New at GMing Dark Heresy

[Illithilich]

I have been appointed GM of the group me and some friends made for playing Dark Heresy (mostly because I already DM our D&D group). My problem is that im not really familiar with the system, altough I do own the main rulebook. I am familiar with GMing though, and very much so with the Warhammer 40k setting. So im looking for some advice. Mainly three things:

1. What books should I have? I already own the main book and the GM's kit. What other books are good things to have?
2. How should one GM a game of Dark Heresy? Are there any big things for me to remember other than the normal GM things?
3. Is there anything I should look out for? Are there any horribly OP monsters or other things I should try to avoid?

[Andrewmoreton]

I am just finishing a long campaign.

The Inquisitors handbook is very useful it has a lot of extra gear and variety for character design.
The radical Handbook and Disciples of the dark gods give some useful material on the inquisition and notable enemies I have found them very useful.

The Scenario book Purge the Unclean has three scenarios which are nice for getting a fell of the setting (there are also free scenarios in the rule book and on FFG games website which can give good ideas)

The GM's kit is the worst supplement for the game IMO, If you did not already have it I would advise you not to buy it. The scenario is ok but Sluagh are brutal they are likely to TPK.

Early on remember your PC's will fail a lot of roles resist the temptation to give them -20 tests , they probably have only 30-50% chance of success anyway .

Do not be afraid to kill PC's each of them has several fate points so they can survive several 'deaths' and its a dark future. (I have 'killed' all of my players several times only 1 PC has run out of fate points and that player could not make dodge rolls ever)

Be careful with creatures causing fear early on most of your pc's will fail fear roles a weak demon can kill the entire party. If you have a psyker encourage him to take inspiring aura to improve their chances.

Design the Inquisitor the pc's will be working for , decide how radical he is , he will strongly influence your game however make sure he is not standing over their shoulders as if he is it can ruin the game as he solves the plot for the pc's. (the Inquisitor can easily become a DMPC don't do it)

Have fun!

edit
Don't be too stingy with equipment , the main rules are but your pc's work for the inquisition! give them decent guns and flak armour, the really good guns are restricted by the specialist skills they need.

Check the Erratta

Consider the Psyker rule from Ascencion
a psyker using his rating at half strength cannot trigger psychic phenomenon.
He can push at 50% over strength and automatically trigger psychic phenomenon at +10 for every 9 rolled

[GolemsVoice]

The Creatures Anathema is also nice for, well, creatures. More advice when i have the time.

[jaybird]

1) Inquisitor's Handbook I consider practically part of the core book. Everything else is supplementary. Good, but supplementary.

2) Try to evoke the style of the setting. Ancient machines nobody understands but everyone depends on. Islands of opulent wealth in an ocean of crushing poverty. The complete and utter lack of worth in human life. A crumbling empire, striding across the stars on its last legs to bring devastation to its foes. In short,

From this:
http://1d4chan.org/images/c/cc/Lord_of_Mankind.jpg

To this:
http://1d4chan.org/images/b/b3/Emperor_old.jpg

3) Check the Errata/FAQ. Helps a lot. Also does a bunch of balancing. Oh, and IMO allowing the Psykers to have the Fettered/Unfettered/Push option is a poor idea - Sanctioned Psyker is already one of the more powerful classes along with Techpriest. One houserule that's worked well for my group is to give all las weapons Pen 2, to compensate for not having automatic fire like autoguns do. Final note, familiarize yourself with the rules. Then do it again. FFG writes great games, but damn, some of the rules can be downright bizarre at first glance.

[crazyhedgewizrd]

Dark Heresy should not be a straight forward game, there should be plots within plots, temptations, second guessing and etc.
It is not the friendliest setting to be in, everyone one is out to get you.

Strategy and tactics are one of the things that has to be used in every combat, it means that getting hit once can kill you.
Just because the players work for a inquisitor does not mean they get full reign to do what ever they need/want to do.

