Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm planning on running a game of DH, but I really cant decide on what Ordo to go with. I was thinking Hereticus, because that seems like it would have the most variety. But I personally prefer Malleus. I'm tied up on it, and asked my players as well. The most votes gets the campaign, which I'll most likely post up here as Fiction.

Hmmm, well, I dunno for your campaign. For me, Hereticus is the most boring and Malleus seems pretty short lived if your characters aren't pretty pure of heart and deed. Xenos is the comfy middle.

I'm a horrible fluff heathen, but I'd treat the Ordo as a specialty, not a locked-down job description. As such, the choice is more background/PC temperament and maybe an intro plot hook than much else.

Hereticus is wide open. A lot of cults in the canon are either Chaos (and thus crossover with Malleus) or Genestealer (Crossover to Xenos) so you've got a lot to play with: at low levels the PCs are dealing with 'expected' weirdness, but if they're the only one on-site to deal with a major demonic or Xenos problem, they've got to do it. Extra points for going in a weird direction and having a Xenos problem be something less usual like a cult being manipulated by Eldar for inscrutable reasons, or even a cult that sprung up around the Tau's "Greater Good" faith, but at first glance let the players think it's more common warp-based.

Malleus comes off as, well, prima donnas to me for some reason. They've got ridiculously good strike troops and what seems to be a huge budget since they're dealing with some of the worst stuff.

On the other hand, they're very susceptible to corruption due to th nature of what they fight. make sure there's some clues hidden as adventures lead up to a twist if you do this so players don't feel cheated, and let them be the heroes and kill their old master, even if there's a lot of help and a new NPC inquisitor waiting in the wings.

Xenos seems more set for the studious, scientifically-minded players. Maybe play up the grossness of spending a lot of time doing dissections.

A fun idea for an Ordo Xenos game would be to play with the ideas by having a focus on cultures that may or may not be human.

Another neat idea for a veteran GM would be two run parallel campaigns with Deathwatch... The PC Inquisitorial agents go in, hunt down info and traitors, then the PC Space Marines do the heavy fighting. Make it interesting by having them overlap in fun ways: The Inq. team does a mission and uncovers that the local civilization is dependent on a Xenos power source. This can't stand, so they blow it up. This wakes up a second power source (a fail-safe) on the other side of the planet, which is defended by alien nasties... And in comes the Deathwatch team.

Play alternates between the investigation team that goes in the catacombs of the human city to find info and deal with the Xenos tech while the Deathwatch party is isolated on the ground in a much more functional alien city. If the investigation team does well, good things happen to the Deathwatch party. if they screw up puzzles/objectives, bad things happen, or at least the Deathwatch team has to go on without support.

It depends on what your group thinks is fun really, and there can be as much or as little crossover as you want. Personally, I think Ordo Xenos gives the greatest variety, thanks to the fact you can pretty much go anywhere with an Xenos campaign - be it a galaxy spanning xenos conspiracy a millenia in the making and with the compliance of several imperial houses, or reports of a group of xenos infiltrating the upper ranks of a hive spire.

Also, by definition, the enemies are more varied, especially if you enjoy creating your own races backstories.

I have a Xenos bias. My players work for a Ordo Xenos Inquisitor.

I personally like malleus. I feel that it would be really easy to bring in hereticus and even xenos into a malleus game though so you really aren't limited by what kind of inquisitor they are working for. After all, Eisenhorn has xenos (I think) but he wasn't afraid to go in and bust some cult face.

I vote for Xenos. This way, if you expand and use Ascension from the DH line, you can easily dove-tail into the Deathwatch line.

game concept: Inquisitor (i am thinking Xenos, but constanly getting drafted by the Malleus for special missions) has, through hook and crook, hired and secured a small Band of Ork FreeBootas, as his/her/it's forces. he sanctions these Xenos, and uses them for Shock-Troops (let the Xenos take out the Xenos). the Orks resistance to the taint of chaos (i am pretty sure they are, though i don't know if mechanics follows this, if i am talking Snargin, just press on) means they are quite useful to crush Chaos outbreaks as well.

but thats me, and wanting to run a whole group of Orks, Stompin and Killin. and their pirates, to boot.

(edit, thats the game i want to Play, not run, to be fair. i don't think i want to run it)

I'm just starting a campaign and went for Hereticus for my players' Inquisitor.

I actually figured they were the Ordo with the most variety of stuff that they could deal with. Rather than just flavours of Xenos and Daemons you have mutants, hereteks, rogue psykers, cults, secessionists, dodgy nobility and the list goes on.

A couple of the assignments I've got written up end up crossing the boundary into xenos as well (A Xenos Inquisitor asks to borrow them after her own acolytes got killed and what they think is psyker control is actually an infestation of brain leaf plants)

Xenos gets my vote. You can deal with xenos and still run into everything else, so why not?

Plus if you have any other 40k players in the group, you are bound to have someone with the xenos models, so that helps everyone!

You want to Malleus and there is a Malleus book coming out shortly. So do Malleus.