Just to remind, as before. First one to own the book - please kindly share your opinion on it.

Some main points of concern for me:

- dungeon crawling;

- linearity;

- choice and aftermath for the Calixis Sector;

- how it differs from the rest of the trilogy.

Anything else would be cool too.

Thanks in advance!

I'm interested in this one too.

My main-main point of concern is definitely the "fate of the Sector" (again...) stuff. This is like the biggest gun that can be fired within the confines of the Dark Heresy RPG (FFG can't touch the Imperium as a whole, so thankfully no "fate of the Imperium").

Let's speculate here for a bit. We know the Acolytes are going against a powerful, named villain here who wants to do baaaad things. Now then, future supplements will assume (or will they?) that the Acolytes succeeded in bringing down the mo'fo. Now what? How will/can this change the current status quo (which is the building block of the Imperial rule. Nothing big changes.) Or even, how long does this proposed change take to have any significant effect on the Calixis sector?

I assume that even the death of say Marius Hax (no spoiler here, he ain't the big bad in the adventure trilogy) wouldn't change a thing in Calixis. New sector governer comes in, takes over and that's that. Or maybe the sector capital changes to Malfi - would this be a significant event? Nay...

So again, what do you think FFG plans for the "fate of Calixis" in the coming supplements? Status quo or some totally new direction?

csabesz said:

egalor said:

That actually sounds rather promising!

It's so weird. The Black Sepulchre was a catastrophic mixture of boring, unbelievable and railroady. As was the first part of Church of the Damned, with a description of the Cathedral of Illumation that could not be more understatement. Which was followed by an incredibly well written and beautifully described section in the Infernis. It just didn't make any sense.

I'm looking forward to this now.

Hi H.B.M.C

H.B.M.C. said:

Are any "general rules" for i.e. squad-level skirmish combat enclosed in the modul? If so, are they detailed or more akin to the "Exorcismn" presented in " Church of the Damned "?

I actually do not really thing that is more then just a unqiue scene with unique rules for this event (which is totally alright! It is after a module, not "Only War...") but since I am itching for such kind of rules (or others then RT gave me) I just have to ask.

H.B.M.C. said:

Thanks. So, basically there are investigations, right? That's sad.

egalor said:

Yeah. Investigations in Dark Heresy. When did that happen?

As I said, it has a bit of everything - Big combat set pieces, dramatic 'boss fights', investigations and snooping around, stealth mission bits. And some bits can be played in alternate ways (so you don't have to stealth through an area - you can just shoot your way through it).

As far as squad rules go, it's done in the 'keep the players at the centre of it' style. So there are squads, but it's not a hyper-detailed set of skirmish squad rules, if that's what you're asking.

BYE

Dok Martin said:

Oops. I've forgot the word "no".

So, I meant "there are NO investigations"?

H.B.M.C. said:

Sounds cool. Let's see how it reads and plays out, then.

Just read through it. Nice enough!

The descriptions are not as wondrous as they could be, with the description of the Infernis in Church of the Damned still being the highlight of the trilogy, but it is filled with action and it is rather epic!

Weak point: it lacks maps! I need maps!

Reading it at the moment. Its ok. Frankly I would rejig it so that rather than deciding the fate of the Sector it was more like the fate of a planet. As written they have basically shaken the Calixis sector to its core with an event which would take decades to recover from (much more of an upheaval than the return of Haarlock in the Haarlock trilogy would be, at least initially). Just limit the upheaval to a single planet and it becomes much less setting breaking and makes it a change from "The fate of the sector again? Really?" The first section seems massively harsh (Crossing 200m of ground, even ground with cover, against emplaced heavy bolters? Wh'it? This isn't Deathwatch you know). The second section is more in lines of Dark Heresy; sneaking round investigating. Haven't got any further than that.

Rules-wise the writers seem to have forgotten a few of the rules: In the opening section they say "until they reach 120m the heavy bolters are at long range." Long range is of course anything more than twice the listed range, not just after the listed range. They also seem to have forgotten that Man-stopper rounds were errataed to set Pen to 3, rather than adding 3 to Pen.

Dungeon Crawling - Hmm... not so much, if by that you mean wandering blindly about and bumping into the occasional bad guy and beating him up (ala the free RPG day intro to Dark Heresy), but there is a lot of combat, especially in certain sections.

Linearity - Seems fairly linear to me. Not directly railroading people most of the time, but there is a presumption of "Players will do A, then B and then C."

