Hi Dark Heresy fans!

This week, I have a guest designer diary from Mack Martin, talking about how he took his Dark Heresy character into Ascension!

So, when Mack stated that a bonus for him choosing "Spiritual Retreat" was that he would be able to shed a few CP's, this meant that his Corruption Points would go up by 3? Or dose all Ascended characters CP total go up and he just kept it going up even further then it would have otherwise?

If the former, someone's confused; me, him, or someone else. If the latter, then an earlier mentioning of characters too corrupt or insane to play any longer can get a second chance through choosing a Transition Package that would help them lose a few points isn't entirely accurate as they'd still come out with more then they had at the end of Dark heresy (which made them near unplayable in the first place).

I think I got more confusion then information from this one...

Edit: okay, well, not entirely without information. The Trait for Inquisitors called "The Psyker's Gift" is quite tantalizing and would go a ways to explaining all those darn Inquisitors running amok with psychic powers but seemingly lacking the whole sanctioning baggage ;-)

The Ascended sheet unfortunately does not specify what the total XP at that point is. There is an almost 4000 XP gap between the Lv8 Arbitrator sheet and the "Lv9 Inquisitor" presented.

Did not actually reveal anything major. Just some names of the packages and thats about it. This part in fact raised more questions ( emphasis mine ):

"I then adjusted some other portions of my character sheet (Fate, Corruption, Insanity and Wounds all shift with Ascension),...". Shift how? A higher cap? Automatic bonus points for Ascending? What?

EDIT: I have to say that the Arbitrator in question must have had the Laughing Gods own luck to actually reach Lv8 with so few CP and IP. Average human WP with no mitigating Talents and the totals are 17 (IP) and 18 (CP). I have known characters that reached 20+ IP by Lv3.

Aajav-Khan said:

So it's done its job to tease us some more and get us salivating then?

As for me, one little niggly thing I cannot stress enough that bugs me (even moreso than paragon talents and mastered skills, would you believe?) is the pre-printed skills on the sheet. Don't get me wrong, it works an absolute beauty in DH where Basic Skills were pre-written so that you know you always have access to them, even if you aren't trained, but it annoyed the absolute crap out of me in the default RT sheets when half the skills there are completely unuseable. It really sucks to go "hey, can I use this? [quick check] Oh ****, that's not basic. What about....[check AGAIN]..."

Perhaps not so much a problem in Ascension, where everyone and their grox has access to every skill fully mastered (I jest, I jest....hopefully), but again, I cannot re-iterate how goddamn annoying it was for RT(considering just how little they start with despite being at '5,000XP') and really killed the experience for me on a level the DH sheets didn't simply because they didn't cause as much confusion. God-Emperor forbid someone gets access to 3+ Drive skills, or 4+languages (IIRC both easily attainable for Adepts, for example).

I know when we get into Ascension (still a while off, our guys are 7-8000xp at the moment) if there's too many unuseable skills burned into the sheet I'm going to go look for alternatives. I may even just use my current DH sheet, because it does everything I could possibly want and more in three pages.

Yes I noticed that the basic skills had a different type of dot for them, but still, why not just leave the advanced skills open to people for when they have them? Especially since the whole selling point of Ascension is to have characters with less junk on their sheet, yet the whole first page (I assume there's a second for talents, equipment, other notes, and hopefully a third for cool background tracking, faith, and XP) is bogged down with stuff the average acolyte (and from the look of it, Throne Agent too) will never use and thus has no need of.

Just some food for thought, as I see it.

Also, I'm going to guess 'The Psyker's Gift" is a way of picking up a psy rating for acolytes who never had access to it previously. Basically a full transition from Nascent Psyker (implied or actually having psychic powers) to actually having some measure of control and being treated as a psyker proper.

"Trial by Fire" sounds interesting. It's sounding especially tempting for my Sister of Battle...

Have they announced a release date yet? The "Upcoming" section still lists Winter 2009 as the expected release date.

I also agree about the Arbitrator in question. That guy is **** lucky to survive with only (for an arbitrator) a TB of 4, 14 wounds, and so little IP/CPs. And being a (nascent) psyker. And he's survived with 3 Fate Points left too by the end of it.

That being said, he's actually not bad on closer examination. For starters, I noticed a few talents in his XP purchases section not covered in his actual talents section (I got clued in by his use of 'bolt pistols' then trying to find two-weapon talents). Combined with maxed BS, he's actually a pretty **** good shot with his pistols.

