I realize that GW has fucked 40k up pretty bad in recent history, and that it has a lot of problems, but it still remains one of my favourite sci-fi settings for tabletop and pen & paper. Why don't we talk about the unique things it brings to the table as a universe, and things it actually does well, for once.
ITT: Positive things about 40k as a setting
I like the Admech.
Dem ship designs
The scale. The scale of the setting allows you to tell stories that involve massive struggles on a heightened level of drama, and still remain a tiny spec of the larger setting ultimately disrupting none of the established canon fans love so much.
The cosmic horror of chaos
"Everyone is evil," may not be the best way to portray it, but I do absolutely adore the clear-cut moral grey throughout the setting. The Warp is also a fantastic idea provided that the writers actually use it cleverly and in accordance with established "rules," instead of using it as an in-'verse asspull.
Kitchen sink setting.
Pretty much anything can be fit into the setting. It's why people keep complaining about 40kid bringing warhammer into everything like a bunch of furries, except, it's that we cram everything else into 40k because by it's nature, there can easily be a 40k version of it. I'd understand the point if it was a thread about something unrelated and then people brough 40k into it, but in 90% of cases, it's a 40k discussion to begin with where someone takes inspiration from an outside source into.
You can take inspiration from fucking everywhere and that's the main reason I play. I have so many fucking army ideas and I just keep getting new ones all the time.
Have a Chinese Stormtrooper.
It's such an overused comparison but whenever I watch a documentary or historical film featuring Nazis I occasionally see a little flash of iconography or rhetoric that the Imperium borrows from, and it reminds me a lot of that theme of moral grey area.
I personally love the imperial creed as stated by the Emperor in its view of humanity.
> Mankind Is Great
> Mankind Can Do Great Things
> Mankind Don't Need Nobody Else To Be Great
That sort of thing.
Which of courses amplifies the tragedy that follows...
This.
I've been developing a world for a DH2 game based upon English and Scottish culture of the 20s-40s, especially from around the border regions and lowlands, adapting little influences and historical anecdotes into something unique, and knowing that it fits into the existing lore without conflict if you put a little work in, can be very satisfying.