This was a thought I had whilst, unsurprisingly, watching The X Files . It's surely a tremendous resource for creating campaigns insofar as it has a nice formula of
- Clues
- Outside 'normal' operations
- Bloomin' weird
- Not always (ever) explained

In terms of coming up with things for campaigns, I find it difficult to quickly generate both compelling and 'quick' (formulaic) investigations. Now, I wonder if anyone knew of anything/anyone on t'interweb who'd systematically went through all the X Files episodes and stripped them down to the bare bones of 'clues', 'sources', 'mystery' and 'possible resolution'. Even just some of the better episodes!

I realise this smacks of a degree of laziness, but it seems like such a basic and wealthy resource. I imagine things like The 4400 , The Twilight Zone , FlashForward and tons of other programs would offer a similar wealth of easy accessed opportunity.

To that end, any suggestions or knowledge of such things?

Whilst i dont suggest you do such a thing, there are PDF's available for download on numerous torrent sites of the Xfiles compendiums and season guides, as well as "Bibles" for characters, locations, investigations and items, as well as some comprehensive cryptozoology resources.

i wouldn't feel badly about it if i were you. DH/40K is not wholly unique, many concepts being borrowed heavily from other genres and previous eras that have come before. its quite the mishmash.

definetly mystery books, the original Outer Limits. Espionage novels and movies. there was one called MI6 that was reputed to be pretty decent with good solid plot twists. change the names, faces and places...and voila!!!

nothing wrong with lazy. we all lead busy lives and can't brainstorm something always fresh and original. as long as you and your players are having a good time.

Another thing to consider would be using Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green scenarios, reskinned for Dark Heresy... after all, the original creators at Black Industries were heavily inspired by CoC, and definitely worked a lot of that style into DH (didn't Mason even do some writing on CoC products?). I've been looking at converting over some of these scenarios, and it's pretty promising. Much of the structure can convert directly, dropping in the appropriate 40k substitute - Delta Green being even easier than CoC. The aspect that probably takes the most reskinning is the difference sources of information in the scenario. Depending on the location, public libraries probably don't exist in 40k, and the other record keeping systems might also be pretty varied from the modern world, so things like Administratum Record Halls, the private libraries of the very wealthy, and Arbites investigation/prosecution warrents make for appropriate replacements.

There's some implications to consider, though. Being agents of the Inquisition can change ease of gathering information, depending on the scenario, usually making it easier (if they're willing to pull =I= rank). Also, putting a heavier focus on clue research makes the Adept much more important, both for general knowledge skills, but specifically his knowledge of the Imperium's bureaucracy, if trying to work inside the system. On the other hand, for working outside the system, Scum become a lot more important, for both their people and larceny skills. Also, the increased combat effectiveness of Acolytes compared to the average CoC investigator will probably change the way some scenarios play out when they're reskinned. Also, most CoC/DG scenarios put a lot of emphasis on roleplaying and investigation, saving combat for the climax at the end, which might not be to the taste of all groups. And these kind of info gathering scenarios do depend a lot on literacy, so if there's a lot of illiterate Acolytes in the group, it could be frustrating; but again, it would make an Adept even more valuable.

Even if you don't use the scenario directly, they can still be good sources of inspiration when thinking about running a mystery game. And there's _tons_ of scenarios out there, including lots of fan written ones. So there's plenty of material. I know I'm definitely looking forward to running a few, and my group seems pretty excited about it too. I'm especially looking forward to seeing how some of the different CoC creatures stat up in DH

Best of luck!