# Opinions on Dark Heresy?



## Insanity (Oct 25, 2011)

So I've really been wanting to play Dark Heresy for a while now and I'm considering trying to convince my RPing group to start up a campaign once we are done with our D&D(3.5) campaign. 2 of the others have got 40K experience and interest and some just know a very small amount of it.

But before I go trying to convince people to play, I just want to get some feedback of the game from some people who have actually played.

What did you enjoy / dislike about it? Did your group have fun? Did you have any particularly fun or challenging moments you could share with me?

Bonus question: What are Adepts good for? I know they are their for general knowledge of all things and scribes. But what roles do they take in campaigns. They just seem like a class that many people would find boring.


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## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

Adepts = Skill Monkeys

Most 40k types are educationally retarded, the Adept is your only one that might have a clue at any given time.

My group likes DH, it has a good Grim Dark feel to it. Psykers at the higher levels are retardedly powerful if built right so watch out for that.


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## Insanity (Oct 25, 2011)

I understand that they are the skill monkeys, but what specifically would they add to a group? just better understanding of things? or does it go as far as demolition checks and the likes?


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## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

It depends on what type of game your playing. If the main focus of your games is going to be killing things then no, they are not all that useful. They will only come out if there is some random skill you need.

If your games are more espionage related then they become extremely useful. They have the most access the soonest to all the various non combat skills. If there is a obscure fact needed to be known they are the more likely class to know it. They are the more likely character to be able to read, speak other languages, and be able to make their way through the inner workings of the paperwork related side of the 40k setting. They are rp assets more than combat assets.


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## Insanity (Oct 25, 2011)

Ahh I see, that makes it a lot clearer 

Since I'll probably be the GM of the campaign if it ever happens (considering that I know the most about the 40K universe in our group) I'll be trying to make it a balance of both fighting and investigating/espionage.


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## Insanity (Oct 25, 2011)

Just realised this is Roleplay THREADS and not games.....


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## VixusKragov (Feb 21, 2012)

Realize this thread is a bit old but I used to play Dark Heresy a bit, doing some mediocre GM'ing for a couple friends and I. Personally, I found it to be very fun and a different experience than some other games I've played of the same nature. My group seemed to be having a pretty good time with it, so I'd say the group enjoyed it. One of the more challenging moments was an encounter with a minor demon courtesy of a psyker in our group- was definitely fun to play though. I definitely recommend it.


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## Insanity (Oct 25, 2011)

It's only 8 days old 

Thanks for the feedback though, I appreciate it


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## Klomster (Oct 9, 2008)

Dark heresy was the first roleplaying game i've ever played and formed the group of my best friends.

So it holds a rather special place in my heart.

But as a game itself it has some drawbacks.
Note these drawbacks others will see as boons, but here goes.

The game is level based. Such as you can be level 0-10 character (Don't remember precisely, but you get it.) And certain things are forbidden by the game until you become high enough level.

This is retarded since it's not a single bit realistic. I might be a demolitions expert, i am expected to defuse and create bombs without fail.
A starting dark heresy character with the demolitions skill has 40% chance of success, and that's a optimized character, be happy if you have 30% chance of success.

In the real world a person wouldn't be left near demolitions with such a slim chance of success.

Note that a big part of the ability to succeed is based on bonus hogging, bonuses are very simple to stack up outside combat. Like getting help, taking time and using good tools will get you an easy +30% chance. So sure, it is not that bad.

But the "demolitions expert" still only has a 60%-70% chance of success in a calm controlled situation.

What i'm trying to convey is that you are never really good at anything, especially if you are a starting character.

Secondly, classes. Only certain "classes" of people can do this.
Sure it makes sense that certain types of characters can only do some things, but there are exceptions, but this game punishes creativity in that part.
You want to be a techpriest who makes weird biological experiments and uses weird xeno technology?
Well you aint gonna get it unless you either buy several expansion sets or bugger the gm to be allowed to take "specialist advancements" (or whatever they are called) which are not only more expensive, but also need reasoning to be allowed to take. And when characters have as little freedom as in dark heresy, you are basically screwed.

Yes, it is cool to be able to progress through the ranks and really earn your skills. That is fine, but some classes are just stupid.

Guess which class is the best sniper, and get the sniper skills first.
The assassin? Don't be silly, it's the adept (true story) yes, the adept gets it first.

You want a plasma cannon? Be the assassin. He is the only one who gets it in the original tables IIRC.

Want to be sneaky and a good talker? You thought assassin? Silly, it's the scum you want.

Not only is the sense of classes stupid, but also the classes are messed up.
The reasoning why a character can and cannot take a skill should be up to the gm and the player to decide. Whatever fits the character, but not in this system, here it's just madness.

%-based system.
It's simple, and that has its advantages, but you could also play system-less.
Just free-form or add some sort of dice-rolling (even if it's just 2D6) is better than %-based if you ask me.

But dark heresy is a good game to start with because of simple game mechanics with some flair.

Another thing is that the gm can really fuck you over in this game.

Like all ours did. (We sort of took turns trying to be gm, it was good to try it out but some were better than others)

But as we felt it like.
We were constantly piss poor and had very little exp, we were sent on missions we were not really suited for and mostly barely came through because of nice gm's and fate point abuse. (More nice gm's though.)

So a tip is to not give them too little, we barely afforded getting a proper armour, and getting cool weapons were just a distant dream.

This did of course make the power sword much more awesome and terrifying, and a bolt pistol was really a big bad thing.
Until you realised that the enemies had been running around with power swords for quite a bit already and a hand cannon with the right ammo and a pair (yes, about 2 cheap skills) is more deadly than a bolt pistol.

We had a mechanic that allowed us to once per year, make a request from the inquisitor (every individual had one each). This could be anything from a piece of equipment to meetings with people outside our ability.
This is very neat, since the inquisitor never was around to help us (and shouldn't be) and we could get some serious help due to this.

But it was SUPER HARD to actually get anything from this.
What i propose is to be a bit more lenient with what the players get from their requests.
Plain "i want a power armour" of course shouldn't just be handed out, but "i want a power sword" should be considered by the inquisitor and handed out if the gm see fit.
Give it a more "Has he earned it" approach than our dice rolling approach.

Oh, this SENIOR WELL PROVEN ACOLYTE wants a power sword? Nah, he won't get anything and his request is gone until next year.
And this other guy? He's new and wants power armour? *Rolls awesome* Yeah sure here have one.

I hope you see what i'm at.

All in all, the game let's you play as low power imperials with little chance of survival (yeah it's deadly unless you are nice) they are not good and won't get much better.

But it is good warhammer 40k fun and everybody into 40k should try it at least.


But if i would role-play 40k now, i would probably go system-less or with GURPS or just a simple 2D6 system.
With more focus on actually having characters instead of the cardboard cut-outs you can if you work on it give a character in dark heresy.

Hope i was of help, it was a long post but that's how i roll 

Good luck with the game


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