Newbie gm´s idea for a mission

By Beni1941, in Dark Heresy Gamemasters

Posted at

Hello, first of all, i would like to point out, english is not my first language, so bear with me.

Here is an idea for a mission. It´s all still in early beta, but i think the core things will be :
-the acolytes are hired as a band of mercenaries by a senior interogator

-they have to investigate the upcoming event, that will take on a gloomy foresty planet

-random encounters gently pointing that the event will be of high significance (deamon summonig, somthin like that)

-final showdown will take part in the darkest of night (solar eclipse, caused by said event)

-acolytes (+villagers, if persuaded) will fight the evil (not sure what it will be)....


I have played a long campaing with my other group, it didnt go very well (too complicated for them and me), so i am trying something more straightforward to my new group. What do you think so far?? I am open to every suggestions.

Posted at

If you're a newbie GM, then firstly: Welcome!

Secondly, you really should try to run a few pre-written adventures first, to get the hang of the game, the rules, and to get some ideas about how to plant clues, provide backups if the players fail to get the clues, etc.

I recommend Edge of Darkness, available here

Posted at

Well thanks for the link, i will surely use it. But somehow i dont feel very comfortable running a pre-existing adventure. With my old group i GM´d the demo adventure included in the Dark Heresy core rulebook. Sure, it went relatively well, but i didnt have so much fun with it, i dont know why. Maybe it was because i knew i had a ´´script´´ to follow. And also, i want to do a more of a simple mission with my new party members, because i want for them to have a easy introduction (i cannot persuade them to read the whole rulebook, so yeah..). Anyway, thanks for the feedback :)

PS : /spoiler alert/ when my whole party didnt get the clue about killing the deamon that was going to kill them all at the end of the first adventure, i resorted to using a NPC, Brother Lemark (who, by my mistake, was still alive), to try to fix things. The dice was against him (low chance of succses), but he did it... And from that moment on, Lemark was The Man. :D

Edited by Beni1941
Posted at

It's a pretty straightforward idea that you're sketching. With he proper mood and suitable encounters, it could turn into an interesting adventure, although I must admit that the fun in playing dark heresy for me is in getting the clues, unravelling mysteries and at the end of the adventure discovering that all you've done is uncovering the tip of the iceberg (and then realising that in doing so you've unleashed chaotic global warming and that soon you'll be in the deep with evil polarbears). However, that's just me.

Starting simple, to get the hang of investigations sounds like a solid plan :)

Edited by Librarian Astelan
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Thanks. In the previous investigation, my part got tangled up in the clues. There were clues of offworld assasins, they tried to talk to the nobles and so on. Now, i want it to be more straightforward.

Posted at

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking for, but I guess I have a thought or two.

If your PCs are hired mercenaries, they probably don't have a Writ of Authority or anything similar enabling them to appropriate stuff in the name of the Inquisition. So if they're starting characters you may need to provide them with some additional resources before the game starts. It's been a few years since I had my players create a bunch of RAW Rank 1 characters so I can't remember exactly what they get, but I seem to remember it isn't a whole lot.

If you're going in the daemonic direction on a dark and gloomy forest planet, then you may want to read up a bit on Bacchus/Dionysus, the ancient Greek/Roman god of wine & frenzied forest orgies. Generally it's a good idea to take a page from real-world mythology & cultures, because having a strong aesthetic/tone is helpful for creating memorable adventures - and it's a good way to invoke a more or less subtle feeling of familiarity/belonging in your players.
I'm not a very big fan of random encounters, especially not in a game as relatively deadly as DH is, but encounters - combat ones included - are a great way to provide your PCs with some direction. There's nothing like having a bunch of guys suddenly try to kill you, to make you wonder what the hell is up :)
Also, since you're doing a forest world eclipse, you should probably consider having the forest be affected by the eclipse, somehow. Perhaps the local giant redwood equivalent suddenly uproots and starts migrating south, everything starts flowering and releasing hallucinogenic pollen, or something.
On the topic of clues, I guess the best advice I have is to stop thinking in terms of detective stories, and instead thing about what they actually are for you as a GM. Because clues are basically just more or less specific nuggets of "go there/ask this/look for that." They're ways to direct your PCs to the next interesting thing. So that's how you should use them.
I'm not saying you shouldn't ever hide a clue, but you definitely shouldn't always, and critical clues - ones necessary for understanding what's going on - shouldn't ever be stuff your PCs can miss. Just how subtle you can be comes down to your group, but as a rule, you should strive to be about as subtle as a thunderclap. Because generally speaking, players are a lot like kittens on amphetamines - only without the cute.

Well thanks for the link, i will surely use it. But somehow i dont feel very comfortable running a pre-existing adventure.

Whether you run Edge of Darkness or not, you should definitely download it and examine its structure, because it's one of the better ways to go about adventure creation. And indeed, more than anything it is the structure of Edge of Darkness that makes it the best official module for the game by leaps and bounds.

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Thank you, Simsun. Sorry if i was little bit uncertain on what i wanted, but you just summed everything up. Your answer is very helpfull and i am grateful for it :) This is the reason i joined this forum :) Thanks, everybody :)

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I just wanted to say, that after reading the Edge of Darkness, i decided to play it :) Thanks again for sending me it