Hey all! Ok so i am gearing up to drop my normal d&d tuesday night spot for my first delve into a futuristic rpg, dark heresy. To say the least it is a bit overwelming for a GM; different systems, terms, and the massive amount of 40k lore. BUT, i'm determined.

So i GM online using roll20.net, but there are alot of programs out there. My goal is to immerse myself as much as possible to be successful GM'ing so i've taken some advice, read both the ravenor and eisenhorn omnibus's and now reading inquisitor draco's novel. So i am quickly getting caught up in the lore and thematic aspect of DH, however i am still struggling to wrap my head around the system. There is only so much by reading the corebook cover 2 cover can give you without something to base it off.

Since i live abroad i dont have a friendly local game store to loiter at and soak up some knowledge, so ...

Is anyone out there hosting online, broadcating via twichtv, podcast, anything that i can just spectate on?

An offical dh2 monthly podcast featuring the design crew playing a session would be awesome but really, just would like to listen in, ask a few questions, yada yada yada.

DH1, or the Beta of DH2? If you are curious about Dark Heresy in general, here 's the first of some youtube videos of a Dark Heresy online game. One of the players is Totalbiscuit.

And ... no worries, the first time with a new system is always tough, even for players! I'm sure everyone will make mistakes somewhere. Just keep at it and you will get to know the rules intimately in no-time.

A number of people here are playing games on the IRC, and I'm sure at least some of them would allow you to watch. Unfortunately, my current DW group is German, though, else I would have extended an invitation as well. Granted, DW is not really Dark Heresy, but most of the rules are similar, so experience from watching should carry over.

Anyways, best of luck, and have fun!

DH1, or the Beta of DH2? If you are curious about Dark Heresy in general, here 's the first of some youtube videos of a Dark Heresy online game. One of the players is Totalbiscuit.

And ... no worries, the first time with a new system is always tough, even for players! I'm sure everyone will make mistakes somewhere. Just keep at it and you will get to know the rules intimately in no-time.

A number of people here are playing games on the IRC, and I'm sure at least some of them would allow you to watch. Unfortunately, my current DW group is German, though, else I would have extended an invitation as well. Granted, DW is not really Dark Heresy, but most of the rules are similar, so experience from watching should carry over.

Anyways, best of luck, and have fun!

DH1, or the Beta of DH2? If you are curious about Dark Heresy in general, here 's the first of some youtube videos of a Dark Heresy online game. One of the players is Totalbiscuit.

And ... no worries, the first time with a new system is always tough, even for players! I'm sure everyone will make mistakes somewhere. Just keep at it and you will get to know the rules intimately in no-time.

A number of people here are playing games on the IRC, and I'm sure at least some of them would allow you to watch. Unfortunately, my current DW group is German, though, else I would have extended an invitation as well. Granted, DW is not really Dark Heresy, but most of the rules are similar, so experience from watching should carry over.

Anyways, best of luck, and have fun!

Ich habe ein paar jahre in Deutschland gewohnnt, ich kann auch Deutsch sprechen. Leider, lebe ich jetzt in Belgien. >.<

Ich habe ein paar jahre in Deutschland gewohnnt, ich kann auch Deutsch sprechen. Leider, lebe ich jetzt in Belgien. >.<

"Leider"? Ich bin ja auch ausgewandert, wenn auch nicht dorthin.

Aber wenn das so ist - theoretisch kannst du gerne mal bei uns zuschauen (denke ich zumindest)! Wir spielen allerdings eher unregelmäßig. Deathwatch (siehe Wikilink in der Signatur) ist unser Notfallplan, falls nicht alle für die Dragon Age-Runde zusammenkommen.

oh, thanks for the video links, it's pretty good!

Danke für die Einladung, ich spreche zwar Deutsch aber ich glaube dass die futuristische Sprache im Spiel für mich zu schwer ist. Es freut mich dass du diese Idee in Erwägung gezogen hast.

No problem.

Maybe give Braddoc a call, I think he has a Rogue Trader game running in IRC?

OK... I could follow most of that. I think. Maybe.

What does Erwägung mean?

"consideration"

(hint: should you ever be in need of a EN<->DE translation, I can recommend dict.cc .. I often use it in my line of work when I'm not 100% sure about individual words, especially as it also doubles as a thesaurus)

I can also recommend the videos of Totalbiscuits DH round, they're pretty fun to watch and also fairly indicative of how the system works. The changes between DH1 and the second version of the beta aren't as big as to not be comparable, so I'd say give that a shot.

Other that that, I'd probably better stick to the Ravenor/Eisenhorn 'version' of the inquisiton, as the Inquisition War series is both quite old (there were quite some changes in the fluff) and also feature more of a high-power portrayal of the inquisition.

There're also the Dark Heresy books by Sandy Mitchell ("Scourge the Heretic" and "Innocence Proves Nothing", which are quite good and portray pretty much exactly the kind of characters you might find in a game of DH - if you like his general style; he tends to write somewhat more humorous and ironically than Dan Abnett or Graham McNeill. Unfortunately, he hasn't finished the trilogy so far, so some of the story threads don't resolve, but it should still be a good read and might give you some ideas.

For better or worse, there's contradicting fluff everywhere, as the franchise does not enforce a uniform background beyond the most fundamental basics.

I'd even say that on the aspect of a "high-power portrayal", the Jaq Draco novel itself fits well to the new Codex Inquisition or GW's own Inquisitor game - perhaps even bridging the gap between the core studio version and the one propagated by Black Industries/FFG, if you consider that Draco himself is working in the shadows as well, whilst encountering other Inquisitors who are acting more openly.

That being said, of course it deserves to be mentioned that Dark Heresy is modeled closely after the Ravenor/Eisenhorn series, and I recall it being said that Dan Abnett has written much of the background for the Calixis sector, so if one wanted to stick closely to the game's own books, then his novels are probably not far off!

Personally, I'd say read everything, and then decide which vision of the 41st millennium you like more - or mix and match elements from multiple conflicting sources to create your own world. Even better would be to get some input from the other players, though, just to avoid an unnecessary clash of interpretations wherever possible.

Awesome advice guys! yeah i think i am going to try and soak up as much info as i can by readin anything that comes my way. I really enjoyed the Ravenor Omnibus; he spent a bit more time with the supporting characters than in the eisenhorn trilogy.

So far i can't say i TOTALLY enjoy Jaq Draco, i am just stuck on "what the heck is going on" the first scene is Jaq, watching a purge of genestealers (hybrids, pure, one that look lile humans, ones that have four arms, ones that are beastly looking humans, etc?) through camaras mounted on robot flies? Also, btw, his hottie assasin acolyte can also transform into a hybrid genestealer?

Meh, i hope it will start making sense soon :-)

I read that Dan abnett just released a book with Alizebeth Bequin "alive" again which sounds like a good read. (though i'd like to read about ravenor somehow finding a new body)

I will def take a look at Sandy Mitchell's books, to much doom and gloom reading depresses me anyways ;-)

Whats with 40k's aversion to publishing via kindle? >.<

Anyways thank you both for the good links! the videos had me chuckling a few times. I like how the establishment of "bonds" gives a more personal aspect to the PCs.

There're also the Dark Heresy books by Sandy Mitchell ("Scourge the Heretic" and "Innocence Proves Nothing", which are quite good and portray pretty much exactly the kind of characters you might find in a game of DH - if you like his general style; he tends to write somewhat more humorous and ironically than Dan Abnett or Graham McNeill. Unfortunately, he hasn't finished the trilogy so far, so some of the story threads don't resolve, but it should still be a good read and might give you some ideas.

IIRC those were published specifically for DH and the characters are the the ones you see in some of the examples in the DH1 corebook. They should be decently close.

I remember that stuff! I think this was my first 40k novel ever .

And don't worry, the plot will start to make sense later on. The technology and the aliens ... well, it's 40k, just run with it.

You can also look up that sort of stuff on internet resources such as 40kwiki and Lexicanum , although you should be warned that these wikis tend to erroneously stick to a "single canon" approach, meaning that they attempt to blend background from any source into a single interpretation of the setting ... which ... doesn't really work so well if you consider that this isn't how the writers themselves treat the setting. For this reason, I tend to use the wikis more like an index of sorts (Lexicanum is usually fairly reliable with naming its sources) and then hunt down the original source myself.

Still, it's probably a good start for someone who may not have access to all the old books but is curious about the meaning/background of various alien species, organisations, or pieces of equipment. Just be aware that there's very likely a official sources out there that may contradict the details presented in the articles, so don't take it as gospel!

Whats with 40k's aversion to publishing via kindle? >.<

The same as 40k's aversion to branching out into decent movies or TV shows?

That being said, apparently (at least according to a quick google search), there are ways to convert .epub to kindle format! Maybe check that out?

.epub is the Open Standard for EBooks and I'm honestly happy if at least someone is publishing this way.

Still wish they would also publish PDF. I don't really care about what's supposed to be standard for iPad or whatever, but epub looks real sh*tty on the computer, and its readers are certainly not as standard there as, say, Adobe.

If you're not using Callibre to manage your ebooks you're doing it wrong. It will convert pretty much anything into Kindle format and move it there for you.

No problem.

Maybe give Braddoc a call, I think he has a Rogue Trader game running in IRC?

No idea what was discussed..but sadly, I no longer run my RT game, it ended on a rather sour note that it took me off of it completely...but if you want to run one, I'll more more than obliged to join of course...

I only run Dark Heresy now, or how it's called in German "Shadow Hunters"

Ha!..always makes me laugh..you poor, poor guys...

Aw, sorry to hear that. But you're probably still having more games than I do (1 per week, at most )!

Also, @ localisation

And people wonder why I prefer to stick to original material wherever possible!

Yeah, we stuck to simply calling it "Dark Heresy" because the german name sounds so stupid xD Our character sheets look pretty wild als well, since we're currently betatesting (so only english sheets exist) there's a wild mix of english and german words on them ^^

If anybody wants to start up a RT game, I'd be all for it. Always wanted to play an Ork - or a Kroot - or maybe a Dark Eldar after all? I'm just a huge Xenos lover

Aw, sorry to hear that. But you're probably still having more games than I do (1 per week, at most )!

Yeah, we stuck to simply calling it "Dark Heresy" because the german name sounds so stupid xD Our character sheets look pretty wild als well, since we're currently betatesting (so only english sheets exist) there's a wild mix of english and german words on them ^^

If anybody wants to start up a RT game, I'd be all for it. Always wanted to play an Ork - or a Kroot - or maybe a Dark Eldar after all? I'm just a huge Xenos lover

Lynata, meet your player #2 in your weekly RT game

Pentregarth, meet your new RT GM!

No need to thanks me..for I am a... Coquin Commerçant.

Man, does it sounds so bad in French...good thing they kept it at Rogue Trader with a horrible French-from-Paris accent instead..

Pentregarth, meet your new RT GM!

Awesome ^^ How are your feelings about Xenos in your campaigns? ^^

On a sidenote, in a game of Relic we had some funny mispronounciations as well...the rouge trader was battling against one of the deadly jeansdealers xD

Oh god -.-

Should I join in and start throwing around horrible Federal English? (Swiss-German accent, so-called because it seems to be most pronounced in the members of our Federal gov't)