I am considering running an extended campaign for 4-5 PCs, mostly based on the Apostasy Gambit. I am also considering disallowing PC psykers from this campaign. Partly because their rules are kind of borked in DH, partly because they take away from almost every other class, partly because there is always a psyker in my groups, and partly because the Inquisitor they will be working for enjoys burning the witches. My questions are as follows:

1- Has anyone run a memorable, fun, balanced, etc campaign without psykers in the PC group? What exactly made it a good experience?

2- Is the absence of a psyker a handicap? If so, what can be done from a GM perspective to limit and/or eliminate the handicap?

I ran a fairly solid DH game with no psykers, except that during one session a player who had shown interest, but due to scheduling issues was unable to play most of the game. He had created an adept with Thy Name I Keep (and thus had the boon granting nearly all knowledge), as well as sorcery abilities. He only lasted one session. Its partly a mark against me as a GM for allowing him in with that character, as basically his presence ratcheted party paranoia beyond 11.

In general though, I was able to maintain an interesting game quite easily, through the use of memorable villains, active PCs, etc. I was fairly permissive with what players were able to build up/perform (had a tech priest with the skill "Scholastic Lore(Tech)," essentially, he was the "safe" kind of heretek, only saved from execution by his peers by a semi-radical inquisitor, or a scum who was trying to build up an intelligence network by pretty much trying to make every semi useful NPC/shopkeeper into some contact of his).

I ran the game as a semi open investigation, jumping from planet to planet every once in a while. I minimized the difficulty of warp travel time by actually building up the tension that for some reason (as a part of the meta plot of the campaign) warp travel was instantaneous in real time (they still spent weeks and months in the warp) in the Calixis subsector. The players also had a ship at their semi-disposal (they could go places with it, but couldn't generally call upon its crew for combat assistance/orbital strikes and what not). With warp travel as it was, this helped explain rapid healing times between "major" segments, xp training time, crafting time, etc. All while not ratcheting the real world clock up too much (e.g. if they knew the cult was operating on a planet across the subsector, and were only a week away from completing their ritual, it was not a done deal that they could not make it in time).

As far as can psykers break the game? Sure. I'm actually lest worried of DH psykers though, they have some of the toughest systems in place if you ask me. I just wouldn't use the fettered/unfettered/pushed system (but this is a non-ascension game, right?).

Does it handicap the party? Hardly. Although it might depend on the nature of the threat. The the enemy are quite strongly using psychic powers and in contact with the warp it very much helps to have a psyker. If you're dealing with aliens or hereteks its a bit less pronounced.

Realize, not every enemy/cult has to be based around the use of daemons. Take the Temple Tendancy. Its a vile form of heresy in the system, basically filled to the brim with the nature of the conflicts that occurred during the Protestant reformation, but then blurring the lines so much that nobody can tell which is which. Or just random planetary separatists looking to get their planet out from the control of the oppressive Imperium (yet who have no inkling of just how bad a thing that would be for their world given the nature of the foes that beset mankind on all sides, the sad truth of 40k). Psykers are great at certain forms of detection, especially if the enemies are leaving behind distinct trails that Psyniscience can pick up, but good old Scrutiny, Awareness, and Search can do a really good job as well.

deadlyhammer said:

In combat-oriented campaigns, Psykers usually serve as the party's 'healer'; without one, healing damage after- or during!- a firefight will likely be a major problem. But if you are trying to stress steath, investigation, and interaction skills rather than combat, then go for it!

the bulk of the campaign will emphasize investigation and most of the combat is against human enemies armed with average weapons. the major exceptions is the final fight against the big baddie in chaos commandment. and in all my groups, not once has a psyker been convinced to take the biomancy healing power. this has proved to be a mistake every time, but thats neither here nor there.

well im glad to hear the initial response is favorable. besides the above, what are the major downsides to not having a psyker in the PC group?

The major downside is the restriction of player choice.

If you're all happy with it, then by all means go for it. A Psyker is never necessary.

I'm running a game right now that has no Psyker. Not because I said anything just no one particularly chose/rolled one. It is fine other than sometimes having to tweak adventures that specify Psyniscience checks to allow the mundane investigations to pick things up. This is usually not hard, and only on one occasion have the PCs delibrately gone to find a psyker to help them. I quite like this, it means that I can build up their relationship with the on-call psyker and then kill him off at the appropriate moment…

I have run a game for a long time with neither psyker nor tech priest, and there have been absolutely no problems with it - went through the harlock trilogy and some home made adventures and it has been great fun. Actually, it has not even been a discussion if we were lacking these careers. Healing might be slower without a psyker, but the players adapt - some with bionics in place of lost limbs… :-)

Recently a tech priest has joined in and the adept is going the psyker route, and that works too. There are no required careers imo.