So, I've managed to convice several of my friends to try out Dark Heresy, with me as the GM. Most have never played an RPG before on paper, so it'll be a learning experience for everyone.

Now, I don't have the time to write my own adventure, so I looked into running the Haarlock series of campaigns, and after reading them, I think they'll be a nice enjoying ride for us. However, I'm a bit stuck on what order to run them into, and tying everything together.

I had intended to start with Shattered Hopes, adapted a bit, as a nice, simple, and easy introduction to the game. From there, I was going to move into the campaign included in the main rulebook, which I can't remember the name of, but the BBEG is the daemon Dances at the Threshold.

From there, I was going to move into book 1 of the Haarlock saga. I wanted to do this early for several reasons, not one of which is that this way the loss of gear early on won't hurt my players as much.

From there, I'm not totally sure where to proceed. I had considered running book 2 after that, then the House of Ash and Dust, then finishing with Book 3 as a climax to the whole thing.

One of the things I was intending is trying to tie the elements together a little better. One idea was to have the xenos tech used for the corrupted tarot in the main book adventure be Slaught in origin, with the players abduction in book one also being their macinations as revenge for foiling the daemon's summoning. However, I'm not really sure how the players can find out about this, short of having the overseer in the House of Ash gloating about it.

I'm also not the most experienced GM, so my other concern is if this flow is going to leave my character properly equipped. I had intended to give them extra help, being new players(I have planned to have them formally meet their Inquisitor at the end of the first book, and with him being friends of the dead Inquisitor featured, he rewards them all for their committment to duty and revenging the death of his ally. I had also intended to expand the auction at House of Ash to give them a bit more rare equipment right before the final run, so they've got a nice little extra boost) and generally I'm trying to avoid being too, too lethal(combat isn't a concern for us, even though they're new players, as we all know our way around gunfights, but I'm not too sure how to balance the encounters, and if the early missions will provide enough experience to deal with the Haarlock series(I had intended for them to finish the first two missions with roughly 1500xp, halfway to rank 4).

Any help or advice is welcomed.

Shattered Hope is not very good. I always reccomend to new GMs that they start with Edge of Darkness, which can be freely downloaded from FFGs website.

This is a very good aventure, and an excellent intro to the setting and the system.

Ok, so Edge of Darkness instead, I'm all for that.

Any other advice?

Hello!

Yes, Edge of Darkness is one of the best starting scenarios are your players are bound to have a blast playing it.

As for the game in the Book- I've heard that it requires a lot of either small changes, or expanded information from the GM to really shine- I would skip it, for now.

How familiar are you with the setting? If your very familiar with it, I would recommend you pick up a Call of Cthulhu Scenario book and run one of the One-shots in there, or even a campaign, as they can be very easily adapted to 40k and they are very well linked and coherent.

Even though the Haarlock legacy is very good- its very much a skeleton and requires a lot of work if you want to do it just right (seeing as you only get one chance to do it with the group…): The conspiracy is long and detailed… but not in the actual books! They consist of missions and events that aren't very connected, save by the name Haarlock- happening on distant planets. You'd need to flesh it out yourself with extra missions in between, interesting long lasting protagonists and a number of one0shots. Mostly you'll find clues and elements to the Haarlock conspiracy it in all of the Dark Heresy line, from Disciples of the Dark Gods to the Radicals Handbook. So you need to be familiar not with the setting as 40k, but with the Calixis sector in particular, if you want to get the maximum effect.

If you still want to run Haarlock, there's usually a specific order to it- people often recommend you start with Damned Cities first, (strangely enough), and having played it myself I would agree: the big twist here is that one of Haarlock's servants, fearing his master's return, attempts to escape his mystical prison. Its great to herald the start of "the arrival".

After that, the House of Dust and Ash and/Or Tattered Fates specifically mention Haarlock and lead slightly deeper into the conspiracy itself. We find out more about his background and his story there. A Good chance to expand on the adventure. The begining of Tattered Fates can easily be plugged in at the end of the House, what with the "Opposing evil faction X" waiting for them outside of the collapsing mansion, capturing them, and selling them off to the beast house.

Lastly, the final book serves as a conclusion to the scenario- but again, its a very loose conclusion, and only aplicable in terms of how your group dealt with the adventure up till that point.

As for the Question of Flow: It completely and utterly depends on your players prefered style of play. When I had them working for a Radical Inquisitor, he didn't care about what they did, often gave them gear and thrones and artifacts. The game was fun- for a while: until the characters had died enough times that the gear that the new characters started with (to balance them with the rest) was more important than the characters themselves [aka, your guns sink in the river! might as well drown and make a new char.)

