READ ME: All positions have been filled for now. Will update if circumstances change.

Players: 5/5

Adventure: Dark Pursuits (from the core rulebook)

House rules: None; we are playing this legitimately.

Player personalities allowed: All of them. No whining about power gamers, roleplayers, etc. Everyone paid for the book and they are allowed to enjoy the game in their preferred style. It's their game just as much as it is anyone else's.

How to make a character: Dice rolls or points allocation are both fine. It's your character, so you make it the way you please. THere are no restrictions on items, backgrounds, elite advances, etc as long as the rules support it.

Experience and fate: I'm going to try to award experience and fate at the end of a scene.

How to roll: Inform me (the GM) about what you intend to do and then I will reply as soon as I can with any modifiers that apply. Then apply your own modifiers from your skills/talent/traits/etc and roll the dice. Write it down and once I see your final results I will reply accordingly.

Original post: Does this sub-forum location thingy mean we now have a place to run play-by-post games? It would be pretty awesome if that's the case. If we can find a definitive answer, would anyone be willing to get a game going?

Yes, that's indeed what this forum is for. Several folks requested it during the beta period.

-Tim

I like this a lot. It was getting very... depressing having to sift through mountains of yet another Dungeons and Dragons campaign just to find one person even remotely interested in Dark Heresy. Anyone want to get a game going? I'll GM if nobody else wants to.

I would be interested to join a play by posts game. But I would be completly new to this...although I have about 15 years of RPG experience. As I am usually the GM, i would prefer to be a player. I will write more, if a group gets set up

I know how you feel about wanting to be a player for once xD I'm new to PBP also, so don't nobody feel discouraged.

Why don't you whip up a character, Ripplo, and I'll be the GM. Post a summary of what he is and does when it's ready. Hopefully we can find at least one more player, but three or four total would be best, I think. I am feeling that running the adventure provided by the core book would be a good place to start off and then branch out from there if we feel like continuing. I do have an idea for an adventure, but it's going to require lots of planning before hand.

When you make your character feel free to use whatever you feel like: Points or dice roll for characteristics, psykers are allowed, any home world, etc. I can't stand GM's who deny things to the player because that's not what the GM personally likes...

So I give it a shot. Please indulge possible mistakes, English ist not my mother tongue. I have a character ready. I used the point System, as to toss dice seemed not appropriate. This leads to an interesting question for me...how will this be handled?

For the rest character creation I propose you toss the dice for my outstanding values.

Name : Ferro Septimus Homeworld : Forge World Background : Adeptus Arbites Role : Warrior

Age : 29 Gender : Male Appearance : heavy build with distinct musculature, a serious face, a short bursh haircut and no beard on a big chin

Divination : Heresy Begets Retribution

Fate : 3

LP : 13

Aptitudes : Intelligence, Offence, Ballistic Skill, Defence, Strength, Weapon Skill + Social (choosen, due to double aptitude)

Attributes

Weapon Skill 35 (10) I 100XP 40

Ballistic Skill 25

Strength 30 (5) I 350 XP 40

Thoughness 40 (10) II 750 XP 50

Agility 30 (5)

Intelligence 35 (5)

Perception 30 (10)

Willpower 27 I 250 XP 32

Fellowship 33 (10)

Influence 30 (5)

Skills

Athletics 100XP

Awarness

Charm 200XP

Common Lore (Adeptus Arbites)

Common Lore (Underworld)

Dodge 200XP

Inquiry

Interrogation 200XP

Intimidate

Parry 100XP

Security 200XP

Scrutiny

Stealth 300XP

Talents

Weapon Talent (Shock)

Technical Knock

The Face of the Law (Background Bonus)

Expert at Violence (Role Bonus)

Sound Constitution I (100XP)

Equipment

Shock maul, Enforcer light carapace, 3 doses of stimm, manacles, 12 Lho sticks

Additional three items due to Influence bonus: Preysense Goggles, Respirator and a Pict Recorder

About Ferro

Ferro Septimus, 7 ^th accepted orphan in the month of Iron on the Forge World Kessel Secundus in the primary Hive K2-01 at the Schola Arbites was just one of many children, who got cast out by their parents, when they were unable to feed them. The Magos of the holy Mechanicus give little thought towards their human resources as long as they are not able to work in the steel factories. The reproduction of the work forces is also not of any increased interest, as the degeneration of workers in the years gets balanced through tithe ships full with new ones from other planets.

