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In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

I wasn't going to buy Dark Heresy, rather waiting for its companion Warhammer 40,000 (WH40K) Roleplay game Rogue Trader. But the talk over the pipes of the Internet dazzled me with visions of a Gothic future with bolters and mutants, and so I found myself at my local game store putting in a pre-order...

her·e·sy – an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma

the materium

the real physical universe we inhabit

A large tome, capable of breaking the back of the hardiest individual... well that could be an almost accurate description. Dark Heresy is a thick hard cover of almost 400 pages. The cover is a blackish hue illustrated with a picture of three well-armed members of an Inquisitor's retinue. Its appearance emphasises the grim nature of the setting.

Between the covers there are 400 pages of full colour, with the illustrations mainly being grey-scale and more than a few full colour illustrations spread throughout the book. The illustrations are of a quality familiar to those acquainted with Games Workshop games (its war games and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), Dark Heresy's fantasy cousin).

the immaterium

a dark reflection of the material universe, it is an ocean of chaos, raw emotion given form

Dark Heresy is set in the Warhammer 40,000 Universe (more on this can be found at wikipedia or Games Workshop). Rather than try and include the entire setting of WH40K, Dark Heresy focuses on the life of an Acolyte in an Inquisitor's retinue, hunting heresy wherever you may go (or are sent) within the Imperium.

This focus is found in the career paths a Player can choose from, with the careers paths are more like classes with some limited scope for individuality available in the skills and talents a character gets while he or she advances through the career path and a Rank assigned after a set amount of experience has been spent (the Rank also determines what Skills and Talents are available). This is a divergence from WFRP where a character can change careers, starting as a Rat Catcher and ending up as a completely different career such as Champion or Lord Wizard.

The career paths available are likely to be familiar to those who play the tabletop wargame: Adept, Arbitrator, Assassin, Cleric, Guardsman, Imperial Psyker, Scum (rogues) and Tech-Priest. Only two career paths have access to psychic powers: Imperial Psyker and Adept (allowing minor powers far down the career path). Creating a character can be simply a matter of rolling the dice or choosing – Dark Heresy provides tables for randomly generating a character if you prefer that way.

Magic is or is not present – depending on how you view it. Psychic powers are the magic of the game, generally limited to only Imperial Psykers. There is little to no scope scope for any other career path to learn any psychic abilities (only Adept in the core rulebook). Otherwise a character might decide to bargain with the Dark Powers (e.g. the Chaos Gods: Khorne, Nurgle, Slaneesh and Tzeentch) and make a Dark Pact. Its the presence of such nomenclature as “gods” and “daemons” for these entities that, to me, makes Dark Heresy more fantasy that science fiction.

Being the WH40K setting, Dark Heresy includes such weapons as Las weapons, chain weapons, power weapons, melta weapons and the ever-favourite: bolters. Also, as a necessity for characters, a range of primitive weapons are listed for when the ammo runs out and the dark hordes are still advancing. For those characters unfortunate (or fortunate) to have lost a limb a brief list of cybernetics rounds out the sci-fi nature of the game. Throughout the book it is impressed upon the characters that although the setting is science fiction, most characters know nothing about the inner workings of the technology they wield in the service of the Emperor, and even the Tech-Priests consider their knowledge as more of the religion than scientific knowledge.

The system used is again familiar to players of WFRP. Using 10 sided dice either to generate percentage results or sum. Reflecting the grim and grittiness of the game combat includes chances of limb loss and insanity pervades the game.

The book includes a wide range of information to help someone unfamiliar with the source material to start playing Dark Heresy. From income for the characters (based on their career and rank and generosity of their Inquisitor master) to details on the inner workings of the Ordos of the Inquisition, and general information on the life in the Imperium. Guidelines for the Game Master on the themes and suggestions for campaigns are also included in the Game Master chapters.

The game is set in the Calaxis Sector and brief information is included on a few of the worlds that float in the void of space within its bounds. Included is a two page spread showing the positions of many of the worlds in relationship to each other. The immensity of the Imperium is reflected in the position of the Calix Sector (a small box in the upper right) in relation to Holy Terra on the star chart on pages 252 and 253.

The bestiary is brief but covers a range of subjects: from mundane adversaries to daemons and daemonhosts, enough to keep the characters busy for a long time. Although brief the game system itself make it easy enough to make the listed adversaries more than a handful for the more experienced Acolyte.

Last, but not the least, is the introductory adventure Illumination, to get the just-created characters hunting down heretics and mutants in the Imperium as fast as possible.

the good, the bad, and the heretical

There are one or two pages in my copy that suffer double-vision (a light second printing of text).

400 pages of full colour. Illustrated with the same style of images you see in the WH40K war game (and its supporting web site). Black Industries spared no expense to ensure this game maintained the standards seen in its other products.

No space elves (Eldar) or orks... or, as they are called in WH40K vernacular, Xenos. Also no Space Marines. Dark Heresy focuses on the subject of the Inquisition rooting out heresy amongst the populations of the Imperium so those looking for everything they find in the WH40K war-game in this game will be sorely disappointed. But for some, including me, this focus is one of the attractions of the game (it also helps that the missing stuff will be included in Rogue Trader and Deathwatch...).

Although information on travel around the galaxy is mentioned, no statistics for vehicles are included in this game. Some might think a horrid exclusion for a sci-fi game. But given the setting the life of a pilot is not adventure friendly.

Charts, charts and more charts. The book is full of them. Anyone seeking a more free-form game will not want to sink into the sea of charts and lists within this book.

The restrictive career paths makes Dark Heresy more like a class-based game such as Dungeons and Dragons. This is a wild divergence from the unique career system in WFRP. I'm a little ambivalent on this, liking both the career system of WFRP but seeing the necessity for the system to keep with the themes of the setting (where oppression and no freedom of choice are the norm).

in summary

Dark Heresy has a very impressive appearance, only matched by its contents. For fans of the WH40K setting this is a must-have game. For those unfamiliar with WFRP or WH40K I think this is a good game to pick up if you are looking for a mash of science fiction and fantasy. Its size alone ensures that you can play for months without requiring any supplemental material.

I give it a 5 for Style: it just screams Gothic / Heavy Metal oppression to me; and a 5 for substance: this is a massive book that includes everything you need to start a game and keep going for a long time. I hope this review helps give you a feel on the game and influences your decision to purchase Dark Heresy in a positive manner – but I feel that its difficult to fully describe such a large game within the confines of this text.

Just after I started to write this review, entirely due to my enthusiasm about the release of Dark Heresy and forthcoming support for this game, Black Industries announced that they would be shutting their doors and ceasing to produce products for Dark Heresy and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, only committing themselves to those books already announced. Although I plan to get everything that is put out for Dark Heresy it is a sad day to see such a game basically enter the world stillborn. Like many gamers I have some small hope that this is a mere hiccup in Games Workshop's overall strategy and Dark Heresy will soon see light again, either still in GW's hands or as a licensed product in the hands of another publisher capable to maintaining the vision created by the developers of Black Industries.

No matter what happens, there is a massive source of information on the World of WH40K on the Internet (and, if you choose, the tabletop war game of Warhammer 40,000). In the meantime I hope to be able to pick up another copy sometime in the future but my pocket doth protest...