I spent a couple of hours yesterday evening reading through existing threads in the hope of learning how to run the Haarlock Legacy trilogy as a new GM (I've only ever run a one-shot for Call of Cthulhu prior to this, but have played various RPGs for around 5 years and have been following the 40K universe for over 20 years). I love horror and investigation games and my players are very familiar with Call of Cthulhu . I want to try something that will be fresh for them and love the Gothic, oppressive atmosphere of the 40K universe, especially concerning the fight between Chaos and the Imperium.

As the Haarlock's Legacy trilogy appears to be rather challenging for new GMs, the general consensus seems to be to begin with the free adventure 'Edge of Darkness' as an introduction for both players and GM. I also saw numerous posters recommend 'The House of Dust and Ash' from Disciples of the Dark Gods as a lead in to the trilogy. However, it seems as though the Haarlock Legacy has a few problems, the first being its lack of structure and the second being an anticlimactic ending. Can anyone recommend how to encourage a predominantly investigative and horror-based path through the trilogy? I have no problem with combat, but tend to prefer this to be used when necessary rather than as a standard means by which to proceed. Also, for anyone who has run the game, have you or your players got any suggestions for how the ending could be made more satisfying?

If there are specific posts or threads that you feel answer these queries then please feel free to simply flag this up with relevant links.

Hi and welcme to your doom [you just joined those playing DH!]

I would suggest to play the adventures in the following sequence

Damned Cities
Tattered Fates*
House of Dust and Ash*
Dead Stars

*These could be changed as you please*

I dumpled a lot of ideas and suggestion over there at DarkReign40k.com
Please have a look at
GM Tips --> Tips for Scenarious ["The early murders" & "Added Scenes for Tattered Fates"]

One thing I did and will do again is ensure there is a climactic fight at the very end. I guess not every group will require this but I really felt mine would. I had a pretty firm idea of the way they would choose to go and so I was able to make it make sense. See below for specifics.

I would also suggest that you add extra adventures between the books, they are quite long and involved and my players appreciated the chance to go after some other unrelated stuff whilst keeping Haarlock investigations ruminating in the background.

SPOILERS

Specifically they were going to stop Haarlock returning so I decided Herrod wanted to capture him to find out more about the Tyrant Star. So when they made it clear they were going to go against his wishes they had to fight through Herrod and his retinue to get at the gateway.

Gregorius21778, thank you for the warm welcome. Dark Reign 40K looks like a great resource for GMs and I will be sure to read through and incorporate your suggestions when I run Tattered Fates and Damned Cities . I'd be interested to know your reasons for running Damned Cities prior to Tattered Fates - is this because of the lack of explanation as to how the players end up in the Red Cages? If so, how did you make the transition?

@a warm welcome
Well…I guess it is to late for you to turn round now…

@Damned Cities before the other
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!


This was discussed in some topcis along around here. The reason lies in the adventure "**** Cities" itself. It includes a tower related to Haarlocn ("Haarlocks Folly") which just happens to be the seat of the Arbites in Sinophia…whose head honcho just happens to be the main bad guy… which the adventure tries to conceal from an Psyker with a "psychic screen of background noise" in regard to the tower.

Such things are just like a HUGE lock in front of a door. It is meant to keep thieves out. But this arrangement attracts thieves to begin with. So, if the PC start with "Damned Cities" they are less likely to have any reason to jump at the name Haarlock.
Second, the Mission is not really "Haarlock linked". Sending the PC their first and later sending them after Haarlock clues makes more sense then the other way aoround.
Last but not least, the overall powerlevel is more easily scaled towards the lower ranks while all of the other adventure will greatly profit from having PC who can handle themselves.

