The Puritan's Handbook

By alemander, in Dark Heresy

This really needs to be the next book out for DH. We of the puritanical factions of the Inquisition need our own sourcebook of fluff, powers, talents, etc. to contrast to the Radical's Handbook. It could be very much in line with the old 3.5 D&D Book of Exalted Deeds, as contrasted with the 3.5 D&D Book of Vile Darkness.

Are there others out there who would love to see this book, or are the majority of DH players Radicals?

~alemander

I find it hard to get excited about a Puritan's Handbook , because it is assumed that Puritanism is the 'baseline' of the Inquisition; most of the 'standard' info about the Inquisition presented so far already constitutes a 'virtual' Puritan's Handbook , in my opinion…

That said, I'll buy just about anything that comes out with the Dark Heresy name on it, to show FFG that there is still a consumer base for the 'grandaddy' of the WH40KRP line, in hopes of getting more DH releases in the future.

What I really want to see next, though, is an Ordo Xenos sourcebook: the Ordo Xenos has recieved far less support than Ordos Hereticus and Malleus, and, since I plan on going OX after my current Hereticus-based campaign wraps up, I'd really like to see than oversight rectified.

I respectfuly disagree, Puritanism isnt "base" of the Inquisition conduct, more like a mainstream, with its specific quirks and deviations. I think a book about this would be useful, firstly for deeper writeup of three main Puritan philosophies as was briliantly done for Radical ones, with new and (not only) Calixis specific minor Puritan movements. I for example, would love to see a take on Polarism movement as presented in Matt Farrer´s novel Blind.

From other themes, it could very well adress various levels of Inquisition extremism (as radicalism has different meaning) and intolerance, as those are the themes often discussed (there are inquisitors who kill every mutant and psyker with exception of navigators and lobotomised astropaths), even movements puritan to the point of being heretical, such as Abstractionism and Red Redmption.

As Radical´s Handbook focuses itself on "Shadow War" aspect of the Holy Ordos, Puritan Handbook could be very suitable place to describe open dealings of the Inquisition such as public denoucinations, baroque show trials, tradition bound ceremonies and representation and last but not least, Battle-Inquisitors known from tabletop, more or less heroicaly leading vast armies against Enemies of the Imperium.

(My two cents)

Blood of Martyrs/Daemon Hunter, anyone?

Also, weren't Book of Exalted Deeds and Book of Vile Darkness both terrible?

Boss Gitsmasha said:

Blood of Martyrs/Daemon Hunter, anyone?

Are not the same, and you could say they were both unnecessery as they contained stuff from Inquisitors Handbook, Disciples of the Dark Gods and Radicals Handbook.

Boss Gitsmasha said:

Blood of Martyrs/Daemon Hunter, anyone?

Also, weren't Book of Exalted Deeds and Book of Vile Darkness both terrible?

I didn't think so. I played characters each based out of those books. One was a Living Saint and the other was a Disciple of Mephistopheles. They are two of the more highly remembered characters in our gaming group.

Anyway, I think BoM is a great book and the faith stuff is pretty awesome, but Puritanism isn't always about faith. Plus BoM doesn't delve into the areas that Radical's does. I want to see alternate career paths based on Puritanism and everything that Radical's gives but for Puritans, obviously.

~alemander

We really need an Ordo Xenos sourcebook first.

Daemon Hunter is Ordo Malleus (a mix of Puritan and Radical)

BoM is Ordo Hereticus/Church (Mainly Puritan)

Radicals Handbook is all about the darker paths, from those in the light, to those ensared by the dark

DDG covers a mixture of heresies and adversaries (very limited on xenos)

CA has a couple xenos, not much though

IH is the all rounder, though more on the puritan/middle ground than radical

That said, a Puritan book MAY be interesting, but they have gotten a LOT more love than Ordo Xenos, which has a few MINOR chunks books (IH, RH, CA and DDG)

My sentiments exactly, Cymbel.

Alien Hunters is also welcomed, I just have weird feeling that 30-50% of the book would be about integrating Deathwatch and maybe Rogue Trader into Dark Heresy.

Well, I dont see how it would take up most of the book. I didnt feel Grey Knights overly dominated the Daemon Hunter book and they had special rules and gear and advancements that had to be written out. I do see FFG taking a couple pages (max) of how to work the Deathwatch into your Ordo Xenos campaign, as alternate PCs for the players to use during the eradication scenes

TorogTarkdacil812 said:

Boss Gitsmasha said:

Blood of Martyrs/Daemon Hunter, anyone?

Are not the same, and you could say they were both unnecessery as they contained stuff from Inquisitors Handbook, Disciples of the Dark Gods and Radicals Handbook.

Speaking as someone who owns all five of those books, the amount of reprinted material and overlap there is actually quite small. For the most part its the base rules for how to handle Sorcery that get repreated, and those aren't in BoM or DH.

And Torog makes some good arguements in favour of a Puritan's book and what it could contain for material. In fact it would be a better way to present the militant side of the Inquisition than what we were at one time going to get from Only War (which works better as it is now, than it would have trying to shoehorn in war from a soldier's perspective).

A Xenos book could be good too.

I'm sort of struggling to see what would go in a Puritan's Handbook.

Sisters and Clerics are the super Puritanical sorts, and most of the character archetypes I can think of have pretty much already been covered. I'd much rather see an Ordo Xenos book (delicious imported Tau weapons) or a book on the Adeptus Astra Telepathica because we know so little about them. Dark Heresy should cover the Holy Adeptus; Book of Judgment was some much-needed love for the Arbites.

Alternatively, they could try to do Ascension again but not screw it up. But that's too much to hope for~