Why do you like DH over the other 40k RPG systems?

For me, it is the grittiness, you CAN ascend to greater power and wealth, but most acolytes spend the majority of their career trying to survice. You are weak, you are in over your head but you MUST suceed. You need to be covert, stealthy, you are not astartes who charge in the front door, you can't do that, at least without tempting fate too much. You have to be smart, you have to play dirty, but you don't have to be. There are many options in how to play this game, but one thing is known. You are not a mighty army of the emperor's fist. You are not the mighty astartes. You are not scion to a ship, wealth and a warrant granting you status equal to an Inquisitor or a Lord-General. You are not a twisted heretic who desires the destruction of mankind.

You are Human, a single person or a small team, alone against the horrors of the galaxy, but together, you may, just may stop the slow death of humanity for just one day.

May your names be inscribed onto the gilded book on Terra.

It's less Munchtastic than RT or DW. I like that your above average but other wise reasonabaly normal people with some serious trainingh or perhaps you've bean around the block once or twice (or maby a combonation of both), going out there and doing somthing.

then again I'm not realy a fan of "Acenchion" level games for the most part. so I think it more has to do wiuth Power Levling than feel of the game.

I like the Inquisition. I love the idea of a small cadre of people searching for heresy and enemies hidden out of sight. I can certainly see the fun in the other games (and have had fun playing some of them as well), but Dark Heresy is still the one that captures my imagination the most.

BYE

I'm a fan of the 40Kverse, and I feel that Dark Heresy showcases the 'highlights' of the universe best. Deathwatch and Only War embody the 'brutal fight for the survival of the human race' aspect, but they don't allow for much venturing into the corridors of power of the Imperium, the 'blind leviathan' that directs the opperssive regime and casually sacrifices people by the millions to maintain it's dominance. Rogue Trader has some of that, but the PCs are largely exempt from the Imperial 'standard' of the threat of execution should they incur the wrath of those above them- and there should always be 'a bigger fish'… Black Crusade has an amusing concept in viewing the Imperium from the other side, but ultimately I think that being on the side of Chaos robs the Ruinous Powers of most of the horror they are supposed to embody.

Dark Heresy has the most of the things I like about the 40Kverse: the violence, the horror, the oppressiveness, the mystery and treachery- the 'grim darkness', basically…

I think DH best showcases life in the Imperium beyond the Battlefields of the 41st Millenium. It embodies the true James bond (Or Bourne identity) aspect at it's lower levels and allows players to experience true corridors of power at it's upper levels. That said I would really like to see the DH mechanics updated to the OW standard both for combat and character creation (Insert shoutout to Plushy for all his excellent conversion work!) I believe that for ascension to work it would have to be completely rewritten to adress it's multiple flaws!

I like it because the game isn't a Sitcom. Things don't return to normal at the end of each session. Wounds don't always heal, corruption never fades, and the only way you can survive for any length of time is to skirt closer and closer to crossing the line. There is a very real possibility that your Acolyte will die this time, or become the enemy that he/she was sworn to hunt.

Most of the time you're playing a character with ideological hangups in a Dystopia. Not everything is solved with a sword and a gun, but with a clever word or a piece of planted evidence.

It's not a game about winning. It's about holding out as long as you can against the myriad of physical and mental assaults that will NEVER end. It's a game you can't win. The only measure of your success is how long your Acolyte's body and mind can survive at the hands of threats to the Imperium, and at the hands of the Imperium itself.

And most of all I like how the game makes you question your own morality.

IdOfEntity said:

Or you can do what my party does and play the grimdark far future as black comedy. The setting is so unbelievably bleak it's hard to take seriously sometimes. Sometimes it's like Paranoia without the extra clones.

Also, I'm pretty sure I've "won" Dark Heresy. Multiple times, even. One of my characters even became High Magos of Necromunda and basically retired. And it's hard to be scared of a daemonhost when you've just bisected it with a mundane sword thanks to three Righteous Furies in a row. The only Acolyte that I've ever had die was my Psyker, and that's because he shot himself after finding his father again and promptly being disowned.

Then again, this all depends on the GM/group playing the game. Some prefer their oppressive, hopeless, Lovecraftian horror, others just want to blast stuff for the Emprah. It's all a matter of preference.

I like Dark Heresy because in many ways it's just Shadowrun with out all the safety and glitz. Plus unlike Shadowrunners the characters survive by their wits instead of their amazing powers or cybernetics. (Although admittedly to reinforce this no one in the cell plays a Tech Priest or Psyker)

As a game master I am fond of the ludicrous scale of decay and evil. Save for doing nothing the Acolytes are a force for good and for change.

I love DH because it really allow me to get into the 40k universe like little else. To me it feels like RT, DW and BC are only dealing with kind of narrow parts of the universe while DH deals with the meat and bone of the mighty Imperium and this is something which I like very much. Being a powerful Space Marine is cool, but seeing the actual Imperium up close from the grassroots level is that I really love.

Simply put, because you play as the underdogs working against unfathomable odds, against the most insidious and vile of corruptive forces, the feel of being a band of ragtag heroes that are given (more or less) free reign to pursue these goals at any cost.

Then there is the atmosphere/theme, the lore-rich GrimDark setting and of course - Bolt Guns!

Garner said:

Boss Gitsmasha said:

Absolutely, it's all preference and perspective. It is what I like about the system and setting though, and the system and setting certainly make that playstyle accessible.

All but one of my characters have died. The only one to survive to rank 8 was an Arbitrator that was tough as nails, and he lost a limb early on to a Frag Grenade. The arm could be replaced, but I would have sworn up and down for hours if he'd ever taken bad energy damage to the head. (I invested quite a bit into his FP skills & Talents)

IdOfEntity said:

Sounds a bit like my arbitrator that has survived to rank 7, but has lost an arm, an eye and got his lungs replaced as well. The lungs got destroyed by a crit to the body, luckily the fate bell rang and he survived it.

The 40K setting is rich in detail. So much has been written of it over the past 30 years that, as a GM, there is little to be desired in the way of inspiration. The iconic imagery of the Imperium is itself evocative, and I'm fortunate to have a group of players who have steeped themselves in 40K lore for many, many years. "Things" lurk beyond the dark corners and dwell within the shadows of the Imperium that ordinary citizens never come close to knowing of or seeing, but for Acolytes these revelations become burdensome, worrisome, frightening, and damning.

What I like most of Dark Heresy is that there can be no apathy, no rest, no respite, and no end to the struggles and sacrifices to save Mankind. An ill-fated sequence of events and uncooperative dice could lead to TPK, an unfortunate mean to the end, but even in death have the Acolytes served the Master of Mankind.

I played a game of DH today and one part really reminded me of why I love DH. We didn't have a massive ship, we don't all have power armor and power swords, we aren't marines, we don't really have heavy weapon teams, tons of gear, etc.

We were on a small flyer to be dropped off, our craft was attacked after landing, all our gear was some light armor, a couple weapons on each of us, some light simple gear (1 or 2 special items on each of us). That is all, we are alone on a planet with weird **** happening, with limited gear and resources and we have to do our job.

From a GM's point of view I like DH more than the other Wh40K systems because it is more flexible in the stories you can tell.