I think these are right things and I want to yell: There’s this thing you can get that…

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In the Trenches: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Straight Silver

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The world of Aexe Cardinal has been largely separated from galactic civilization for several centuries. Their technology is roughly on the level of ours around the time of the First World War — which is significant, because for almost half a century, the dominant nations of the planet have been in a deadlock with the Chaos-tainted Republic of Shadik. Their war is fought between lines of trenches across an ancient, toxic no man’s land. In all the ways that matter,…

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Tanith Airborne: Warhammer 40k: Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Guns of Tanith

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The Guns of Tanith A Warhammer 40K novel Volume 5 of Gaunt’s Ghosts By Dan Abnett Black Library (315 pages, $6.95, May 2002) Cover by Adrian Smith The Guns of Tanith opens with another first for the Ghosts: A training sequence. After redeeming himself for the disaster on Hagia, Gaunt and the men of the Tanith First-and-Only are being deployed to Phantine. Phantine’s industrial history spans so many millennia that most of the planet is covered by smog toxic enough…

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Road Trip from Hell: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Honour Guard

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Honor Guard A Warhammer 40K novel Volume 4 of Gaunt’s Ghosts By Dan Abnett Black Library (312 pages, $6.95, August 2001) Cover by Martin McKenna The faith of the Imperium of Man — the only faith, thanks to a massive Inquisition — is centered around the God-Emperor of Mankind, who sits upon his Golden Throne on Holy Terra. Whether he’s a divine being incarnate, or a man who somehow gained god-like powers, is a question I don’t know the Warhammer…

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Conquer a Dark and Dangerous Galaxy in Warhammer 40K: Forbidden Stars

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Last year I bought Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, Fantasy Flight’s two-player card game of interplanetary warfare in the Warhammer 40K universe, and enjoyed it quite a bit. But as much fun as it was, it wasn’t what I really wanted — a multi-player game of large scale strategic conflict in the stars. So I was excited to discover today that Fantasy Flight has recently released Forbidden Stars, a competitive board game of interplanetary war set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and it…

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Street Fighters of the 41st Millennium: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Necropolis

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Necropolis A Warhammer 40K novel Volume 3 of Gaunt’s Ghosts By Dan Abnett Black Library (301 pages, $6.95, December 2000) Cover by Martin Hanford Necropolis marks a turning point in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series for a few reasons. It’s the first book written entirely as an original novel rather than an expansion of previously published short work. It also broadens the scope of the first couple books in covering an entire Imperial Guard campaign from the first rain of shells…

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Space Orks, Space Elves, and Tough Space Men: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Ghostmaker

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Ghostmaker A Warhammer 40K novel Volume 2 of Gaunt’s Ghosts By Dan Abnett Black Library (288 pages, $6.95, July 2000) In the inaugural series installment, Warhammer 40K: First and Only, Dan Abnett introduced us to the Tanith First regiment of Imperial Guardsmen and their iron-willed commander, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt. That novel had Gaunt as its clear protagonist. A series of flashback chapters sketched out his past: Losing his father to Ork hordes in boyhood, growing up a ward of the…

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Where Extra-planar Daemons and Dark Gods Play: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: First & Only

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First & Only A Warhammer 40K novel Volume 1 of Gaunt’s Ghosts By Dan Abnett Black Library (272 pages, $6.95, March 2000) Cover by Kenson Low Warhammer 40,000 is, at its core, a miniatures game artfully designed to separate wargamers from their money with peak efficiency. But it may be more broadly known as a shared-universe fiction franchise which occupies several shelves in the tie-in fiction wasteland west of “Z” at your local book retailer. Our very own John O’Neill…

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