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View Full Version : WH 40K Dark Heresy - who's playing?



Hypertext
2009-01-05, 06:19 PM
So my group and i have recently been turned onto the Dark Heresy system and i have been nominated to run our first campaign since i know a little more about the setting then anyone else in my normal gaming group. So far i have gotten through half of a "chapter" i put together and things seem to be going well.

I wanted to see peoples thoughts on the system and if you have any advice what that might be. Also i always like hearing plot descriptions or notable moments from your games that stick in your mind. If you like i will give a brief run down of what has happened in my games sessions so far at your request.

Any and all input would be welcome. Thanks :smallsmile:

Belteshazzar
2009-01-05, 11:36 PM
I found the careers to be somewhat restrictive (no multiclassing and new class creation would seem somewhat difficult) however it does cut back on powergaming to an extent. I also almost balked at the price and the lack of any give stats for the main xenos and abhuman races. However, just reading it is so full of flavor it's like drowning in an exquisite stew of grim dark future. The mechanics are also short on excessive dicework and I have fallen in love with all the random generation tables (say anything bad you like about 1st and 2nd ed DnD I love me some randomizers)

As for the playing I rolled up a dark skinned, scarlet haired, neon tattooed feral worldler whose kills are etched into his skin. He joined the Adeptus Arbities (not a common choice for his background, but reasonable.) He was sent to help quell a revolt on an imperial world when his shuttle was shot down and attacked by marauders and rebels.

As I engaged in an almost comical close combat with a local weapon specialist the techpriest was trying to revive at least the main engine so we could skid away from incoming morter fire. The fight drags on as both I and my opponent miss, jam and drop our weapons in a fight of comic proportions all with our psycher helping unnoticed in the background (while calmly leading away fellow passengers from the wreckage) with his telekenisis. Then calamity strikes as the psyker fails our first Perils of the Warp. He rolls a 99.

Before now he had even been shaking off even the harmless warp manifestations, but he rolled a 9 five times running. Suddenly upon the battlefeild of a minor rebellion a deamonhost manifests and suddenly nobles and plebeians find they arn't so different after all. It was only the fact that the psycher was around a hundred yards away that saved me as our Inquisitor calls me up about this sudden development and says to stall it because help is on the way.

I hear this look up and see a swiftly descending drop pod. Little wheels start to turn in my post-apocalyptic mind (I was from 'that' kind of feral world) and little lights go on next to the "ya'll bout ta get nuked up!" and "It's the only way to be sure!" labels. I panic run inside and tell the techpriest to hurry up and fire the thrusters so we can skid to relative safety. It was most fortunate that he manifested as a bound deamon, but the chains were beginning to weaken as the pod stikes earth not 30 paces from the writhing blasphemous form. From this strides a single, space marine. He steps forward armed with a chainsword and strikes deeply into the shuddering form. But not deeply enough as the foul being heals itself (We decided to let the player play the deamonhost) and uses the chainswords tearing teeth to free its flesh from the binding chain's grip.

At this time full combat is pitched with the deamonhost taking full advantage of its powers and its long barbed tongue (the most obvious sign of its possession.) I notice a lone and curious van speeding across the tarmac and steel. The rebels had a bomb, a very large bomb. They were planning to use it on the nobles, but larger threats had arrisen and a wild looking preist had co-opted the vehicle and was now speeding it towards us all. From it's prodigious size I gathered that the half chewed steel of our still motionless shuttle would not save us. I thrust the protesting techpreist aside and thrust my arms deep into the tangle of wiring and circuitry ripping at random till by a luck of the die the engines roared to life and we started spinning. I yanked harder and the afterburners thrust us towards the battling marine, deamonhost and oncoming van/bomb.

We manage to extend the forward landing strut and the thrust begins driving us upward and as we pass overhead the deamonhost we hook the marine on the extended strut. Our howls of terror and lifebreath are ripped away by the wind and as consciousness fades I feel a tremendous pressure shaking apart the feeble craft. The last thing I see is a massive ceramite arm plunging through the shattered cockpit and scooping up the techpriest and I.

Next thing I know I am waking up to the insistent beeping of my comlink in a shabby bar downtown post-celebration and the rebellion has been put on hold till later notice. I wonder what he wants now.

Kiero
2009-01-06, 06:12 AM
The rest of my WFRP group play Dark Heresy, you can see their antics in the AP thread (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=419288).

It's an old argument now, but neither system nor premise appeal to me. I want a game like the supposed inspiriational materials Eisenhorn and Ravenor, only to do that I have to step outside of the stuff given, and deal with an overly-complex system. I personally think all the stuff on the Calixis sector is a waste of page-count.

