I've noticed that a lot of the output for Dark Heresy has been in the form of premade storylines and campaigns. I'm typically rather sceptical of such things, as I never run premade stuff in the usual run of things, but as there appears to be little else out there (correct me if I'm wrong, I may have missed a lot), I'm wondering whether the premades are worth getting for DH?

Aramithius said:

Oh, I expect a lot of inputs in this thread! Maybe I'll be the first one.

Yes, there are certain premade DH adventures of very good quality, both official and fanmade.

Personally I would commend FFG's Damned Cities (a nice murder mystery in a city - a part of the larger campaign), Joyous Choir (detective story of moderate quality), Illumination (nice wildlands setting and feel). You may also be interested to run published adventures from Rogue Trader for DH as well.

As for fanmade adventures, they are almost without number to read them all. I would particularly commend Leave No Stone Unturned, though.

***

As for out company, we prefer official adventures, because playing them out of a shiny published book gives the sense of accomplishment. As if we were a part of a novel. On the other hand I agree that sometimes the quality of published adventures is below acceptable level, but sometimes there are true jewels out there, like The Enemy Within in WFRP.

Hey Aramithius

....I beg your pan, but what else then "premade adventures" did you expect? A book with general hooks?

If so I would advise you to look for the PDF-Products of "Post Mortem Studios" on RPG-DriveThru. They have a series called "100" where they feature 100 generic story hooks/sees. One is "100horror", one is "100conspiracy" and so on.

On the quality of the actual available moduls (my two cents!):

Think twice before you take up "Tattered Fates" and do not care for "Dead Stars". " Damned Cities " is a rather nice one, I would adivse it as a "stand alone" option instead as part of a Triology.

DO NOT BUY BLACK SEPULCHRE. Unless you are very found of dungeon crawls where things make sense "because they have to".

"Purge the Unclean" has one dud (Baron Hopes) and two salvagable parts ("Rejoice!" and "Shades of Twilight"; Twilight is the weaker one). All in all, it is worth the money. Especially if you go for the PDF.
"Disciples of the Dark Gods" has short adventure inside, but with not much in the way of investigation.


Besides this, have a look at the material offered in the download section (support section). The finalists of the last two story contests are "free" and at least a worthwhile read through.

If you have a general problems with "pre made things"...start your own and ask for Input in the Gamemaster section if you get stuck.
The only problem you will never ever have on this Forum is to get input and further inspiration. As long as you keep your initial requests shorter then 5 pages

I only run premade stuff as I don't find time to write my own, so I've been through mostly everything official (in fact I start running Dead Stars tonight).

To echo what others have said Dead Cities is good, porbably my favourite. The Haarlock Legacy connection is tenuous and can easily be removed to fit any campaign. It's an investigative scenario and in a similar style is Rejoice For You Are True from Purge the Unclean.

I'm not as down on Black Sepulchre as most people. It's a mess but has some nice moments.

But if you make awesome adventures all by yourself then what need have you for published stuff?

Hey Aramithius

....I beg your pan, but what else then "premade adventures" did you expect? A book with general hooks?

Yes and no; more sourcebooks, really, with setting info and additional rules, but no real story. Like the Radical's Handbook. Or stuff that's pure flavour, like the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer (not a DH publication, but very usable). I'm used to the White Wolf set-up, where they publish sourcebooks on particular areas with new rules and background on a regular basis, but in my experience with their premade adventures that're actually quite terrible. I was wondering if Dark Heresy had some line of adventure-free sourcebooks somewhere that I was unaware of.

Double post

I'll be the bad guy and say that I've been pretty disappointed with most of the published adventures that I have read. Didn't like Illumination from the Rulebook - I just don't think that the mystery was properly "solvable". From Purge The Unclean , I didn't think that Rejoice For You Are True had an even remotely compelling hook. Shades On Twilight was a decent enough concept- except for the D&D ism of searching for a magic sword! - but I was very frustrated by the lack of useful maps. Honestly, I haven't even been able to read the entirety of Baron Hopes - it's too much of a tedious slog for me. The House Of Dust And Ash from Desciples Of The Dark Gods just seems too dry to me- no pun intended. I was looking forward to the Haarlok Legacy series, but the "screw you" opener in Tattered Fates really put me off, so I didn't pick up the others- from the sounds of it, maybe I should try Damned Cities as a "stand alone". Haven't picked up Black Sepulchre yet- based on what I've heard about it, I doubt that I will. Maybe if the other adventures in that series generate a good buzz. So, yeah, the only "official" adventure that I have found to my liking is Edge Of Darkness - and even that kinda ticked me off with it's lack of maps...

Having played every single Dark Heresy advneture (except Black Sepulchure) all the way up at Ascension level I have to say they are one of the most disappointing set of pre-made adventures for any system for any genre that I've ever read. And I can say similar tings for DW and RT.

I accept that that's partly because I go into each one with very high expectations, but they are very, very, very linear games. I think DH woudl benefit more from more sourcebooks, but I suspect this is tied up in lisencing?

