Those who missed a chance to secure a copy of the original edition of Warhammer 40,000 when Games Workshop reprinted it for the 30th anniversary of the tabletop wargame in 2017, only to sell it at Warhammer World in Nottingham, have another opportunity to do so.

As part of its recent reveal on future releases, Games Workshop declared that the reprinted first edition of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader rulebook will be obtainable through print-on-demand. Orders will be accepted from October 14 to October 23. The dispatching of the copies will take place "within 180 days post the closure of the ordering window". The price, however, remains a mystery.

The original Warhammer 40,000, released in 1987, deviates in many ways from the ongoing 10th edition. To start with, it embodied a role-playing game as much as a wargame. It contemplated a third player performing as a "gamesmaster", interpreting rules, introducing scenarios, and representing any autonomous forces on the battlefield. The battles revolved around smaller squads, with considerably fewer armies, and an assumption that tokens or available miniatures were to be used due to the scarcity of official minis back then.

The context varied too, with "primarch" alluding to senior space marines rather than demigods, and Chaos remained unmentioned until the arrival of supplements. However, the tone was consistent from the beginning, portraying the Imperium as "the cruelest and most bloody regime conceivable" and the era as "a dark and terrible period devoid of comfort or hope."

Another tabletop RPG named Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader arrived in 2009. Owlcat leverages this version as the foundation for its CRPG, expected to be released on December 7.