[king.com]

First thing I want to say is ignore all the advice on houserules until you actually play the game and you figure out what your group likes and dislike about the system. Advice like this:



Consider the Psyker rule from Ascencion
a psyker using his rating at half strength cannot trigger psychic phenomenon.
He can push at 50% over strength and automatically trigger psychic phenomenon at +10 for every 9 rolled

or



One houserule that's worked well for my group is to give all las weapons Pen 2, to compensate for not having automatic fire like autoguns do. Final note, familiarize yourself with the rules. Then do it again. FFG writes great games, but damn, some of the rules can be downright bizarre at first glance.

These are going to completely ruin your game if your if you have certain players approach the game differently. Try the game first then look for solutions IF you find problems.

Anyway on to your questions:



1. What books should I have? I already own the main book and the GM's kit. What other books are good things to have?


I'll say it again but Inquisitors Handbook is probably the only supplament book you really want to have, every other book is on your personal preference.

If you want to do lots of heretical stuff get Radicals Handbook and Disciples of the Dark Gods, if you want more monsters/race information/adversaries you can have a look at the Creatures Anathema. If you want specific info on certain books send me a PM but most of them are unnessary to play the game.



2. How should one GM a game of Dark Heresy? Are there any big things for me to remember other than the normal GM things?


You say your a D&D GM so I'm going to assume thats where your baseline is a explain things from there (if you run other games this might get redundant so I apologise; if you've run Call of Cthulu, thats a good baseline for what you need to do).

Dark Heresy is a game of Investigation, Action and Horror while something like D&D places a lot of its emphasis on combat. Thats not saying its all about combat but much of the games resources are devoted to that. Alternatively combat (or Action) is only a third of the gameplay for Dark Heresy. Combat is extremely brutal with characters containing a very low survivability and generally are poorly equipped (some people suggest giving equipment to your players but the limited resources your players get is part of the game system ). Combat doesn't run around encounters its a byproduct of the investigation and social aspects running the players into trouble.

The amount and type of combat largely depends on the makeup of the party. A party with a Guardsman, Assassin, Arbitrator and a Cleric are going to be after a far more combat heavy game than a party with an Adept, Techpriest, Scum and Psyker who would be placing emphasis on the investigaton part of the game.

When it comes to the investigation aspect of the game your lucky as a GM that the Dark Heres system is designed to have your players as agents in the employment of someone infinitely more powerful and more resourceful than they are. They are ordered to go off and do some and they can't expect to know why they are doing it. They are ultimately servants of the God-Emperor of mankind and the emphasis on religious zeal should be surrounding them in their daily life.

Dark Heresy is a system where the creation of a DMPC is actually encouraged (as long as you dont abuse it). You create the Inquisitor of the party which acts usually as an external observer at best or more likely someone acting in scope WAY beyond your players. That way your players are more like chess pieces in your Inquisitors arsenal to be sent to achieve a goal (and at Rank 1, the goals has to be insignificantly unimportant but dangerous enough to test their capabilities for more important work)

The invetigation aspect of the game is about utilising this goal. You need to find out whatever your ordered to find out and often deal with the problem. This normally involes talking to people, doing background research, sneaking into data archvies and stealing information or simply shooting your way into a solution (usually a last resort). Your players need to keep themselves hidden from whoever they are trying to catch, be they a heretical cult trying to perform some profaine ritual, a group smuggling xenos artifacts or a band of Rogue Psykers trying to escape the captures of the black ships.

This then leads to the Horror aspect of the game. Your players need to be scared. Your in a universe where genetically engineered super soldiers are not strong enough to hold back the terrifying xenos and demons tryign to tear the Imperium apart. Then your player remember they're not Space Marines, they humans, mortal with their poorly equiped party, their worn and tired lasgun and the week worth of rations they have left against the greater abominations of the universe.