Tsotha-lanti
2009-01-06, 06:40 AM
If you like - or even almost-kinda like - Dark Heresy, check out Fading Suns. It's a bit like WH40K, but more serious and plain better. (Also, it's more Dune, which is never a bad thing. Unless you're Robert Jordan and can't be assed to come up with your own story.)

Bryn
2009-01-06, 11:28 AM
but more serious and plain better
Does not compute.

To elaborate, (for me at least) the humour in Dark Heresy is a point in its favour.

Dark Heresy has rapidly become my one favourite systems since I got it at GenCon UK a few months back. It represents one of my favourite settings quite accurately, and it is beautifully lethal and over-the-top in just the right way. It's also a very useful compilation of 40k background. It isn't perfect, but it does several things very well and it's great fun in play.

Hypertext
2009-01-06, 02:30 PM
I was starting to worry no one would post anything in here.

Belteshazzar - First off that is an amazing story and it sounds like it was loads of fun to play. I'm hopefully working towards something of that epic scope but so far we are working through the little errands of minor acolytes =) To address your comment about multi-classing i am planning to incorporate the "elite" system where i can award skills, traites, talents, really whatever to a character based on, for one, where there character wants to go, and for two, what they have actually earned through playing. You are right about the zenos stats though. i was pretty dissapointed that there isn't even one published orc or nid in there but i didn't have too much trouble making them to hopefully fit later.

Kiero - I know what you are saying about the novel tie in factor. I have not personally read the ones you mentioned yet but this seems to be a common argument with those who have read it. Perconally i have set my story in the Calixis sector but made all of my players create their homeworld, or ship for one of our Voidborn, to both give their characters depth and let them use some creative muscle to help me tell a story. I personally don't consider myself too creative so this kind of thing really helps out for me.

Tsotha-lanti - I will definately check it out. I love Dune and it would be awesome to run something in that vein in the future. Right now we were drawn to Dark Heresy because of the tie to WH 40K though. FOr whatever reason we have all just gotten drawn into it at the same time for no apparent reason. Also i'm not Robert Jordan but do suffer from some serious writers block on adventures sometimes. ha ha.

Z-Axis - I agree on your point about teh flavor of the system. I have realized that the hilarity that has already ensued in one mission has been pretty over the top. The fact that you can shoot something once and its leg explodes into a gout of blood covering a 4 meter radius of terrain in blood that basically makes anyone that moves slip is both incledibly dark and a funny picture in itself.

Since Belteshazzar threw down such a good run down of one of his experiences i will do a quick outline of the player characters in my game.

Brin - Tech-Preist and all around creepy guy. Grew up on a forge world that is actually a Dyson sphere from a long forgotten civilzation before the Imperium of man. His social dealings with anyone usually boil down to a single question follow by a long un-nerving stare since he actually chooses to roll his fellowship to see if he says thank you. He wears the robes of a tech priest and appears for the most part amorphous. He does not however wear his hood and has a respirator type mechanish over his mouth with a yellow visor obscuring his eyes. He has long tendrils of circutry and wire extending from his scalp back giving the illusion of har.

Castus - Assassin to a recently appointed noble house through questionable means. On a joint salvage effort between Castus's salvage ship and noble house Tyranus (the equivalent of the mob) an Imperial Relic of great importance was discovered. Castus attempted to sabotage the Tyranus ship to get their slower so they could have the relic to themselves and oops... he blew up the whole ship on accident killing hundreds. As a plea bargain his ship and crew were granted noble house status by the Inquisition in exchange for the artifact and Castus was made head assassin of said house. Castus was then tithed to the Inquisition as an acolyte for fear of an impending backlash.

Aesir - Feral world Guardsman. Born from a brutal warrior culture in teh gladitorial pits of the planet of Valkyria. This viking like culture honed his battle prowess and has just recently been touched by the Emperor's hand. With the rapid industrialization and the abolishing of the old ways Aesir was conscripted into the Imperial Guard and is a veteran of several campaigns.

Cromwell - Imperial Psycher and creepy mumbler. Crowmell was orinally taken by the black ships and placed with a surrogate family on a scienece vessel as an experiment to see if living situation would effect his psychic potential. His ship came under attack by a Dark Eldar band of pirates and his family was slaughtered in front off him. The extreme stress of the situation caused Cromwell's powers to manifest to the extreme and his attackers were litterally turned inside out. After serious sanctioning Cromwell was thrust back into the fold where we served as support to an Imperial Navy vessel with the sole duty of erradicating the Dark Eldar pirates in their sector of space. As a result of the strenuous sanctioning that was done to Cromwell he constently mumbles and will ocassionally say things that he does not mean to say. He is also plagued with horrible nightmares and always looks extremely tired.

