Plus, the Ordo Xenos would finally be on the same footing as Hereticus and Malleus, rather than being the neglected 'also ran' branch of the Inquisition, as they are in Calixis

Really now? I run a Xeno campaign, and I was never short of things to get going with, from Orks in a Space Hulk to the aftermath of a Dark Eldar raid (and following operation to get some eldar 'hard drive' left in thier destroyed psychic jammer) followed by a rogue Rogue Trader who wants to make a coup d'état to have his own planet in the sector to hide his illegal loot by controlling the feral orks population into a frenzy thanks to his freeboota hirelings, to a mysterious vigilante equipped with Jokaero technology waging a one man war against the Beast House and the Kasballica.

Also to me, the Beast House is really a Xeno opponent, and the Kasballica is a good overtly covert organisation that has a good deal of cloak and daggerry to it.

not as flashy as daemons walking out of a warp portal nor as action filled as raiding a cultist base during some dark ritual, but Xeno got all the nice toys.

Halo Devices were also a big deal. I guess it just boiled down to having to focus on humans and how they USE Xenos, rather than focusing on the Xenos themselves.

I would like the option of both, though.

Some of my best games used the Slaugth and the Enslavers as villains. While agree that it would be cool to see some Ordo Xenos specific materials I hardly think Xenos were given short shrift in 1st Ed. I truly hope that we see some original aliens native to the new sector. As much as I love the established races, they are a known threat. I love the mystery that a new race brings to the table. If not a new race, at least one that's been only sort of developed by GW, perhaps the Quorl or the Hrud.

While I agree that the main focus of DH as so far published really suits the Ordo Hereticus best, with a side serving of Ordo Malleus, I would actually hold that most Ordos xenos activity is along the lines of dealing with the Cold Trade, human xenos sympathisers and traitors etc, and hidden alien influences. This falls entirely within the context of DH (the Slaught, Halo devices, etc). You don't need the Inquisition to deal with Orks, Eldar and the Tyranids. That's what the Imperial Guard is for. In those contexts the Inquisition is more involved in information gathering and strategy, rather than front line combat, or the normally investigative stuff an Inquisitor is engaged in (even if these occasionally involve kicking a genestealer's face in).

I would really like to know what makes the Pandaemonium such a special feature of the Askellon Sector, besides the immediate inclusion of Daemonic adversaries. What about this Warp rift-thing is supposed to be so significantly exciting and/or different than the Hadex Anomaly. Right now I'm like "Warp rift? So?"

....You don't need the Inquisition to deal with Orks, Eldar and the Tyranids. That's what the Imperial Guard is for. In those contexts the Inquisition is more involved in information gathering and strategy, rather than front line combat, or the normally investigative stuff an Inquisitor is engaged in (even if these occasionally involve kicking a genestealer's face in).

It's all a metter of context in my case; every time my players met Xenos, it was in the course of an investigation, just an element of it rather than the main force behind their reason to be where they were. Looking for an =I= relic in the Hulk, redeeping themselves for some internal political move they did with the Dark Eldars (and never metting one as well), searching for their missing Inquisitor with the freeboota/feral orks and it started with a simple ops to capture some Cold Trader/rogue Rogue Trader's henchmen with the Vigilante with the Jokaero tech...

Some do the front line thing, but it removes any sense of mystery to me...not saying they won't go in a War zone along the way, but that will be the background nosie rather than the main scene.

It's worth noting that people are assuming the system is near Calixis purely based on one line, which was vague anyway. "Alongside" could easily just mean that they exist in the same universe, as obvious as that should seem to a 40k fan. Marketing talk is a pain, I wouldn't make any assumptions just yet.

True, which is why I'm trying to influence FFG to put the new sector in Ultima.

Really now? I run a Xeno campaign, and I was never short of things to get going with...

I'm glad that you're enjoying your campaign, but that doesn't make the distinct lack of official support for the Ordo Xenos a good thing...

I can agree that Ordo Xenos needs a lot more love, but I don't think introducing Tau and Tyranids changes much in this regard. Previously unknown xenos who aren't in the state of overt warfare with the Imperium have a lot more potential for an Ordo Xenos game.

I can agree that Ordo Xenos needs a lot more love, but I don't think introducing Tau and Tyranids changes much in this regard. Previously unknown xenos who aren't in the state of overt warfare with the Imperium have a lot more potential for an Ordo Xenos game.

Rabble-rousing Tau infiltrators and Tyranid vanguard organisms can fulfill exactly that role, with a much greater sense of menace and consequence for failure, in addition to any local minor/undiscovered alien races. Again, I'm pushing for the new setting to maximize options, not minimize them.

The thing is Calixis is in the west and both those Xenos are in the east, literary a galaxy away. I know they are iconic Xenos of 40k but personally i'm hard pressed to give any reason as to how/why they showed up there...somehow snuck around a whole Crusade and into the rift?

