I've been reading up about the Warhammer miniatures game, which I find kinda interesting. By which I mean the original Warhammer Fantasy Battle, not the sci-fi Warhammer 40,000 spinoff, which I honestly don't like much at all. 40K's main faction, the Imperium, is basically Nazi Germany cranked up to 11, with its god-emperor and its genetically engineered "master race" of Space Marines, yet it's portrayed as this good and heroic beacon of light, and the whole thing just turns me off. On the other hand, that kind of militarism doesn't bother me as much in Fantasy Battle's pseudo-Dark Ages setting, and the fact that it takes itself far less seriously is a big plus - I've heard it described as equal parts Tolkien, Moorcock, and Monty Python, and I'd say that about fits.
That said, I have neither the money nor the inclination to buy what amounts to an army of dolls that don't even come pre-painted. It would be cool if I could find some kind of shareware similar to Magic Workstation that lets you build your own virtual armies and play online, though.
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I love 40K, mainly because of the multitude of different armies. The Imperium is by no means portrayed as a "good and heroic beacon of light", by the way. They're a disturbing and horrifying dystopia.
I have a Tau army and they're like the communists of the galaxy, and they're quite often seen as the "good guys" of 40K. Not the Space Marines.
I guess it's just that most of the fluff is written from their perspective as Imperial propaganda. *shrug* I should probably lurk moar.
I think it's funny that the Tau are the closest thing to "good guys", yet they still regularly engage in concentration camps, forced sterilization, and carpet bombing of entire planets, and are altogether more "evil" than even the Empire in Star Wars. ;)
I dunno, the unremitting GRIMDARKness just turns me off - it's just as morally absolute as D&D, except instead of being black and white, it's all black. Doesn't give me anyone to root for.
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