First of all, welcome to Dark Heresy. You made a very good decision. Edge of Darkness is indeed good to start with and gives an introduction to the Logicians, who will also make an appearnace in The House of Dust and Ash. You might also think of playing Illumination from the rulebook beforehand as well, as one of the cult will appear at The House of Dust and Ash to have his revenge. I even played Purge the Unclean as well and tried to squeeze the Serrated Query into the Haarlock Legacy…

I can understand the order of play Gregorius’ suggested and most of his arguments are reasonable enough. I GMed them in the “normal” sequence none the less (as this idea did not came up at the time I started the campaign) and do not see a problem with the tower having Haarlock in its name anyway. I also thought putting Damned Cities to the beginning is a good idea, but it is certainly not a must and works otherwise as well. I would not play The House of Dust and Ash as the last one before Dead Stars though.
You might check all books (especially a sidebar in Damned Cities) to try to have certain plot-wise important occurrences happen at the same time (i.e. the lightning striking Haarlock’s Folly in Sinophia Magna, the awakening of the Widower (or the appearance of the Tyrant Star) on Quaddis and whatever on Solomon).

Furthermore, try to get a good idea of the different factions involved and how and to what degree you want to present them. Have an idea what each faction knows and wants in regard to the Haarlock Legacy and make sure that it makes sort of sense what they do (well, maybe with the notable exception of the nihilistic Pilgrims of Hayte..) and when, why and how they appear on certain locations. Feel free to invent your own factions (browsing through Disciples of the Dark Gods can be of great help hereby) and then try to include them already early on. If you intend to have certain factions appear in the final scenario Dead Stars, try to think rather early in the campaign how they achieve (or not) the “pattern”, “guide” and “key” and what they are in fact.

I can try to make a short overview (as well as some notes how it was in my campaign (stuck in the middle of Dead Stars atm)):

Pilgrims of Hayte
Appearance: Tattered Fates – Dead Stars
Attitude: Pro reappearance Haarlock
Pattern/Guide/Key: In my campaign they got hold of the Keystone of the Steel Clock (i.e. "key"), the face of the Widower (i.e. untrustworthy "guide") and the Book Unbound (the latter included some sort of fragmentary "pattern").

Tyrantines
Appearance: Damned Cities – Dead Stars
Attitude: Anti reappearance Haarlock (in my campaign sort of pro Haarlock Legacy, as they are infiltrated by the Phaenonites)
Pattern/Guide/Key: Fragment of the Mirrordaemon (i.e. "guide"), Black Sunburst Amulet of Greel (i.e. "key")

Amaranthine Syndicate / Slaught
Appearance: (Maggots in the Meat) – House of Dust and Ash – Dead Stars
Attitude: Anti reappearance Haarlock
Pattern/Guide/Key: Greyskin Psalter (i.e. "pattern")

Logicians
Appearance: (Edge of Darkness) - House of Dust and Ash
Attitude: not defined
Pattern/Guide/Key: did not reach Mara in my campaign as PCs killed Octavia Nile

Cult of Tychiak Crow Father
Appearance: (Illumination) – House of Dust and Ash
Attitude: not defined
Pattern/Guide/Key: did not reach Mara in my campaign (as not resourceful enough)

Serrated Querry
Appearance: Purge the Unclean
Attitude: not defined (anti Haarlock Legacy in my campaign)
Pattern/Guide/Key: -

As a climatic fight I prepared the stats of a C'Tan shard as presented in Black Crusade for the reappearing "herald" Haarlock, if it is neede after fighting through all the other factions involved…

Welcome aboard!

Aw man, I started running this thing myself after a while- though I built it up considerably beforehand with a number of missions. Now, starting with Damned Cities, my acolytes are already rank 6 and have a baggage of personal enemies that will all play a part in the Haarlock Legacy!

We've started Damned Cities two days ago and played over ten hours- with the players already coming across one of the Campaign Factions (The Slaught) and wrecking their base [but their leader, the Worm-God, survived the fight with the players… and is still around to cause them harm…]. They've managed to recover a mirror shard- a Medallion, but they don't know what the hell it is! and they came damned close to selling it back to the Syndicate

All in all, Its VERY different from Call of Cthulhu- I know in that I've run both very successfully (or not depending on the One-shot and my particular performance that day )

I find that Damned Cities (should also go first yes, because I can use the name Haarlock all the time and no one is freaking out just yet- No one has linked the name to the Ominous figure that my players have "met" in my previous games as a build up to the campaign itself.) is EXTREMELY open ended- MUCH more so than any CoC One Shot- so thats a new style the players have to get used too. They've a lot more freedom in what they do- and events in the City should change according to their actions.

