Hi everyone - great forum you all seem to have hear, hope I don't tread on any toes by asking stupid questions!
I've been an on/off player of 40K, SpaceHulk, Epic & BloodBowl for years and I recently saw a bundle of Dark Heresy books on ebay. I managed to get the core rule book, GM screen and booklet, Inquisitors guide, Purge The Unclean & a character folio all for £40
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Anyway - I have some relatively committed players (5 definite) , an evening free and I'm ready to go. We ran the free download, concerned with The Shatters the other day and had a great time discovering all the rules, someone managed to make a promethium grenade out of a snow globe, much hilarity ensued.
However before I jump in with GMing properly I have some worrying questions to ask so I don't come unstuck if I am asked myself.
1) I must say I am getting a little confused about skills. I understand that anyone can test on a basic skill at half their attributes if they don't have it, and advanced skills are only allowed to be tested if they have that skill. However - how do you determine if a test falls under a specific skill?
Related - filling out character sheets with said skills is also very confusing, why is low gothic already on there etc. ?
2) I'm planning on starting up our first multi session game with the scenario at the back of the core rule book. It can directly follow the trip to The Shatters, and seems nice and basic. The book says 4-5 play sessions of 4 hours each, and try as I might I couldn't see 4 hours of things for people to do in each session. How much am I, as GM supposed to add / take away / tweak in these things? I'm really starting out green so any help and tips are appreciated!
3) Combat - we had a few fights in the intro game and I think I've got the process down now, when we played we didn't use a map, I sketched down a rough plan in front of me (behind the screen), I told the players what they saw, where people where, and then worked out the movement, ranges, charges etc. myself and kept the narrative going by just talking. Is this the best way to go? especially with a new GM and players that are quite new to RPGing in general?
Any and all feedback / ideas is really appreciated, I'm sure some of these things have been asked bfore and sound daft but I'm really grateful of your thoughts and advice!
Cheers
Miles AKA Inquisitor Tetsugaku of the Ordo Hereticus