Dalnor Surloc said: Commissar is less straight forward. Depending on the type of commissar you could use the Arch-Mil, or Missionary. The AM just works for the more combat focused Commissar. Missionary simply need the following tweaks. Change Common Lore (Imperial Creed) to (War), Common Lore (Ecclesiarchy) to (Imperial Guard or Navy), change Scholastic Lore (Imperial Creed) to (Tactica Imperialis), and lastly swap Pistol training with Flame Weapon Training. Personally, I think Commisars would be more well-versed in Imperial Creed than tactics. "advance or get shot" isn't much of a tactic, you know. I'd definitely let Commissars retain some Imperial Creed training, but the rest I agree with.

Varnias Tybalt said: What do you think Corpse Starch rations are made from? I think, in general. people are overstating just how common Corpse Starch Rations really are. I'm pretty sure the Iron Stomach feral world trait mention Corpse Starch as one example where they don't have to make a Toughness test to stomach it. If everyone else are going to get violently ill every time they have corpse starch rations... I don't really think it's common dining for anyone but the most desperate. Hive World foodstuff is low quality recycled biological matter, I'm sure, but I think corpse starch is supposed to be an example of the ultimate worst of the worst.

This gives me an idea for a game. A charist captain who been dumping bodies in the warp instead of ferrying them to their destination - which obviously is a really bad idea, as he realize when they return from the warp to haunt him... Hmmm.

Apache said: So you can't, for instance activate Unnatural Aim and then shoot in one round? As per current errata? Nope.

Atomic_Pope said: from California I believe the guy starts all his posts with "from france" because he, in the past, has caught some flak for his lack of fluency with english. It's just a warning that his native language isn't English.

In my experience, if your native language isn't english, don't run the game straight out of the book. Write it down like you were designing your own adventure. That way, you will already have translated everything in your own head and have an easier time narrating the story. You will already have thought about names, story hooks etc., in your own language. Works for me, anyway.

I would like to second everything Graver said. The problem with "encounter design" and "balanced encounters" in other games is that they all presume solving those in a particular manner (mainly slugging it out) and trying to bypass a "balanced encounter" is discouraged (if not downright considered cheating). The trick is... if you, as Graver put it, build stories instead of encounters, I think both you and your players will find a lot more freedom in how they go about solving those inevitable encounters. Imagine, for instance, a situation where the players have to "question" a wealthy nobleman. The noble knows that the players are after him and has bunkered down in an easily defensible building, waiting for them. The D&D-esque way to deal with that situation is to give the noble weapons and bodyguards that are balanced to the players' capabilities. The Dark Heresy way (IMHO) is to simply design the 'encounter' from what the noble would reasonably have access to. How many mercenaries can he hire in the time he has, what kind of equipment might they have. Given time and resources, he could (and should be able to) build defenses that are virtually impossible to penetrate with a frontal assault. However, this also allows the players to get creative. How do they penetrate these defenses? Are they equipped to storm a heavily defended position? Can they just level the entire building with explosives? Can they find a weak point to sneak through so they can take the nobleman hostage before his bodyguards can react? You can't defend a position indefinitely, eventually you need supplies. You begin to wonder if everyone is actually after you. Can the players use this to their advantage? The possibilities are almost endless. The bottom line is that 'unbalanced' encounters are fine as long as you don't abuse it. Some enemies are just stronger, better equiped or better prepared than you. As long as the players are able to recognize a hopeless situation and pull back to reconsider, it's not really a failed encounter. Just a failed attempt at solving the encounter. Despite what the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer might say, not everything can be solved with a lasgun blast. Remember, here's no fast and easy capability guage in Dark Heresy - One rank 2 party might be all guardsmen with vanaheim full-auto combat shotguns. Another might be all adepts with laspistols. Equipment accounts for a lot, so you can't really set up 'encounter design rules' that cover every possibility. In the end it all boils down to GM instinct.

A 1d5 hour duration does make it completely useless. It essentially means you have an hour of usage. Of course, that's with civilian power supplies and I'd never rule that sororitas (or space marine for that matter) power armour used cvilian power supplies. To make this armour viable you have to ignore the power supply limitations though.