@the anti-climax
I way toying with the idea of running a completely different ending. One where the PC do not leave the Tesseract but bid for or against the appearance of Haarlock during a nightmare auctions, similiar to the one I originally intended as a scene for the Blind Tesseract.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=101&efcid=3&efidt=537024&efpag=0#537074

Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions. Becoming a GM for a first campaign can be rather daunting, but your advice makes me feel more sure-footed heading into planning and recruiting players.

@Luthor Harkon and BrotherKane

Having run all the following, does this make sense for a campaign? Does the Haarlock Legacy have a robust system for scaling in order to keep it challenging for an experienced group?

'Edge of Darkness'
'Illumination'
Damned Cities
Purge the Unclean
Tattered Fates
'House of Dust and Ash'
Dead Stars

As the feedback on The Apostasy Gambit is REALLY negative, I think that I’d have to look around for something suitably meaty if and when we reached the end of the above sequence. I am very tempted by Black Crusade , so there would hopefully be more published scenarios available by the time I’m ready to move across.

@Saldre

I can see how the setting and combat prowess of the players can make DH more open than CoC, but I consider the connection to be their focus on investigation and horror. I’m almost tempted to slightly increase the power levels of their adversaries so that combat is something they will have to think about before choosing to engage (not that they will always be given the choice).

@Gregorius

Once again, some great suggestions. The auction sounds suitably sinister and I’ll read through the other suggestions on that thread. Might need to use a laptop to run this campaign, given the wealth of online material available (either that, or a big folder).

Bearer of Words said:

Bearer of Words said:

I would not play all Purge the Unclean scenarios in straight sequence (or maybe not all of them anyway as Gregorius rightly suggested) as that might derail the players indeed a little too much. My campaign (running since 2008) had the following sequence:

Edge of Darkness
Illumination
Rejoice for you are True!
Gateway 17 (from Dark Reign - used as a sequel to Edge of Darknes, whcih my players sort of botched)
War Wounds (homemade sidestory to bring the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness into the story)
Maggots in the Meat
Cold Tower (homemade sidestory (see above) mentioning the Yu'vath xenos for my campaign)
Shades of Twilight
House of Dust and Ash
Tattered Fates
Baron Hopes
Damned Cities
Death from Above (end of mentioned sidestory)
Bastion Orpheus (short interlude to get direction to Mara besides giving more information to the PCs and bringing in the Serrated Query again)
Dead Stars

You could absolutely take away Baron Hopes as it is indeed the weakest of the three. Shades of Twilight is quick and dirty and my players sort of liked the blunt action after all the difficult investigations. Rejoice for you are True has great potential and has some story links to Illumination, which again has a link to the House of Dust and Ash.

Anyway, I always wonder about the "derailing" argument for not using some scenarios besides the main story arc. This is part of the fun in my view. It is rather dull, if everything that happens has to do with the one major plot. That is like working for the police and avery case you get is (by chance) about the very same serial killer.

The Haarlock Legacy can be scaled rather easily for more experienced groups and even has some hints how to achieve it, though with some experience as a GM it is easy to accomplish anyway.

Keep away from The Apostasy Gambit. It is utter rubbish. The worst I read for years. Even besides all the more "technical" mistakes…

Thanks Gregoirious and Luther Harkon, always happy to read advice. I'd rather stick to quality adventures than pad the campaign out with unengaging adventures. How does this look?

'Edge of Darkness'
‘Rejoice for You are True!’
Damned Cities
‘Shades of Twilight’
Tattered Fates
'House of Dust and Ash'
Dead Stars

The party could be caught at the end of 'Shades of Twilight' as other groups scour the hulk, setting up Tattered Fates . I'm really looking forward to running this game.

Bearer of Words said:

I agree with putting in extra missions between the specific Haarlock parts. My current campaign is planned to go as follows:

The Emperor's Fury - homemade intro about underhive losing themselves in music set up by The Beloved

Damned Cities

Selling Out - PCs are sent undercover into the punk scene spawned by the Emperor's Fury adventure in order to recover Governor Hax's son who has run off to enjoy himself. This has been quite lite as I wanted to keep the players a little off balance. There isn't actually any heresy here, just some things that perhaps the authorities don't want to happen. Up to the PCs to decide whether it is Inquisition Business. Something I want them to be mindfull of. We are just coming to the close of this.

