Repositorium für die Medienwissenschaft

Robert Baumgartner
»In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only
War«. WARHAMMER 40,000, Transmedial Ludology,
and the Issues of Change and Stasis in Transmedial
Storyworlds
2015
https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/16489

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Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation:

Baumgartner, Robert: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«. WARHAMMER 40,000,
Transmedial Ludology, and the Issues of Change and Stasis in Transmedial Storyworlds. In: IMAGE.
Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft. Themenheft zu Heft 22, Jg. 11 (2015), Nr. 2, S. 36–
53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/16489.

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 Robert Baumgartner

»In the Grim Darkness of the Far

Future there is only War«.
Warhammer 40,000, Transmedial
Ludology, and the Issues of Change
and Stasis in Transmedial
Storyworlds

Abstract

Warhammer 40,000 (or Warhammer 40k) is a science fantasy tabletop war

game set in a dystopian vision of the 41st millennium, with a xenophobic and
fascist galaxy-spanning ›Imperium of Man‹ fighting in numerous never-
ending wars against various inhuman opponents, among them transdimen-
sional demons, ancient robots and swarms of planet-eating bugs. Since its
release in 1987, the game has become one of the most successful tabletop
brands and has given birth to numerous spinoffs in the form of (more than
120) novels, pen-and-paper role-playing games, comics, and video games.
This article acts as an introduction to the complex structure of this particular
transmedial franchise, but also explores the consequences of a ludic ›mother
ship‹ for further transmedial extensions: as players experience the world by
simulative means, they gain a unique ›empirical‹ approach to the facts of the
world, which will influence their further dealings with other elements of the
storyworld, be it a game, a novel, or a comic. Using a ludological approach,
the article then attempts to find the common structural elements shared be-
tween the games of the Warhammer 40,000 brand, thus opening the way for
further explorations from the perspective of a transmedial ludology. Further-

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Robert Baumgartner: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«

more, it sheds light on the franchise’s attempts to advance its storyline with
the collective help of fans and players of the original tabletop war game
›mother ship‹, in the process revealing a conflict between the conception of
the transmedial storyworld as (mostly) static setting, on the one hand, and as
dynamic storyline, on the other.

1. Introduction to a ›Grimdark‹ Future

It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind
has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the
will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies.
He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology.
He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sac-
rificed every day so that he may never truly die. Yet even in his deathless state, the Em-
peror continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested mi-
asma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomi-
can, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in His name
on uncounted worlds […]. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off
the ever-present threat to humanity from aliens, heretics, mutants—and far, far worse.
To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruel-
est and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the
power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-
learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future
there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and
slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods. (FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES 2009: 12)

This quote, taken from the rulebook of the pen-and-paper role-playing game
Warhammer 40,000. Rogue Trader (2009), serves as a concise introduction to
one of the most extensive—and yet most underexplored—transmedial story-
worlds around: since its inception in 1987 as a tabletop war game, the War-
hammer 40,000 (shortened Warhammer 40k or WH40K) franchise has not
only become one of the most successful tabletop brands but also gave birth
to numerous ›satellites‹ (cf. JENKINS 2009) in the form of interdependent nov-
els, pen-and-paper role-playing games, comics, best-selling video games, 1
and a massive community of fan fiction writers and artists. 2 The tabletop
›mother ship‹ (cf. JENKINS 2009) and its complex medial hybridity between
ludic rule-based gameplay (termed ›crunch‹ by players) and narrative ›fluff‹ is
of great interest to both scholars of game studies and narratologists, whereas
each of the transmedial branch products would be worthy of investigation in
its own right. However, the little existing research that is concerned with
Warhammer 40,000 mostly focuses on design aspects of the original war
game: the works of Clim J. de Boer and Maarten H. Lamers (cf. DE BOER/
LAMERS 2004) or Steve Hinske and Marc Langheinrich (cf. HINSKE/LANGHEINRICH
2009) use Warhammer 40,000 as a more or less interchangeable example of a
tabletop war game system; their interest lies in the possible augmentation of

1
Cf. Warhammer Dawn of War (I, 2004/II, 2009), Warhammer 40,000. Space Marine (2011).
2
The most popular online repository for fan fiction, fanfiction.net, holds more than 3,200 War-
hammer 40,000 fan stories. Cf. https://www.fanfiction.net/game/Warhammer/ [accessed March 30,
2015].

