My group has recently decided to change up the games that we have been doing and have, on recommendation from a clerk at the local Game store, have picked up Dark Heresy. To the point:

The group has nominated and voted me Official Dark Heresy GM. While I have picked up the Dark Heresy Core Rulebook and have read it a few times to get a grip on the Dark 41st Millenium I haven't really gotten it squared away. Can those who are experienced with this world help a newcomer get a basic outline of how to properly run a Dark Heresy Game please? For the record I HAVE GMed before so experience there isn't a problem It is the fact that I don't know much about the world in general other than the basics of the world that are listed in the book.

Also: While the group has decided to roll up characters the day of the first game we have decided that the group will work for the Ordos Xenos branch of the Inquisition if that makes any difference.

Please and thank you.

First and Foremost: You are doing it wrong
Really. You do not get appointend and voted a GM by somebody. You wanna be one or you do. Anyway, this was not your question

Back2Topic :
The general advice every newcommer GM gets here is "play the freebee Edge of Darkness" . And rightly so! It is the best freebee introduction adventure one get.

My personal advice is to play it with the pre-generated pc since their will be at least ONE player in your group who will regret his choice of pc after the mission otherwise. Trust me.

If you are unfamiliar with the background, get one or more of the 40K novels to get yourself a feeling. While I would not take anything given their as "the real thing", they are very helpful to get a feel about it.

About running the game:
Make sure that you have multiple ways for the pc to get the vital clue that will lead them to the solution. Otherwise, you group will get stuck. And if you come up with something on your own, make sure that the pc will get into some trouble if they do not solve things in time. "If you do not find them, they will do X and you will have a hard time"

I agree that Edge Of Darkness is the best place to start, adventure-wise, but I'm not so sure about using pregenerated characters instead of actual PCs. I haven't had any problems with players wanting to change out their characters, and if they do, well, it's simple enough to get said character killed and create a new one...

The adventure included in the Gamemaster's Kit (Maggots In The Meat) is pertty good, and well-suited for Ordo Xenos Acolytes, but it is definitely not intended for low-level parties. If you only have 3 PCs, I wouldn't attempt it at less than 4th level.

As far as background reading to get a feel for the setting, I recommend Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy as the best introduction to the themes of DH . I would avoid the the Horus Heresy books at first, because, if that is your first contact with the 40Kverse, they will give you a lot of misconceptions about the current state of the Imperium (the Heresy books are set 10,000 years before the current setting, and most of the events described in them are unknown to 99.99% of the Imperium...).

As far as other books in the WH40KRP line, I strongly recommend Desciples of the Dark Gods : tons of inspriation for cool scenarios in there. As members of the Odro Xenos, you will eventually want to pick up Creatures Anathema , but it isn't vital at first: few first level characters could survive an encounter with most of the creatures in that book. For Gawd's sake, do not try to fight Orks at fisrt level! Also, the Rogue Trader line has stats for additional xenos, especially Into The Storm .

And I can't agree strongly enough with Gregorius' suggestion to allow for multiple paths to solve an investigation: if a particular mission ever hinges on a single Awareness/Interrogation/Search roll, your campaign will stall out in short order...

Are you familiar with Warhammer at all? The fantasy line or the sci-fi?

While I love it (revel in it, obsess over it, dream about it), it's not everyones cup of Tanna (tea). It's a mix of black humour, senseless violence and dystopian future made by stealing, I mean borrowing, from most well-known sci-fi settings and authors out there.

You'll see Judge Dredd chasing down cyberpunk gangs in the megacities, Cathedral like spaceships navigating the Warp with Navigators from Herberts Dune. Asimovs Foundations series give us the cybernetic priests that jealously guard all technology and the licensed Traders spreading the Imperiums influence beyond it's borders while bringing back wealth and resources. The list goes on.

Point is, you're bound to find something you're familiar with, so take it and build on it. The setting has changed somewhat from it's early state in the '80s, going from a funny mashup of said inspirational sources sprinkled with black humour straight from blackadder, to a more "grimdark" setting that takes itself a little too serious sometimes for my taste. Still, there is room to run the kind of game you want to. Horror? Can do! Lovecraftian cults, or all out warp zombie invasions. Action? In a galaxy where there is only war, there is action for everyone! Investigation? Sure thing, that's the core of Dark Heresy after all. Fun or serious, upbeat or depressing, it's all good in 40K. I like to take the Fallout approach: Black humour and ultraviolence.

So what sort of game do you want to run? Heroic and with a high body count? Or gritty Noir with high PC mortality? Certain rules may be ignored, modified or applied with gusto to reflect these choices.

@Twilight_Artificer

Congratulations, you picked up one of the best game-system that are out in the open these dark times ;-)

To read one book and only one I recommend the RAVENOR Omnibus, that's raounabout 1400 pages of epic epicness and gives a wide range of looks and things and places.

Advices for a DH GM:

* be carefull with you PCs, they can be dead in no time, and it might depend on luck ONLY.

* be carefull with your enemies/cannon fodder, better sent them more often but fewer, because you can never now what happens.

* be prepared for ... forget it, just don't wonder anymore, the system has hilarious 'this-will-happen' tables on which you roll d100.

*show your players tons of artwork from the books and feed them as much info from www.lexicanum.com as you can, before the game starts.

* 40k has very diverse cities and planets and societies and people, you probably wont do that much wrong at all ;-) just keep in mind that ignorance, hatred and prejudice are virtues in 40k land that humanity goes first, every alien race has to die, and that the Emperor protects, add cyberpunk with baroque cloths and a touch of Dune and you're ready

Twilight_Artificer said:

Keep in mind that the Imperium is a feudal society on about every level (mixed with a handfull of facism and communism). Forget user-friendliness, rights of the individuum, social or scientific progress or even reason. In 41st millenium there is only war...

I would recommend to read Scourge the Heretic. While it is not of the quality of the Eisenhorn or Ravenor series, it better describes the DH-setting (ie.e Calixis sector), is faster to read and does not digress that much. Furthermore, I would recommend to get hold of a copy of Disciples of the Dark Gods. It gives a deep insight into potential enemies and antagonists as well as a couple of nice plot hooks. Especially if you tend towards an Ordo Xenos campaign, you should check out the chapters about the Beast House and the Amaranthine Syndicate, maybe you could even combine them (Beast House as the main antagonist for the first few ranks and for later ranks the Amaranthine Syndicate and the Sl....).

Have fun. Cheers!

Oops - a correction on my post above: the RT book with new Calixix-specific xenos in it that I was thinking of is Edge Of The Abyss , not Into The Storm ...