Greetings, Dark Heresy fans!

This week, I have a special designer diary about the amazing success of Ascension , including a great bonus download: Heed the Higher Call, an 18-page free .pdf with lots of great stuff about Ascension. Enjoy!

??? Umm... Ross... I hate to say it but... the reviews don't look that good from here.

Knowledge is Power - The Magos Ascended Career may use his Intelligence instead of his Fellowship to qualify for the prerequisites of all Peer and Good Reputation talents.

That's quite a useful fix. Thanks, will enjoy reading the fluff.

All I get is an error when I cick on the link with either firefox or explorer...

Id love to dl this 18pg addition...

Alexis

*smiles*

Edit- Here is the error

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a000d'

Type mismatch: 'v_tabla_noticias(...)'

/edge_asp/edge_noticias.asp, line 419

Anyone have an alternate dl link handy?

I have tried everything I can to trick my way onto the page in question but to no avail.

Alexis

*smiles*

Snidesworth said:

This was so predictable it almost hurts, lol.

Nevertheless, it's a free pdf and testament that FFG still reads and is more or less interested in what their customers have to offer in terms of praise and criticism. The options presented in the download are nothing spectacular though, and more or less framework for two bug fixes ('Knowledge is Power' and adding missing weapon talents to the Vindicare).

Release schedule teaser 2010/2011 Ross ?

This is almost what I expected from Ascension in the first place, but instead I was hoping for more alng the lines of the Origin Path (drum roll please, or the PATH OF ASCENSION) from Rogue Trader. It old contain six steps, each step would be 3000XPs worth of advances and so forth and you could dance around different ones the same way as with Rogue Trader.

The chart would go like this for example.

Beginnings (0-3), Induction (3001-6000XP), Acolyte (6001-9000XP), Trusted Agent (9001-12000XP), Ascending (12001-15000XP), Ascended Career.

Of course it would have been very complex as each career would need specific options and what not and you wouldwid up with like 100 packages or smething to sort through.

I like this PDF though, it adds much to Ascension and may help make it useful for some of us NAYSAYERS!

Thanks, Ross. I'm really enjoying reading Ascension so far. And strangely, the "Ascension and Descent of Inquisitor Starkh" meshes so closely to my campaign that I'm starting to wonder if one of my players might be working at FFG! It's truly bizaarre...But welcome!

Keep up the great work! I look forward to more Ascension products.

While I like Ascension a lot and don't listen to most of the haters here, I agree that there are several problems with it that need to be ironed out. So props for really fast response and fix to the biggest bug. Everyone makes mistakes, but it's a sign of greatness to repair them quickly. It's great that FFG pays so much attention to the fanbase.

Read the account of the ascension of Inquisitor Starkh. Very nice, but (unless I'm gravely mistaken) it cuts very abruptly from the account of ominous events on Baraspine to a visit to the Tricorn on Scintilla on page 9. Is this deliberate?

Malefic Sorcerer said:

Yes. But keep in mind it only fixes the part about qualifying for the prerequisites. When using an interaction skill you are still stuck with your Fel + Talent bonus for the actual check . I am so glad I still have my secondary T-P character around with his Fel 36 . That coupled with some choice "Peer" and "Good reputation" talents might actually allow him to achieve something when negotiating with other Imperial institutions.

The fluff article in the web-supp is PERFECT! It’s exactly what I was envisioning. I wrote the following this weekend for my game idea. Heed the Higher Call hits the theme I was going for right on the head! Woo-Hoo! I can practically just post it as a link...

The Role of the Acolyte
In my mind’s eye, Acolytes are the lowly beetles in the jungle. They’re unmentioned, unsung, anonymous individuals roped into a duty and lifestyle that generally results in their death or insanity. That death, more often than not, coming from the Inquisition itself. The Acolytes do all of the grunt-work and usually without the assistance of a rosette. They’re the faceless warriors, the anonymous investigators and the damned troubleshooters of the Inquisitor. They’re expendable to some degree and generally not privy to the secrets that lay beneath the veneer of responsibility overlaying the Inquisitorial service. They’re the front-line grunts.

An Acolyte serves individually and within a Cell is constructed in several ways. First, a cell is simply a collection of individuals who provide information to a central ‘leader’ who passes this information on to their Inquisitor. The cell-members may not know they work for the Inquisition or they may be fully knowledgeable. These individuals work behind the scenes, in regular jobs or maintaining their own identities just waiting for the opportunity to step forward and assist the Inquisition. Some of these individuals are re-tasked active Acolytes such as the Guardsman ordered to infiltrate the 27th Guytoga Hussars. Such an individual would shed their =I= trappings and completely become their new alter-ego knowing that, at any time, the call from their Inquisitor may come. That call may take years to arrive or it could be within minutes. Perhaps the Adept is ordered to go to work as a data-sifter in a laundrum manufactorum. Months of simple accounting go by until the true mission is revealed. A line of chalk on their door, a cryptic vox-recording in their news-pict service… they can be activated in many ways. These cells are undercover and take up a large majority of the Acolyte’s service.

