Let's be realistic about this. Running a Black Crusade is an end game activity and is going to require quite a lot of material to fully support it. It isn't something that's going to be included in the first book because of the space issues. On the other hand, if you've got the players who can handle it, it would be totally awesome. I have no doubts that it will show up in a glorious "Ascension" or "Battlefleet Koronus" type product.

Yeah, me and a friend discussed it while driving to a friend (playing descent) and how we'll hopefully get a supplement to take care of all the needed details and rules by the time it becomes something we have to concern ourselves about. And all of us are suffering from the "I want to play everything" syndrome. Seems to be contaigous.

What I have seen has left me rather stuck on what I want to play. Apostate, Psyker, Sorcerer, and Renegade all sound very appealing.

A question I have is what new kinds of cybernetics are we looking at? I fondly recall the concept of the Maletek Stalker, and was hoping that we might see more Warp Coils and the like since this book isn't bound by Mechanicus doctrine.

As an aside, I hope they have an analogy to an Alternate Career Path for Obliterator (since its a "classless" system)

Nerdynick said:

My bet is anything related to Obliterators will show up in a future sourcebook about the Traitor Legions.

I too hope there is some sort of 'alternate career path', I often found them to be quite characterful and helped players who didn't understand 40k that well develop an enjoyable character.

I remember that there used to be rules for them in the old Inquisitor game. Might homebrew something if they don't release anything.

There is Obliterators in the Deathwatch 'the Emperor Protects book'.

A question for the guys with the books!

How corrupted are you from the beginning of the game? I have a plan for a campaign were my players begins as Freedom Fighter/Repels but will be lured into chaos. Is that possible?

lazerjones said:

The game assumes that a starting character is already a full Chaos supporter or at least user, not an unwitting pawn (at least not too unwitting). A Black Crusade character can be a freedom fighter or rebel, but one that is already lost to Chaos. For wit: The book says the ideal time to convert a character over from the loyalist lines is at 100 CP (which would then put them on 0CP in BC).

Perhaps it is best to start your Freedom FIghter/Rebel game as a Dark Heresy game. In DH there is no chance of them getting Gifts of the Gods or aligning themselvs with one of the Chaos Gods, then once they hit a high CP count (ideally, somewhere when they have around 4000xp to 7000xp) convert over to BC.

Saibot said:

Erm... not really.

If you stick to being Chaos Undivided, that doesn't actually mean you worship any gods at all, really.

Plus, the game starts you off with no Corruption or anything, so you aren't mutants or the like from the start.

Basically, my opinion is the total opposite - I'd have said the game already starts in a perfect position for you to not be a full Chaos supporter, since you all start off not worshipping a specific god, and Undivided can cover those who are just rebels/renegades, and don't really worship Chaos at all (like one or two of the Traitor Legions and more than enough renegades covered in the fluff).

I never said anything about worshipping Chaos. You can be lost to it without actually worshipping it ("Ha, you fools, can you not see I am the Master of this power! It holds no sway over me!").

As I said, the book says that the Corruption Track of BC follows the Corruption track of the loyalist lines, so freedom fighters that start dabbling with the Unholy would probably not start at >100 Loyalist CP.

Of course, lazerjones could do it in whatever way he likes, in whatever way is best for his game, it is his game afterall.

I were wondering what sort of advancement rate that is suggested by the book - how many xp per session or the like?

I gathered some info from forums and some IRC chats and I was wondering if I got this right (I'm concerned with the CSM part of the game, not so much about humans).

CSM starts at 8k xp, similar to RT.

Many skills have been united under, like Stealth.

There have been changes to the way swift attack and lightning attack works (basically like semi and full auto) and they are half actions.

Parr is a skill now.

CSM have the same skills and traits of DW's SM except Deathwatch Training.

No rank advancment, just 3 tier of traits and skills you can buy at any time you want given prerequisite and enough xp.

Traits and skills are linked to one of the 4 gods or unalligned, depending on who you serve you pay more or less xp for a given trait or skill.

Is this all correct ?

Although, what's weird is that a DH char who turns over, gains 1 gift (usually, a mutation) per 3 malignancies/mutations he used to have... so a starts-as-heretic BC PC gets cheated out of like 2-3 god gifts (you'll probably have about 6 malignancies and 2 mutations from hitting 100 corruption, so about 3 god gifts).

Though in general I think its a lot more fun to take a DH, RT or DW char and ratchet up his corruption to 100.