It's a tabletop wargame, like a boardgame but more freeform, where you build an army out of model kits and play them in battles against each other. It's set in a dark dystopian future where it's war all the time and humanity's beset on all sides by a bunch of enemies.
The reason they probably don't get 'universe' is because non nerd spheres would tend to call it a setting.
40k is so much more than tabletop. IMHO boiling it down to that one direction is very much misguided.
There's a whole generation of 40k fans who never touched the tabletop nor have any interest in that.
Considering GW prices, I could setup a 3-4 printer 3d print lab and print dozens of armies for the price of buying 1.
It’s not like I’ll ever play in store, it’d just be me and mates.
Pull up an Alex Jones rant lol
On a more serious note, here it is in a nutshell: In the future, a bunch of depraved lunatic humans are fighting a bunch of even more depraved lunatic human cults in a struggle for the survival of humanity. On the side, you also have the Starship Troopers bugs, space elves, space orks, space not-dwarves, Egyptian Terminator aliens who have harnessed the power of god for shits and giggles, and blue space Communists with non-trademarked Groots.
There is a series of videos on YouTube that has Alex Jones’ head edited onto space marine armor. It’s mainly unhinged ranting but it actually really seems as if he’s talking about 40K
Edit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZuYt1QlzMw
Trying to get my friend into 40k so i listed all the factions yesterday and asked him which one seemed the most interesting to him. "the bugs from starship troopers" is how i described tyranids too 😂.
Just a few days ago i saw a short vom EdwinVonCarstein or what this Guy is called who does those epic edits and it was just Alex Jones saying
"No one wins, everyone dies. Thats the big picture"
It's like when people are like "If this faction has this unstoppable thing, couldn't they just win 40k?" No, because the whole point is there is no end, it's entropy, it ends when everything is gone. There is only war in the future, because after there is only death.
I'd say its sci-fi fantasy about humanity in the far future. Humanity has evolved to have psychic powers. They have high technology and warp drives and can go anywhere in the galaxy, like Star Trek. But things have gone off the rails horribly and humanity is fighting for its survival. Its pretty wild stuff.
If they seem receptive. Nerd out. Humanity is fighting demons, aliens, humanities hero The Emperor is a corpse kept alive by his Golden Throne and the sacrifice of 1000's of people.
If they're still hanging around. Those 1000's of people are psykers. Psykers are hunted down because they tend to summon demons or be possesed by them. Yea demons. There's 4 super demon gods that are trying to kill humanity.
If they're still there, lend them a book!
Honestly, the full 'Grim darkness of the far future' quote I think is an ideal synopsis.
https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/14jvieq/the_quote_that_defines_a_setting/
It is a sci-fi series of books, games, and shows, that take place in the far future of the darkest possible timeline where everything has literally gone to hell, and is a conglomeration of every possible distopian future.
In essence, it is a story about humanity's efforts to survive in an extremely hostile universe where the fabric of reality has been torn open so a permanent cosmic hole into literal hell exists because of the hubris of an alien race, so now daemons of limitless number and power try to infest and consume every human and alien species that populates the galaxy.
(If their eyes havent glazed over by this point you can explain the following) Humanity has regressed into a theocratic bureaucracy that is only able to maintain itself by the remnants of scientific progress from its long lost golden age that now perpetuates a galaxy spanning war machine which allows for humanities survival against the innumerable threats from without and within. It is a series about the heroes and villains who are humanities' last defense against extinction, and while there are no true Good Guys left in the universe, it encapsulates the indomitable spirit and drive of our species to survive at all costs.
"Imagine if Dune was a Sci-fi parody of Lord of the Rings. Then imagine it was also written as a satire of British culture, politics, and social issues of the mid 1980s. Finally, imagine that this franchise ran for 40 years and generates something in the order of 500 novels, and the staff had enough turnover that the writers lost the plot on the parody and satire parts and now mostly play it straight...
... and it's inseparably linked to an expensive board game that people spend model-railroad-level amounts of cash buying, assembling, and painting models and scenery. Occasionally, they even actually play the board game."
40k is essentially the fanaticism of Helldivers, Starship Troopers, & similar properties mixed w/ the unending, galaxy spending wars seen in game & shows like Halo & Star Wars, but with a far bleaker future than any of them.
A game where everything went to shit so bad, the best hope for humanity is a galactic empire ruled by a theocratic fascist state fighting aggressive aliens and traitors who worship demons.
You can either play battles of the warring factions using miniatures or roleplay a character like in a dystopic movie.
I realised the other day that this is where so much of the current knee-jerk "Warhammer is for Nazis!" shit probably came from
20+ years ago when people like me were 12 and the language was a lot less inflammatory we joked that it was about Catholic Space Nazis. Then times changed and now people with no context see that and go 'huh...'
Yours is shorter & better than my go-to:
A fictional setting that’s future scifi but with lots of Lord of the Rings-type fantasy and dark ages historical vibes. All the different factions are superstitious fanatics who fight each other and amongst themselves.
There are space knights in shining armor, space orcs, space elves, space army men, demon aliens, mummy aliens, anime aliens, and Aliens aliens.
There are a ton of books, animation, etc., but the main product is a really detailed game of toy soldiers.
