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This is the first Warhammer 40K product I’ve purchased since I bought a “Space Hulk” set over 10 years ago. I’ve always been interested in the setting, but table top wargamming was never really my thing. A Warhammer 40K RPG seemed right up my alley.
What it is
First of all, it’s big, at 395 pages of text. With nearly 400 full-color pages, one could rightly assume that this book doesn’t come cheap. I shelled out $49.99 (plus tax) for my copy, which is easily the most I’ve paid for a single book, RPG or otherwise, in a very long time. I will say though, that Dark Heresy is a fine looking book that justifies that kind of price tag, with ample pictures, illustrations, maps and charts. Visually, the book is very impressive and demonstrates production values that are easily at the high-end of the market as it exists today.
As to the content itself, I’d qualify Dark Heresy as a science fiction/horror hybrid that combines a bleak, dystopian future of humanity with a supernatural investigator/hunter dynamic. In this future, mankind has spread throughout the galaxy, creating an Empire of billions of people spread across thousands of worlds. The only person holding it all together is the Emperor, a person of immense talent and power, or at least he was. He’s been clinically dead for over 10,000 years and now kept in a state of living death through advanced technology and worshipped as a god. Characters serve as agents of the Inquisition, a mysterious secret police-type organization that is recognized and feared by every citizen of the Empire, from factory slaves to planetary governors.
The Inquisition is charged with protecting the Empire from any and all internal threats, and does so at their own discretion. While this includes mundane cases of rebellions and insurrections, the Inquisition is primarily concerned with more exotic phenomena: rogue psykers, heretic cultists, and daemonic incursions. The Inquisition searches for unusual or inexplicable phenomena, and then hunts it down and kills it. Inquisitors themselves are capable, influential, and fearsome individuals, however, the Empire is a big place and Inquisitors can’t be everywhere at once. That’s where the player characters come in. They take the role of “Acolytes”, or agents of individual Inquisitors. Acolytes are tasked by their patron Inquisitor with tasks he feels don’t require his personal intervention. That isn’t to say that Acolytes have it easy. Rather than engaging in simple firefights with expendable thugs, Acolytes investigate mysterious, often disturbing phenomena and rely on a combination of investigation skills, combat ability and more than a little luck in order to protect the Empire from a host of threats.
What it’s not
This is not a general, all purpose science fiction RPG in the vein of, say, “Traveler”. More to the point, this is not “the Warhammer 40K Role Playing Game.” Rather it is a role playing game set within the Warhammer 40K fictional universe. It’s an important distinction. People who are looking to create any character type they would like from the length and breadth of the 40K cannon will be sorely disappointed. Many elements that one would consider cornerstones of the 40K setting, such as space marines, Eldar, and Orks are given a fleeting mention at best and no rules exist for making characters of these types. Dark Heresy puts all of its focus on the Inquisition, on human agents of the Imperium hunting and killing supernatural threats to the Empire. If that’s not the kind of game you want, you’re better off not laying down your $49.99.
Chapter by Chapter: Characters
Chapters one through four are deal with character creation and character traits. Character creation starts with a player selecting a home world for their character/acolyte. There are four general types: feral (pre-industrial, tribal societies), hive (planets covered with urban sprawl, typically home to 20 billion-plus souls), imperial (planets dominated by imperial culture and dogma), and void born (people born on spaceships traveling through interstellar space). A character’s home world sets some basic parameters for that character. Not every career path is open to every world type, and word type also influences the rolls generating a characters basic characteristics. Each world type also provides unique benefits and disadvantages. Hivers, for example, can easily navigate crowds, and have a basic familiarity with technology, but are at a disadvantage outside of urban settings, with all that fresh air and sunshine being unfamiliar to them. After a home world is chosen, characteristics are generated. There are nine basic characteristics: Weapon skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness, Agility, Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, and Fellowship. The Weapon and Ballistic skills, are as their name implies, used in combat. Strength, Agility, and Toughness have combat applications, but are also the base for certain skills. Intelligence, Perception, and Fellowship are typically used with skills. Willpower is important for Psykers (more on them later). The player rolls two ten sided dice and adds that number to the base for their character’s homeworld, which is typically 20. A player is allowed one re-roll.