The point is the new sector ISN'T Calixis, so we may not have that locational issue.

I must say I understand the desire to have the 'big canonical events', but I agree that I like the unique stuff in calixis. The Slaught are an awesome villain, and the combination of them and the amarathine syndicate made for a superb campaign, both genuinely creepy and scary, and - most importantly for an investigation campaign - with the players not knowing what was going on.

The problem with an investigation set in the shadow of the 13th Black Crusade is that the players know what's going on.

"Rebellion throughout the sector is rife as a mysterious figure called the Voice of...."

"It's Cypher."

"Yes, but you don't know that."

"Yes, we do."

"...bugger."

Now I know players always say "you can differentiate player and character knowledge", but the thing is, the more you focus a campaign on subtle investigation, the more the fact that you already know far more about the principal 'villains' (be it the zombie plague or the voice of the emperor) than most of the in-game inquisitors becomes a problem. True unknowns help make the story.

Rogue trader is the same. Hearing rumours of a convoy being attacked by relatively primitive xenos raiders, with over-powered, radiation-leaking engines, the explorers headed out to protect the merchant ships. A Rak'Gol assault boat slams into the bridge decks and their first response on seeing a Rak'Gol Marauder was "That is....definitely not an ork. Runnnnnn !!!!!!!!!!"

That said, I do support siting it later in time in the galactic east. From an inquisition perspective (rather than just "ooh look, more bestiary entries"), the Tau and Genestealer cults are both very valuable narrative tools - both as a source of corruptive influence (philosphically, technologically and biologically), but also because the Tau are one of the only canonical races with whom the Imperium occasionally talks and is likely to work together with* where necessary (see 'Massive Hive Fleet).

The Interesting thing about the Pandaemonium will be its effect on a viable Imperial sector. That is; the Calixis sector is an extent, functioning (sort of) Imperial Sector, despite a small war on its borders and a Generic Prophecy Of Impending Doom . Koronus and Jericho are both fundamentally wildspace - one is a few scattered colonies that may some day be a sector, the other was a sector a millenium ago which has subsequently collapsed and is now a big warzone.

If Calixis is a sector's 'lifetime', Koronus a sector being born and Jericho picking over the ashes of one that died, possibly Askellon is one in the process of dying. Between the Pandaemonium and other things, the sector may be doomed to fall whatever you do - but you might be able to protect it for a few more years. Which feels pretty 40k to me.

* Anyone thinking of mentioning Necrons and Blood Angels kindly leave the Kremlin.

Now I know players always say "you can differentiate player and character knowledge", but the thing is, the more you focus a campaign on subtle investigation, the more the fact that you already know far more about the principal 'villains' (be it the zombie plague or the voice of the emperor) than most of the in-game inquisitors becomes a problem. True unknowns help make the story.

That being said ... I would probably recommend avoiding 999.M41 by default and rather mark it as a sort of "cut-off date" for support by official material. I think downtime and delays via warp travel necessitate a scope of at least 20 realspace years for players to move around in, so perhaps 980.M41 as a starting date might be good, with official supplements and adventures then exploring the new region of play not only geographically but also chronologically.

Ah, I'm digressing, but you get what I mean.

The thing is Calixis is in the west and both those Xenos are in the east, literary a galaxy away. I know they are iconic Xenos of 40k but personally i'm hard pressed to give any reason as to how/why they showed up there...somehow snuck around a whole Crusade and into the rift?

That's my point- I'm hoping the new sector is in the Galactic East, to maximize the number of available adversaries, rather than artificially limiting them by placing it adjacent to Calixis.

That said, I do support siting it later in time in the galactic east. From an inquisition perspective (rather than just "ooh look, more bestiary entries"), the Tau and Genestealer cults are both very valuable narrative tools - both as a source of corruptive influence (philosphically, technologically and biologically), but also because the Tau are one of the only canonical races with whom the Imperium occasionally talks and is likely to work together with* where necessary (see 'Massive Hive Fleet).

Amen. Ordos Hereticus and Malleus get access to all of their iconic adversaries- why should the Ordo Xenos be the odd man out? Yes, the Slaught are cool, but in and of themselves are not sufficient to justify writing off Tau and 'nids.

That being said ... I would probably recommend avoiding 999.M41 by default and rather mark it as a sort of "cut-off date" for support by official material. I think downtime and delays via warp travel necessitate a scope of at least 20 realspace years for players to move around in, so perhaps 980.M41 as a starting date might be good, with official supplements and adventures then exploring the new region of play not only geographically but also chronologically.

999.M41 could then become a sort of "endgame" scenario the players may work towards; the possible epic end to a long campaign and a turning point, all depending on the players' actions.

I agree- my DH1 campaign exceeded a year of 'game time' quite a while ago, so 999 would be way too limiting. Mid-900s would be my vote.

