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How is it?

As someone who has played v3.5 DnD, Vampire:the Masquerade (a lot of it), Werewolf, and some others (Star Wars d20), I'm curious as to what roleplayers/40k players think of Dark Heresy. I was initially excited to see it on the shelf, as I'm quite the grimdark fan and it could be a chance to try roleplaying with models.

Any/all opinions are appreciated, as well as specifics (I like _____ I dislike _____ etc.)

I haven't read it in person, but the biggest complaint I see is that it seems to have been mistakenly assumed to be a game abotu playing high-powered bad-ass Inquisitor's allies, when it's really playing an inquisitor's low-level minions who might one day get to be said badasses.

it can be very fun as long as you don't grow too attached to your characters, they can and more than likely will die in a painful/humorous way. but other wise its not bad at all, because the bad guys can die in the very same way.

It's very similar to the Call of Cthulhu games in a lot of ways. It's very likely you're gonna go through a number of characers if the GM is especially fight happy. Gun shots will kill you quite readily. Force weapons do terrible, terrible things. And if you do survive you may be corrupted by the Dark Gods or driven insane by what you see.

Especially given that, as a generally rule, you start off as the newest bunch of lackeys for an Inquisitor. You don't have to, of course, but that's how it's generally played...and you won't have access to much weapons

Still, it's a nice and easy system and the books themselves are lovely, chock full of pretty pictures and fluff. Well worth a look, but they're a pretty penny too.

I have heard it is pretty good.

I however have never played it as I don't have a gaming group to play with.

Any game where getting shot in the head can result in said head exploding and your flaming body running around setting other people on fire is a win in my book

Its excellent. Even if you don't play the game its a great fluffy read.

My first encounter was with two lowly gangers and it ended with my character in a ditch with a broken leg from a gunshot along with the veritable tar beaten out of him for good measure. And to think, this was just a combat tutorial the GM had set up for me.

BrookM wrote:My first encounter was with two lowly gangers and it ended with my character in a ditch with a broken leg from a gunshot along with the veritable tar beaten out of him for good measure. And to think, this was just a combat tutorial the GM had set up for me.

Welcome to Dark Heresy, my name is Bolag and this here is Jimbo, and this is how you will play the game *one butt kicking later* enjoy the game ^^

I’ve been running it until just recently. One of my players decided it would be a good idea to shoot the fuel canister of another players flamer. Which in itself wasn't to bad they were advanced to the point where most of them had stormtrooper armor. The resulting explosion caused by the player with the flamers 15 frag and krak grenades getting cooked off.

The panic that caused the first player to shoot the flame canister was a group 5 nurglings.


But I love the game. i have never had so much fun runing and playing games as i have had with the 40kRPGs and WFRPGs. its an easy system to learn. The crit and fear charts can and will lead to Benny Hill hilarity

Garuss Acine wrote:

BrookM wrote:My first encounter was with two lowly gangers and it ended with my character in a ditch with a broken leg from a gunshot along with the veritable tar beaten out of him for good measure. And to think, this was just a combat tutorial the GM had set up for me.

Welcome to Dark Heresy, my name is Bolag and this here is Jimbo, and this is how you will play the game *one butt kicking later* enjoy the game ^^

All I did was ask for some directions to the nearest XXX joint but nooooo, they had to try and rob me. Of course, I tried to shoot one at point-blank range and missed.


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I am looking forward to the planned Summer campaign, I'm going to be playing as an uptight Navy man based in the Adept skill tree. Hopefully good old Mac won't get hurt that soon this time round, I'd hate having to limp all the time again.

Wait why were you asking direction to a inter-galactic strip club.Would the inquisitor not have blown you to high hell for trying to get yourself some xenos?

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Wait why were you asking direction to a inter-galactic strip club.Would the inquisitor not have blown you to high hell for trying to get yourself some xenos?

XXX still means tits and arses in our games, or Bugman's if we're playing fantasy. We'd like to think of our unseen benefactor (the inquisitor) as a guy who doesn't give two craps what we do, as long as we do what is asked of us and we don't act like heretics in the process.

Wouldn't feeling up a Tau dancing girl be considered heretical?

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Wouldn't feeling up a Tau dancing girl be considered heretical?

Who said anything about alien whores?

LOL,I see.

Go forth my son and spread you're wild oats,by all means spread them.

I think I'll settle for protection, knowing the GM she'll be half-mad enough to have the bitch get knocked up and forcing me to pay my meagre salary to her and the spawn that came from our loins. It would be a great incentive to take bigger risks.

LOL,then I see a stop at the inter-galactic drug store in you're future.

The Alien whores will probibly be turning up in Rogue Trader.


Dark Heresy is awsome. Its what 40K should be!

- Detail Detail Detail. There is more fluff then you would ever expect. Between the Inquisitor's themselves, think of it as Inquisitor without the dumbass scaled super minis.
There acre actually some serious end of the world types situations you can get into, and along with the Sisters of Battle suppliment, there are ALOT of seeds for almost endless amounts of adventure ideas.