After the numbers are generated, the player makes the most important decision he ever will concerning his character’s future. He picks a career path. There are eight career paths: Adept (scholars and scribes), Arbitrator (law enforcement), Assassin (professional killer), Cleric (preacher of the Imperial faith), Guardsman (military), Imperial Psyker (users of psionic powers), Scum (thieves, conmen and other lowlifes), and finally Tech-Priests (cyborg technicians/machine fetishists). A career path dictates a characters starting skills, talents, and starting equipment. It also determines a character’s future development, but we’ll address the specific mechanics in a bit. Character creation concludes with various optional charts that one could use to flesh out their character. There are charts for age, height, weight, hair color, even a random name generator. Players don’t have to use any of this, of course, but the option’s there. Players also receive 400 experience points and a small bit of cash, to customize their character a bit. After randomly determining your character’s name (or not) you’re ready to go.
Earlier I mentioned Career Paths, and they deserve a detailed description. Career paths do more than determine a character’s starting abilities. They determine all a character ever can or will know. Each Career path has nine levels or ranks, but the paths branch at some point. For example, the Guardsman path branches after rank five. Players then have to choose whether to further advance as heavy infantry, officers, or commandos. A character path has two basic elements. First it determines how easily a character can improve his basic characteristics. Assassins and guardsmen, for example, need less experience to improve their combat skills (Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill) but need far more experience to increase their Fellowship, as neither profession is known for their sociability. A second, more important aspect is that a career path determines which skills and talents a character has access to and when. Each character rank has a list of skills and talents associated with it, as well as an experience cost. Players can only use experience to purchase skills or talents that appear on their list. If it’s not on the list, you can’t buy it, end of discussion. As characters gain experience, they improve in rank and gain access to new lists of abilities. On these advanced lists, characters can either improve an existing skill or learn an entirely new one. For the most part, the authors drive home the point that lists are inviolate. However an option for something called “elite training” exists. Basically this allows a character to take a skill or talent “a la carte” but only if the player can come up with a VERY convincing in-game reason (and “I really, really want it” is not a convincing reason). Even then, the GM can assess any amount experience to purchase said ability that he sees fit.
Career paths are every bit as restrictive as they sound, especially at lower levels. A character typically has to advance to at least his third rank before having the option to purchase skills outside of their career specialty. Furthermore, it also affects the kinds of weapons a character can use and when, as each weapon type has an associated talent, which is listed only for specific careers at specific levels. An Enforcer, or rank two Arbitrator, may luck out and stumble upon a boltgun, but he can’t learn the relevant talent until becoming an Investigator, or rank four. Until then, that boltgun is going to sit in that poor Arbitrator’s closet.
Personally, I find such a system…confining, perhaps needlessly so. But I also accept what the developers are trying to do, in keeping the careers distinctive and necessitating that a character group have representatives from different backgrounds. Nonetheless, my advice would be for people to carefully read over the career paths, and then determine which fits best for your character concept.
Chapters four and five detail skills and talents respectively. Each chapter has an alphabetical listing of their content. They are both simple, straightforward chapters, but I have a couple of minor gripes. First, the difference between a “skill” and a “talent” is a bit vague. The ability to use a weapon is a talent, while avoiding weapon attacks requires Dodge, which is a skill. At first blush I would assume that skills represent abilities gained from practice or instruction while talents represent innate abilities, but the presence of weapon use abilities under “talents” negates that theory. Furthermore, given the nature of career paths, it would have been very helpful is if there was an effort to connect skills and talents to the career paths. That is to say which careers learn which abilities. For example, suppose I want to make a sniper type character. I see a talent called “Marksman” which I would certainly want for my sniper. While its description tells me I need a Ballistic Skill of at least 35, it doesn’t tell me which career I would need to take to get access to it or at what rank it would be available. I would have no recourse but to read every rank for every career until I happened upon it. Don’t get me wrong, as this is hardly a game breaker. But it would have made the game a bit more user friendly.
Chapter five is the “Armory” chapter or the toybox as I like to call it. There are large variety of weapons types, many of which 40K veterans will be intimately familiar, such as lasguns, chain swords, and the ubiquitous boltgun. It’s also possible to purchase modifications and custom ammo. So while the weapon list doesn’t have the “brand name flair” of a similar list from a game like Shadowrun, with the right upgrades and ammo a character can still own a weapon that is uniquely theirs. After a listing of armor types (including power armor for all you marine wanna-bes) and basic equipment, the chapter concludes with cybernetics. Once you see what combat’s like, you’ll be grateful that Acolytes can pick out a new arm or kneecap for himself off a shelf, but that comes later.
