Thought it would be interesting to put together a little thread about how people ran the different adventures sofar published. Im not aiming for full recalls of sessions here, more what tweaks and special touches you did to pull it of, how it generelly went and what you liked or disliked about the adventures. Enough ranting, heres how it went for me...

Shattered Hope

I did not have the GM screen for Dark Heresy so instead I used my old D&D ones that almost entirely lack images. I compensated by hanging images of important NPC´s and such ive printed out and a "Thought for the day". The thought for this adventure was "Within the dark and forgotten places hide the enemies of the Emperor" . The images where few, but I made sure to have one of Lord Inquisitor Anton Zerbe, since hes the inquisitor ive used for this group and he recruited each acolyte personally and they should remember how he looks and his name (The name took a while for some players). The adventure ran pretty straight forward, one detail that turned out really well and added some horror factor was when the players realised the abomination was one of the missing guardsmen and that he was named "Hastus", which was also one of my players characters name. I liked Nihilus, the Commisar, and plan on re-using him later on at some point. The grenades sneaked to the players by the quartermaster really came through in the final moments of the adventure and helped deliver a action-packed ending.

The soundtrack consisted mostly of the soundtracks from Clive Barkers Jericho, Thief: Deadly Shadows and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butchers Bay. In retrospect I would have liked to establish a clearer sound for Sepheris Secundus and not just fall back on my default DH soundtracks, especially since the players will return to Sepheris.

Illumination

The drop scene set the frame for more or less every first drop that has turned up in our DH sessions and was a well liked scene, one fun detail (For me as a GM atleast) was the fact that the feral Guardsman had forgotten to secure his arrows leading to a "Lek sorry" and some minor scratches when entering the gravity of the world. After clearing their stomaches and getting the first breath of iron tinged air, my players stumbled into Port Suffering and almost revealed everything they knew to the local government before getting ambushed and arrested. The adventure went fairly on track, the constant hints at ghostfire flowers, the smell of iron and Shale-crows went well to establish a feel for Iocanthos. The Hexalid deserves a special mention. Since it lacked a good discription I intentionally described it rather hazy and made sure Lamark shouted out its name during the start of the fight to warn the others. This somehow led to my players having a very visceral image of it (although later it turned out no player had exactly the same idea of how it looked like anyone else) and it was probebly the best scene for my group. I had images of all of the characters portrayed in the book flung over my trusty GM screen acompinied by a new Thought every session, dont remember them all but they included; " The man who has nothing can still have faith " and " A single thought of heresy can blight a lifetime of faithfull duty ". In the end the players triumphed without any casualties and the groups psyker earned himself the everlasting ire of Tzyiak.

Again I felt that I would have wanted to do more with the soundtrack. I used various tracks from In the name of the Rose, Jericho, Thief and Kingdom of Heaven and managed to create a rather inspiring soundtrack, although somewhat generic again. Iocanthos lacked that same special touch as Sepheris. If I would run the adventure again I would throw in some music from Dune and Children of Dune perhaps.

Edge of Darkness

This adventure started out with my players meeting in an elevator without having meet for several weeks and not exchanging a single word. And it was also during this adventure that the characters truly bonded and became friends, most likely seeing as how first now they accepted that they would be serving with each other permenantly. I introduced Interrigator Sands, who has after this become a recurring character and the main contact between the players and their inquisitor. The first half of the adventure went along perfectly and sticking somewhat to the plan, then the psyker managed to fry himself after a short fight which led to a frantic search for medical care. This in turn led to the players accidentily finding the nest of Logicians and taking it out without all the detective work their inbetween. It turned out rather well in the end though. The Logicians are right now nr.1 on my players bad guy list, one of them even swearing personally to hunt the Churgeon down, so lots ot build on. The Thought that stuck in my mind from this adventure was "A logical argument must be dismissed with absolute conviction!" which made little sense to my players at first but afterwards could have just as likely been used by them as a warcry.

