It's ok for them all to be evil if they're also portrayed as utterly ridiculous, literal walking jokes. They problem is they've been portrayed as serious a lot of times not and it's all a mess.
Hmm, my Rogue Trader game has had the actual Captain die of Warp Sickness (player left the game), and now the ship is under the command of their former mercenary Ork Freebooter. A Tau Firewarrior is the security officer, and the only remaining human Player Character command staff are the Astropath (Space Psychic), and the Seneschal (Space Accountant).
Last game the Astropath decided to try to do a :jesse-wtf:-style deal for Space Drugs on an asteroid colony with a "Narco-Tribe" Lieutenant who was also a Big Texas Oil Baron in a 10-Gallon Hat (or that's how I played him). He sampled too much of the Spice & ended up having paranoid hallucinations in which everyone around him was a harlequin & the boss was man with a snake-face & gemstone eyes; which unsurprisingly caused the deal to go south.
In the process of trying to explode the Big Texas Snake-Drug-Man's head with his psychic powers, the Astropath accidentally swapped his own mind with that of the Ork Captain's.
WH40k Lore: In the grimdark grimdark there is only grimdarkening grimdark
WH40k TTPRGs: "So if we attach the promethium to the squig then throw bacon at the chaos space marines it will create a breach that we can use to send the underhive clown biker gang directly in to the heart of the moonie-expy cult's central sanctum! We'll cover our attack by having the Thunderhawk do low swoops while playing smooth jazz!
This is the tone and seriousness that WH40k had originally
This is the tone it should all have.
It's ok for them all to be evil if they're also portrayed as utterly ridiculous, literal walking jokes. They problem is they've been portrayed as serious a lot of times not and it's all a mess.
Hmm, my Rogue Trader game has had the actual Captain die of Warp Sickness (player left the game), and now the ship is under the command of their former mercenary Ork Freebooter. A Tau Firewarrior is the security officer, and the only remaining human Player Character command staff are the Astropath (Space Psychic), and the Seneschal (Space Accountant).
Last game the Astropath decided to try to do a :jesse-wtf:-style deal for Space Drugs on an asteroid colony with a "Narco-Tribe" Lieutenant who was also a Big Texas Oil Baron in a 10-Gallon Hat (or that's how I played him). He sampled too much of the Spice & ended up having paranoid hallucinations in which everyone around him was a harlequin & the boss was man with a snake-face & gemstone eyes; which unsurprisingly caused the deal to go south.
In the process of trying to explode the Big Texas Snake-Drug-Man's head with his psychic powers, the Astropath accidentally swapped his own mind with that of the Ork Captain's.
Madness ensued.
If given a choice players will always choose the funniest option.
WH40k Lore: In the grimdark grimdark there is only grimdarkening grimdark
WH40k TTPRGs: "So if we attach the promethium to the squig then throw bacon at the chaos space marines it will create a breach that we can use to send the underhive clown biker gang directly in to the heart of the moonie-expy cult's central sanctum! We'll cover our attack by having the Thunderhawk do low swoops while playing smooth jazz!
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