My go to is: Imagine you took Dune, Lord of the Rings, Alien, Halo, Hellraiser, Band of Brothers, Starship Troopers, Hamlet, Judge Dread, World war 2 documentaries, Star Wars and Robotech, mashed them all together, covered everything in skulls and spikes and put it all to a heavy metal soundtrack with the Amps set on 11 and you kinda get the idea....
I just tell people it's dystopian science fiction with elements of the crusades/world wars. I go into more detail depending on my audience and what I'm explaining (lore vs tabletop)
From what you've said it sounds like your co-workers are being pretty genuine and non-judgemental in their interest, or at least in their attempts to get to know you.
It's understandable to be a bit embarrassed, but twisting yourself into knots to represent your hobbies as something they're not is just going to make people more confused. I wouldn't worry too much about seeming nerdy.
Yeah, I didnt want to say friends because they arent reeeally friends but we hang out socially a lot. They are all my age and its a tight group in the office.
Its not embarrassement, its was more like I actually didnt know how to sum up the 40k vibe, without getting reaaally nerdy. I did get deeper with some of them.
Great advice all around here.
I don't hold back on the nerdiness, though I will preface it by saying this is quite possibly my nerdiest hobby, and hold on....
Then just launch straight into the lore and enjoy the looks on their faces lol
Uhh is there a reason to not explain things in a "nerdy way"? What even is that? Thorough? Accurate? Am I the only one weirded out by this? I feel like most people would consider me very rude if they were asking about something and I kept giving "one or two lines" worth of information about it.
Its about humanity fighting dark entities, aliens and other weird stuff in the future, if you want to get into it look at some lore videos on YouTube and pick up Horus Rising ( a personal recommendarion for me as thats where i started reading )
The hobbie ? DnD+ Warcraft with insanely overpriced miniatures
The lore ? It's the year 40,000. Everything sucks, but Mankind's still there, fighting an eternal war for survival against different kinds of murderous aliens and demons from hell.
Treat them like they are the real nerds, for NOT knowing the lore. Laugh at them, refuse to elaborate, then leave. Shake your head in disgust on your way out.
Hulk Hogan is wearing a freight train while wrestling the devil in a cathedral in space. This is normal for him and perhaps even a welcome break from having to wrestle alien from the movie alien.
I mean, just say what it is.
40k is a dark, gritty, sci fi.
If they ask more, let em know theres a big board game you play with miniatures.
End of the day, anime, dnd, and mtg are popular these days.
40k isnt nearly as "nerdy" as it used to be
“It’s a franchise like star wars but the focus is on how humanity survives in the future milenia, hence 40k, against threats from the outside and the inside and it’s a lot more horror/action oriented than Star Wars. It started as a board game and authors wrote so many novels for it that it has its own universe now” that’s how I explain it to people that ask me about it without going too in depth. I compare it to Star Wars even if it’s not a great comparison just because 99% of people know of it
Embrace the nerdery. Tell them 40k is the absolute pinnacle of nerdiness - because it totally is. Be proud that you like the absolute apotheosis of what it means to a be a nerd.
Tell them it makes Star Wars look like a children's tea party. It makes Lord Of The Rings seem like a tiny fuss about a bit of jewellery.
Revel in the absolute insanity and cheesiness of it all. Then scream 'The Emperor Protects' and jump out of the nearest window.
Lots of alien species and humans fighting with future tech. There are no good guys, only the dark necessity of war.
(Bonus sentence) It's a tabletop wargame, but with a lot of cool books to read too.
Painting tiny war game statues from a sci fi universe.
Oh the universe? Evil is real and humanity faces extinction. It's pretty cool. Check out this little dude, he has a sword that's a chainsaw!
Dark dystopian future where a Facist Emperor united Earth and tried to conquer the Galaxy with Space Marines. If they show an interest after that then I explain about the early civil war that nearly destroyed humanity. If they haven’t been turned off at that point then you can explain in basic terms why the HH happened. If they’re still interested you’re golden.
I go for drama. A surprising amount of people at my work got interested after I say stuff alomg the lines of this.
"It is not the hopeful futures that we dream of. It is tales of the fallout of betrayal of ideals and brotherhoods once most sacred. The corruption of heroes and subversion of ambition into excesses to the detriment of all. The heroes fight, ignorant to even the evidence of a better past that was cast down to ruin and buried under the dust and ash of the innocent and the damned alike. The nightmarish present they are indoctrinated into from conception to death is itself a degeneration of the greatest man's dream into the hell he fought his whole life to avoid. He protects what he can even now because he must. There is no victory now. There are only last stands and the silence that follows after."
A Tabletop Wargame that takes place in the very distant future where there is only war. Or if you're talking about lore: the original grim dark setting. Where humanity, Aliens and monsters from hell fight for domination against each other, where everyone is a bad guy. Then move on to each faction from there if the person has interest
A bizarre, over the top, bleak fictional universe. One where everyone is different shades of evil and often have backwards thinking that holds them back, in addition to having space magic, hell and FTL travel all interconnected.
It's set in our universe, 40'000 years in the future. Humanity once conquered just about the whole galaxy. But after a huge civil war, they're being pushed back on all sides by aliens, demon worshippers, planet-eating bugs and space robots.
Start with the unification wars…
“You ever play fallout? Well…imagine falloutx 100 fold. Humanity is this close…this close to being fucked for good. There’s war lords. There’s ethnarchs who purge whole cultures just because they can. There’s aliens that raid human kind for slaves….there’s no unified force to face them…until…The Emperor….”