The image of Scintilla and Coscarla was a bit hazier then I had hoped although it cleared later when returning to the hive in Rejoice, and it also carried over in a rather standard soundtrack, if I run this adventure again I would add some of the music I had for the middle hive and bar in Rejoice to tie the adventures together musicly. This was also the adventure my players discovered Cover and its advantages.

Maggots in the Meat

I brought back Sands and had him give the players the mission and played out a briefing scene before sending them away to Acreage. My players characters quickly started hating the world, and came to the conclusion that it consisted of nothing but ocean and swamps, two things they utterly disliked. Only later did they hear about things like Lightning Gaunlets, Silkmail and what I imagine as Tolkien-esque landscapes that can be found on Acreage. There where some kinks that my players ran into, amongst them that they had few lores, investigation skills and most of all weak weaponry. I created several Xeno beasts for them to fight, only to forgett my notes at home and having to throw together some new ones at the last moment. I ended up with some bibedal fur-less wolf like creatures with acid blood, a giant armoured and horned centipede (my favorit) and a fear causing blob monster that was mostly refered to as "Yoghurt" by my players and which mostly reminded me of a lamer grey ooze from D&D (not to mention it moved in slow motion and had no way of justiying why it made people affraid). My original beastiary contained a creature that when I only listed its traits to myself made me realise it was practicly picachu from pokemon but it turned out something more akin to the impish creatures in diablo in the end.

This was the first adventure to see the need for a player to burn a fate point to survive. The scum tried to charge the Slaught and ended up with rounds of exploding nastiness in her body (The guns of the slaught was rather poorly explained so I described them as shooting exploding lightning). The soundtrack reminded alot of previous adventures except it lacked alot of the choir music and instead had more action and creeping music stuffed in.

Rejoice for you are True

The players got to meet their inquisitor for the third time in their lives and where more then a little suprised to hear about their mission. Things have gone pretty well sofar (We are just about to run the final part in Ambulon) although the players still have little or no idea about what really is going on behind the scenes. Again I used images of major NPC´s gotten out of the book and especially the Orday and the Strophes where well recieved by my players. I decided to run the scenes at the soiree and the alabaster court entirely set to candle light and it worked well to give the right mood. The soundtrack of Rejoice was something my players especially enjoyed. I used tracks from Plunkett & MacLeane Granado Espada, Jericho, Homeworld, Riddick, Butchers Bay, Battlestar Galactica and more to set a unique tone to every major scence. The opening had a rather lofty and venerable tone with alot of choirs, which then turned into warmer and more modern music in the home of the Strophes. The middle hive had more of a middle-eastern feel with alot less formal music aswell, while the noble parties especially had alot of P&M music in them, with some choirs thrown in at the alabaster court. For the final part in ambulon I will also be using some Silent Hill music for a mechanical feel and different feel. (You can mail me if you want a complete song list for each scene). I used to work that way with music in my Star Wars, CoC and Kult chronicles and im not sure why I didnt spend more time and effort on it untill recently in DH, but it has really turned out well and I will continue having seperate playlists for each scene prepaired in advance.

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Well, thats about it. Sofar things just keep getting better and I hope to run through the rest of the printed adventures soon. I look forward to hearing about your chronicles

The game I run is play by post so it goes very, very slowly. I started off with Edge of Darkness and we're currently in the middle of Illumination, though a slight mishap aboard the Brazen Sky involving a secret mutant workforce, a rogue psyker and the resulting horde of unliving puppets padded out the time between them.

Edge of Darkness

The acolytes met for the first time, which proved to be a mix of silence, pleasant greetings and the assassin being worryingly adrongynous. Interrogator Sand (who I plan to keep on as an NPC) briefed them in own fashion, shocking most of them with what he put on display, then sent them downhive. The rail journey was used to set the scene of increasingly run-down areas until they got to Coscarla. No more than a minute out of the carriage doors and the feral guardsman's already breaking up an incident between two enforcers and a wailing woman whose son had disappeared the previous night. Promises were made to findd him (the guardsman even took an address), which the group later failed to deliver on. A little exploration and questioning of the locals eventually led them to Lili's place where they managed to surprise her and, thankfully, not shoot her when she hid behind the bed. They decided to lay a trap and wait for whatever had broken in. Several hours and a few rounds of terrified shooting and bludgeoning later they had two dead body snatchers (which the assassin carved up for samples) and a chance to get some sleep.

