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They touch on excess of sensation in a few bits of Slaanesh lore - Noise Marines, frex, or Dechala and her mutants - and Lucius touches on the dangers of pride. But Slaanesh still feels, to me, like the god with the most untapped horror potential, the one where you could just challenge the designers and writers "do your worst".
Except that they want to sell their mini-game to pre-teen boys (and girls?)... so it's all been simplified and is merely a bit 'naughty'.
I wonder about similarities between the representation of Slaanesh and Hellraiser's 'Cenobites' (ignoring most of the movies)... both being British creations, both groups devoted to desire and sensation, not just sex, and demonstrating ambiguous morality. For a wargame they are required to be just an outlandish enemy army, but in the RPG they could be explored in much more subtle, and less overtly militaristic, ways.
 
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I tend to think of Slaanesh more as "the dangers of giving in to temptation" than just "sexuality turned against you"; no matter what your depravity of choice is, Slaanesh should have something special that can turn your head.

They touch on excess of sensation in a few bits of Slaanesh lore - Noise Marines, frex, or Dechala and her mutants - and Lucius touches on the dangers of pride. But Slaanesh still feels, to me, like the god with the most untapped horror potential, the one where you could just challenge the designers and writers "do your worst".

(I do miss the "positive sides" representation of early chaos, it helped make turning to them feel more like a choice that someone could justify to themselves based on good intentions.)
Yeah Slaanesh is a real Horror Show...
  • The Hellraiser Cenobites.
  • Many sick Serial Killers (especially the ones who wish to transform their victims into some form of art, or use their victims in art, like the guy from “Perfume”).
  • The person who wrote “The Yellow Sign” or made the film from John Carpenters’ “Cigarette Burns”.
  • People addicted to anything.
  • The videotape from The Ring.
All Slaaneshi stuff. Sex and excess is just the easiest way to get people in, and open them up to excess of the body. Corruption of the mind and ultimately soul is the real goal, and for that nipplerings and a strap-on aren’t gonna do it.
The most common, and by comparison harmless, Slaaneshi Cults are the ones with dozens of worshippers engaging in orgies. The dangerous ones are like the Cabal of three tailors in Altdorf, Talabheim and Middenheim who attempt to outdo each other by making items for the nobility of the softest and most supple skin or the Virtuoso Composer who seeks to create a Symphony based on an extrapolation of the Golden Ratio that will unlock the Doors of Perception in the listener, or the Mathematical Genius who seeks to find the proof for an Anti-Fibonacci Sequence. Basically, the more abstract and theoretical, the closer you get to Exterminatus once the Grey Knights arrive.
 
Khorne - Wrath
Tzeentch - Pride & Envy
Nurgle - Gluttony & Sloth
Slaanesh - Lust & Greed
 
Khorne - Wrath
Tzeentch - Pride & Envy
Nurgle - Gluttony & Sloth
Slaanesh - Lust & Greed
Meh, I'd prefer to avoid the whole concept of 'sins' (and good vs. evil) and stick to them being reflections borne of actual human passions/obsessions/desires, both good and bad.
 
funny you think that, since he was the only one named for a real god
Can you give any citations for that? It's the first time in some 30 years I've heard anyone say Nurgle is anything other than a GW creation.

I've got a thing for GW and their sources. God forbid that Michael Moorcock should ever assert his intellectual property rights.
 
Meh, I'd prefer to avoid the whole concept of 'sins' (and good vs. evil) and stick to them being reflections borne of actual human passions/obsessions/desires, both good and bad.

well, that's the reality of the setting, but since someone brought up how they map to judeo-Xian sins, I gave my interpretation.

In reality (well the reality of the Warhammer world), they arent anything to do with sins at all, they are essential expressions of natures, and the 4 main chaos gods are only a handful among hundreds of chaos gods, only significant because they are interested in humanity, most Chaos gods probably arent even aware of humanity's existence

And then there's Malal...
 
Can you give any citations for that? It's the first time in some 30 years I've heard anyone say Nurgle is anything other than a GW creation.

I've got a thing for GW and their sources. God forbid that Michael Moorcock should ever assert his intellectual property rights.
"Nergal" is a mesopotamian god of war, death, and destruction. It's not identical but it's close enough and obscure enough that one of the original set of GW writers re-purposing it seems plausible.
 
Isn't he non canon now?

he is still referenced in the rulebooks occasionaly just by the name "Malice" instead of Malal

malal-fire-raptor_1_orig.jpg

and I have my own theories on him...

 
he is still referenced in the rulebooks occasionaly just by the name "Malice" instead of Malal

View attachment 19384

and I have my own theories on him...

Mostly, I think GW change stuff so they can sell it to you again.

Though I'm quite tempted to try and get a Warhammer 1e game running at some point. I'm just lacking a hook to hang it on
 
Khorne - Wrath
Tzeentch - Pride & Envy
Nurgle - Gluttony & Sloth
Slaanesh - Lust & Greed
Hmm. Gluttony might be more Slaanesh. The desire to consume obsessively. The transgression against society for the sake of self-indulgence.