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Robert Baumgartner: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«

non-digital tabletop games with digital tools and thus implicitly excludes
most narrative aspects of the game—including the potential conveyance of
meaning by iconic or indexical means. However, as the works of Saskia Bak-
ker and colleagues (cf. BAKKER et al. 2007) demonstrated, even a small change
in the design of miniatures from abstract to more iconic forms can signifi-
cantly alter the ways in which players contextualize the relation of these min-
iatures to each other and understand the game (cf. BAKKER et al. 2007: 163f.).
The works of Markus Carter, Martin Gibbs, and Mitchell Harrop (cf.
CARTER/GIBBS/HARROP 2013; 2014) acknowledge this fact: their analysis of the
possible enjoyment of the tabletop game is not limited to the basic game
rules and play pieces, but also examines the possible enjoyment gained from
the visual design of miniatures and (tabletop) battlefields, as well as the elab-
orate narratives about the fictional characters, armies, and locations that are
represented by the painted plastic and metal objects.
However, these inquisitive ludological investigations have not been
accompanied by narratological approaches—despite the variety of narrative
styles, genres, and tropes employed not just in the tabletop war game itself,
but in the creation of a complex transmedial universe whose specific ethos
has inspired the widely used online neologism ›grimdark‹ (referring to ex-
tremely bleak, dark, and nihilistic fictional settings and situations). 3 It is my
hypothesis that this hesitation can be explained by two central factors: first,
the fact that the narrative of Warhammer 40,000 is deeply rooted in genre
literature, primarily ›soft‹ science fiction and heroic fantasy—genres that are
still strongly associated with triviality and cannot offer an institutional sup-
port network for interested scholars in the humanities. Second, the fact that a
large proportion of the narrative content of the transmedial ›storyworld‹ of
Warhammer 40,000 is closely linked to various games (tabletop war games,
pen-and-paper role-playing games, video games of various genres). The main
way of fully ›unlocking‹ this content is by playing and analyzing these
games—an undertaking that not only takes a lot of time but also requires
individuals to be competent gamers as well as trained game studies scholars.
However, these harsh requirements are offset by the richness of a transmedi-
al franchise that is not only extremely complicated but also strongly based on
a ludic component, both in its ›mother ship‹ and its transmedial extensions:
as players experience the world by simulative means, they gain a unique
›empirical‹ approach to the facts of the world, which will influence their fur-
ther dealings with other elements of the storyworld, be it a game, a novel, or
a comic. For this reason, the present article is not just intended as an intro-
duction to the transmedial franchise and its unexplored narrative aspects but
also as a case study for the productive combination of narratological and
ludological approaches in the study of transmedial research objects.

3
Cf. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/grimdark [accessed March 30, 2015].

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Robert Baumgartner: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«

2. Origin. A Tabletop War Game ›Mother Ship‹

The setting depicts the society of the 41st Millennium (i.e., 39.000 years in the
future) as a totalitarian empire that is teetering on the brink of collapse: from
the outside, it is challenged by numerous powerful alien species, like the de-
monic forces of Chaos, planet-eating swarms of insectoid monsters called
Tyranids, or the Necrons, ancient mechanoids that have risen from their eon-
spanning slumber to reclaim their lost empire. From within, the regressive
Imperium is threatened by bureaucratic incompetence, superstition, rebellion,
mutation, and subversive Chaos cults. Life is cheap: soldiers die by the bil-
lions, whole worlds are swallowed by cosmic storms or ripped apart by de-
monic forces, and imperial citizens spend their short lives toiling away for the
glory of the comatose Emperor—who, before being mortally wounded by his
traitorous son in a galactic civil war, attempted to unify mankind in a techno-
logically as well as socially progressive secular civilization. Now, his corpse-
like body is venerated as a god by a giant church apparatus (the Ecclesiarchy)
and presides over an empire that only survived the ten millennia of his ab-
sence as a calcified husk strife with cruelty, ignorance, and religious fervor.
However, the game also suggests that a more open and permissive empire
might long have fallen to the numerous enemies of mankind: when even so-
phisticated AIs are easily corrupted by powerful Chaos Gods created and sus-
tained by the collective subconscious, a society tends to get more distrustful
of technology.
With most of the conflicts in the setting being fought by irreconcilable
factions and ideologies, peace negotiations are unusual events and mostly
only temporal breaks that allow the negotiating sides to attack a third faction.
The origin of this bleak and nihilistic future, where futuristic technology
clashes with archaic beliefs, where »there is only war« (the mantra and
›ethos‹ of Warhammer 40,000, cf. FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES 2009: 12) can be
traced back to the rulebook of a niche game called Rogue Trader (1987). A
hybrid of different tabletop game genres, Rogue Trader provided both com-
plex rules for small- and medium-scale war games fought with small (28mm
scale) plastic/lead miniatures and a rich futuristic setting that established the
narrative background for the various involved factions. The British develop-
ing company Games Workshop originally envisioned Rogue Trader/War-
hammer 40,000 as a less expensive4 and more humoristic science fiction ver-
sion of their established fantasy war game Warhammer (cf. HOARE 2011), but
the demand of players for a game that could be played at larger tournaments
as well as the positive feedback to the darker elements of the settings led to
the development of the Warhammer 40,000 that we know today.
Players of the tabletop game choose one of the numerous factions—
either due to its mechanical characteristics, its narrative background, its visu-

4
The game was designed for the use of ›proxies‹, i.e., improvised miniatures that did not have an
iconic relation to the referred fictional character, such as sugar cubes as stand-ins for fearsome
super soldiers.

