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So, I have a friend whose interested in running a 40k rpg at some point...she's found the fluff and everything very interesting, and wants to give it a shot, and knowing me as a crazed Imperial Guardsmen..asked me for help. Honestly, beyond knowing that there are a bunch of systems out there and that Rogue Trader is more of a ship game....I knew nothing.

As such, I am running to a group of people far more knowledgeable than me on this subject! Come dakkadakka, enlighten me on the various RPGs in our awesome grimdark universe. Any opinions on which of them are better/easier to learn/more fun/truer to the universe? Any advice is welcome.

Each game does something different.

In Dark Heresy you are the lowest of the low - fresh Acolytes under the command of an Inquisitor you may not even meet in person for years. You investigate cults, conspiracies, and generally go "Inquisitorial" things. It's loads of fun, the character classes are nice, and there are already a heap of expansions for it, such as Ascension where you go from lowly Acolytes to trusted Throne Agents, and can be cool things like Storm Troopers, Crusaders, Vindicare Assassins and even an Inquisitor.

Rogue Trader is about freedom - about a crew making their way in the galaxy for profit and glory. You're not subservient to anyone, you are the command crew! You choose where you ship goes and what to do with your time. You don't scrounge together a few Thrones to buy a new gun - you buy whatever you want! It's about high adventure and boldly going where a lot of aliens have probably been already.

And Deathwatch is about being a Marine. If you know about 40K that should sum up the game. But you're part of the Deathwatch, the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos. You're doing everything from hunting down aliens, cleansing infestations, running special missions to help out in war zones, escorts missions, assassinations. All sorts of things, all while clad in tank armour and wielding the most dangerous weapons around. Your Chapter makes you unique, and how each different Chapter interact provides much of the role-playing opportunities.

Many people will try to tell you that Dark Heresy = low level characters that die all the time and that Deathwatch = dungeon-crawl combat "roll play" game rather than "role play". These people are wrong (and possibly stupid) because at the end of the day you get as much out of an RPG as you put in. Go into Dark Heresy expecting to die instantly and that Psykers are the bane of the living, and guess what, that's the game you'll get. Jump into Deathwatch screaming "Spase Mareinz! HURR!" and give no thought to who your Marine is, and you'll get a faceless meaningless combat game.

Go in with more than that - buy into the concept - and you'll get a great game out of it.

There's also Inquisitor, the 54mm character generation and combat system that's often confused with RPGs. (I like it best as there's models, and gorgeous ones at that.)

An unsupported long-dead pseudo-RPG that GW stopped caring about a long time ago... as opposed to three heavily supported current actual RPG's.

Curis wrote:There's also Inquisitor, the 54mm character generation and combat system that's often confused with RPGs. (I like it best as there's models, and gorgeous ones at that.)

FFG actually encourages the use of 40K minis in its games. I've been using them off and on for my DH game. We've been using Redemptor Kyrinov, the Vindicare assassin, a Sanctioned Psyker, a helmeted Battle Sister, an Enginseer, and a Guardsman for the characters. For mooks we've been using Necromunda gangers, Guardsmen, and Ork boyz.

We've done everything with miniatures. In the past year I've expanded my 'tile set' collection by something like 800%. D&D tiles are ace for Dark Heresy, as are the fantastic (yet sadly out of print) DOOM tiles from FFG's game of the same name.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Each game does something different.

In Dark Heresy you are the lowest of the low - fresh Acolytes under the command of an Inquisitor you may not even meet in person for years. You investigate cults, conspiracies, and generally go "Inquisitorial" things. It's loads of fun, the character classes are nice, and there are already a heap of expansions for it, such as Ascension where you go from lowly Acolytes to trusted Throne Agents, and can be cool things like Storm Troopers, Crusaders, Vindicare Assassins and even an Inquisitor.

Rogue Trader is about freedom - about a crew making their way in the galaxy for profit and glory. You're not subservient to anyone, you are the command crew! You choose where you ship goes and what to do with your time. You don't scrounge together a few Thrones to buy a new gun - you buy whatever you want! It's about high adventure and boldly going where a lot of aliens have probably been already.

And Deathwatch is about being a Marine. If you know about 40K that should sum up the game. But you're part of the Deathwatch, the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos. You're doing everything from hunting down aliens, cleansing infestations, running special missions to help out in war zones, escorts missions, assassinations. All sorts of things, all while clad in tank armour and wielding the most dangerous weapons around. Your Chapter makes you unique, and how each different Chapter interact provides much of the role-playing opportunities.

Many people will try to tell you that Dark Heresy = low level characters that die all the time and that Deathwatch = dungeon-crawl combat "roll play" game rather than "role play". These people are wrong (and possibly stupid) because at the end of the day you get as much out of an RPG as you put in. Go into Dark Heresy expecting to die instantly and that Psykers are the bane of the living, and guess what, that's the game you'll get. Jump into Deathwatch screaming "Spase Mareinz! HURR!" and give no thought to who your Marine is, and you'll get a faceless meaningless combat game.

Go in with more than that - buy into the concept - and you'll get a great game out of it.

What a great summary of the varied games and appropriate way to approach them

I have ran a high level Dh game a couple of times - and it was a blast