- FUN FUN FUN. Unlike D and D with its living in the past glory, and ... making people mad with the radical changes to its system, Rogue Traders system is pretty simplistic and easy to manage with clean cut rolls and easy to follow guidelines of texture to the game system. Its not hard to learn, and the basic online debutorial walk through adventure is a great way to introduce your retnue of agents to the game.


BE FORWARNED- If you don't have an idea of what the 40K universe is about, the game can get stuck quickly. You end up having to explain stuff like servo skulls, or Ork's, or other things- Like the Imperium.

Agents die quickly, and things people really want to do in a regular 40K tabletop battle get you killed in graphic, interesting ways in the RPG. Make sure you have a few guys lined up in the event that you drop a plasma grenade and it goes off at your feet.
With all of the detail that people can put into a character, I don't suggest it until you play the game a few times and get the crazyness out of your system, ( Like charging headlong into the pack of mutants, or knuckling up with the Dark Emesary type cult leader.

Demons suck even more when you are getting rolled up on by two or three plaguebearers.

Keep the beasts at a distance, and invest in your perferred weaponry skill above all else. Having a reliable shooter is more importiant then having to fight like D and D and charge headlong into the fight with a knife or a chainsword.

The Rogue Trader game is a spinoff, and the two games are going to work together perfectly.


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OH, yes...

YOU too can be and evil SOB and go chaos cultist if you want to. They kind of suggest that your inner bad ass come out every now and then.

BrookM wrote:

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Wouldn't feeling up a Tau dancing girl be considered heretical?

Who said anything about alien whores?

Yeah, I saw "Total Recall," so I know all about the strange alternatives the future has to offer. Who needs alien women when a 6 breasted human-mutant will do. At least its not some stinking Xenos.

aka_mythos wrote:Yeah, I saw "Total Recall," so I know all about the strange alternatives the future has to offer. Who needs alien women when a 6 breasted human-mutant will do. At least its not some stinking Xenos.

Oh yeah, xenos are a no-no but the Inquisitor is cool with consorting with an obvious mutant. I can totally see that.

Somebody's gonna get purged.

Was it 6? I thought it was 3.

Balance wrote:

aka_mythos wrote:Yeah, I saw "Total Recall," so I know all about the strange alternatives the future has to offer. Who needs alien women when a 6 breasted human-mutant will do. At least its not some stinking Xenos.

Oh yeah, xenos are a no-no but the Inquisitor is cool with consorting with an obvious mutant. I can totally see that.

Somebody's gonna get purged.

I don't know, not even the most hard line inquisitor would have a problem with a visit to Eccentrica Gallumbits.

The price of the books are high, but they are top notch and very, very pretty. I especially like how techpriests are handled. Its not Paranoia (unfortunately nothing else is), but still might not be for every group.

I've played a couple games and enjoy it. Combat is BRUTAL, and something you try to avoid unless you have a decent advantage.

Corruption is always fun, too. Except when it happens to your psyker...

I have a good number of the books and they are nice. I think they're worth their price but it can get expensive even by RPG book standards. The company producing them now plans on following GW's plans for three distinctive yet compatible core books that offer different games styles. Dark Heresy is the first is the mystery Cthulu style game, the next one is suppose to be Rogue Traders the swashbuckling space fighting game, and the third is Space Marines -who knows.

Balance wrote:

aka_mythos wrote:Yeah, I saw "Total Recall," so I know all about the strange alternatives the future has to offer. Who needs alien women when a 6 breasted human-mutant will do. At least its not some stinking Xenos.

Oh yeah, xenos are a no-no but the Inquisitor is cool with consorting with an obvious mutant. I can totally see that.

Somebody's gonna get purged.

I follow the Ordo Xenos. We hate aliens. Its the Ordo Hereticus who hates Mutants. They're mostly the Sisters of Battle, who I think are just jealous of the extra boobage.

My GM has been running our characters so they DO stay alive, though usually we just end up playing them as if we'd passed the mission/encounter even though we died and we 'come back' to life. Anyways. When I started, I was a low class assassin. Now I got a needle rifle that could make you cry when I take a round to aim since I DON'T MISS... Oh, Tech Adepts are fun to play too.

Who uses miniatures to play it?

That's the way I intend to run it, and have since been gathering every tileset (Space Hulk, Warhammer Quest, D&D, etc.) I could get my hands on.

I remember The D6 Generations review where it said that the enjoyment was determined heavily by the GM, and his willingness to make people roll on tables all the time, and generally how willing he is to be 'fair' to the players - and moreso than other games with a GM because there are so many tables and the characters start off as really pathetic losers who can't hit anything.

I haven't started playing yet, but with charts like this...

How can it not be fun?

When a single lonely gretchin manages to roll 10+ on your entire party?

That Table looks like the D+D 1st ed crit tables!