Does anyone have plans for the transition between Dark Heresy and Ascension? Have many of you done it yet? Our campaign is about to hit eighth level, so it isn't far off, and I've been considering the change from Imperial Psyker to Interrogator.

I'm wondering if other folks are concocting elaborate stories and making grand plans for the switch between the two, if you're basing something on the transition packages, or if you're just going to more or less play straight through.

My guess is our Scum will divide her time between lording it over other Scum and building her fast-food empire (we found a particularly delicious beastie on some backwater and took its purveyor and her breeding stock to Zumthor, from where the phenomenon is rapidly spreading). The Tech-Priest... well, it's probably not for me to imagine. I'm sure she will find some way to interface more swiftly and satisfyingly with the Machine God (wait, that sounds oddly sexual).

As for the Psyker... I plan on rooting out heresy in the high society of some hive or other, and proving myself by bringing it down. Since the only cover I have ever been able to convincingly maintain is that of a noble. And only because I am a noble. And hopefully not dying/become irretrievably corrupt in the process. I'm just looking forward to buying a few more advances onto my sorry, noble Willpower stat...

Well....

One Guardswoman (our Prime) is going the Inquisitor route, and is currently a Interrigator with out the actual bonuses of being one. Our Techpriest is definately going magos, our Forbidden libraryIMEAN Adept is going Sage, there is something in the works that my Assassin is going to be takjng instead of Vindicare...Our Psyker is looking into a very odd role (not sure which one it was off hand, but ZillaPrime would remember), and our other guardsman is probably going with the Stormtrooper route, though I'm not honestly sure.

Don't know what people are plotting up in our group, but I guess we'll see when each Ascension comes (because we have several at 8th and only a couple hundred or less before ascending, and we have a handfull behind that)

Our group is currently chugging through seventh level, so Ascension is looming on the horizon (especially since our GM hands out way more than the recommended XP each session more often than not).

We're taking a bit of a detour away from DH to play a short Rogue Trader campaign, and our GM will likely weave in our past DH characters and their ascendancy whilst we take this break, and our Acolytes are assumed to be continuing to undertake missions for the Inquisition, at least until they become Throne Agents proper. Personally, my Psyker is going to become an Inquisitor herself. I made sure to take Peer (Inquisition) and Forbidden Lore (Inquisition) to make sure it makes some sense, and I'm probably the most staunchly loyal member of our group with (naturally) a ferocious Will. I intend to write an in-depth explanation of my ascendancy, which will be through the Ritual Trial transition package. It's quite possible that our GM will make us play through some part of our Transition Package in a small set of mini-adventures, much like we did whilst beginning the campaign itself.

Incidentally, our Guardsman who my Psyker currently hates is also intending to become an Inquisitor but my Psyker is going to either try to dissuade him from that path... or call a hit out on him from our Assassin, because she thinks he would be terrible for the Imperium. She thinks this because he has on more than a handful of times instantly sacrificed or executed people, not for the greater good, but for his own health or convenience.

In other words, I think there needs to be a tangible break in the action... the conversion from DH to Ascension should feel substantial because it is, in fact, an incredibly major change in the status, goals, and powers of the set of players. I also think that this is a good time for shake-up in the group makeup, because an Inquisitor can to a large degree pick and choose her Cadre and this could allow players who want to switch to a different concept to go ahead and stat-out a completely new Throne Agent.

Our plan is to die a grizzly death before then. We will not make it to Ascension.

Hopefully our next group will do better than we unfortunate few.

LeBlanc13 said:

Until then, we soldier on. Marching futilely to drums of war. Darkness overwhelming the fading light.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Brother Praetus said:

I applaud your grimdark, sirs. I'm afraid we just want to live too much. We're rather hoping we can smite the mutant, the heretic and the witch without losing limbs. Or lives.

And hey, when you're a biomancer, you can always grow bits back.

Oh, sorry. Grimdark. The predations of the warp take such a toll upon my soul, I pray only that I may serve with honour and do some small good before the twilight of corruption falls upon me, and I must take up my mercy blade for the last time.

Niqvah said:

Walking on the Path of Cain. Ciaphas Cain, I mean.

Alot of the groundwork in my game is already laid down and nailed in place fortunately.