The final player resource chapter is chapter six, Psychic Powers. I won’t go into too much detail as to the mechanics behind psychic power use. There are listings of different abilities, from “minor powers” which any psyker and learn and use, to more powerful abilities, which require a psyker to dedicate himself to a particular discipline, such as divination or telepathy. What are worth noting are the side effects that accompany the use of psi-powers, which answer the question as to why psykers don’t use their abilities for such trivial things as lighting campfires. Each use of a psi power has a chance of triggering what are called “psychic phenomena” which are (typically) harmless yet disturbing side effects, determined by rolling percentile dice and consulting a chart. Typical phenomena include such things as causing a rapid temperature drop or shattering all nearby mirrors. There’s a chance, however, of triggering more severe effects called the “Perils of the Warp”, which calls for another roll on a different, more sinister chart. How severe are these effects? Rolling a 00 on the percentile roll means instant character death. Is that severe enough for you? Of course that isn’t going to happen every time a psyker uses his powers. However, just the possibility of such a thing happening over even a trivial use of power means psykers have to think twice before they cut loose.
Rules
Chapters seven and eight is where you’ll find most the rules crunch, seven having the basic game mechanics and eight having game master resources. The game mechanic is based on percentile rolls. Characters have skill rating, and success requires rolling a number less than their skill. Characteristics form the base of these rolls. One uses Ballistic Skill to use ranged weapon, Strength to break down a door, or Intelligence to solve a logic puzzle. Many times though, you will need a specialized skill. Anyone can try to sneak past a sentry by holding their breath and walking on tippy-toes, but a character with the “Move Silent” skill has a much better chance of success. Skills use their base characteristic to determine their chance of success. For example, a character with the “Move Silent” skill and an Agility of 40 also has a 40% chance of using that skill. As characters advance they can earn bonuses, so that the skill’s base becomes it characteristic plus 10 or even 20. That covers the basics, now onto something more advanced, combat.
There will be fighting in this game, and it will be quick and it will be brutal. Combat uses the same basic mechanics, along with a host of situational modifiers for things such as range, target size, and even the over all tactical situation. Combat is very “chart intensive”, as there are many variables that need to be taken into account, and each variable has its own chart. I would certainly recommend photocopying that charts to keep them as a handy reference (or if you have money to burn, a GM screen was published concurrently with the Dark Heresy core rules). The true highpoint of the combat chapter though, is the critical damage charts. Each character will have a number of “wounds” (hit points), typically from 12 to 15. Characters can lose wounds and shrug them off as “flesh wounds”. Once a character loses all his wounds and continues to take damage, then that character begins to suffer from critical damage. The effects of critical damage are determined by consulting a chart, of which there are 16. There are four basic types of damage: impact, rending, energy, and explosive; and each damage type as four locations: head, body, arms, and legs. So what can critical damage do to a person? Here are some examples: “With a sound not unlike a wet sponge being torn in half, the target’s head flies free of its body and sails through the air, landing harmlessly 2d10 metres away with a soggy thud. The target is instantly slain.” Or how about, “With an assortment of unnatural, wet ripping sounds, the arm flies free of the body trailing blood behind it in a crimson arc.” If that sort thing disgusts or repulses you, you may want to pass on this game. If you caught yourself laughing (you sick freak) this may be the game for you.
The balance of chapter seven deals with mundane yet vital rules for any RPG: damage recovery, overland movement, and of course, falling damage. Chapter eight, in addition to the “how to be an effective GM” tips and how to properly utilize the Dark Heresy setting, rounds out with specialized rules for fear, insanity, and corruption. All three of which are essential to any horror role playing game. Fear is simply shock at encountering the bizarre or unnatural, but unfortunately for your typical Acolyte, the bizarre and unnatural is their day at the office. Insanity and corruption are more insidious threats that build within a character’s psyche, only to spill out in dramatic fashion. Insanity represents accumulated mental and emotional stress, while Corruption represents the dark powers of the Warp getting their hooks into someone’s soul. Characters accumulate Insanity Points and Corruption Points in the course of their investigations, and once these accumulated points reach certain thresholds, anyone of a number of severe effects could happen. Insanity can be mitigated with the proper treatment, or even simply relaxing in a stress-free environment. Corruption is far more sinister, and in time can even begin to physically warp someone with too much corruption. While Insanity Points are practically an unavoidable career hazard for an Acolyte, Corruption though a real threat, comes only from direct interaction with the warp, warp energies, or daemons.
Finally, chapter eight concludes with a re-introduction to some old friends: Khorne, Tzeentch, Slaanesh, and Nurgle, or collectively known as the Dark Powers or the Chaos gods. There’s a brief description of each Power. There’s even a handy “Signs of the Dark Gods” chart to tell a glance the basic attributes of each god. Finally, there are optional rules for entering into ‘dark pacts’ with various infernal entities.
Setting
Chapters nine, ten, and eleven contain the game’s detailed setting information. Chapter nine is an overview of the Empire, chapter ten covered the structure and beliefs of the Inquisition itself, and chapter eleven details the Calixis Sector, a region within the Empire used as the setting for all of Dark Heresy’s published material.
The authors gloss over the history of the Empire, instead they focus on politics and culture. When reading about life in the Empire, words such as “bleak”, or “desperate”, or even “hopeless” come to mind. As I alluded earlier, the nominal head of state of the Empire has been in a 10,000 year coma. How does such a society function? Largely through bureaucratic stagnation. Legions functionaries and bureaucrats, collectively known as the Adeptus Terra, do the administrative work of the Empire and make sure the spaceships arrive on time (so to speak), but culturally and scientifically, the Empire has remained much as it has been for the past 10,000 years. Imperial citizens are surrounded by and dependent upon technology which no one really understands. Technology is neither an art nor a science, instead it has become a literal religion, where Tech Priests operate and maintain high technology by appeasing “Machine Spirits”. We’re also introduced to the Warp, an alternate dimension which is both essential and inimical to humanity and the Empire. The Empire manages to combine the soul-crushing feudal-era oppression with high technology. The mentality is something straight out of the 12th century, but combined with interstellar travel and laser guns. It’s a very compelling setting, one that upends many of the accepted conventions of the science fiction genre.
Before I trip over myself saying how great everything is, I have one complaint to register as far as the setting is concerned. Earlier I mentioned that there was scant detail given to the history leading up to the empire. That’s not an issue in and of itself. The problem is that the authors assume a familiarity with this material, as well as other aspects of the Warhammer 40,000 universe that are not detailed in the Dark Heresy book. There are references to “The Dark Age of Technology” and “the betrayal of Horus” but no mention within the Dark Heresy book as to what these things actually are. Furthermore, there’s a map of the galaxy, which provides a sense of scale of just how enormous the Empire actually is. The problem is that this map has headings for things like “Arch-arsonist of Charadon” and “Overfiend of Octarius”. 40K newbie that I am, I had no idea what these things were, and there was no mention of them in the book. Fortunately for me, we live in the Information Age. Google, combined with Wikipedia provided me with all the answers I needed. But still, it demonstrates the curious niche Dark Heresy holds among 40K publications: it’s a stand alone product that really doesn’t stand alone.
Chapter Ten is about the Inquisition itself, the organization the player characters technically work for, or more accurately, they are the expendable grunts for the people who work for the Inquisition. So what’s the Inquisition like? Combine the Spanish Inquisition with the KGB and toss in the odd Sith Lord and you’d have a good idea. Inquisitors hold literal life or death power over any Imperial citizen. They don’t have to explain their actions, planetary governments can’t touch them, and they are only held accountable to their superiors in the Inquisition. Inquisitors can declare an instant death sentence over any person, but they can do more than that. They can order the destruction of an entire planet.
So where to your characters fit in? Inquisitors are hugely powerful individuals that (rightly) scare the living daylights out of anyone who remains in the same room with one. But they can’t be everywhere at once. Many of them also have such fearful reputations that it’s simply impossible for them to conduct a candid investigation. That’s where Acolytes come in. Acolytes, though technically not part of the Inquisition proper, are the agents of individual Inquisitors. Acolytes have a very simple job: they do whatever their patron Inquisitor tells them to do. It might mean shadowing suspected Cultists on a hive world, in could be investigating reports of “unusual phenomena” on backwater planets, it could be a sweep-and-clear supported by elements of the Imperial Guard. Smart Acolytes don’t worry about “the big picture” and focus on the tasks in front of them. Acolytes which prove capable enter their patron Inquisitor’s inner circle, and may eventually may even prove worthy of becoming full fledged Inquisitors themselves (An intermediate rank between ‘Acolyte’ and ‘Inquisitor’, called an ‘Interrogator’ is mentioned in passing but there’s no real description within the text of what these people are or what they do.) But many, many Acolytes find grislier fates.