Take those previous scenarios and add the horror to them. Maybe that heretical cult wasn't TRYING to summon a demon, they already did! An demon inhabiting the very walls they are now walking in to hunt down the cult. Each wall-torch forming scabs peeling away to form eyes watching the party, any flesh touching the walls are ripped away with jealous hatred as the demon trys to reform a body for itself. The players are trapped within this monster desperately trying to find a way out. Take the xeno artfacts smugglers actually are possessed members of a genestealer cult and when the players finally catch them it turns out they're trying to smuggle out their Broodfather, a gigantic Genestealer which proceeds to wreak havoc as the players find their weapons proving far to ineffective to stop it before it makes it into melee range and cuts them apart. Then of course the easy one is the Rogue Psykers are able to manipulate reality at will so the players get to watch their arm being devoured by insects (all inside their own minds).

Fear is what drives a Dark Heresy party to keep themselves going because their own masers are just as dangerous as the monsters they are sent after.

You are a member of the Imperial Inquisition, you have UNLIMITED authority over the vast majority of humanity. That is, if you can provide proof of identity, have enough time for that information to be checked elsewhere (normally the Inquisition bastion in the captial of the sector which can take weeks to months) and have enough firepower/connections to back up your position.

You need to place emphasis on the warhammer 40,000 fiction along with ideas that technology is essentially magic to those outside the mechanicum, that the God-Emperor is everything and indepent thought is well....unthinkable amongst the average members of the Imperium (the Inquisition being funnily enough, an exception to this rule). Play up this angle as much as possible, the party member playign the psyker cant just use their powers whenever they want as any regular person or a cleric is going to look at them and scream "BURN THE WITCH!!!" Most wont understand that they have been 'sanctioned' as their religious leaders usually fail to mention that is a possiblity.

The game is ultimately about setting a conspiracy that your players are involved in some way. For an example one game my players we're order to hunt down an arms smuggler known to have acquired weapons from an Imperial Guard Armoury, through negotiation with the Ecclesiarch firebrands fighting with the local Hive gangs they managed to find him. They got information from a member of the Adeptus Administratum as to what resources the smuggler had and how he got them on the planet who ultimately wanted all the fighting to go underground so that he personally could get more underlings and office space (which ultimately led him to stab the players in the back as the smuggler could do 1 better). The players took a couple of gangers captive and investigated the smuggler setup, were in turn capture and discover that the reason the Inqusition sent the after this Smugger was that he was trafficing in Sanctioned Psykers and the players then needed to find out how he acquired them in the first place.

This was a simple setup but offered 4 different factions each trying to use eachother to fulfill their own ends. Both the Ecclesiarch firebrands and the Hive gangs wanted the smuggler's weapons and the Administratum Adept wanted to use the players and the smugglers to move the conflict away from his own operations without any real care as to who won. The players had to go in and assess wha was going on/who they could use/who they could trust and how they were going to pull it off.

This is a big load of rantyness but let me know if I actually helped or just confused you even further.



3. Is there anything I should look out for? Are there any horribly OP monsters or other things I should try to avoid?

A few heads up of some dangers of combat:

Full-Auto weapon will MURDER players particularly of low levels. They offer a +20 bonus to hit and have the potential to kill multiple party members in a single turn. If your going to equip one of your NPCs with one, make sure the players know about it first and have a opportunity to plan to deal with it.

Giving your NPCs too high a toughness, Unnatural toughness or too much armour for what your players are carrying can result in encounters where players dont have the firepower to kill their opponent. Not always bad but enough to keep in mind. At Rank 1 a combined damage reduction of 4-6 (that is armour value + toughness bonus) is the most you should go for unless your trying to get a boss or a special character or something. Any more and characters will have trouble hurting them. After you give them a couple months pay and get to Rank 2 or 3 (depending on how competent they are combat wise) you can do whatever you want as they should be buying things like Hotshot packs or Man-Stopper rounds to deal with those kinds of threats.

