Dark Heresy 2nd Edition : Review

Today I'm going to review a book that I've owned for quite some time now, the second edition rulebook for the Dark Heresy roleplaying game. By this point I'm going to assume my readers know 40k (or have at least read the TV Tropes page), and with that in mind...

Overview :

Dark Heresy is a roleplaying game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe that places the players in the roles of Inquisitorial acolytes, serving the aims and whims of that mysterious (and terrifying) organisation, investigating rumours of heresy and apostasy, and fighting the eternal war against the Enemy Within, The Enemy Without and the Enemy Beyond. It's a game of investigation, horror, brutal violence and looming insanity, fun stuff! It's also renowned for the unforgiving nature of its combat system and having 8 pages dedicated to critical damage charts, with results ranging from losing a few fingers to being reduced to a greasy crimson smear.

Naturally there are people who have created more detailed and medically precise charts. Ahh roleplayers...

The original game came out about 7 years ago and had a somewhat fraught release, being released, cancelled, and then picked up again by Fantasy Flight games all within 24 hours. Over the years plenty of sourcebooks have been released along with the spin off's Deathwatch (dealing with the Space Marines of the namesake organisation), Rogue Trader (exploration and conquest on the edge of the Imperium, think Star Trek via Warhammer 40,000, yes its as awesome as it sounds), Only War (the Imperial Guard and the thankless, brutal campaigns they wage against the Imperium's enemies), and Black Crusade (the Forces of Chaos and the inevitable descent into horror and corruption.).

Now Fantasy Flight have decided to release a new edition, bringing the game more into line with the rules in Only War and Black Crusade. After a period of community beta testing it has been released and now it's time for me to pick it apart.

Also yes, I'm aware its been out for MONTHS and I've only just gotten around to reviewing it. What can I say, I've never been one for keeping up with current events...

Fluff :

This edition of Dark Heresy eschews the previous setting of the Calixis Sector in favour of the (admittedly nearby in stellar terms) Askellon sector. I'm very pleased with the fluff that's been written so far, which portrays Askellon as a sector on the brink of total dissolution, with warp travel slowly becoming more and more difficult even as institutions both civil and Imperial begin to fall apart under the strain of the sectors seemingly inevitable collapse. It's wonderfully nihilistic and sets up a region where the actions of the party can easily contribute to the sectors precarious stability, or maybe even speed its collapse into chaos.

An important note is that whereas the Calixis sector had a particularly strong Inquisition presence (to the point where they had a palace on the sectors capital world, known and feared by the entire populace) the Askellon sector lacks that. I'm a fan of this, the Inquisition is meant to be composed of those rare individuals capable of handling the responsibilities and pressures of their position, they should never be numerous, and only gather in large numbers in dire emergencies. The Askellon sector supports this, and reinforces a sense of isolation and self reliance for the party. They can't easily run to the greater Inquisition if they encounter something they can't handle, they have themselves, their mentor, and whatever contacts and allies they can assemble themselves.

The worlds of the Askellon sector presented in the book are well written and interesting, with Desoleum and its system of oaths, debts, and innumerable vicious gangs being a particular favourite of mine. The various Adepta and institutions are presented in a (I hesitate to the use the word but I'm sure you understand my meaning) realistic fashion, and enough adventure hooks and mysteries are provided to support plenty of adventure seeds, character concepts, and story ideas. The fluff is definitely a strong point of the book and I'm looking forward to reading future additions in upcoming books.

I just wish that Fantasy Flight or the Black Library would release some Dark Heresy novels like those written for the first edition, though hopefully they wouldn't get part way into a series and then never release the last book. I'm looking at you Sandy Mitchell....

On a related note, Mitchell's Dark Heresy novels are a fun read, and an interesting counterpart to the Ciaphas Cain novels. If you can find them I'd thoroughly recommend giving them a read.

Crunch :

As far as rules go, for the most part Dark Heresy 2E has been updated in line with Only War and Black Crusade, if you're familiar with those you'll likewise be familiar with how the rules have changed.  On a more general note I'm going to go through the book chapter by chapter and point out aspects of this edition that I particularly like and dislike. Here we go...

1 - Playing The Game : This section deals with the basic rules of the game, and has been updated in line with Black Crusade / Only War, the only major change being to how additional degrees of success / failure are calculated. Previously one degree was earned for failing or succeeding on a test, with an additional degree for every 10 points of difference between dice roll and target number in either direction. Under second edition degrees of success / failure beyond the first are instead calculated by either subtracting the 10's of the number rolled from the 10's of the target number (in the case of successes) or subtracting the 10's of the target number from 10's of the number rolled (in case of failures). Though this does make scoring at least 2 degrees of success / failure a little more likely it also makes calculating degrees a little easier, useful when you're in the middle of an extended combat.

2 - Character Creation : Now here is where this edition begins to shine. The old Homeworld / Profession system for character creation has been modified, and replaced with a tripartite system of Homeworld, Background and Role. This allows a greater degree of customisation than the previous system, and allows more interesting and varied characters.

Homeworlds decide characteristic modifiers, fate points, wounds, and grant some sort of bonus such as hive worlders having an easier time of navigating when in enclosed environments and not being slowed by crowds. They also provide a single aptitude but I'll get to those later. Background provides a selection of starting skills, talents and equipment as well as one of two aptitudes and another benefit dependant on the background. For example characters with the Adeptus Arbites background can re-roll Intimidation and Interrogation tests as well as substituting their Willpower bonus for the degrees of success on their roll. Finally a characters Role determines, well, their role in the party. These range from Assassin and Warrior to Chirugeon and Sage, with a characters choice of role deciding the rest of their aptitudes as well as providing a choice of two talents and a final role-related benefit. The Assassin role for example allows characters to use a Fate Point to deal additional damage equal to the number of degrees of success they roll on an attack.

I really like this system, it provides so much more potential for variety compared to first edition, and indeed compared to any of the first run of Warhammer 40k RPG's. It allows, for example, an Adeptus Mechanicus character who is not a Tech Priest, but instead a skitarii, a genetor, or a even a tech-assassin. An Arbitrator who isn't a grim faced, huge jawed expy of Judge Dredd but a clever interrogator or infiltrator. It even allows combinations that on the surface are bizarre but nevertheless interesting such as an Ecclesiarchal character with the gift/curse of psychic powers, or a tech savvy feral world Adept.

There are some flaws though, in the form of characteristic generation. Going by the core rules stats are rolled one at a time with no option to move them around or reassign them once generated. Each homeworld picks out two stats that are particularly favoured, allowing an additional dice to be rolled (and the lowest discarded) when rolling for them, and a single stat for which the opposite is true, with three dice being rolled and the highest ignored. I take issue with this, I like myself and my players to be allowed to play the characters they want to play, instead of rolling a set of stats and being forced to alter their plans around those or risk playing characters utterly unsuited for their roles.

Likewise though there is a point buy system it caps all stats at 40, with +5/-5 modifiers to each homeworlds chosen stats. This is...well...pointless. As whether these modifiers are used or not all characters have the same ability caps and the same number of points to spend, the only difference being that one stat can be 5 points lower depending on the homeworld chose.

Niggles, but easily fixed ones.

One of the most important features of this chapter is how advancement is dealt with. Instead of providing career paths and levels with a predetermined selection of skills, talents and characteristic advancements, second edition instead uses the same method of progression as Only War. Characters have a selection of Aptitudes, determined by their homeworld, background and role, which correspond to each characteristic, skill and talent. The experience cost of each advance is determined by how many corresponding attributes the character possesses, for example a character with the Strength and Offence aptitudes will pay 100xp for their first 5 point improvement to strength, whereas a character lacking those aptitudes will pay 500xp. Its a simple system that I'm very happy with.

Finally we come to Elite Advances. These are similar to the advanced careers of first edition, Deathwatch and Rogue Trader, in that they are major modifications to a character that have specific prerequisites and benefits. Instead of replacing a career rank they are instead paid for with experience points and provide characters with access to special abilities, new aptitudes, and advance based powers. The Elite Advances provided in the core rulebook being Inquisitor, Psyker and Untouchable, and all are well written with an interesting suite of abilities.

3 - Skills : The skill system remains relatively unchanged, though in line with Black Crusade / Only War the number of skills has been trimmed down somewhat. I only have a couple of comments, firstly that I think the Operate skill and its 3 variants (Aerospace, Surface and Void) seems a bit too simplified, especially considering that the Lore and Linguistics skills still need to be taken multiple times in order to expand a characters base of knowledge and languages, whereas taking Operate [Surface] allows a character to pilot ALL ground vehicles with equal skill.

Secondly I'm a little disappointed that the Specialisation system from the beta wasn't implemented. This system would have consolidated the various Lore and Linguistics skills into a single skill choice each, with a characters breadth of knowledge being expanded by taking specialisations. For example a character could take a specialisation in Eldar and apply that to their existing skills, allowing them to use Linguistics to speak their language, Medicae to understand their biology, and Tech use to attempt to puzzle out their technology. It was an interesting and elegant system that I hope rears its head again at some point in the future.

4 - Talents and Traits : These seem to have been trimmed down somewhat, with talents from multiple older sources being added in (such as the wonderful Thunder Charge talent) whilst others have been consolidated or removed entirely. Notably the social talents seem to have been trimmed down severely, with the emphasis being on combat talents. Traits are mostly unchanged, with Unnatural Characteristics using the Black Crusade / Only War rules variant of being a numerical bonus to the characteristic bonus rather than a multiplier, with half the bonus being applied to degrees of success.

5 - Armoury : The armoury remains a wonderful cornucopia of blades, guns, grenades, and other ways to make people die very messy and unpleasant deaths. As well as the tools and equipment that the agents of the Inquisition need to go about their duties. I do have some lingering problems however, problems I've had ever since first edition. Namely that the characteristics of some weapons are... off. Plasma weapons for example, which are meant to be some of the most powerful personal armaments in the setting, are far weaker than they should be. Likewise certain weapon stats simply make no sense, such as a mundane staff having the Balanced rule whilst a Force Staff does not....why?

As I said, these are not new issues, though I do intend to address them at some point. Those aside the selection of weapons and equipment is very good, with more cybernetics and tools than the previous core rulebook and with most of the item descriptions and rules being far clearer and more concise, all positive developments.

6 - Psychic Powers : This...this section has problems. Not necessarily with the core psychic power rules, but with the powers themselves and with the shoehorned in progression trees that have been introduced as of this edition. The basic rules are (surprise surprise) identical to Black Crusade / Only War, with power manifestation being based off ability checks, and Psychic Phenomena / Perils of the Warp being a constant danger for the incautious psyker. This system is far superior to the first edition rules for warpcraft, and I'm pleased that the update has been made.

With that said, there are as I mentioned problems. The progression tree's are nonsensical at best, and an utterly unnecessary addition. Why does a Biomancer need to know how to blast people apart with warp lightning before they can learn to alter their physical appearance? Why is wrapping yourself in a shield of psychic fire a prerequisite for cauterising wounds with your mind? Likewise a lot of the new power prerequisites make no sense either, most notably several powers have a Willpower requirement of 35... when the Psyker elite advance requires that a character have a Willpower of 40.... was this chapter written by another designer who refused to talk to the others?

Several powers likewise have been nerfed, with the Telekinesis discipline having suffered the worst of it. As I just said I genuinely wonder if this character was handed over to separate writer, if so they seem to have been more concerned with trying to make their own mark on this chapter than actually providing a well written and balanced selection of abilities. This is a subject I'm going to come back to in the future, most likely in depth. That said the power rules are perfectly functional, just (to my mind) in need of alteration.