Chapter Eleven is about the Calixis Sector, a detailed setting which is the games default setting which will be used for all published scenario material for Dark Heresy. I’m reluctant to use a word like “default”, as it gives the impression the material is just some perfunctory afterthought. Far from that, the Calixis sector provides concrete examples of the topics covered in the previous two chapters. Three planets essential to the sector, Scintilla, Iocanthos, and Sepheris Secundus described in careful detail, in terms of culture, geography, and notable citizens. They are prime examples of Imperial planets, steeped in misery and intrigue, with plenty of dark corners where heresy could take root. There’s also detail on the Inquisitors that operate within Calixis. The Inquisitors of Calixis have a variety of personalities and agendas, from “kill them all and let the Emperor sort them out” to subtle and methodical schemers. There are even one or two genuinely conscientious types who really do want to save innocent souls from the forces of darkness. Any one of them would make an excellent patron, or antagonist for that matter. The chapter also includes a listing of influential organizations, from Imperial Adepta to lunatic cultists to noble houses. Any one of them could be a ripe target for infiltration by the Empire’s enemies.
The Calixis sector is a big place. In addition to three highly detailed planets, there’s another 20 or so given quick, thumbnail descriptions, and even that just scratches the surface. Dark Heresy includes a map of the Calixis sector, showing every planet with the sector, and there’s a lot of them. I’m not going to count them all, but trust me, there’s a lot. In order to flesh out as much of the sector as they can, Black Industries has been soliciting fan submissions for planets. Accepted planet ideas will be made part of the online database for the sector maintained by Black Industries (http://www.blackindustries.com/?template=CX&content=calixis-index, if anyone is interested). Just thought I’d toss that out, because quite frankly, I think it’s really cool.
Antagonists
The final chapter, Chapter 12 is the antagonist chapter. After describing some basic traits/abilities that are specific to unnatural creatures of various types, the chapter becomes your basic bestiary. It starts out with human, or mostly human templates which can be utilized by a GM as friend or foe. Then the chapter moves on to more sinister territory. Alien or “Xenos” threats comprise the middle tier before moving on to the main attraction, daemons. As for the antagonists themselves, I’m a bit disappointed. Most of them seem geared to action, orientated shoot-em-up game play. They aren’t the type of creatures that strike me as appropriate for what I consider a horror game. It could also be that they’re just your standard-issue demonic nastiness that I’ve been reading about in RPGs since I bought my first Monster Manual. The only exception is the final type of antagonist presented, daemonhosts. Daemonhosts are hybrid entities, a daemonic soul forced into the unwilling body of a human. They’re unique, they’re powerful and they can fit a variety of roles, from “boss fight” to behind the scenes manipulator. They’re excellent antagonists for a horror/investigative type game.
Finally, the last chapter is an adventure, entitled “Illumination”. Spoiler warnings may be in order. I have no intention of revealing any of the plot elements, but I will discuss the adventure’s plot structure. Regardless, you’ve been warned.
“Illumination is largely what I’ve come to expect from scenarios tucked in the back of core rule books. That is to say, I didn’t like it. Not the story itself, but rather how it was presented. “Illumination” is the type of scenario where events unfold exactly the same regardless of the actions taken by the players, which for me at least, is the cardinal sin of adventure design. All that said, the story is solid and the NPCs and antagonists are well crafted. So it is salvageable. Acolytes are supposed to be investigators, so I’d give them an actual chance to figure out what’s going on before throwing it in their faces in the final scene. But that’s just me. Final Assessment
My final assessment is that this is a very good game. It’s not perfect, but its flaws tend to be minor irritants rather than total game breakers. The spotty nature setting background material is bothersome at first, but thanks to the Internet, after a half hour of research you can fill any gaps left by the printed material. Style is a five, easily. It’s a beautiful book that sits near the top of current production standards. As for Substance, I’d give it a 4.9, rounded up to a five. I don’t feel right handing out a perfect five for a core rule book that assumes familiarity with material outside of the book itself. It’s a technical decision that shouldn’t detract from all the other things the book gets right.
So who should buy this book? If you like non-traditional science fiction settings and you enjoy horror or supernatural elements, this game is for you. The game could work well as either a “Doom” type excursion into an abandoned, daemon infested installation, “Cthulu in space” where Acolytes piece together what’s happening around them just in time to escape with their hides intact, or anything in between. What one needs to remember is that Dark Heresy focuses on a single aspect of the Warhammer 40K universe, so if you’re out to play an Ork-stomping Space Marine, this may not be the game for you. But if you’re willing to accept Dark Heresy for what it is rather than what it’s not, it remains an excellent game.
