Dark Heresy Revamped : Chapter IIc - Character Creation Part 3

Today we're moving onto Backgrounds, my issues with those that have been released and how I'm going about adjusting / remedying them.

Adepta Sororitas (Enemies Within p.30)

• Starting Skills : Replace Common Lore [Adepta Sororitas] with Lore [Adepta Sororitas]

Adeptus Administratum (Core Rulebook p.46) :

• Starting Skills : Replace Common Lore [Adeptus Administratum] and Scholastic Lore [Pick One] with Lore [Adeptus Administratum and any one other]
• Starting Equipment :  Replace Medikit with Tomes of Lore.
• Background Bonus "Master of Paperwork" : An Administratum Adept character may re-roll any Logic or Lore tests once, and may substitute their Intelligence bonus for the degrees of success on these rolls.

Adeptus Arbites (Core Rulebook p.48) :

• Starting Skills :  Replace Common Lore [Adeptus Arbites] and Common Lore [Underworld] with Lore [Adeptus Arbites or Enforcers] and Lore [Underworld]
  
• Starting Talents : Weapon Training [Any two from Low Tech, Shock and Solid Projectile]
• Starting Equipment : Shotgun or Shock Maul, Carapace Chestplate or Light Carapace, Manacles, Uniform, 3 doses of Stimm with Injector or 12 Lho Sticks or Abridged copy of the Lex Imperialis.

Adeptus Astra Telepathica (Core Rulebook p.50) :

• Starting Skills :Replace Common Lore [Adeptus Astra Telepathica] and Forbidden Lore [The Warp] with Lore [Adeptus Astra Telepathica] and Lore [Psykers or Warp]

Adeptus Mechanicus (Core Rulebook p.52) :

• Starting Skills : Replace Security with Lore [Technology]
• Starting Talents : May take Weapon Training [Las] instead of Weapon Training [Solid Projectile]
• Starting Equipment :  Autogun or Hand Cannon or Laspistol, Monotask Servo Skull or Augmetic with an availability of Very Rare or better, Mechanicus Robes, 2 vials of Sacred Unguents.
• Background Bonus "Designs of the Omnissiah" : An Adeptus Mechanicus character begins play with either two Trade skills of their choice at rank 0 (Known), or one Trade skill and their choice of Scrutiny or Security at rank 0 (Known).

Adeptus Ministorum (Core Rulebook p.54) :

• Starting Skills : Replace Common Lore [Adeptus Ministorum] with Lore [Adeptus Ministorum].

Exorcised (Enemies Beyond p.32) :

• Starting Skills : Replace Forbidden Lore [Daemonology] with Lore [Daemonology].
• Background Bonus "Touched By A Daemon" : Replace "Additionally, he can never again become possessed by the same Daemon that once possessed him." with "Additionally, they can never become possessed, being functionally immune to Daemonic Possession save in truly exceptional circumstances such as the direct intervention of a Daemon Prince or other extremely powerful Daemonic entity."

Heretek (Enemies Without p.32) :

• Starting Skills :  Replace Forbidden Lore [Pick One] with Lore [Pick One]
  
• Background Bonus "Master of Hidden Lores" : When a Heretek makes a Tech Use or Trade test to comprehend, use, repair or modify an unfamiliar device they gain a +20 bonus if they have one or more relevant Lore skill specialisations as Rank 2 [Trained] or higher.

Imperial Navy (Enemies Without p.34)

• Starting Skills : Replace Common Lore [Imperial Navy] with Lore [Imperial Navy]

Imperial Guard (Core Rulebook p.56) :

• Starting Skills : Replace Common Lore [Imperial Guard] with Lore [Imperial Guard].
  
• Starting Equipment : Replace Grapnel and Line with one Tool with an availability of Common or better (at the GM's discretion).

Mutant (Enemies Within p.32) :

• Starting Skills : Replace Forbidden Lore [Mutants] with Lore [Mutants or Underworld]
• Starting Equipment : Replace Grapnel and Line with one Tool with an availability of Common or better (at the GM's discretion).

Outcast (Core Rulebook p.56) :

• Starting Skills : Replace Common Lore [Underworld] with Lore [Underworld].

Rogue Trader Fleet (Enemies Without p.36) :

• Starting Skills : Replace Common Lore [Rogue Traders] with Lore [Rogue Traders]
• Starting Talents : Weapon Training [Las or Solid Projectile, Low Tech or Shock]
• Background Bonus "For Gold And Glory!" : A Rogue Trader Fleet character may re-roll any Command or Commerce tests once, and may substitute their Fellowship bonus for the degrees of success on these rolls.

Design Notes :

Let's start explaining what I've changed, and why. All of the Backgrounds that grant access to Lore skills have had them altered in the descriptions above.

The Administratum Adept has lost their Medikit, simply because it's not a piece of equipment that makes sense for a quill pusher, especially one who doesn't even begin play with the Medicae skill. Instead they can take a selection of tomes that may at the GM's discretion give them a bonus to the appropriate Lore tests. To me that simply makes a lot more sense. As for their Background Bonus, I'm trying to eliminate bonuses based on Acquisition entirely, as they can very easily be abused and it doesn't make sense to me that an Administratum Adept is better at getting their hands on heavy weapons, power armour and the like when they've spent their life collating tithe records or ensuring that the local Administratum data-shrine has the collect allotments of tea and synth-milk. Instead I've given them a bonus based around Lore and Logic tests that works in the same manner as the Arbites “Face Of The Law” bonus. To my mind it reflects the background a lot more accurately.

I have some issues with the Arbites background for fluff reasons, the most prominent one being that going by the established lore all Arbites are drawn from the Schola Progenium. To me this is less an "Arbites" background and more an "Enforcer" background, reflecting the law enforcement organisations of worlds across the Imperium. I was tempted to change the Background name but...we'll see. At some point I'll write up a Schola Progenium Origin, which could then be used in concert with the existing background to create proper Arbitrators. This split between types of law enforcement is why I've given them the option to take Lore [Enforcers] instead of Adeptus Arbites, and altered the "cosmetic" elements of their starting equipment. I've also noticed that the Arbites background has a very limited selection of Weapon Training talents when compared to the other martial backgrounds, even the Adeptus Ministorum background gives more options, which is why I've increased their number of starting talents and broadened the selection of talents they can choose from.

Adeptus Astra Telepathica, as a Background, is mostly unchanged apart from Lore alterations right now. I've given them the option of taking Lore [Psykers] purely due to my belief that they'd learn about their own kind as well as about the mysteries of the Immaterium, so I want to give them the option to take whichever Lore is more appropriate. This background will undergo further change as I'm going to be undergoing a re-write of the Psychic Power rules as part of this project. For now though I've left them as they are as I'm still working on the final details of that particular system.

The Adeptus Mechanicus background has undergone quite a few changes. The replacement of Security with Lore [Technology] simply seems more appropriate to me, I can't imagine an Enginseer crouched in a corner with a lockpick after all. Not that it's an inappropriate skill with regards to digital security, but I'd say that members of the Cult Mechanicus would have a better grounding in Technology than in overcoming locks and breaching data-vaults. The fact that these skills stack with those from the Forge World origin is very much deliberate, as such characters would in my mind have a very good education with regards to both the organisation they're devoted to and to the mysteries of the machine. The addition of Las weaponry to their weapon training options is simply due to the fact that the Mechanicus produce basically everything, and a simple, easily maintained weapon that can be powered by their potentia coil would appeal to many of them. I've also modified their starting equipment both to allow them to take a Lasweapon and so that that they're not forced to take a Skull or Mechadendrite if they want to be more subtle, or want to take an Augmetic that better fits the players character concept. As for their background bonus, as already stated I am removing Acquisition based character abilities from the game, and for the Adeptus Mechanicus after pondering I decided that giving them a selection of technical skills to choose from would be an appropriate replacement for their improved access to cybernetics.

The Adeptus Ministorum background is currently unchanged, however I will be altering how Fate Points work going forwards, so I'll be coming back to this particular background in the future.

The only thing I've altered about the Exorcised background is how their immunity to Possession works. Back in the old days of Slaves to Darkness and the Lost and the Damned exorcised individuals were stated to be immune to future Daemonic Possession. In fact, that's one of the core concepts behind the Exorcists space marine chapter and I massively disagree with Fantasy Flights alteration to that little snippet of lore. So I've changed it back.

The Heretek has been slightly altered to bring them in line with my alteration to how Skills work, which I'll go into more details about when we get to that section of this project.

The Imperial Guard, Mutant and Outcast backgrounds have been altered slightly, both to accomodate the Skill alterations and to give a bit more variety to their starting equipment. I'm not, for example, entirely sure why a member of an Artillery regiment or a mutant from the dark holds of a void ship would be carrying a grapnel and line with them... Likewise I've given Mutants the ability to take Lore [Underworld] intead of Lore [Mutants] seeing as just being a mutant doesn't mean you understand what you are, and for such individuals knowledge of how to survive amongst the outcasts and pariahs of an Imperial world would be far more useful than scholastic knowledge of their condition.

The Rogue Trader Fleet background is an odd one. Whilst I know what they were going for with it, it doesn't really represent the bulk of a fleets membership, who would be better represented by other backgrounds such as Imperial Navy our Outcast. Rather it is a Rogue Trader "Dynasty" background, that would suit the leaders of such a fleet, the members of the dynasty, and their closest advisors. Anyway, mechanically my major alteration to this class is the adjustment to their Background Bonus with the rationale that just because someone is a member of a Rogue Trader fleet, it doesn't mean they interract with Xenos in any way other than down the barrel of a gun, if they do so at all. Indeed I think that a re-roll based ability that gives them advantages to both making a profit from their findings and commanding the servants of their dynasty makes more sense. This is one that I'm not entirely happy with, so I'll probably come back to this one in the future once I've let it percolate around in my head a bit more.

Anyway, that's all for this section, feel free to let me know what you think and next time we'll be moving on to Roles.

Until Next Time
Happy Gaming
Michael

Dark Heresy Revamped : Chapter IIb - Character Creation Part 2

So in my last post in this series I went over my alterations to the basics of character creation. This time I'm moving on to my alterations to the Homeworlds, or as I've renamed them, Origins...

Rules Alterations :

Agri World (Enemies Within p.24) :

• Origin Bonus - Strength From The Land : An Agri World character gains a +2 bonus to their Fatigue Threshold.

Feudal World (Enemies Within p.26) :

• Characteristic Modifiers : +5 Perception, +5 Weapon Skill, -5 Intelligence.
• Origin Bonus "Live By The Sword" : A Feudal World character gains the Weapon Training [Low Tech] Talent and the Parry skill at Rank 1 (Known).

Forge World (Core Rulebook p.28)

• Origin Bonus "Omnissiah's Chosen" : A Forge World character gains the Lore [Technology] and Tech Use skills at Rank 1 (Known).

Frontier World (Enemies Within p.28) :

• Origin Bonus "Rely On None But Yourself" : A Frontier World character gains a +20 bonus to Tech Use and Trade (Any) tests when applying personal weapon modifications. They also gain a +10 bonus to those skills when repairing damaged items.

Highborn (Core Rulebook p.36) :

• Characteristic Modifiers : +5 Fellowship, +5 Perception, -5 Willpower
• Origin Bonus "Do You Know Who I Am?" : A Noble Born character begins play with any two Peer talents and one Enemy talent of their choice. They may take the Peer talent twice for the same social group, stacking its effects.

Penal Colony (Enemies Without p.28) :

• Characteristic Modifiers : +5 Perception, +5 Toughness, -5 Intelligence

Quarantine World (Enemies Beyond p.30) :

• Origin Bonus "Secretive By Nature" : A Quarantine World character begins play with the skills Deceive and Stealth at Rank 1 (Known).

Research Station (Enemies Without p.30) :

• Origin Bonus "Pursuit of Data" : A Research Station character gains who reaches rank 2 (Trained) or higher in a Lore skill gains a +10 bonus to any Forbidden Lore tests made with that skill.

Shrine World (Core Rulebook p.40) :

• Origin Bonus "Insanely Faithful" : Once per encounter a Shrine World character may spend a Fate Point upon failing a Fear test. If they do so they count as having passed with 1 Degree of Success, but also gain 1 Insanity Point.

Design Notes :

Ok, change by change from the top...

The alteration to the Origin/Homeworld bonus for Agri-Worlds is simply a case of me changing the ability to something that makes more sense. The first time I read that entry I was immediately confused, why on Terra does being a farmer or herder make you better at melee combat? A straight up buff to Fatigue Threshold makes a lot more sense to me, as such folk would in my mind be hardy, used to working long shifts in tough conditions.

For Feudal Worlds the characteristic modifiers had to be altered to reflect the removal of Influence, and I think that an Intelligence penalty is the best choice as a reflection of the lack of opportunities for education and the pursuit of intellectual passtimes on such a world. That's not to say there aren't any, but the Feudal Worlds of the Imperium are (in some cases deliberately maintained as) dark and violent worlds, where skill with a blade is far more valuable than scholarly ability. The Origin ability has been changed as it was already hilariously overpowered, being replaced with a skill and talent that I think are thematically very appropriate. Now, technically this origin can't represent everyone from a feudal world, it's not appropriate for the peasantry for example, but instead it should be used for characters who are men at arms, soldiers, warrior aristocrats and the like. Anything from a plate armoured knight to a 41st Millenium samurai.

The alteration to the Forge World origin is for fluff reasons, as the Origin Ability from the Core Rulebook only offers combat based abilities. To me it makes more sense to instead give characters from the Adeptus Mechanicus' worlds a basic education in the technology they surround themselves with, as it makes no sense to me that a character could have Weapon Tech yet know absolutely nothing about the weapon they're augmenting...

Frontier Worlds have just had a slight tweak to the phrasing of their ability, reflecting alterations of my own to the games skills and how they're used, again we'll get to that in the Skills section of this project.

Highborn has been altered a few times, the Characteristic Modifiers being altered both due to the removal of the Influence characteristic and my opinion that the aristocracy of the Imperium are not necessarily physically frail. They do however seem prone to excesses, to aberrations of behaviour, to moral failings and the like and replacing the T penalty with a WP penalty and giving a bonus to Perception both plays into that and makes them better at taking advantage of others, to sensing blood in the social water. Their Origin Bonus has been changed for similar reasons, with Influence removed it was useless as it stood, so giving them talents that reflect their web of social contacts as well as the enemies of both an Aristocrat and their family, dynasty or clan. This is closer to the 1st Edition version of the Homeworld/Origin, which in my mind better reflects this particular character archetype.

Penal Colony is another Origin that's had to be changed due to the removal of Influence. It took me a while to settle on a negative Characteristic, and with none of the physical characteristics being appropriate I ended up undecided between Intelligence, Willpower and Fellowship. In the end I went for Intelligence as it seems to me the least essential characteristic for the scum of a Penal Colony, with a lack of smarts potentially being the reason they succumbed to their base natures and committed crimes against the Imperium in the first place... Remember, a plea of Innocence is guilty of wasting my time, Guilty!

Quarantine World as an Origin has been altered due to my personal dislike of highly circumstantial bonuses. Subtlety is a characteristic that not all players even make use of, and for those that do there is a time when a mere 2 point reduction isn't necessarily of much use. Replacing that with skills appropriate to a character who spends their time slinking for place to place and evading both local threats and Imperial authorities makes a lot more sense to me.

Research Station has been another Origin altered due to my changes to how the game works, specifically Lore skills. Again I'll get to the specifics of that when I get to writing that section, but for now I'll mention that I've collapsed the Common Lore, Forbidden Lore and Scholastic Lore skills into a single "Lore" skill, with Common and Forbidden Lore being made with bonuses and penalties as appropriate. I'll go into more detail of that when we get there but that should give you a little insight.

Finally we have the Shrine World Origin, the alteration to this Origin being due to both the weakness of the existing Bonus and that due to it being incredibly luck based its entirely possible (if somewhat unlikely) for it to never come into play. Instead I've taken the Origin Bonus from Ossuar (Enemies Beyond p89) and applied it to Shrine Worlds in general, echoing the option from the original rules to take the Insanely Faithful talent. In my mind it's a lot more likely to come into play, and is in general a far more useful and characterful ability.

And that's all for now, in the next post we'll be moving on to Backgrounds, and thank the Emperor there are fewer of them than "Origins".

Until Next Time
Happy Gaming
Michael

Dark Heresy Revamped : Chapter IIa - Character Creation Part 1

Here we go again, this time we've got my first set of alterations to Chapter II of the Dark Heresy 2nd Edition rules, and the reasoning behind said changes. Let's get straight into it...

Rules Alterations : 

 

Generate Characteristics (p.31) :

• All Characteristics start at 20, with that number being altered by the characters Origin.
• In order to generate their Characteristics, players roll 2d10 nine times, after which they apply these rolls as they wish to their Characteristics.
• If a player wishes to buy their Characteristics instead of rolling for them, they have 100pts which they can split amongst them however they wish. They may add no more than 20 points and no less than 2 points to any given Characteristic.

Aptitudes (p.79) :

• In addition to the Aptitudes a Character gains from their Origin, Background and Role, they may choose one additional Aptitude of their choice.
• Should a character gain the same Aptitude twice from multiple sources, they may choose their replacement Aptitude from ANY available, not just the Characteristic Aptitudes.

Characteristic Advances (p.80) :

• Characters lacking the Psyker Aptitude may purchase upgrades to their Willpower treating that Characteristic as having the Defence and Willpower aptitudes.

Skill Advances (p.80) :

• The Sleight of Hand skill has the aptitudes Agility and Fieldcraft.

Equip Acolyte (p.81) :

• As the Influence Characteristic has been removed, Acolytes simply select 3 items of up to Scarce availability during character creation.
• Instead of selecting 3 items of up to Scarce rarity, an Acolyte may select a single item of up to Rare availability.

Divinations (p.84) :

• When rolling for their Divination a character may either take their initial roll, or they may reverse the digits and take that alternate Divination instead.

Basic Skills (New Rule) :

• All characters begin play with a selection of basic skills at Known (+0). Two of these are new skills, the specifics of which will be detailed in the Skills section of this document.
• These skills are Endurance (T), Linguistics [Low Gothic or Origin Language] (Int), Lore [Origin] (Int), Resolve (WP)

Design Notes :

Now the changes have started to creep in. Like I said the core mechanics of Dark Heresy are solid, but the devil is as always in the details, and this is where I start to tinker with said details. Here is my reasoning behind what I've tweaked...

As far as the generation of Characteristics goes, I like my players to actually be able to create and play the characters they want. The system in the Core rulebook doesn't allow that unless you're fairly lucky, as it's all too possible to have a character concept in mind and generate characteristics that are completely inappropriate and that leave you forced to run something else. So yes, I think you should be allowed to choose where your rolls go, my loosening up for the Point Allocation system follows the same reasoning, with characters no longer being forced to have at least 25 in all their Characteristics.

I've also changed up how the Origin Characteristic modifiers work, making it a flat bonus or penalty. This replaces the rolling systems “Roll an addition dice, and take the two highest/lowest” rule, as well as the Point Allocation system's restriction on how high a Characteristic could be, which always struck me as being completely and utterly pointless.

The basic alterations to Character Aptitudes are due to my firmly held belief that players should have plenty of customisation options. I've had a few incidents over the years where, due to the Aptitude layouts of particular builds, players haven't quite been able to create the characters they want. I'd rather avoid that and let them have the Acolyte (or Heretic, whatever floats your boat) that they want to run. While this does lead to characters being somewhat more powerful and versatile than the norm, I don't mind at all as it allows me to throw tougher challenges and deadlier threats at them.

As for the more specific alterations, namely to Willpower and Sleight of Hand, these are to me simple common sense. Knowledge is NOT an appropriate aptitude for a skill based around manual dexterity and cunning, likewise allowing non-psyker characters to use Defence instead of Psyker for Willpower upgrades allows said characters to have scores that reflect their courage, determination and sheer grit. Something that's very difficult under the core rules as anyone who isn't a psyker has to pay at least the “medium” cost to increase their Willpower.

Letting Acolytes simply take three Scarce items is a necessary alteration due to the removal of the Influence Characteristic. Potentially allowing them to take a single Rare item is another nod towards making characters a little more customisable, a little more powerful. GM's should of course feel free to veto this if they feel the need, but personally I think it's perfectly fine and allows greater character customisation. I've tweaked Divination for the same reason, as it's all too easy to get a highly inappropriate Divination, though oddly in my Girl's party everyone's tended to make creepily appropriate rolls...

Finally we come to the Basic Skills, and the addition of Endurance and Resolve to the game. I'll go into the latter when we get to the Skills section of this project, but for now I'll simply say that I think they're a more than necessary addition. The Basic Skills are just that, skills that I honestly think every character should have access to. It can be assumed that all Acolytes can at least speak Low Gothic, but I'm the kind of person that likes to have such things down on my character sheet. Likewise I'd assume that almost all characters have some knowledge of their homeworld or place of origin, it just makes sense to me.

On a related note you may have noticed that I've been refering to Origins instead of Homeworlds. I've decided (for the purpose of this project) to rename Homeworlds, due to several of them not being, well, homeworlds. Highborn and Voidborn don't refer to specific planet types, and even amongst those that do you could argue that multiple “Homeworlds” could be applied to a single world.

So there we have my basic alterations to Character Creation, but there's plenty more to come and I don't want to overload these posts TOO much. There will be three or four more posts dedicated to Character Creation, which will contain my alterations to the Origins, Backgrounds, Roles and Elite Advances provided by the four published rulebooks, as I think a fair few of those are in need of alteration. Stay tuned for those, and as usual I'd love to hear any and all feedback.

Until Next Time
Happy Gaming
Michael