Hi normally I play WFRP but I'm suffering GM burnout and was thinking a change maybe as good as a rest. I have only played Dark Heresy twice and have none of the books. The people I played with live several hundred miles away so I can't join their game and they warned me that Dark Heresy has quite a narrow scope.

So my questions are : Is Dark Heresy good? Should I take it up?

Thanks

yes..

no ?

dunno!

Foolishboy said:

Personally, I think the game is great. I do not think it is narrow at all. If you have a creative gamesmaster, then the game is not narrow at all. People need to realise that it's not the 'Inquisition on rails', and that the acolytes are given free scope. My honest opinion is that it is difficult to represent the 40k universe in a roleplaying game - given the nature of the setting; a generic game is almost impossible. Despite some of the hindrances of Dark Heresy, I think it's an excellent game.

hi,

I think it is one of the greatest rpgs ever! countless possibilies for the GM to make something unique, balanced careers and a bloody fighting mechanism...

what else do you want?

I find it much less restrictive than WFRP. Adventures can range over many different Worlds not just a renaissance-level fantasy Europe. One adventure can be on a primitive worlds with dinosaurs, then a high-tech world with mile high spires, then a mining world of mutants and slave rebellions... in fact the world can be anything you'd find in another RPG (just with added METAL).

It should be familiar enough if you like WFRP but give you a breath of fresh air, too. Give it a try.

Or at least read the Eisenhorn Omnibus novel to give yourself an idea of what it's like being an inquisitor's acolyte.

I do not know about WFRP, but I am ad odds with the rules/system of DH at many occasions.

If you aren´t a WH40K fanatic, I would not recommend it.

If you are, it is a must have (of course)

I really like dark heresy. I find it requires a little bit more work on the GMs part. You have to design the world and cities where in WFRP you can use all the maps and cities that have been detailed.

Dark Heresy is well worth it. I highly recommend it!

I, in all honest, can't get enough of Dark Heresy. The system has a few flaws but that does nothing to diminish my love of it.

Gregorius21778 said:

I had never even heard of WH40K before Dark Heresy , and I love the game. Because of DH, I am really into the whole WH40K experience. I'm an old school AD&D player from the 80s. I rarely found an RPG that I wanted to play that wasn't AD&D, or at least fantasy. DH changed all that. It is my favorite RPG now. By all means, play it.

Kim

Play it now or you will be branded a heretic and purged!

Personally I love the game, love the setting and the grimdark of it all, so i'm biased. But when people think that it is kind of a narrow scope, I think they are referring to the whole "Inquisition acolyte" thing. But I can only say that of the three campaigns I'm currently running, only one of them are in the inquisition. One group is fighting other gangs for power and territory in the bottom of a hive city, the other group is Imperial guard, currently locked in muddy -bloody trench warfare against seperatists.

The setting is very diverse and with WHFRP under the belt, you'll figure out the rules quickly enough

Just remember, In the grim dark future of grim darkness, there is only grim darkness and war

Thank you all for your replies and I'm glad to hear that my concerns were unfounded.

I think I will give it a go so I'll get hold of some books.

Cheers

I also have to say not every adventure has to be Inquisition in Dark Heresy (or selling space fruit in Rogue Trader), one of the adventures I ran for DH was a high gambling all stakes high Maverick sort of game.

Others were noble families hiring mercenaries to do their dirty work, and yet othrs were inquisition based. I say the inquisition comes a callnig the PCS I had about onece every 3 or 4 adventures.

You definately need to core book and if you can afford it the Inquisitor's Handbook. Purge the Unclean is nice and useful, but not a necessity. Disciples of the Dark Gods is a good read, but not 100% needed, I havent seen Creatures Anathema yet (it is killing me knowing that it is in my mail box back home and Im stuck here in Afghanistan!)

I loved the eisenhorn books, but I find that trying to GM a game necesitates things work differently... I dont want to give any single player the 'you are the inquisitor!' controlls... or start the game off at that sort of high level. So I plan on getting their inquisitor killed quickly and having them try to hide the fact (so that they dont show their hand to whoever's hunting him/them and get them to try again. Still... starting the players off with 400 xp seems weak for an inquisitor's trusted retinue as you would find in the books, yet I haven't the experience as a GM or with the system yet to modify the dificulty upwards or to balance a mission properly. Ah well, a little challenge makes life more interesting.