On a recent mission our Adept discovered she had awakened as a Psyker and ended up on an all-expenses-paid vacation *cough* to Terra on a lovely black starship, to return five years later with official Sanctioning. We had already begun discussing outside of regular gameplay where each player intended to take their character, what they would like to explore and aim for, what they were willing to do to get to those places... So I took the opportunity this created to lay down some backstory for the characters and weave the paths for their eventual Ascention (or DOOOOOM!) into the story arc. In some cases (those closest to hitting rank 9) I even worked in a few "in name" perks to go with the Ascended career they were working into (Essentially a few titles and relaxed prohibitions on top-shelf wargear without any of the statistical cookies) to make the change seem more like a gradual rise. I intend to have some sort of secretive ceremony for some of them to make things official.

The future Inquisitor (the team Prime) was elevated to "Interrogator" at the start of the 5 year off-camera-downtime and began her training alongside Astrid Skane and her warband. Note that the title was merely a RP device, as she is ascending from Guardsman Officer directly to Inquisitor. This leaves a narrative trail. She will be getting the "trial of your future peers" treatment, and will undergo a "shadow trial" at the hands of several cowled Inquisitors. This is even more appropriate since she intends on swearing her oaths to the Ordo Malleus.

Kylen's character (Assassin) was promoted from "acolyte" to "Agent" and given an actual badge of authority. He spent the 5 years practicing his craft as the Inquisition called on him and interestingly enough starting a family of sorts on Scintilla. He is going to be ascending into Gun Saint, a new ascended career of my own making. I will be posting the details of the career once I have it in a nice shiny presentable form for our online friends. If you are thinking about the 40K version of a Grameton Cleric/Kensei then you are on the right track... It is a spiritual gunslinger!

The team's Techpriest was the other one promoted from "acolyte" to "Agent" and likewise given a badge. Most of his downtime was spent establishing and operating a workshop along with his "lab assistant" (An NPC Tech Adept that the team picked up along the way). This is Philidan's character and while it is crystal-clear that he is becoming a Magos it is far less clear the exact details of HOW! He and I are presently working on a personolized transition package. It is also not yet certain what his "hyphen" will be yet, as in "Magos-(X)"

Our second Guardsman is a full-rez combat cyborg and the player is in fairly constant debate between Crusader and Stormtrooper. Either one would fit the character and be useful, so it really doesn't matter that much. He DEFINATELY wants the "Hero of the Inquisition" transition package though, so at the appropriate point I will describe him having done something stupidly brave and suicidal that left him in tattered wreckage.... AGAIN! My challenge will be making it seem like a transition instead of just another of the character's thematic incidents.

Our Adept was the one who caused the break to Narrative-Time and so her Sanctioning took up all the downtime. She is already a walking human library of secret and forgotten lore, so her transition to Sage is going to be pretty seamless anyways. She will look up from some official documents and realize she has a new title or something like that.

Our Psyker is the weird one for eventual Ascention... She was mind-cleansed mid-game and was "reborn" as a militant Psyker. Her downtime was a period of adjustment and re-indoctrination, not to mention a combat tour serving with the Brontian IG and induction into the Templar Calix. She is interestingly enough looking to become a Crusader. Transition package and character story are easy enough, but I am going to allow the player to the Psyker optional career trait from Interrogator in place of the usual Crusader "Pick what you are especially good at killing" thing. This way the character will not completely stagnate as a Psyker.

Our Cleric is a bit of a mystery at the moment. The player has been away for several months due to medical reasons but will be returning by the next game session. My guess is probably Heirophant, but that is merely my own musings. I hope to get together with the player out of game to get them all caught up.

The first three characters will be officially ascending at the conclusion of their current mission, assuming they do not die or otherwise fail in some mind-numbingly horrible way.

Kyorou said:

Genius. And so very true. At least it was , prior to the aforementioned Scum getting a leg blown off and deciding that bionics might just be better than flesh. I swear she's one step away from purposefully trying to catch bullets with unwanted parts of her anatomy. Still, I'm quite fond of my fallible flesh. Sooner or later I'm bound to end up an exarch on this path...

ZillaPrime said:

I really like the organic way your Ascension's growing out of the existing game: that sounds just the sort of thing I had in mind. It seems you have a great group who have come up with interesting downtime/extra-curricular activities that can feed into their advancement.

Especially liked the adapted Crusader package you propose for your Militant Psyker; it's good to be flexible, especially given, as you say, a psyker could end up standing still with their abilities if they take a non-psyker path (that doesn't have that package attached).