Edge of Darkenss - I'm going to use this scaled up for their current power level to introduce more factions

House of Dust and Ash

Tattered Fates

Undefined as yet homemade mission - non-Haarlock related

Spear of Destiny - Homemade addition about the return of Haarlock's ship

Dead Stars

Move into top tier plus ascension with a sensei related plot arc.

Whoops, realised I missed out another homemade one I snuck between Emperor's Fury and Damned Cities:

Something Rotten in Altdorf - PCs travel to a feudal world to investigate a nurgle cult.

Talking homemades

Luthor Harkon said:

How can we motivate you to put down one or two of your homemades? ´Summary + Liste of scenes + short descritpion for each scene + list of npc ("bare bones") would already be finde

Gregorius21778 said:

How can we motivate you to put down one or two of your homemades? ´Summary + Liste of scenes + short descritpion for each scene + list of npc ("bare bones") would already be finde

Phew, I had to check my old notes (older even than the release of Tattered Fates)…

They all take place on the Frontier World of Zumthor, which is an ice planet (about 50 million inhabitants in a single domed colony and some minor outposts) on the verge of becoming a Mining World officially (in fact the local major combine (the Coltek Combine) and the local Government try their best to protract that towards the Administratum, as it would mean paying a higher tithe to the Imperium).

In the first scenario, the PCs are sent to make contact with a former Acolyte (Solomon) of their Inquisitor, who he supposes has information about a certain heretic (Castus). When the PCs arrive (their cover is being specialists of the Administratum to support the local Magistratum), this former Acolyte is dead, killed in a vile and almost occult manner (backbone missing…). The killer is in fact the (daemonic familiar of a) desperate Castus, who tries to get a dark relic (a chalice) back that he supposes was taken by either Solomon or another former Acolyte (Thaddius). The chalice is needed for a dark ritual to Balphomael granting the Dark Pact of Survival (Rulebook p. 242) for 17 years, if filled with the ritually killed offspring of the user (can be renewed every 17 years with another killed offspring).
Castus fled from the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness (which he shortly was part of) from where he had stolen the Chalice in the first place. Thaddius, who in fact took the chalice in the past, fell to the dark whisperings and promises of Balphomael and in the meantime became part/started his own branch of the Brotherhood on Zumthor and therefore subverted part of the upper echelons of the major local combine (the Coltek Combine).

In the second scenario, the PCs are again sent to Zumthor (this time under the cover of the Divisio Immoralis one character is indeed part of) to make contact with one of their Inquisitor’s Interrogators, who was/is infiltrating the Coltek Combine. The Coltek Combine (being mainly into mining) operates a multitude of drilling rigs in the icy sea of Zumthor and one of these (Rubicon 13) drilled by accident into an ancient xenos (Yu’Vath in fact) station under the sea recently, when the AI of the station became active again because of the intrusion. The Interrogator crash lands and dies on his flight back from the rig, which was overrun by Yu’Vath constructs. The PCs come to the crash land by chance, when they arrive on Zumthor and subsequently investigate the matter on Zumthors only domed colony and later on the rig itself.

The third scenario is basically a raid of the Coltek compound on Zumthor.

The fourth scenario is a visit of the Amber Archive in the Bation Orpheus on an asteroid in the Maccabeus Quintos sytem (see Radicals Handbook) to get some knowledge about the Bray Lexicon and the Blind Tesseract; though everyone on the Bastion was killed by a raid party of the Cabal of the Crimson Woe on behalf of the Serrated Query just before the PCs arrive.

I now have three players confirmed and will hopefully have a fourth before we start. Reading through the core Dark Heresy book, I had a question with regards to the nature of the group's Inquisitor. When running, do you decide the degree of their orthodoxy, or do you find that it is more effective to discuss what sort of methods the group would enjoy working with? The reason I ask is that I think they might enjoy a little more freedom than playing as completely devout Acolytes. Personally, I'd like to let them be at least open to the possibilities of utilizing some of the heretical techniques from The Radical's Handbook (which I do not yet own), with the attendant dangers that these pose. Is it best to allow them some freedom from oversight in this matter?