Remember that after-action reports are written by the victor. A few points: 1) If you kill some no name Acolyte, the Inuqusition as a whole isn't going to care at all. 2) Your inquisitor probably isn't going to care that you killed an acolyte unless it was his favourite nephew or something. Especially not if you have a good explanation. 3) In the odd case that you have a master that would care, you can always just lie on the report. Maybe he was showing 'obvious signs of daemonic possession' or maybe the 'locals killed him before we could come to his aid'. 4) Psykers are, by definition, supposed to get a bullet to the back of their head the moment they step out of line. Psykers are highly dangerous tools and the moment they outgrow their usefulness they must be disposed off. With extreme prejudice. 5) In fact, if you report the current events to your inquisitor and the psyker is still around, you could get in trouble for allowing such an unstable sanctionite to live. It is your duty to the Emperor to terminate him before he can threaten the materium!

We largely play by the rules, but with a few houserules here and there to 'fix' things we think could work better, or to clear up obvious error in the rules that havn't been caught by errata. Actually, I'm usually very much against houserules because it makes it harder to include new players or discuss the game outside of your group, and because it can be hard to see the full implications of a rule change in an RPG, but for some reason, I feel much more comfortable adjusting things in DH. Not sure why that is (maybe it's the very nature of the 40k setting that makes me less concerned with game balance), but I'm happily shuffling things about.

Sister Cat said: My character being a rank 5 Militant Sister of Battle, combat load includes: Sororitas Power Armor w/Sabbat-pattern Helmet, twin Sororitas Bolt Pistols w/3 reloads for each (more if I can acquire them), a blessed "Lathe Blade" Chainsword, 4 Purity Seals of various types and qualities, 3 Frag grenades, 2 Photon grenades, 1 Krak grenade, equipment harness, climbing gear, stimms, and a few other odds and ends, depending on what we are expecting. Non-combat load includes: A Best Quality Hardened Bodyglove, a Hecutor 9/5 Auto Pistol w/silencer and 3 reloads of Manstoppers, a Mono-knife, a good quality equipment harness (designed to allow inconspicuous packing), photo-visor, pict-recorder, a few other odds and ends as dictated by what's going on. That about covers it. I feel very underdressed now My character is also a rank 5 militant Adepta Sororitas. Her combat load includes (not counting various odds and ends like purity seals, chaplet ecclesiasticus, etc.): Full Carapace Armour (sans helmet) that looks like proper Sororitas power armour, standard-issue autogun with telescopic sight, glowrod and combat attachments, loaded with a standard clip. With two standard and two manstopper spare clips. Two frag grenades. Two theoretical fire bombs (by theoretical, I mean that she carries them but I never use them because I think they are gamebreakingly overpowered for their price/supposed function. Mostly use them to burn mutant corpses). Orthlak Mk IV autopistol with red-dot laser sight and four spare clips (two with manstopper rounds). "Gang leather" trenchcoat. I currently debate replacing the autogun with a flamer but the ridiculous clip size and short range is currently winning over my urge to set hertics on fire (though last session had an amusing incident including a captured heretic and a lascutter. But I digress). Might go for a hand flamer as a secondary sidearm, instead. Non combat load-out includes: "Gang leather" trenchcoat. Sororitas vestments. The Orthlak mk IV with a spare clip or two.

Superheroes could be fine if you manage to actually mesh them into the 40k setting rather than just add them in. Remember that the 41st millenia is a world of dark ruthlessness. It's a world where a Blade character might jump around and be awesome, only to get dragged to the ground by a swarm of no-name losers and get clubbed to death. It's all about how unimportant and insignificant the individual is. No matter how good or important you are, you're just one unwary moment away from death. Superheroes are kinda the antithesis to that line of thinking. Combining the two could be interesting if pulled off with respect for the genre. The more ordinary, realistic hero types would probably work the best. Remember that all supernatural powers in 40k, without exception, are evil and wrong. That said, we have space marines, we have inquisitors, we have imperial assassins (is Blade really that different from a Callidus? The Vindicare was pretty openly based on the Punisher ). While not really a superhero, my current character is a masked vigilante inspired by characters such as Fracas and the Scarlet Pimpernel. Smooth-talking nobleman by day, daring outlaw by night!

The FFG printing indlude the first errata version, but not any of the later errata versions.