Greed might be more Nurgle. The selfishness to want to cling to life when all others die. Wanting to hang on to what’s yours so tightly that you pray to Nurgle for the plague to pass you by. “Please, not this house...take the Johnsons instead.”

Sloth I have to think.
 
Hmm. Gluttony might be more Slaanesh. The desire to consume obsessively. The transgression against society for the sake of self-indulgence.

Greed might be more Nurgle. The selfishness to want to cling to life when all others die. Wanting to hang on to what’s yours so tightly that you pray to Nurgle for the plague to pass you by. “Please, not this house...take the Johnsons instead.”

Sloth I have to think.

lol, have you SEEN Nurgle?

Nurgle.jpg

A bunch of big fat guys who have one of the slowest movement rates in the game....
 
In 40K they have Fabius Bile, a traitor marine, who feeds Slaanesh through his obsessions of seeking a perfect human race that involves breeding entire planets of people and also funnily his uncompromising atheism.
 
Sloth I have to think.
Sloth has an element of indifference... there's not going to be an army, there won't even be cult meetings because no one ever shows up. Likewise, whichever god represents sloth is getting no worship or sacrifices... just more nothing. If I had to pick one it would be Slaanesh, for the pleasure of sleeping in, goofing off, avoiding responsibility and always being late... if you even show up at all. Self-destructive pleasures of the moment.
 
lol, have you SEEN Nurgle?
A bunch of big fat guys who have one of the slowest movement rates in the game....
I took the Nurgle folks to be fat because they were bloateed full of bile/parasites/pus... not because they ate too much fast food.
 
Sloth has an element of indifference... there's not going to be an army, there won't even be cult meetings because no one ever shows up. Likewise, whichever god represents sloth is getting no worship or sacrifices... just more nothing. If I had to pick one it would be Slaanesh, for the pleasure of sleeping in, goofing off, avoiding responsibility and always being late... if you even show up at all. Self-destructive pleasures of the moment.
Sloth is more than goofing off. It's the choice to do nothing. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

It isn't apathy. It isn't particularly lazy. But it is doing no more than you absolutely have to do at a given time.
 
Sloth has an element of indifference... there's not going to be an army, there won't even be cult meetings because no one ever shows up. Likewise, whichever god represents sloth is getting no worship or sacrifices... just more nothing. If I had to pick one it would be Slaanesh, for the pleasure of sleeping in, goofing off, avoiding responsibility and always being late... if you even show up at all. Self-destructive pleasures of the moment.


But that doesn't describe Slaanesh forces, at all - hyper-kinetic, fast-attacks, bachannalian frenzies
 
I took the Nurgle folks to be fat because they were bloateed full of bile/parasites/pus... not because they ate too much fast food.

I....what Chaos Gods are eating fast food?
 
It isn't apathy. It isn't particularly lazy. But it is doing no more than you absolutely have to do at a given time.
I'd say there is some element of apathy to it... if you really cared you'd put on your armor and show up to fight. But you don't. Maybe you've talked yourself into not caring... but the end result is a hole where you're supposed to be on the day of battle.
 
But that doesn't describe Slaanesh forces, at all - hyper-kinetic, fast-attacks, bachannalian frenzies
Does that have to describe ALL the Slaanesh followers? Maybe they're just the ones who show up to fight? Bored of the orgy back at cult headquarters.
I....what Chaos Gods are eating fast food?
Probably Slaanesh, when the urge strikes.
 
I tend to think of Slaanesh more as "the dangers of giving in to temptation" than just "sexuality turned against you"; no matter what your depravity of choice is, Slaanesh should have something special that can turn your head.

They touch on excess of sensation in a few bits of Slaanesh lore - Noise Marines, frex, or Dechala and her mutants - and Lucius touches on the dangers of pride. But Slaanesh still feels, to me, like the god with the most untapped horror potential, the one where you could just challenge the designers and writers "do your worst".

(I do miss the "positive sides" representation of early chaos, it helped make turning to them feel more like a choice that someone could justify to themselves based on good intentions.)
Yeah, Slaanesh is still canonically the God that gives inspiration for art and poetry, but that's largely been forgotten in the later material.

If I was to run WFRP again I'd really play up that moral greyness. (I like Khaine for the same reason).

There's definitely signs of it, even in the official setting. The Dark Elves claim they harness chaos rather than being controlled by it. The Norsemen happily worship the Chaos Gods alongside Gods like Ulric.

One of my favourite setting tweaks in 2e was them recognising that the Vampire Counts would absolutely despise Chaos, not be allied with them. There's real potential there.
 
I'd say there is some element of apathy to it... if you really cared you'd put on your armor and show up to fight. But you don't. Maybe you've talked yourself into not caring... but the end result is a hole where you're supposed to be on the day of battle.
Sloth isn't not caring. It's really hard to define, but in terms if the seven deadly sins, it's the sin of omission.

Which can be just about anything you don't do.
 
If I was to run WFRP again I'd really play up that moral greyness. (I like Khaine for the same reason).
Isn't Khaine (sp?) also kindasorta related to the 'bloody handed god' of the Eldar in 40K? Them being, as much as anyone in 40K can be, good guys? (at least compared to the Dark Eldar).
 
