Dark Heresy (40k RPG)

[Frank]

Anyone up for putting a campaign together at somepoint this semester?

It looks quite tremendous and if anyone hasn't yet sampled the delights of the 40k setting then time is now!

Anyone interested?

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."
Also, some years later:
"here we are arguing about a few uppity troublemakers with a bee in their bonnet and a conspiracy theory."

[ajohnst1]

Frank,

I'm an American abroad for this semester and I don't have my 40K army, sadly, but I'd love to get in on Dark Heresy if you can find a group to try it out. I'm not much of a role player but I'm a 40K junkie.

My email is aj278; contact me if you get a group together.

[Lord Alisk]

How is Dark Heresy? I have got into D&D over the last couple of years, and am keen to try something new. I quite enjoyed Inquisitor when it came out, but, from what the internet tells me, Dark Heresy is very different. I am just put off a bit by how expensive the books appear.

Anyway, I'd be curious to hear of what people have to say about it.

[Frank]

Well, the only major thing you'd really need is the main rulebook. The rest are all essentially just fun asides (of which I've been meaning to pick up a few...). The core book has your main character careers, rules for a bundle of weapons, skills, abilities, psychic powers, plot-hooks etc.

It's not as detail-free as something like Cthulhu (where you barely need any sort of knowledge of things to get you through a game or three), but after a few games I imagine folks can pick it up reasonably well.

In terms of 'gameplay', I like to think it's at least a bit more thought provoking than D&D (given that most folks playing will be loosely experienced/familiar with the grimdarkness of the 40k setting) and I'm pretty sure I could knock up 'intro sheets' needed for a campaign.

For myself, I tend to prefer a more investigative-focused campaign but blood, guts, gore, excitement, tension etc would all be quite welcome (and expected). It's not all (or at all) searching libraries. The trick is, unlike Inquisitor, not to get bogged down in combats. (Else we'd be as well playing 40k or Inquisitor) Like the WHFP the combat systems isn't hugely detailed (unlike Inquisitor), so it's relatively quick and painless once you get into the hang of it.

As said, the game's very different from Inquisitor. (E.g. Inquisitor is a 'narrative skirmish', i.e. a small-scale wargame with a strong focus on doing really cool stuff [like shooting grenades at assassin's crotches from fifty yards, blasting people off roofs, boiling your enemy's blood and iconic duels for the fate of the emperor...]) Dark Heresy is much more of getting you into the absolutely overpoweringly depressing world of 40k. The grim darkness of the far future.

That's not to say it isn't fun, funny or without ambition...but about playing around in a ridiculously bleak, but not totally fantastical setting. The core of Dark Heresy is still about humans. Your characters are all human (the basic 'four' being a Voidborn, Feral Worlder, Civilised Worlder or Hive Worlder) and the gist of it is usually that you're part of the team working on behalf of an Inquisitor, not Inquisitors yourself.

Anyway

As it stands there's a small contingent open for a group. There's at least three or four folks interested (plus me, I assume would be GMing though, unless anyone else is eager...).

As it's GameSoc on Wednesdays, where some folks all seem to be M:TGing (and for myself DocSoc fornightly on Tuesdays), I'd wonder how folks would react to a tentative proposal of Thursday meetings?

I ought to be able to secure a room somewhere, though if any of you have a free (with decent sized table, but huge isn't needed...you don't need much more'n the A4 character sheet and two D10s to actually get into the game) kitchen/living/sitting/dining/bed[with plenty of space] room they'd be willing to offer that'd be great too! (If all else fails, there's always the Physics common-room.)

Suggestion: Thursdays meeting around 8PM, group of four plus GM? (If others are interested, of course, do shout!)