Only the small number of other imperial Adepta institutions, whose presence is just barley tolerated by the Mechanicus, such as the Adeptus Arbites Schola for young apprentices, try to care for the children of Kessel Secundus. They take them in, attempt to protect them form the poisonous atmosphere and dangerous hive streets and feed them. But only the strongest survive. Ferro was one.

He was educated in the doctrines of the holy Emporer of Mankind, the laws of the Imperium and the ways of the Arbites. Even privileged as a member of the Adeptus Arbites life in K2-01 was hard. Ferro got forged into a Warrior for the imperial law and the righteousness of Mankind, striking down revolts of desperate workers. His Brother-Confessor Copper Duodecim helped him in phases of doubt and hardened his will and belief in the rightness of his actions for the Imperium.

Despite his raw physical appearance, he tried to solve crimes through non-brutal approaches and with a smile on his face or the threat of force, before administering it when necessary. Still he has no love for intriges and despises working in the shadows, even he understands it can be necessary. But as he was raised with a straight nearly puritan view on the galaxy, he believes that only the guilty and heretic work form the shadows.

I hope this is alright. I tried to keep it short but coherent. If you (Frosty) or anyone has questions, just shoot and I hope we can gather some more willing participants

Sounds pretty cool. Your fate stays at 3, but when I rolled your wounds you got the maximum of +5 (13 total). For Divination, you got "Heresy Begets Retribution: +3 to either Fellowship or Strength (pick one). -3 to Toughness or Willpower (pick one)." I think that is everything. Hopefully we can find at least one more person soon, preferably 2 or more.

Yes, I agree. At least two more would form a good player core...so enlist readers!

I take +3 Fellowship and -3 Willpower and hope we can get started soon!

Alright then. I'll build the inquisitor real quick today and introduce him when the game starts. Still looking for more players. If Tim is right and this section of the forum was made by request and nobody uses it, that would be a real shame...

If you don't mind...

Name: Astaroth Menelius
Homeworld: Nobleborn
Background: Adeptus Administratum
Role: Sage
Divination:?
Fate Points: 2

Aptitudes: Fellowship, Knowledge, Intelligence, Perception, Tech, Willpower, Social (Taken instead of Knowledge which I have received twice)

Characteristics:

WS-25
BS-25
S-25
T-20
Ag-25
Int-50(+20)(+5 for 100xp)
Per-40(+15)
WP-40(+15)
FEL-35(+5 for 100xp)
IFL-40(+10)

Skills:

Commerce
Common Lore (Adeptus Administratum)
Linguistics (High Gothic, Low Gothic, Imperial Codes)(200xp)
Logic
Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis)
Forbidden Lore (Inquisition)(100xp)
Trade (Cryptographer)(100xp)

Medicae +10 (600xp)

Talents:

Clues from the Crowds
Weapon Training (Las)
Breeding Counts
Quest for Knowledge
Master of Paperwork
Infused Knowledge (400xp)

Starting Equipment:


Laspistol, Imperial robes, autoquill, chrono, dataslate, medi-kit
4 starting acquisitions: Scribe-tines implant, Memorance implant, Volitor Implant with non-lethal settings, Good Craftmanship Logis Strategos officer's mantle.

Story so far:

House Menelius would never have reached the influence it enjoys among Great Families of Hive Jarvin if they weren't good at one thing - knowing exactly how colossal imperial machine works. Proud scion of a dynasty of judges, administrators and data-magisters, Astaroth aimed higher still. If there is one agency which takes an art of collecting, analyzing, verifying, compiling and implementing incoming data - that would be Logis Strategos, intelligence arm of the Adeptus Administratum.

To become an officer of Logis Strategos, Astaroth had to memorize an astounding array of knowledge, learn the mystical art of logical analysis, master the cyphers, codes and modus operandi of imperial organizations and show a particular talent for accurately predicting the courses of complex events, without Imperial Tarot deck, but with inconsistent pieces of data at hand.

Yet blessed are the ignorant, indeed: in the hunt for truths had Astaroth gone truly too far - a tiny error made in the Departamento Munitorum records, something normal adept would never notice, captured the perfectionist's cyber-eye. Yet for some reason he felt that the matter was deliberately hidden, felt as if shadowy and mighty power tried to stop him in his own field of bureaucratic paper games. More and more details came together in one picture, and one day a group of professional agents kidnapped him right from House Menelius mansion. Noone outside the Inquisition must know its secrets, so the choice for promising officer was a simple one - mental cleansing or joining the Left Hand of the Emperor. Now, only time will show was his decision right or wrong.

That sounds pretty cool. Welcome to the party I'll get the game started then and anybody who wishes to join just needs to make up a sheet and we can squeeze you in as soon as practical. Maybe send me a message or something.

The inquisitor for the party will be one Harthos Pluvius, a voidborn chirurgeon of the Imperial Guard. He was raised by a Rogue Trader's medical staff and then later found himself serving in the Imperial Guard. This occured when his ship was shot down, leaving him homeless and looking for something to do with his life. He stumbled across a recruitment center on a long forgotten forge world and was drafted on the spot. After serving in the third war for Armageddon, Harthos was plucked by the Inquisition. He is now too old to serve the Emperor, so he has chosen to train new inquisitors before he dies his natural death. Harthos serves the Ordo Xenos.

I'll leave it up to the players to choose whether they wish to stick to the Ordo Xenos or branch outwards. I made him of said order for simplicity sake. Like I said previously, I think it would be best to start by using the premade adventure in the core rule book, so I'll introduce it now. If you have the book yourself, try not to read into it too far, and if you do try to separate player and character knowledge.

------------------------------------------------------------------

You are both gathered by a trio of women in long brown robes. They escort you through four story tall hallways of an administration wing of Hive Desoleum, until you are eventually left in what a 21st century Terra person would call a "board room". A rectangular oak wood table with 12 leather seats is in the center of the room. Upon the table is a four armed candelabra with the typical skull artifacts where the candles themselves rest. Each candle is a luxurious peppermint scent, and they provide all of the lighting within this board room. On the walls are massive administratum tomes referencing official Imperial creed, local laws and customs, and various other regulatory texts. One wall is unique in the fact that it is made entirely of a television. On this television is the live streamed image of your inquisitor: an elderly man with long silver hair and sagging skin, hunched over in a throne made of red felt and a wood not dissimilar to that of your board room table. His robes are an ornate and silky purple. Without much hesitation, he speaks directly to your characters in a struggling and raspy voice:

"Hive Desoleum, although I have visited her myself, holds many heresies and horrors. I have gathered you here, my progeny, to test you in solving but one of these. There are increasing reports of deaths most foul within the hive's upper levels. Odd items of a possible xenos or archaeotech nature have been found on each corpse. Fellow nobles have related these were preceded with bouts of erratic and troublesome behavior, and worry that a hive noble by the identity of Lans Guljian has exhibited many of the same behaviours."

Inquisitor Harthos Pluvius takes a moment to catch his breath, adjusting his weight in the chair before continuing.

"I wish you to investigate the deaths and possible connections to any illicit artifacts, determine if they are potential dangers to mankind, and terminate their distribution regardless. Recover and contain any item uncovered so that the witch hunters may purify them and turn them on our enemies. Prove to me that I have chosen my progeny wisely and there will be a bright future for the lot of you."

You guys may now post as you please.

This might be the right time to roll for Astaroth's wounds and divination

-------------------------

With quiet rustling of the mantle Astaroth bowed to Inquisitor in a gesture learned from childhood from etiquette tutors of the House.

-My lord, I was born in Jarvin, one of Desoleum's three major hives, and my house is among the planet's governing mercantile Consortium. I might not have as much contacts in Desoleum Primus as I do in Jarvin, but this influence might be used to our advantage... when required.

Adept's eyes wandered from pict-caster's screen across the strategium, savouring the sight of tomes preserved in the place for a second, promising himself to return here when opportunity arises.

-Artefacts of forbidden nature do indeed flood Desoleum through the gates of Port Gyre with every void rogue visiting the planet after an expedition to stars beyond His light. I humbly ask you for further mission details, my lord, and house Guljian...

Astaroth tries to remember something about that noble house.

First of all welcome Chaplain! Than I have a few questions before I jump right in.

- How will skill tests be resolved? Does the GM toss the dice and tell us the result?

- Are we an freshly build acolyte cell? Do we know each other or is this our first encounter?

- Is there a prefered form of player behavior, especially in formulation of character behavior? Should we use the first person or third or is it up to us?

I am flexible in matters of the Ordos, Xenos is fine for me.

Independent of the answers to the second and third question I will go on with my first scene.

