Dark Heresy - Enemies Within : Review

(This is all your fault. No its not! Hrkbleagh)

So, it's not been long since I reviewed the core rulebook for the second edition of Dark Heresy, and its already time for me to follow up with its first major expansion. This one has been out for, ooh, about a month now, and I picked it up shortly after its release. Unlike the previous edition of Dark Heresy (and indeed all of the 40k RPG's) this first book is not a general expansion, instead focusing on one of the three major ordos of the Inquisition, namely the Ordo Hereticus.

Overview :

The Ordo Hereticus, also known as the Witch Hunters, are the branch of the inquisition concerned primarily with the investigation and elimination of threats to the Imperium that originate within humanity itself, as opposed to the Daemon hunting Ordo Malleus and the Alien hunting Ordo Xenos. As such their primary targets are cults, recidivists, rebels, mutants and (of course) Witches, the eponymous Enemies Within.

The book provides a selection of additional homeworlds, backgrounds and roles appropriate to agents (and indeed enemies) of the Ordo Hereticus as well as armaments, armour and tools. It also contains rules for the Adepta Sororitas in the form of the Adepta Sororitas background and the Battle Sister elite advance, but I'll get to those in more detail once I reach the Crunch section of my review.

As well as expanded character and equipment options the book also provides rules for Inquests, essentially a system for calculating the success of Investigations that is similar to the Endeavour rules from Rogue Trader, as well as expanding on the fluff for the Askellon sector.

Fluff :

Speaking of which, the books fluff is well written and interesting. It begins by explaining the role and history of the Ordo Hereticus in general before moving on to information more pertinent to the Askellon sector itself, such as the work of the Arch Savant Lord Dyrulli and specific heresies like the Vaxi Atrocity, The Pellucid Way, the Adorii Cults of Juno and the whispered secrets of the Lost Familia.

The last chapter of the book also details 8 worlds of the Askellon sector, providing details about their history, status, and the threats that bedevil them. I'm a particular fan of the Agri world of Temperance, with its history of cults, mind mold infestations and abandoned settlements lending themselves easily to Campbellesque tales of horror amidst the hills and farms. Of foul things lurking in hidden groves, of farmers desperate to improve their flagging harvests no matter the cost in blood and souls, and of twisted abominations shambling from the woods to besiege torch lit villages...

Seriously, go and read some Ramsey Campbell. Do it.

All of these are an excellent source of story ideas, of adventure hooks, and I'm very much enjoying how the Askellon Sector is developing. It feels very different to the Calixis sector, with the Imperium being weaker and the Inquisition having less of a presence in the region leaving Acolytes far more isolated and lacking in support. It also feels far more cohesive, though I'm not sure if that's due to the writers having more experience with 40k by now or due to an increase in editorial oversight. In either case I'm happy with the result.

Crunch :

The first section of actual rules deals with additional character options, starting with extra homeworlds, backgrounds and roles. These being Agri World, Feudal World and Frontier world, followed by the Adepta Sororitas and Mutant backgrounds, the Fanatic and Penitent roles and the Sister of Battle Elite Advance. All of these are solid, fitting in well with the second editions character creation system. Adepta Sororitas background is especially interesting in that its role bonus makes characters utterly immune to Corruption... instead they gain Insanity equal to the Corruption they would normally gain (-1). If you're a member of the Sororitas you won't become a howling mutant, but you will end up a gibbering, frothing madwoman shrieking prayers to the God Emperor whilst wielding a 6ft chainsword.

Excellent.

The Sister of Battle Elite Advance builds on this, the advance itself grants a few proficiencies and skills as well as access to some basic Sisters of Battle equipment, but the real meat is in the Sister of Battle exclusive talents. These are all centered around the use of Fate Points and Insanity, and they're all pretty damn interesting. For example one talent restores a used Fate Point to all friendly characters within line of sight whenever the Battle Sister burns a fate point to survive a mortal blow. Another allows the Sister to spend a Fate Point to increase the damage of her Melee attacks against enemies she hates by her Insanity bonus. All useful and interesting stuff, at the cost of insanity and potential martyrdom. How apt.

