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I'm drawing up a mock-campaign that advents the coming of 6th Edition's supposed advancement of the storyline and (rumored) death of the Emperor, but without drawing on the Eye of Terror and Cadia and instead putting the setting into the Galactic East, involving all the major races in 40K:

The beginning of the campaign starts along the Tau border, where a massive Space Hulk, later desinated The Cherub's Lighthouse, (about the size of a medium sized planet) emerges from a warp rift and begins drifting into Imperial Space.

Initally I wanted to make the Hulk large enough for players to achieve their races individual goals with the choice whether or not to stymie other races at achieving theirs. Most notably would be the Space Wolves, who find their infuriated but weakened Primarch thundering around the inside, fuming at his loss to the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red, but heralding that the end is coming.

But each race would have a unique goal that would 'affect' them in the 6th edition continuing timeline.

So my Background question:

Can Space Hulk be as massive as a planetary body and what is the likely hood of the congealing ships staying preserved while tumbling through the warp?

Mmm... Space Hulks can be big, yes, but I think more along the lines of "small moon" big rather than "planetary" in size. Basically, take half a dozen ships of various 40K cultures, and then smash them all together in the Warp. Here is your Space Hulk.

Hulks are very rare, though, but it is the preservative function of the Warp (the lack of any passage of time) that allows them to continue to exist. Some of them, or at least parts of them, may even still be functional... to a degree. Of course, given that most of these vessels will not have functional Gellar Fields, or the equivalent, things might be a little odd on the interior. You know, living walls and tentacles and doorways with teeth and that sort of thing.

One as big as a planet would be bigger then normal, but go for it. The warp can eat whole planets and spit them back out. Actually if you want you could replace the hulk with a planet.

One of the Deathwatch supplements has a space Hulk with a human population in one of the derelicts.

The overall idea was to make the Space Hulk small enough that the varying factions would clash against one another while trying to complete their goals, but big enough to thoroughly explore and find interesting tidbits and 'Special Wargear' to use while within the confines of the Hulk.

My overall interpretation of a Space Hulk was that they are a fusion of many frigates and ships that drift through the warp and sometimes spill out into the material world. Some of these ships are very old, and Space Hulks are chock full of historic artefacts and untold horrors, which sounds like an interesting backdrop to herald 6th Edition than simply plonking everything on Cadia.

I think Space Hulks are the most favorite thing about 40K lore aside from Tau. Giant warp-made derelicts hidden with untold relics and dangers...

Makes me want to write a fan-fic about it...

If you want it the size of a planet, why not make it a ruined Craftworld?

Don't make it the size of a planet, that's just silly crazy big once you realize that you're dealing with the volume, not just the surface area of the object. Name could be a bit more grimdark.

You certainly could, but I think that is a bit overboard. Planets aren't hollowed out like ships are. A planet sized space hulk is going to have the surface area of dozens of planets inside it, Even encountering other races armies within would be unlikely.

Which isn't to say it couldn't or shouldn't exist, I can totally see something like that in 40k, I just don't think it is a good fit for your campaign idea. You probably want it big enough that they can all succeed but small enough that it makes sense for them to come into conflict.

I think you would be better served with thousands, even tens of thousands of ships, hundreds of miles across.

KplKeegan wrote:I'm drawing up a mock-campaign that advents the coming of 6th Edition's supposed advancement of the storyline and (rumored) death of the Emperorquote]

This is literally never going to happen. Either the death of the Emperor or the advancement of the fluff.

daveNYC wrote:Don't make it the size of a planet, that's just silly crazy big once you realize that you're dealing with the volume, not just the surface area of the object. Name could be a bit more grimdark.

40k ships are already crazy big.

And if by small planet we are talking something the size of Mercury and not something like Earth or Venus then we have something within reason.


It wouldn't be outside believability.




But it is a little big for the OPs purposes, so I would reccomend you say its actually an amagamation of several space hulks and a moon that was sucked into the warp. Only the actual hulks and some surface areas of the moon section are actually in the story, the moon is solid rock.

Grey Templar wrote:

daveNYC wrote:Don't make it the size of a planet, that's just silly crazy big once you realize that you're dealing with the volume, not just the surface area of the object. Name could be a bit more grimdark.

40k ships are already crazy big.

And if by small planet we are talking something the size of Mercury and not something like Earth or Venus then we have something within reason.


It wouldn't be outside believability.




But it is a little big for the OPs purposes, so I would reccomend you say its actually an amagamation of several space hulks and a moon that was sucked into the warp. Only the actual hulks and some surface areas of the moon section are actually in the story, the moon is solid rock.

That seems like a good idea.

If it is hollowed out in most parts, which I imagine it would, you probably wouldn't need it the size of a planet, size of a large moon (which I would rank just below a small planet) should be sufficient.

isnt a space hulk just a collection of ships mashed together, if so there might be intresting treasures to find

Maybe smashing in a Craftworld or two would probably give you the space you need, or a really old Terran ship from the Dark Age of Technology, who knows what they looked like

Scorpionov wrote:isnt a space hulk just a collection of ships mashed together, if so there might be intresting treasures to find

Yes. While they start out as a large ship, a 'space hulk' is an amalgamation of various ships, asteroids, and other space junk that have crashed together while wandering the warp and realspace and have basically fused into a large ship. This is the reason for their randomness as well, with all those malfunctioning warp drives dropping it in and out of the warp.

Would tau ships ever be a part of a space hulk?

nomotog wrote:Would tau ships ever be a part of a space hulk?

That's a toughy I think, because do Tau ships actually go into the warp? I know they sort of skip through, actually dive through and then pop back out. Or as http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Tau#.TtXGv2Mk67s
puts it, they skim the surface.

It could be possible, because something terrible could happen even in that brief moment of contact with the warp.

blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

nomotog wrote:Would tau ships ever be a part of a space hulk?

That's a toughy I think, because do Tau ships actually go into the warp? I know they sort of skip through, actually dive through and then pop back out. Or as http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Tau#.TtXGv2Mk67s
puts it, they skim the surface.

It could be possible, because something terrible could happen even in that brief moment of contact with the warp.

They can be in realspace when they crash together, then the whole thing it dropped back into the warp later. It's perfectly feasible for a Tau ship to be lodged in a Space Hulk.

It would make the perfect video game environment. One level you're going through a gothic Imperial ship, break through a bulkhead, and you're in an Eldar ship, with organic looking wallks and doors, break through another bulkhead and you're in an Ork ship.

its unlikely Tau ships would be on a Space Hulk. Many Space Hulks predate the Imperium, going back even to the height of the Eldar empire.


There could be some Tau ships on Space hulks, but they would be extremely rare, given the small size of the Tau Empire and the fact that the fusions happen in the warp which the Tau just barely skim, and confined to the surface of the Hulk.