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Recently, I have gotten my hands on a copy of Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader, and plan on eventually getting Deathwatch, and I'm definitely thinking about coming up with a game to run. However, I don't play the tabletop game (I don't have the money for all those minis), and so I figured that I will pick up some of the 40K novels and get some knowledge of the universe that way. Well, I have finished reading the Eisenhorn Omnibus and am currently reading the Ravenor Omnibus, and I was wondering if there were any other 40K novels that others can recommend to get into the history, feel, and mythos of the 40K universe.
Also, does anyone who has experience running any/some/all of the 40K RPGs have any advice for running one of these games?
Recently, I have gotten my hands on a copy of Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader, and plan on eventually getting Deathwatch, and I'm definitely thinking about coming up with a game to run. However, I don't play the tabletop game (I don't have the money for all those minis), and so I figured that I will pick up some of the 40K novels and get some knowledge of the universe that way. Well, I have finished reading the Eisenhorn Omnibus and am currently reading the Ravenor Omnibus, and I was wondering if there were any other 40K novels that others can recommend to get into the history, feel, and mythos of the 40K universe.
You're definitely on the right track. Rogue traders, although they are not the focus of the books, do play an important role in both trilogies (Sholto Unwerth has awesome comedy value, if less competent than the other traders), and obviously the Inquisitors are the focus of the books. In fact, the way both Eisenhorn and Ravenor run their teams is very RPG PC party-esque, and should provide plenty of inspiration and ideas. The Deathwatch chapter even shows up briefly in the first Eisenhorn novel.
As for others, it's difficult to say. If you want to run a game involving any kind of large-scale military conflict, such as a crusade, then checking out the GAUNT'S GHOSTS omnibuses could be an idea. The HORUS HERESY series could also be good for getting some background on the setting, although the events of the Heresy are more than 10,000 years in the past of the WH40K universe and probably won't impact on events in the campaign (any more than the an SF campaign set five thousand years in the future shouldn't involve back-references to the building of the Pyramids ;-) ). If you want to use the DEATHWATCH book to run a more traditional Space Marine shoot 'em up campaign, Graeme McNeill's ULTRAMARINES omnibuses might be worth a look, although you might get abuse about the 's murfs' ;-)
Also look out for the ULTRAMARINES CGI movie, which should be out next month on DVD, which might be good inspiration. Also the DAWN OF WAR RTS computer game, which is six years old so should run on most PCs and gives a good sense of the atmosphere of the 40K universe.