Second, a cell is formed of active Acolytes for a particular mission based on their specialties and skills. This group is task-oriented for a particular mission or series of missions. Such a group may be kept together if the teamwork is exemplary or they may be re-tasked back to their original cell or assignment at the end of it. Many of these individuals are part of active Cells or functioning undercover and are only activated for such an assignment upon need.

Third, a member of an active and permanent Acolyte team. This is the most rare of cells as Inquisitors tend to drift their Acolytes between the first and second options for sanity and best performance. The active cell is tasked with specific assignments and missions. Sometimes they will be assisting a Throne Agent, sometimes they will be pursuing leads on their own. Active Acolyte cells have the highest attrition rate and, sometimes, are formed for that very reason.

This game will utilize Acolytes primarily in the first and second role, moving into the third once competence and trust has been established. Given the nature of the first role, these assignments will be handled in down-time and investigative summaries.

It is only as time goes on that they become more trusted and privy to the inner workings of their Inquisitor. But that trust is hard-earned and stingy in its offering. The only way to Ascend will be to begin as an Acolyte. However, I’m going to take into account the passage of time that this game will entail as we tell it. In that regard, I will be providing XP based on an <u>accelerated</u> basis for Acolytes. Their lives will be grim and likely short, the death rate will be high. But those who rise above will be the better for it.

Acolytes are not the characters in Abnett’s novels… they’re the characters twenty years earlier. The ones who survived anyways.

EDIT: I changed the Brontian Long-Knives to the Guytoga Hussars from Higher Call because I'm setting it in Hazeroth.

Aajav-Khan said:

The important part of those talents isn't the bonus to fellowship based skills, it's the bonus on Influence rolls. Which are completly divorced from your fellowship score.

Gokerz said:

What are you talking about? Oh, I see my output was suffering from sleep deprivation. My point was not about the metaplane Influence system, but ordinary "street level" communication. Charm, Deceive and so on. The situations where I have to convince the commander of a local Arbites team that we really don´t need no stinking badges .

Something I don't get is why everyone wants to play the shapeshifter assassin. I've read nothing interesting about them, other then that they can sneak in almost anywhere, and REQUIRE the polywhatever drug (Can't remember name in class) to even DO their job, whereas Vindicare requires a GUN. Exitus is obviously preferable, but a gun in general works.

I'm sorry, but I can't play a character that literally goes from body to body to body with no chance of remembering who she is. (AND YES, ALL OF THEM ARE FEMALES)

What are you talking about? Oh, I see my output was suffering from sleep deprivation. My point was not about the metaplane Influence system, but ordinary "street level" communication. Charm, Deceive and so on. The situations where I have to convince the commander of a local Arbites team that we really don´t need no stinking badges .

While I don't have Ascension, I'd assume that pulling rank (which is the only thing apart from perhaps intimidation that a Magos could do in such a situation) would be governed by Influence.

Kylen said:

That's more or less exactly the premise of an experienced Telepath; going from mind-meld to mind-meld and absorbing all manner of quirks, subconscious memories, and character quirks along the way and losing a bit of their 'true' selves each time. That's a **** awesome character concept if you ever ask me.

About the gender thing: All space marines are male (though how much of that gender is left is ambiguous). I've yet to read an intelligent discourse into how that hampers the roleplaying of a spacemarine. I'm really not sure what the big deal is.

Also, not all Callidus are female. Just like not all Vindicares/Eversors/Culexus are male.

Hi Guys,

Just a quick update: it turns out that, during layout of Heed the Higher Call, a page of text in the story of Inquisitor Starkh was accidentally left out. That has since been corrected and the current files available for download contain the entire text of Inquisitor Starkh's missive. Enjoy!

FFG Ross Watson said:

Cool! I just figured it was beyond our security clearance.

FFG Ross Watson said:

Thank you, thank you.

But, if a page was missing and then was added back in, shouldn't the page count be 19 now?

ShruG

-=Brother Praetus=-

Looks like the picture of the interrogator career artwork has been cut out to make room for the extra text. Thanks for the fix, Ross.

The Hobo Hunter said:

According to the lore I'VE read, (which isn't much, mind you) it has said that all of them are. If I'm wrong, I'm still wrong and will gladly admit it. I still don't think it's all that interesting, but more then likely someone is gonna make house rules to play them or something.

EDIT: I've read up on it more, and it says the MAJORITY of the temple is female, due to the drug working best on that gender, so you can gladly play one of the rarer male Callidus if you really feel like it.