I would really like to know what makes the Pandaemonium such a special feature of the Askellon Sector, besides the immediate inclusion of Daemonic adversaries. What about this Warp rift-thing is supposed to be so significantly exciting and/or different than the Hadex Anomaly. Right now I'm like "Warp rift? So?"

especially since so many game lines/sectors have a threatening warp thing at their very heart: the Tyrant Star, the Pandaemonium, the Hadex Anomaly ...

The Tyrant Star, while almost certainly a warp thing, was at least not the standard warp/space overlap ala the Eye of Terror/Hadex Anomaly/etc.

On those things, I do find it irritating that they are often referred to "Warp Storms", which isn't really what they are. They tend to coexist with warp storms, but warp storms exist entirely in the warp. The Warp is more violent and dangerous in those areas, making warp travel difficult (or even impossible), cutting areas of space off from each other (as without the warp interstellar travel is totally impractical). However, while they may lead to things like the barriers between the warp and realspace becoming thinner and more easily breakable, they don't actually lead to the weird colours in space etc, ala the Eye of Terror. A planet cut off from a warp storm wouldn't necessarily see any difference in it's night sky, unless something took advantage of the situation to breach the barrier. It just wouldn't be able to send ships into the warp, or have other ships reach it via the warp. The warp/real space overlaps are a separate type of object, where the barriers have come down permanently and the warp spills into realspace, warping the laws of reality etc.

<p>With the warp so active in a single sector with regards to warp storms and materium/immaterium overlaps, I think it would be interesting to explore how a society evolves from such an ever-present anomaly. I would think socially speaking there would be greater mutational deviations, perhaps even acceptance of certain proscribed deviations, such as beastmen, ogryn, ratlings, etc. Psykers would certainly become more common than they are today in the rest of the Galaxy, and heresy might be ever present. Indeed, this gives us the opportunity to explore all manner of alien cultures that are warp based, some long dead like the Yu'Vath, others still thriving in the shadows of the storm, perhaps in planet sized islands that flicker in and out of reality itself, barely detectable to the Imperium, but there all the same.</p>

<p>Not only that, but it is certainly an opportunity for a type of wild west to begin in terms of the Inquisition, the sector, the warp, and everything else. It might be an established sector, but due to the presence of a permanent warp anomaly or storm it could still be untamed and lawless, with great unexplored regions between known systems and planets, much like the wild west was. The absence of real law (Inquisition, Arbites) means that you have the opportunity for a frontier sector where the norm is NOT the Imperium as we saw it in Calixis, but something else. Perhaps on some worlds it is a fact that alien overlords pull the strings from behind curtains? They hold the people in thrall through arcane devices older than they powered by the massive storm that encircles the sector. Who knows? In frontier and wild lands, some xenos are somewhat tolerated and hired as mercenaries. What's to say things aren't so here? </p>

<p>Plus, new technology, new fluff, new patterns of weapons, all of it. Don't get me wrong, some of the stuff I liked, but **** if there wasn't enough variation between one stubber and the next. </p>

<p>I'd also love to see the Mechanicus, and examples of forge worlds utterly cut off opening up again for business, with new stock, but also some forbidden artifacts they built for the discerning customer, weapons and armor patterns brought entirely through experimentation rather than rediscovery. Vat grown synthetic exoskeleton armor, muscles, new gland patterns, weapons unlike anything the Inquisition has witnessed save for upon Phaenon Prime or in the depths of Idumea.</p>

<p>It will also be interesting to know who's who by way of the Inquisition, and what their main focus here is. In Calixis, a well oiled sector, they were concerned with the Tyrant Star and heresy from within. Would these Inquisitors be more focused on dangers from outside the Imperium? I would expect or hope the Ordo Xenos would certainly be more active here on the front lines than else where. Would certainly give us some cool rules and equipment.</p>

<p>Beyond that, a new sector means new conspiracies, and for that I am pumped. Don't get me wrong, Haarlock was cool and all (would have been better if they let the GM design what his return actually means rather than blatantly stating what he had become in a side note) but that, the Tyrant star, all of it got a bit stale with all the internal strife stuff. </p>

<p>It was cool, but there appeared to be more Hereticus Inquisitors than Malleus and Xenos combined. I'd love some good old fashioned alien conspiracies where they're not locked away and hidden but out there and operating, if not in the open than just underneath.</p>

<p>But I'd also love some other types of situations. Because there's not alot of Inquisition here, does that mean that some other Imperial or Sector body takes it's place in more nominal affairs? </p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p>Edit: I'd also love to see some honest to Emperor hardcore Terran styled Techno Barbarians. That type of culture and society, a perpetual war world where people have devolved to barbarism but still keep their technological advantages, that really appeals to me. The brutality, the war, the tribes, all of it is awesome.</p>