As the title says my group has picked up the Dark Heresy book and we have decended into the 41st Millenium prepared to take on anything that comes our way.

However I don't know what that would entail. As many of our players (all but two, I am one of the two) have no clue about ANYTHING Warhammer 40k related we've agreed to do the game at the back of the book in order to get our feet wet.

After that I have no clue what we are going to do and I would like some help figuring out ideas if anyone could aid me. Most of what I know is not on the inquisition side but the Adeptus Astartes side of the Empire of man and even that is basic around my space wolves army.

Currently our party consists of a feral scum who has the Name taboo and a severe dislike of anyone outside the group. She is also considered a "Chosen of the 'Golden eagle' because a Shaman had a vision that a golden eagle with two heads swooped down and carried her out of a dark void that was eating up the planet (While this DOES allude to the fact that she is now an inquistiors acolyte there IS a chance of possible game ideas there I just don't know what yet.) She also has the aquilla tattoo'd on her right upper arm by said shaman. A somewhat trigger happy and jumpy hive psyker who keeps to himself and his book of saints, a hive assassin who is quiet but observant who used to be a gang member and is very protective of the acolytes in his group, and finally an imperial Adept from a shrine world who has a thing for books and REALLY wonders whose bad side he got on to be an inquisitorial acolyte even though he does consider it an honor and a way to get out of the scriv's way.

By vote we have chosen to go down the Ordo Hereticus path to fight Witches and their cults. While I know this can be easy for one shots of "Go here destroy this cult etc" I'm sure my group would like a more long drawn out campaign where they fight at LEAST one re-occuring villain and have a big bad guy to fight at the end maybe (if they live that long)

Any help would be appreciated and if you need more info about the group go ahead and ask.

Hi there,

welcome to the mind-boggling task of keeping a game group happy.

First and foremost, builing a campaigne without feeling familiar with the background is a daunting task. May I suggest to first go on with another two non-related missions so that you as the GM gets at least a feel for the material?

Possible Missions:
Please have a look at the support sections of this site. You will find some adventures for free dowload, including "Edge of Darkness" which helps to get a feel. Personally, I suggest "Idle Hereies" and "Brutal Lament" as well.

With a little conversion, "Forsaken Bounty" (and perhaps its runner-up) found in the RougeTrader support section can be changed into a Inq-Mission as well.

Ongoing enemies, ongoing themes
"Purge the Unclean" features the same "core enemy", but only "behind the plot" each time. And to be honest, one of the three missions isn´t all to good. Haarlock Legacy Triology gives you a common enemy as well but the first part is a rather forceful in regard to the PC while the final installment features a huge anti-climax. Do not touch "Apostasy Gambit" , it is not worth the money.

Suggested Reading:
Get youself a copy of "Disciples of the Dark Gods". It features loads of cults and organizations which will help to inspire you for your task.

PS: GOOD LOOK! You will need it

Gregorius21778 said:

I totally agree with what Gregorius stated. Plus
DH support info here www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp

And RT info here www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp

Thlydd said:

If you want simple, then you can tie the ' dark void ' approach with the Haarlock Legacy Tyrant Star (did I spell that right?)

Thlydd said:

IMO, the best choice of them all my friend (and the one I almost always tell my acolytes they are in). And this one easily ties into them all too. I recommend reading the "Running an Investigation/Conspiracy Adventure" topic (link here www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp ) to get a grasp of how to conduct said adventures. But other than that, best of luck to you and your group. If you need help fleshing out idea's, just post it on there forums and someone will respond. I got several adventures I wrote up, but alas they all are in .wps files that I can't open.

First off, from a purely practical point of view, check the Living Errata - lots of changes in there that make the game run better. And, since this is an investigation-based game, there is no way to tell what direction your players will decide to take, so be prepared to improvise . I recommend, at a minimum, creating a list of npc names and businesses you can refer to when your players go 'off the rails', so it is not obvious that you are having to make it up as you go. Better, if you have the time, is to create a stockpile of npc stats and maps of generic locations (taverns, storefronts, outdoor markets, werehouses, etc.) to drop in as needed.

Beyond that, I'll mostly pile on to what Gregorius said: the free download module Edge of Darkness is generally considered the perfect introductory adventure to DH . I highly recommend running that before the one from the rulebook. For insperation, Desciples of the Dark Gods is excellent- my favorite DH supplement by far. To get a 'feel' for the setting, GW 's Black Library novels are very useful. I recommend the Eisenhorn trilogy ( Xenos , Hereticus , Mallues ) by Dan Abnett to start with. If you are not familliar with the 40Kverse, I would avoid the Horus Heresy books at first, since they are set 10,000 years before the current timeline and don't accurately reflect the 'dark age' nature of the DH setting.

Adeptus-B,

Some thing you said peaked my interest. Is Living Errata different than the official Errata .pdf?

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/dark-heresy/pdf/darkheresy-errata-v3.0.pdf

Garner said:

I don't think so; now that you mention it, I can't recall where I heard it refered to as Living Errata before. I assume that just refers to it being updated occasionally…

Adeptus-B said:

Hi! I think you messed it up with the RT-Errata which is dubbed "living"…and would be the target of a cruel joke of mine would it not be for the most recent update.

Thlydd,

I too am new to Dark Heresy. I think if you poke around through a few pages on this forum you'll find lost of QA style posts which and plug holes in your knowledge. Like Adeptus-B I'd also recommend Edge of Darkness. I'm running it right now with my group and they seem really intrigued in the case and the pacing is just right.

One thing I've found that has really helped my game is including a NPC who can be called or contacted like Records and Information for the police force. There's a lot of drudging around and hoop jumping that can really bog down a game. Having a NPC who can put out APBs, find addresses, and reference "common knowledge" can speed up your investigations.

Hiya,

I am currently running a campaign including people that have little idea about the universe. A decent place to start is the 'imperium' section of the rulebook and the descriptions of their homeworld. They are gradually picking it up as they go along though essentially if they have a question about how something should work in the setting I try to answer it if they ought to know or let them roll CL:Imperium if they might not. You can also use this ;-).

In all seriousness thought there are a few summaries out there so perhaps have a search around. When I want specifics about something I usually use the 40k Lexicanum website.

Hey guys, we just started Edge of Darkness and it turned out to be rather good thanks to every ones advice.

So thank you again.