In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, there is only bureaucracy
Cubicle 7 has been hard at work these last few months across all game systems, but I am loving the amount of attention that is focused on Imperium Maledictum. A flurry of announcements these last few months have brought us:
- Macharian Requisition Guide (out now)
- Inquisition Players Guide (out for preorder and digital copy now)
- Inquisition GMs Guide (coming soon)
- Voll Adventures (coming soon)
The sheer wealth of content that has been shared cannot be understated. If you follow my reviews, you’ll have seen that we have already reviewed both The Inquisition Player’s Guide and The Inquisition GM’s Guide, both of which I rated very highly for the expansive increases they bring to the game. This requisition guide is a bit different, as it doesn’t add significantly to the players talent/skill and creation selections like the prior guides. However, the Macharian Requisition Guide has solidified itself as a value add for the sheer destructive power it will bring to your table, so let’s get into it.
The Macharian Requisition Guide (MRG) is the first guide that is specific to increasing the firepower at the table. Useful for players and GMs alike, the entire guide is packed full of new weapons, vehicles, ammunition, and armor. As I read through the guide for this review, I was blown away by the volume of additional items, as well as their scope. You’ll find items in this tome that you may never have thought of adding to a game.
Starting with equipment, C7 has brought 36 pages to you of new augmetics, clothing options, miscellaneous gear, weapon maintenance rules, and who could ever forget the bug spray you’ll need at your next Death World stop. One addition here stood out, which are the “Origin Items” tables. With one for each potential origin world, players now have access to a d10 table of random items that can help provide background for roleplay and development. I love this addition, as it can help foster more creativity and ideas among your players for their character motivations.
The MRG has expanded on the augmetics list from the Core Rulebook, given additional rules and background to augmetic organs, implanted weapons, and even skinplants. My biggest concern reading through these augmetics is how my players are going to try to use them to get up to their usual shenanigans. C7 also included books into this guide, as well as the “Study Book Endeavor”. Allowing players to use an endeavor to study a book, they can gain advantage on a single test related to the books topic after completing the endeavor. The larger win, here, is that this endeavor ALSO reduces the XP cost of the first skill or specialization advance related to the books topics from 50xp to 25xp. I love this, and the emphasis on this endeavor with the rewards to the players as it can help GMs build more importance into the research and topics that a party may need to solve their investigation.
The tome also greatly expands on clothing, food, and equipment packs for the party. There are two pages of different types of servo skulls, including the disturbing “Gheist Skull”, also known as the Dead Man’s Revenge. I always love the ways that the many different Warhammer IP games tie together, and the Gheist Skull being included in Imperium Maledictum is a great bridge to the Imperial Navy Breachers of Kill Team. However, perhaps the last equipment list here is the most important – Medicae Equipment. With additional equipment options, your party will have better options for patching themselves up while doing their Patron’s task. This guide also gives rules for Stimm Packs, something I ended up creating on my own for Children of Rokarth, which is a great add for GMs and players alike.
Here Comes the Boom!
Now for the part that most people will care about – the armory. At 22 pages long, it expands the potential weapon list with SO. MANY. WEAPONS. Fifteen melee weapons, including the Viridan MkII Chain Halberd; 22 ranged weapons, including seismic cannons for anti-riot work; three new types of ammunition; five new explosives; six new weapon modifications; and did I mention Chain Halberds?
While you sometimes have to kill to live in 40k, you still need to survive whatever is being thrown at you as well. The MRG is here with seven new pieces of armor, including the Flak-Weave Greatcoat made famous by Commissars and Imperial Officers. While I originally saw this and thought “Death Korps”, these armored greatcoats do differ slightly from those of the Krieg, who just wear a standard coat over their flak armor.
After the armory comes the vehicles, and the expansive growth of vehicle based rules. the MRG gives rules for damaging vehicles, vehicle statistics (armor, crew, speed, size, weapons), costs, attacking vehicles, controlling them, and the Vehicle Critical Hit Table (p72-73). Vehicles don’t have a “wounds” pool (GOOD), so any attack that penetrates the armor has a potential to cause serious damage as it is an automatic critical, with escalations to the damage based on how much additional damage is done beyond the armor.