Isn't Khaine (sp?) also kindasorta related to the 'bloody handed god' of the Eldar in 40K? Them being, as much as anyone in 40K can be, good guys? (at least compared to the Dark Eldar).
I don't know my 40K canon at all. (I prefer to separate the universes despite what GW think).
 
Sloth isn't not caring. It's really hard to define, but in terms if the seven deadly sins, it's the sin of omission.
I don't know official definition, not being Catholic, I only speak from my own vast experience of being slothful and not caring about stuff... until I do care, at which point I am seldom slothy at all, maybe just indecisive.
 
lol, have you SEEN Nurgle?

View attachment 19386

A bunch of big fat guys who have one of the slowest movement rates in the game....
True, but I was thinking about Slaves to Darkness, about how the fear of entropy, death, and decay drives men to a fury of activity, to rage against the dying of the light and how that energy feeds Nurgle. Doesn’t sound Slothy.

Still, there’s a lot that give up, sink into depression and apathy, that would certainly be Sloth.
 
Hmm. Gluttony might be more Slaanesh. The desire to consume obsessively. The transgression against society for the sake of self-indulgence.
Gluttony is pure Slaanesh. And it's not just the desire - it's your right! You've earned this. But that guy? He hasn't earned it. Everything he has, is something you can't have. He doesn't deserve it. Go ahead. Take it. Take everything from him. Take whatever. You. Want.

lol, have you SEEN Nurgle?

View attachment 19386

A bunch of big fat guys who have one of the slowest movement rates in the game....
They're bloated like corpses, not fat. Nurgle's generous, he loves his followers, he loves his diseases, he only wants to share; he's actually canonically genuinely nice. And he's even capable of love! He lives Isha, the Eldar goddess of Healing, so much!

But that doesn't describe Slaanesh forces, at all - hyper-kinetic, fast-attacks, bachannalian frenzies
Sure. But everybody needs a rest now and then, right? You can't work all the time. Stay home. It's fine, your friends will cover for you. It's just a battle, they've fought a few beastmen before. Crack open an ale. They're only outnumbered five to one! You wouldn't even make a difference. Put your feet up, grab a chicken leg, and have a wank. Everything is gonna be just fine.

I don't know my 40K canon at all. (I prefer to separate the universes despite what GW think).
iirc Age of Sigmar settled that Khaine and Khorne are not the same god.
 
The thing you have to remember about the chaos gods is that they are really big complex Freudian mass neuroses. They can do many things and the left hand seldom knows what the third lower tentacle is doing. Tzeneech is particularly bad about hanging plots and self defeating complexity but Khorne will gladly go to war with himself and Nurgle doesn't much mind when one plague infests another. In that there is lots of room for aspects like Taal and Shalla and Khaine. They might even be daemon prince equivalents who are unaware of who their own excesses feed. But the realm of chaos is like soup, lots of bits swirling around in the broth and some of them might be carrots and others might be sweet potatoes even if they're both orange.
 
Each of the Chaos Gods are a big tent covering many, many archetypes across almost the entire human experience; that's what makes them so cool and scary! I am interested in the synergy between the Chaos Gods who do not oppose each other. For WFRP and 40K I made a Slaanesh-Nurgle cult called The Convent of Rapturous Decay. Members cycle through decadence and nihilism, growing ever more extreme until they self-destruct. Or transcend and become a daemon.
 
Gluttony is pure Slaanesh. And it's not just the desire - it's your right! You've earned this. But that guy? He hasn't earned it. Everything he has, is something you can't have. He doesn't deserve it. Go ahead. Take it. Take everything from him. Take whatever. You. Want.


They're bloated like corpses, not fat. Nurgle's generous, he loves his followers, he loves his diseases, he only wants to share; he's actually canonically genuinely nice. And he's even capable of love! He lives Isha, the Eldar goddess of Healing, so much!


Sure. But everybody needs a rest now and then, right? You can't work all the time. Stay home. It's fine, your friends will cover for you. It's just a battle, they've fought a few beastmen before. Crack open an ale. They're only outnumbered five to one! You wouldn't even make a difference. Put your feet up, grab a chicken leg, and have a wank. Everything is gonna be just fine.


iirc Age of Sigmar settled that Khaine and Khorne are not the same god.
I think he was talking about the Human God Khaine the God of Assassins and murder, and Bloody-Handed Khaine the Elven God being the same.
 
iirc Age of Sigmar settled that Khaine and Khorne are not the same god.
I think he was talking about the Human God Khaine the God of Assassins and murder, and Bloody-Handed Khaine the Elven God being the same.
I'm going off of some early WD bit about the fantasy Dark Elves, who followed Slaanesh before turning to Khaine... I was pretty sure it mentioned Kaine being Khorne.
The Eldar have Kaela Mensha Khaine , Bloody Handed Khaine, whose avatar sometimes shows up on the battleground.

Not that it matters... everything is liquid in GW's lore.
I like the idea of the chaos gods having lots of avatars... like Nyarlathotep.
 
Ronald McDonald and the Burger King are manifestations of Slannesh which give great offense to Nurgle due to their cleanliness and sterility.
 
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