Creatures Anathema Preview #1

By FFG Ross Watson, in Dark Heresy

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Torque2100 said:

Honestly, Luddite, your criticisms are all legitimate ones. Personally I like this monster. Yeah it's a beast, but it's meant to be. Dark Heresy is, at it's core a horror game and if your players aren't dreading every monster encounter, you're doing something wrong.

Agreed, but my comments were about the fact that htis monster is too 'extreme'. So much so it becomes 'kill or be killed' and therefore not actually a threat to be dreaded.

If the PCs see this thing coming its fairly easy to take down with ranged fire. No threat.

If it gets up close, the PCs are pretty much dead meat (in conjunction with broken grapple rules). Party killer threat.

So really not much of a villain / opponent.

But it may play out different than that in reality of course, and i presume these things have proved workable in playtesting so...

Its an interesting idea though...there's no doubt there...sort of 'rebuilt iron men', so a nice link to 40k ancient lore.

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Is there a Giant Otter? C'mon Ross, don't turn your back on WFRP classics!

(Don't forget the mutations...)

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N0-1_H3r3 said:

The first paragraph contains the following information: "For the first part, we recruited some writers who knew the setting well and had some very creative ideas for creatures appropriate to the Calixian extent.

Ah...key phrase i suspect! CA will contain xenos relevant to Calixis .

As i said, i personally can't wait to see what lovely gribblies we're given... gui%C3%B1o.gif

N0-1_H3r3 said:

For the second, we scoured the Warhammer 40,000 setting for those creatures that were fan favorites (such as the Lictor and Genestealer), classic to the setting (such as the Ambull and Enslaver), and interesting to encounter beyond just another gunfight (the Eldar and the Orks, among others)."

Oooh Ambulls! Excellent. Always had a soft spot for these chaps. Will we see pterasquirrels i wonder? partido_risa.gif

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Luddite said:

If the PCs see this thing coming its fairly easy to take down with ranged fire. No threat.

The Thing has MachineTrait(4), which means 4 points of armour. It has TB +6, which means "soaking 6 points of damage each hit, doesn´t matter how high the penetration is". It comes with 20 Wounds. It is not a "slow mover".

In addition, this beat will not be encountered in the open, but in rather close quarters (ships, mechanicus temples, etc.), so their won´t be a huge distant to begin with.

You/ your cell are able to take something like this down "easy"? Please take note that this thing has a "bestial cunning" and can "sense" you 100 meters away... and again: it will be encountered in some kind of structure, so it is likely to "know" of you and your position before you know of "it".

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Gregorius21778 said:

Luddite said:

If the PCs see this thing coming its fairly easy to take down with ranged fire. No threat.

The Thing has MachineTrait(4), which means 4 points of armour. It has TB +6, which means "soaking 6 points of damage each hit, doesn´t matter how high the penetration is". It comes with 20 Wounds. It is not a "slow mover".

In addition, this beat will not be encountered in the open, but in rather close quarters (ships, mechanicus temples, etc.), so their won´t be a huge distant to begin with.

You/ your cell are able to take something like this down "easy"? Please take note that this thing has a "bestial cunning" and can "sense" you 100 meters away... and again: it will be encountered in some kind of structure, so it is likely to "know" of you and your position before you know of "it".

Well it is the Creatures Anathema, not the Cuddly Kitty Anathema.

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Aren't the WFRP and Dark Heresy systems made to be brutal and unforgiving at times to, you know, encourage thinking and strategy?

This would be a great creature to throw in for the sole purpose of being avoided, or placed in an area in such a way that if defeated, the party will get some awesome reward; such as a secret passage that bypasses a bunch of 'lesser' threats (ie. groups of weaker enemies, but who, over the course of the adventure, can cause serious harm to the group), or a computer system to disable security systems (or activate them against enemy forces).

I like it myself. Definitely something I wasn't expecting to see in the 'Creature' Anathema.

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I agree. My players are VERY intelligent, experienced players. And that little beastie will definitely force them to figure out a way around it or through it. And due to their various combat bonuses and "special equipment" I am thankfull for something so formidable and unique. It's beautifully illustrated as well, I might add.

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Looks great! I was not looking particularly forward to this one, but I must say that the more I read about this release I want it!

When can we expect to see it for sale in Europe?

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looks pretty cool. Wonderful for a survival horror type adventure.

I do wonder how many of its attacks would count as being with "medical implements" instead of "unarmed".

Also love how the threat designation "minoris" doesn't mean a minor threat to the acolytes, but rather a minor threat to an entire planet.

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Ooohh.. I smell original art!