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al aesthetic, or a combination of these factors (cf. HARROP/CARTER/GIBBS 2014:

5). They then start assembling their army out of the 20 to 40 different units
that are included in the ›codex‹ (a 50+-page document combining a mechani-
cal unit and army list with narrative descriptions and characterization) of their
faction. Players then purchase miniatures representing individual infantry-
men, tanks, or larger units like bipedal war machines, artillery units, or mas-
sive demons—with the cost of unassembled and unpainted tanks usually
hovering around 60 US$ and that of even larger models going up to 100 US$,
fielding a whole army can be seen as a considerable investment. Players then
paint and modify the miniatures to their individual liking or based on narra-
tive ›fluff‹—another investment, as many players report that painting an army
usable for tournaments usually takes up to 100 hours (cf. CARTER/GIBBS/HARROP
2014: 136).
Each miniature or group of miniatures has specific characteristics that
define its options and value in battle. An example: a ›Khorne Berserker‹, nar-
ratively characterized as a bloodthirsty warrior driven into a rage by his chaos
god, receive the following special characteristics: »Fearless, Furious Charge,
Rage, Counter Attack, […] two weapon attacks«5—even without grasping the
exact mechanical consequences of each rule, players can see that Khorne
Berserkers are best used as brutal melee fighters (which is affirmed by the
design of their miniatures: every unit wears heavy armor and a horned hel-
met while wielding a massive axe). Each of the ›stats‹ (i.e., mechanical char-
acteristics) influences the gameplay itself: units with better statistics are more
effective, but also have a higher point value (which limits the size of armies),
thus making them more expensive to field. For a match involving two or
more players, each player will select models from his or her own collection
matching a previously agreed upon point value. The battle is then fought on a
table space of 6" by 4" (1.82m x 1.22m) that is often decorated with elaborate
set pieces and terrain, representing the fictional landscapes of the 41st mil-
lennium as much as mechanically relevant topography that defines cover,
movement rates, and height levels.
Although the rulebooks and codices usually dedicate a third of their
pages to the narrative background and characterization of units and factions
(mixing fictional diaries, bureaucratic reports, hagiographies, or songs with
evocative images that blend medieval church paintings, romanticist, and
Heavy Metal imagery), it has to be noted that this elaborate narrative uni-
verse is barely present in the gameplay itself: its ludic pleasures lie, among
others (like the painting of miniatures and social interaction with other play-
ers, cf. CARTER/GIBBS/HARROP 2014: 123), in the proper planning and execution
of strategic actions that will decimate the opponent’s army and ensure victory.
The fictional universe or ›fluff‹—a term that emphasizes the ornamental char-
acter of its referent—is used as inspiration for custom army designs or match
environments, but is not functionalized in the gameplay itself: players do not

5
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Chaos_Space_Marines%287E%29#Elites
[accessed March 30, 2015].

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need to know why their Space Marine army is fighting the mysterious Eldar
on an icy moon, but the studies of Carter and colleagues among tournament
players indicate that the coherent integration of tabletop matches in the nar-
rative framework of the storyworld can function as another source of enjoy-
ment offered by the pastime (cf. CARTER/GIBBS/HARROP 2014: 139).

3. Charting a Transmedial Universe

3.1 The Storyworld of the 41st Millennium. Narrative

Media
In the decades following its original release, Warhammer 40,000 did not only
turn into one of the most successful tabletop brands but also became one of
the most expansive transmedial franchises in Western popular culture—both
from the perspective of transmedial narratology and from that of an as-of-yet
unestablished transmedial ludology.
Let us start, then, with an examination of the well-established concept
of the (narrative) storyworld—i.e., a framework that contains the ›existents‹,
events, and settings which mark stories among various narrative media as
referring to the same fictional world (cf. RYAN 2014: 25). While the rulebook
for the first edition of Warhammer 40,000 had outlined the storyworld of the
41st millennium in broad strokes, the rulebooks for the following editions
expanded the world massively, both in breadth (more factions, more units,
more sectors of the galaxy) and depth (more nuances and groups within var-
ious factions, more historical details). Separately published supplements and
expansions not only provided players with more options to customize their
armies and battles but also included more background information and new
regiments that were tuned to the theme of the expansion (urban warfare,
planetary invasions, fortifications, etc.). Between new rulebooks and expan-
sions, more details were gradually added in the form of maps, short stories,
and artworks in Games Workshop’s own magazines White Dwarf (1977– ) or
Inferno! (1997–2004) as well as in established gaming periodicals like Citadel
Journal (1985–2002).
Soon after the release of the first edition, Games Workshop also start-
ed publishing novels set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. They depict
many of the important events in the 10 millennia following the great civil war
that brought the human Imperium to the verge of ruin. While many novels
stay close to the most well-known elements of the setting (transhuman elite
troops/battle monks called Space Marines fighting an assortment of aliens or
heretics), others shed light on the life and experience of marginalized or oth-
erized factions and individuals:

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The Ciaphas Cain series follows the exploits of an Imperial commissar (a

role similar to a Soviet politcommissar) who survives in the grim
darkness of future battlefields despite suicidal orders, overwhelming
adversaries, and a lack of resources by skill, cowardice, and sheer luck.
The Gaunt’s Ghosts series depicts the life of a unit of regular Imperial
guardsmen (one of the weakest units in the tabletop game, whose
powerless laser rifle is nicknamed ›flashlight‹ by players) who do their
best to survive their role as cannon fodder in the fight against immor-
tal robots and demonic monstrosities.
The Night Lords series of novels is dedicated to a legion of Chaos Space
Marines, i.e., a faction of corrupted super soldiers on an eternal cru-
sade against civilization; the novels discuss their motives in some de-
tail, attempting to humanize a faction that is usually depicted as una-
pologetically amoral.
The Path of the Eldar sheds light on the ways of the mysterious Eldar
species, whose unpredictable actions are shown to be dictated by an-
cient prophecies and eon-spanning plans to save their dwindling
numbers from extinction.
Ravenor features the heavily disabled psyker 6 Gideon Ravenor, who, de-
spite being bound to a life support chair, is still sent out into the bat-
tlefields of the future with a retinue of (more or less) loyal allies.

Today, the company’s publishing branch Black Library provides more than
120 Warhammer 40,000 novels and novellas, all of which are considered
›canon‹ (i.e., authentic contributions to the storyworld). Events of novellas are
referenced in the rulebooks and popular characters from the novels have
been offered as miniatures for the tabletop war game. 7
At the same time, Games Workshop authorized the creation of nu-
merous Warhammer 40,000 comics and graphic novels, which were pub-
lished in various British comic magazines and, from 1998 to 2004, in War-
hammer Monthly, a monthly comic anthology. These comics and graphic
novels use their medial potential to enrich the storyworld, by either expand-
ing on the dark gothic imagery of the rulebook illustrations or by experiment-
ing with visual styles adapted from other genres (e.g., the anarchic British
2000 A.D. comic anthology [1977– ] known for the character Judge Dredd,
1990s super hero comics, Japanese manga) or romanticist painting.
The cinematic adaptation of Warhammer 40,000 seemed to be the
next step in the transmedial handbook, but despite numerous attempts (such
as the mediocre CGI DVD release Ultramarines. A Warhammer 40,000 Movie
[2010]8), a successful globally-released film with the Warhammer 40,000 li-
cense seems to remain far out of reach.

6
An individual with psychic abilities.
7
Cf. http://www.solegends.com/citblack/ [last accessed March 30, 2015].
8
With a 38% rating on rottentomatoes.com (cf. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ultramarines_
a_warhammer_40000_movie/ [accessed March 30, 2015]).

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3.2 A Case Study in Transmedial Ludology.

The Warhammer 40,000 Games
The fact that the Warhammer 40,000 universe has also been extended by
numerous games might not be surprising to attentive observers of trans-
medial franchises (cf. JENKINS 2003; 2004; 2006). Many of these ludic satellites
are following in the footsteps of the original tabletop war game: while the
games Epic Armageddon (1988– ) and Battlefleet Gothic (1999–2013) extend
the frame of conflicts from company-scaled clashes to mass combat between
regiments or even massive space battles between fleets, Necromunda
(1995– ), Space Hulk (1989– ), and Inquisitor (2001– ) explore small-scale
combat like gang fights in dystopian mega cities or even duels between pow-
erful individuals. Like the main game, each specialist game has its own rule-
book(s) with rules and narrative background information (again in various
narrative styles) on aspects of the setting that were previously only roughly
outlined, but not fully explored. At the same time, this information is added
to the »mythos« and »topos« (KLASTRUP/TOSCA 2004: n.pag.) of the storyworld
and is referenced in new editions of the main game’s rulebooks and novels.
Even more information is added by the transmedial integration of a
gaming genre that puts an even stronger emphasis on narrative aspects: dur-
ing the past decade, the gaming company Fantasy Flight Games has pub-
lished several successful pen-and-paper role-playing games that allow play-
ers to explore more aspects of the fictional universe by assuming the roles of
Space Marines (in Deathwatch [2010]), agents of the Holy Imperial Inquisition
(in Dark Heresy [2008]), privateering merchant princes (in Rogue Trader
[2009]), or even corrupted champions of Chaos (in Black Crusade [2011]). As
with many modern pen-and-paper role-playing games, these games still fea-
ture rule-defined combat between characters, but also require players to in-
tegrate themselves into the narrative world of the fictional setting in order to
solve social challenges—the story is no longer ornamental, but becomes a
core element of the game. To this end, the games feature voluminous rule-
books that dedicate even more pages to elaborate explanations of the social
and spatial structure of a previously unknown part of the fictional universe
than they spend on the combat rules, inventory data, and character building
information that make up the ›war gaming‹ parts of these games. 9
This transmedial enrichment continues in the numerous Warhammer
40,000 video games that have been published during the past 20 years: they,
too, feature visceral combat in all its forms as a central gameplay element—
be it in the form of planetary conquest in the real-time strategy series Dawn
Of War (2004–2010), or personal combat in the first- or third-person shooters
Fire Warrior (2003), Space Marine (2010), and Kill Team (2011). These games,
too, use their specific mediality (cf., e.g., JUUL 2005; THON 2007a; 2007b) to
contribute to the fictional universe: by mixing cinematic visuals and tradition-

9
The core rulebook of Rogue Trader spends more than 200 of its 400 pages on narrative descrip-
tions of the universe, its mechanics, and the places and people in a specific new sector of space
designed for the game (cf. FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES 2009).

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Robert Baumgartner: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«

al narration with partially or fully explorable virtual worlds and challenging

rule-based interaction, they manage to offer players new insights into the
world of Warhammer 40,000. Their stories do not only elaborate on existing
organizations and locations but also introduce new elements such as various
previously unmentioned planets, the new Space Marine chapter of the ›Blood
Ravens‹ (now featured in several novels), and individual characters (like the
Ork Warlord and fan-favorite Gorgutz ‘Ead ‘Unter). However, specific medial
characteristics of video games, such as the potential for nonlinear and mul-
tiperspectivic storytelling (cf. DEGLER 2009: 555), can complicate the integra-
tion of these new elements into the main storyworld: the Dawn of War games
Dark Crusade (2006), Soulstorm (2008), and Dawn of War II. Retribution (2011)
allow players to choose their protagonists among various factions in these
games’ singleplayer campaigns. With the main goal of all these games being
the termination of all opposing sides, this results in as many endings as there
are factions. But in Warhammer 40,000, as in most transmedial franchises,
there is only one officially recognized ›canon‹—i.e., only one version of events
that will be regarded as (fictionally) factual. In the case of Dark Crusade (and
its nine different endings), Games Workshop decided on a canonical ending
that nullified the eight other outcomes. It declared the Space Marines, the
storyworld’s trademark faction, the winners of the battle for planet Kronus—
however, to players that led other factions to victory after hours of interactive
engagement, ›their‹ victory will have seemed just as ›real‹.10

3.3 Simulative Contributions

While the application of established concepts of transmedial narratology (e.g.,
KLASTRUP/TOSCA 2004; RYAN 2014) to the analysis of those elements of various
game media that can be identified as ›narrative‹—either in the narrow sense
as referring to the use of oral and, to some degree, textual sign systems (cf.
GENETTE 1994: 15) or more broadly as referring to the use of audiovisual and
spatial sign systems—can produce positive results, its use for the analysis of
ludic/simulative elements that are fundamental parts of the specific mediality
of games in general and video games in particular is strictly limited. As de-
scribed by game studies scholars such as Gonzalo Frasca (cf. FRASCA 2003) or
Jan-Noël Thon (cf. THON 2006; 2007a; 2007b; 2009), (video) games can convey
meaning by various means: Thon lists narrative and ludic immersion as just
two ways (together with spatial and social immersion, cf. THON 2006: 126ff.) in
which games can engage players. Despite not explicitly ›narrating‹, the medi-
al elements involved in spatial, ludic or social immersion still use their own
sign systems to convey information to players—who will use this information
not only to make sense of the game’s rules but also of the game’s world as a
fictional place.

10
For details about the canonical ending, cf. http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Dawn_of_War_-
_Dark_Crusade [accessed March 30, 2015].

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Robert Baumgartner: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«

I will elaborate this thesis by taking a look at the ludic structure of the
various Warhammer 40,000 games: the original Warhammer 40,000 tabletop
war game as well as the various Warhammer 40,000 video games can be
described as ›ludic‹ games (cf. CAILLOIS 2001: 13)—i.e., structured play activi-
ties that are based on strict rules, which might be as simple as (virtual) gravi-
ty and as complex as the social etiquette of alien nobility. These rules govern
every possible action within the »magic circle« (HUIZINGA 1955: 10) of the
game—be it the 6" by 4" area of a table or the virtual representations of fic-
tional worlds or galaxies on the screen—and, thus, provide objects and char-
acters with specific features that can be identified by repeated exposition:
some objects might have more mass than others, some characters might be
faster or harder to vanquish. The original tabletop war game makes this ex-
plicit in the ›stats blocks‹ and point values of units: players know with empiri-
cal certainty that a Khorne Berserker will almost always defeat an Imperial
Guardsman in single combat—because they know the rules that govern the
world and can ascertain their validity every time they play the game. This
way of establishing empirical world rules is particularly interesting because it
might influence the way individuals discover a transmedial universe: it is like-
ly that individuals who start out as players of the tabletop war game will uti-
lize the empirical ›facts‹—i.e., the relative strength and strictly-defined charac-
teristics of units from the game—as the basis for their expectation of all other
media products that represent the same transmedial universe. This is espe-
cially relevant when such individuals are confronted with other ›satellite‹
games of the universe, such as the real-time strategy series Dawn of War or
the first-person shooter Fire Warrior: they will judge such satellites not only
by their narrative fidelity to the »mythos«, »topos«, and »ethos«
(KLASTRUP/TOSCA 2004: n.pag.) of the universe as established by the Warham-
mer 40,000 rulebooks but also by their adherence to the empirical facts and
balances of the gameplay itself. From this perspective, Dawn of War was pos-
itively received by many players of the tabletop war game, because, despite
slight alterations due to a different scale of battles, it mostly maintained the
balance of power of the original game: the units of the Eldar faction were still
mobile and fragile, Orks were still based on a concept of overwhelming me-
lee charges—and an Imperial Guardsman was still helpless against a charg-
ing Khorne Berserker.
In contrast, Fire Warrior was heavily criticized for the mechanical infi-
delity to its ludic ›mother ship‹: featuring a Tau Fire Warrior (i.e., the standard
infantry unit of the Tau faction with just slightly better stats than an Imperial
Guardsman) as its protagonist, it tasked the player and, as such, the humble
infantryman with taking on Imperial Guardsmen, insane cultists, and eventu-
ally even Chaos Space Marines—corrupted super soldiers with centuries of
combat experience and unholy weapons at their disposal—and had him kill
dozens if not hundreds of those elite soldiers without (too) much trouble.
While the game did not explicitly infringe on the topos, mythos, or ethos of
the Warhammer universe, then, it still disappointed players by breaking with

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Robert Baumgartner: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«

facts that they had—to some degree—experienced firsthand while playing the
›mother ship‹.11
And while many players were easily able to tell if a game was diverg-
ing from the simulative facts of the universe, they had more significant prob-
lems with properly verbalizing this divergence—for many, something simply
›felt‹ strange or wrong. This fall-back on emotional expressions should not be
understood as a failing of players, but as a hint at phenomena that are hard
to articulate, despite being virtually omnipresent in the activity of structured
play—and the key to understanding the distinct contribution of games for
transmedial franchises.
Scholars unacquainted with the discipline of game studies might face
serious challenges when asked to explain the aforementioned linguistic
vagueness, not to mention the task of exploring the specific ludic structures
that ›create‹ the emotional quality of various games. However, the discipline
of game studies can offer assistance: the fall-back to emotional responses in
conversations about gameplay experiences can be attributed to the specific
way in which simulative facts are acquired. Players are faced with a seeming-
ly interactive environment that demands their attention in similar ways to the
real world: judging distances, direction, and speed of numerous objects, rec-
ognizing patterns, and adapting their own reactions, they are involved in a
psychomotoric feedback loop that circumvents the more sophisticated cogni-
tive activities that are associated with narrative interpretations in favor of fast
motoric (re)actions (cf. THON 2008: 27f). The second point, i.e., the search for
the specific ludic structures involved in creating the emotional quality of vari-
ous games is an ongoing project in the field of game studies and has not yet
produced a comprehensive, uncontested theory, which is why I use an im-
provised list of ludic structures broadly based on the ideas of Roger Caillois
(cf. CAILLOIS 2001).
Looking at the breathtaking extent of the various game genres and in-
volved media in the Warhammer 40,000 ›gameworld‹ (a term meant to refer
to the ludic analogue of a primarily narrative storyworld), the search for
shared mechanical characteristics between games that feature duels between
individuals, platoon-sized battles, and fleet-scaled space combat may seem
rather likely to prove futile. Excluding the narrative aspects, at first sight, the
only commonalities appear to be certain visual characteristics (gothic and
cyberpunk imagery with a plethora of skulls) and the paramedial Warhammer
40,000 brand on the packaging. However, on closer inspection, one can find
several structural-mechanical similarities, as well:

 Agency: Players control one or several units with specific characteris-

tics; these units are mobile and able to interact with other units, either
by moving in immediate proximity or by distance. The interaction of

11
A discussion thread on the Warhammer 40,000 fan forum Dakkadakka lists more mechanical
problems such as different weapon characteristics or tactical behavior patterns of enemies. Cf.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/587577.page [accessed March 30, 2015].

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Robert Baumgartner: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«

units of different sides is influenced both by their characteristics and

random chance and eventually results in the removal of one or both
involved units from the roster of controllable units.
 Space: Units are influenced by their spatial position on a two or three-
dimensional playing field; their characteristics are positively or nega-
tively modified according to their position. Proximity and distance
thus result in significantly changed statistical relations. Movement
and positioning are tactically/ludically relevant.
 Time: All games use varying means (real-time, turn-based) to simu-
late the passing of time. Many but not all ludic goals are time-based
(i.e., have to be completed in a certain period of time), thus forcing
units to move and interact with each other. In order to win, both sides
will need to move their entities in such ways that ensure favorable in-
teraction results for their units (i.e., the removal of hostile units from
the playing field).
 Victory and Defeat: Victory is achieved when a) one side has no re-
maining units on the playing field, b) time runs out and one side has a
significant advantage in active units (quality or quantity), or c) a tacti-
cal goal has been achieved. Due to the way interactions work, a) and
b) naturally result in a high percentage of lost units for one or both
sides; although c) might theoretically be achieved without losses to ei-
ther side, the topography of the playing field usually make the interac-
tion of units an unavoidable prerequisite for its completion.

We can see that these characteristics—shared between the original tabletop

war game, Dawn of War, Rogue Trader, Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic, Fire
Warrior, and other Warhammer 40,000 games—produce games that favor
aggressive movement and intense close-quarter battles with a high loss ratio
for all involved sides; the addition of randomized events (powerful weapons
overheating and exploding, certain units going berserk and being lost to
player control) adds unpredictability and can change the odds of battle. The
ludic elements of these games seem to share a common »procedural rheto-
ric« (BOGOST 2008: 125) that conveys the impression of a stressful and dynam-
ic gameplay experience that forces players to use all available options—
including the sacrifice of individual units—to achieve their goals and win a
costly victory. This fits very well with the established topos, mythos, and
ethos of the narrative storyworld of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, where
millions of soldiers are thrown into the endless meat grinder of galaxy-wide
wars on a daily basis. As such, players of the games can gain an understand-
ing of the ›grimdark‹ world of the 41st millennium without ever being con-
fronted with an explicit story presented in text.
That is not to say that these shared characteristics form the full ludic
inventory of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. As with the game adaptation
Tales of the Borderlands (2014), which transforms the world of the vicious
and anarchic first-person shooter Borderlands (2010) into the background for

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a dialogue-based comedic adventure game, it might very well be possible to

adapt other aspects of the extensive Warhammer 40,000 universe into games
that are still recognizably part of the whole and ›feel‹ like Warhammer 40,000.
In fact, the well-received pen-and-paper role-playing games Rogue Trader
and Inquisition do not only provide players with the aforementioned ludic
mechanics of unit combat but also feature dialogue-based challenges that
task players with negotiating with Imperial officials, gang leaders, decadent
nobles, or even aliens—while still being considered adequately ›Warhammer
40,000-esque‹ due to the fact that these negotiations can have horrible ludic
and narrative results for players (such as the player characters being hunted
by the private army of an offended noble, being branded as heretics, or
nuked from orbit).
The presented hypothesis—i.e., that (video) games provide significant
media specific contributions to recipients’ understanding of transmedial sto-
ryworlds—entails consequences for the future relationship between trans-
media and game studies: if transmedia scholars accept that they can under-
stand the contribution of a medium in the center of contemporary transmedia
franchises (cf. KLASTRUP/TOSCA 2004) only in full by applying the methodolo-
gies and insights of game studies, the integration of at least the basic theo-
ries and approaches of game studies into the growing toolbox of trans-
media(l) studies becomes a sine qua non.

4. Collective Participation and the Specter of Change

The transmedial franchise of Warhammer 40,000 provides another fascinat-

ing case study for an issue that affects most transmedial franchises to various
degrees: the dichotomous nature of the storyworld between static setting and
dynamic storyline (cf. JENKINS 2007).
As roughly outlined on the previous pages, the whole topos, mythos,
and ethos of Warhammer 40,000 revolves around the concept of an eternal
stalemate: during the 28 years of its existence, more than a thousand years
have passed in the Warhammer 40,000 universe—and war still rages on,
without any side gaining a substantial advantage against its opponents.
Games Workshop, the developing studio of the game, has done its best to
safeguard this status quo, despite numerous threats, many of them inherent
to any expanding narrative: as the fictional universe grows and more events,
locations, and characters are introduced, the narrative tends to gain a life of
its own. The different novels, comics, and short stories depict new conflicts
and wars that are not always resolved in a way that maintains the carefully
safeguarded status quo of an Imperium that is barely holding up on various
fronts; most saliently, the successful novel series of the Black Library (e.g.,
Ghaunt’s Ghosts or Ciaphas Cain) tend to escalate the threats to their Imperi-
al heroes until the represented conflicts affect planets, systems, and galactic

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Robert Baumgartner: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«

sectors. And, although many stories usually end with a relatively balanced
outcome (for example, an old artifact that empowered a Chaos invasion army
is destroyed in a brutal battle that nullifies its prior ›imbalancing‹ effects), this
process still leaves scars—on the intradiegetic characters and locations as
well as on the narrative canon itself. Due to the integration of most events
into canon, the individually small changes and consequences of small-scale
conflicts eventually add up to the picture of an empire that is no longer able
to reliably generate the necessary resources and troops to maintain its army.
An example: The repeated and exact documentation of the limited size of
every Space Marine Chapter (1000 marines per chapter, 1000 chapters in all)
was not a problem—until almost every novel featured the demise of whole
platoons or companies of these super soldiers for reasons of plot develop-
ment. The same happens with the constant raiding or even destruction of
planets and whole sectors: many important parts of the fictional universe
have been devastated without a chance for short- or medium-term restora-
tion, bringing the Imperium ever closer to its doom.
This problem was intensified by another specific feature of Warham-
mer 40,000: the war game gained popularity for its irregularly scheduled
global campaigns, which saw thousands of players participating in special
matches, battling for the control of fictional fronts in the Warhammer 40,000
universe. The results of registered matches between individual opponents
were added together and were used to determine the campaign’s outcome—
and with it the face of the storyworld in future editions. This opportunity for
fans to directly affect the future position of their preferred faction in the fic-
tional universe turned out to be very attractive and global campaigns were
eagerly anticipated by players all around the world. Global campaigns
launched before 2003 were focused on small segments of the fictional uni-
verse (i.e., the struggle for an individual planet) and heavily predetermined by
the event rules, so their possible consequences would be limited. This
changed with the most recent great global campaign, called the 13th Black
Crusade: its battlefield was the region around the so-called Eye of Terror, a
giant portal to the malicious dimension of the ›Warp‹. As the gateway for a
potentially endless invasion force from another dimension, this region is not
only a central node for various narrations (almost everybody who enters and
leaves the Warp does so through the Eye of Terror), but also of central im-
portance for the balance of power in the Warhammer 40,000 universe: as
long as the forces of the Imperium still control the fortress world of Cadia and
its surroundings, the demonic forces of Chaos are held at bay.
During the next eight weeks, more than 40,000 players (separated into
two teams) submitted more than a quarter of a million game results on the
campaign website, each and every battle minimally influencing the overall
result. The campaign’s outcome was a massive blow for the Imperium—and
for the writers of Games Workshop: due to unexpected global collaboration
and success of Chaos players, many sectors and planets around the Eye were
lost, only Cadia, the sectors’ main fortress world, stayed under Imperial con-

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Robert Baumgartner: »In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only War«

trol. This led to a problem: the massive loss of men, territory, and resources
dealt a brutal blow to the Imperium and made it more and more difficult to
maintain the fictional balance of power. The extensive documentation of all
armies, resources, and events—usually a strength of the setting—now acted
as a massive obstacle to maintain the status quo: if the ›factual‹ 13th Black
Crusade was to be implemented, many established regiments were to be
wiped out, resulting in an avalanche of further changes.
With the results published on the campaign website and the pressure
to integrate them in the Warhammer 40,000 canon mounting, Games Work-
shop was in an unfortunate predicament. For the time being, the designers
decided to postpone the implementation: the apocalyptic events and system-
threatening consequences of the 13th Black Crusade were not integrated into
the history of the 41st millennium—yet. But even without them, the threats to
the status quo had become too large to ignore. During the past 10 years, the
new rulebooks have subtly hinted that the transmedial universe of Warham-
mer 40,000 is facing a prophesied ›Time of Ending‹. With the mysterious
Necrons waking from their million-years-sleep on their tomb-worlds, the life-
sustaining ›Golden Throne‹ of the Emperor finally failing, and a giant extra-
galactic Tyranid invasion fleet approaching, the 13th Black Crusade becomes
just one apocalyptic rider among many.
It is now increasingly likely that the storyworld of Warhammer 40,000
will sooner or later follow the example set by its co-existing ›cousin‹ War-
hammer Fantasy, which, in its 8th edition, officially entered an apocalyptic
age. A global campaign similar to the 13th Black Crusade was supposed to
usher in a new balance of power in favor of Chaos—but the designers’ plans
were disrupted because Chaos players were utterly defeated. Still, Games
Workshop continued with the realization of an apocalyptic age that saw the
death of almost all known characters, the destruction of several factions, and
the unexpected fusion of others—until a chaos rift destroyed the whole planet
and killed every one that had survived the plagues, the impact of magical
asteroids, and gods fighting openly in the mortal world. However, transmedi-
al worlds have a certain immortality of their own—the last book ended with a
mysterious figure floating in the void starting the creation of a new world.
Thus, the apocalypse of Warhammer Fantasy paved the way for the
reboot of a storyworld that had become overly complicated and unwelcom-
ing to newcomers—a description that could very well be applied to War-
hammer 40,000, as well. Further observation of the background information
contained in rulebooks—which, in the 7th edition (2015), also continue to
point in the direction of galactic doom—might provide a fascinating case
study of the narrative strategies that designers employ to prepare the reboot
of a transmedial franchise.

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