-----------------------------------------

I am clad in my old but tended light carapace armor, my helmet lies on the table besides me, while I studied the tomes of the local law on the wall. The moment the inquisitor came into view I snapped into a straight posture. Following his example I jump right into the matter.

"It is an honor to be at your service, Inquisitor Pluvius. I presume we shall visit the local morgue and examine the bodies and devices. May I ask how you wish us to operate in concern of the noble Lans Guljian? He seems to be the obvious lead to a victim or co-conspirator. Shall we go straight to him and confront him with an offical charge or would you like us to gather information more discretely first? Which, if I may leads me to the question. Which will be our modus operandi and which kind of resources will stand to our disposition?"

I straighten a litte bit more, unsure if I might have overstept some boundries in matters of protocol face to face with an inquisitor. It lies in my nature as an Arbites to be a little hasty and always eager for quick answers.

GM telling us the results of our actions seems usual for forum games, and leaves no room for cheating.

How good do we know each other is a good question - I would propose an idea that all acolytes know of each other more or less, and inquisitor assigns "specialists" more suitable for task at hand - this leaves room for character development, but simplifies introduction of any other players - we knew about each other all along, but never gotten to work as a team.

Yet this, as well as style consistensy is for Frosty to decide.

Ok, I like this idea. I have a feeling we will get along quite nicely as we seem to have posted our replies nearly simultaneously

First things first: I didn't know you wanted me to roll your wounds and stuff so I'll do that now; 13 wounds and a divination of Trust in Your Fear: +5 Perception, gain a phobia of your choice (refer to page 288).

When it comes to skill tests I don't mind if you roll them yourselves since it's your characters and it makes it a lot faster if you don't have to ask my permission to shoot your gun or look through a window. Just make sure to write down that you wish to make the roll and then the dice results too. I'll know when cheating is happening, so as long as nobody cheats we will be golden. You guys should probably have met each other just like Chaplain said. As for player perspective and stuff, do whatever comes natural to you.

---------------

The inquisitor grins, pleased with the eagerness of his acolytes. He takes a drink from an iron goblet before speaking again, "Mmm, well, Lord Guljian has, as rumor says, fallen out of political favour as of late. Perhaps his allies and enemies may know something about his activities that we do not. My contact tells me he once had an office in the very building which you are in now, and I hear his secretary works for the man who replaced Lans. The morgue would not be a bad place to begin either. In concern to Lans himself, feel free to operate with him as you please. If you wish to visit him in person, you may need to consult public transportation for I am unawares of his address. I am not afraid of collateral damage, but it is always in the interest of your... survivability to use a little finesse."

A rather smallish, pale and entirely bald man shuffles in a bit belatedly. He is clad in simple, grey hooded robes and a similarly coloured flak cloak held together by a small, golden aquila pendant. The staff he carries over one shoulder has a fork in it to hold a small bundle, likely his belongings. He looks about with keen, grey eyes and then suddenly blanches, when he notices the briefing is already under way. He then stands up straight, at his unimpressive height of 1.62 meters, and chirps up in a reedy voice:

"My humble apologies, milord inquisitor, I was, hemhem, tardy in my daily cleansing rites. I am, hrn, Scab Severens, recently transferred from the Scholastia Psykana. It is an honour to meet you and I will be, hemhem, quiet now."

Fair enough!
Let it be Pyrophobia then (unless it is heretic burning at the stake probably )

____________________________________________________________

-And if there is a Faceless Trade going on, subtlety could be our best ally, yes, my lord.

Astaroth turned to his fellow acolytes, his unblinking mechanical photo-lenses locking on two faces independently with a soft hissing sound.

-If I manage to get access to the right people and data-vaults, I might be able to track down Guljian's movement and connections, or even contact him in person. Investigating the dead could help, as well as establishing contact with the enforcers already involved in the investigation: if they were allowed to investigate, that is, they might have already found clues or witnesses. Yet I am unfamiliar, I'm afraid, with details of your training in Scholastia Psykana, Scab... And now seems like a good time for enlightening.

((You're making me wish I'd rolled a pyromancer now ))

The small fellow bobs his head and sets his staff in the crook of his arm, so he can clasp his hands together, squeezing one palm with the other while elaborating: "I have shown, hem hem, little talent for long distance communication. That is why I am here, you see? My lord superiors were so, hmm, gracious to inform me that my not so overt skills in moving things with my mind, and the emperor's grace of course, as well as a bit of, hrn, rudimentary control over one's body might be helpful for my work here.", he then begins to shake his head, as if to underline his next words: "We are the inquisition's little fingers, they tell me, yes? We do not want to attact too much attention, no no, so, hem, I will be quiet in the streets, I think."