There of course ifs more but this is already turning into a huge post so i will cut it off there. Please keep it up though. I would like to know more about the games you have played and also possible homerules you have used to streamline things or make your game more fun.

Bryn
2009-01-06, 03:38 PM
Since stories seem to be the order of the day...

The Acolytes (http://z13.invisionfree.com/40K_Online/index.php?showtopic=695) were in their very first fight (http://z13.invisionfree.com/40K_Online/index.php?showtopic=715&view=findpost&p=1234160). Their goal: to find their way into the quarantined Sector D of the hive city, following the words of a suspected heretic.

The plan is to sneak in on board the ore-trains, one of the few things that can get in our out of the quarantined sector. Arriving by skimmer, they found themselves in a maze of pipes and machinery, all there to help extract vast quantities of ore from mines inside Sector D. So far, so good. Heresy was waiting to be crushed!

It was at that moment that some servitors, mutated by plague and enraged, emerged. The first died quickly, the Inquisition fearlessly shooting it to tiny pieces, only to meet two more advancing rapidly. The servitors were dumb and poor fighters, but when they hit, they hit hard.

Venris, the Arbitrator found this out, taking a hit to the leg. Thankfully, his near-superhuman toughness protected him from the worst of it. Seeing him take a hit, though, the psyker, Reaper, hurred in, trying to heal his friend.

Psychic test: 7, 2...
9
Seems the Warp wasn't all too pleased about that. A few unlucky rolls later and suddenly gravity reversed over the surrounding area, sending everyone rapidly falling straight up into the air.

But an Acolyte's duty to the Emperor is far more important than mere gravity! Unfortunately, fighting in midair proved to be nearly impossible. The mutant, some sort of hideous mess of fleshy strands, started to unravel, looking even more grotesque in the process.

All seemed lost! Fortunately, the skimmer was right there to save them. A frantic series of midair captures ensued.

In a nearby guard tower, one of the sentries came to the conclusion that some serious heresy must be going on, and fired a few shots (which fortunately missed) before rushing off to get his comrades. The groundcar hurried towards them while the mutant desperately held onto the skimmer (currently upside down).

The groundcar hit the reverse gravity zone and shot straight up into the air. A moment later, the effect ended, and it fell straight back down, smashing itself to pieces and slaughtering the honest workers inside. One of them, by some miracle, survived the crash.

The mutant landed on him.

Additionally: Smells like Heresy! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101287) Detox needles and priests with cannons! Lowly scum meet mighty aristocrats while strange things happen in the palace of the governor! May contain trace amounts of heresy.
[hr]
On a slightly different note, I'm very glad that Dark Heresy is written for humans only. The 40k universe just doesn't work with mixed-species parties, and trying to have a Space Marine and other characters in the same group is just a recipe for disaster.

I also have no problem with the restrictiveness of the career paths. Generally, I find they do a better job of being associated with fluff than DnD classes without making themselves either too general or too specific. I'm not worried about multiclassing in DH, for a couple of reasons: since your class is completely tied to your career in the Imperium, you can't change it; and because there isn't much to gain from changing class anyway (a slightly different skill list, maybe). Plus it would break the system wide open!

Main thing I disagree with in the Dark Heresy rules is that you are only considered to be an Interrogator when you have reached the top of your career path, which is quite silly compared to the source material. If you've made it to the position of an IG General, you're probably rather too old and important to go off and work for the Inquisition (after all, those heretic armies won't crush themselves!). Generally, I divorce the career path system partially or competely from in-game ranks.

Otherwise, Dark Heresy is seriously great.

Hypertext
2009-01-06, 06:14 PM
I agree about the career paths. I am taking them as a basic starting place and then i think i will fluff it from there. I don't really see how a Guardsman, for example, could get promoted every few months based on missions done outside of actual service.

Anyone have any thoughts on using shields as breakable cover? I don't remember where i read it but i am incorporating the rule as follows.

Shields grant a set Armor bonus to the arm they are carried in and can be used to grant cover over other areas if held accordingly. I am using the shields as destructable cover however so if an attack is on the shield and it does more damage then the armor bonus it provides it loses one armor point permanently until the shield is completely destroyed or repaired (if possible). Has anyone tried this before?

