Former Games Workshop video presenters Louise Sugden and Chris “Peachy” Peach are shaking up two of our favorite things for their upcoming actual play show: Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer 40,000. Titled Heretic Hunt, the series will see the gritty sci-fi lore of Warhammer 40k, paired with the story-driven role-play of DnD.
Announced in an exclusive interview with Polygon published on Tuesday, Heretic Hunt is planned to start airing later this year, using specially adapted DnD rules and featuring Warhammer 40k minis and terrain painted by the presenters. Games Workshop alumni Sugden and Peach will reportedly be joined on the show by writer Daniel Saye as Dungeon Master, actor Greg Jones, and Jamila Hall.
Sugden and Peach left GW around two years ago, and have since created their own tabletop brands, with “Suggs” founding her YouTube channel Rogue Hobbies, and Peach collaborating on The Painting Phase channel, before leaving in February 2024 to start his own, Peachy Tips. The two also began co-hosting tabletop gaming podcast Juggz in April, alongside fellow Warhammer TV veteran Rob Symes a.k.a. The Honest Wargamer.
As Warhammer fans will know, there are some cracking licenced Warhammer 40k tabletop RPGs out there, but the Heretic Hunt crew has chosen the DnD system to make the show more accessible to fans of shows like Critical Role. Saye told Polygon they were using DnD instead of official Warhammer 40k RPGs simply because all their players know the system well, and it would help viewers get into the show.
The show will follow agents of the Warhammer 40k Inquisition, on a mission to stop heretical rituals wreaking havoc in the bowels of the Imperium of Man. Saye describes the campaign as a smaller-scale story rather than a world-spanning epic. He also teases some fantastic miniatures and sets, but don’t expect the production value of something like Dimension 20 – this is a more modest affair.
The series will be made up of eight 45-minute episodes – the team stressed the need to make the series digestible, so packaged it into a structure similar to that of a conventional TV series. Hall also suggested that there could be further seasons, if the first is successful… and if any characters are left behind at the end of the first.
Both Sugden and Peach have shared critical memories about working at GW – Peach told Wargamer in an interview in February his time had been marred by a “table-flipping diva”, and when we spoke to Sugden last year, she told us she’d loved working there, but the reality of the job had proven “quite limited”, leading to her departure. Both, however, are avowed mega-fans of Warhammer 40k, as this new project shows.
And it’s a great time for a show like this to debut, as the Warhammer brand clearly shows no signs of waning. Games Workshop has just announced record profits, yet again, and there’s no shortage of new products hitting the market. If you’re new to 40k and want to learn the basics, why not take a look at our Warhammer 40k factions explainer?
Alternatively, you can learn the basics of Dungeons and Dragons to follow along with the show – our full guides to all the DnD classes and DnD races should help (depending on how heavily Heretic Hunt doctors the rules to suit its grimdark future setting).