So I assume we have met and know each other at least superficial.

Ok, we can do that, too. I solemnly pledge to toll the dice honestly, by the Emporer! (If it does not work out, we can change it later anyway)

-----

Incomprehension is the first expression on my face, as someone dares to disturb an important meeting with my master the inquisitor speaking. I shake my head in disprase at Scab's delay, then focus on the ongoing debate again.

"So a silent approach it is..." distaste for the sneaky way wavers in my voice. "for now at least. I guess it would be wise to gather as much information as possilbe and if possible, incriminating evidence from the dead. My old Arbites Seal might help us, gaining access to the morgue, without raising too many flags. Our scholar might gain information of the artefacts, while I have a little collegial talk with a law keeper on the case. Scab...I don't know how to put this...but you can maybe...I don't know...take a "look" on the corpses and evidence? May the Emporer forgive me." Insecurity meddles in my voice, as everything in contact with the Warp is in contact with the arch-enemy and while my body may fall, my soul needs to be protected.

After a short prayer to the Emporer, I resume with a confident voice.

"Afterwards we might be enlightend through the Emporer's guidance and better equiped to face this heretic Lans!"

"Very well then. Do not fear to bring up my name if necessary, but do try to establish your own connections: It will help later if you have your own logistics chain to rely upon. Scab, welcome to the club. I'll leave it up to you, my flock, to decide what your course of action will be in solving this train of crime."

Inquisitor Harthos sips his cup and sighs tiredly one more time. He shuts down the video conference and leaves the rest of you to your plotting.

"Quick as a gunmetal desperado, old Harthos seemed to be in quite a hurry. I guess, he wants us to proof our worthiness by working on our own."

I would try to use my common knowledge (Adeptus Arbites) to determine, to which morgue the bodies and the evidence would be transfered most likley or where I could gather that information.

----------

So Frosty, you want me to roll the dice now? What about modifiers? Should I say now, which I deem best for the task and apply them myself? I feel like, we should solve this matter as it is quite central... I see three options: 1. I write down the roll I want to make, the modifier I deem would fit, roll the dice, write the result down and you judge if it is ok or not. 2. I write down the roll I want to make, you think about the fitting modifier, roll and write the result back or 3. I write down the roll I want to make, you write back which modifier would apply, I roll...

I am sorry, if I am complicating matters too much...as I said, never done this before, but until now it's fun

I will try solution 1 for now.

----------

Knowing where the bodies of noble born are transported should be an easy (+30) task for an Arbites, maybe I would not know, where they go specifically, but where to gather that information.

I rolled an 26. My Int lies at 35+30 would mean I achieved 3 DoS.

Scab dips his head to the inquisitor, then rummages in his bag, eventually producing a handheld auspex, which he holds out to the group in both palms with a wide, proud smile on his face: "I can have a look at the bodies with this! I, hem hem, picked it up on Terra, when I got told where I was going to be assigned. But, could one of you tell me our, hrn, exact task, please? I fear I missed a good bit of the briefing."

Yeah I suppose I never thought of that, Ripplo. Alright, from now on ask me when you are going to make a roll and then I will give you the modifiers, THEN make the roll using said modifiers. This time I do agree with the +30, so we'll say that you know that there is usually an Arbites station and medical center near any residential district populated by the rich and powerful. This is where the bodies would logically be processed.

Ok, glad we solved that;)

------------

I turn towards my fellow acolytes, the stern expression of an Arbites preparing a case.

"Yes, of course. Welcome Scab. I will sum it up quick: There are odd deaths among the upper class of Desoleum. Before they commenced their journy to the emporer...or he only knows where to." The last part I grumble with disgust. "They showed bouts of erratic and troublesome behavior. Unknown artifavts where found with their bodies. We have to investigate, what kind of behavior exactly, maybe questioning friends, family or buisness contacts. It seems like the same erratic and troublesome behavior can now be noticed on the nobe Lans Guljian."

Pride fills my breast as the inquisitor trusts us enough to do his holy work for the Imperium.

"Our orders are to investigate the dead nobles, find out more about these foul artifacts, determine the level of danger and any way prohibit the distribution and seize all artifacts."

"Do you want to add anything to my proposed plan? I guess I know where we can find the bodies."