I just picked up DH and I love the book. I am moderately familiar with the universe, I read a lot of the novels. I've also run some WFRP. I am a fairly competent GM (at least I hope).

So my question is this.

I want to start my players out as "regular" people who are recruited in the Inquisition for the first session. Kind of like a primer.

Does this sound feasible? If so, any tips?

Also, which free adventure is better, The free adventure in the back of the core rulebook or the downloadable one?

Also also, This is my first post.

Definitely doable - you'll want to engineer a situation where the PCs will be working together and thus identify themselves as a group to be recruited wholesale by the Inquisition. Whether this is an actual group, or several individuals thrown together by strange and unforunate circumstances is up to you and your players.

As for a starting adventure I recommend Edge of Darkness (downloadable from the FFG website). Illumination (the one at the back of the core book) is good, but somewhat linear and, at the end, incredibly lethal. Edge of Darkness takes place in Hive Sibellus on Scintilla, which could be "close to home" for your players' characters, while Iocanthos is much more removed from civilisation and less likely to see a range of colourful indiviudals in the same place at the same time.

Thanks a bunch!

Do you think it would be easier to do this with violence or no? I want my players to get the point that this is a game of more than combat, we played cthulu for awhile so they are alright, but I would like some extra reinforcement.

I started my DH game with a one-on-one session with each player a month before the 'group game' ever began. Each player got a session that allowed them to really get into their character before the 'party-hive-mind' begins (I've found that some players often sacrifice too much of their character as part of a PC group while others try too hard to dominate a group when all characters are generated and introduced at the same time).

As an example, our Volg Hive Scum (Reclaimator) was unknowingly 'recruited' to assist an acolyte cell in performing an undercover mission in Volg (they were masquerading as unskilled labourers assigned to her as a work crew). When things went to warp, her technical skills and resourcefulness helped pull a few of the acolytes out alive and allowed them to actually complete the mission. She had merely bargained to be taken away from Volg as payment for her help. She got that, and a new employer in the process...

This set up the basis for her personality. She's not pious, and she rarely does 'the right thing' unless it's convenient to her. She's pretty mercenary in outlook, but she has developed loyalty to a few of her fellow acolytes, and survival (for both her and those few she cares about) is always her main goal. She just knows that not doing what the Inquisition tells her is more risky than taking the "suicide missions and fool's errands" with the rest of the group. She plays a great counter to the more 'pious and pure' members of the group.

Here's a twist. the characters are all undesireables or corrupt or something along those lines. There are rumors of a well guarded fortune just sitting in a remote warhouse. The characters all get together (With each having their speciality. Eg the Adept could be the brains, the assasin would be the second story man, the guard would be the muscle, the arbitor couild be a crooked cop in on the deal. The cleric and machine preist would be harder to fi in. Maybe it also has some juicey forbidden knowledge that the tech preist would love to get or the cleric is tired of a life of preaching and poverty and opts for an easy way out). Anyways they set it up, plan it, break past all the guards and security, only to find an empty warehouse and a TV screen. Cue the inquisitor "I'm impressed you got this far, let me offer you a deal".

I'm very tempted to use that. However would the pay be enough to sway these "evil-doers"?

To be honest, I've never had much luck with "prelude" sessions -- particularly when the players come from such varied backgrounds as DH. Rather, what I've done is to set aside an entire evening for chargen. Before each character is "approved" I make each player come up with a reason why the Inquisitor (in this case Varaak from the core book) would hire them on as acolytes. After challenging a few reasons (Because you're such a "badass"? Well, if Varaak needed badass he'd unthaw an Eversor. He needs someone motivated. S o what motivates you?) the players came up with backstories rich in plot hooks for me to (ab)use.

Plus, I had other players listen to each others backgrounds so they could compliment each other and didn't waste hours on one prelude for the spotlight hog (hey, every group's got at least one) and bore the rest of the group in a personal electronics driven fugue.

TheSteelMoose said:

It should be considering their other alternative is nice trip to a cold tomb. And this is the inquisition. If they want they could requisition money from the governor and bury them all in it.

An interesting twist is when the campaign finishes, or as a creshendo you could have the inquisition decide once their use is up that they are far better off dead and then either they go out with a blaze of glory or escape to a dark corner somewhere, living to fight and steal another day.

For me, the adventures I planned on running are actually pregenerated in Call of Cthulhu, from the Cthulhu rising website if you have ever seen it. Generally the group will start out as a cohesive group (whether they are military, law enforcement, criminal, etc) and then over the course of their adventures they are 'recruited' by an inquisitor. This gets the group working together, and then over time they are brought into the inquisitions perview, either by a case they are working on, or how successful their missions have been. It could be that they are working on something that overlaps with the inquisitor's mission and he decides to bring them in either because his current acolytes have failed where the characters a succeeding, or he just needs fresh cannon fodder.

Salcor

Stratigo said:

They escape there situtation and another Inquistor decides that they are reasourceful enough and that he wants them on his team.

But who would work best? Dramatically opposed to their Original Inquistor or same/ similar Ordos/ faction?

I'd say an opposed inquisitor. If the original was a radical then a puritan sees their defiance of the radical to be inspiring and brings them on, if the original was puritan then a radical is impressed by their ingenuity in surviving and brings them in.

Remember that the word puritan is a bit of a misomer. A puritan inquisitor isn't always the guy walking across worlds burning every person he sees litter or fall asleep while working. Those types tend not to go very far, though they have their place.