Sanzh
2009-01-06, 07:46 PM
On a slightly different note, I'm very glad that Dark Heresy is written for humans only. The 40k universe just doesn't work with mixed-species parties, and trying to have a Space Marine and other characters in the same group is just a recipe for disaster.


Can you help me explain this to my DM? We aren't playing Dark Heresy, but he somehow believes it's okay to have Imperials, Space Marines, every variety of Eldar, Orks, Tau, Chaos, and Necrons all somewhat working together.
It kind of scares me, to say the least.

Hypertext
2009-01-06, 08:08 PM
What system are you playing? As far as working together goes i can only justify a couple. Tau, for the greater good and all that, sure they can team up i guess. Space Marines and Imperial guard i can see. Eldar maybe but definately not Dark Eldar. Orks why not. Maybe against a tough enough oponent even they would team with the "good guys". Chaos and Necrons though... they would never team with anyone... ever. No one even knows why Necrons show up and blast things... and Chaos... they eat souls or something!!

That is indeed scary. I feel bad for your average Imperial Guardsman that has to sit next to a Necron Flayed One on the transport to their next mission... he would litterally die from fear... and probably knife hands!!!

Sanzh
2009-01-06, 08:27 PM
What system are you playing? As far as working together goes i can only justify a couple. Tau, for the greater good and all that, sure they can team up i guess. Space Marines and Imperial guard i can see. Eldar maybe but definately not Dark Eldar. Orks why not. Maybe against a tough enough oponent even they would team with the "good guys". Chaos and Necrons though... they would never team with anyone... ever. No one even knows why Necrons show up and blast things... and Chaos... they eat souls or something!!

That is indeed scary. I feel bad for your average Imperial Guardsman that has to sit next to a Necron Flayed One on the transport to their next mission... he would litterally die from fear... and probably knife hands!!!

Our group is using d20 Future (after a lot of homebrewing).
I think that was some of the justification-- the Orks wanted revenge and were willing to help in order to kill something or another. I'm mostly scared because the only real way the campaign can end that will make sense is if everyone get Exterminatus'd for being heretics or xenos.
That and it makes so little sense, as this alliance has been maintained for more than a couple of days.

Belteshazzar
2009-01-06, 11:18 PM
See the problem is that if you have the right papers and jump through all the legal hoops it's is perfectly excusable to use xenos races as tools to an end, think pre-Reformation Catholic Church with the selling of indulgences. Rogue Traders for example can have a ship full of all kinds of exotic weapons, contracted crewmembers, and most heinous tradegoods like raw necrodermus, soulstones, and Tau manga.

Tau would like nothing better (they honestly think they are in a Star Trek or Anime type future, and they have no damn clue just how big, scary or old the Imperium or anything really is.)

Kroot serve anyone who pays good (especially if the have lax corpse disposal laws) and there are actual rules to use them as auxiliaries to Imperial Guard forces.

Tyranids... no not really. Perhaps you could use an unknowing member of a genestealer cult but even then it's safer to kill them... Actually there was that odd ambassadorial race (they looked kind of like tauric ogre/lizard) who were specifically designed to do the whole "lower your shields and prepare to be assimilated into the swarm" but rebelled when the Hivemind realized it was useless to ask people to stop squirming when being ohm nom nom-ed and decided to cut their department.

Necrons; ehhh it's hinted some of the highest Techpriests of Mars do directly worship, restrain, confer with the Void Dragon (one of the few surviving C'tan.) However, aside from this tenuous connection and the necron's Pariah Recruitment Project both sides regard each other as little more than a resource (souls, slaves, life energies vs necrodermis, godtech, HERESY!)

Orks just wanna have fun. Fighten, boozen, yellen ,riden, shooten and looten are all fun. War has much of this in available quantities and thus the lifestyle of a roving warrior for hire (or pirate, or maniac, or apocalyptic mob...) suits them. They have been used as mercs in the very basic go fight those guys instead of us and we will give you guns and big boom things (cause only a grot would accept humie teef for stuff!)

Eldar and their cousins the Dark Eldar are known to work alongside humans (Exiles especially as they arn't bad enough for Commorroh nor disciplined enough for a Craftworld.) Unfortunately, the craftworld Eldar are especially cryptic and skiddish of long term alliances (they feel humanity is too unreliable.) They also prefer to be in control or at least above the situation, willing to wast a million human lives to save one Eldar(some numeratic justification here but still dickish and undesirable in an ally.)