The next day they headed out into town to hear gunfire from the station - the enforcers were having to enforce a shutdown of the rail system (which was probably handled heavy-handedly on my part). They get curious, check out the Enforcer Station and find Locan sleeping at his desk. The ex-navy psyker and the arbitrator get to work terrifying the man and getting a good idea of what's going on. Then a team of enforcers show up and begin shooting. The team fights it's way to the top floor of the station and out the fire escape - Locan, who'd taken a bad shot to the leg, was kicked out of it by the arbitrator, commanding his soul to the Emperor shortly before he pancaked. A few hours and some evasion later they manged to reach the Templum, get some basic aid there (the group had been shot to all hell and back) and work out how to shut the Churgeon down. The psyker decides to transmit what they know so far, and goes looking for a vox-terminal at the Worker's Union, which ends up in him discovered Luntz, though not his connection to the Logicians, and securing some much-needed fodder and a man-stopper loaded revolver for the assault on the Alms House. And that proved to be a bloody affair, and a fantastic fight, the remaining enforcers having pulled back there to prepare for the viral outbreak and escape. Crossfire, plenty of cover, a hostage situation which the psyker solved only to be rewarded by taking a full-auto burst from Moran, and general fun for the three guardsmen on the team. The encounter with the Churgeon went well; the scalpel familiar made a mess of the feral guardsman and delayed the rest while she floated over to and down the elevator shaft, her lab starting to self-destruct behind her. The psyker was having none of this, promtply charging through the exploding lab, leaping down the shaft after her and slamming her into the ground where he proceeded to tear at her wiring like a frenzied cat before shooting her leg off. The rest of the team had pulled back and written him off for dead, only to have him casually stroll up to them as they watched the roof being blown off the Alm's House.

Edge of Darkness

I ran a short "mini-adventure" detailing how they met and then had their Inquisitor send them to find Interrogator Sand. From here the intro part of the adventure went pretty much as written. Then into the train and down into the bowels of the hive. I laid on the increasing decrepitude of the hive as they approached Coscarla pretty thick. The players decided to find a base of operations first and settled for the Hostel... Most of the players set up in adjoining rooms barricading themselves nicely as the Aribitrator picked the junkie proprietor straight away. However the Psyker decided to go have a look around the market. There was a furious discussion about how many people should go with her and eventualy they deceided that only the Scum should go as he could troll around for information. While in the market I sprang 3 Narco-Gangers on them trying to shake them down of a few thrones. The Scum ran, disapearing into the stalls, the Psyker pulled out her ancestral saber, the Narco-Gangers pulled out their stub pistols. The psyker spasmed two gangers who promptly shot each other, the third ganger missed. The Psyker waded in gutting one of the prone gangers, the Scum surfaced on the other side of the gangers and blew one away with a vicious autofire attack and the third ganger legged it. They decided not to follow him as they were feeling exposed with only two people neither of which were combat monsters.

After returning with no info the Guardswoman and Assassin decided to get some food for the group heading down to the alms house. After returning with what I described as a pork flavoured protein stew (I manfully resisted smiling), they settled down to wait out the night setting shifts in each room. About 2 in the morning I staged the dreg attack. The dregs were massacred, with the Psyker going to town in Melee again. (Must be Calixian Templar material). They frightened Draylock into spilling what he knew and they decided to check out the apartment and the enforcers. The Arbitrator took judgement on Draylock and executed him.