7 - Combat : The combat rules have been brought in line with Black Crusade / Only War, and are better off for it. As always combat in Dark Heresy remains brutal and (in my opinion) fairly realistic, with suppressing fire, the use of cover, and crippling injuries all being important factors. Notably this chapter includes vehicle combat rules, something absent from the original rulebook.

8 - Narrative Tools : This section includes two of the most important changes to the new edition, the addition of the Influence and Subtlety mechanics. Influence is the 10th characteristic and is used for obtaining favours, equipment, and support from allies. It's essentially the Profit Factor and Infamy characteristics from Rogue Trader and Black Crusade applied to Black Crusade, and I'm perfectly happy with this. Though the use of cold hard cash can be a useful tool the Inquisition is more likely to deal in favours and cpmmetopms than coin, and if the party demand cash the GM can easily work out a value in Influence that can be used for tests to acquire equipment or services. Influence cannot be increased like other characteristics, instead the players must earn it by their actions, though likewise it can be lost due to foolishness or even enemy action. That being a potential adventure seed in and of itself when the party realise someone is eliminating their allies and contacts or ruining their reputation.

Subtlety is new, and fairly self explanatory. It represents how overt or secretive the party are in their behaviour and investigations, with there being benefits and drawbacks to especially high or low subtlety. For example a particularly overt party may find it easy to browbeat others into submission with their authority, but they will also find that their enemies know they're coming and will likely have either fled or be better prepared for their presence than if the party had been more subtle. On the other hand a party that have remained in the shadows will find it easier to surprise and outmanoeuvre their foes but will struggle to call in support from the authorities due to the clandestine nature of their operations. Subtlety is gained and lost through the parties actions much like influence (though it is more easily influenced), and is a very interesting mechanic that I've been enjoying playing with.

This chapter also includes more detailed rules for social interaction and investigation, hints on constructing conversation and investigation structures, and the rules for Corruption, Insanity and Fate Points that have appeared in all the 40k RPG books.

I'm a particular fan of the Disposition rules, which assign NPC's a set Disposition rating which rises and falls depending on the actions of the party. A high disposition is beneficial to the players, a low disposition detrimential, with the rulebook providing a list of personality types along with what how the use of certain skills modifies their disposition and how they act if reduced to a disposition score of 0. Disposition can be tested like any other characteristic to see if an NPC will aid or hinder the party, and I find this particular mechanic to be a useful guide to NPC interactions.

The chapter ends with the rules for Reinforcement characters. These are high powered characters (the examples provided being a Sister of Battle Canoness, a Deathwatch Space Marine, an Eversor Assassin and a Grey Knight Terminator) that the players may spend Influence to bring into play in place of their usual characters. I can see what the designers were trying to do here, to give players a chance to stretch their muscles as the mightiest champions of the Imperium, but I'm really not a fan. I'd rather my character spent influence to call in support from the Imperial Guard, requisition the services of a Naval vessel, or request aid from the Deathwatch than be forced to temporarily bench my character in favour of another. Frankly I think it makes a mockery of the main characters actions, or at the very least denigrates their efforts. Its interesting, I just don't like it.

9 - The Imperium : This is the usual overview of the Imperium of Man provided in every 40k RPG book. Its nothing new or special, but useful when explaining the setting to new players.

10 - Askellon Sector : See my fluff section for my thoughts on the Askellon Sector.

11 - Game Master : This is a fairly standard GM chapter, there's nothing here that hasn't been said in previous rulebooks save for a few system specific tips and hints. Its a useful and interesting read that I wouldn't recommend skipping it, but that's all I have to say about it.

12 - NPC's and Adversaries : This chapter is filled with stats for everything from Pilgrims to Plaguebearers (and I'd so play that RPG), with many NPC's having their own special rules depending on their roles such as the Heavy (a generic oversized thug) having the ability to shove enemies around with their melee attacks. For the most part these NPC stats are sufficiently well written and varied to provide an excellent toolbox for the GM to work with,  however...

