Well I have owned the Dark Heresy game now for some 8 months and my group and I are yet to play. Been too busy with our D&D and Star Wars saga campaigns. However it now looks like that we will start DH on the 24/01.

I will GM and it looks like there will be five players. As we struggle to get together on a regular basis our usual format is that meet for a day session once every 2 months; the day lasts from roughly 10 AM until 18:00. This way we ensure we get a substantial amount done.

As GM I don't have as much time as I used to and now I rely more and more on published adventures. So the plan with my group was to run them through Edge of Darkness, Illumination, Maggots in the Meat, Purge the Unclean Trilogy and the House of Dust and Ash. I decided to cut out Shattered Hope as it seemed to be particular uninspiring dungeon crawl. My thoughts on each adventure:

Edge of Darkness

Certainly seems the best starting adventure (the other two being illumination and shattered hope) and introduces Dark Heresy's style of play.

Illumination

I am very concerned with the end encounter with this adventure, has got party wipe written all over it and I am thinking of toning it down.

Maggots in the Meat

When I first read this I had to check I had not missed anything as it seems to have only been half written. There is a lot of work for the GM to flesh this out, also the end encounter seems quite difficult.

Purge the Unlcean Trilogy

Have not read them yet but I have the book so will be using them.

House of Dust and Ash

Read this last night and I was very impressed. I like the concept and it seems well written. My only concern is that there are a lot of pivotal NPC characters floating around and added in with the free form nature of the last section then the GM really seems to have his work cut out running this.

So I would appreciate your thoughts on this published adventures,what changes you may have made, as well as whether I am running them in the right order? Also it would be good to hear whether they are doable in one of our day sessions or might stretch out over a few months.

I just fired up my first DH campaign last week; GMing for four players. I decided to start with Edge of Darkness, as well.

My guys did fairly well in it, without having to be led around by the nose, but they still haven't even seen a Body Snatcher or made it inside the Alms House and we played for seven straight hours, breaking character only 3 times for cigarettes and a few rules-consults. I have no idea what sort of group you run for, but if they're as methodical and thorough about investigation as mine were (and spend as much time RPing), one eight-hour session won't cut it for Edge of Darkness.

I've run Shattered Hope, Illumination and Edge of Darkness, all with starting groups (well, Shattered Hope was run just as a demo with the pregens).

Shattered Hope: simple dungeon crawl, not too impressive.

Illumination: Dull. Seemed very linear, almost railroady. The acolytes just went from one scene to the next, doing exactly what the Seer told them to do. It got especially ridiculous as they began to suspect what was going on, but kept on obeying his orders nonetheless. The final scene was actually one of the things I liked about it - there is absolutely no way the acolytes can defeat the enemy using conventional methods, forcing them to think outside the box, which is as it shou

Edge of Darkness was brilliant. There are numerous ways the mission can do, depending on what the pcs decide. They only need about 1/3 of the clues before being pointed towards the alsms house, so even if they miss half the stuff (of fail every Inquiry test they have to make ) they can still do the job. Lotsa fun.

Currently playing Rejoice for you are True, from Purge. While it has some interesting bits, it is heavily flawed, IMO. It seems to assume that the acolytes will include a social character, which isn't always the case with acolyte parties. My players fail most of their tests in this. Whats more, it makes one of the most blatant errors in an RPG adventure - it splits the party. Any players who are undercover as nobles are advised that they shouldn't go to the Middle HIve, where 1/3 of the mission takes place. So while you are dealing with the action there, 1 or more of your players has nothing to do.

Thinking about it, I think that the second adventure from PtU should have come first. Mostly straight up combat, it isn't reliant on the PCs having any particular skills to much. You can just reduce the number of antagonists if you're worried about overwhelming them. This'll give them some extra xp, which they will hopefully use to buy some of the skills and talents they'll need for Rejoice.

Replicant253 said:

Well, I heard this rather often and also thought the encounter could be too deadly for PC's (Assassin, Guardsman, Arbitrator (not present IIRC), Psyker, Tech-Priest - all just rank 3). Even though the Psyker could convince Aristarchus in the end to sacrifice himself by jumping into the tarot, they fared rather well against the Skae-Thing (bringing it down to half wounds in the process).

In the first round all PC's shot their weapons at the Skae-Thing - the Assassin hit very well with his Hunting Rifle (4 Wounds) as did the Guardsman with his Long-Las (2 Wounds) while the Tech-Priest and Psyker both missed.

In the second round the Skae-Thing charged the Guardsman that had positioned himself as the nearest target, the Psyker started to use Float to a height of 5 metres, the Gurdsam dropped his Lon-Las and pulled out his Mono-Knife, the Assassin tried to shoot Aristarchus (but the bullet was deflected) - the Skae-Thing stroke the Guardman at 12 damage that was absorbed by the flak armour and Toughness (AP 4 x2 = 8 because of the Primitive ability of the attack and TB 4) (the Guardsman began to laugh...).