Abhumans would cover all Ogryns(ogre types built like a brick ****house and smart as one too), Ratlings (not to be confused with the Hrud or Skaven these are simply oversexed Hobbits valued for their markmanship) and any surviving Squats/Demiurg (high tech, ingenuous dwarves who after being nearly exterminated by the Tyranid forces in a despite bid by Games Workshops to make the GRIMDARK FUTURE more serious, they now ply the spaceways as the asteroid miners who sold the Tau their guns.) Beastmen are another common 'mutant' type recruited into the Guard generally as simple fodder (give them a sharp stick and they can keep what they kill) due to the undesirable inhumanity of their kind (this category would generally cover any unacceptable, though sufficiently pliable mutants like furries, satyr types, minotaurs, ect)

However, true alliences where no-body has to point guns at each other are unimaginably rare (even the most pure imperials may need the the attention of a trained Commsar now or then) and they need the Inquisition to monitor them and they all monitor each other.

Werewindlefr
2009-01-07, 01:33 PM
The Imperium hates alliens, all alliens, and think of them as threats or nuisances to be exterminated in the name of the Emperor. Using them as a tool mught be possible for some radical Inquisitor or other members of the Adeptus Terra, but even in dire situations this is frowned upon by the others -at best.

A party with mixed alien species? It would be incredibly hard to justify, and temporary at best. Well, sure, it could work against a major Daemon threat or a new Warp Overlay threatening to appear.

As for the game itself, it's part horror (think "Cthulhu") part exploration of serious themes, in the 40k setting. The choice to have this game revolve around the inquisition was a smart one -combining investigation, adventure, roleplay and atmosphere. Space Marines would have been too powerful and war-oriented, for instance.

holywhippet
2009-01-07, 09:00 PM
The Imperium hates alliens, all alliens, and think of them as threats or nuisances to be exterminated in the name of the Emperor. Using them as a tool mught be possible for some radical Inquisitor or other members of the Adeptus Terra, but even in dire situations this is frowned upon by the others -at best.


I believe some aliens have been flagged as "useful" to the Imperium, mainly because of technical skills they have on offer. As such, these aliens are under the protection of the Imperium in exchange for their services.

I've played a few sessions of Dark Heresy. My GM tended to favour the school of thought "Be paranoid and think your actions through". Assume your enemies are watching and listening to your actions.

Hypertext
2009-01-08, 01:18 PM
Yeah i agree that some zenos are assets tobe tapped if necessary but i think there are still some that wouldnt be touched with an 11 foot pole. Chaos, Nids, and Necrons would be right out in my opinion. I guess you could squeak a Daemonhost by since the Inquisition does keep them around on an extremely short leash for special circumstances.

Dixieboy
2009-01-08, 02:44 PM
I believe some aliens have been flagged as "useful" to the Imperium, mainly because of technical skills they have on offer. As such, these aliens are under the protection of the Imperium in exchange for their services.

I've played a few sessions of Dark Heresy. My GM tended to favour the school of thought "Be paranoid and think your actions through". Assume your enemies are watching and listening to your actions.
As far as i remember the empire allows no Xenos

Mutants are allowed for their usefullness (But kept in a very short leash)
But apart from that dwarven race three editions ago (Or so) i don't think any aliens have been allied with the Empire of man :smallconfused:

cody.burton
2009-01-08, 04:15 PM
Yeah i agree that some zenos are assets tobe tapped if necessary but i think there are still some that wouldnt be touched with an 11 foot pole. Chaos, Nids, and Necrons would be right out in my opinion. I guess you could squeak a Daemonhost by since the Inquisition does keep them around on an extremely short leash for special circumstances.

Deamonhosts are only used by the most radical inquisitors, who are executed as heretics if discovered, so anyone using a deamonhost is not really able to ally with the rest of the imperium for very long.

I agree on the orks, tau, and eldar possibly being used, though.

Werewindlefr
2009-01-08, 04:25 PM
Mutants are allowed for their usefullness (But kept in a very short leash)Abhumans, not mutants. That is humans that mutated to adapt to conditions, and not because of taint. And even them are "tolerated", at best.

Xenos are officialy not considered useful, even for technology; that would be tech heresy, an insult to the machine god. Now, of course, there are exceptions -temporary alliances with the Eldar or the Tau-, but even these are rare, frowned upon, and short-lived.

Hypertext
2009-01-08, 06:58 PM
I agree.

So anyone have any stories to relay? Or maybe a notable PC or NPC that you liked in a game? If you throw some out i would love to use them in my game, with permission of course :smallsmile:

Also any comments on my shields as cover question above?

Thanks for all the great input by the way :smallsmile: