Since my new group is completely unfamiliar with the world of Warhammer 40K beyond "oh, it's that game with the space marines", the starting adventure would need to satisfy the following requirements:

- preferably solvable in 4 hours

- introduces the players to essential setting concepts like a widespread fanatical belief in the Emperor, an obsession with spiritual purity and the reasons behind it, technology rooted in religion and ritual, and the fact that they're working for the Space Nazis

- lets all players have their moments in the spotlight (we have a Sinophian Arbitrator with the Calixian Pattern Killings package and 60% in Inquiry and Scrutiny, a Forge World Reclaimator who's the party face with Charm and Deceive 44% and Tech-Use 50%, and a Mind Cleansed Assassin who's great at killing people but rather short on utility skills, with 32% Intimidate and 55% Silent Move; moreover, all of them are passable liars and the Arbitrator has 19% in cult, heresy and underworld-related lore), with situations specifically geared towards their areas of competence

- doesn't hinge on the party succeeding on "chokepoint" checks, instead opting for a Hunter/Hunted setup with ultimate failure being the result of poor decision-making and extremely bad luck

No published scenario I know of manages to check all of these boxes, thus, one needs to be written. Give me your ideas!

Sorry to say, but based on my experience, the mix you are asking for is not possible. You cannot do ALL of that in the scope of 4 hours with a group of newbees that only know "Spacemarines".

What you could do, is a "milk run" that is about decisions and interaction with the environment, but that won´t be heavey on dice roles.

You could, for example, have an investigation going on where X happened but the characters need to make head-or-toes out of x, talking to wittnesses. Skill checks could give "additional clues" and the characters need to walk back and forth (like in a video game), using infromation x with known npc y to get result z.

Sorry to say, but based on my experience, the mix you are asking for is not possible. You cannot do ALL of that in the scope of 4 hours with a group of newbees that only know "Spacemarines".

Well, they're pretty experienced roleplayers (we've played in a multitude of systems from the relatively big names like Edge of the Empire and D&D 5E, to well-known indies like Fate and Numenera, to the really obscure stuff like Geiger Counter), they're just new to the universe.

That said, I'm definitely thinking about a fairly straightforward adventure of the "stop the ritualistic murderer baddie before he summons a daemon/oh crap he managed to summon a daemon kill it with fire" variety. Setting should probably be tech-heavy (showcasing the AdMech) to let the Reclaimator shine, but not AdMech-dominated (because that would make for a first impression of the setting that unduly emphasizes the AdMech). So I'm thinking it should be set in a Hive. Tarsus is tempting, lots of strong religious imagery, but then again, Malfi seems like the ideal backdrop for ritualistic killings. And there is Sibellus as a "goes with everything" option.

As for the murderer, I'm torn. On one hand, "death cultist gone bad" would be great as an anchor point for the Assassin (Shards of Memory could even be used to provide clues if the group's stumped). On the other hand, I kind of want to use a psyker because they're such a major part of the setting and there's no PC psyker in the party, so they need to be showcased somehow. On the gripping hand, "The Red Room" is also a nifty idea I want to use.

Actually, I personally would advise you not to opt for a hive, unless your hive is just akin to a "megasprawl". Everytime I had a hive (with Players who ARE good roleplayers but who weren´t overly into 40k), it took a lot of explaining and even then, I ended up with not having transported the Picture in my mind into their mind. If you have maps and other props, it works much better, so.

For Starters and to allow a Focus on "Society" and what is odd and what not, I had my Players (back in DH1st) going around to check some remote villages on Dusk, just to see if the populace there has to many mutants or is showing any signs of overly strange behaviour. This allowed to describe some stuff that seems strange and first, but have the characters role checks to identify which of it is actualyl rooted in one or another Imperial Lifestyle/Creed... and having them make decision abotu the rest, based on what they knew. There was really no big way of failing here, but as they alway were "out-gunning" the populace but the populace always "out-numbering" them highly, they had a few very tense decisions on how to Approach a certain issue. The spreading witch-cult of nurgle I had implanted wasn´t making it any better...

So, "Country side seeing" is out for you, as you want TECH. But with one of your People being from Sinophia, why not having a similiar Mission on Sinophia? In this case, it would be checking for a presence of Heretek-Witches adhering to the teachings of Amicus Tole.

You could send them out by car to see a couple of smaller town that are now largely deserted (Sinophia has suffered a Kind of Exodus and "sell-out" due to some outer effects akin to an trade Embargo). As they are moving in to have a look about what the (remaing) people are doing, they will naturally get a glimpse on what society is like.

The hunt for hints abotu Tech-Witches makes sure they learn a bit about "tech-rites" while gaming... and as soon as an Ad-mech is scoping about in the largely deserted countryside, the present Tech-Witches will learn (sooner or later) and might try an attempt at his life.