These are the books I own and will read in advance of the campaign:

Dark Heresy Core Rulebook
GM Kit
Creatures Anathema
Disciples of the Dark Gods
Purge the Unclean
The Haarlock Legacy Trilogy

Are there any other books I should get hold of and read/have for reference?

I have generally found it better to leave that question open. The Inquisitor (who my current group haven't even met yet) isn't going to tell them "this is ok, but that is over the line" let them adopt a position themselves and then if it comes to it and you think it would be fun have the boss be more or less puritanical.

On the Inquisitor

Ask your players!

This is mainly important for the inner-group mechanics. If one of them play a Redemption hardliner and another would like to toy with warp…well, things will get ugly pretty soon.

My current group where recruited by one of the Interrogators of the Inquisitor and only got to know him later on (..they have seen him…twice by now). If they would want to keep things secret, they could. But one of the group is a Sororitas.. Anway, they were told that they would need to risk their souls in the line of duty… the Sister has an eye on them but is told to take into account the nature & needs of the tasks.

Actually, they do not touch anything daemonic but own xeos weapons (currently: two eldar splinter pistols) but have not used them by now. But the Inquisitor knows it and approves it. They are Ordo Xenos.

I think that the players will respond well to being given the opportunity to shape the setup for the campaign. One video reviewer for said that it would be best to not allow any psykers in the group because of the chance that they might be able to reveal some of the mysteries of The Haarlock Legacy too early in the campaign. What are your thoughts on this? Are there any classes that are essential for this campaign?

Bearer of Words said:

TBH I love having diviners in a DH game. It gives you a lot of scope to mess with them. Diviniation NEVER gives you a straight answer and remember that Haarlock would have been aware of divination and would therefore have taken steps to ensure it wouldn't comepletely ruin his plans.

Finally, things are starting to fall into place for this campaign. I now have four players and three have chosen character classes and backgrounds. So far, I have:

1. Ex-Commissar psyker specializing in Telekinesis from an Imperial World- ultra orthodox, he turned himself in as soon as his psychic powers began to manifest. Expecting to either be executed or sent to be sacrificed to the Emperor, he found himself recruited to the Inquisition. He has undergone extensive 'induction', as they have tried to reverse his anti-witch conditioning, telling him that he must develop his 'Gift' to serve the Emperor; failure to do so would be a betrayal of the Imperium.
2. Van Saar Scum from a Hive World (perhaps Gun Metal City on Scintilla?)- essentially a great negotiator and able to handle himself in a fight.
3. Void Born Arbitrator- Managed to uncover a plot by Black Hold renegades to disarm the Gellar Field onboard his ship, with a view allowing Daemons to possess the crew. He pieced together the sale and theft of components via intimidating black market traders and collaborating with the onboard Tech Priests.

As I want to emphasize the investigation aspects of the game (essentially a Gothic horror noir campaign in which combat is used as a last resort and/or where absolutely necessary). For this reason, I think that either a Cleric or Adept would make an ideal fourth character.

Do you have any suggestions as to how I can help my players develop their characters in such a way as to emphasize investigation?

I love the Arbitrator concept and wondered whether you would recommend The Book of Judgement ? In particular, have any of you played the adventure 'Jurisdiction? Is it any good? If so, where would it best fit into the following running order?

'Edge of Darkness'
‘Rejoice for You are True!’
Damned Cities
‘Shades of Twilight’
Tattered Fates
'House of Dust and Ash'
Dead Stars

Finally, I'm thinking about calling the overall campaign In the Shadow of the Tyrant Star, which has (I feel) a suitably Lovecraftian/Call of Cthulhu vibe.

This is going to be awesome.

Personally with only 4 I would recommend Cleric over Adept. It seems to me that most adepts don't really become useful in fights and some of the Haarlock fights in particular will be a bit much - whereas Clerics get to be pretty good whilst still being able to investigate. Also there might be some good dynamic between a cleric and the psyker that is struggling a bit with his new situation.