Yes there's always a however.

Some of them are nonsensical. The worst offenders that spring to mind being the statistics for the Adeptus Arbites and the Tech Priest. Why exactly is the Arbitrator, one of the elite enforcers of Imperial law, armed with a standard pump action shotgun? Not the oversized Vox Legi, not even a combat shotgun that they'd easily have access to, but a normal shotgun. Likewise I was under the impression that Inferno pistols are extremely rare and powerful weapons, reserved for the most powerful and influential individuals, so why exactly does the standard Tech Priest carry one? Wouldn't they be more likely to carry a masterfully crafted las-weapon or exotic sidearm from the forges and workshops of their forge world?

They're minor issues, again easily dealt with, they just...bother me.

Art :

Now we come to the art. To me this is a very important aspect of any sourcebook, admittedly it has no effect on the games rules, but good art serves as an inspiration to the GM and to the players, helping not only to establish the feel of a particular universe but also as an excellent source of ideas for anyone who stumbles across a piece of art they find particularly inspirational. I've had plenty of incidents over the years where I've perused a book and come across an illustration that has (and this is a term that always causes concern amongst my players) "given me ideas" that have blossomed into anything from a single trap, enemy or encounter to the inspiration for an entire dungeon or important NPC.

So yes, art is important to me. Pay attention Exalted.

How do the illustrations in the rulebook stand up? Well... for the most part they're pretty good. Dark and evocative, filled with the kind of imagery that you'd expect from the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Particularly noteworthy to me are the front cover by Mathias Kollros (which I'd personally love to get a print of for my future gaming room wall), and the work of the artist who did the illustrations for the background sections who's name I'm sadly not aware of. At some point I'll go through the art credits online and see if I can find out who they are so I can properly credit them. I love their crisp, evocative art style and the way in which their illustrations fade out into plain line work at the edges. Its an aesthetic I really appreciate.

As for the rest of the art most of it is perfectly fine, though there's a few blatant reprints from older Fantasy Flight productions, I suppose that's to be expected. Some pieces are great, some are average, some are substandard. Sadly there are also a few illustrations that are...well...awful.

The worst offender is probably a little controversial, John Blanche. I...I REALLY hate John Blanche's art. I know that he's been a huge contributor to the look and feel of the Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy universes over the decades but I simply find his work messy and ugly. I'm also sick of his art being reprinted in every damn GW or GW related book book that's released. There are so many artists out there who are far more talented and who deserve their chance to shine. Give them the opportunity Fantasy Flight, and stop mining the same set of sketchbooks over and over again. Please.

There's a few other pieces that I really dislike, most notably the art used on the Psychic Power trees and the map of the Askellon sector on pages 322 and 323. They're absolutely hideous and I've no idea what the art director was thinking when he decided they were going in the book. Thankfully these pieces are relatively few and far between in comparison to the far better art that fills the rest of the book. I just hope that future publications continue to improve in art quality.

Conclusion :

In conclusion Dark Heresy was badly in need of at least an update to bring it in line with the newer Warhammer 40k RPG's, and a completely new edition is very welcome. The new edition tidies up a lot of the more convoluted and nonsensical gameplay elements whilst offering a far more organic system of character creation and advancement, all good moves. However it's still far from perfect, with a handful of problems that, whilst not game breakers, definitely need some attention. Especially if you're a picky bastard with a habit of fiddling with game rules like me.

I suppose that's a whole set of future blog posts.

Overall If you already play one of the 40k RPG's or are interested in getting into roleplaying in the grim darkness of the far future I'd definitely recommend picking it up, it's more than worth it. Just be prepared to do a bit of tinkering here and there and to occasionally get annoyed at terrible art and design decisions.

Until Next Time
Happy Gaming
Michael