Welcome to the 41st Millennium

The Emperor Protects: What is Warhammer 40k?

Imagine if our world took the darkest path possible through history, then fast-forwarded tens of thousands of years into a future where hope is a luxury few can afford. Welcome to Warhammer 40,000 - a universe where "grimdark" isn't just a word, it's a way of life.

What Makes Wrath & Glory Special?

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Wrath & Glory is a tabletop roleplaying game that rolls pools of six-sided dice. Unlike older 40k RPGs that locked you into one organisation - only Inquisitorial agents, only Space Marines, only Guardsmen - it lets one party mix characters from across the setting: Guardsmen and Tech-Priests, Sisters of Battle and Rogue Traders, even an Aeldari Ranger or an Ork Kommando if the group agrees.

To keep that mix believable, the rulebook offers Frameworks: party concepts (a Rogue Trader's crew, an Inquisitor's warband, a squad on a mission) that explain why these particular people work together and steer which Archetypes fit.

Think of it Like an RPG Video Game

If you've played games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, you'll understand the concept. You're building a diverse team where each character brings unique skills:

• The Tank: Space Marine (or an Ogryn, from the Forsaken System Player's Guide) - shrugs off punishment
• The Tech Specialist: Tech-Priest - repairs, hacks and commands machines
• The Face: Rogue Trader - handles negotiations and has the ship
• The Sniper: Imperial Guardsman or Tempestus Scion - precision ranged combat
• The Support: Ministorum Priest - rallies allies with faith and fury

The Setting: The Great Rift and the Gilead System

The game is set after the opening of the Great Rift, a tear in reality that split the galaxy in two. The half beyond it, Imperium Nihilus, lost contact with Holy Terra: no reliable astropathic messages, no guaranteed reinforcements, no easy way home.

The rulebook's default setting is the Gilead System, a cluster of Imperial worlds stranded on the dark side of the Rift. Its key worlds give you a campaign's worth of variety on their own:

• Gilead Primus - the hive-world capital of the system
• Avachrus - a forge world of the Adeptus Mechanicus
• Ostia - an agri world feeding everyone else
• Nethreus - a knight world of noble houses and war machines
• Enoch - a shrine world, home to the faithful

Cut off and surrounded, Gilead has to defend itself with whatever heroes it has - which is where your characters come in. You can just as well set your game anywhere else in the galaxy; Gilead is simply a ready-made starting point.

A Short Publishing History

• 2018: Ulisses Spiele publishes the original Wrath & Glory core rulebook under licence from Games Workshop.
• May 2019: the licence moves to Cubicle 7.
• April 2020: Cubicle 7 releases a revised Wrath & Glory Core Rulebook, reworking character creation, Tiers and many rules.
• July 2020: Cubicle 7 publishes errata for the revised book.
• Since then: supplements such as the Forsaken System Player's Guide, Church of Steel, Redacted Records, Litanies of the Lost, the two Threat Assessment books and Aeldari: Inheritance of Embers, plus the free adventure Rain of Mercy.

This guide follows the Cubicle 7 revised core rulebook with its July 2020 errata. If you own the 2018 printing, expect differences: it used five Tiers, "Build Points" instead of XP, and "Soak" instead of Determination.

The Tier System: From Local Heroes to System-Wide Legends

Wrath & Glory uses a "Tier" system that sets the power level of the whole campaign. The revised core rulebook has four Tiers. Everyone builds their character for the campaign's Tier, starting with 100 XP × Tier, and each Archetype has a minimum Tier you need to play it. The book doesn't give the Tiers names, so the labels below are just descriptions.

Characters can rise through the Tiers by Ascension as a campaign goes on. A fifth Tier appears only in later supplements, not in the core rulebook.

Core Mechanics: Rolling with Wrath

The dice system is simple: you roll a pool of six-sided dice and count Icons. It's like playing Yahtzee, but with more explosions and heresy. The full rules are on the Core Mechanics page; here is the short version.

