I have played 40k for about 2 years now, and I LOVE the setting of the it. It's dark, gritty, and violent. Not much sunshine in 40k. (good thing) I have also played D&D for 5 years. So, when I was at my local game store, and saw Dark Heresy in a order catalog, I was excited. When, I learned it was writing with the hep of Dan Abnett, I was like 'Must have.' My only question though is, combat. Does if fit the 40k system, being gritty, no holds barred, and no mercy given? How long does a usual fight last? Can a single bolter shot take down a minor enemy on a regular basis? Also, how do you like the combat system?

I tend to play combat systems pretty fast and lose, but certainly the Dark Heresy combat is appropriately gritty and deadly. It is also a really fast and easy combat system, easier than D&D imo.

You won't find one-shot-kills to be very common with this system unless you're using some rather powerful weaponry (including bolt weapons). In fact, if you're coming from Abnett's works, you'll be downright disappointed with the performance of a lasgun. Still, I like the system and find that combat finds a delicate balance between too much deadliness and just enough to keep PCs on their toes.

While awesome, having a lasgun disintigrate your acolyte's head in your first encounter isn't very fulfilling. Weapons tend to be toned way down from book based fluff examples, especially plasma and meltaguns (Will still one hit KO most low to mid level badies, but big baddies can take 2 or 3 or even 4 shots). Except the lascannon. The lascannon is still a big FU to anyone hit by it.

In general, when going up against standard thugish type foes (gangers, normals and what not) who have an average of about 8 wounds and a Toughness in the 30s with no armour, they go down fairly quick. Lasguns and Autoguns tend to be a bit weak, but with autofire rules, righteous fury and a little tinkering it works just fine.

Stratigo said:

Well, it's an anti-tank weapon, one of the best the Imperium has. Though I'm sure since DH came out people have been dreaming of hunting daemonhosts with one.

Snidesworth said:

One of my players tried that very thing. He took his shot and missed, then the Daemonhost was all over him. Rough time for him.

Poor Eisen. Now it's only a matter of time before he's compelled to destroy his colleagues and ends up dead.

If you're going for the feel of the novels, you could very easily modify the system, or just play it by ear, so that insignificant enemies (mooks) go down easier than PCs and important enemies. I believe there are a few topics on this board about that (unless they were on the old board) and also on Dark Reign. I have tried a few different methods. One is not giving mooks any wounds, that is any damage in excess of toughness and armor is a critical. You can either ad-lib the results depending on amount of damage inflicted, or roll on the critical charts. I tend to go with the former to save time, but as we all know the critical charts are very satisfying.

With a simple change like that, I think the rules capture the feeling I want very well, without killing the PCs too easily. And even without doing that, the combat is much grittier and more lethal than D&D.

HappyDaze said:

Yeah, no killing of Chaos Dreadnoughts with explosion of overcharged lasgun... *distant rumblings from anti-tanith camp*

I was really just talking about the lack of any real advantage over an SP autogun, which Abnett's fluff stresses several times.