So I got the trilogy last week, as my FLGS is closing (with a -20% everything) and also to get all DH books before they all stop being printed.

I did read the Black Sepulchre, quite liked what I read. From what I saw on the forums, most think it is too open ended or not precise, but it works well in the concept of it and I usually buy campaign book (form any system really) to get ideas. 'Especially liked the church and it's actual 'meaning' or well, where it stands. I browsed the two other books, as it seems quite the standard investigative/combat deal.

Question now; my players are Ascension now. Interrogator (former assassin), Judge, Magos, Storm trooper. It does cite at a few location about boosting the enemies' stats and powers a few places, but that's for rank 5+ mostly...

Did anyone ran it with Ascension characters? what change/modification did you do to it to keep it leveled? I'm not too concerned about the investigative part nor the location or the horror/eerie setting, but my players got a tendency to roll Crits like crazy, and let's not start with all that armour (warp weapon is a way to get there, but every time seems just like being lazy) and those fancy-shmancy weapons....

So, safe to assume no one ran any part of that campaign to high level/ascension characters then?

My suggestions would be the following (I never ran it, and I abandonned ascension for a system of my devising). Ascension characters, as strong as they can be, remain humans.

Play their ennemies intelligently, do not give them too high charatersitics (unless they are supposed to be top elite troopers) nor too much high end equipment. Auto-rifle with manstoppers, lasguns (include the variable setting from black crusade), flash grenades, smokes and firebomb should be enough to make your adversaries strong enough.

Add with that one or two heavy stubbers, a one use rocket launcher (ala panzerfaust) a just spray in their way. Make your adversaries use cover, suppressing fire (especially if your players aren't all fearless).If they all are fearless, set them in a trap where they'll have to fight lots and lots of ennemies, and make them be with a daemon (-10 to their willpower check) because of fearless, they'll have a tough time fleeing the battle and they'll nearly die because of the zergling rush.

If they are too tanky, you can also use (to a degree) the horde rules from deathwatch/black crusade.

And I use a rule in my games; if my NPC can't inflict more than 1-2 wounds at their maximum damage per hit, I give them the option of righteous fury like player characters, it can even up the odds.

Don't count on tough bastard as bosses and ennemies, count on clever one, and you'll see that even with standard scums and killsquad troopers, you can make your players die.

Now, the objective isn't of killing them outright (but if they are too brazen, don't hesitate on killing one or two of them, being ascension is not being powerplay, it's being good. And any special operative, however how strong he is, won't risk anything for the heck of it, and those that do, die horribly). They got fate point anyways; losing an arm or an eye will make them more prudent.

And if they are also very clever...nice then, but act without mercy the day that they do the mistake of acting out of the good and professionnal way.


I hope this will help you; personnaly I gave many hardcore battles in my first game of ascesion to a primaris psyker, a vindicare assassin and a storm trooper with simple cultists with the same stats as listed in the basic book...my cultists were clever, on the other hand.

I too am looking to run "Ascension" level characters through Apostasy Gambit and was looking for changes/modifications others may have used for increasing the difficulty/encounters, etc. We are using DH2 now but the characters were entering "Ascension" territory before the switch.

Yeah, play your baddies intelligent, use all the moves they can use and the players should be sweating a bit.

A far bigger Problem I see, however, is the Church of the Damned Adventure: If they're already on Ascension-Level, they're probably (in)famous enough to be known by the ecclesiarchy, thus making the whole undercover-part pointless, but perfect time to let the players control a group of Acolytes under the command of their Characters.

Another few Ideas I had is using a lot of sidegroups, with a group of soldiers fighting in the war, a group of heretics trying to please their lords and should the PCs die in the final fight, have a group of Grey Knights come to the rescue - controlled by the players

Yeah, play your baddies intelligent, use all the moves they can use and the players should be sweating a bit.

A far bigger Problem I see, however, is the Church of the Damned Adventure: If they're already on Ascension-Level, they're probably (in)famous enough to be known by the ecclesiarchy, thus making the whole undercover-part pointless, but perfect time to let the players control a group of Acolytes under the command of their Characters.

Another few Ideas I had is using a lot of sidegroups, with a group of soldiers fighting in the war, a group of heretics trying to please their lords and should the PCs die in the final fight, have a group of Grey Knights come to the rescue - controlled by the players

That bit there about letting the players control a group of new/less-experienced Acolytes "attached" to their characters is a great idea for when I run Church of the Damned. Thanks for the suggestion!

~ alemander

Well, my PCs are not really close to the Church at all, and being Ordo Xeno, they never really had any chance to mingle with the Ecclesiarchy- having a Tech-Priest is also a good way to evade the clerics.

As for bad guys well- I try to make them realist; a bunch of underhive scums or station thugs won't be as 'smart' as an Imperial Guard squad. Said scum/thugs won't suddenly found themlseves armed with plasmaguns and carapace because the players are Ascension level, or be a master of shadowing just because; this is not Morrowind where every monsters and NPC in the **** world suddenly gets better because YOU got better.