Hi all and a preemptive thanks for any help given.

I've been playing with some guys over the last 4 or 5 months and they asked if I would be willing to run a new game. The group I've joined has been playing together for quite a long time and two of the guys are always the GM and basically they wanted something different for the group and thought the new guy would be the easiest way to get that. I did some basic research through the various different RPG's and decided to try and run a DH game for them. The group only gets together once or twice a month on a Saturday and play for around 9 - 10 hours.

Since this is my first time being a GM for a game, I wanted to get some input from the more experienced guys on how they felt about the premade adventures that are out there for DH. I've read through Illumination in the back of the core rule book but am not sure if that is the best scenario to run for a group of guys who are new to the game but not to RPG's as it seems rather linear and takes away alot of their own personal decisions. At the same time, I don't want to run a scenario that is to difficult for a group of rank 1's.

I'm not quite confident enough to create my own adventure yet so I am basically asking for reviews of the premade scenarios for DH and advise on what would be the best for a group that has no previous knowledge of the game or any of the background history involved.

One of the best pre-made adventures is The Edge of Darkness , which is found for free on the FFG site.

For players who are new to the 40k universe (or certainly the Dark Heresy one) it's quite good, because it's not too much of a culture shock (you don't have to deal with Daemons, just mad scientists.) It gives you a lot of freedom to explore around South Coscarla, and balances investigation with combat quite nicely.

I agree that Edge of Darkness is one of the best pre-made adventures available. One word of advice: if you stage your fight scenes on battlemats, you will want to draw up maps for the key locations well ahead of time. Lack of maps seems to be a common weakness with WH40KRP products...

I didn't really care for Illumination , but if you decide to run it, I think it works better after EoD : start the party out on the capitol world of the Sector for their first mission, then hit them with the culture shock of a sub-Imperial-tech-level planet like Iocanthos for their next mission.

I agree to Edge of Darkness being the best freebe around. You should definitively start with it.

Do not, and I mean by now means try to run Shattered Hope or Maggots in the Meat. They are no good.

Idyll Heresies ( http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/dark-heresy/pdf/2008-contests/idyll-heresies.pdf ) coulb be used after Edge of Darkness. It does have it "weak spots" but I think it is very enjoyable. So, it should be run with characters not higher in rank then 3, me thinks.

Same statement is true for The Brutal Lament ( http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/dark-heresy/pdf/2009-contests/TheBrutalLament1.pdf ).

Another vote for Edge of Darkness here.

As for Maggots in the Meat, I have to say that our group had a blast with that one! Our Arbitrator was convinced there was some sort of mafia behind the killings/disappearances and went looking for "influential characters" in the neighbourhoods and asked to "join the families". He promptly managed to negotiate a marriage contract for himself, without realising it. All the others did, but though it hilarious enough not to tell him. He now drags a headstrong millers daughter around with him wherever he goes

They had a hard time with the Slaught in the final showdown, but as this was written (and played) before the publication of Disciples of the Dark Gods, and the rules about Psychic Blanks and their invulnerabilities, the Psycher used Spasm as the infiltrators tried to climb down the outside of the mills. Splat.

All in all it was a fun little romp, and the players put Acreage on their list of places to go back to when time permits, wanting to bring about an end to its civil war and perhaps bring the light of the Omnisiah to the place? The Arbitrators wife is most vocal about this, seeing the possibility of great fortunes and power.

Nads37 said:

Edge of Darkness is a great scenario as many before me already said. Especially to get into the setting and playstyle for new players as well as fitting for rank 1 characters in regard to lethalty, complexity and background. It is resctricted enogh (locally) to not overwhelm new players (or GMs), but still has a lovely sand-box-like character most experienced gamers are fond of.

Darth Smeg said:

Our group had a blast either and some very memorable moments as well. But I would not recommend it to an inexperienced GM and even to an experienced GM not without some minor (and maybe some not so minor) modifications.

Adeptus-B said:

I think that was part of the intention, actually - at the end of EOD, Interrogator Sand makes reference to an "interesting off-world assignment".

Maggots in the Meat is a fun one to do but I'd say leave that for a little bit until they are rank two or preferably three since as mentioned above the Slaught at the end is quite tough. In a game I ran of it the characters left thinking it was some kind of crazy mutant.

The Haarlock Legacy (The Trilogy and House of Dust and Ash) with a few tweaks to suit you and your players can be a great series of linked adventures but I'd suggest spreading them out with other adventures so not every single act is related to the legacy of Erasmus Haarlock. Perhaps you could throw in a few red herrings if you ran certain scenarios like Maggots in the Meat after starting the legacy and modifying the story by inserting locations like "Haarlocks' Island" a mysterious Island near the millers district where the myst seems to cling to the small island at unusual hours. Just say Solomon Haarlock landed on Acreage during the Angevin crusade or some such. I ran the whole of the Haarlock legacy before and my players loved it, we even organised an all nighter RPG session to finish the story.