Hi

New to the forum, so hello

I'm a big fan of the 40k universe, love reading the novels and I'm itching to run a game for my RPG group in such a great setting.

My question is this, the rest of my group have very limited knowledge of the 40k background setting and general feel, so which would be the best game to start them on? Either Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader (I think Deathwatch would be a step too far)

I'd obviously do a lot of pre-work to give them insight into the universe, but what, in your opinion is the best starting game?

Cheers

evil_scoff said:

I would say Dark heresy. It is the closest thing to a "1st level" character from other games and is also designed from the "street level" perspective. This gives the players a good understanding of Imperial society and can serve as a springboard to the other three (Soon four!) games. That being said; The 40k rpg has evolved through each of it's iterations and DH is the oldest so be prepared for rules changes as you move along.(Black crusade is the most recent if you didn't know . ) If your players are "Old school" gamers than you can describe the 40k rpg as similar to a "Ravenloft" version of "Star wars".

I concur with Radwraith, DH is the thing to start setting people into the 40k experience. RT can really use more experienced gamers who know their way around the setting and Deathwatch is an epic Superhero game. Black Crusade seems also very not like the good place to start either.

Hello,

Dark Heresy is the best setting for a starting crew of the uninitiated. It was even a great choice for our group who were very familiar with the setting from years of miniatures and videogames. The only thing I'd caution is don't get too generous with experience to your crew on character creation. It was worth starting from the absolute ground up, and we have become very attached to our characters….that survived.

LIke the others said, definitely Dark Heresy.

I started storytelling Rogue Trader and now I'm with Dark Heresy and I wish I've done the other way around (specially since I like DH a lot more than RT). RT is an awesome game, but since most of the time you are traveling outside the Imperiuminto the unknown you don't get to use most of the 40K fluff.

And that could be especially confusing for new players.

Dark Heresy has the benefits of allowing new players to sample various parts of 40K, but without having the weight of every decision pulling them down. They're still following orders from an unseen (or sometimes seen) master, so they can be led around (ie. go here, do this, find that) until they get to grips with the universe, and then they can break out and do their own thing.

BYE

Welcome aboard, evil_scoff!

I'll pile on and say that I think DH is the best intro game for those not familiar with the 40K setting. It provides a ground-level view of the Imperium, building up to the higher reaches of society over time. And the characters are assumed to not be very well-travelled at first level, so there is less a character is expected to know at Rank 1 than in the other games, where characters are usually veterans within their vocation. Plus, when people who aren't familiar with 40K hear "commanding a large ship", their default reference tends to be Star Trek…

One bit of advice: since DH was the first of the games out of the gate, it naturally has a few bugs in the system. Be sure to check out the DH Living Errata and familiarize yourself with the changes/corrections that have occured over the years.

Concurred. Definitely Dark Heresy.

Its 'smaller scale', and the PCs aren't autonomous, being under the close supervision of a superior NPC. this allows you as GM to control things better.

I'd suggest a good thing to do with each adventure/session is to pick one of the endless aspects of 40k to 'explore'. This will allow you to introduce 40k bit by bit, rather than overwhelming your players with all its wonderful, insane richness in one go.

Good luck and have fun!!

Thank you all

Dark heresy has just been ordered, looking forward to receiving it and running it now. I really hope that my group takes to the game and becomes as passionate about it as they are DnD.

Not too passionate though as then they might twig where I've been getting all my cool character names from