I've been tempted to buy this line but was curious how other people who have it view it?

I haven't actually ever played DH1, my experience comes more from BC, OW, DW & RT.

So how does the upgrade work for DH, do people think it works or reduces it and do people find it an enjoyable line to play?

A simple question really though I understand it might bring around a broad variety of opinions......

If you never played it, it seems like a good buy. Me personally i will wait and see how much is actually different before i shill out the dosh.

It's basically the Inquisition via the Only War rules; so, if you like OW and are interested in the Inquisition (-and everything that goes with it: espionage, political intrigue, corruption, insanity, etc), then you should probably get it. If you aren't impressed with the OW rules, and aren't very interested in rooting out heresy, then you probably won't like it.

HOw different is it from OW? Can you easily convert adversaries to supplement the bizarre and lacking list in DH2 (stats for Hive Desoleum entertainers, but nothing for minions of the chaos gods except Nurgle?!?)

I hope you can import your guard character from OW into DH2

Actually sounds pretty cool and if I am reading it correctly they may have inadvertently got over one of the hurdles of the old line where although they were similar compatibility was a big issue. So now I can see possibly having an OW and DH2 crossover or possibly even having radical agents operate in the Screaming Vortex and infiltrating your group of heretics to wreck some clandestine havoc in the Emperor's name.

Not that I don't mind the original concept, I'm a big fan of Call of Cthulhu so any game that pits your small group of characters against the dark, eldritch horrors that fill the night with unknowable terror fills the soul with a certain tinge of forbidden excitement.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I think I might just give this one a go!

I've personally enjoyed 2nd Edition way more than the original DH.

I'd say it's worth it if you enjoyed Dark Heresy 1. The game is badly dated at this point, at least by comparison to Black Crusade and Only War. A lot of people (perhaps rightly) bemoan it as being Only War 1.5 but really every Corebook thus far has just been an extension/refinement of the rules anyway.

So yeah, it comes down to whether or not you enjoyed Only War and how much investigation appeals to you.

Character creation options seem more flexible than any of the previous WH40K lines. There are three selections to make that interact to give you the base of your character. There are about six options for each of those selections, and it looks like that future products will increase those numbers.

Character creation is better, and Influence is better than money (there might be a case for spending more XP to boost that stat during chargen to start with more gear). But i never really understood the hate for the old class-based system. Either let people buy what they want with XP or limit it. Aptitudes are a bit of a pain because there's way too many. Why not just have a few: combat, knowledge, tech, weird...and go from there? It's not complicated, but it's not intuitive.

I don't mind the old class-based system but I do prefer the aptitude and alignment based systems of the later lines. 1. it gives greater flexibility in character creation instead of being locked in to certain skills and talents (although it is true that elite advances in the old system could get you around that) and 2. it gets rid of ranks which almost made it feeling like you were playing old school D&D (Yay, I levelled up!). It just feels kind of more organic and natural to me.

I'm wondering if possibly FFG may bring modified alternate ranks as flavour and use them in the same manner that Only War used specialties (I.E. every 2500 xp you can change, which can change the flavour of your character as they develop along with their aptitudes and maybe 1 or 2 unique talents only available to that particular advance). Of course having no experience with this game that is pure speculation and may actually be impractical if the game is different to how Imagine it.

I'm not against class-based systems but in a game where the Acolytes are expected to come from a wide variety of backgrounds and with different skillsets I think a more open approach fits very well. They've found a nice middle-ground between the two systems with Homeworld/Background/Role albeit some of them seriously needing more expansive options (Schola Progenium for Arbitrators, Imperial World for non-so-specific characters, etc) but I suppose that's what supplements are for.

In something like Deathwatch and Only War I think the class-based systems work fine though but that's by virtue of the PCs being exclusively part of very regimented military organisations as opposed to Dark Heresy where they're often civilians or criminal and wouldn't be bound so much by the same training and experiences.

Yeah i like how you can have pysker powers but not automatically get stuck being a prismatis psyker.

