Kingbeast's Lair

-== What is it? ==-

Dark Heresy is a role-playing game now handled by Fantasy Flight Games set in the Warhammer 40K universe. (The game was first published by Black Industries who sold the game to Fantasy Flight.) PC take on the role of Acolytes in the service of the Emperor. The world of Warhammer 40K is a very dark place filled with cybernetics and magic. I would call the genre dark sci-fi.

The core book includes a complete role-playing system, a sourcebook, and a short introductory adventure.

I have read the entire book from cover to cover and played in a 6 hour demo session at DunDraCon. Other than that I have NO experience with the Warhammer 40K universe at all.

-== What I Like ==-

Boy this book is pretty. The cover is fantastic. Inside the front and back cover are beautiful star charts of the realm. The layout is easy to read but very evocative. Between each section are great pieces that warm the user up for what is coming next. One of the nicest looking RPG books I have seen. Period.

The setting is gritty and righteous. It revolves around serving the Emperor and maintaining his domain but everyone has their own idea of how to accomplish that goal. This means conflicts with everyone from your superiors to the common street thug. The history is rich, the planets are unique, the slang is religion meets marine, etc. The magic system is about the controlling the warp. When the warp opens it is very dangerous. The feel is reminiscent of Call of Cthulhu in that regard. Technology is understood by only a select few who deem it a religion of sorts. Awesome touches that really make is work well as an RPG.

The book is really fun to read. There are a lot of smaller passages of flavor text that really help fill in some gaps. I enjoyed turning the page to see what warped stuff the writer would spring.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

The system is brutal as written. I mean lethal with a capital ?L?. Characters are not that hard to knock down and when they go to negative points they start getting critical effects that cause permanent stat loses, loss of limb, etc. Brutal. I’m not sure how this brutality would fare for a long extended campaign.

(When I played in Dark Heresy at DunDraCon the GM make a change to the fate system that I felt made a huge difference. He allowed you to modify die rolls by 10% by spending a fate point. This little change really helped as often success rolls are very low. See that lethal comment above. 😉 )

Only the Inquisitors are covered in the book. There are not rules for Space Marines or any of the other cool things that folks might know about the Warhammer 40K universe.

The introductory adventure is nothing special. It is very straightforward and linear. That can be good for new players but it just seemed a little too canned to me. Not a big issue at all. 😉

-== Summary ==-

If you want a system that is highly evocative which will put your players through a proverbial meat grinder then this is the system for you. If you want to run Dark Heresy I would highly recommend reading the Eisenhorn books from Dan Abnett. They really help in understanding the role of the Inquisitors and the 40K universe in general. I started reading them after reading the RPG.

Boy?I came very close to giving this product a 10 out of 10?this sucker is that good. The things I do not like are very minor compared to the things I do like. Go out and buy it?worth every penny of the $60 cover price.

I give it 9 out of 10 paws.

-== What is it? ==-

The 100 Series is a collection of inexpensive PDF/print on demand products from Postmortem Studios that are intended to spark ideas for existing campaigns. ?100? comes from the fact that there are 100 entries on each topic. The layout of these books is very simple. There are a couple of introductory pages then the content. Each entry is exactly 1 printed page.

I think there are around 6 of these out right now. The ones I have purchased include 100 Science Fiction Adventure Seeds, 100 Fantasy Adventure Seeds, and 100 Fantasy Kingdoms.

-== What I Like ==-

I really like the length of each entry. 1 page is perfect to put across an idea plus some twists but not become a complete adventure. I run campaigns in my own worlds so long adventures are often not relevant or need heavy modification. This 1 page format is perfect to give me the guts. I can do the rest.

The content itself is very nice and fun to read. The author takes a light approach with ?cheesy titles? that convey the intent of the entry. The twists are also quite good and really do the trick.

This is gonna sound weird as I am not a GM who games with an open laptop but I think PDF is a great distribution medium for a product like this. I print out the ones I want, write all over them, and clip them into my notebook. Good to go! 😀

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

There is not much to fault in these products. My only complaints are VERY minor?sometimes the entries can get stale but the later products are much better in this regard and the covers of some of the early products are really bad?the later ones are better but the earlier ones are not as good.

-== Summary ==-

I really love these products and strongly encourage them to all GMs. My 100 Series printouts go on my shelf right next to the Suppressed Transmissions books. When you need inspiration look no further.

I give these 9 out of 10 paws.

–== What I Like ==–

The hooks and cave content descriptions are the best part of the product. They are pretty imaginative and can be adapted to fit most campaign worlds very easy. For my post apocalyptic fantasy game that I am running it fits almost perfectly.

The maps are very artistic and have a sort of rustic flair. Speaking of the maps…

–== What I D0 NOT Like ==–

By far the biggest issue with the product are the maps. There are really two big issues.

The main complex map is presented at the end of the module. It is split on 4 pages in an uneven fashion, there is no scale, it is not clear, and rooms are not marked at all. It is literally a process of examining the individual room maps and text to try and figure out where they belong on the main complex map. Since the map is not clear it is not easy to find where stuff is located. In fact this map is so unclear that I am contemplating having to remake it for my game.

The room sized maps look neat but there is no scale or delineation of the various objects at all. “How big is this cave?” “Where is the slit that has the basilisk?”

My only other complaints are not as serious. I would have like to see more detail on the chief and shaman. More information on their preferred method of attack and their personalities would have be good. I also wanted to see a bit more content. Maybe a few more unique rooms??? There are not that many unique areas to the caves. My final gripe is that in several places the English is not great. I know this is from a Polish company but I am buying an English product so I expect clear verbiage.

–== Summary ==–

Fine if you need some added content for your game. The price point of $8 is right on the money. 😉 You can get a copy at DriveThruRPG using this link.

I give it 6 out of 10 paws.