FFG has taken up the mantle and brought 40k to our gaming tables and given us our RPG fix. I understand that a number of the book are essentially reprints from Black Industries, but is anyone feeling nostalgic?

I cannot help but feel that much of what we have come to love about 40K is sorely lacking, moreso...nonexistent or ignored. the real characters we have come to know and love. there is scant information on the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Adeptus Arbites, the Imperial Navy characters we can find all over Imperium space. nothing about their structure. no variance in careers for them. maybe these will be expanded in Ascension.

but what is really lacking are xenos foes...Necrons, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Tyrannids, Orks etc...what we get is this piecemeal offering which is scant at best.

i can admire and appreciate the effort to bring us new material and new wonders. the books are nice n shiny but lacking in what i consider to be core 40K subject matter...

...is anyone else out there feeling nostalgic?

Not at all, because I'm free to use any and all of those elements anytime I wish. The material on all the aforementioned factions and more are available in countless books already published by Games Workshop. Keep in mind though, that Dark Heresy is focused on the lower levels of the Inquisition (until the advent of Ascension), meaning if you're going to do Space Marines or The Imperial Navy or Eldar Harlequins, you'll have to do it yourself. But that's no chore. We have the only two tools we need; the massive Warhammer 40K setting and our own imaginations.

We do have some stats provided for Eldar (Purge the Unclean, Creatures Anathema, Rogue Trader) and Tyranids (Creatures Anathema) as well as Orks (Creatures Anathema, Rogue Trader) and Kroot (Rogue Trader) and a Space Marine (Purge the Unclean). Those are all official.

It looks like we may have more on the Eldar coming up in Radical's Handbook.

Plus we have two really good fan supplements out there. One on Space Marines (by Patriot) and one on Tyranids (by No-1_h3r3). Infact if I recall correctly they used a rule or two from the Tyranids fan supplement for the official Nids in Creatures Anathema.

And Im sure when Deathwing comes out in about 20 or so months we will get the heavy hitters to fight our space marine level characters, such as the Necrons.

Honestly, I'm glad that they're expanding and exploring other parts of the universe, while at the same time giving a more ground level look at the big threats. If I really want guards or space marines or a whole daemonhunter deployment vs a squad of Chaos Marines or a Tyranid incursion, well, they already have a game for that.

the liegekiller said:

Considering DH used to be a new start, FFG/BI could not be expected to cover all cool topics at a time (there are a lot of them in 40k). So, first, they cover the basics, and I fully support them in that.

I cannot help but feel that much of what we have come to love about 40K is sorely lacking, moreso...nonexistent or ignored. the real characters we have come to know and love. there is scant information on the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Adeptus Arbites, the Imperial Navy characters we can find all over Imperium space. nothing about their structure. no variance in careers for them. maybe these will be expanded in Ascension.

Yeah, it's not like we've got two of those as playable characters and the third one as a homeworld option, is it?

but what is really lacking are xenos foes...Necrons, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Tyrannids, Orks etc...what we get is this piecemeal offering which is scant at best.

Let's see... DH is a game about the inquisition - that are those guys who mostly don't stick around in the middle of a warzone, slugging it out. And what have we got? Tyranid lictors and genestealers, the two 'nid subspecies that are regularly found away from the hives. Eldar corsairs and rangers - same here. Dark Eldar pirates. Ork Boyz and Nobz (ok, not much subtlety there...). And no Necrons whatsoever, though if I want Necrons, I can just copy the good old Cthulhu stats (Damage: vaporises 1D5 characters per round)

i can admire and appreciate the effort to bring us new material and new wonders. the books are nice n shiny but lacking in what i consider to be core 40K subject matter...

Mind telling us what should have been left out?

Cifer

yes there is an Adeptus Mechanicus and Adeptus Arbites career aspect and a Homeworld option for the Imperial Navy but what is lacking is any real fleshing out of the organizations that I would believe are key to the setting. There is no real focus on these particular organizations, the factions, the divisions, its organizational structure.

as far as the Ordos. you mean the same Ordos Xenos which are tasked to root out and combat the...alien and the trafficking of alien technologies? lots of human adversaries but very xenos light. its not a matter of just what is in the hives. maybe your play surrounds the hives and that is perfectly fine for your gamestyle but my Acolytes travel all over.

yes yes..i know...its easy to make up your own rules...i'd probably wager though, that judging from the large amount of fan/GM created materials out there and an even larger amount of requests for said material...there is a very strong desire for official material on what we have come to know and love. much of the material created are not original concepts, they are based on 40K models.

i have no problem with the introduction of new materials, items not associated with 40K . that is a positive thing that gives it that freshness and wonder. if we are to just make up our own materials for everything, then buying another sourcebook serves no purpose. we can all just wing it.

what should have been left out? i truthfully cannot say. i don't have a problem with any of the fluff that has been added. it has all made for very good reading but I do know there are things woefully in absence. and judging from the numerous posts in this forum and others...others do also. we obviously all want something from this game. it is the reason we look forward to new releases. i fully understand that there is only so much time and so much space. that said i don't think many ppl here would object or be disappointed to see some of their favorite aspects of 40k represented a bit more. to have the fluff of critical Imperial organizations delved into with more detail.

Peacekeeper_b said:

I do believe we have a Dark Angels player about... Maybe? Death Watch , Peacekeeper, but I've made the mistake myself when talking to a buddy of mine.

Personally, I've been impressed with the material presented in most of the books. There have been a few things here and there I thought could have been presented better, but I just tweak things a little to fit where I want them.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Getting a really indepth look at an Imperial organisation would probably bore me to tears and severely restrict creativity, once Canon is established a hardcore bunch of players/fans treat it as sacred and holy and any deviation is looked down on and treated as if it doesnt matter.

Take one look at Traveller... then shudder at the reams of backstory/organisational detail you need to try and digest

Personally I think most things are covered enough that an enterprising Gm should be able to fill in the blanks.

Take eldar...they have given us stats for Rangers and Dire Avengers. From this stats for most of the other Eldar Aspects would be fairly easy to extrapolate but would be a waste of space printing (how many times is an adventure going to feature Warp Spiders?)

I agree that the Imperial Navy career path would have been nice, or at least some kind of pilot career path but it isn't that hard to do.

Background wise I am impressed, I think the published adventures are fairly average though not up to the standard of say old school WFRP Enemy Within campaign.but still playable.

From reading Rogue Trader, I get the strong sense we will be getting more info and stats on:

Chaos Marines

Space Marines (NPCs only, but hey!)

Orks, including Weird Boyz and Ork psychic abilities

Eldar, including Farseers and Eldar psychic abilities

Plus, Rogue Trader seems to be the future source of Xenos weirdness, easily portable to DH

the liegekiller said:

No. Because if I want Tyranids, Orks, Necrons, Eldar and Dark Eldar in any of my adventures, I simply include them. Pre-written stats and such are helpful, but not really necessary...