Ok I am goin to run my 2nd campain. New people , new problems... so it will be 5 guys no idea what characters they will pick up. But probably 1 of them will chose a Tech -priest. So I need THE 1st mission , one wich is fast ( 1 5h sesion). Also there characters just have been chosen by Inquisitor. I already have some ideas but I want your thpughts on a matter. What should there 1st mission BE.

P.S. Not hive world conspiresy please =/ I've done too many of them already.

Hi Kapelan,

do I get you right that you want a first mission that highlights the tech-priest? What are you other pc? Do want it to be an introduction or are the players comfortable with 40K? Are they to be "aquisied" at the beginning of the game or do they start as the Inquisitors servants?

How about the acolytes are investigating something typical on a moderately important production planet, maybe a refinery planet or asteroid base type thing, when the alarms start going off, the planetary defence guns are down, the fleet is off scaring pirates away, and a loaded down refinery transport is on a collision course with one of the main, high population settlements. Acolytes have to quickly find their own way up onto the transport, board it, and prevent it from crashing. You could then have the major objective of disabling it, cargo intact, so that the techpriest can figure out what went wrong, and possibly who did it. Then, when you players are all freaking out over who-dunnit, running the old conspiracy mills, you find out that it was as simple as an old servitor with a corrupted memory that applied the throttle when it should have hit the brakes.

Acolytes could then win friends with maybe a small but up and coming shipping company (the owner of the maligned transport) and is very grateful for saving their transport and cargo intact. That way, later in the campaign, you could mention that their 'friends' have struck it rich and orbit the influential circles of commercial transport, etc. ?

OR you could do a standard Witch/Man-Hunt. Send them after some badguy in a freaky, dangerous setting, and have them bring them back dead or alive, with a hostile environment, maybe the badguy's followers/gang trying to stop them? Maybe put it some place strange, like the Lower Decks of a space ship, where they have to hunt down and kill a Ghillam leader or something.

I hope this will help and won't confuse the issue.

Remember what a lot of the published modules have done: create a one-time use Inquisitor for their boss, for the first session. This way they can start with any mission type, and do virtually anything (or use an inquisitor from the rulebook).

However, the first thing I would do, is decide what type of Inquisitor the acolytes work for? While there are many choices to be had in this direction in the DH universe, I would strongly advise going with one of the big 3: Malleus, Xenos or Hereticus.

Once this decision is made, then the first mission should involve whichever of the 3 that the acolytes follow, and here are 3 possible suggestions:

Malleus: A simple witch-hunt, with a low grade Sorceror who has been consorting with Daemons. Allow for most of the ground work to have been done previously by the Inquistor's other agents, who may be judged to be ill-suited or had been eradicated by this cult already. Give them a simple attack mission with certain known goals from the outset. The hostile terrains of Solomon might be used for this, and can easily lead into other established adventures on the planet.

Xenos: A recent crash of a xenos vessel (you determine type, or leave it unknown, and let the players wonder) on a planet, and for reasons the acolytes are not aware of, the Inquisition has been asked to investigate. Or the crash may not be recent, but may have been on the planet for hundreds of years, but only recently uncovered. Zillman's Domain could serve well as a site that the locals might fear to investigate, as their technology level on that planet is low.

Hereticus: Any one of the ruinous powers could be directing a cult on any planet in the sector, using the downtrodden of the underhives as fodder. As you mentioned, you don't seem to want to run something out of a hive, but remember that this is may be the best setting for Hereticus if you go with that type of Inquistor.

I believe that firmly setting down to the players what type of Inquisitor they are following, will allow them from the outset, to know how best to run & build their characters.

One other thing you may wish to remember, when they create their characters, be familiar with all the various rulebooks, and which ones that you are allowing for your campaign, for their character creations. I personally recommend other than the core rulebook, only the Inquisitor's Handbook be allowed. Only allow rules from the The Radical's & Disciples of the Dark Gods if their Inquisitor is of a radical creed.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the posts. I already spoted a few ideas wich I liked thanks alot again. Back to my group ALL of them are familiar with 40k not of them are RPers though. I am not goin to lock them into ORDO ANY time soon ... They will lock themselfs =) Ill wright it up how it happend when it happen. Again I want some situation not nessesery a mission or task from the Inqusition. Just to get the players blood flowin , to feel the flow of the game ,to familiarise themselfs with mechanics of the game , to ease them with each other ...

As a new group you could always do a murder mystery type game on the transport to their first mission, this would bring them together as a group and it could be they themselves are framed for it only to find that it's another group of Acolytes from a different inquistor testing one of his opponents pawns, of course he'll denie it, and who are Acolytes to accuse an Inquistor?

Have it travel and flow into different ideas.... For example start with a tech problem that is getting out of control... or even better use the creatures book and pick something from there....Maybe the Beast House is getting in shipments of proscribed animals and is then augmenting them to use in the Red Cages.. Have one escape or a rich noble uses it as a guard animal and it escapes and kills of some surfs....

Since you have used Hives do much why not really switch gears and go with a fedual world.....There alot of tech will be viewed as magic

Spice things up even more and actually have a chaos cult involved so that there really is "magic"

Just a few ideas to kick around hope it helps

I realy like the beast idea... I mean REALY =). Not exactly as you said but **** I have somethin interesting.

P.s. Thats what I am talkin about here something basic ,raw.

Shrine world. Nobody does shrine world, and they are chock full of 40k ridicolousness, pomp, and bombast. And you could make it something like 'secure the alliance of Ecclesiarch so and so", so that your inquisitor can jusitfy his puritan/radical actions elsewhere, and run from there.

The 1st mission, of course, is happily maneveruign and purgeoning on the Ecclesiarch's enemies, all while platying by the rules in a byzantine hierarchy.

Perhaps a mission aboard the black ships. If there is a psyker in the group he can reflect on the fun time he had on his first trip to get sanctioned. Something goes amiss during a pickup when a group of Xenos or Pirates attack, and a few of the psykers have escaped their cells.

Never forget how much fun finding a genestealer infestation can be! Not only for the party, but for the whole planet!

One minute, everything's great... singing birds and puppies... then you see something, and before you know it, you discover the hard way that everyone around you, from that adorable 5-year old kid to the hulked-out roid-raging weight lifter you passed has been implanted or they're hybrids. And they all want you dead. Hope you don't mind putting a bolter round through small children. Now imagine that suddenly happening planet wide if the infestation is big enough. Think you're winning? Hah, the hive was just throwing the meat shield hybrids and implants at you... next thing you know, you're up to your elbows in purestrains that dodge like a mofo. Hope you make your toughness checks, cuz I hear being part of the hive mind is a real drag

Threw a variation of that one at the party a few nights back... only the infestation had 'just' started and was localized to an orphanage. Fun times, right up until they lost a gun cutter.

One thing I'm planning on sending my Acolytes through is having my players be introduced to there new Inquisitor (Ordo Hereticus) as everyone has been pulled from former Cells to replace a "Lost" Cell of Acolytes, only to be shortly there after be lent out to an Inquisitor of the Xanthites Radical faction. Who is following a Deamonic cult in an attempt to put it down and gain any information or artifacts they have. While at the same time a Libricar Inquisitor w/Cell is tracking said Xanthite and presumes the acolytes are "Corrupt" as only the Libricar can. Just the base idea can span several sessions of gathering information, confronting said cultists whilst summoning a deamon, digging deeper into the cult secrets, encountering the Libricar, to Finally having the Xanthite Inquisitor become posessed by the Deamon weapon that hey carries. Granted I'm starting my Acolytes at with 5500 Xp. I think it could be easly toned up or down to work for any rank.

Information on the Xanthites and the Libricar can be found in the Radical's Handbook.