I made up the Armageddon Sharpshooter, a sniper rifle based on the Armageddon autogun pattern. It was put in the hands of an NPC sniper as a 'gift' for the assassin in the group. Alas, the NPC assassin turned out to be a little too resourceful, so they havn't had the option of looting her yet. She still use her pretty little rifle to great effect! This was originally made before the accurate basic weapon errata, so it was more of a big deal that the weapon being able to fire semi-automatic, back then. I still like the option of being able to switch between single shot and semi-auto bursts, though, as both options have their advantages and disadvantages. I like that flexibility. And I just like the idea of long range sniper bursts. Armageddon Sharpshooter (120m; S/3/–; 1d10+4 I; Clip 15; Reload Full; Accurate)

I really like how true DoW2 is to the 40k game. The original DoW was just a standard RTS game with a 40k skin. Granted, it was a very good RTS game (and still worth getting!) but DoW2 feels much more like playing a game of 40k. I also like that there's such a big difference between the single player campaign and multiplayer games. If I have one beef with the single player campaign, it's that I didn't like the idea of "boss fights" that felt weirdly artificial and I didn't enjoy them at all. Other than that though, I thought (think) it's a good game. Just need more chaos!

Because I'm mean, and like powers to have the occasional weak spot, I'd probably rule that shots from weapons with the scatter quality couldn't be stopped either. Or, alternatively, rule that a shot from a scatter weapon would count as all the projectiles that could be stopped if that'd be more cinematic.

Jonas_Leman said: Which would you prefer to play a Templar Calix of the Scholastia Psykana? Or a Sister? Play both! A psychic Sister Militant who joins the Templar Calix! But nah, seriously. I like the Adepta Sororitas. They are pretty awesome. On the other hand, if you want to be an absolute melee monster, then the Templar Calix psyker is for you.

We noticed. We are not, however, using the rule. First, we didn't think the tradeskills really represent full-time work for a PC. Your imperial psyker problably isn't allowed the freedom to quit his psyker career and settle down as Joe the Average Merchant permanently. Second, it tends to pretty much eliminate the point of the career wages for all but a few careers. Everyone will be a tradesman or better, rather than their actual career. We only use it when players, in game, have time to settle down for a while to actually practice their trade full-time (perhaps as part of a cover). No off-camera handwaving allowed.

We had one guy in our group insist that was the only logical way to read a d100. In fact, he still does and complain about it every time he's 'forced' to submit to our nonsense way of reading the dice. 00 + 0 = 10. 90 + 0 = 100. The rest of us just look at him like he's crazy. How can you live for 30 years and never roll a d100 before?

Personally, I allow the equivalent of Man Stopper rounds for shotguns, at the cost of the scatter quality.

If I had to make up stats for Stormbolters on the spot, I think I'd just give it standard bolter stats and give it two damage rolls for every hit scored. Voila, quick and dirty. It would also use extra ammo that way, so I'd t least double the ammo capacity. Of course, that'd be pretty nasty... especially if one used the 2d10X damage example from Purge the Unclean. A lot of potential for Righteous Fury. But hey, it's a friggin' Stormbolter.

Longinus said: If you open up fullauto+scatter on a soft target at PB, shouldn't they go splat? On a related note, has anyone cooked up rules for using slugs in shotguns? I handle solid slugs by letting shotguns use SP ammo upgrades at the cost of their scatter quality.

Varnias Tybalt said: As a rule of thumb, when assembling compositions to Dark Heresy I try to stay away from overtly electronic sounding music. Guitars (both acoustic and electric) are also a big no-no. Orchestral stuff, religious sounding stuff, and creepy horror movie/game stuff, and ambient sounds however work well. I'd love to see a list of the tracks you ended up with for your Dark Heresy soundtrack. I've been working on putting something together myself, but havn't had much success in finding anything that sounds particular 40k-ish (while I liked the Damnatus soundtrack, it doesn't really sound like 40k to me).

Cardinalsin said: Well, call it magic if you like - but it seems from your examples as though you have the same approach as me, i.e. come up with a plausible (possibly quite cinematic, but plausible) means of survival. The way I see it, spending a fate point isn't so much a matter of "whew, took a nuke to the chest but I'm okay!" as it is more about miraculously finding a lead-lined fridge to hide in.

I agree with my esteemed colleagues. Talents gained during chargen are most certainly aquired before spending any starting xp. If in doubt, you can refere to the character creation chapter and the list of character creation stages. As for background packages... that's a bit more up in the air. I'd say it's a GM call. I can see arguements for and against.