Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Yeah. I’d argue that’s another heavy influence of 2000AD, and life in Mega City One in general.

Both IP’s have common roots, and have in turn influenced each other. But The Dreddiverse expanding far beyond The Lawman of the Future’s specific point of view is what keeps folk coming back. And it’s the same with 40K.

Whilst I’m yet to delve into Warhammer Crime, I can recommend Warhammer Horror as an excellent way to delve ever deeper and get your little grey cells firing off in new and hopefully interesting ways.

 Polonius wrote:
40k lore basically divides into two piles. Theres the pseudo historical, "this army went to this planet and fought that army and it was awesome" type lore, which admittedly 40k does pretty well. I can't really stand the stuff, but YMMV.

the other pile is the more atmospheric, "vibes" type of fluff that doesn't try to give high points of history, but rather shows what the cultures and societies are like. And GW does that better than damn near anybody. You can pick up anything about 40k and you quickly learn that life is short, hope is fleeting, and the odds are godo that you won't be long for this world.

I'd really focus on the latter stuff. Once you know the four biggest battles that Captain Whatever fought in, learning about the fifth is unlikely to bring a lot. But learning how these societies actually operate, what motivates them... thats' good stuff.

Yes! And these are often the snippets from paragraphs of text to space in the main background. Little gems hidden in the older books, or subtle but plots in some of the better novels. And the galaxy is damn big, so that what happens in one bit isn’t the same as in another. Society can be totally different from one place to the next.

@OP
I know it's been said that the HH 2 rules aren't good for background but they do have some little gems like the ones mentioned above.
So far my two favourites are:
- The Iron Warriors using hazard stripes in their heraldry because they think it's funny.
- The Flesh Eaters Chapter badge being found in the Legion for one of the 300 Companies of the Blood Angels.

The main problem with trying to become any sort of 40k lore master is the background isn't neatly curated by anyone, unlike something like Star Wars or Star Trek. There are hundreds of disparate sources, many in conflict with one another, and many pieces of old lore that probably don't apply any more but haven't been explicitly overwritten.

As such, I don't think some academic exercise to try to become a lore expert is likely to be successful. It's something you really have to have been immersed in for a long time to build up not just the dry knowledge of what the background says, but the relationship it has to itself, especially the relationship between older and newer pieces of lore.

Some good advice in this thread. I've got 3 lore sources I'd suggest, though all of them are kind of difficult to get ahold of these days.

First is the role playing games. Fantasy flight made 5 separate role playing games with several books surrounding them, each book foccused on a particular facet of the Imperium. Most have about 10 ish books of additional content.
Dark heresy: Focus on the Inquisition.
Only war: Focus on guardsmen (/astra militarum) and imperial war in general.
Rogue trader: Focus on the rogue trader as well as imperial nobility. Has quite alot on the navis nobility and such. Also has quite a bit of info concerning the fleets and shipboard life.
Death watch: Focus on the death watch (/space marines) and to a much lesser extent the ordo xenos of the inquisition.
Black crusade: Focus on chaos and renegade space marines in 40k.
The issue with theese is that they really don't concern themselves much with the various alien races. So you won't find anything of value concerning the necrons for instance. They are however the single best source in existence for daily life in the Imperium as well as detailed looks on the Imperiums various civilian functions. Also a great place to go to for all things demonic. In particular the dark heresy and black crusade books, maybe the radicals handbook in particular.

Second is the older specialist games. Things like the 1st or 2nd editions of necromunda, batlefleet gothic and perhaps most notably the inquisition miniature game. They have quite alot of lore about how the Imperium works. Alot of it holds up today since it's usually not so much overwritten as it's added too.

Third are the old Imperial armour books. They have a bunch of stuff of the technicalities of how veichles function. As well as guns and so on. Imperial tech has been changed around quite a bit, with the introduction of grav weaponry, hover tanks and so on. Still fun if you're into the technical know how. What airplane has what role? Imperial armour has got you covered. What regiments use what transports? Look no further.

Now all of theese are written before the great rift. They describe a Imperium quite different from the modern one. However I'd say that as far as the civilians and organizations are concerned, then things have changed very little. I hope this will be of some aid to you. Good luck on learning about 40k!

Edit: Oh! And a tiny mention goes to the Imperial infantryman's uplifting primer. It's a blast.

Hundred percent the role play books are a great extra source of knowledge.

Best way to become a lore master is time. The last 20 years of digesting many many pieces of background and lore.
Some great bits to go with in here though for sure.

Definitely a mix of black library, codex, wiki, and such is a great way to go.

In the note if Dark Imperium, I read the original and the changes, yeah just dates and time line fixes really.
Read either one you have your hands on, you can fill in the needed bits in a wiki or elsewhere.

Also, just talk about it.

Half of what I post in background is kind of informed speculation.

For instance, House Goliath are for all intents and purposes low grade Thunder Warriors gone out of control. Literally out of control of their creators. That nugget let’s me have a reference point for other discussion, such as the memory slugs used to instantly educate Vat Born Goliaths (who emerge fully grown, or at least near as) in their pre-determined role.

Whilst seemingly a crude technology, the memory slugs as with much 40K technology, are more a crude version of a technology. And so I can speculate Astartes Chapters could use something similar, essentially creating back-ups of memories before engaging Daemons, allowing a mind scrub and reset of the Astartes that took part, further keeping the existence of Chaos a better secret.

STCs are, well not my speciality, but my main interest at the moment. Contrasting the Rogue Trader era info with the Van Saar House book leads to further speculation.

Read lots. Discuss lots. Don’t get hung up entirely on what is and isn’t canon, because the writers never really have!