If you Keep the briefing short and the travel between town uneventful, you might even be able to press that into 4 hours..but again, with new People and new characters, 4hours is VERY short. In my opinion, such only works with an "adventure on rails" without to much social interaction. Actual roleplaying eats away time (if one wants to put it that way, as this is the reason we DO IT, right?), sometimes even more then combats.

Actually, I personally would advise you not to opt for a hive, unless your hive is just akin to a "megasprawl". Everytime I had a hive (with Players who ARE good roleplayers but who weren´t overly into 40k), it took a lot of explaining and even then, I ended up with not having transported the Picture in my mind into their mind. If you have maps and other props, it works much better, so.

We're playing over roll20, so yeah, we use lots of props.

Well, if the players bite, I want to use the Haarlock's Legacy series, so I'm leery of overexposing Sinophia. Also, they're with the Ordo Malleus, I kind of want them to encounter a warp-based threat.

To be fair, nothing will break if the game takes two sessions to complete. I'd prefer a quickie, but you know what people say about wishes and horses...

To be fair, nothing will break if the game takes two sessions to complete. I'd prefer a quickie, but you know what people say about wishes and horses...

Well, THAT makes your purpose much more feasible, as the 4-hour-length (or: 1 session) length was the thing that damned this requested to be stillborn (at least, in my eyes).

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Althoug you stated your qualms about it, I would still suggest Sinophia. You don´t -have- to make them run through the capital of Sinophia Magna. Simply, invent some towns in the surrounding area and you will be fine. In Addition, your Haarlock campaign could actually BENEFIT from it. If you introduce...certain elements as unimportant side notes they deal with but that don´t mean no harm...they are less like to "jump" at them when they Encounter it later. In addtion (again: in my experience) Players actually enjoy "getting back somewhere familiar".

The warp-threat is there, too, if you tackle Tech-Witches. Amicus Tole was mixing warp-lore and tech-lore, using foul witchcraft to enthrall machine spirts. Malleus would be a proper choice to deal with that.

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If that Option isn´t for you, how about the charaters (being lower in rank at the Moment) being ordered to clean up after the Inquisitor moves own with his seniour acolythes? The acolythes would have a good idea about what happend (the finished Report of the Interrogator of the Inquisitor) and or now tasked with keeping the "Moral threat" in check (finding out who in the surrounding populace was Aware of which Actions of the Inqusitor, who might have seen to much and Needs to be...culled) and to hunt down some minor heretic associates of the now slayn Major villain (where did his cult got weapons and gear from? Who are familiar members and associates of cultists that got killed? What did the enforcers REALLY know? Are they innocent?) Last but not least, they Need to oversee the cleansing (and perhaps: dismanteling) of the forma cult lair the Inquisitor and his prime cell raided: the acolythe Tech-Priest in Charge of this is going through the motions very "Point by Point". There are unsprung traps, mines and what not..and the acolythes will Need to deal with the Attention and ongoing Operation not far from human Habitats/villages generates.

This way, you can Play up the "you work for space nazis!" them you wanted to show your Players: they will suppress Information, intimidate or "cleanse" wittnesses, lock up, toture and/or kill Family and associates of killed cultists (once they were indentified) and generally put a lot of People to question....all the while, telling People "nothing of interest Happening here... Keep to your work...mind your own Business...everything is fine, praise be the Emperor.

I would definitly set the game on a fairly regular Imperial world rather than a Hive World. that way you can get the contrast between high technology available to the Imperium and the variable levels of technology available to citizens (Hive worlds are pretty high tech across the board).

Also have an opening scene where a Preacher incites a mob to burn some mutants at the stake. That ticks of the zealotry and that life is cheap angles. With that done you can get on with the adventure.

What about a civil war between the Ecclesiarchy and the Adeptus Mechanicus on a world, over the Mechanicus protecting a group of mutants (perhaps these mutants were important for some very shady experiments the Mechanicus was running). It would make an understanding of the tenets of the Imperium very important.

There's some great suggestions here. In the end, I decided to go with the ritual killings/Red Room angle as a Logician plot, and set it on Hive Subrique partially because it has a decent writeup and partially because it illustrates certain setting concepts really well. Now I just need to figure out the exact effects of the murders (as a Red Room gradually draws itself into existence) and how to present three clues for every essential bit of information (eight killings, locations form an eight-point star, but said star is at an angle between levels because I wouldn't dream of making it too easy on my players, and even though there's only one killer, the last two deaths will occur at the same time).

A lil bit late maybe for a suggestion..but what about Edge of Darkness?..its pretty nice for an intro into the world of dark heresy and you can throw in some customization if you feel you need to change something or want to add more to it.

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/dark-heresy/pdf/edge-of-darkness-(web).pdf

HF

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