Now they work for Al-Subai, an Amalathian with a penchant for rules, rewards and just behavior. Furthermore, he treats them equal to their ranks and disposability. though they are allowed most pisols, most of the time they are scrounging for items- having been deprived of Basic guns for example because they don't have the permits for them. When they are in a bad spot, and they've all burned a fate point in an encounter, they'll wake up in the Bad-guys dungeons without any items at all- forced to break open a Camdevice in order to get a piece of metal inside and use it as a weapon.

After every mission, weapons used by cults or heretical items and tools are confiscated and processed for heresy, then given back if deemed safe. Its a good way to control their loot, so they don't carry it around from mission to mission.

This style of play has been incredibly popular- with the players really focusing on the character instead of their items. They are still rewarded- but with health care and Eclesiarchy services. For weapons, you don't have to give them really big stuff as long as you keep their reward functional. A mono-ceremonial sword is a very nice reward for attaining rank 3, for example. Especially if you don't intend to be too lethal in combat. Keep the gifts personalised- an unsual weapon from the Inquisitors book for example and don't worry about their damage.

My biggest problem here is simply lack of free time to extensively modify things, I can't really afford much more than to create simple one shots or do some minor editing or expanding. I simply lack for time.

I am extensively familiar with 40k in general, but less so with the calaxis setting. Is the CoC book that easily converted to the DH system?

And as for a timeline, that sounds like a good idea. However, if the in book campaign is no good, I'm going to need another campaign for my players to get them up to speed for the Haarlock games, as most of them seem to requires at least rank 3+. Are there any other good ones out there that you'd suggest?

Minor editting is all that you'd require to convert a CoC scenario: all you need is to give things a more 40k sounding name and ramp up the atmosphere of whichever local you pick. The investigation is incredibly detailed up to and including the climax.

You'd need to familiar with a few Calixis names, just for the fluff- like, a game set in 1920 in (relatively) crowded New York can easily happen in a closed district in hive Sibellus, with the "Library" (as a staple CoC location) turning into a Local Administratum Archives or Sanctionned Information Center- or even the Tricorn's own private reference halls. A Doctor becomes a Magos Biologis or a Chirurgeon, Sheriff becomes Chief Enforcers, FBI agents are Adeptus Arbites- etc etc.

Like I said, the most you would have to do for a one shot is a) find an appropriate planet where to set the action- Dusk for the Louisana Bayous, Sibellus for New-York, Tarsus for anything with a Big Cathedral or a religious theme. Carnivals (and the King In Yellow ), head to Malfi..

A lot of the one shots don't even need a particular location to happen and can take place virtually anywhere.

But I just realized your also talking mechanics. It requires a bit of common sense, but thats about it- as in, you have to decide what rolls would be appropriate or the equivalent (scholastic lore occult VS Occultism for example. At early ranks, your players arent likely to have a lot of skills anyways.

As for NPCs, again- it depends on your style of play: using the NPC stats in the DH book can easily cover all of the character types in CoC, but if you want something more person, I find that multiplying the CoC stats by 3 would give you the Equivalent DH stat. As for the monsters, most of them are too horrible to contemplate, and depending on your style of play- or even the scenario that you select, you may not need stats for them in the least

There's not a lot of prewritten things for DH unfortunately. Dark Reign had TONS of Fan-made material and "Leave no stone unturned" was a great start scenario when I used it for my group after Edge of Darkness. Really got them into the ropes of things- I would highly recommend it if you get your hands on it.

It basically starts off with the players investigating the purged lair of a Heretek and finding several leads to various unrelated heresies. The clues lead them to a cult of Khorn in GunMetal City, a corrupt Rogue Trader's ship on Pry 41 and a weapons-dealing Heretek in his secret laboratory on a Death World.

Of course, I had to adapt and enhance a number of things, both to fit the group and fill in the time- not to mention draw a couple of lines between a couple of leaps in conclusion (I switched all of the Roll X to find out that This person is guilty with actual clues that the players were able to put together.)

One last thing- probably the second of our most succesful games- Blood Red Rains. But again, it requires a bit of a high rank- quite a lot of fighting to be had if you want to go that direction.

Conclusion or TLDR- CoC is easily adapted into DH itself as the investigation will require very little, if any, changes, all you'd need to worry about it is the flavor of the 40k setting, and if your very familiar with that it will come naturally. Sprinkle in a couple of Calixis names and you should be fine- furthermore, a lot of the more used Calixis planets are very well detailed on the forums ^(Dusk in particular).

For premade DH stuff, check the Dark Reign forums for a couple of fan favorites- but save the Haarlock Legacy until you have time to really work in your own plot elements in there to weave the entire thing together.