Kid_Kyoto wrote:
An interesting thought, when FFG got the Star Wars license there was a rumor GW was pissed and told them if they launched a Star Wars mini game then GW would pull their Warhammer licenses.

 BrookM wrote:
Commissars, Storm Troopers and Psykers haven't gotten a splatbook of their own.

Also, what a load of horrible speculation! The relationship between GW and FFG has produced excellent products.

 BrookM wrote:

Also, what a load of horrible speculation! The relationship between GW and FFG has produced excellent products.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

They now have, what? 5 different 40k games released in 6 or 7 years? They may have just saturated the market.

 Manchu wrote:
What we need now is a HH RPG.

Co'tor Shas wrote:And didn't FFG merge with another company a while back or something? That may have caused a disruption.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah... no thanks.

FFG wrote:Enemies Without
Announcing a New Supplement for Dark Heresy Second Edition



“There is no end to the abomination of the alien. Do not allow any guise of sentience to stay your hand – there can be no hesitation when the survival of humanity as a species is at stake.”
–Inquisitor Kartize, Ordo Xenos

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Enemies Without, a new supplement for Dark Heresy Second Edition!

New threats gnaw incessantly at the borders of the Imperium. Despite countless righteous Wars of Purgation, the xenos threat grows in the Askellon sector. Unthinking Orks ravage countless worlds. The enigmatic Eldar slay innocents without reason or mercy. Dark Eldar take slaves to a fate worse than death, while the monstrous Tyranids devour a path wherever their Hive Fleets roam. These hideous xenos are an affront to the Emperor’s rule, and no true servant of the Imperium can rest while even one remains within the sector.

Against these terrifying aliens, these unfeeling and monstrous beings, there stands only the bright shield of the Ordo Xenos. These noble hunters of the Inquisition safeguard the worlds of the Imperium, protecting thousands of human lives from horrors as obscene and perfidious as any daemon spawned from the Warp. Now, with the Enemies Without supplement for Dark Heresy Second Edition, you and your fellow Acolytes can take your places as members of the Ordo Xenos and stand against the heresy brought by these aliens from their strange stars.



Scorn the Alien

In Enemies Without, you’ll find a host of details on the xenos species inherent to the Askellon sector. Whether you’re turning aside a host of blood-hungry Orks, defending humanity against Kroot expansionism, or batting the biologically-engineered killing machines of the Tyranids, Enemies Without gives Game Masters the information they need to bring these xenos species to life in any investigation.

It’s not just the living alien races that pose a threat to the Imperium’s safety though. The Askellon sector is old, almost beyond measure, and riddled with the remains of lost civilizations and forgotten xenos cultures. Even when their occupants are long dead, the cities and holy places of these deceased xenos can prove deadly. Dark relics and proscribed artefacts from these ancient places may spread heresy and corruption, even while arcane texts open the door to the spread of Chaos. These same relics have inspired a massive underworld business – the Faceless Trade. Members of the Faceless Trade acquire and sell these xenos artefacts, spreading heresy into the cities of the Imperium as surely as any vile cult. You and the other Acolytes of the Ordo Xenos must find and stop the Faceless Trade wherever it manifests – in addition to destroying all traces of the xenos races in the Askellon sector.

For the more radical Acolytes among you, an expanded armory offers a host of xenos weaponry for you to examine, research, and perhaps use against its owners. Alongside digi-weapons and Desoleum Power Blades, you’ll find Shuriken Catapults, Kroot rifles, and a collection of weapons made by no xenos yet known in the Askellon sector. The most radical Acolytes may even fight fire with fire by hiring bands of xenos mercenaries to combat greater threats!



Equipped for Battle

Enemies Without brings more than an advancing tide of foul xenos to test your resolve. It also equips the warriors of your ordo with new vehicles for any situation. For the first time, you can pilot aerospace vehicles to engage in aerial combat, long-range reconnaissance, or transport to voidships. In addition, you may drive off-road in an Aelurus Heavy Trike or attack the foes of the Imperium in a heavily armoured Sentinel walker.

Naturally, with a focus on new and powerful vehicles, you or one of your fellow Acolytes may want to focus his service on driving, maintaining, and fighting in vehicles. To this end, Enemies Without introduces a new role for Acolytes to take: the Ace. As the Ace, you’re an unparalleled pilot – more at home in the cockpit of a vehicle than outside. Whether you’re tracking a Dark Eldar raiding party at high speed or gunning down swarms of Tyranids, the Ace can be a crucial addition to any group of Acolytes.



Mankind Shall Rule Alone

With a new role, new home worlds, new backgrounds, and an armoury full of new weapons – both Imperial and xenos in origin – your Acolytes will be well-equipped to battle the countless threats that assault the borders of the Imperium. Your quest will not be easy. For every wicked xenos creature slain in glorious battle, three more slip past your defenses into the undefended regions of the Askellon sector. Your vigilance must be constant; your justice must be merciless.

Join the Ordo Xenos. Look for Enemies Without at your local retailer in the fourth quarter of 2015.

 Stormonu wrote:
Y'know, GW pulled FFG's Fantasy license before AoS came out.

 Stormonu wrote:
Y'know, GW pulled FFG's Fantasy license before AoS came out. It would make me nervous about 40K if GW pulled that game line from FFG.

Just sayin'...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:


They announced this less than a week ago.

 BaronIveagh wrote:
Sony is peddling Total War: Warhammer as well

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

1. What relevance is that?
2. It's SEGA, not Sony.

 Alpharius wrote:
I'm still kind of wondering how that makes sense in this thread though!

 Alpharius wrote:
I'm still kind of wondering how that makes sense in this thread though!

