Are there any planets that have orcs or necrons on them like in the 40k miniatures game?

Most definitely, but each of these alien manaces remain firmly in the realm of NPCs. A character from such a world may know a little about orks (talk to your GM). A character that knows anything about Necrons would be very, very rare indeed.

On the planet Kulth there is war against the savage ork, 83+ years...

Any character with knowledge of the Necrons (outside of their inquisitorial duties) has access to some pretty heretical, xenological knowledge and must be PURGED!!!!

Knowledge of the Necrons? That's pretty high up in the ladder there. I personally don't think that's exactly right for a PC to know about them. I know they're special, but, that's real special in my opinion. I'd personally say they'd either be put up on a pedestal for knowledge necessary for the Inquisition, or purged for knowing too much. I personally don't think people would know much about Necrons.

Santiago said:

In addtion, there was smaller orc investation mentioned in one of the planets described in some details in the core books. ... Iocanthus or Scintilla? One of them has some jungle aera where re-surfacing orcs are a problem.

cyclocius said:

Especially as first recorded Imperial contact with the Necrons doesn't happen until 897.M41 - eighty-two years after the 'present day' for Dark Heresy (which is 815.M41).

Even the people that know about Necrons dont really know about Necrons.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

I hadn't realised that the Necrons weren't about on a galactic scale yet. Checking the story Deus Ex Mechanicus (a short by Andy Chambers) the Adeptus Mechanicus encounters and survives a Necron presence in 641M41 on the world of Naogeddon. The Deceiver has been free and kicking about since then, though I'm not sure when Uriel Ventris and his Ultramarine chums accidentally let the Nightbringer out. So, while the Necron threat has yet to be acknowledged or even identified in the time period Dark Heresy is set in, it isn't unthinkable that acolytes could run into them. And die horrible, screaming deaths, most likely.

A time travelling Heretic?!?! Suhweeeeet..,....

cyclocius said:

I'm not sure what you mean. If you're referring to the Naogeddon incident it certainly didn't end well for the Ad Mech. At all. I was merely pointing out that the first official, recognised Imperial contact with the Necron menace was not necessarily the first time that the they'd encountered the Necrons. I've linked the story below. Go check it out, it's a good read.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/tombworld4/pages/dem.html

Snidesworth said:

There's evidence supporting this elsewhere in the game. Genestealers aren't generally assumed in the game setting (and in WH40k in general for years) to be part of the tyrannids, but they are in the tabletop game.

As far as Necrons, it's possible that there have been some "encounters" with "metal skeletons", but so little should be known about them that they're simply another xenos.

Orks are another matter. Guardsmen might have fought some of the ork uprisings, maybe even participated in a defensive action against an ork, but by and large unles the acolytes are members of the Ordo Xenos, they shouldn't know anything other than superstitions and rumors about even the most common xenos.

An Imperial guards man is always allowed to know what the Imperial Infanteryman Uplifting Primer, but i doubt it will actually be an help.

Most Imperial Guardsman don't survive their first encounter with the enemy...

Santiago said:

To be fair, were you to hurl a battalion of men from any contemporary army onto a world infested by Orks, etc, and I imagine that the end result would be little different. An Ork will disregard the fire of an early-21st century assault rifle in the same way that it disregards the searing volleys of lasgun fire of an Imperial Guardsman... a WAAAGH of a billion Orks, with accompanying titanweight War Machines, armoured vehicles, orbital support and artillery will bulldoze over pretty much everything in its path...

Back to Guardsmen:

This does, of course, depend partially on what the enemy happens to be in any given case. Rebellions and armed uprisings are quite common foes for the Imperial Guard to be deployed against, for example.

Similarly, the guardsmen themselves do play a role in this - they aren't all slack-jawed conscripts with all the manual dexterity of a shaved, lobotomised chimpanzee in the throes of an epileptic fit. A Guardsmen born and raised on Cadia, trained from a young age to defend the Imperium, or a native of Catachan for whom surviving to puberty was a deadlier challenge than the majority of battlefields, or men any of thousands of worlds with strong traditions of producing regiments of deadly soldiers will all stand a far better chance of surviving contact with the enemy.

The Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy make up the core of the military might of the Imperium. And, unflattering caricatures aside, they're quite good at it. Just because they aren't the Astartes does not in any way make them inept.

I hadn't realised that the Necrons weren't about on a galactic scale yet. Checking the story Deus Ex Mechanicus (a short by Andy Chambers) the Adeptus Mechanicus encounters and survives a Necron presence in 641M41 on the world of Naogeddon. The Deceiver has been free and kicking about since then, though I'm not sure when Uriel Ventris and his Ultramarine chums accidentally let the Nightbringer out. So, while the Necron threat has yet to be acknowledged or even identified in the time period Dark Heresy is set in, it isn't unthinkable that acolytes could run into them. And die horrible, screaming deaths, most likely.

My acolytes encounterd a few of them in one adventure. They just about shat themselves. Good times!

There is another incidence of a Necron encounter, as written in "Dark Apostle" by Anthony Reynolds, wherein the Traitor Word Bearers legion releases one of the C'Tan, although it gave no indication as to where it sits in the timeframe for WH40K. Good read too, especially the slow transformation of a local law enforcer to a dyed-in-the-wool true believer of the Ruinous Powers.

Snidesworth said:

That was a great story.

One of the biggest struggles I have with Dark Heresy and W40K is the balance between the fanaticism and individuality, and that story is a perfect depiction of the heroic (and epic) struggle between good and evil against a backdrop of one of the most mysterious and totalitarian regiems within the W40K universe, Adeptus Mechanicus.

I definately need to find additional reading material if it on par with what was presented in that story.

Gregorius21778 said:

Yes, that would be Ganf Magna, to be precise. My group of acolytes are currently situated on Kulth at the moment (behind enemy lines of the invading Orks of course ), and due to the close proximity of the two worlds im thinking of maybe toss Calixis right in the middle of an Ork Waaagh later in the campaign. All it takes is a space hulk conveniently passing by Kulth and traveling past Ganf Magna for the more "cultivated" Orks to invade Ganf Magna and their combined numbers would soon result in a proper Waaagh.

Now to the fun part: how do I manage to put the PC's right smack in the middle of it all? (Yes, I know, Im an evil gamemaster )