The basic rules of Warhammer 40K.
The Warhammer 40K role-playing game does not have one system, it has two. Wrath & Glory rolls handfuls of six-sided dice and counts symbols, Imperium Maledictum rolls a hundred-sided die and tries to land under a score. Both tell the same galaxy, at a different pace and a different lethality.
Here are those rules gathered in one place, in the order they come up at the table. The engine behind each game, the pools in play, how a fight runs, wounds, corruption, and what to remember for a first session.
Two systems, one setting.
Wrath & Glory, published by Cubicle 7, aims at action. You gather a handful of six-sided dice, roll them together and count the symbols that come up. The game uses power tiers, which lets a Space Marine and a plain trooper share a table without one erasing the other.
Imperium Maledictum, from the same publisher, aims at investigation and tension. It reuses the hundred-sided die engine of Warhammer Fantasy: you add a characteristic to a skill, roll, and must land under that total. Characters stay human, fragile, and work for a patron who will send them where nobody else will go.
Wrath & Glory, dice and symbols.
Attribute and skill set the number of dice. Every 4 or 5 counts as one symbol, every 6 counts as two: you count, you do not calculate.
The game master states the target before the roll, usually two or three for an everyday action. Extra symbols buy you something better.
One die in the pool is a different colour. A 6 on it brings a moment of glory, a 1 imposes a complication, even on a success.
It fills from the wrath dice and buys rerolls, better results and regained advantage. It belongs to the whole table.
It rises when the players push their luck and pays for reinforcements, complications and nasty surprises. The game breathes to that rhythm.
It sets the scale of the campaign, from underhive survivor to hero of the galaxy, and lets very unequal characters play together.
Imperium Maledictum, the hundred-sided die.
Characteristic plus skill gives a score, and you must roll lower on a hundred-sided die. Simple to explain, immediate to play.
The gap between your score and your roll measures how well it went. Scraping through and succeeding comfortably are not the same thing.
Against an opponent, both sides roll and compare their margin. It settles chases, negotiations and most attacks.
They buy a reroll, acting first, or an escape from certain death. They are scarce, which is exactly what makes them worth having.
The wound track is short, and anything beyond it leaves marks you carry between sessions. One well placed shot changes a campaign.
The horrors seen and the compromises accepted are written down. Eventually the character no longer works quite for the same side.
One round of combat.
In both games combat follows the same shape: you set the order of action, each acts on their turn, moves and attempts one action. Wrath & Glory counts symbols against a difficulty, Imperium Maledictum sets a ranged or melee roll against the target's defence.
Armour does not stop you being hit, it reduces what gets through. Cover, preparation and numbers weigh far more than the quality of the weapon, and a well placed squad settles in one round what a lone hero never will. Both systems reward players who think before opening fire.
Wounds, corruption and survival.
The galaxy kills quickly. Wound tracks are short, and common weapons are enough to put a character out of the fight in a hit or two. Wrath & Glory separates fatigue from real wounds, which leaves a little margin. Imperium Maledictum leaves almost none.
On top of that comes what the mission does to the mind. Seeing what lives between the stars, bargaining with what you should not, using a forbidden artefact: all of it leaves traces the game measures. A 40K character does not only die in combat, they wear down session after session, and that is the subject of these games.
What to remember at the table.
Mixing the two systems leads nowhere. Say which one you are playing at session one, everything else follows.
The number of symbols or the score to stay under is said out loud. A player who knows the target really chooses what to attempt.
Glory and Ruin, fate points: these tokens give the session its rhythm. A forgotten pool makes for a flatter evening.
In this setting you survive by standing in the right place, not by soaking hits. Always describe the ground before a fight opens.
Corruption, lasting injuries, promises made to the wrong people: that counter is the through line of a campaign, not paperwork.
Both lines run to hundreds of pages. A decision made in ten seconds beats ten minutes of looking it up.
Applying the rules online.
Tracking dice pools, Glory and Ruin, degrees of success, wounds and everyone's corruption on the corner of a table ends up taking more attention than the scene itself. The game master spends the evening recounting instead of describing.
Tomeus brings the sheets, the dice roller, the backdrop and the music into one window. You create the game, send the link, and your players turn up with their character in front of them, with nothing to install and nothing written on a sheet of paper that gets lost.
Go further with Warhammer 40K.
How to start playing the Warhammer 40K RPG?
Wrath & Glory or Imperium Maledictum, dice, character creation and a first session: the guide to getting started with the Warhammer 40K roleplaying game.
The lore of Warhammer 40K
The Imperium and its institutions, the Space Marines, the Inquisition, Chaos and the xenos, the Heresy and the Warp: the lore of Warhammer 40K explained for your table.
The archetypes of Warhammer 40K
The archetypes and roles of the 40K roleplaying game explained: Space Marine, trooper, tech-priest, psyker, savant and penumbra, factions, and how to choose yours.
The Space Marines of Warhammer 40K
The Adeptus Astartes explained: the implants, the gene-seed, the chapters, the primarchs, the cost of the transformation and how to play one.
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How to Create a Tabletop RPG Character
Concept, class, ability scores, skills, backstory and bonds: the full method to create a tabletop RPG character who will carry a whole campaign.
Frequently asked questions.
Which system is easier to learn?
Wrath & Glory, because you count symbols on six-sided dice without ever writing down a sum. Imperium Maledictum is very approachable too, since you simply roll under your score on a hundred-sided die, but its degrees of success take a short while to settle in.
Is the game as deadly as people say?
Yes, especially in Imperium Maledictum, where a few shots can end a career. Wrath & Glory leaves more margin thanks to fatigue, the group's pools and power tiers. Either way, caution and preparation save more characters than shooting does.
Do you need to know Warhammer Fantasy to play?
No, but if you have played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, the engine of Imperium Maledictum will feel immediately familiar: same hundred-sided die, same degrees of success, same career logic. Wrath & Glory, on the other hand, resembles none of the publisher's other lines.