Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40K franchise has seen several video games that reflect the dark action, extensive lore, and tactical elements of the tabletop miniatures war game. The Warhammer 40K universe is a rich and intriguingly dark sci-fi setting that lends itself convincingly to gaming, but surprisingly remains unexplored for role-playing video games.
It changes with Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader by Owlcat Games, a CRPG developer Pathfinder: Kingmaker and its continuation The wrath of the righteous. An adaptation of Fantasy Flight Games’ tabletop role-playing game of the same name, Warhammer 40K’s first CRPG adapts the vast expanse of the dark universe into a choice-driven, event-filled adventure with plenty of weighty consequences to your actions, where the genre’s games shine.
Thanks to the huge number of CRPGs and Larian Studios’ Baldur’s gate 3 marking a significant milestone for the genre, we spoke to A rogue merchant creative director Alexander Mishulin on the current state of CRPGs as they undergo change, why it was vital to succeed in the 100-hour adventure.
The first Warhammer 40K CRPG based on tabletop game mechanics
The Warhammer 40K universe is an incredibly bleak and nihilistic setting – so much so that it inspired the broad phrase “bleak” to describe dark fantasy settings. Setting an RPG in this universe where morality is a thing of the past and death is commonplace is a compelling hook for a CRPG.
While Space Marines, Orcs, and Necrons are some of the franchise’s most prominent factions, the Rogue Trader faction takes center stage in this new CRPG, introducing a more open-ended approach to exploring this dark universe.
Inspired by the tabletop role-playing game Rogue Trader, Owlcat Games’ entry focuses on the exploits of the titular Rogue Trader faction, a group of mercenaries and traders who can roam the galaxy with a level of freedom that other factions do not possess.
Players will chart a course across the Koronus Expanse, where their group will encounter various factions and noble houses, making deals to gain a foothold in this corner of the galaxy, leading to a crucial choice that will change the balance of power within the galactic empire. During our interview with Mishulin, he talked about the rapid growth of the CRPG genre in recent years following their success Pathfinder games as well as other noteworthy hits such as Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur’s gate 3– which Mishulin gave credit for expanding the genre.
Coming up with gameplay and goals for Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, the developers at Owlcat Games have thoughtfully adapted the source material from the tabletop role-playing game, which uses miniature figures along with pen-and-paper character sheets to plan adventures. They also wanted to mix it with choice-driven gameplay and the broad scope of a CRPG like Pathfinder: Kingmaker or more recently Baldur’s gate 3.
“For this game, we were inspired by Fantasy Flight Games’ tabletop RPG Rogue Trader, and our core team has been playing it for years while working on the Pathfinder games,” Mishulin said. “We approached Games Workshop with our idea and started work afterwards Pathfinder.
“So it’s based on that 2009 board game, which retains similar skills and systems, but it’s modified with our own rules that we’ve used in recent games. Strictly tabletop rules and progression in a 100 hour CRPG can be pretty even, so we’ve created a modded Rogue Trader ruleset to showcase this CRPG [character growth] and various strategic abilities for your party.”
According to Mushlin, Owlcat’s intention was to use the original ruleset as needed to interpret them into familiar turn-based combat mechanics that CRPG players could immerse themselves in. The ultimate goal of the developer was to reflect the tactical nature of the tabletop experience. with the complex narrative and character growth seen in CRPGs.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader will be a massive game
with Warhammer 40: Rogue Trader, Owlcat aims to be a massive game that can take anywhere from 50 to 100 hours to complete—depending on pace and player choices. Along with choice-based gameplay and controlling a large group of unique characters with their own ideals and needs, one of the hallmarks of a CRPG is the wide scope of the adventure and the amount of things to see.
Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader’s The universe and its characters are naturally in a state of moral ambiguity, and the tone of the story and battle play this element. One feature of A rogue merchant is a Convictions system that is based on the narrative and gameplay of the 40K franchise, where characters are always at risk of straying from their chosen path.
Similar to the morality system, your choices will send you on a certain journey – staying true to humanity, embracing the dark arts of heresy, or braving the chaotic evil path of the realm of Chaos.
According to the creative director, the Convictions system was added to the game after realizing that it needed to more clearly reflect choices and actions. He went on to explain that creating a CRPG with the scope and amount of variation that Rogue Trader has was initially challenging, but it was a necessary addition to stay true to the dark and morally conflicted nature of the Warhammer 40K universe.
![Screenshot from Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. The player character engages in combat in a turn-based tactical grid.](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt95b381df7c12c15d/blt096cba078af98733/64e76d2c60f020e7a7a7bd9d/Forge_World_1.png?width=828&quality=80&format=webply&disable=upscale)
“There are many games that can immerse you and allow you to experience the objectives and choices that we see in this genre without having to play for 100 hours, but to get the most out of a CRPG, you have to immerse yourself and work with all the choices and consequences -[to] to be in this world for a long period of time, Mushlin said. – We consider the creation of games of this scale necessary for us and the genre. With Pathfinder and now Warhammer, while we’re working on it, we can’t stop coming up with new ideas, and it’s hard to stop making new things for the game.”
“Of course we make cuts as needed to maintain our schedule, but we still want to provide different experiences for our games,” he continued. “For example, we decided that we needed to expand our scope by having more different worldviews and paths that you can follow [speaking of the Conviction System that can alter loyalties and growth paths], such as choosing the path of Heresy and the path of Chaos, which can change so much in the story. Having this dark element is part of Warhammer 40K’s DNA to ride the line of corruption. It was important for us to achieve more in this game.”
The CRPG genre has seen a significant resurgence in recent years, with games that focus on compelling and varied stories and events to uncover. With great awakening that Baldur’s gate 3 gone, the developers are looking for where they can take the genre next.
The combination of Warhammer 40K and the CRPG subgenre is a fitting choice, though it does show that for these games to succeed, their creators need to create a huge amount of content to realize their role-playing ambitions.