Today we had a ugly situation.
During the mess in the library they encountered the sorcerer who rolled Perils of the Warp (83-86) Mass Possession.

I says it lasts for 2d10 rounds so I rolled a 16, that WP test or gain 1d5 corruption, is that every turn or just the initial turn....since it is so high up on the list I would say every turn...

Any comments?

I'd say that the willpower test happens every turn and if failed the character is helpless. However I would suggest that they only gain corruption from the first failed willpower test, otherwise characters could easily gain a lot of corruption.

I'd say it's a WP test every turn, whether they succeed or fail, next turn, another test. Granted, after 16 turns of that and you're gonna have some seriously messed up characters but, then again, these are demons poking them in their gary matter -that's no light matter at all.

Bottom line, if the air suddenly comes alive with things that were never meant to be and said things are continually trying to nest in your head, you should get the hell out of there asap. If you don't, well, you deserve what you get.

Well, only had 2 of the 5 characters in that mess...the Adept gained 12 corruption points (high WP, Armour of Contempt) but the Techpriest gained 22 Corruption points, I'll keep it at that....teach them to be more careful and perhaps be a bit more afraid of their own psyker...

Let me get this straight. Your NPC Psyker forced your PCs to make 16 WP rolls (with all fate points lasting at most until the 4th or 5th round)?

So your one NPC roll got one PC 22 CPs? And that's just close to average for WP 50, anything less or bad luck on a few of those D5 rolls could well mean over 30 CPs. I'd be VERY pissed and just retire afterwards... I mean was it their fault? Next time have them stumble upon Slaanesh around the corner and give them 666 CPs right there... All save-or-die rolls break down if you just throw enough of them at your PCs...

I play a rough game, what you see is what you get...sometimes they have good luck, sometimes they have bad luck.
My players are pure masochists....they dont want me to hold back...this is new for me but thy like this style of play so why refuse them this...

Btw, after the first round I did tell them, run if you can...or at least hinted them:P

Santiago said:

I played it as 'every turn'.

As to this from Chester...

Let me get this straight. Your NPC Psyker forced your PCs to make 16 WP rolls (with all fate points lasting at most until the 4th or 5th round)?

So your one NPC roll got one PC 22 CPs? And that's just close to average for WP 50, anything less or bad luck on a few of those D5 rolls could well mean over 30 CPs. I'd be VERY pissed and just retire afterwards... I mean was it their fault? Next time have them stumble upon Slaanesh around the corner and give them 666 CPs right there... All save-or-die rolls break down if you just throw enough of them at your PCs...

Well that seems like a bit of petulance to me and if a player of mine reacted like that i'd not be too happy.

In 40k and indeed in DH, psykers are 'seriously messed up mojo'. The PotW shows your players why...for sure, they'll be damaged by it and i'll reckon they'll have a healthy Imperial 'shoot first ask later' attitude to psykers from then on...as it should be.

I never even thought to play it as every turn, but now that I re-assess the direness of the Peril it makes sense to read it that way.

Also agree with Luddite, psykers are feared/hated for a reason. I wouldn't expect anyone in our group to react that way, but if they did the others in the group would quickly shoot them down. Our first game we were all trying to play the 'good-hearted' acolytes, accepting psykers as companions with open arms. A few dead characters later, the surviving adept slowly developed a wariness of psykers. By wariness I mean "always had a pistol ready to kill them at any sign of corruption"

Luddite said:

As I read it they were already trying to shoot first. It was an encounter with an enemy Psyker. This encounter basically handed them 20+ CPs with a single roll the GM made. With the character screwed just for being there, Sure it happens in this world. You might as well just make them fall over dead. Because that happens too. However it would suck big time for a game. Especially since the Perils table is supposed to be a detriment to the Psyker. For an NPC it isn't. They'd be better off if he had rolled higher on the table. That's when you fudge rolls...

Next time, have an NPC suicide meltabomber blow up inside your characters, okay? No loss. It was just an NPC. And your PCs. **** happens in this world, right? That'll teach them to fear suicide bombers more... is this your rationale?

Btw. corruption is no "experience" like insanity is. You don't draw conclusions from being corrupted.

Actually, Perils are more often than not a detriment to the whole party and not just the psyker.

And really, if my character was fighting a chaos psyker (or any enemy psyker for that matter) and the worst that happened was 22 CP in an encounter, as a player I would not be ecstatic, but I would also do my best to roleplay how the encounter with the warp has left him a hollow shell and have him shift towards a radical if he wasn't already.

Well, that's fine of course.

If you as a player come at it from a 'gamist' perspecitve, rather than a 'narrativist', 'simulationist' or preferably combined approach fair enough.

Personally i still see it as a somewhat petulant response, that i as GM would neither expect, nor tolerate from my players...that said, its not a response i can see my players making so...

But if you feel that 'in the grim darkness of the far future', where 'losses are counted in planets not people', and where 'there is taint in all things' and 'whatever happens you will not be missed', bad and unfair stuff shouldn't happen to a PC 'because it ruins the game', fair enough. I'm not going to argue that point, other than to say this is a roleplaying game .

In Dark Heresy the players are supposed to be roleplaying characters who are in the front line of a war against unimaginable horror for the survival not only of the species, but the very souls of the species.

