from france

i don't know i am still waiting it in france.

So far, so good. I'm on p. 134 out of 238, which is the resource section, which I can see as a nice mechanic to get an investigation started.

The book is listed as player friendly, but depending on your campaign, there are plenty of spoilers. For example, if your acolytes are Oblationist radicals, the coverage on Oblationists is something they would know. If not, most or all of that information would be unknown to the typical acolyte.

However, just change a few names and things become a mystery again.

Hodgepodge said:

Speaking as a Sister of Battle, I believe a flamer to be the intrument of choice in this regard

Well I've been reading over the Radicals Handbook and some mixed thoughts.

To a fair extent, this book seems to be a mix of Ian Watson and Dan Abnetts novel ideas - everything from Daemon Possession and Exorcism to get partial immunity to the Warp (Chaos Child) to the idea of Cognitae Scholams of mad, evil geniuses is given some useable and handy rules. Not entirely original, but at least they are harkening back to the old masters.

The meat seems to be the various Radical factions. Some have complained that nothing in the Calixis sector seems to have happened without an Inquisitorial involvement, but it was nice to get more details on the tapestry of events (such as the Mara Landings). Trouble is, its all mixed up and all over the place (though the index is a surprise) rather than being in any sort of chronological or geographical order as we might expect from a Planets of the Calixis sector.

The strongest element is probably the new Chaos bits- be it rituals, artifacts, spells or what not. Though the additional skill uses and gear is handy too.

Overall, I come away with the impression of a slightly confused and unfocused morass of ideas, with several gems hidden away inside.

SJE

SJE said:

I know that there are limits what can be posted until one borders on "copy right infringement", but there is a thing I just have to ask:

Can you name the skills that get "more uses"? After "Disciples of the Dark Gods" I was quiet disappointet that all the Rituals and other stuffed used "Forbidden Lore (Daemonology)" and good old "Occultismen" seemed to be without use.

In addition, I ever wondered if the "Secret Tongue" regarding sorcery would ever give some mechanical benefit it was fluff-wise pointed to have in the DH core rules books.

Picked up Radical's Handbook earlier this week.
It is absolutely worth getting!

Between the "Blighted Schola" origin, various alternate ranks and the description of various factions, I don't know what more to ask for.
My only complaint would be that the Sorcery system is anything but "the easy way out," with the Thresholds of the power being much too high for my preferences.

The Oblationist faction has become my favourite faction in an instant, having the selfrighteousness of the monodominant combined with the willingness to risk one's life and sanity typically associated with the Xanthite faction.

More amusing (IMO) is the Phaeonite faction. Believing in progress and making hybrids of machines and what is essentially sorcery (harnessing the warp), they are considered to be "kill on sight."

The tools for the GM on how to run various types of Radical campaigns are also quite useful, though not anything I haven't seen suggested elsewhere. It's nice to have it all gathered in one place, though.

Harboe said:

The Sorcery system is the same as that presented in Disciples of the Dark Gods, which has a different selection of Major and Minor Arcana (my main criticism of the Sorcery in The Radical's Handbook is the lack of Minor Arcana), and that's before you consider that you can use any psychic power with Sorcery as well (albeit with a +2 to the Threshold).

Sorcery by itself is an easy route to power for those that lack it - it provides a lot of potential power for a character that started out without the ability to use psychic powers, particularly if you use the full range of powers available to you (the ones in The Radical's Handbook are very high-end powers, as far as I can tell). Sorcery when combined with an existing Psy Rating is again an increase in power, as it grants you levels of ability that might otherwise have been impossible to attain (a Psy Rating 6 psyker with Master Sorcerer has an effective Psy Rating of 8) as well as access to powers not normally available (Psykers using Sorcery can take Major and Minor Arcana as if they were distinct psychic disciplines, which comes with its own potential benefits, not least Discipline Focus and the potential for Mastery of the 'discipline')

Gregorius21778 said:

Surely, by definition, any knowledge that lets you tap into the Warp or call upon Chaos in ritual form is forbidden. I don't imagine Scholastic Lore (Occult) would ever cover that kind of practical knowledge, though it should be sufficient in some cases to identify the trappings of such forbidden applications.

The skills that gain more uses are: Charm, Chem-Use, Concealment, Disguise, Interrogation, Intimidate, Medicae, Scrutiny, and Security. Additional information (some of it rules, others simply information to give the talents a little more context) is also provided for the talents Air of Authority, Disturbing Voice, Fearless, Good Reputation,Hatred, Rite of Awe, Rite of Fear and Unremarkable, with the Enemy and Rival talents ported across from Rogue Trader in that section as well.

Having Scholarly Lore (Occult) will qualify and Adept to become a Malefic Scholar and learn sorcery, but the checks are still Daemonology based.

I used an Oblationist Radical Inquisitor in my game and the fact that he spoke to duty to the Emperor, and clearly hated his thrice-bound daemonhost 'foul servant' meant that my ultra-puritan PC's were very torn on whether to purge him or listen to him. (Eventually they pinned him in two with a speeding Rhino)

SJE

@No-1-Here
Thank you! Always helpfull to know what you will get

Here's my review: http://johnwsmarvin.blogspot.com/2009/12/game-book-review-radicals-handbook.html

Nojo509 said:

Finished it and

Nojo509 said:

I agree with your point on the Adepta Sororitas. One of the only things that kinda bothered me in the RH is the Condemned and Denounced background package for Sororitas. If you've been denounced and excluded from the order, as part of your pre-rank1 background, why are you even a Sororitas? How do you justify advancing in the career at all? I could see it as a alternate career rank (an alternative to the 'honourable discharge' of the Sister Oblatia) or even an elite advance. Not so much as a background package.

An answer could, of course, be some sort of 'evil Sororitas' organisation, but I havn't seen any coverage of this.

That's actually a problem with a lot of background packages. Rank 1 Guardsmen have just been conscripted, and haven't even seen battle yet. So how exactly did they come to survive the Mara Landing Massacre, the Tranch War, or have already returned from a crusade? The same holds for roughly half the background packages if you think about them. Even more funny is that a Guardsman from a Feral World can't become a Feral Warrior until Rank 3 for some reason. Wouldn't be already be one?

Really, most of DH works a lot better if you start somewhere between late rank 3 and rank 4.* At that point, fluff-wise, you've completed or nearly completed your career's basic training and are starting to show real distinction. XP-wise, the xp spent in those three ranks combined actually equals the xp needed to advance through rank 5 alone, so you're really not skipping much of the progression either.

Edit: I should note that this is less true for first-time players, who might appreciate the relative simplicity of building a rank 1 character. For players who have the basics under their belts and wish to use background packages and define their character in detail with a range of advances , however, it is a better starting point than rank 1.

Hodgepodge said:

I don't have as much (that is, any) issue with those as I do with the Denounced and Condemned background. A rank 1 guardsman who's a veteran of the margin crusade isn't a green recruit. He's seen combat before, even if, in game terms, he's still rank 1. Nothing about rank 1 guardsmen suggest that they have just been conscripted. Or that they even are, or have ever been, part of the imperial guard for that matter.

And the Feral Warrior makes perfect sense to me, so I have no problem with that at all (even though I'd also like to see a career rank that'd let you start out as a primitive warrior of sorts).

The Adepta Sororitas is, to me, much more specific than the other careers. A guardsman could be a thug, a mercenary or an imperial guard recruit.The Adepta Sororitas seems much more strict. You could use them as a sort of 'generic warrior nun' template (and by that logic, even the nun part is optional), but they aren't really written with that in mind.

To me, Denounced and Condemned would work much better as a "I used to be a battle sister, but the jerks kicked me out" background for a cleric or a guardsman (or just about anything that isn't a current member of the Adepta Sororitas). Or as some sort of package you could get during play if something happened to make the sisterhood expel you.

YES! This book is full of so much amazing information, and back story on multiple parts of the imperium. I have to say this is a MUST BUY book for this game.

its a lovely read to all you who want that tingly corruptiony feeling in the morning after litterally killing someones faith in the emperor or the choas gods. which if you know what im talking about good for you i believe to be touched by that should give you a backround package all on its own

I say "buy it". Have it since a week now. The points I like a lot are

- the additiional minor psychic powers (not much, but there far to view of them!)
- the table for taming animals with "wrangling" (always good to have mechanics for something)
- wonderful and splendid new daemon weapons & artifacts (with ideas for "new abilities")
- the whole bunch of options your pc will have know
- the backgiven for "Xeno Excarvation" in Calixis Sector.

Hodgepodge said:

Background Packages represent actual career/world experiences and are worth more then the XP price listed, as they ar often accompanied by disadvantages that represent side effects of your career. Ideally any penalty to a characteristic, or addition of CP or IP special "negative trait" equates 100XP that is being paid off as "drawback" to a bonus skill, talent, or "positive trait" the character gets.

The problem, IMHO is that career use rank titles, which works well for alternate rank titles, but not standard ranks. And with alternate ranks having game mechanic requirements that really make no sense. Having a certain attribue minimum or in game deed makes perfect sense. Having a rank requirement doesnt. As said before, requirement to be a Feral Warrior, should be Guardsman and Feral World, not rank 3.

I would love for a revised system to come out that alters the basic rules enough to make more sense (ie, ditch the 1E AD&D Level Titles like they did in RT, give ranks and other things reasonable prerequisites other then XP) and so forth that allows the books as written to still be completely compatible but allow a feel of more natural progression.

I think that the Inquisitor's Handbook added so many options and openings for characters that I am very well capable of ignoring the flaws from the core rules, and DotDG, Tattere Fates and Radicals adds new dimensions to these options.

So on that note, RHB, invaluable!

The titles for career ranks sound nice, but they're not necessarily accurate or reflective of the character. Arbiter titles, for example, reflect Arbites ranks but the career represents everything from Arbites to ship security on Misericord to corporate enforcers. You shouldn't read too much into them.

Cynical Cat said:

I completely agree, but yet with them there looking right at you, at times it is hard to ignore.

Its why they were removed from Rogue Trader I would wager.

I just usually give 1000XP and say go for it guys! And I allow them to jump ranks for 100XP the same as careers change in the real WFRP.

I love what I've gotten in it so far. The information on the various radical factions as well as some cool gear they caught up on. I might be easy to please, but it's a great book.

I do think that they should put some more books out about the setting, though. I really only have some novels to go by on stuff like hives and such. They have been pretty vague on a lot of stuff so far.

Radical´s Handbook failed to arrive today as gift for tomorrow, what means I would have it at best on Monday

So, if anybody would like to tease me a little bit longer: what is the "Shadow Tech"? What are some examples of it?

from france

i finaly got my copy. it s good; i find interesting especially the choke armor perfectly suited for my arbites and one of his little obscession. but honestly far too much is about chaos and far too few about xenos, tech heresy and the other for. for me he is clearly unequal. i also think tha short ideas adventures would have be a good idea. it s like something is missing.

but maybe i need a second reading for a more precise idea.

"Shadow Tech" is gear suited for subtle warfare, such as guns designed for use against machine targets, armor integrating chameoline systems or special imitations of Eldar holo technology, various means of bugging an area or preventing an area from being bugged, and so forth.