Do not play these adventures if you will not be happy with anything other that the pre-canned endings - or, like me, you are a 40K fanboy ; )

Some of the fan stuff is really good, but GW keeps the IP under such tight wraps that you want ever see Indie DH aventures more is the pity. (However, on that note, have you ever see "Necropolis" by Triple Ace Games ; )

Sorry but no good news from me on this front - if you have the time and energy stick to the main books and sourcebooks and write your own stuff.

I've also run every pre-made adventure with a group that is now at Ascension level, and we are currently working through the Black Sepulchure.

I've found the adventures for the most part to be a lot of fun and well done. Some of them are particularly good for offering a range of locations and encounters and allowing the players to investigate them as they see fit (like Damned Cities and Tattered fates) and they all provide excellent ideas for adventures even if you don't follow them as written.

That's not to say they're all perfect. I thought the ending of the Haarlock adventures was a bit weak and as already said, maggots in the meat was a mess really (War of the Rhozes, honestly). However, even maggots in the meat made for a great adventure, not as written, but as a setting for a wider adventure. The little details such as the landing pad on the sea and the politics of the region really helped flesh out the world.

This all said, I found that you had to be prepared to tweak elements of the adventures as you go along to make them feel more spontaneous and to remove the linear effect of some of them (something I found the first part of the deathwatch adventure book did a bit too much), but then that's why the game has a GW after all.

Overall though, I pleased I bought every single one of them, even the rogue trader ones which I'm not planning on running as they at least provide detailed source material for the world and at best are great adventures.

(And Adeptus-B, I'd definately recommend giving Tattered Fates another go. The opening is harsh, but it gives the players a new situation to deal with (not being able to rely on there equipment, being scared of basic weapons again) and then there's lots to get stuck into later in the adventure).

Insequential said:

Each one, hmm. Even Damned Cities is very, very, very linear?

I'm using Tattered Fates as an introductory adventure, for which it seems to be working very well (opposition suitably tailored for beginning characters).

Both Illumination (Basic Book) and Maggots in the Meat (GM's screen) are introductory adventures where as a GM you're basically introduced how to kill everyone in the party and PC's get introduced to how to be killed in lame, terrible ways as starting newbies. Both are actually quite good if you bother to take out the bits that kill every bastard in the group... that way you know, some of them might actually come back for a 2nd game sometime. The GM screen adventure is worth it for the simple fact it has a little talked about or probably even known set of poisons rules I've used on and off for some time and worth it for those alone.

Purge the Unclean, ran most of the bits out of this one heavily modified for a low-mid range group and aside from providing jack-off material for space marine fanboys for the last few years before DW came out, the adventures are not too bad with a few tweeks to-suit. I modified most of them as stand-alone adventures and they worked fairly well. Plus there are lots of handy NPC templates in there you can come back and steal on the off-chance your PC's survive to the mid-levels and then you can come back and try and kill them with some of the NPCs in there.

House of Dust and Ash in Disciples of Dark Gods is a really good adventure- provided you get the last handful of pages with the really lame ending, tear them out and burn them so you dont end up just killing everyone in the group pointlessly with viciously, mean arse monsters (re: Illumination + Maggots in the meat) and avoid sticking them in the death trap. I had it as an observation-buying mission where they took a few of the really nasty items out of circulation and follow up adventures to track down the buyers of the other ones worth taking out of private hands.

Harlock Trilogy I bought a long time ago and some time later, I'm still looking at them wondering just WTF I'm supposed to do with these. Admittedly, sometimes I'm not very smart, sometimes my PC's aren't very smart either but we don't drool too much, but aside from the rather convoluted railroad to hell, back and some horrible places to save the sector from blowing up... I just don't get it. Plus there's a really good bit where you just get to bend over and beastf*** the PC's completely, expect them to survive aka Scourge of the Slavelords style! Oh yeah, that went down really well when it was run back in 1993 and THE HATE from that particular D&D adventure has left lingering scars and the odd nervous twitch. So we just wont go there again. However, the planets are great and NPC's are worth nicking for ideas, I'm a sucker for pre-gen worlds and NPC splat pages to offset the time I can spend writing adventures of my own, so its not worthless. Just horrible.

MKX said:

That's why you modify it for beginning characters.

egalor said:

Fair call - they are 'almost, all' very, very, very linear (or was that too many 'verys'?)

I also consider an adventure where there is only one acceptable ending as linear in the 'all roads lead to rome' sense. Alternatives of "PC's save the sector" versus "PC's crushed and left running scared and wondering when they will be killed" is just plain lazy. In some sense Harlock- had the lest linear ending, it was just that getting to it was like walking down a grimdark 'tomb of horrors'.

I have run everything with my group apart from the adventure in Ascension source book (is this one any good???) and Black Sepulchre and it has been a mixed bag.

For our group the clear winner was House of Dust and Ash. Great adventure but i added a 'Murder on the Nile' feel to the journey out to the island that really helped build the tension.

All of the adventures i have modded in some way as the published material always seems to fall a little flat and i am left banging my head that BI/FFG seem incapable of writing a truly great adventure that just leaps of the pages as written.