Also, the fact he was only at ~10k XP clouds the issue with regards to just what he picked up from his Ascension, what he picked up as 'quick XP' to bridge the 4k XP quickly, or even if it's reasonable to take characters with less than 15k XP and Ascension-ise (ascend if you like good English) them.

Still leaves us wondering a fair bit IMHO.

The Hobo Hunter said:

2 fate points at the end of DH. It looks like part of the "Adjustment for Ascention" in regaurds to fate Points was the gaining of one ;-)

But, all said, on the first seet, my first tought was Ross had to be the softest and least "grimdark" GM ever ;-)... or perhaps the first sheet has a type-o or two. The CP difference just doesn't make a whole lot of sense from what was explained. Of course not much was explained and, if the sheets are being shown, i would expect the second to be the new Ascended Career right out of the gate in which case, the corruption totals just don't really add up... unless that shifting thing mentioned in relation to Corruption points means more corruption...

I'd guess he shed a few CP during Ascention and gained a few during ascention for a net gain of three where he would normally have gained more, say five or eight. A touch like working down the RT creation rules. It's only a guess mind.

It'd be my guess too.

He's probably lost a bunch of CPs through his transition package, and gained some through some other optional thingamajig not yet fully known to us, and it's just so happened he's made a net gain of CPs. I'm betting if he just took his time cloistered away he'd end up with far less CPs, and if he didn't spend that time away we'd see a lot more CPs on his sheet instead.

I know I always save Fate points for when I think I'm testing for corruption or insanity. I've had a character make it pretty far with just a handful. Considering how many players I see waste Fate on things like Shooting in the first round of combat (you're gonna get another shot... don't do it!) I wouldn't be surprised if this character just saved his fate for something smart. They could have also dealt with non-daemon issues. It looks like he is Ordo Xenos so it's possible that Ork and Eldar focused campaigns didn't present as many corruption opportunities.

He probably gained fate for other things. Ending at level 8 with 2 means he probably blew a couple to save his own bacon.

Doing the math, it looks like ascension characters are about 13,000 experience. I suspect that when "building up" to ascension you can also go back and buy skills, as this character has Intimidate +20 during those "phantom points". The original character clearly went the other route and +20 Intimidate is only available in the "proctor" options. So it looks like Ascension characters don't have to be slaves to their branch.

I've been looking at these sheets for a couple hours trying to figure things out. I think that's all the information I can glean.

OH, wild guess here... when you gain Experience points to jump to Ascension I bet they also give you Insanity and Corruption. I bet that's across the board as a price for the EXP. Possibly even forcing you to take 1 insanity/corruption for every 500 experience or something like that. Hmm, doing the math it looks like 250 exp = 1 Corruption or Insanity... about. Maybe there is a chart or something.

All in all this got me really pumped about the book!

Rant said:

Good point, but he's also a nascent psyker and those guys are corruption magnets -unless he resisted temptation for a full year and did nothing with it but jinx a weapon here and there.

I too am excited about this book and I'm kind of hopping that the somewhat slim diary this time as well as it being a guest writer means that the hype machine's winding down due to the book getting close to hitting the shelves.

So, looking at the Ascended Character Sheet, Mastered Skill dont save space on your character sheet! As all the skills in question are still listed at the appropriat +20 levels. Hmmmmm.

And it looks like Talents will be on the back.

Just being snarky. So whncan I have this Ross?

Peacekeeper_b said:

I believe it does beg the question as to why not just save that chunk of space, and take the 'old' skill system and add an extra "Specialised" dot for the extra DoS from mastery specialiastion. I mean, they found space to add an extra two dots to characteristic upgrades so surely it isn't impossible :S

It looks like a lot of time has passed in-game between Octus' 8th rank and his Ascension. For example it mentions his hair having streaks of grey. That made me think - will you progress the DH timeline some time further than 815.M41? I think it is a great way to introduce new threats on similar scale to the Ascended characters. The DH setting is great, but it constantly being "on brink" of great changes, Komus sightings, cult uprisings etc gets a bit stale after a while - having some semblance of living setting would be great in my opinion!

What we need is for this to hurry the feck up!

Rant said:

Just a guess here ... but I'm thinking that the Intimidate +20 is a part of his Investigation Skills Mastery. Just sayin' ...

Baldrick said:

Exactly. What Baldrick said!

Sister Cat said:

Seconded. Funny thing is, the proprietor of my FLGS has taken to disregarding most info from his distributors and asking me and the guys in our DH game when stuff is coming out. We usually know first because of FFG's upcoming page.

