Dark Heresy

Dark Heresy
RPG published by Fantasy Flight Games
Rule System	d%
No. of Players	3+
Session Time	10+ minutes
Authors	Owen Barnes, Kate Flack, Mike Mason
First Publication	2008
Essential Books	Dark Heresy Core Rulebook

Dark Heresy is an RPG set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. It is to 40k as Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and indeed uses a very similar system.

Basically you're fucked like in WFRP, only instead of dying from blood poisoning caused by a dirty pitchfork you get to have your innards blown across the wall and then subsequently set on fire by a plasma gun (probably your own).

It has the best critical hit charts ever made. You don't even need the rest of the game (although it is all good, it's just a LOT). Just start a campaign, wing it, and whenever anyone gets a good hit, roll on the critical hit charts. Holy fucking hell, did boiling bone marrow just turn my femur into a frag grenade? Fuck.

All player characters are supposed to be human acolytes working for the Inquisition, although they may come from many different vocations. From the feral world warrior to the hive ganger, from the inducted Guardsman to the detached Sister of Battle.
However, whilst the official adventures focus on inquisitorial investigations, the authors themselves have acknowledged the ease of relocating the game's focus to other aspects of the 41st millennium, such as an Imperial Guard platoon where all player characters are soldiers in one of the many warzones.

Some anons have expressed dislike towards Dark Heresy due to the limited power-level, as the current official ruleset does not allow players to assume the roles of Mary Sue Spess Mehreens or any aliens, since those characters (with the exception of Squats) would simply be unfit for this kind of gameplay. So, if you want to play Spess Mehreens, Farseers or Fire Warriors, Dark Heresy might not be for you - get yourself the respective first-person shooters or gb2 Exalted.
However, there are also several player-created supplements dealing with additional career paths like Adeptus Astartes or xeno races like Orcs. Check the Dark Reign link at the end of the page for this kind of material, should playing ordinary people with Balls of Steel be beneath your dignity.

Alternate DH cover

Careers

Including the Inquisitor's Handbook supplement, the playable character classes and career trees are:

• Adept (Lexograph or Logister) - the brains of the party, quite useful when it comes to knowledge
• Adepta Sororitas (Famulous, Hospitaller or Battle Sister) - nuns with guns, see also Sisters of Battle
• Arbitrator (Enforcer or Investigator) - Judge Dredd in space! 'nuff said
• Assassin (Nihilator or Infiltrator) - they kill stuff, either fast and bloody or slow and painful (depending on career)
• Cleric (Confessor or Zealot) - clerics of the Empra, imagine a priest with a sawn-off shotgun
• Guardsman (Stormtrooper, Officer or Sniper) - see Imperial Guard
• Imperial Psyker (Savant or Scholar) - can try to channel the chaotic energies of the warp, see not as planned
• Scum (Ganger or Fixer) - the rogues of 40k actually have a skill called "blather"
• Tech-Priest (Technomancer or Omniprophet) - cyberized engineers, kinda like 7of9 without the sex

Although all characters need to be human, their origins may vary wildly. To give just a few examples: feral world people tend to behave like Conan whilst hive-worlders could best be compared to Shadowrun characters, and the Schola Progenium produces fanatical Nazi zealots. Voidborn characters are usually just strange because of their pale skin - good luck convincing that angry mob over there your friend isn't a mutant.

Accurate depiction of a Dark Heresy game.

Important Things to Remember

• Grim darkness is grim.
• Nobody expects the Inquisition.
  • Not even the Inquisitor.
• When the Psyker attempts to use his powers, knock him out.
• That guy over there looks strange. He is probably a heretic.
• USE COVER!
• You're probably fucked anyways.

Sample Combat

The party of bold/stupid/erstwhile and ignorant members (perfect =][= material really) was investigating a psychic disturbance up on a large hillock of shale and scree. Upon getting most of the way up, the Arbites slips arse over head on loose scree and goes tumbling down, taking the Scum with him in the process, in a manner which would please the chaos gods with its twisted irony... despite the Arbites denying it was deliberate as they tumble down together.
Both him and the Scum are really busted up in a tangled mess of broken bones, skulls and dirt at the bottom of the hill, erstwhile (and stupid) Psyker decides to save the day by announcing that he'll fix them up and before Angry Nun can finish screaming out 'no don't the veil is weak here!' he's happily botching a power roll.

"A Horror of the ruinous ones appears!"
Arbites promptly passes out in fear
Scum runs screaming, defecating and hobbling
Tech Priest runs behind the truck soiling his robes
Psyker runs screaming in order to die tired
Angry Nun gets angry(er)

DING DING
Round One!
Horror sets Psyker on fire and sets off in pursuit
Angry Nun hauls out 10G sawn-off and holy plasms of banishing, proceeds chasing the Horror (Bold and Stupid!)
Psyker burns a bit but is still mostly functional at running
Tech Priest snaps a shot off at the horror with las-carbine, doesn't do very much, resumes hiding
Scum: 'Weeeeza gunna diiiiiie!' runs screaming for cover
Arbites: 'zzzz'

DING DING
Round Two!
Horror lands a good old fire-bolt to the back of the Psyker and sets the truck on fire
Angry Nun scores a good hit with some banishing water and hurts the Horror a bit
Psyker is in a fair bit of pain, still on fire and running around going "Ow! Ow! Ow! Oh god it burns!"
Tech Priest notices the sacred machine is in pain and needs fixing
Scum does what scum do and hides under the truck
Arbites: 'zzzz'

DING DING
Round Three!
Horror bolts the Psyker a bit more
Angry Nun grievously hurts the Horror a bit more
Psyker is still on fire and roughly at about 0 wounds and about to go into criticals, agony level of about 8/10
Tech Priest is doing badly at putting fire out
Scum catches fire underneath the truck
Arbites: 'zzzz'

DING DING
Round Four!
Horror blows the foot off the Psyker with a bolt
Angry Nun is busting up the Horror pretty good, but a bad roll on the dice means a lot less damage than hoped (even after a re-roll on a fate point)
Psyker, still on fire, minus foot and now crawling in agony
Tech Priest managing to get the truck fire under control
Scum rolls around on fire
Arbites wakes up, shrieks a bit and passes out again

DING DING
Round Five!
Horror lands another bolt...
Angry Nun snaps off some serious pain on the Horror, he's looking very wobbly now
Psyker, detonates in a shower of meat, shrapnel, armour and exploding munitions
Tech Priest gets injured by chunks of Psyker
Scum gets injured by chunks of Psyker, while still on fire
Arbites: 'zzzz'

DING DING
Round Six!
Angry Nun vs Horror at the same initiative
Angry Nun pulls trigger on sawn-off shotgun
Horror lets loose with a Psychic Scream
Angry Nun falls down on 5pts of Fatigue, Horror explodes in shower of gibs and goes back to whence it came
Psyker rains down on the landscape in burning chunks
Tech Priest puts the Scum out
Scum is much happier now that he's not on fire anymore
Arbites: 'zzzz'

Gallery

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Software

An IRC bot with DH functions coded by /tg/ anonymous

External Links

Official Forums from FFG
Dark Reign, a Dark Heresy fansite with lots of additional material
Heresypedia, another fansite for Dark Heresy