The psychic powers are just badly lifted from the 40k rulebook. Interestingly, having played a bit, the close combat mechanics function much better than the ranged ones.

ok it was a long session last night, and it has taken me a little while to sort through my notes to make sense of the feed back from my players (currently running a group of 9 including 2 newbies to RP's in general and 1 newbe to DH)

The experiment we conducted was fairly simple, as we had tried to re-create the groups existing DH1 PCs in DH2 (with varying degree of success) we would run the campaign session in two halves - the first using DH1 rules, the second using DH2 rules.

Now it should be noted that I actually split the time un-evenly to account for having to un-learn some rules between the two DH's (especially combat) but even so we struggled to keep the session moving.

To start things off they were reaching the end of quite a lengthy infiltration mission when I decided to switch as the climax of the session was written to provide a good mix of sneak, think, and combat. The first hurdle we came across was that the psyker in the group litterally couldn't have gotten where he was in DH2 - he had used a combo of wall-walk and chameleon to infiltrate a cults basein the DH1 part of the session and now found himself completely visable and stuck on top of a large storage tank with no way down.

Meanwhile our tech-priest was struggling to repair the groups gun-cutter as we couldn't find any replacement for his trade skills, most of which he has boosted quite significantly in DH1.

The two arbitrators in the group were slightly unhappy when we realised that we didn't have stats for 90% of the weapons and armour they were using - and the heavy stubber one of the was wealding seemed to suddenly have stopped working as well.

The assassin politely asked me if she could have her old (OW stated) Long-Las back as it seemed to have turned into a flash-light. - in the DH1 part of the session she managed to take out an Ogryn in a single (admittedly well aimed) shot, in the DH2 part of the evening she was struggling to take out a local milita captain.

Our new players all said that they found the DH1 style wounds alot easier to understand than the DH2 style, and while I'm on the subject all of the Players struggled to keep track of the different effects on different locations. From th eGM's side insta-kill mooks where quite easy to run, but seemed to take some of the fun out of the combat unless there were loads of elite or master NPC's to put up a fight.

Looking at the positives, everyone like the new char-gen system (with the web-suppliment tables) and the Action Point based combat was generally well recieved (most of the experienced players are also WHFRP2e and Cthulhutech players so no stranger to Actions and Point based combat)

The new system for upgrade costs was also well recieved, although I did have a few complaints when a characters favourate talent/psi power didn't have an equivalant in the new system.

So there we go - total play time 6 hours, 2 DH1, 4 DH2 - The net result, my players unanumously asked me to stick with DH1 and not make them play DH2 unless there were some major updated to the armoury and psi powers at the very least.

I have managed to convince a few of them to carry on helping me test the system, just not as part of the ongoing campaign.

Regards

Surak (and players)

That test sounds a little pointless and flawed, really. Obviously there's going to be jarring changes if you swap systems mid session, I'm not sure what you were trying to accomplish there.

Ok I'll accept it seems an odd way of testing, but it is still 4 hours of actual play with DH2 and most of the rub between the two systems was delt with in the first 30mins (it didn't entirely stop the grumbling but hey-ho). The point to the test was simply to see if the group could have as much fun with the DH2 rules as we have been having with DH1 (we've been on-board since the BL days). With that goal in mind are verdict was a resounding "almost".

Where DH2 is better (char-gen, inclusion of vehicles, proper investigation rules, the way psi powers work, and upgrade system mainly) its noticably better, but where it raises issues (complex wound system, a broken armoury, the new psi upgrade system, and a lack of wealth mechanic) all seemed, if not a step backwards than no better than what needed fixing in DH1.

I have edited out most of the problems that occured due to the change of system, I left the psyker and armoury examples in simply because I felt they illistrated problems that my players had with DH2 in general

the psyker players - there are two in our group - feel that their characters are less capable, and the combat players feel that tracking wounds is now very long winded and enemies are inconsistent - by that i mean an npc in armour can die very quickly from one or two shots, but the npc standing next to him on funny robes takes alot more killing because he's more important, despite his lower defence.

And as for the real reason for testing this way (I did the same thing with the OW beta) is because my players hate having 2 campaigns running at the same time, and also aren't really keen on one-shot games so this is the easiest way for me to get some actual-play results out of my group.

Hope this clear things up a little - I feel I should note I want DH2 to succeed and be successful, but I also feel that I have to report back what my players are saying to me as they learn and experience DH2 - whether that is positive or negative.

Regards

Surak