The Basic Roll

Dice Pool: Attribute + Skill (plus any bonus dice)
Each die: 1-3 = nothing, 4-5 = 1 Icon, 6 = Exalted Icon (counts as 2)
Difficulty Number (DN): the Icons you need - DN 3 is a typical test
Wrath Die: one die in every pool is a different colour
  - a 6 is a Wrath Critical: an Exalted Icon, +1 Glory for the party
  - a 1 is a Complication: something goes wrong, success or not
Shifting: spare Exalted Icons you don't need can buy extra effects

Why This System Works

Unlike systems where you roll one die and hope, Wrath & Glory lets you feel powerful by rolling handfuls of dice. It's like the difference between:

• Traditional RPG: "I need to roll 15 or higher on a d20" (binary success/failure)
• Wrath & Glory: "I'm rolling 8 dice, and every Icon past the DN can be shifted into something extra" (scalable success)

Three resources ride alongside the dice: each player's Wrath points (rerolls and small narrative edits), the party's shared Glory pool (bonus dice and damage), and the GM's Ruin.

The Factions: Know Your Allies and Enemies

The 40k universe is like a massive game of chess, if chess pieces could pray to dark gods and shoot laser beams. Here are the major players:

The core rulebook lets you play humans of the Imperium, Adeptus Astartes, Aeldari and Orks, with Chaos characters offered as an option for groups that want them.

Imperium of Man: The Crumbling Empire

Real World Analogy: The Roman Empire at its peak, but lasting 10,000 years and ruling a million worlds instead of the Mediterranean.

Key Features:

• Fanatically religious (worship the God-Emperor)
• Technologically stagnant (innovation is heresy)
• Bureaucratically nightmarish (think DMV times a trillion)
• Militaristically focused (there is only war, after all)

Chaos: The Enemy Within

Real World Analogy: Every corrupt politician, every war profiteer, every person who chooses personal gain over the greater good - but with literal daemons.

Chaos isn't just an enemy you fight with guns; it's a corruption that can turn your best friend into your worst nightmare. In the game it is tracked as Corruption, which builds up as characters are exposed to the Warp.

Creating Your First Character: The Short Version

Character creation is like building a LEGO minifigure, but each piece comes with a detailed backstory and psychological trauma. The Character Creation page walks through it in full; in outline:

1. Tier and Framework: the group agrees the campaign's Tier and what kind of party it is
2. Archetype: your role (Imperial Guardsman, Tech-Priest, Ork Boy...), which also sets your Species and your faction
3. Spend XP: 100 × Tier XP on Attributes, Skills and Talents
4. Keywords: tags like IMPERIUM or ADEPTA SORORITAS, plus bracketed choices such as [ORDER] or [REGIMENT]
5. Background, Wargear and Traits: your faction's story options, your starting gear, and derived numbers such as Defence and Wounds

Practical Applications: When to Use Wrath & Glory

Perfect For:

• Military Science Fiction: Your group loves Starship Troopers, Aliens, or Halo
• Dark Fantasy: You want magic and monsters, but with grimdark aesthetics
• Team-Based Campaigns: Each player has a distinct role and specialty
• Heroic Underdogs: Fighting against impossible odds with faith and fury

Campaign Themes That Work Well:

• Inquisition Cell: Investigating heresy and corruption (think X-Files meets Medieval Inquisition)
• Rogue Trader Crew: Exploring the unknown reaches of space (Firefly meets Warhammer)
• Imperial Guard Squad: Soldiers fighting for survival (Band of Brothers in space)
• Mixed Warband: Unlikely allies united by necessity (Guardians of the Galaxy, but grimdark)

Try It at the Table

1. Faction Relations Map

Sketch a relationship diagram showing how different 40k factions interact. Use the Imperium as your central point and map out:

• Who fights whom
• Temporary alliances
• Internal conflicts

2. Pitch Three Characters

For a Tier 2 game, pick three Archetypes from Tier 1 or 2 and give each a one-line concept:

1. A combat specialist
2. A social character
3. A technical expert

3. Roll Some Pools

Roll these pools (one die is the Wrath die) and count Icons: 4-5 = 1, 6 = 2.

• Easy task: 3 dice against DN 1
• Standard task: 5 dice against DN 3
• Hard task: 6 dice against DN 5

Note any Exalted Icons you could shift, and what a 1 or a 6 on the Wrath die would mean.

4. Campaign Pitch

Write a one-paragraph pitch for a Wrath & Glory campaign. Include:

• The setting (a world of the Gilead System, or somewhere of your own)
• The threat (what enemy are the characters facing)
• The tone (heroic, investigation, survival horror, etc.)
• Why the characters work together (your Framework)

Key Takeaways

Next up: Character Creation, where you'll spend your XP, pick an Archetype and work out the numbers on your sheet.