I do have some minor issues with the above however. Most notably the Agri World and Feudal World bonuses don't really make sense. The former grants Brutal Charge and the latter allows characters to ignore the maximum Agility rating for any armour they wear. Why? Why is a farmer capable of devastating melee charges? Why is a feudal world peasant trained in wearing heavy armour? For games I run I'll be replacing both of these with something less nonsensical.

My other gripe is that the Sister of Battle advance has an Influence requirement of 50. Again, why? I assume its a balance issue to prevent one of the party creating a starting character with power armour and a bolt weapon, but it seems very arbitrary to me. A Sororitas will be a battle sister from the moment her training finishes, and she has no need to build up a web of influence, favours and reputation before being allowed to complete said training. It just doesn't make sense, and I personally replace that with the good old standby of "GM's Caveat". As well as potentially stripping a Battle Sister of her power armour in certain situations at the discretion of the party Inquisitor.

Next comes the Armoury, which as you'd expect contains plenty of cool toys including Godwyn De'Az Bolt weapons, Purgatus Crossbows, several different kinds of Flamer, and a surprisingly large number of low tech weapons including gunpowder firearms and a selection of crossbows. There's also some interesting melee weapons including Man Catchers and Power Stakes as well as a variety of specialist ammunition types and grenades. Because the Ordo Hereticus really need white phosphorous grenades and incediary rounds. I'm not being sarcastic, they really do...

Then there's some armour and wargear, including Sororitas Power Armour (which seems to lack the internal systems of normal power armour...), Hexagrammatic Wards and Rosarii. Finally we have the vehicles section with rules for the Sororitas Rhino, the Sororitas Immolator, the always-awesome Repressor APC, and the civillian issue Van Cleef's wader.

I really love the Repressor, if my Knights Vigilant could take them I'd be a very happy man.

The next section deals with Profane Objects. Now these are interesting, they're a selection of (as I'm sure you guessed) cursed items of great power. These are really interesting and each comes with its own interesting little snippet of background as well as notes on who seeks such an item and the artifacts own unnatural properties. They range from a cursed music box to a chalice capable of either healing the wounded or causing horrible psychic disasters and I'm a big fan of their inclusion.

Once past the gear and cursed objects of terrible cosmic power we come to a selection of new talents, all of which are appropriate to the Ordo Hereticus and all of which are pretty damn useful. Divine Protection is my personal favourite, allowing an acolyte with a Spray weapon to use it without harming allies in the area of effect... Cue the flamers and maniacal laughter.

These are followed by Minor Psychic Powers, making a triumphant return from the original Dark Heresy. These powers are available to any character with a Psy Rating and have effects that are minor, but still very useful. Examples include Impel (a minor telekinetic shove), Weapon Jinx (allowing the psyker to jam his enemies foes) and Word of Beasts (controlling the actions of animals, just like the old Necromunda Wyrd's). I'm really pleased these have made a comeback, they add an extra element of flavour to both PC and NPC psykers.

Next we have the rules for Inquests. I mentioned these earlier, they're a system for dealing with Inquisitorial investigations in a somewhat more organised manner. It's a simple system based around the party having to gain a set number of Investigation Points in order to unlock Revalations, which in turn push the investigation towards its conclusion. Its simple, and I like it. This is followed by a short section on Radical Inquisitors / Acolytes, with a selection of tools that Radicals can make use of as well as sections on Radical Peers and Cults. Its minimal but at least its useful.

Art :

I don't have a lot to say here, as much like the core rulebook the art remains solid. I'm also pleased to note that the bulk of the books art appears to have been commissioned specifically for this publication. There are a handful of illustrations taken from previous Fantasy Flight productions, and a small number of John Blanche pieces (of course), but in general the art has continued to improve. Good work Fantasy Flight.

Conclusion :

Enemies Within is a solid expansion to a solid system. I have only a handful of issues with it (virtually none compared to the core rulebook), and if Fantasy Flight can maintain this level of quality then I have absolutely no misgivings with the future of Dark Heresy 2nd Edition. It's definitely worth picking up if you've already bought the core rulebook, and I'm already awaiting the next expansion. I'm personally hoping it'll be Enemies Without...

And now I'm going to go and reinstall X-Com.

Until Next Time
Happy Gaming
Michael.