New to Dark Heresy (and GMing)

By TheLostNavigator, in Dark Heresy Gamemasters

Hey

I've recently scrounged up enough people to run a campaign, but I've never GMed before. To be entirely honest I've hardly played any roleplaying as the party usually ends up at the zoo, or some equally odd place, while I am forced to continue the mission alone.

I'm going to use the mission in the core rulebook as an introductory session, just to see whether GMing this lot is to be a fruitless endevour, and was looking for some tips and advice. I have already informed the players that I'll hold nothing back and that if they decide to charge into a room full of Heretics they may just die.

Any advice would be great, Thanks.

Welcome aboard, LostNavigator. My advice to new DH GMs is to go to the DH Support section of FFG 's website and print out/download both the latest official Errata and the scenario Edge of Darkness . The Errata contains a lot of tweaks to the DH rules that will make your games run smoother, and EoD makes for a much better introductory scenario that the one in the core rulebook. It's not complete, though- you will have to create your own maps for the key locations (or track some down on the interwebs; I think the fansite darkreign.org might have some pregenerated maps for EoD ).

Beyond that, the key skill in an investigation-based RPG is the ability to improvise . Any prepwork you can do in advance to facilitate improvising is probably a good idea- maps of 'generic' locations (bars, hab-units, warehouses, etc) will come in handy, and a list of names for NPCs the players encounter as they go about their business is extremely helpful.