I'll get it without a doubt since its going to mesh better with Black Crusade and Only War, which I can then salvage for extra bits for my games. Not to mention the polished rules.

But I'l also get it because frankly my old books have some damage on them from being well used and thus I think that the core won't last much longer unless I replace it. So there's that dimension as well.

I think OW and BC had the best rules sets. Glad DH could join the party!

Hey guys question, I recall that back in the beta there was a cool new everything, new damage system, new attack/classes ect. I also heard that FantasyFlight backed out and just made this the same thing as only war. Is this a new game or just Only war again?

Hey guys question, I recall that back in the beta there was a cool new everything, new damage system, new attack/classes ect. I also heard that FantasyFlight backed out and just made this the same thing as only war. Is this a new game or just Only war again?

It uses the base game mechanics of Only War with a somewhat different method of character creation and new rules that cover investigations and other activities commonly associated with Acolytes.

Haven't got to read too much of it yet, but just flipping thru the book looks absolutely beautiful.

Hey guys question, I recall that back in the beta there was a cool new everything, new damage system, new attack/classes ect. I also heard that FantasyFlight backed out and just made this the same thing as only war. Is this a new game or just Only war again?

It went Only War and thank you god it did. The new rules are horrible and people hated it. Fantasy Flight had no choice, but to go back to Only War. Sad for Fantasy Flight, but great for my table who took a whole hour to figure out rate of fire. Seriously those "new rules" where broken in the worst kind of way.

I disliked them, but they were interesting (if very very clunky), and certainly a significant change that may have justified a change in edition... not personally convinced the new rules do, but the book is very very pretty.

I just picked up the book today and I'm just starting to scim over it but so far so good.I personally like the way FFG went with the OW style rules and don't feel it railroads you as much as the old rules do with proffessions and such.I'll have a better idea after I read the rules better this week but I know that I prefer it to the old rules by far.The art also looks pretty good too.More to follow..........

edit: And to answer the OP's general question, Yes I personally think it's worth buying.

Character creation is better, and Influence is better than money (there might be a case for spending more XP to boost that stat during chargen to start with more gear). But i never really understood the hate for the old class-based system. Either let people buy what they want with XP or limit it. Aptitudes are a bit of a pain because there's way too many. Why not just have a few: combat, knowledge, tech, weird...and go from there? It's not complicated, but it's not intuitive.

I've just given players all of the characteristic Aptitudes and allowed them to pick any 2 of the specialty aptitudes. It allows you to entirely disregard the Aptitude 1 column of the advancement tables and frees up Character Creation considerably.

Character creation is better, and Influence is better than money (there might be a case for spending more XP to boost that stat during chargen to start with more gear). But i never really understood the hate for the old class-based system. Either let people buy what they want with XP or limit it. Aptitudes are a bit of a pain because there's way too many. Why not just have a few: combat, knowledge, tech, weird...and go from there? It's not complicated, but it's not intuitive.

I've just given players all of the characteristic Aptitudes and allowed them to pick any 2 of the specialty aptitudes. It allows you to entirely disregard the Aptitude 1 column of the advancement tables and frees up Character Creation considerably.

I like this idea alot!

I got rid of all my DH & BC books, to me the game system is just wayyyy to clunky and boring. I really wish they would scrap the whole line and go with the Star Wars system for it, after playing that I haven't looked back, its more streamlined and easier to create characters and GM. If it used that system I would gladly get back into the 40K line.

I really wish they would scrap the whole line and go with the Star Wars system for it, after playing that I haven't looked back, its more streamlined and easier to create characters and GM. If it used that system I would gladly get back into the 40K line.

This is basically how I feel. The 40kRPG mechanics are old, dull, and cumbersome. I really wish they had modernized. If only the Star Wars game had mechanics to deal with the themes of 40k (fear, corruption, insanity, etc.) it'd be perfect. Me and my group love the system but much prefer the 40k universe. I've heard Jay Little is working on a new scifi game called Mutant Chronicles that might be a better fit for doing 40k.

Not really why you'd throw out all the books you have, though. The lore and art are still cool.