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OwlbearUltimate
2010-03-05, 09:34 PM
So my friends and I were thinking of starting Dark Heresy to prepare for release of Deathwatch, though we've never played any role-playing game except DnD :smallbiggrin: Any tips to getting yourself into a completely different game style, in addition to any tips about Dark Heresy in general? Any experiences in game or thoughts of it are appreciated!

*As a note I'm playing a Guardsmen

Kaun
2010-03-05, 09:51 PM
its a lot easier to die in DH so walking blindly into combat isnt a good idea.

ApatheticDespot
2010-03-05, 09:57 PM
I'm not that experienced with Dark Heresy, but with a setting as colourful as the 40k universe (black and blood red are colours, after all) it's hard to get wrong. I found that the best part of the game was how easy it was to spin genuinely unnerving encounters. I'm not a great DM, I'm a lousy storyteller and not overly charismatic, but particularly if the players are only passingly familiar with the setting the creepy comes naturally in Dark Heresy.

I had one particularly successful session where the PCs had captured a "mutant", who was unbeknownst to them actually a genestealer hybrid, and were trying to interrogate it. Now, the problem with trying to torture information out of a genestealer hybrid is that you can't, so the guy tied to a chair getting tortured wound up doing most of the interrogating while he passed intel to the hivemind telepathically. It was every bit as awesome as that sounds.

Mechanically, DH is utterly brutal in combat. Take cover and be the first to start shooting full auto and you might survive with most of your limbs still attached :smallbiggrin:.

Kaun
2010-03-05, 10:03 PM
Psykers will steal a lot of the spot light if you get one who uses his powers all the time but they have a tendancy of painting the walls red and taking half the party with them if they keep it up for too long.

OwlbearUltimate
2010-03-05, 10:18 PM
Psykers will steal a lot of the spot light if you get one who uses his powers all the time

Uh oh, I have a pretty power mad friend who was going for psyker. Do you think I should try and convince him otherwise for the sake of the party?

Danin
2010-03-05, 11:16 PM
My group has just started playing Rogue Trader, which is roughly equivalent in power terms as level 5. Last night, one of the orks they were fighting had his stomach rended open, his left arm blown off and his right leg severed before his chest was so badly burnt that the 6 clips of ammo and 6 frag grenades he was carrying exploded.

This is equally likely to happen to a player. To say the game is lethal is being generous.

Fulkerin
2010-03-05, 11:36 PM
I wouldn't recommend talking him out of it. My group (i'm gm) has two psykers in it, and while they are very, very powerful... they've learned not to use it too much. Summoning daemons by accident is no fun. Well, for the players anyways.

If your used to dnd, try to get the psyker to focus mainly on biomancy. You will need the healing.

And some things to look out for:

Class does not determine wounds. (But may improve them if you spend xp)

Look at the crit charts. Great incentive not to be shot too much.

Toughness and armour are your best friends.

Always either try to talk your way through things, or be the first to pull the trigger.

And if you ever see a daemon, run or shoot the biggest guns you have. Or holocaust (Pyromancy power)

SparkMandriller
2010-03-05, 11:40 PM
Look at the crit charts. Great incentive not to be shot too much.

These are amazing.

Fulkerin
2010-03-05, 11:44 PM
I know. Impact 8+ on the head is a beautiful, beautiful thing. (one of my players is a sniper. Houserule that headshots are automatic righteous fury hits.)

Almost forgot: Beg for an assault cannon. Your gm would be insane to give it to you, but you might as well try :P

Talkkno
2010-03-05, 11:47 PM
Uh oh, I have a pretty power mad friend who was going for psyker. Do you think I should try and convince him otherwise for the sake of the party?

If you have the Rogue Trader book, use the psyhic rules in there instead. They let a pskyer use a lot less power to fuel to their powers, but with no risk of Perils of the warp.

Glimbur
2010-03-05, 11:50 PM
If you have the Rogue Trader book, use the psyhic rules in there instead. They let a pskyer use a lot less power to fuel to their powers, but with no risk of Perils of the warp.

Where's your sense of adventure?

Also, cover is your best friend. Give it a hug in every firefight if you can. Alternately, charge and let them taste righteous steel.

Talkkno
2010-03-05, 11:53 PM
Where's your sense of adventure?

.

You can also "push" powers to give you +3 psy rating, but you incur automatic roll on the physic phemona table.....:smallwink:

Lycan 01
2010-03-06, 01:30 AM
I want to tell you a story.