In the third round the melee went on and the floating Psyker started talking to Aristarchus while the Assassin started aiming on the Skae Thing - the Skae-Thing attacked twice (Swift attack) and hit once (Guardsman failed to dodge) causing 2 Wounds, the Guardsman attacked but could not wound the Skae-Thing in return.

In the fourth round the Skae-Thing realized that the Psyker was trying to talk Aristarchus out of his trance (and I realized that the fight with the Guardsman could take ages and the Psyker is the softer target by far...) and disenganged (without use of the full action) the melee with the Guardsman to attack the Psyker (I ruled he can do it directly due to his supernatural abilities and quickness and due to me getting desperate...) - the Guardman misses his free attack and the Skae-Thing attacks the Psyker (now the Psyker player said: 'Well, I am floating 5 meters above the ground. How can he reach me with his attack?' - (I ruled he can jump that high for a single attack due to his supernatural abilities and quickness and due to me getting even more desperate...) and misses (WS 48 is not that much...). The Assassin player said 'Well, the Skae -Thing is actually not locked in combat, because it won't stay in 5 meters, right?' (I allowed it despite getting even more desperate) and made an aimed shot for 5 more Wounds. The Tech-Priest also fired his Las-Carbine on semi-auto fire but could not wound the Skae-Thing.

In the fifth round the Skae-Thing hit and wounded the Psyker (failed to dodge) throug his Mesh Vest for an astonishing 2 Wounds (AP 4 x2 = 8 because of the Primitive ability of the attack and TB 3) (the Psyker began to laugh...) and dodged the Assassins bullet but suffered a Wound from the semi-auto laser fire of the Tech-Priest, while the Psyker finally convinced Aristarchus sacrifice himself (and me that the Skae-Thing is more or less a joke).

In the fifth round the cathedral was almost blown apart....

What did I wrong? The two WS 48 attacks in melee with 1D5+10 Primitive are laughable. I forgot the fear test until round 2 but even then only the Tech-Priest was slightly affected. The Guardsman could have tanked the Skae-Thing for ages. And by the rules it would have been not even possible for the Skae-Thing to attack the floating Psyker. It could have taken out the Assassin (TB2) quite easily, but then it didn't seem the biggest threat to the Skae-Things cause. Any ideas?

Did none of your players fail their fear tests? Did it utterly fail to compel any of them into dropped their weapons and walking towards it? If they were within 20m they should have taken -10 to their WP checks from it's daemonic aura. As for it's attacks, despite what the stat block says, I wouldn't count them as primitive; it's a terrible thing from beyond, and it seems silly that it'd ineffectually wail against simple flak armour. The encounter is supposed to be terrifying, and I certainly intend it to be for my PCs.

As for the adventure at large, yes, it is proving to be a bit linear as I run through it (play by post, fighting the hexalid in the hills currently). I'm adding details of my own invention and prompting the PCs to conduct an investigation rather than simply follow the path ahead of them. I'm contemplating adding another mark of Drusus up in the hills near the hexelid to give the acolytes cause for concern, associating it with the walking dead and warpcraft rather than the Saint himself, if Aristarchus' fatigue and suffering wasn't already worrying them enough. Unfortunately the PCs have no real way to find out what's going wrong until Esha Raine shows up, though there's plenty of clues to pick up. The Psyker, friend to the mad and receptive to their words, heard the name "Crow Father" on the streets of Port Suffering and has been wary of the shale crows ever since. The rest of the group is starting to catch on.

Snidesworth said:

As I said, I forgot about the fear test until round two, but as the Skae-Thing was charging not until round two, I though it is okay. The Psyker casted Inspiring Aura before they entered the cathedral, as they feared (...) the worst. The Assassin failed his test (3: Reeling with shock) as did the Tech Priest (4: Frozen by terror (snapping out of it next round)) while the other two were successfull with their WP-tests.

You are probably right that the 'Primitive' ability is not fitting for the Skae thing, even though it is nowhere mentioned that the anatomy (eg. claws) of Abbot Skae as such is changed by the 'possession'. Anyway, most people say the Skae-Thing as written (with Primitive) is too powerful (without changing rules), and that is what I really don't get.

He's got the trait "Natural Weapon (Distended Hands)" in his stat block. The trouble is how, by the RAW, all natural weapons must be primitive. Which is awfully stupid when you consider daemonettes and the like have natural weapons.

I think there's a typo in the description of the Skae thing. It says its attacks does 1D5+10 primitive damage, but it also says that it has natural weapons. Natural weapons are described as doing 1D10 damage instead of D5 in the trait section. I think the skae thing should do 1D10+10 primitive damage.