They beet feet quickly in the morning and made their way to to the apartment. They managed to not shoot Lili Arbest and questioned her after the Scum calmed her down. After hearing from two sources about the disappearing hab-proles they made their best decision in the whole adventure by choosing to hole up in one of the abandoned Hab Stacks away from anyone. They then proceded to stupidly split up again with the Arbitrator and Adept staying with Lili at base camp, the Psyker and Scum heading back to see if there was any activity at the Hostel and the Guardswoman and Assassin heading out to see if they could find out any thing about the Enforcers. I ran each group seperately.

At the Hostel they sneaked up successfully to observe the Enforcers checking out their handiwork. As they started back they saw 4 Narco-Gangers also sneaking around checking out what had happened. They recognised one of them as the one who got away yesterday and just couldn't help themselves and attacked them. After more Spasming, bursts and sword play they took them all down EXCEPT the one they missed before. They had to leave because the Enforcers started coming round to check on the gunshots. This of course alerted the Enforcers to be more wary.

Meanwhile the Guardswoman and the Assassin took up a position on top of a water tower near the train station. They settled down to see what they could see through the Assassin's telescopic sight. What they saw after a while was the hornet's nest the other two caused. They saw the Enforcers spread out in groups of 4 searching the area. They decided things were getting to hot and tried to sneak off but the Assassin absolutely botched his stealth test. One of the groups of 4 Enforcers spotted them and attacked. The guardswoman took up cover at the base of the water tower, the Assassin decided to take potshots from the ladder, he missed. Two of the Enforcers laid down suppresive fire while the others moved in with shock mauls. (I changed their equipment). The Assassin climbed down and got into cover. The Guardswoman kept her cool and dropped one of the shooters. The other enforcers closed to melee range and one hit the assassin shocking him senseless. At this stage I thought here goes some fate points, but the Guardswoman laid about with her combat knife and started to whittle them down while they had alot of difficulty getting past her high toughness and guard flak. The Assassin snapped out of it and popped the third Enforcer who was running up to help finish the Guardswoman. The two of them managed to finish the last two and they ran off towards their camp.

After some healing (with one attack of psychic phenomena) they decided that splitting up was A BAD IDEA. So they all went down to check out the Templum and talk to Saul's drinking buddy. They were thouroughly disgusted by the coward cleric almost executing him, but they decided not to annoy the Ecclesiarchy and just took down a careful note to report him. On the way out of the Templum they ran into a large number of Narco-Gangers led by, you guessed it, the same guy who had escaped before. As they unlimbered their artillery he moved forwards saying

" If you guys are the ones that took down Draylock and his dregs and them Enforcer boys then my boss Chord Luntz wants to make a buisness deal with ya."

With that they met Chord Luntz and things got a whole lot clearer for them. Chord made his offer and a deal was struck. They would assault the Churgeon while Luntz's men would make a diversion with the Logicians.

With Luntz's key they penetrated the back door and found out exactly what was in that pork flavoured stew. After much retching they made their way to the 2nd Floor. They encountered Sybas Moran and his men. Who they proceeded to totally underestimate. They saw they had pistols and thought they didn't need cover or tactics. Moran killed the Adept with one burst (By a strange twist she survived but with no fate points now) and heavily wounded the Arbitrator. Once his other two men fell Sybas retreated to his office. By this stage the players were seething with rage at Moran so I decided on the spot, hey presto recurring villain, gave him a jet pack and out he flew through the window making his escape in the best tradition of Ernst Stavro Bloefeld.