[GM Note – this sounds closely aligned with the hinted rules for wounds in the upcoming TTRPG The Old World. I’ve reached out to C7 to see if they can either confirm or deny the intentionality there and will update here accordingly.]
If those rules are not enough, vehicles come with their own set of actions, as well as restrictions to which types of vehicles can attempt the action. I am very glad these restrictions exist because while it seems like common sense that you cannot enact a “Crush” action with a flying Valkyrie…I am sure my players would ask. The MRG contains a good variety of vehicles as well, with at least two of each category (flying, grav vehicles, orbital void craft, walkers, wheeled, tracked) and more in the sections of vehicles that players are more likely to be obtaining or utilizing. Thank the God Emperor on the Golden Throne there are no rules for Leman Russ Tanks (yet).
As Cubicle7 continue to push out content, and GM’s write their own, foraying further into the Galaxy is not only expected it is going to be necessary. No good Warhammer story stays on any one planet too long – at some point, the job is done and it is time to move on. With The Blazing Seraph (Imperium Maledictum Starter Set), Chemical Burn, and the upcoming Voll Adventures, we are going to have a wealth of content for any GM and party that wish to hang out in the massive hives of Voll – including Rokarth. However, at some point, your party may take to the stars, whether to head to Jotungarth for His Glorious Shield or to the Inquisitorial Conclave (Inquisition GMs Guide) for that entire adventure. What to do if your party has no void ship prepared?
The MRG has you covered, with rules for voidship travel and encounter tables all of the myriad options that can occur during void travel. With tables for passenger encounters, external ship encounters, and warp encounters there are tools for any GM to tell the tale of why Warp travel is seen as so risky, yet necessary, for the Imperium.
Once you reach your destination, lodging, travel, communication and even hired muscle may be needed. While there are no rules for lodgings in the MRG, there are details on the expansive costs for travel and brief details on the challenges of that travel based on each world type. I enjoyed the details of the travel challenges of each world type that the MRG supplies. Details like that can help a GM to craft their story and vision to better relay it to players. You also have seven pages of information on hirelings, loyalty, and some example hirelings that can help any party to “fill in the gaps” and shore up weak spots (looking at anyone who has no medicae skills). The MRG also brings forth more rules and options for medicae services, which were a bit vague in the Core Book, as well as tables of treatment and outcome per TYPE of treatment (Poor, Standard, Good, and Excellent Medicae Treatment).
Notes on communication services and research are less in depth; though there is a bit of good detail on the difficulties of communicating across the Imperium, there is only a standard pricing table that a GM can adjust as fit for the different plants. Research is little more than a footnote in the MRG, a single page overview of the difficulties in obtaining information. While there is enough here for a GM to build from, it feels almost like an afterthought in the Requisition Guide.
Rounding out the Macharian Requisition Guide are some new talents for PCs and NPCs alike, boons and liabilities for patrons, and new endeavors. My personal favorite of the new liabilities is “Unclean Provenance”, where the equipment supplied to the party from the Patron has never fully been re-consecrated, thus risking daemonic taint of the equipment and party. While this sounds aggressive, it is one of those items that could be the start of an absolutely amazing Warhammer tale, or even the start of discovering a Patron is corrupt themselves…
The appendings for the MRG are expansive, including a brief note on the legality of markets, as much of the equipment listed would make black market sellers drool. Optional tables of equipment quirks and liabilities can give that extra dash of flair for the story. One of my favorites here is the weapon deficieny “Expurgating Spirit”, where a character with any corruption must roll while reloading to see if the weapon jams. It reminds me of the lasgun carried by the Tanith 1st soldier Rhen Merrt in “Only in Death” by Dan Abnett, a weapon he claimed was cursed and would often fail him.
Final Verdict
With a wealth of information, equipment, rules, and even a new sample patron the Macharian Requisition Guide is a great add to any GM or player for the expansion to the core armory. However, this is not a necessary purchase – anyone debating between the Macharian Requisition Guide and either the Inquisition Player’s Guide or Inquisition GM’s Guide would be better served to start with the Inquisition tome(s) before grabbing this guide.
8.2/10 – not necessary, but a good value add. Pick up your copy today here.
Thank you to Cubicle 7 for allowing us to review this product.
Product provided by Cubicle 7 for review.
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