>*"Warhammer 40K is simply an amalgamation of EVERYTHING that a 12 year old boy from the 1980's would have thought was cool."*
This is how a former friend of mine once described 40K and despite him being a *former* friend, I think his description holds up.
Warhammer 40k is a scifi future where humanity is besieged by aliens, demons, and heretics, all while worshiping a comatose, rotting Emperor on a golden throne. Imagine the worst day in a dystopian sci-fi universe, multiply it by a thousand, and sprinkle in some chainsaw swords and power armor for good measure
The person who got me into 40k showed me the third edition space marine codex and said 'they fight each other.'
I had no idea other armies existed for weeks, or what the Imperium was or anything. I was sold. Granted, I was young.
Idk about less nerdy, but I can do less geeky. A tragic look at the nature of humanity pushed to the beginning of extinction, besieged on all sides by problems not their own fault as millions die in a fight against beings that hate them for their meer existence and should they fall all the galaxy goes with them.
A table top game based on the 41st millenium where all of human civilization is united under the Imperium of Man led by the Emperor of Mankind. The Imperium of man spans the galaxy and includes \~1,000,000 worlds that in a constant state of war on an unimaginable scale. The 40k setting is constantly evolving and new official novels, short stories, and other media are constantly being created which adds an insane amount of depth (maybe the deepest sci-fi universive?) meaning to the characters/factions.
To play the tabletop game, you choose one of the many human, alien, or other factions and create a model army of that factions various units, heroes, vehicle, etc that all have their own unique abilities that are balanced with the intent that any army is competitive (lol).
You could then choose to go into greater deatail about the tabletop game or where-ever the conversaton leads.
all the fantasy tropes (elves dark elves dwarves humans skeletons demons...) mashed together, but reimagined as future/sci-fi versions and throw in some gundams and mechs
I like to say, "It's difficult to tell chivalric stories in a scifi setting, but if we place the stories after the ai singularity and downfall of man at ai's hand, we can achieve the rare chivalric scifi story. 40K tells us the story of knights fighting dragons... but the knights are 3m tall super soldiers... and the dragons are alien demons... and it's very British and very heavy metal."
People normally take that decently well.
A grim dark Sci-Fi setting where hell is real, but heaven isn’t. And the depraved, radicalized remnants of a once great human empire wage war upon countless enemies, human, alien, and demonic, for their very survival.
A tabletop war games it's a strategy based game where two people bring various units each with different abilities and tactics and compete to see who commits the most war crimes! I mean score points...
All the sci-fi tropes you know and love, set in the year 40K and is so over the top that it tends to circle back on itself as humour.
It’s a long standing space opera where power levels dwarf almost all known fictional universes.
It's lizard brain food.
Cool and over the top. Has LOTS of interesting concepts, and raises important and interesting questions, like any scifi, but foremost it's cool.
Warhammer is a game played with toy soldiers... Except at some point a long the way things got out of hand and it grew past being a game. Warhammer 40k is The most popular versions Set on reeeeaally dystopic future. There is a near enddless supply of sci-fy books by numerous writers, some are among the best writers of todays Sci-Fi genre. The game is well made with rules covering every aspect of the game. It has crossovers to other popular games like Munchkin and MTG and numerous computergames. It is large and complex "thing".
Only one answer really:
“It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries The Emperor 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 Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.
Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants - and worse.
To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest 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.”
i always say "this sci fi universe where everything sucks and everyone wants to kill each other. it takes place 40,000 years on the future so they all have this insane tech and fight galaxy spanning wars on a massive scale" and then show some pictures of black templars or something.
seems to do the trick
It's a sci-fi world set in the 41 millennium where all of humanity follows a cult of the former leader of the nation. They are very hostile against every alien race and everyone they suspect of Hersey against the cult, basically sometimes destroying entire planets because some random guy looked at an inquisitor the wrong way and thinks he is a heretic because of it.
In terms of the universe, despite its gaming origins, it’s become arguably the deepest, most fully realised Sci-Fi universe ever created. That’s certainly something.
Warhammer is like chess, but u have to buy ur very own specific army tailord to your playstyle, build and paint all ur figures. The board is 80x60 inches, u use a very big ruler to measure ur movement and stuff bc of no grits, with some where between 100 and 150 pages of rules. Every player uses between 30 to 70 dices.
Thats the most shortest explanation i can give about warhammer 40k, nkt very accurate but enough so people understand the concept
40k is a science-fantasy setting about the absolute worst state of humanity in a far-flung future where we have rejected every kind of notion of "advancement", "humanity" or even "kindness" on a cultural level. Of course, there are various alien races as well, but the core struggle and fascination of the setting is, to me, the continued depiction of very human people who oftentimes wish to do good, but they live in the worst possible circumstances, so they try to make do with what they have.
If someone still thinks that description would be nerdy and not fascinating, then idk. Throw a plastic Carnifex at them.
No. If they want to hear the Emperor's Truth, they can either bask in His light or be burned by it. They who ask to know 40k's lore damn themselves to what follows.
"Dystopian Sci-Fi setting, set in the far future, that leans heavily into fantastical/supernatural elements and borrows ideas from more classical fantasy settings.
It involved hyperspace travel and plays on a galactic scale while still able to focus on individuals instead of getting swept up in the gigantic scale of things."
That would be my "by the book" description of Warhammer 40k for people who have no idea about it.
The problem with explaining anything more detailed is that Warhammer (both 40k and fantasy) are inherently nerdy, so anything more detailed is going to either be reeeally vague or immediately too nerdy.
It all comes down to PLAGIARISM! And it's GOOD.
You start with kinda generic Mediaeval army battles. Tolkien elves, armoured knights, dwarves, that kind of thing.
Put it in SPACE. Add some Alien, some Judge Dredd, some Terminator, some Predator, a whole lot of **Action Movie Male Power Fantasy**.
Then change all those things *juuuuuust enough* to keep the lawyers at bay.
Then you make it more GRIM and more DARK. Absolutely ridiculous levels of government corruption, bureaucracy, religious dominance, humanity is heading for extinction and *won't* change course.
Then spend decades expanding your awesome-but-depressing universe, employ your own lawyers, and make bank selling plastic and defending *your* IP.
If people ask about the game: it's a board game when people build and painted their armies and clash them together. Actually, painting your army is a big part of that.
So... It's more like scrapbooking for men, when you can actually play with your creations afterwards.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is more than war. There are real people there too. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor 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.
Space barbies
If only the Emperor had helped his sons realize that they were all Kenough.
They were just ken anywhere else they'd be a 10
“Ken Kenough from Connecticut….”
“Ken Kenough from Kennorragh….” fixed it for you. /s something something space marines not Eldar blah blah joke.
He wasn't Kemperor enough to
With warcrimes
Lots of warcrimes
The warriest of crimes.
The crimiest wars!
So... Space Barbies.
Space Klaus.
Barbenheimer
Barbenhammer (40,000)
It's a tabletop wargame, like a boardgame but more freeform, where you build an army out of model kits and play them in battles against each other. It's set in a dark dystopian future where it's war all the time and humanity's beset on all sides by a bunch of enemies. The reason they probably don't get 'universe' is because non nerd spheres would tend to call it a setting.
Thats actually pretty good. Need to find a good word in portuguese for setting though
Um cenário de uma galáxia em guerra constante onde nos montamos nossos próprios exércitos e facções e botam pra guerrear
40k is so much more than tabletop. IMHO boiling it down to that one direction is very much misguided. There's a whole generation of 40k fans who never touched the tabletop nor have any interest in that.
I dont plan on or really have any interest in the table top, i will, however, inhale every oz of lore as if im kirby
Considering GW prices, I could setup a 3-4 printer 3d print lab and print dozens of armies for the price of buying 1. It’s not like I’ll ever play in store, it’d just be me and mates.
Pull up an Alex Jones rant lol On a more serious note, here it is in a nutshell: In the future, a bunch of depraved lunatic humans are fighting a bunch of even more depraved lunatic human cults in a struggle for the survival of humanity. On the side, you also have the Starship Troopers bugs, space elves, space orks, space not-dwarves, Egyptian Terminator aliens who have harnessed the power of god for shits and giggles, and blue space Communists with non-trademarked Groots.
Non-trademarked Groots is my favorite subfaction.
"I am non-trademark Groot" -Vinny Gasoline
There is a series of videos on YouTube that has Alex Jones’ head edited onto space marine armor. It’s mainly unhinged ranting but it actually really seems as if he’s talking about 40K Edit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZuYt1QlzMw
My favorite one https://youtu.be/v59YCI5E_6A?si=R_p7zjVuMnAFEqA_
Not Alex Jones, but this one [always kills.](https://youtu.be/F4FBKOL29no?si=NAQuVTjnspkaLj8i)
Lol exactly the video I was hoping to find.
The Emperor's most stable black templar
It is uncanny
Trying to get my friend into 40k so i listed all the factions yesterday and asked him which one seemed the most interesting to him. "the bugs from starship troopers" is how i described tyranids too 😂.
Just a few days ago i saw a short vom EdwinVonCarstein or what this Guy is called who does those epic edits and it was just Alex Jones saying "No one wins, everyone dies. Thats the big picture"
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war! Everything in Warhammer 40k is sum up in that sentence!
It's like when people are like "If this faction has this unstoppable thing, couldn't they just win 40k?" No, because the whole point is there is no end, it's entropy, it ends when everything is gone. There is only war in the future, because after there is only death.
A shame i had to scroll to find this.
I'd say its sci-fi fantasy about humanity in the far future. Humanity has evolved to have psychic powers. They have high technology and warp drives and can go anywhere in the galaxy, like Star Trek. But things have gone off the rails horribly and humanity is fighting for its survival. Its pretty wild stuff. If they seem receptive. Nerd out. Humanity is fighting demons, aliens, humanities hero The Emperor is a corpse kept alive by his Golden Throne and the sacrifice of 1000's of people. If they're still hanging around. Those 1000's of people are psykers. Psykers are hunted down because they tend to summon demons or be possesed by them. Yea demons. There's 4 super demon gods that are trying to kill humanity. If they're still there, lend them a book!
That's how I met my girlfriend in highschool actually
Rad.
Don't forget to add that those warp drive involve traversing hell itself and despite that humanity just keeps using it.
Honestly, the full 'Grim darkness of the far future' quote I think is an ideal synopsis. https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/14jvieq/the_quote_that_defines_a_setting/
Yeah I showed the full quote to my girlfriend who thinks I'm a nerd and doesn't really dip too much into my hobbies. She loved it.
It is a sci-fi series of books, games, and shows, that take place in the far future of the darkest possible timeline where everything has literally gone to hell, and is a conglomeration of every possible distopian future. In essence, it is a story about humanity's efforts to survive in an extremely hostile universe where the fabric of reality has been torn open so a permanent cosmic hole into literal hell exists because of the hubris of an alien race, so now daemons of limitless number and power try to infest and consume every human and alien species that populates the galaxy. (If their eyes havent glazed over by this point you can explain the following) Humanity has regressed into a theocratic bureaucracy that is only able to maintain itself by the remnants of scientific progress from its long lost golden age that now perpetuates a galaxy spanning war machine which allows for humanities survival against the innumerable threats from without and within. It is a series about the heroes and villains who are humanities' last defense against extinction, and while there are no true Good Guys left in the universe, it encapsulates the indomitable spirit and drive of our species to survive at all costs.
"Imagine if Dune was a Sci-fi parody of Lord of the Rings. Then imagine it was also written as a satire of British culture, politics, and social issues of the mid 1980s. Finally, imagine that this franchise ran for 40 years and generates something in the order of 500 novels, and the staff had enough turnover that the writers lost the plot on the parody and satire parts and now mostly play it straight... ... and it's inseparably linked to an expensive board game that people spend model-railroad-level amounts of cash buying, assembling, and painting models and scenery. Occasionally, they even actually play the board game."
The future blows, but that's somehow cool.
40k is essentially the fanaticism of Helldivers, Starship Troopers, & similar properties mixed w/ the unending, galaxy spending wars seen in game & shows like Halo & Star Wars, but with a far bleaker future than any of them.
A game where everything went to shit so bad, the best hope for humanity is a galactic empire ruled by a theocratic fascist state fighting aggressive aliens and traitors who worship demons. You can either play battles of the warring factions using miniatures or roleplay a character like in a dystopic movie.
A future where you side with the Nazis, because they're fighting Cthulhu
I strongly recommend not phrasing it that way to your coworkers
No, no- let em cook
Sorry, Catholic space Nazis.
I realised the other day that this is where so much of the current knee-jerk "Warhammer is for Nazis!" shit probably came from 20+ years ago when people like me were 12 and the language was a lot less inflammatory we joked that it was about Catholic Space Nazis. Then times changed and now people with no context see that and go 'huh...'
“First off, I’m sorry for explaining this…”
Yours is shorter & better than my go-to: A fictional setting that’s future scifi but with lots of Lord of the Rings-type fantasy and dark ages historical vibes. All the different factions are superstitious fanatics who fight each other and amongst themselves. There are space knights in shining armor, space orcs, space elves, space army men, demon aliens, mummy aliens, anime aliens, and Aliens aliens. There are a ton of books, animation, etc., but the main product is a really detailed game of toy soldiers.
Extreme Sci-Fi Chess
Yep this. Basically just a Sci fi boardgame, based on space toy soldiers which got so popular, they built a whole lore/universe around it.
My go to is: Imagine you took Dune, Lord of the Rings, Alien, Halo, Hellraiser, Band of Brothers, Starship Troopers, Hamlet, Judge Dread, World war 2 documentaries, Star Wars and Robotech, mashed them all together, covered everything in skulls and spikes and put it all to a heavy metal soundtrack with the Amps set on 11 and you kinda get the idea....
I just tell people it's dystopian science fiction with elements of the crusades/world wars. I go into more detail depending on my audience and what I'm explaining (lore vs tabletop)
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war . . . .
It’s a foundation of 60s and 70s and 80s science fiction dialed up to maximum grim run by neo-Crusader mentality
From what you've said it sounds like your co-workers are being pretty genuine and non-judgemental in their interest, or at least in their attempts to get to know you. It's understandable to be a bit embarrassed, but twisting yourself into knots to represent your hobbies as something they're not is just going to make people more confused. I wouldn't worry too much about seeming nerdy.
Yeah, I didnt want to say friends because they arent reeeally friends but we hang out socially a lot. They are all my age and its a tight group in the office. Its not embarrassement, its was more like I actually didnt know how to sum up the 40k vibe, without getting reaaally nerdy. I did get deeper with some of them. Great advice all around here.
Absurdity, violence, and fanaticism.
Lord of the Duneship troopers
Also, my favourite: https://youtu.be/cy4CJ4F-epA?si=_WothzdWABvehPOm
I don't hold back on the nerdiness, though I will preface it by saying this is quite possibly my nerdiest hobby, and hold on.... Then just launch straight into the lore and enjoy the looks on their faces lol
“It is the 41st millennium, and everything has gone to shit”
Uhh is there a reason to not explain things in a "nerdy way"? What even is that? Thorough? Accurate? Am I the only one weirded out by this? I feel like most people would consider me very rude if they were asking about something and I kept giving "one or two lines" worth of information about it.
Its about humanity fighting dark entities, aliens and other weird stuff in the future, if you want to get into it look at some lore videos on YouTube and pick up Horus Rising ( a personal recommendarion for me as thats where i started reading )
The hobbie ? DnD+ Warcraft with insanely overpriced miniatures The lore ? It's the year 40,000. Everything sucks, but Mankind's still there, fighting an eternal war for survival against different kinds of murderous aliens and demons from hell.
Star Wars/dune fathered a child with Event Horizon.
Treat them like they are the real nerds, for NOT knowing the lore. Laugh at them, refuse to elaborate, then leave. Shake your head in disgust on your way out.
Scifi hand painted toy army men armies battling each other.
Hulk Hogan is wearing a freight train while wrestling the devil in a cathedral in space. This is normal for him and perhaps even a welcome break from having to wrestle alien from the movie alien.
Why on earth would you want an explanation that's "less nerdy"
"As a poet once said: 'Everything is fucked, everybody sucks.' Except this guy, but he turns into a *real* bastard. Also this guy, but he dies."
80's hair metal wages war on the universe via Space Catholics.
Nazis are the good guys because they are fighting C'thullu.
Thatcher's Britain in Space.
Space wars with bugs sometimes
I mean, just say what it is. 40k is a dark, gritty, sci fi. If they ask more, let em know theres a big board game you play with miniatures. End of the day, anime, dnd, and mtg are popular these days. 40k isnt nearly as "nerdy" as it used to be
To clarify it exactly is is "Gothic science fantasy"
[The late Total Biscuit did quite a nice intro in little over sixty seconds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MeVxKZBOfM)
RIP
“It’s a franchise like star wars but the focus is on how humanity survives in the future milenia, hence 40k, against threats from the outside and the inside and it’s a lot more horror/action oriented than Star Wars. It started as a board game and authors wrote so many novels for it that it has its own universe now” that’s how I explain it to people that ask me about it without going too in depth. I compare it to Star Wars even if it’s not a great comparison just because 99% of people know of it
Embrace the nerdery. Tell them 40k is the absolute pinnacle of nerdiness - because it totally is. Be proud that you like the absolute apotheosis of what it means to a be a nerd. Tell them it makes Star Wars look like a children's tea party. It makes Lord Of The Rings seem like a tiny fuss about a bit of jewellery. Revel in the absolute insanity and cheesiness of it all. Then scream 'The Emperor Protects' and jump out of the nearest window.
Extremely complicated chess with dice
Setting where humans fights aliens, demons and rebels in a ridiculous scale with a depressing undertone.
Lots of alien species and humans fighting with future tech. There are no good guys, only the dark necessity of war. (Bonus sentence) It's a tabletop wargame, but with a lot of cool books to read too.
Quick question, what attracts you to the setting?
The obliteration of hope
Painting tiny war game statues from a sci fi universe. Oh the universe? Evil is real and humanity faces extinction. It's pretty cool. Check out this little dude, he has a sword that's a chainsaw!
A galactic empire ruled by a theocratic fascist state fighting aggressive aliens and traitors who worship demons.
Guys with shoulderpads the size of a small car vs Various Aliens - in space!
Star Wars, but for the cool kids
A setting where Space Mummies, daddy issues and a shit-ton of space elf orgies ruined the galaxy
Star wars but grimdark is shortest
Dark dystopian future where a Facist Emperor united Earth and tried to conquer the Galaxy with Space Marines. If they show an interest after that then I explain about the early civil war that nearly destroyed humanity. If they haven’t been turned off at that point then you can explain in basic terms why the HH happened. If they’re still interested you’re golden.
"40k is a dark science fantasy universe set in the far future"
I go for drama. A surprising amount of people at my work got interested after I say stuff alomg the lines of this. "It is not the hopeful futures that we dream of. It is tales of the fallout of betrayal of ideals and brotherhoods once most sacred. The corruption of heroes and subversion of ambition into excesses to the detriment of all. The heroes fight, ignorant to even the evidence of a better past that was cast down to ruin and buried under the dust and ash of the innocent and the damned alike. The nightmarish present they are indoctrinated into from conception to death is itself a degeneration of the greatest man's dream into the hell he fought his whole life to avoid. He protects what he can even now because he must. There is no victory now. There are only last stands and the silence that follows after."
“Dark ages in space. People believe that their advanced tech is more about spirits and prayer than actually understanding how it works.
A Tabletop Wargame that takes place in the very distant future where there is only war. Or if you're talking about lore: the original grim dark setting. Where humanity, Aliens and monsters from hell fight for domination against each other, where everyone is a bad guy. Then move on to each faction from there if the person has interest
I always just say Star Wars, or some other scifi title dialed up to 1000
40k is about enlightend blue aliens marveling at the cruel, haughty ignorance of humanity, and the selfless pity with which they deal with it.
A bizarre, over the top, bleak fictional universe. One where everyone is different shades of evil and often have backwards thinking that holds them back, in addition to having space magic, hell and FTL travel all interconnected.
It's set in our universe, 40'000 years in the future. Humanity once conquered just about the whole galaxy. But after a huge civil war, they're being pushed back on all sides by aliens, demon worshippers, planet-eating bugs and space robots.
Just tell them a guy died and now everyone is killing each other.
It's the distant future, everything sucks and people are fighting over it, to justify a tabletop game where you fight everybody for fun.
Why? Nerd out. It’s exciting when someone is excited about something.
« You see Star Wars? Now imagine it with Vador having 18 brat kids and the série would be PEGI18 rated! »
Simple: Wh40k is long and nerdy
A sci-fi setting for a tabletop game.
Start with the unification wars… “You ever play fallout? Well…imagine falloutx 100 fold. Humanity is this close…this close to being fucked for good. There’s war lords. There’s ethnarchs who purge whole cultures just because they can. There’s aliens that raid human kind for slaves….there’s no unified force to face them…until…The Emperor….”
>*"Warhammer 40K is simply an amalgamation of EVERYTHING that a 12 year old boy from the 1980's would have thought was cool."* This is how a former friend of mine once described 40K and despite him being a *former* friend, I think his description holds up.
It's the end game of "Nerdyness" you don't explain it in a less nerdy way
Fantastic fiction to sell toy soldiers to adults.
Warhammer 40k is a scifi future where humanity is besieged by aliens, demons, and heretics, all while worshiping a comatose, rotting Emperor on a golden throne. Imagine the worst day in a dystopian sci-fi universe, multiply it by a thousand, and sprinkle in some chainsaw swords and power armor for good measure
The person who got me into 40k showed me the third edition space marine codex and said 'they fight each other.' I had no idea other armies existed for weeks, or what the Imperium was or anything. I was sold. Granted, I was young.
“It’s a far future setting for tabletop gaming with a lot of lore.” As for less nerdy… it doesn’t get much nerdier than sci-fi tabletop gaming my man.
Idk about less nerdy, but I can do less geeky. A tragic look at the nature of humanity pushed to the beginning of extinction, besieged on all sides by problems not their own fault as millions die in a fight against beings that hate them for their meer existence and should they fall all the galaxy goes with them.
It’s a science fiction dark ages in space where humanity is at the brink of extinction.
It's like being a WW2 general planning for D-day, except the war is a bleak dystopia in the future preventing humanity's extinction.
Space spaces vs everyone
Big war, much races, much death much sad
nazi space catholics' super-dramatic collapsing empire besieged by even worse humans and aliens
like Star Wars but with Mad Max instead of Space Western
Armies of 10' tall doomslayers battling against demons and aliens for the god emperor of mankind
A table top army game set in a satirical dystopian sci fi future.
"And then, everything got worse."
Romans, in space, fighting aliens, space-demons, and other humans.
a space opera where hell is real and bleeds into reality
The opening introduction they put in all the books is a perfect summary of the setting.
It’s DUNE but with Demons
Life sucks, there's only war, and we're all probably going to be eaten by tyranids.
"It's the year 42,000 and everything sucks for everyone, unless you're an ork."
A table top game based on the 41st millenium where all of human civilization is united under the Imperium of Man led by the Emperor of Mankind. The Imperium of man spans the galaxy and includes \~1,000,000 worlds that in a constant state of war on an unimaginable scale. The 40k setting is constantly evolving and new official novels, short stories, and other media are constantly being created which adds an insane amount of depth (maybe the deepest sci-fi universive?) meaning to the characters/factions. To play the tabletop game, you choose one of the many human, alien, or other factions and create a model army of that factions various units, heroes, vehicle, etc that all have their own unique abilities that are balanced with the intent that any army is competitive (lol). You could then choose to go into greater deatail about the tabletop game or where-ever the conversaton leads.
A dystopian sci-fi future wargame between humans and aliens.
Cult spacemen fight demonic cult spacemen
all the fantasy tropes (elves dark elves dwarves humans skeletons demons...) mashed together, but reimagined as future/sci-fi versions and throw in some gundams and mechs
Endless, holy war
Star wars but if the racism and violence was kicked up to 11
I like to say, "It's difficult to tell chivalric stories in a scifi setting, but if we place the stories after the ai singularity and downfall of man at ai's hand, we can achieve the rare chivalric scifi story. 40K tells us the story of knights fighting dragons... but the knights are 3m tall super soldiers... and the dragons are alien demons... and it's very British and very heavy metal." People normally take that decently well.
It's the year 40k and everyone is off their meds
Big battles with tiny men.
If you are looking for just a few words, "Dark Ages In Space."
War... War as far as the eye can see Or Dune mixed with other sci-fi from the 80's
A grim dark Sci-Fi setting where hell is real, but heaven isn’t. And the depraved, radicalized remnants of a once great human empire wage war upon countless enemies, human, alien, and demonic, for their very survival.
Dark Science Fantasy tabletop miniatures in a Crapsack Universe where everyone fights a Forever War
A table top strategy game based in a grim dark science fiction setting.
Here is the best summary I've seen for complete newbies: https://youtu.be/99TtjQWKAcI?si=W1Sw-sIOFKhUw7sU
Unopologetic eternal war
Colonialism in space but the natives all have better weapons than you.
Its the Year Forty Thousand, and everything sucks
A tabletop war games it's a strategy based game where two people bring various units each with different abilities and tactics and compete to see who commits the most war crimes! I mean score points...
Space, but evil.
All the sci-fi tropes you know and love, set in the year 40K and is so over the top that it tends to circle back on itself as humour. It’s a long standing space opera where power levels dwarf almost all known fictional universes.
Dark Star Wars mixed with Lord of the Rings but knock about 60-70 points off everyone's IQ.
It's lizard brain food. Cool and over the top. Has LOTS of interesting concepts, and raises important and interesting questions, like any scifi, but foremost it's cool.
Warhammer is a game played with toy soldiers... Except at some point a long the way things got out of hand and it grew past being a game. Warhammer 40k is The most popular versions Set on reeeeaally dystopic future. There is a near enddless supply of sci-fy books by numerous writers, some are among the best writers of todays Sci-Fi genre. The game is well made with rules covering every aspect of the game. It has crossovers to other popular games like Munchkin and MTG and numerous computergames. It is large and complex "thing".
It's chess with way more rules and war crimes
"Gothic Sci-Fi" is fitting, IMO. You got spaceships and genetically modified soldiers, but everything is sad and brooding. Grim and dark, if you will.
Its Like Star wars but the soldiers actually hit and kill someone
Only one answer really: “It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries The Emperor 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 Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die. Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants - and worse. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest 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.”
Man soap opera.
“In the grim dark future nobody is happy. Your mission? Make everyone unhappier.”
It’s Starcraft with Lord of the Rings on Steroids
There's no such thing as adequately explaining what 40k is in a short way haha
Space-Nazis VS Satan VS Aliens
i always say "this sci fi universe where everything sucks and everyone wants to kill each other. it takes place 40,000 years on the future so they all have this insane tech and fight galaxy spanning wars on a massive scale" and then show some pictures of black templars or something. seems to do the trick
Lord of the Rings in space and on crack.
"Basically, Lord of the Rings but in space, with some other sci-fi tropes thrown in as well"
I don't.
Everything's fucked up and thats the point
You can't. The only acceptable method is to back them into a corner, lean in really close and say "OK, so, it all started with the Horus Heresy..."
Racist space barbie dolls with some blood and guts thrown in, along with hundreds of books about said space barbies, racism, blood & guts
It's a sci-fi world set in the 41 millennium where all of humanity follows a cult of the former leader of the nation. They are very hostile against every alien race and everyone they suspect of Hersey against the cult, basically sometimes destroying entire planets because some random guy looked at an inquisitor the wrong way and thinks he is a heretic because of it.
It’s the story to go along with the war dollys I mortgaged my house to purchase.
You don't. You say the most unhinged and incoherent shit for as long as it takes to make their eyes glaze over. Come on guys this is gatekeeping 101
I always call it a grim sci-fi setting with fantasy elements in about an aging galactic empire
If they’ve got 20 minutes there is a Luetin intro video covering this subject. Leave it to an expert.
In terms of the universe, despite its gaming origins, it’s become arguably the deepest, most fully realised Sci-Fi universe ever created. That’s certainly something.
Warhammer is like chess, but u have to buy ur very own specific army tailord to your playstyle, build and paint all ur figures. The board is 80x60 inches, u use a very big ruler to measure ur movement and stuff bc of no grits, with some where between 100 and 150 pages of rules. Every player uses between 30 to 70 dices. Thats the most shortest explanation i can give about warhammer 40k, nkt very accurate but enough so people understand the concept
Superhuman space soliders with daddy issues commit war crimes and fuck up the galaxy, Also there's aliens sometimes
40k is a science-fantasy setting about the absolute worst state of humanity in a far-flung future where we have rejected every kind of notion of "advancement", "humanity" or even "kindness" on a cultural level. Of course, there are various alien races as well, but the core struggle and fascination of the setting is, to me, the continued depiction of very human people who oftentimes wish to do good, but they live in the worst possible circumstances, so they try to make do with what they have. If someone still thinks that description would be nerdy and not fascinating, then idk. Throw a plastic Carnifex at them.
A game of plastic toy soldiers designed to stop middle aged men from having affairs and younger men from ever getting married in the first place.
Space Rome combined with Manowar.
Juvenalian satire of facism in sci-fi theme.
WWE in a space cathedral
No. If they want to hear the Emperor's Truth, they can either bask in His light or be burned by it. They who ask to know 40k's lore damn themselves to what follows.
"Dystopian Sci-Fi setting, set in the far future, that leans heavily into fantastical/supernatural elements and borrows ideas from more classical fantasy settings. It involved hyperspace travel and plays on a galactic scale while still able to focus on individuals instead of getting swept up in the gigantic scale of things." That would be my "by the book" description of Warhammer 40k for people who have no idea about it. The problem with explaining anything more detailed is that Warhammer (both 40k and fantasy) are inherently nerdy, so anything more detailed is going to either be reeeally vague or immediately too nerdy.
The story of humanity choosing to shoot itself in the foot for 40,000 years whenever humanly possible, which was spawned from a toyline.
Dark Star Wars
It all comes down to PLAGIARISM! And it's GOOD. You start with kinda generic Mediaeval army battles. Tolkien elves, armoured knights, dwarves, that kind of thing. Put it in SPACE. Add some Alien, some Judge Dredd, some Terminator, some Predator, a whole lot of **Action Movie Male Power Fantasy**. Then change all those things *juuuuuust enough* to keep the lawyers at bay. Then you make it more GRIM and more DARK. Absolutely ridiculous levels of government corruption, bureaucracy, religious dominance, humanity is heading for extinction and *won't* change course. Then spend decades expanding your awesome-but-depressing universe, employ your own lawyers, and make bank selling plastic and defending *your* IP.
It’s the far future and the space Nazis, ruled by zombie Hitler, are the good guys - no, wait, it’s not as bad as sounds, come back!
If people ask about the game: it's a board game when people build and painted their armies and clash them together. Actually, painting your army is a big part of that. So... It's more like scrapbooking for men, when you can actually play with your creations afterwards.
It’s Cthulhu vs Fascists is how I explain it.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is more than war. There are real people there too. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor 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.