Psykers are feared and hunted for a reason...this Perils of the Warp result seems to me to be a very good reason why. Its horrible, dangerous, corruption and completely random...i'd say the right response as a player to the corruption suffered by the PC in response to direct exposure to the Warp is to become bitter and very wary of psykers.

Remember, even sanctioned pyskers only live at the behest of the Imperial Authorities and can readily be executed by their 'minders' should they look like they are about to 'warp out'... (depending of course on your own interpretation of the social position of and propaganda about psykers in the Imperium).

Saying, essentially, 'its not fair', smacks to a me a little of petulance and misunderstanding of the point of a roleplaying game, and indeed ark Heresy.

'Its not fair'? **** straight it ain't. Your in the Inquisition now soldier, and you'll be lucky to survive...

As an aside, for the potential mindset of a Dark Heresy GM, perhaps the (heavily paraphrased) wisdom of the Cyberpunk RPG in its guidance to GMs might be useful...

'Keep your players on their toes...if they rest up, hit them with a drive by. If they stash thier gear, steal it. If they can't make on the Edge, waste 'em. This is Cyberpunk not some soft RPG about fiaries and elves...'

Chester said:

No, they weren't screwed by one roll the GM made. They were screwed by multiple rolls they made and the decision not to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE! They obviously passed some of their WP tests which means they were able to act. In those times when they were able to act, why didn't they get the hell out of the daemon infested area? They chose to stay and in doing so, chose to be continually mentally assaulted by them and rack up mad amounts of corruption. Saying that it's unfair because they were mostly screwed by one roll the GM made is like saying that a character is completely screwed by one roll the GM made when he roles the damage for a character who chose to step off a 100 foot drop. One roll by the GM will doom that character, but the character chose to take that step.

Again, the cp's they received, and the cp's one can receive from the peril in question, are, barring extenuating circumstances, received because of player choice. As it's an on-going effect that is anchored to a location, all one has to do not to be screwed is simply leave the area. Hell, from an in-character perspective that would be the most sensible thing to do as it is from a gaming perspective.

Just different styles of play for different parties. The hardcore "kill-em-all-on-a-single-bad-roll-of-the-dice" method is just as valid as the GM who will fudge the occasional roll to throw the players a bone. As long as everyone is having fun, its all good, right?

I fall into the later catagory for the most part. For instance, I was running a homebrewed adventure where the PCs were infiltrating a cultist compound. Due to my own newb-ness with the DH system at the time (I've GM'd a lot in the past), I threw way too much at them all at once. They were barely holding their own in a fire-fight in a warehouse against some well armed cultists. They were using tactics (really good ones), but could barely hurt the cultists. So I threw them a bone and had an old ammo box with 2 frag grenades in it. The grenades didn't win the battle for them, but helped.

On the other hand, a similar situation came up as in the original post where they were up against a rogue psyker (sanctioned, but on the run due to being naughty). They finally cornered him with a few of his guards and a melee broke out where the PCs were being held back by the guards (barely). The psyker screamed that he would make them pay and that it was all over for everyone (basically, he was freaking out about being caught and tortured), and so began manifesting powers like crazy, HOPING for a Perils of the Warp (he was a low-level psyker with mostly non-offensive powers).

I warned the PCs for three rounds that he was manifesting a dangerous amount, but they wouldn't quit. Sure enough, he rolled two 9s. The first was nothing big, but the second made him explode in a huge fireball, critically wounding him, torching the guards and burning 2 PCs to cinders before falling to the ground naked and smouldering. The PCs (those who were alive and conscious) emptied their auto-guns into him, and now have a healthy respect for psykers, both player psykers and NPC ones

Personally, the 22 CPs would be a bit harsh for my tastes for just a random perils from a rogue psyker. BUT if it was at all avoidable, or hell, if the players like that kind of game, then go for it!!

-Thulis

Well,

Normally I'm a very kind GM/ST, but with this group I'm a lot harder.
It is a dark universe out there, I do throw them a bone occassionaly, some equipment, some interesting loot but I do have one rule:

If ya loot it, it has probably been used against ya...

They've looted a Plasma, Bolt and Needle pistol and several autoguns...well yes...it smarted, but they survived.

At this point most of my pc's are around 10 to 15 insanity points and 5 to 15 corruption points, this will increase during Tattered Fates (especially the ending scenes).
They've all lost a Fate Point or two but they've gained some back in return...

One of the pc's has a prophecy on him, his death will bring salvation....he can't wait to be martyred.

Sometimes I'm nice, sometimes I'm hard as nails....

Graver said:

That is assuming that there isn't something preventing them leaving, like the doors out being locked to keep them trapped.

The only thing that prevented them from leaving was one of their teammates lying on the ground unconscious...
They could have left with only 5cp or so, but no,they wanted to protect their teammate who was causing most of their problems...

Santiago said:

Aye, CPs are very much Dark Heresy's version of Insanity in Call of Cthulhu aren't they...you don't want them, but you can't avoid them, and pretty much they're going to screw your character into 'unplayable' eventually.

CoC = Its not a monster Its not a monster Its not a monster Its a monster i've gone mad

DH = Warp exposure corrupts Warp exposure corrupts Warp exposure corrupts now i've been corrupted