>>64466482
>written by 1980s nerds about a future where ignorance is the norm and technological progress is a long dead myth.
that kind of came later - original 40K was a parody of Warhammer Fantasy (ie, space elves (eldar), space orcs (Orks), space empire (imaginatively called the imperium), space dwarves (squats), etc etc.
but it was liberally inspired by (read blatantly stealing) stuff from 2000AD, particularly Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, and of course, Judge Dredd. Icongraphy of the troopers on bikes or jet-bikes, with armour with Aquila eagles on shoulders, is 100% lifted from Dredd. The "arbites" enforcers in the hive cities, are almost 1:1 copies of the Judges. Rogue Trooper is the archetype on which the Imperial guard troopers were built, and of course, was also heavily influential in the original game's name - "Rogue Trader"
And the thing to remember was, original rogue trader isnt a wargame, at least in the sense that modern wargames are. It was expected to be run with a GM/DM running the game for two players. there wasnt any points values for creating armies, armies had almost no specific units - you got dreadnoughts, for instance, that both imperial guard, and marines would use the exact same models with. Same went for jet bikes and land speeders? (I am old, and its been 30+ years since I last played a GW game. I barely remember names.) and then you had space orc, eldar, squat dreadnoughts, which were if I remember, almost identical stat-lines.
the stuff that wasn't lifted whole-cloth from 2000AD was pretty much copied from Heinlein (starship troopers), Herbert's "dune" (imperium of man, elite soldiers, the "immaterium" for FTL Travel - chaos wasnt really introduced to the game till the Slaves of Darkness and Lost and Damned books in 1989 and 1990, and those books were designed to be used for both Rogue trader, and Warhammer Fantasy Battles
all the equipment was also lifted from 2000AD. "needle pistols", "jump packs" etc.
