Dark Heresy Revamped : Chapter IIIa - Skills Part 1

And now we're moving onto Chapter III, Skills. The most important thing I've done here is the addition of two new skills, followed by a few alterations to aptitudes and specialisations and a revamp of the Lore skills. Let's have a look at the new skills today shall we?

New Skills :

In addition to the skills presented in the Dark Heresy Core Rulebook, characters have access to the following new skills and begin play with both at Rank 1 (Known). After the description for each skill are several Benefits of Success and Consequences of Failure that additional degrees of Success/Failure can be spent on after determining the result of the roll.

Endurance [Toughness] :

Aptitudes : Toughness, Defence
Skill Use : Free Action, unless otherwise noted.

Endurance covers acts of physical resilience, such as fighting off the effects of a disease or poison, or withstanding physical trauma over short or long periods of time.

This skill is particularly valuable to explorers, labourers, and others with physically intensive and exhausting professions. Likewise mercenaries, soldiers and the like often develop this skill as they take and survive injuries and trauma.

Whenever a character would (under the basic rules) be called upon to make a Toughness test, they instead make an Endurance test. Likewise any Athletics tests that would deal with acts of physical endurance or stamina become Endurance tests instead of Athletics tests.

The GM can call on a player to make an Endurance test when...

• They are travelling in harsh conditions and must withstand the effects of exposure.
• They wish to push past their usual limits even when they would normally be exhausted (This has been moved from Athletics to Endurance).
• They need to withstand sudden physical trauma or torment that would leave them incapacitated.

Resolve [Willpower] :

Aptitudes : Willpower, Defence
Skill Use : Free Action, unless otherwise noted.

Endurance covers acts of mental resolve, such as fighting off a psychic assault, resisting interrogation, or maintaining your composure when a foe is taunting you or attempting to drive you into a frenzy.

This skill is vital to anyone who risks physical violence as part of their everyday life, as it allows them to keep calm under fire and push forward instead of panicking. Likewise anyone who has secrets to keep or regularly comes into possession of valuable information would do well to develop this skill in order to resist intimidation or interrogation.

Whenever a character would (under the basic rules) be called upon to make a Willpower test to resist Fear or any sort of mental influence, they instead make a Resolve test.

The GM can call on a player to make a Resolve test when...

• They are resisting interrogation and torture.
• They are under fire and need to resist their opponents attempts to suppress them.
• They encounter a terrifying foe or situation, and need to prevent themselves from fleeing in fear.

Design Notes :

So this one's nice and short, but let's have a look at why I've changed what I have.

Endurance and Resolve have been added for reasons I've already gone into in an earlier post. They allow characters to be particularly tough or strong willed without necessarily having to spend insane amounts of XP on increasing Characteristics they may not have the aptitudes for, especially when it's so easy for antagnoists to add bonuses to the tests to resist Shock, Toxic, Fear and the like. It's a balance issue I've run into more than once.

As usual, if you've any ideas or feedback please let me know, and I'll be carrying on with this in my next post.

Until Next Time
Happy Gaming
Michael