Hello folks, i'm running 3 count them 3 DH games at Norwescon 33, which is to be held April 1-4. What I'm asking is a good introductory sentence or two that will captivate folks and have them want to play the game. Plus has anybody made a teaching aid that shows how to do rolls and everything for DH yet?

"In the grim darkness of the far future, you are all that stands between Humanity and its damnation."

How's that? Good, or to melodramatic?

-=Brother Praetus=-

That actually sounds very good, thank you.

As a related side note, don't burn down players at their first 'heretical' mistake. Show them how scary and mean the Imperium can be, but give them a chance to make a couple mistakes. Some players might not be up and up on 40k fluff, so this is a good way to teach em how awesome it can be.

i've always found the intro piece to 40k (around since Rogue Trader) still the best at setting the tone and atmosphere (although perhaps edited for brevity).

For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium, for whom a thousand souls die every day, for whom blood is drunk and flesh eaten. Human blood and human flesh – the stuff of which the Imperium is made.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. This is the tale of those times.

It is a universe you can live in today – if you dare – for this is a dark and terrible era where you will find little comfort or hope. If you want to take part in the adventure then prepare yourself now. Forget the power of technology, science and common humanity. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for there is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter and the laughter of thirsting gods.

But the universe is a big place and, whatever happens, you will not be missed....

Also the back blurb on the DH rulebook gives a specific impression of what a player would be doing in the game.

As for heretical mistakes, the easiest way is to illustrate the consequences. For example, the intro the game has in the background an NPC acolyte that fell to chaos and is being restrained for summary execution. Or You could put a more active NPC in somewhere that follows a similar concept.

Basically, do it to someone else whilst the Players are watching so they can actually SEE the consequences.

Hellebore

Hellebore said:

Now that sums things up nicely.

Still, a bit longer than Mr. Scorpion originally asked for. If there's space on the flyer/event calendar I say use it.

Hellebore said:

Simple, elegant, brilliant. Though, there will be those who are willfully blind to the warning. Such is the nature of Man.

-=Brother Praetus=-

I would just take the most pertinent sentences from that intro. Edit it down to the core 'imagery'.

With perhaps a line from the back of the DH book:

You are an acolyte in the service of [...] a great and secret war [...] to hunt out the foul stench of heresy, [...] alien and [...] chaos. You will tread where others fear, [...] will never know fame nor reward, yet if you stand resolute your [...] name will be revered for millennia.

That's just taking out pieces of the back blurb of DH.

Hellebore

Brother Praetus said:

I think you left out the part where the player says "Then humanity is ****ed!"

In the grim dark future, there is only war.

I love that sentence.