If you discount HoDaA as a Haarlock adventure the remaining trilogy was a bit of a mess with no satisfactory ending.

I found Purge the Unclean bunch pretty bad, ironically we all really enjoyed Baron Hopes but that was because i massively changed it, the backdrop and setting of the serf mining kingdom of Secundus is great, shame to waste it.

I haven't had opportunity to read them thoroughly but i hear that the RT ones are far better.

Aramithius said:

If you really liked "the Primer" (it is much to unserious... this thing could have NEVER been taken for real by the IG...otherwise the majority would die on first contact with xenos enemy) you should try to get a hand on the "Munitorium Manual" as well. It is the same style of book, but from the view of an officer of the Deperatment Munitorium. Logstics and stuff. And who support in the field actually works. Worthwhile read.

Go for some of the Novells. It will not be "canon", but since you are after inspiration, it will help. "Scourge the Heretic" and "Enforcer" got good critics in this Forum... so I have never read them till know.

Replicant253 said:

The ascension one has some great politics in it, and a range of good NPCs (they go to the effort of detailing 20+ characters as well as drawings for the main ones) so the party itself is a lot of fun (and non-linear). The ending is a bit weak though (which actually seems to be something of a common problem for the dark heresy adventures).

Cool about the 'Murder on the Nile' feel for House of Dust and Ash. Our go through it was expanded to have that sort of feel too (although having an NPC thrown through a toilet window into the sea below and one of the PCs vomiting loudly in the main hall in an attempt to foil a poisoning probably wouldn't have made the Christie original).

Gregorius21778 said:

You say it like they don't half the time (assuming they aren't Gaunt's Ghosts of course who seem to be more resilient than most marines).

bogi_khaosa said:

No ****, I have been doing this for some time

MKX said:

SPOLIERS: people in my PbP game, if you read this, you will be struck blind.

Tattered Fates is practically tailor-made for getting a group of beginning characters together AND supplies them with a rationale for becoming Acolytes. It works perfectly.

Gregorius21778 said:

Have it, love it. Disagree heartily with the portrayal of Necrons, but the rest is fantastic. I've chewed over GMing a story where acolytes in the service of a Malleus inquisitor are called to deal with a "possessed" ship only to find out it's infested with Umbra.

I've realised what I'm after; more detail similar to that presented in the rulebook. For example, a book on the Skalen-Har Hegemony and other sector-spanning factions, outlining their history, goals, holdings, famous members etc etc. Are there any hints of things like that appearing anywhere?

Felt the need to amend my previous (slightly damning) assessment of published adventures having just played the better half of Black Sepulchure. I have no idea if/how the GM had modified it but I thought it was the best yet. Very moody, with a nice 'horror' feel to it and a good dose of paranoia - the non-combat scenes were cleverer than previous. The GM did make some comments on it being not easy to read but that seems par for the course for these adventures.

One suggestion would be to have a few more options after NPCs get their boxed text. At one point our group jokingly said 'No we don't wait for the boxed text we just kill it...we all know what its going to happen and what our reaction will be' then we relented and the GM read the boxed text anyway, which then lead to the inevitable NPC death. It's just getting a bit passe. NPC's only ever seem to have a single reaction they are capable of.

Although not a huge fan of combat in DH I did like the way the game kicked off with a combat scene - James Bond style - I think it gets the players into it quickly and soothes those with itchy trigger fingers (for a while ; )

Very keen to see how it wraps up....

To supplement my earlier critiques: I just borrowed and read Maggots In The Meat - I liked it! It's not terribly involved, but what do you expect from a small booklet? My only complaint is that it is pitched as an "introductory" adventure- wrong! I doubt that a "standard" rookie party could survive the final conflict...

And I picked up Damned Cities and read about half of it. So far, so good...

On Baron Hopes being weak (SPOILERS):

Can't say that I agree (ran it as a player). Two highlights:
1. While fleeing from the zombies and trying to reach base, my scum was clever enough to climb a hut and jump from roof to roof. Unfortunately I crashed through a roof along the way into a hut where I'd had to rescue a toddler from a zombie. Took the little boy with me and, yes, eventually ended up adopting him. My scum has recruited the youngest acolyte in the service of his Inquisitor. Little Globus will become a mighty servant of the Emperor one day, my PC will see to it.

2. When our Inquisitor ordered the Baron to be killed, that was it for me. I've had enough with Globus Vaarak and his puritan bull. Killing Sait Ulbrexis just capped it off. I've become a sworn radical in the service of the Xanthites since then and should charges ever be brought against GV, I'm ready to testify against him.

Particularly perceptive observers will notice that I named my adopted son after my hated Inquisitor boss. No, that's no coincidence.

tl;dr Baron Hopes - it depends on what you and your players make of it.

Alex

Adeptus-B said:

Totally agree, MitM was a good little scenario. I like it better when the story unfolds , though, so generally I like to lose the whole "your Inquisitor is sending you to blahsville, population 20 trillion, go find the murderer" intros that these adventures have. Stumbling onto the horror is half the trick, for my style of GMing...