I've just played through Dead Space and Dead Space: Extraction and loved the atmosphere there. Given the dark atmosphere of the WH 40K univers and the relatively fragile characters of Dark Hereys, it would be perfect to set a horror themed game. What do you think? Some ideas and suggestions?

Play the Dead Space 2 demo, you'll love it?

Haha, but honestly Dark Heresy works well for a horror game because, well, at heart that often is what it is. Its Call of Cthulthu with a chance to actually survive at the end of the night. There are various stats of zombies and shambling horrors in the book, and warp trickery can let you do damned near anything - including, if you want, replicate the necromorphs as either warp creatures or aliens, assuming you want to be so bold faced and trust the players won't recognize it.

No thanks, I want to remove the blindfold on the 26th of January when I will actually get the game myself.

Just remember that WH40K as an entity is more or less an amalgam of science fiction and fantasy written over the last 80 years and mashed together to be what it is. It is also important to remember that a lot of the best science fiction is actually about people, not necessarily the technology, how those people come to terms with events in their lives which aren't necessarily any different to our own- except for the setting that they are in which is sufficiently alien enough to present a unique perspective.

if you tried to solve problems in dark heresy with technology, it always ends up being a case of praying to inanimate objects, screaming and swearing a lot, then just hitting the equipment anyway to make it work

TeodorK said:

You can have lots of horror, especially in Dark Heresy where the starting PCs are very fragile. Make sure the players know it and have them being chased by various horrors from the warp. Smart low-level PCs will run.

Of course DH also offers the opportunity to form a pact with the darkside...

Alex

I've always run Dark Heresy as a horror game. Never really occurred to me to do otherwise

The DH game I'm running is most definitely hardcore horror.

Thirty minutes in game time, and they've already stumbled across the remnants of a horribly dark ritual and discovered that the tower estate they're in right now is quite tainted with chaos.

Ohh, if only they knew what awaited them.

Eyagh-eyagh Tzentch f'tagn!

Seriously though, DH is at it's heart a dark gothic sci-fi horror game with larger than life heroes lingering in the background. Space Marines, Titan Legions, Imperial Guard Warmasters and other great heroes do in fact grace your character's life in artistic and story form, truely an inspiration for the Emperor's loyal citizens.... Not that you have ever seen one! The Emperor has need of his mighty champions, but the Inquisition preffers it's minions to be a bit more.... concealed. This is where you come into the picture, citizen. Now kindly get into the shuttle *click*, and be discreet about it.

I ran a three session horror miniseries in the middle of a campaign I was running were the pleasure ship they where traveling on was infected by the Fydae strain. (nasty nurgle zombie plague)

Stranded, in the middle of nowhere as the plague infected first the lower decks then spread to the noble zones (where the PC's were). Overun and lightly armed they scrambled around the ships decks collecting a rag tag bunch of survivors (including the contact they had to keep alive if they wanted his help) untill they managed to escape (after a lengthy trip down to the engine room, then up to the gardens to fight a demon).

Its very easy to make DH scary, imo. Just start small and change little things, Stripping back the ammo and abilitie to fall back on their normal combat tactics and routine tends to unsettle players.

Don't just throw Fear causing creatures at them and don't reveal everything in one go. Create reasons that the need to move so they don't bunker up and saddle them with npc's to force them to either make the choice to abandon them or be slowed down.

Mark

This is why I got the Core rules. I like my gming and roleplaying a little "seasoned" aka ... for grownups. So having a set up riddled with politics, action and a healthy dose of horror is right up my alley. This game appealed to me because it was badged as Call of Cthullu in space. I was at the National Boardgaming championships here in Australia with "him in doors". He was there for the board gaming, me I was chasing after the offspring that decided a wide open space filled with sweaty men was the perfect place to run around it.

I have worked in the rp industry for many years, but I have been out of the loop for a little bit (see offspring above). So I was looking for something new to run, but quite frankly drunk dwarves and Vampires moaning about their undead lives, wasn't cutting it for me. I did see Dark Heresy, and was about to dismiss it out of hand when a mate of mine told me to check it out. The man stayed at the convention, I went home with offspring, and when said offspring had it's eyes closed and was finally sleeping. I checked at Dark Heresy until 2am in the morning. It was exactly what I was looking for. I guess the fact that I had been watching the most excellent BBC series "Apparitions" also set the scene. I was worried that the game would only be for 16 year old boys but I was so very ver wrong.

I reckon I could scare the bejiggers out of some of my very jaded old players. I can't see how this game could be run without horror being a major part of it.

Horror doesn't have to be unsubtle, it doesn't have to be obvious and just about bags of blood and tentacles. The most effective horror experiences come from atmosphere and suggestions more than anything else. You could have just as much Horror from playing amongst the various offices of the Administratum in Holy Terra then you could slaying cultists of Tzench on some forgotten back water.

DH is really on the border between horror and heroic action, and can go either way depending on which way you go. In fact I think that is a root cause of a lot of disputes on this forum. The people who see it as mainly a horror game like the Fear rules, dislike "mook" rules, and love the capriciousness and personal risk of psychic powers; the people who see it as mainly a heroic action game don't.