I normally play WFRP, but I've got my mits on the DH corebook cheap, and it looks good. I've yet to play in any games yet, but the rules seem solid, there arn't as many careers as given in WFRP, but the idea for DH is that what you were is much looser. A guardsmen, it's up to you to choose what you were, a sniper, a front line infantryman, it basically pulls this off by giving you every stat as an advance scheme, but different upgrades will cost more, meaning Adept hoping to beef up their WS will need to pay a lot mroe xp than if they wanted to advance their Intelligence say.

Yet to play a game, but it all looks rather good, it's gotten me back into 40K certainly, I'd all but forgotten I had Ravenor returned lurking on my bookshelf, needing to be read

It's a phenomenal setting with a functional system which is both similar enough to your WFRP to make the transition a breeze and different enough to give you a taste of a new game. I'd say give it a go. I've narrowed my game collection down to WFRP and DH and couldn't be happier. Mind you I still have other books but they're all packed away right now for an indefinite amount of time.

I am considering putting my WFPR campaign on indefinate hold :/ DH is sooo alluring....

Funny that. I'm thinking about returning to WHFRP!

I've narrowed my selection down to 40K and Anima, mostly because Anima provides a completely different style of play. I do still retain my other books as well, and I'm not forsaking all gaming, these are just the games I've got the itch for.

Dark Heresy is definatly a good rpg. Its got its issues here and there, and it being 40k doesn't always help stop the arguements about fluff, but all in all its a good game.

That said its not for everyone. Dark Heresy is a low power game, not an over the top game and it can one of those games where if you don't know exactly what you're doing you can end up killing yourself, driving yourself insane or corrupting yourself very quickly. Once you have an idea what is going on, and you get a few tiers under your belt, the game goes a lot smoother. Pretty much exactly like WHFRP.

The rules aren't perfect either, but their not broken. There are a few rough spots, but they're easy enough to houserule over. Good thing is that Dark Heresy doesn't become a huge house rule hodgepodge either where by the time you end up seriously playing it, your rules don't match the system at all. Mostly the rule work, and work well for what it does. Just don't try and bend them too far out of shape and you'll be fine.

For books I'm going to suggest the core obviously. The Inquisitors handbook is indispensible. Disciples of the Dark Gods is nice, but hardly necessary, except for the fact that the Haarlock prequel is in that book and if you plan on running the Haarlock series you may want the book for that. Its still a great book though, just not as necessary as the Inquisitors Handbook.

Since I made the mistake of originally ordering Creatures Anathema from Amazon, I haven't gotten it yet so I can't speak about it. The pre-written adventures run the gambit of good to okay. The best so far for me is the Haarlock prequel though.

Peacekeeper also made a good point, in which not every adventure has to be about the =][=. You're adepts need downtime too, and it can be fun to run that downtime as a session or two from time to time, especially if it has any kind of wrinkle to it.

Anyone, bottom line is I haven't regretted playing Dark Heresy yet. Its not for everyone, but its fun.

If you want some good advice on if it is good or not, go to youtube and type in "DARK HERESY REVIEW". Look for the review by blue table painting (user name of someone). You'll get the anwer you want.

If you're a big fan of Necromunda , and also dig Dog Town by Cold Blooded Games, you can also run a group of Hivers in a criminal setting rather effectively. Dirty Arbitrators, Assassins, the Clerical protection racket, all have places in Drog Town . (Sorry, I couldn't contain myself.)

I think DH is a good system with a great setting. the system as some great features (simple, fast paced, fun combat), but is let down in other areas (slightly awkward percentile system, restrictive character creation and advancement, limited social stats). But no system is perfect and DH is a fun game.

Dark Heresy was the game that made me decide to sit on the other side of the table after ten+ years of saying I only liked to play.

But that is because the Inquisition is my favorite part of 40k. If you're considering the game and coming from WFRP, then you probably know something about 40k, and presumably liking it if you're looking at picking up Dark Heresy. The question to ask yourself is what about 40k do you like. Because as has been discussed ad nauseum on these boards, Dark Heresy is not 40k the roleplaying game. It is "The Inquisition" the Roleplaying game. If that suddenly makes it sound far less attractive to you, you might do better to wait until Rogue Trader or Deathwatch come out.