Another issue is that single targets dont survive very long in Dark Heresy. Given the average human wounds is 8-12 your really not able to take sustained fire from multiple targets. Dont use a single enemy and expect them as a threat to the players as nothing with enough wounds (outside of purely custom creatures) to survive a full turn of firepower will be something the players can 'reasonably' deal with (they either murder it or it murder them). This is with regards of 4 or more players with atleast 1 combat character so your mileage may vary on your group.

The group that surprises the other tends to have a massive advantage in combat. Make sure your players know that, things like cover and actually getting to surprise your opponents goes a LONG way with a fight. Though the best solution is often to avoid the fight or run away. Low rank players cant hit to save their lives so they need to set situatinos where they have the advantage. Short range +10 to hit, being able to aim for a turn before combat starts is a +20 with no risk, you get an accurate weapon and thats a +30. Your already likely to double your odds to hit. Remember though, your opponent can do the same.

When it comes to non-human NPCs all demons and many monsters come with the Fear (1-5) trait. Depending on your party's willpower your likely to have atleast half the players fail their ability to resist the fear and spend the fight cowering in the corner and wetting themselves. Plan in regards to that and perhaps have more NPCS arrive or not arrive depending on the number of people still running around after the intial Fear test.

Theres more but that should keep you going. If you aren't sure about a particular monster or creature feel free to ask.



So I've overloaded you with information so I'll say this one last thing. Take a look at the adventure at the back of the Dark Heresy core rulebook. Its not perfect but its actually a pretty good example of how the game can go and what elements should be in place.

Good luck, hope I helped!

[crazyhedgewizrd]

You are a member of the Imperial Inquisition, you have UNLIMITED authority over the vast majority of humanity. That is, if you can provide proof of identity, have enough time for that information to be checked elsewhere (normally the Inquisition bastion in the captial of the sector which can take weeks to months) and have enough firepower/connections to back up your position.


Even the Imperial Inquistion does not have UNLIMITED authority, there are many, many organizations that have the ability to tell them to go away. Inquisitors hinder each other all the time, even the ones that work together only do so if it futhers their own goals.
The players would find it easier if they did not use their Inquisition background to get the outcome they wanted. The only way they Inquisitor can help them, is if he is on the same planet as them.

[king.com]

Even the Imperial Inquistion does not have UNLIMITED authority, there are many, many organizations that have the ability to tell them to go away. Inquisitors hinder each other all the time, even the ones that work together only do so if it futhers their own goals.
The players would find it easier if they did not use their Inquisition background to get the outcome they wanted. The only way they Inquisitor can help them, is if he is on the same planet as them.

Maybe you just completely ignored what I said but: unlimited authority over the vast majority of humanity. There are not many, many organisations that can. There are SOME, some have more power, some have more authority but they are in the extreme minority in terms of numbers. My statement of 'vast majority of humanity' is true, even if you incorrectly read it as: 'vast majority of the Imperium'.

Yes Inquisitors do often hinder and even actively work against eachother, creating massive political and even military conflicts between their followers potentially creating the sector wide problems that the Inquisition is designed to stop. Such is the danger of independent ideas with the massive power an indicivdual can use to support their argument.

I never said the players SHOULD, i said they CAN if they have a number of things to back them up. Most dark heresy characters DONT have anything to back up their position, most of all they dont have proof. Some Inquisitors prefer the shadow approach and some prefer the brute force, hit them with the righteous fury approach, and will send their agents to work in a similiar matter to their own personal methods and what direction they want their agents to take and what skills to develop. Each to their own. The Inquisitor does not neeed to be on planet with them, they have connections which can be used to aid them. An Imperial Guard officer loyal to this inquisitor who is happy to help the party. An astropath on this planet who works for the inquisitor and live there just in case agents need to make use of them.

[GolemsVoice]

Yep, the Inquisition operates under a kind of Catch 22. They can do anything that others can't stop them from doing, and there have been instances where Inquisitors have requisitioned fleets and armies and laid siege to planets.