Editing Warhammer 40,000 (section)

===Second edition (1993)===
The second edition of ''Warhammer 40,000'' was published in late 1993. The starter set included Space Marines and Orks. The box artwork (by John Blanche) and studio army depicted the Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter.

This new course for the game was forged under the direction of editor [[Andy Chambers]]. Chambers reshaped the lore in a way that was more serious and pessimistic in tone (a direction which Rick Priestley lamented).{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} The new theme of the setting is that humanity's situation is not merely dire but hopeless, as the Imperium does not have the strength to defeat its myriad enemies and will collapse in time. This was not the case in the first edition; the first edition rulebook suggested that humanity could eventually triumph and prosper if it can survive long enough to complete its evolution into a fully psychic race, and this was the Emperor's goal.

The second edition of the game introduced army lists, putting constraints on the composition of a player's army. At least 75% of an army's strength (by point value) had to be of units from the same faction. This way, the battles that the players would play would fit the factional rivalries described in the setting. An expansion box set titled ''Dark Millennium'' was later released, which included rules for psychic powers. Another trait of the game was the attention given to "special characters" representing specific individuals from the setting, who had access to equipment and abilities beyond those of regular units; the earlier edition only had three generic "heroic" profiles for each army: "champion", "minor hero" and "major hero". A player could spend up to 50% of their army points on a special character. Such heroic characters were so powerful that the second edition was nicknamed "Herohammer".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/03/warhammer-40k-a-history-of-editions-1st-2nd-edition.html|title=Warhammer 40K: A History of Editions—1st & 2nd Edition|date=25 March 2020|access-date=5 September 2021|archive-date=5 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905140016/https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/03/warhammer-40k-a-history-of-editions-1st-2nd-edition.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The second edition introduced major revisions to the lore and would go on to define the general character of the lore up until the 8th edition. The Adeptus Mechanicus' prohibition on artificial intelligence was added, stemming from an ancient cataclysmic war between humans and sentient machines; this was inspired by the ''[[Dune (franchise)|Dune]]'' novels.