I love the way DH works in the starting phases. I think the system allow for truly interesting scenarios. A bunch of no-name run of the mill guys, getting picked for work in an Inquisitorial acolyte-cell because they have shown SOMETHING that just happened to catch the eye of an Inquisitor.

I don't believe that inquisitors make acolyte-cells for no purpose. They are so expendable in the early stages that the way I see it they are put together to serve one purpose. If the Inquisitor wants some info on a local cult, but can't spare any of his retinue or doesn't wanna risk exposure, he assembles a group of acolytes and give them a mission. If it works it works, if not, who cares?

Purest coincidence placed you in a very precarious situation and now you've got to live with it.

Then of course there's also the possibility that the Inquisitor in question prefers to set up potential acolyte networks in advance. I can easily imagine some scummer being raised by his parents (serfs in service of the inquisition) so that he will be prime material for the inquisitorial meat-grinder when he reaches military-age.

In DH the opportunities are endless -because- you start out being a nobody. At least IMO.

You could have an acolyte-cell that doesn't know it is working for the inquisition. They only get to know that later on .

That is of course unless you have a sororitas or psyker on the team XD. The fighting arm of the Ecclesiarchy are not put into groups with a death-cultist and a ganger, and be expected to find a drug-runner gang in some greasy underhive. And neither are the Imperium's firestarting, warpdabbling maniacs.

Nearyn said:

I imagine that low level cells have a similar job to a canary in a coalmine.

Find the cult and die in process?

Letrii said:

And the Inquisitor will be able to follow the trail of Acolyte bodies to the source.

One of best parts of the game to me is figuring out how to survive being the canary with only a lasgun, some flak armor(or a tattered leather vest) and a lot of careful planning. In my most recent game as a noble born scum I spent no more then 30 throne gelt for an entire mission relying entirely on the fact that I could charm people into getting my group what was needed.

Lynata said:

Basically, yes, an Arbitrator is distinctly higher in the social order than a Scum, but a rank 1 Arbitrator is still small fry. He does not qualify as being one of the Emperor's finest in anyway.

On the Sister of Battle in BoM: I was not keen on that decision at all. I preferred the previous route of it being Rank 3 (or 4?) before you even qualified to call yourself a Sister of Battle. A rank 1 member of the Sisterhood should just be a lowly trainee (as yes, they certainly are skilled and could qualify as being among the Emperor's finest... and so are unsuitable for a Rank 1 character).

And as others have said, the low level nature of Dark Heresy is part of the charm in my mind. I like the fact you start as a nobody, but by then end you are a powerhouse in your particular field. I am much less keen on Rogue Trade exactly because you start off so powerful... there are fewer places to go, aside from amassing wealth. Deathwatch has a similar problem. Now, I accept some people wanted to play "Eisenhorn and his Retinue: The RPG" or something similar, but I find the way they went in the end as far more evocative of the setting (which is partly why I am a bit irritated with the route FFG is taking the game, ie towards the more powerful, heroic route).

More like, "Find the cultists, and it doesn't matter as much if you die in the process. "

There's one mission where you work with a space marine, and he specificly states. "we were all chosen for this because we are all expendable."

Simrobert2001 said:

That the one with the spacehulk?

Yea, and you have to fight the Dark eldar. Wouldn't that be very awkward to place on the table top?