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What marks Black Crusade out from its forebears – Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch – is that it is the first RPG based on a Games Work intellectual property that allows the player characters to undertake the roles of the “bad” guys. In this new RPG, the players take the role of those in 41st Millennium who have rejected the caring clasp of the ever immobile God-Emperor and the order that is the Imperium of Man to embrace their individualism in the service of the Forces of Chaos, the Ruinous Powers. In other words, they are heretics!
For Free RPG Day ’11, Fantasy Flight Games has released Broken Chains: An Introduction to Black Crusade, which provides a taster of the game that includes the basic rules, four ready-to-play sample characters, and a scenario written for those characters. In showcasing the game and characters, the second obvious difference between this and the previous RPGs is that players can take the roles of both Space Marines and mere Humans. The first specialises in combat, whilst the latter specialise in social situations or technical fields, though Humans are still capable of holding their own in combat. Also evident is the effort made to explain why the Heretics have turned away from the God-Emperor’s eternal vigilance to follow a very different, very personal path. It shows in each character’s Pride, Failing, and Motivation as well as in their backgrounds. For example, one of the two Chaos Space Marines given in Broken Chains is proud about his Martial Prowess, possesses the Failing of Betrayal, and the Motivation of Perfection.
Another change between the previous RPGs and Black Crusade is that characters have a tenth attribute, the very appropriate Infamy. As a full attribute, this is a measure of their dark reputations and can be used to “influence” others – it is abbreviated to “Inf” after all, but as a derived factor, Infamy Points are spent exactly as are Fate Points in the previous RPGs. Thus they can be used to re-roll Tests, enhance Tests and successes, to gain the Initiative, to regain lost Wounds, and to recover from loss of Fatigue or from being stunned. At the end of the adventure, depending upon how well the characters do, the GM can award a few points to add to their Infamy attribute.
Four sample characters are provided to play the given adventure. They comprise two Chaos Space Marines and two Humans. All of them are very different. One Chaos Space Marine is known for his martial ability and specialises in making speedy attack, whilst the other is a dedicated disciple of the Chaos Gods who has been enhanced to wield heavy weaponry. The first Human is a charismatic Renegade Rogue Trader, whilst the other is a Heretek, a Tech-Priest who experimented with Warp-spawned mutations. The quartet is a decent mix, on a par with characters from Rogue Trader, and at this first sight of the Black Crusade RPG, a better representation of the characters possible in the game than has been seen in other introductions to some of Fantasy Flight’s Warhammer 40,000 RPGs.
The adventure itself, designed for use with two to four players, begins with the heretics awoken from their stasis pods aboard the Inquisition starship, the Chains of Judgement. Captured by the Inquisition and being returned to Scintilla, capital of the Calixis Sector, the members of the quartet are due to be interrogated, persuaded to recant their dark faiths, and then executed. Initially alone, the characters quickly discover that the Chains of Judgement is currently lost in the Warp and has been for centuries! If they recover their equipment, then perhaps they can find a means to take command of the ship and escape to a renegade world from where they can launch a “Black Crusade” upon the Imperium of Man! Although set aboard a starship – a small one by the standards of the 41st Millennium, but still large enough – the adventure is very much one of having to escape the dungeon rather than delve into it. Running the adventure should take about four hours.
As you expect from Fantasy Flight Games, Broken Chains: An Introduction to Black Crusade is a well presented booklet. The layout is clean and tidy, there is plenty of artwork, and the writing is clear. The actual rules will be familiar to anyone who has played previous Warhammer 40,000 RPGs, but are easy to understand if not. Much of the adventure is written in broad terms as it has to cover quite a large area. There is also advice given for GM throughout, suggesting how he can shorten or lengthen the adventure, add more NPCs, run certain situations, and so on. One minor point is that the page numbers are a little hard to read, but in a book as good as this…
What Broken Chains: An Introduction to Black Crusade portrays nicely is the idea that it is possible to play characters at odds with those seen in earlier Warhammer 40,000 RPGs. Characters are not necessarily “evil,” but at the very least holding to radical, unorthodox views that would ensure their persecution and execution had they not gone renegade. This makes for an interesting situation, and thus an interesting adventure.
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