<Chants under his breath> "Come on, get off the boat, book. Come on, get off the boat. Book, book."

-=Brother Praetus=-

Brother Praetus said:

"Book, book, book, book, book! Come on, FFG, where's my book?!? Where the FETH is my book?!?

So I was deep inside the mouldering bowels of a drifting space hulk when I discovered I was not alone. There was a quiet but unmistakeable hydraulic hiss and metalic "clump" sound, rhythmic and coming from a nearby passageway. I swiftly took cover behind a large cluster of seemingly inoperable machinery and readied my bolt pistol and powersword, waving my companions into position with a swift series of hand gestures. The sounds continue, drawing ever closer. I estimate the optimal time for my move, then with a swift nod of my head to the others I rapidly shoulder roll around the corner and snap my pistol up into firing position. My erstwhile target is revealed to me, and it is an armoured giant striding down the metallic deckplates with a heavy tread, his armour blasted and blackened in several places. With surprising speed for something so massive it's plated arm snapped up and points at me, a massive belt-fed storm bolter mounted to the giant's vambrace. I shout "In the name of the Emperor, halt and identify!" Almost simultaneously the Giant booms out a vox-amplified version of the same challenge. Keeping my bolt pistol trained on the giant's massive ceramite helmet I declare "I am the Emperor's Left Hand" and illuminate my rosette with the stark blue-white glow of my powersword. The giant speaks once more "I too am a servant of the Emperor. I am Brother Rael of the Grey Knights." The giant is clearly Astartes, but his armour is severely damaged and the livery is nearly impossible to make out in the poor lighting conditions. As an Inquisitor I am privy to much that is secret, forbidden and sacred and yet again my knowledge serves me well. In a strong and commanding voice I ask:

"If you are truely a Grey Knight, SHOW ME THE BOOK!"

ZillaPrime said:

"Funny story, that. You see, my battle-brothers and I were laying waste to this monstrous warp spawn when all of a sudden... DIE SLAVE TO THE FALSE EMPEROR!!!!"

But honestly, what do we have to do? Paint all the shipping liners RED?!?

"Kult o' Speed Shippin'; for when you's gits need your glitz fasta!"

-=Brother Praetus=-

Heheh. As a newly Rank 8 psyker, I have to say I chuckled at 21 Corruption. I dream of 21 Corruption, sometimes... when my dreams aren't filled with daemons and other horrors...

But what got my attention was his Willpower jumping by 20 points when he's only bought 3 advances. Is it part of that Ascension package to increase your Willpower by +5? I can only hope. That would really sort me and my crippling Noble Willpower out.

Heheh. As a newly Rank 8 psyker, I have to say I chuckled at 21 Corruption. I dream of 21 Corruption, sometimes... when my dreams aren't filled with daemons and other horrors...

Yes, I share your pain. One Psyker character in a recent short lived campaign made something of a record before Level 4. When reaching Level 3 he was at 27 CP and things went downhill form there. One Warp manifestation, two spectacularly botched Fear tests and one Perils of the Warp later he was at 46 CP. His bad luck continued and he caused a second Perils at the begin of the next episode ( granting everybody some bonus CP ). Emperors Mercy was administrated with due urgency...

But what got my attention was his Willpower jumping by 20 points when he's only bought 3 advances. Is it part of that Ascension package to increase your Willpower by +5? I can only hope. That would really sort me and my crippling Noble Willpower out.

Makes sense. I hope there are options for all the attributes. I predict the WP increase ( if it exists ) will be popular.

EDIT FOR BELOW: Ah true, missed that one.

The Design Diary was explicit that the transition package included a WIllpower bonus.

I liked this DD a lot, yes, I think I'm going to enjoy making a new character.

I'm just worried the TPackages are going to fit in with my characters planned out fluff, and there be enough of them. They mentioned 3 or so here, and I hope there are a hell of a lot more, I mean, we need variety in our character design. Also, do they only work for certain classes? I can't really see many TPackages working for an assassin.

Also, writing what faction you belong to, I wonder if it'll effect the game and Influence? I plan on advancing my character to Malleus and I wonder if that'll trick something out, like longer space between Ascended ranks, and higher amount of start influence but maybe pick up some Insanity Points.

I also agree with everyone else, where is the book? XD I got a two week holiday coming up in 3 weeks and I can't spend any time with it during then I'll be real sadface.