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lunchlander's review
4.0
This is a pretty spectacularly good game. The Warhammer 40K universe has always interested me, spending hundreds of dollars on miniatures I don't have the talent, time or patience to paint... less so. So a role-playing game was perfect for me, and having played it, I can say that the system is pretty clear, perfect for evoking the bordering-on-parody but still effective darkness of the dark future of the Warhammer universe.
The game uses "careers" which are essentially classes, and it's a little more rigid than I like in that respect, more akin to D&D 1.0 and 2.0 than the more current stuff, but it also really helps to establish the flavor of the world, and even a bare-bones, rules-only character is going to have some flavor built in as a result.
The book itself is gorgeous, full-color with terrific artwork and a pretty strong layout. It could have used a better index and a lot better organization, particularly in terms of cross-indexing rules with one another, and it takes a lot of page-flipping during the game and a *lot* of familiarity before it's as comfortable as a game rulebook should be, but it's beautiful to look at and generally well-written, if not terribly well-organized.
There's also a ton of good material about the world here, and it's a must-read for those who are interested in the world, even if you'd never play a single session of the game.
The game uses "careers" which are essentially classes, and it's a little more rigid than I like in that respect, more akin to D&D 1.0 and 2.0 than the more current stuff, but it also really helps to establish the flavor of the world, and even a bare-bones, rules-only character is going to have some flavor built in as a result.
The book itself is gorgeous, full-color with terrific artwork and a pretty strong layout. It could have used a better index and a lot better organization, particularly in terms of cross-indexing rules with one another, and it takes a lot of page-flipping during the game and a *lot* of familiarity before it's as comfortable as a game rulebook should be, but it's beautiful to look at and generally well-written, if not terribly well-organized.
There's also a ton of good material about the world here, and it's a must-read for those who are interested in the world, even if you'd never play a single session of the game.
arthurbdd's review
4.5
Highly flavourful, but the system works best if you are fine with playing low-powered characters who believe a fair fight is for chumps and are willing to leverage every advantage they can to swing things their way, and if you are fine with wild and sometimes destructive results. Later iterations of this generation of 40K RPGs dialled back the rough edges - but I increasingly feel that those rough edges were what made it fun. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/an-appreciation-of-dark-heresy-1st-edition/
books17's review
2.0
As an RPG fan and a 40k fan, when a mate of mine decided to run some Dark Heresy campaigns I was thrilled. But as it turns out it just isn't.. fun. Being railroaded into being (basically) a member of the Inquisition (well not technically but under the employ of one) sort of pigeonholes what the GM can do in terms of plot, and what the players can do in general. My general dislike for d100 systems notwithstanding, Dark Heresy just has a lot of general issues that rankled me - our party spent weeks at a time sitting around not doing anything after a firefight because it would take a month for our combat character who took all the bolts and lasers to the face to heal back up. The universe of 40k, while immense and well-written, is lacking in specifics that are really required for a GM to plan out a campaign - it's hard for a hive to have a personality when it is literally just an enormous mound of buildings.
Whilst we haven't tried it, Rogue Trader would probably be a better system with a bit more freedom - being a rogue trader after all is a bit more vague than being an Inquisitor's patsy - but after Dark Heresy I just have major reservations about FFG's 40k RPGs.
Whilst we haven't tried it, Rogue Trader would probably be a better system with a bit more freedom - being a rogue trader after all is a bit more vague than being an Inquisitor's patsy - but after Dark Heresy I just have major reservations about FFG's 40k RPGs.
tiggum's review
4.0
The 40k universe is really fun and the Dark Heresy rule set is easy to understand and seems to work well.
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