After risking healing on the arbitrator they made their way upstairs to confront the Churgeon. They made their way past broken and discarded bodies in the remains of the hospital up to the big steel door and opened it with a keycard they found in Moran's office. They burst in and all hell broke loose. The Guardswoman and Adept failed their fear tests, the Adept badly. The homunculites and body snatchers advanced. The Scalpel detached itself and the Churgeon retreated to the lift shaft. I had decided to give the Scalpel a grav drive, remembering a floating silver ball covered in knives in some old horror movie that I have forgotten the name of. This proved to be a crucial change to the adventure. The Acolytes poured fire into the homunculites not liking the look of the chainblades. The arbiter bravely confronted the Scapel. After several rounds of combat the fight was evenly matched. The Psyker was controling how many Body snatchers could engage by constantly droping them with Spasm. The Guardswoman snapped out fear. The Scum and the Assassin killed the Homunculites. The Guardswoman laid down heavy autofire thining out the Bodysnatchers. Meanwhile the Arbiter was getting sliced up badly eventualy dropping with critical damage. The Guardswoman moved in to fight the Scalpel. The Assassin and the Psyker were reduced to hand to hand with the Bodysnatchers. Then the Scum was dropped by a Bodysnatcher and the Guardswoman got filleted by the Scalpel. Things were looking grim so the Psyker tried to Weapon Jinx the Scalpel. She rolled a 9. She rolled a 78, Perils of the Warp. Then she rolled an 87. Thats it I thought TPK. Then I looked up what it was : The Surly Bonds of Earth. The Emperor reached down and touched her hand and gravity reversed. Every thing fell upwards at 10m/s/s. Every thing except the Scalpel which drove itself with all the might of it's anti-grav engine into the concrete ceiling shattering itself.

They looked for the Churgeon afte,r but she had flown off long before the warp touched every one. Luntz told them the Logicians had retreated, One was working on a strange device but he had dropped him with his hand cannon. Later Sand would tell them it contained a deadly plague and everyone in Coscarla owed their life to a Narco-Gang Lord.

And that was that.

The only prewritten adventure we’ve done is Edge of Darkness.

The chars were a bit too powerful for the mission, so a few extra bits we added in towards the end.

Players:

Titus, Noble born guardsman

‘Drake’ mind-wiped slave-assassin

Jedia, Bloodsworn bounty-hunter

They started out looking for Saul’s apartment, and via that found his sister (forget her name), they sweet talk her into helping them despite the over-equipped bounty-hunter mistaking her a burglar (in her own apartment), smashing down the door and pinning her to the ground with a chair.

They escort her to the train station at dusk and are attacked by 3 body snatchers, which they dispatch relatively easily.

After that they do impromptu autopsy on the body snatchers in their camp inside an abandoned building.

The next morning the go down to the pub and talk to Chord, I modified him a bit, he wants the enforcers killed so he can dispatch and loot the chiurgeon himself. The Acolytes take him up on the offer and spend ages trying to work out how to kill of all the enforcers.

Later they talk to Saul and determine that there is bad mojo in the Alms.

Drake the assassin with stealth and security up the wazoo, infiltrates the alms and worms his way around some ventilation shafts I invented, he gets glimpses of the homunculus and post-surgery bodies.

Still determined to wipe out the enforcers they capture Locan and bribe him into spilling his gut and the layout and evacuation plans of the enforcers. Later the assassin sneaks in through a back door with a key provided by locan and triggers the fire alarm, the enforcers evacuate, only their evacuation point had been boody-trapped and they asplode! Meanwhile the Acolytes steal a few shotguns and a grenade launcher with tear gas rounds (and gas masks for themselves) and also a half-track in an underground garage, they do a drive-by on the remaining enforcers on their way to the alms, some enforcer cyber-mastifs chase them and are gunned down ‘just in time’. They ram the alms with the half-track and drive the thing onto the second story up the staircase. They head for the top floor to engage the chirugeon.

Jedia the bountry-hunter is predictably lucky and gets the drop on the chiurgeon, and then blasts her with an uncanny shotgun blast that kills her in one shot. A little to anit climactic, so I have her some back to life as they bend over her and electrocute titus with lumen touch before releasing the scapel-thing which makes a fair attempt of shredding Jedia before titus shoots a hole through it with a steelburner pistol.

With the chiurgeon dead the lab explodes and the alms is badly on fire, trapped in a buring building they driver the half-track through the opposite wall and are all badly hurt in the fall.

Moran attempts to flee in a car but the driver is headshotted by Titus, who finds a briefcase full of medical notes and another suitcase full of cash.

They contact Sands who is on the way, meanwhile they talk to Chord who rewards them with a couple of kilos of Obscura.