40K Braindump #1

They are all people with guns. The difference is in the shape and size of those guns, and whom they tend to point them at.
As it is, 40K does not deserve its scale. It cannot feel as vast as it wants to, as there is too much homogeneity, too many precisely defined quantities that occupy too great a space. The map of the Calixis Sector may as well be a map of a single town for the lack of variegation within it; there is no way to convey the necessary vastness and detail.
The way to do this, I feel, is to consolidate, and more importantly, to open up. There must needs be variety, and support for that variety. There must be simple options and functional combinations, choices that matter in design and do not stifle within their framework.

The art, gamebook, etc. Space Marines beating one another up in close combat with big swords and guns.
Half the novels and every third AP, a sniper that spent three years setting up a trap using alien drugs and hyperthin wiring so he can stand on the third rafter of a consulate so he can assassinate an aristocrat with a needle rifle in exactly 3.46 seconds.
Dan Abnett's Blood Games illustrates this problem effectively. What is all this other stuff?
Bloody digital weapons. They irritate me inordinately.
Also lightning claws. They look silly.

A good GM should not say "no, you can't do that", but rather, "yes, you can do that, and here are the results and consequences of that."
I must mix things up, aerate the soil, take the calcified and refuse them in new ways, else there can be no living setting, and thus no fun to be had within it by a creating mind.

"Drive me closer; I want to hit them with my sword."
This line captures the tenor of a knowing, functioning 40K finely.
Chaos and Traitors are two different things.
Nobody talks about Tau Grey Knights. Those should exist, just as all combinations should exist, or at least have the possibility to.

It is all a personal refinement. I see a thing that I do not like, and thus I take it out. This is as it should be, and how I have always done it. If a made thing does not please me, I feel no qualm in breaking it and reassembling the pieces to better suit my personal needs. In this way could everyone have the made thing that best pleases them. Roleplaying games are a fine method for this personalized transmutation.
The test of this philosophy is its application. Here, I do it with 40K, but how many others could it serve? With it, I see great stuff, but also many flaws, and to get at the fruit I must shear away the rind.