Welcome to the first of my weekly game reviews. Before we take a closer look at Dark Heresy, I must begin by saying I intended on being very angry at Games Workshop (the publisher’s parent company.) Shortly after publication Black Industries announced that they would be closing down all of their lines except their novels. This seemed like a foolish move. They release a new line and sell out the initial print run. So why would the parent company tell them to close down? They have done a very good job with the new version of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP). They recently reprinted Talisman, another classic Games Workshop game that had been out of print for years. How could GW be so foolish?

Let’s look a little at the history of GW. I’ve been playing their games for a long time. Warhammer FRP first came out in 1986. It had strong ties to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, such that you could take your character from the role-playing game and easily convert them into a champion for the battlefield. They produced a number of supplements, including a very well received Enemy Within campaign. So fans looked forward to the possibility of an rpg based on Warhammer 40k, the science fiction version of their war game. It never happened. They closed the fantasy rpg line. This isn’t the first, or the last off-shoot game they spawned and then abandoned. Hero Quest, Space Hulk, and Blood Bowl are just a few you may have heard of that come to mind.

Over the years I’ve talked to a number of game store owners who have dealt directly with GW. The consensus is GW has always been a company afraid of branching out too much. They fear dilution of their main brand, the table top war game. I used to be an avid fan, but as the rising price of miniatures and the focus of the games shifted away from tactical squad combat and more into super heroes so did I drifted away from playing it. The frequent version changes, and the removal of my favorite army, the obscure Eldar offshoot Harlequins, completed my departure from their main line. But I’ve always remained fond of their other games, the bastard children they would spawn and leave to wander the streets alone. Warhammer FRP has been licensed to a number of companies over the years. Some have done well, others not so well. But Black Industries have released more books for WFRP than all others combined. While the editing may have been a little rough at first, books like Realms of Sorcery and Tome of Corruption have been very satisfying.

So after they announced the end of a just released, and highly anticipated, rpg line, I was very angry. What were they doing to me? Since the first printing was sold out at the wholesale level, I ordered a copy for myself. I was going to have at least something to work with. But in the time between then and now, they have managed to satisfy me. How could they rectify such a grievous affront? The announcement that Fantasy Flight Games would be taking over the role-playing and board game lines. This was very good news indeed. Not only would the two rpgs have a future, but Talisman would be getting expansions. The future will not be as dark as once thought. GW wasn’t pulling one of their dumb moves. They were preparing for shift in the license.

Many of you may be wondering who FFG is, and why they would be a good home for these orphans from GW. First off, they produce one of my favorite games, Descent, a dungeon crawl that is similar to a more complicated version of Hero Quest of old. They have some of the best support for board games I’ve ever seen. Not only do they have the usual errata and FAQs, but when they print new versions the corrections are already in. As opposed to Avalon Hill (which used to be a great company but is now owned by Wizards of the Coast which is owned by Hasbro) which hasn’t made a revised version of Betrayal at House on the Hill which was released in 2004 and has major errata on 25 of the 50 scenarios. For those that have older versions, FFG will often include fixed cards with expansions as they come out. Or the fantastic scenario editor for Descent. While I don’t know how well they will handle a role-playing game, although I do know they have a few themselves, I have faith that they will be very good at providing support for the games they are making.

Enough about the companies, how is the game itself? Well, there are good and bad things about it. Mechanically, it takes a lot from WFRP, which is to be expected. However, they replaced the winding career paths that happened in the fantasy version with a career path. In WFRP a character would often start as something lowly. A rat catcher or grave robber are the first things that come to mind. As characters progress, they move from one career to another. So the rat catcher might move on to become a thief, then an outlaw and finally become and outlaw chief. In Dark Heresy you select a career path at character creation. There is still a lot of customization available, but you will always be limited by the career path chosen at the beginning.

The game also disappoints fans of the 40k universe in being limited to a very narrow scope. The premise of the 40k universe is that it is far in the future. Humans expanded throughout the galaxy, and have achieved great technical feats. But science has become shrouded in religion and occult. Many of the marvels that are used are left over from previous eras, the knowledge of their production lost to time. Many of the worlds of the Imperium are little more than feudal societies. Some are untamed wildernesses. The Emperor is a powerful psychic, able to project his mind throughout the Imperium with the aid of the mental powers of numerous initiates. He is worshiped as a God and this view is violently enforced by all manner of branches of the government, but most fervently by the Inquisition. You play as acolytes in the Inquisition, fighting heresy and chaos throughout the Imperium. No chance yet to play alien races such as Eldar, Orks, Tyranids, or any of the other staples from the table top game. Combat is focused on ranged more than the fantasy game, which is to be expected. The critical hit tables, a key component in combat, are expanded greatly to have different charts based on weapon type. Which reminds me a little of classic Rolemaster style, but isn’t quite as chart heavy as that.

So for all the focus is on a small part of the overall 40k universe, they do that area quite well. There are a lot of details to help set the mood of the game. The largest single section is the career path chapter, and each career gets a fairly sizable description. The sample adventure at the end gives a reasonable view of the game universe, but could have had a little more of the investigative theme that seems to be where this niche of the setting is headed.

Overall, if this was all we were getting, it would be fairly disheartening. It’s a good start, and we’d then have a bunch of fan created expansions on the internet to fill out all the parts that are missing. Depending on what else comes out, we may still get that. But it provides a very nice groundwork to start from. I can easily see books about Eldar or Orks similar to Tome of Corruption or Shadow of the Horned Rat for the fantasy game. The two are close enough that many of the demons and mutations from Tome of Corruption are easily transferable to the 40k setting. Already they released a pdf with vehicle rules. So as it is, I really like what I’ve seen so far and I’m looking forward to what comes in the future.

Apathy Rating: 4/5

Tags: 4, rpg, scifi

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.