Blue Orange
Gone to Texas
Hilarious (terrible?) that they actually felt the need to specifically call this out!
The number of time's I've had to point out that the Imperium is actually the bad guy, is mind boggling, but as you say, here we are.
Thing is, there is no 'good guy' in WH40K, and the Imperium is the only human faction. All the other factions are trying to kill humans (just like the Imperium is trying to kill them). If you actually met anyone from WH40K, only the Imperium might not try to kill you. (It's the Trope Namer for 'grimdark', after all--IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE, THERE IS ONLY WAR!)
I'm told they started it in the 1980s to make fun of Thatcher.
Still, let's be honest. There's a certain part of a lot of us that wants to be evil and militaristic and destroy the enemy. It's the reason we have sports leagues (though I'm told those get violent sometimes in some countries...) and shooter video games. Better we do it with Warhammer minis than in reality, and there are no real Eldar, Orks, or Daemons who might get targeted.
Now if people are showing up as actual Nazis at your con, yeah, that's a problem. Though I've read old issues of Dragon, and apparently wargamers had this problem even back then. Frankly, fantasy battles obviate one of the problems people had with Axis & Allies and the like--if you're wargaming WW2, someone has to play the Nazis.
(Heck, since this isn't RPG.net, I'll say it--the Communists had eight-digit casualty counts too. There are countries where the hammer and sickle is banned like the swastika. But I was poking through a supplement where there were an enchanted hammer and sickle in an obviously heroic context...)
Last edited: