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