FFG wrote:Know Thy Foe
A Designer Diary for Enemies Without



“If you can confront the xenos, look upon the xenos, even think upon the xenos, without revulsion, then you are as damned as they.”
–Inquisitor Loffengar, Ordo Xenos

The Imperium is the stronghold of light and knowledge in a galaxy of darkness. The Emperor protects Humanity from unimaginable threats that would assail it from every quadrant, and the Inquisition is his sword that scours every form of heresy from Mankind’s worlds.

In Enemies Without, an upcoming supplement for Dark Heresy Second Edition, you take up the mantle of Ordo Xenos Acolytes, battling those evil threats that come from outside the Imperium—the cunning Eldar, the ravenous Tyranids, or the despicable Dark Eldar. Yet you must do more than simply cut down these enemies of the Emperor. To carry out your task with the utmost skill and prejudice, you must expand your knowledge to learn the secrets of these aliens.

Today, writer Tim Cox explores the rules that he created for researching the xenos races and using your knowledge to fuel your investigations!



Tim Cox on the Activities of the Ordo Xenos in Enemies Without

Knowledge of the xenos is dangerous and damning, but to combat the alien threat, Acolytes must often develop an understanding of its nature. For the Enemies Without supplement, the Emperor blessed me with the task of developing a system for handling intensive research, known as Explication. The Explication rules provide a framework for resolving research tasks and grant a mechanical benefit for the Acolytes in addition to any narrative effects of their new knowledge. In a way, Explications can be seen as a counterpart to the Inquest rules introduced in Enemies Within, but where Inquests are targeted investigations pursuing a particular heretic, Explications are research endeavours undertaken to understand a external threat in order to defeat it.

An Explication may form a crucial part of an adventure and involve the entire warband, or it might be a project that a single Acolyte pursues during downtime between missions over an extended period. In the former case, the successful completion of the Explication might be necessary to find or defeat a dangerous enemy, while the latter type of Explication might be part of a personal goal or to lay down knowledge that benefits future servants of the Emperor.

Mechanically, an Explication is a series of skill tests, most likely using Lore skills, with the Acolytes trying to achieve a target number of degrees of success. Although only a single Acolyte makes the skill tests to progress an Explication, the entire warband can contribute. Picture the “research montage” familiar in television and film, where investigators pore over dusty tomes, analyze tissue samples, and study fragments of alien devices. In addition to determining the base difficulty of these skill tests, an Explication’s complexity determines how frequently Acolytes can attempt skill tests. The smallest Explications might be completed in days, while the most complex could take years. In the latter case, of course, an Acolyte is probably working on the Explication outside his normal duties—although I can imagine a GM narrating years of research as the entire warband works to comprehend a truly grave and mysterious threat!

[img]https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/a2/36/a2361bbd-6183-4ca2-a6f8-9e3155645d86/dh24_city.png[img]

Of course, Acolytes are often racing the chrono to stop a threat before it leads to catastrophe. When the warband doesn’t have the time necessary for a standard Explication, the Acolytes can push themselves to complete their work faster. Doing this is exhausting, causing the Acolytes involved to suffer Fatigue and face more difficult skill tests. As the Acolytes strive to reduce the time, they suffer Fatigue and face steeper penalties to their research tests. Intense research under such circumstances is risky, and the Acolytes could fail to make progress or even face crippling setbacks. Through this sacrifice, however, the characters might complete crucial research in weeks instead of months, or hours instead of days.

Acolytes undertake Explications out of more than mere curiosity (which would be sinful in the eyes of many Imperium citizens). In addition to choosing a subject for the Explication, the characters must decide an objective. This objective should be as specific as possible, whether it’s developing specialised ammunition to destroy a xenos monstrosity or uncovering the dark secret that brought down a noble line. Whatever form it takes, the objective falls into one of several categories, such as eradication, aegis, or comprehension. The objective category determines what benefits the Acolytes can gain during and after the Explication.

Though the greatest benefits arrive on completion of the Explication, the Acolytes don’t have to complete their Explication for it to pay off. As they make progress in their research, the characters reach key Breakthroughs. Although they may not have found the full information they seek, they’ve achieved some insight into their research subject. As well as potentially gaining a valuable clue, advancing the narrative, or just learning something interesting about the dark future, the Acolytes gain a temporary benefit. The form of this bonus varies based on the Explication’s objective—the Acolytes might receive a bonus to attack rolls, Evasion tests, or even Interaction skill tests that apply to the subject of the Explication.



Acolytes who achieve the necessary degrees of success complete their Explication, although how long this takes depends on how well they do on each test. In addition to gaining knowledge about the targeted threat, the warband receives a permanent benefit when dealing with the subject of the Explication. The exact nature of this benefit is tailored to the particular Explication and the warband. It might grant the Acolytes additional weapon qualities, an increase in Armour, or a reduction in the cost of Lore skills related to that foe. The grandest Explications might provide even more impressive benefits for Acolytes with the persistence and skill to complete them.

While developing the rules for Explications, one of my goals was to allow knowledgeable characters a chance to take the spotlight. Combat traditionally takes up a large amount of game time with battle-oriented characters displaying their abilities, but this is not usually true of more cerebral endeavours. By providing more structure, Explications can place a greater focus on the pursuit of knowledge, and hopefully make for a more satisfying and balanced experience for scholarly characters as well.

However you incorporate Explications into your campaigns, I hope that you find the system useful as you seek to illuminate the dark secrets of the Askellon Sector!

Thanks, Tim!

Where Man Goes, the Alien Must Die

Evil attacks the Imperium from every side—within, without, and beyond. Embark on your Explications and join the Ordo Xenos with the Enemies Without supplement for Dark Heresy Second Edition!

Pre-order your copy of Enemies Without at your local retailer today.