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.

I'm doing background for an Imperial Guard unit and I was wondering if there are any universal sports that are played by the different peoples of the galaxy?

Nothing "universal" no. The Imperium doesn't export any form of recreation.

Except Prayer and Sacrifice of course.

Lacrosse...I have no idea why. I just like it

Just make up something "local" from where the unit is from.

Could even do a Bloodbowl crossover ...

 Lynata wrote:
Just make up something "local" from where the unit is from.

Could even do a Bloodbowl crossover ...

Bloodbowl championships.... that would be hilarious.

Cage Match MMA fights are apparently common among Guard troops.

People have always enjoyed hitting each other so boxing, wrestling, MMA etc will be popular. So too have ball games proven common throughout history.

There are no universal sports however, it's going to depend on the regiment's cultural background. As i always say to these type of cultural question, there are over a million worlds with a million different cultures in the Imperium, there's going to be anything you can think of.

Having fun is heresy.

fun itself is not heresey.

Lazyness is heresey (or inaction as it were)

Sports generally do not exist in the 40k universe or at least have not been metioned as they would not pertain to the grim darkyness of everything.

TV, Movies, etc all exist. physical contact sports like boxing or fighting probly exist in back water areas or in the shadows.
Cards are not a "sport" but they do exist (there is a Deck of 52 style substitue often discribed in Guard books)

You could probly just make something up. your planet your rules.

 Engine of War wrote:
fun itself is not heresey.

Lazyness is heresey (or inaction as it were)

Sports generally do not exist in the 40k universe or at least have not been metioned as they would not pertain to the grim darkyness of everything.

TV, Movies, etc all exist. physical contact sports like boxing or fighting probly exist in back water areas or in the shadows.
Cards are not a "sport" but they do exist (there is a Deck of 52 style substitue often discribed in Guard books)

You could probly just make something up. your planet your rules.

That is not technically true. There is always the famous and quite popular sport hunting. The catch? It's a Catachan Devil...

Scrumball - from the way Cain described it, sounds a lot like rugby. And apparently, there's a sector league.

One of the Ravenor books mentions something called the carinovire (not sure on spelling), which is some sort of massive arena with pitfights against mutants and animals.

I did plan on having a Calixis-wide bloodbowl type league going on with a championshipgame every decade or so (since Warp travel screws up the time, can't have a normal 1 year season every year) the players never got around to seeing/reading the holo-pict ad I wrote yet, but it's only a matter of turning a holopict on while they are back at their quarters at the Tricorn (which is still in a while)

Actually according to some novels in the schola promegium sports competition is encouraged between all of the different groups of recruits. The game is referred to as Scrum ball and it sounds like more violent rugbee to me

Sounds like the same novels that suggest the Schola are not gender-segregated and the teachers are quite sociable, in blatant disregard of what the Codex fluff says.

Just saying. There is, of course, nothing wrong with adopting that stuff anyways - the Ecclesiarchy-controlled Scholae are probably one of the few places where certain traditions including sports could find distribution throughout the wider Imperium - but in the same vein someone should not take this as gospel just because some random BL freelancer came up with the idea.

Interpretations - interpretations everywhere!

I'm new, but I think it would be fantastic fluff for the Imperium of Man to have an imperial sport. It would be similar to how the brits used cricket to spread unity in their empire, although many colonized areas had different areas had their own variants of the game.

http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/1090__JK_OP_crossnational.pdf

They tend to have major league purgeball, and I here okslaughterfest is a big one.

The biggest you could ever manage would be a sector or subsector wide organization.


The only thing that is known to be Galaxywide is the Centennial Feast of Blades which is a 100 year swordfighting championship that a handful of marine chapters send their Chapter Champion to. Imperial Fist successors IIRC. The BTs have won it for the last several meets.

And even that is not exactly galaxywide when only 12 Chapters ever agreed to meet in this way.

Yeah, but the Chapters are from all accross the Imperium. So I think it counts.

I don't think it would have to come down to galaxy wide (or even empire wide) tournaments for the OP's needs and for cultural diffusion. It just has to be a sport that is introduced to new planets that enter the imperial fold, and to be played in a recreational fashion. Perhaps played competitively on hive worlds, not between them.

In Imperial Glory, one of the platoon sargents has a habbit of kicking a ball as far as possible inot the enemy lines. The first person to get it back gets a reward.

Its something to do with the fact he is slightly crazy and still thinks hes playing a sport on his homeplanet where he was the captain and never lost.

 smUrfsrUs wrote:
In Imperial Glory, one of the platoon sargents has a habbit of kicking a ball as far as possible inot the enemy lines. The first person to get it back gets a reward.

Its something to do with the fact he is slightly crazy and still thinks hes playing a sport on his homeplanet where he was the captain and never lost.

This was also done in WW1 where British officers would kick a football across the line and promise a reward to whoever got it....and we all know how that turned up...

Inquisitor Jex wrote:

 smUrfsrUs wrote:
In Imperial Glory, one of the platoon sargents has a habbit of kicking a ball as far as possible inot the enemy lines. The first person to get it back gets a reward.

Its something to do with the fact he is slightly crazy and still thinks hes playing a sport on his homeplanet where he was the captain and never lost.

This was also done in WW1 where British officers would kick a football across the line and promise a reward to whoever got it....and we all know how that turned up...

The allied forces won the war after the British held out for long enough. In true Guard fashion. I have now added a football to my ig crew and will negotiate that it be treated as a mysterious objective after it lands with a scatter die - my commissar's ballistic skill.

 Arcsquad12 wrote:

 Lynata wrote:
Just make up something "local" from where the unit is from.

Could even do a Bloodbowl crossover ...

Bloodbowl championships.... that would be hilarious.

I think bloodbowl would be awesome, I love the fantasy version. a 40k version would be sick, especially since Cadian Guardsmen look like linebackers with helmets and flak armour. the only thing that would make it uneven is Space marines because of all the armour and super human abilities. I think if they had a version of BB with multiple levels of fields like platforms to help them score it would be sick. almost like the game they play in Starship Troopers.

 Engine of War wrote:
fun itself is not heresey.

Guard Sports... Xenos Hunting, Ogryn Baiting, Boxing, Scrumball, Doge Grenade and stealing the Majors Prized Medals.

 Ravnak wrote:
Guard Sports... Xenos Hunting, Ogryn Baiting, Boxing, Scrumball, Doge Grenade and stealing the Majors Prized Medals.

You forgot Ratling Throwing.

Fencing. Apparently Gaunt and Cain are rather adept at in, in the Word Bearer novels, one of the PDF members says that he was a champion fencer, he then gets sliced in half by a Chaos Space Marine.

Given the competitive nature of humanity I would be surprised if there were no sports, especially given the disparate natue of the planets in the Imperium. However, preferred sports would vary from place to place. I'm sure there are some places where sports are frowned upon, but humans actually do better when given opportunity to relax and muck about.