Choice and aftermath of the Calixis Sector - unsure, as I haven't finished reading the whole thing, but even the set up, if thought about, is a fundamental shift of the setting. Basically it splits the sector, turning it from a relatively peaceful one with various corruption and conspiracies hiding in the shadows into one which is riven with conflict (not necessarily out and out war on a galactic scale... but conflicted in all its forms, military and non-military, and at all levels), moving the focus of the setting entirely. Now, it may turn out that the adventure resets it all at the end, ala Voyager ("What sector spanning theological conflict? Oh, you mean that one. That's so last week...") but that isn't any better. As I said, if I ran it I would personally limit the split to a planet, and have the players trying to prevent the conflict spreading off-world by helping suppress it.

Differs from the rest of the trilogy - Hmm... it has so far felt quite similar to the rest of the trilogy to me. Not in the actual events, but in the sort of patched together feel of it. The earlier adventures felt almost like they were just finding excuses to do different things, and linking them in a tenuous fashion. This adventure, so far, has felt no different. Randomly throwing them into a full frontal assault on some minor fortified position, followed up by an investigation of a noble's mansion. It almost feels like the random adventures you might bump into in a sand-box computer rpg, just they have tried to create an overall story that links it together. It also shares the weird scale, of trying to make it feel like things are big (and the events are big), but then you look at it objectively and they really aren't (or at least the way they are used isn't). Taking the first section as an example: it seems to be trying to make you are thinking you are taking part in a major push in some big war... however, it is actually a platoon assault on a heavily fortified road-block. The noble mansion is meant to be impressive... but is really not that big, particularly in 40k. From the map, it looks like it is the size of a small Georgian mansion.

Here is what i Have been thinking of doing.

First, an autopsy of Ignatos will reveal an Implant with chaos markings. An easy investigation of the records of the church will show that it was purchased from house Drajkon.

The team immediately depart to Fenksworld to investigate. Upon arrival they find that war has just broken out with.

Shortly after arriving, and perhaps while in a meeting, they learn that an astrophatic message was sent from a bunker on the outskirts of hive tertiam. As such, this marks the sender as a high value intelligence target. The players should realize the importance of capturing the target, alive, asap.

I am pretty sure my players will want to go on with an air assault, rather than a ground assault, so I see no reason to disallow it, the road structure gives a lot of cover for a covert air action.

As to why the oracle is in the bunker? in one of his visions he saw an item of importance in the bunker and was sent to recover it. While there he received a astrophatic communication and replied to it.

breez said:

H.B.M.C. said:

True, but by the time my players run this, they will be at ascension level. They could have a choice of accepting the troops that are readily available or making an infleuence test to try and get different resources, which should be difficult as it would mean pulling troops from other duties.

Oh if you're at Ascension level then fair enough. That's what Influence abilities are for after all. But yeah, as you said, it might be difficult. I'd pay close attention to the overview the book gives of the way that this adventure is part of a larger conflict. That could influence (if you'll excuse the pun) your ability to use Influence.

And, as obvious as this may sound, if you are using Ascension you may need to artificially buff some certain areas (especially if the group has a one-man-army Primaris Psyker). I'm thinking the battle at the beginning and bit aboard the ship. The ending should be sufficiently difficult for everyone, mostly because of the sheer amount of Insanity and Corruption a good GM could throw at you, and it doesn't matter whether you're Acolyte or Throne Agent - Insanity and Corruption is dangerous to everyone!!!

BYE

Dok Martin said:

This seems to be a common problem with WH40KRP modules. Is it really that expensive to hire a designer with artistic sensiblities who can use Photoshop? I love maps! Even if I decide not to play the actual scenario, I like to cannibilize elements from modules- NPC stats, interesting situations, and maps ! They add a lot of value to a module- not to mention the fact that the primary purpose of game supplements is to reduce the GM's workload...

And sometimes the maps they have just aren't useful. Take the Tempest Rising map that they previewed a week or so ago. Having played through that book I can say that that map they've previewed wouldn't've helped much. I really had it looking different in my head.

The best map I've seen so far, IMO, is the one of the Blinding Gulch from Church of the Damned.

BYE

H.B.M.C. said:

Indeed. Say, do you by any chance know who wrote that part of the Gambit? Because it really sticks out. In a good way, I mean.

The listed author is Ben Counter (with extra bits from Sam Stewart, Ross Watson, myself and one or two others), plus Mack Martin as the project lead. It wasn't me - my part within that book is rather tiny - so it would be one of them. Not sure who sorry.

BYE

Well, it's most definitely not Ben Counter, 'cause this guy should never have picked up a pen for Dark Heresy in the first place. His maxim concerning atmosphere and setting seems to be: as ordinary as possible.

Would have liked to shake the hand of the man who did Blinding Gulch though.

I miss Alan Bligh.

books needed more maps!