My college group had its first DH game yesterday. They've got plenty of experience with DnD, and some with Call of Cthulhu, so they weren't completely ignorant. The party included an anti-social Arbitrator, an androgenous Scum mercenary, a charismatic sniper Assassin, and a Psyker. The Psyker is the key - he's Void Born, so he's short, skeletal, and has skin so pale its blue. His sanctioning has left him with no hair on his entire body, and he twitches. So, we've got a little twitchy blue thing in robes following the team around. Hilarity ensued, naturally. Especially when the G-forces in their drop ship made him slip out of his harness - right when the assassin puked in Zero-G.

So, a short while later, the team is navigating through a busy city market district, and the Psyker decides he's tired of people staring at him for being blue and covered in puke. So, he uses Chameleon, and turns invisible. Ta-da, he's invisible! Well, more-so transparent, just like a Predator. At any rate, the rest of the team somehow starts a street brawl. A bunch of angry teenage thugs, wearing blue face paint in honor of their tribes' old ways, try to start something, and they rush the team with pipes and crowbars and other melee weapons. The Psyker decides he wants to try something...

Mechanically, he disengaged Chameleon, activated Weaken The Veil, triggered Psychic Phenomenon, drew his mercy blade in case he became possessed, and then screamed at the thug in front of him.

In game... The leader of the thugs rushed the team, only to have a blue skinned hairless humanoid clad in dirty robes appear in front of him, its eyes wide in terror and a knife raised high above its head. The apparition screams: "I AM THE SPIRIT OF YOUR ANCESTORS, AND I DO NOT APPROVE OF THIS!!" As he screams this, hundreds of birds take flight and dogs start barking all over the city - his Psychic Phenomenon roll agitated every animal in the city. And since he succeeded on Weakening the Veil, the very fabric of reality began to weaken around him, distorting and stretching the air around him.

One thug fainted, one stared in shock, three ran away, and the leader fell to his knees crying for forgiveness. Women began screaming and grabbing their children, men dove in front of their wives to protect them, and the whole crowd went crazy with fear and shock. The Psyker then reactivated Chameleon and dissappeared after telling the thug to go home and be blessed by the Emperor. Then the Assassin said they took donations... and the crowd began giving money and trinkets to their cause.


Twas a fun game... Oh, and the Assassin rolled a 100 on an Inquiry roll in the worst part of town on "the worst looking person I can find" in his words... So he got arrested by undercover cops for soliciting prostitution. :smallbiggrin:


They haven't even gotten to the heresy yet... :smalleek:

Asheram
2010-03-06, 04:53 PM
So my friends and I were thinking of starting Dark Heresy to prepare for release of Deathwatch, though we've never played any role-playing game except DnD :smallbiggrin: Any tips to getting yourself into a completely different game style, in addition to any tips about Dark Heresy in general? Any experiences in game or thoughts of it are appreciated!

*As a note I'm playing a Guardsmen

Ah. Another brother to join/been sold into/get pressganged into the corpse.

I'm currently in the exact same position as you are there, even down to the same choice of class.
Well, I can only tell you what I did to get into the role.
1. Get hold of the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer for Great tips and a bunch of laughs.
2. Try to get hold of the Warhammer book "Fifteen hours". A nice read.

Malificus
2010-03-06, 08:46 PM
My group would suggest to kill all psykers on sight.

Randalor
2010-03-06, 09:57 PM
We're currently in between missions in our current game. Some things I've learned so far:


Remembering that you are the inquisition can be very helpful. Unless the cops don't believe you.
Everyone can be a heretic. EVERYONE. Yes, including your contacts, the priests, the little old ladies, the small doggies...
For psykers, some of the best powers are your minor powers. Don't ignore the effectivness of -10 to all rolls on the enemy, or being considered in point-blank range for a round.
If you're from a Feral World, refering to everyone as either "That crazy person," "My team-mate," or "What's-his-face" is a great way to get around that not-saying-the-names-of-the-dead bit.
Imperial Guard bases are your best friend. Especially with that whole "You can requisition whatever you want, because you're the inquisition" part. Want a lascannon? Go ahead, they can't stop you.

OwlbearUltimate
2010-03-06, 10:30 PM
This has all been very helpful! Yeah our group had an interesting first day. Our assassin and psyker robbed a store, while another guardsmen and I pretended to be police and took them away in a false arrest, leaving with all the loot. It was the emperor's will that we get a five finger discount on that lascannon, you know, for slaying Xenos and stuff :smallamused: