Cubicle 7 Announces New Horus Heresy RPG for Warhammer

Cubicle 7 is expanding their line of Warhammer TTRPGs with a new RPG set during the Horus Heresy. During last week's Warhammer Relics announcement event, Cubicle 7 announced that they were developing a new Horus Heresy RPG, set to launch in 2026. The Horus Heresy is one of the defining events of Warhammer 40K lore, and saw the famous Space Marine legions of the Imperium of Man engage in a bloody civil war. The Horus Heresy ended with the mortal wounding of the Emperor, which led to him being placed inside a massive supercomputer sarcophagus known as the Golden Throne, and led to the extreme stagnation of the Imperium that lasts until the present day.

One notable twist in this new RPG is that players will create two characters - a primary character that acts as a Consul within a Space Marine corps, and a secondary character that holds a specialty occupation. Players can swap between characters when their respective particular skills are needed.

Pre-orders for The Horus Heresy: The Roleplaying Game will start this summer, with a core rulebook and starter kit going on sale in 2026.

 

[schneeland]

There was no reason the Old World couldn’t have been a setting update - as could Horus Heresy. Colour me cynical but I think they just sell more core and early books and it requires less creativity because they churn out variations on the same formula.

Well, yes and no. I think this highly depends on whether you are a fan of WFRP or not.
For me, the new streamlined rules were the main reason why I bought the TOW RPG. Had it been a setting book for WFRP 4e, I might eventually have bought it, but might also have waited until it reaches "the bundle stage". And based on the reactions I have seen so far, I'm not the only one who found the 4e rules too fiddly for their tastes.
I'm not sure how the HH RPG will relate to IM, but if they take a similar approach, I might actually have a look, even though I don't find 30k too interesting for RPG purposes.

 

[TheSword]

Well, yes and no. I think this highly depends on whether you are a fan of WFRP or not.
For me, the new streamlined rules were the main reason why I bought the TOW RPG. Had it been a setting book for WFRP 4e, I might eventually have bought it, but might also have waited until it reaches "the bundle stage". And based on the reactions I have seen so far, I'm not the only one who found the 4e rules too fiddly for their tastes.
I'm not sure how the HH RPG will relate to IM, but if they take a similar approach, I might actually have a look, even though I don't find 30k too interesting for RPG purposes.

I would be fine with that. It doesn’t feel like a simpler version of 4e though. It uses a completely different mechanical approach to resolution, dice pool. Which I think is a shame. That said I convert from Pathfinder and D&D to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay so I’m sure TOW will not be a burden.

I actually think HH is more frustrating because IM is already simplified and W&G sits for those that want a dice pool. IM also a fledgeling system. Relatively untested, no adventure anthology or published campaign support even 3-4 years in. I think they should be bringing that along more.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I think IM has some promise. We'll have to see how the focus groups on the different aspects of play besides inquisitorial acolytes play out though.

Having bought IM, I kind of wish it had had a narrower focus and more support for that focus. They give you the basic tools to support a wide variety of groups of pretty competent but like, basically S3 T3 WS3 BS4 W1 LD8-type imperial servants, but building a campaign seemed like pretty damn hard work, and they covered enough possibilities that none of them got quite as much time as one might hope.

Y'know, I kind of wish we had like, Mothership 40K, i.e. tons of adventures to push some poor little human 40K people though. Creating the rules would be the easy bit though, writing all the adventures would be the harder one.

 

[schneeland]

I would be fine with that. It doesn’t feel like a simpler version of 4e though. It uses a completely different mechanical approach to resolution, dice pool. Which I think is a shame.

Well, for me, dice pools are always a plus . And maybe, by mechanically bringing the game closer to the wargame, it will lure a few people over who haven't tried TTRPGs so far.

 

[BigZebra]

Y'know, I kind of wish we had like, Mothership 40K, i.e. tons of adventures to push some poor little human 40K people though. Creating the rules would be the easy bit though, writing all the adventures would be the harder one.

That would be amazing.

 

[Bae'zel]

Y'know, I kind of wish we had like, Mothership 40K, i.e. tons of adventures to push some poor little human 40K people though. Creating the rules would be the easy bit though, writing all the adventures would be the harder one.

I'd love to have something like this. Basically running average 40K people through cramped, awful places full of cultists, zombies, aliens, daemons etc....

Hives, ruins, bowels of ships, space hulks etc...

Chased by Hellraiser Drukhari, escaping a Necron Tomb, etc etc

Mothership 40K would be fantastic, especially if rules-agnostic enough to be re-used in other systems (Dark Heresy, Wrath & Glory, IM etc...).

 

[Autumnal]

I would be all over that.

 

[humble minion]

I've just started on my HH reading journey.
I've cobbled together this list from various forum posts and YT videos on both reading order and "must-read" novels in the series. Going by the GoodReads ratings, I seem to cover the good-stuff.

Any further recommendations?

Without analysing it TOO deeply, that's a pretty solid starting list. The only really obvious ones I can see missing are:

• The Buried Dagger. Not a particularly good book, but it has Mortarion's ascension to daemonhood in it (spoiler alert!), so you might want to read it for completeness
• Angels of Caliban. Again, not a great book (WHY do they keep letting Gav Thorpe write the Dark Angels?), but it's integral to the Unremembered Empire/Ruinstorm sequence and to Sanguinius's eventual return to Terra, and a lot of stuff won't make sense without it.

It kinda depends what you want out of your reading. With the caveats above, this is a good listing if you just want to follow the 'main' plotline. You're going to miss details in other books of course (Vulkan's arc would be particularly confusing with the above reading order), and miss some good reads. Shattered Legions is good for a picture of how the Raven Guard/Iron Hands/Salamanders cope after Istvaan, The Crimson King and Fury of Magnus are also excellent reads, but likewise peripheral to the main story so are skippable if that's your jam. And of course if you're a big fan of a particular legion then you'll want to read all the stuff about them (and if it's the Raven Guard, Salamanders, or Dark Angels, then you have my sympathies)

The only other note is that there's also some stuff hidden in short story anthologies that is pretty required reading from a main plotline point of view. Off the top of my head there'd be The Crimson Fist, Savage Weapons, Prince of Crows, The Reflection Crack'd which I'd view as pretty necessary to the main plot (I can't tell you what anthologies they're in, off the top of my head), but I've been reading this series for a LONG time and stuff blurs together a bit, and I'm 100% sure that there'd be others I can't put a name to right now.