In 2023, Games Workshop re-released the first edition (titled Rogue Trader) of Warhammer 40,000 to celebrate the game's 30-ish year anniversary. I bought a copy and I've read it all the way through, and I've been reviewing it chapter by chapter. This post covers the final "chapter" called Summary.
The book's summary section features an excellent cheatsheet so that you have quick access to all the rules while you play. White Dwarf magazine published a cheatsheet for 10th edition back when it was released, and the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness box shipped with 2 cheatsheets (one for each player!). Cheatsheets are great. No matter how often I play a game, I love having a cheatsheet because I play a lot of games and sometimes rules get mixed up or lost in my head. I love that even the 1st edition of Warhammer 40,000 had the good sense to provide a way to reference rules quickly.
After the cheatsheet, Summary swiftly transforms into a repository for, I guess, all the stuff the book forgot to cover elsewhere. Not to be indiscreet, but that's not the meaning of the word "summary". A summary is meant to be reiteration, in an abbreviated form, of information previously provided. But there's a bunch of extra content here that obviously should have been in a lore section.
There's a page about the Adepta Sororitas, the all-female fighting force of the Adeptus Ministorum. (Oh yeah, and the Adeptus Ministorum exists.) I love the description of the Adepta Sororitas, which clearly positions them as uncontrollable zealots who descend on whatever society they suspect aren't sufficiently pious. It's the perfect justification for sending your Adepta Sororitas army into battle against a space marines army, or against the Adeptus Mechanicus, or any other faction that, on paper, you'd think would be an ally.
There are a few pages containing seemingly random notes about the language of the Imperium (called "Tech", not "Gothic" as it is now), and about the state of technology and the loss of the scientific method. The standard template construct (STC) is defined, and atomic-level microprocessors (a "stack") is revealed. A brief timeline of the Imperium is also provided, from the Dark Age to the current game setting.
Last but not least, there are blast templates for grenades and other explosives, and player tokens. You can cut these templates and tokens out and use them in a sample game of Battle at the farm, which is endearingly pragmatic.
The heading for the timeline of the Imperium is this:
Timeline of the Rogue Trader universe
It's not the "Warhammer 40,000 universe", but the "Rogue Trader universe". It makes me wonder whether Games Workshop, at the time, thought they'd invented a game called Rogue Trader, only to discover that fans (and maybe staff, who knows?) decided that "Warhammer 40,000" was more descriptive.
It wouldn't surprise me because, while there are mentions of rogue traders, this game is not obviously about rogue traders. I wonder if the expectation of the game designer was that people would play a motley crew of rogue traders, going on adventures among the stars and battling dangerous aliens while also dodging the rough-and-tumble authorities of the Imperium, like Firefly or Star Wars.
If that was the intent, then this book doesn't accurately communicate it. The cover art is all space marines. Much of the interiour art is space marines and Imperium. The sample game is space marines against orks. There's no deference given to the rogue traders, no positioning of the rogue trader retinue as the intended starting army.
Rogue Trader very much comes across as a toolbox, with lots of options and no guidance on where you're supposed to begin. There's barely guidance on how to play. I've finished reading the book cover to cover and I couldn't tell you what a Games Master is supposed to do according to the rulebook.
In short, Rogue Trader utterly fails to communicate how potential players are meant to interface with the game rules, but with the benefit of hindsight I have to accept that it wasn't a problem. Maybe it worked because the people reading Rogue Trader were already familiar with how Warhammer was played. Maybe it worked because the audience was young enough to ignore the lack of instruction, and just made their own fun. Maybe it worked because there were Games Workshop stores to provide guidance to the small audience of players that existed back in 1987. Maybe it worked because gamers then are different from gamers now, and were happy to fill in gaps left by official rulebooks.
Whatever the reasons, Warhammer 40,000 is still played today. Its core mechanics haven't even changed. Rick Priestley and Games Workshop designed a good game, and arguably an even better setting, and they've very wisely allowed it to thrive.
Rogue Trader isn't essential reading. Pick up the latest edition of Warhammer 40,000 and you basically get the same thing. It's still a healthy mix of lore, rules, painting tips, and proud photos of miniatures. It was an interesting read, though. If you're curious about how far Warhammer 40,000 hasn't come in the past 30+ years, then looking over Rogue Trader can be interesting. I'm happy for Games Workshop to maintain the status quo, slowly orbiting around the dystopian Rogue Trader universe, and making fun gaming material for players to enjoy.