Space Marine to Dark Heresy

Howdy folks!

Today I want to talk about Dark Heresy. Yeah, we're going to be swapping game systems in a few weeks, and I thought it might be a good thing to go over some stuff that's been on my mind.

In 2009 we started our Mardannon Sector campaign's first RPG game, which I called Space Marine 2009: Shattered Destination. The game was built from Dark Heresy, after it had been out for a while and we all had time to digest the rules. However, my players felt that it would be hard to roleplay the Warhammer 40,000 universe, that it was too restrictive. So I built a ruleset that would allow us to play Adeptus Astartes (before Deathwatch arrived). We played a good length game, where all players were Space Marines. Everyone had a blast, and I think I did a good job proving that with the correct preparation and the right considerations, the setting is one of the best available. Never mind it seems to be the in-house favorite.

In Shattered Destination, the Space Marines taking part in the crusade to liberate Ordavis (mostly Imperial Navy and the Mardannon Crusade of the Black Templars) attacked the surface with a mighty planetfall, only to have their attack fall to ruin amidst defenses the Imperial forces were unaware were on the planet. The survivors of the ill-fated planetfall rallied in the wastes far beyond the hive cities and made their way to a hive yet to be afflicted with the orkoid menace.

What they found was far more disturbing.

The traitorous Alpha Legion had been lying in wait. With a great trove of stolen and appropriated siege tanks, the Legion rolled out of Rasheen and drove straight for the Imperial base at the Ordavis Prime Hive.

The rest is recorded in our last Warhammer 40,000 campaign, the Battle for Ordavis.

Soon, we'll be returning to the Warhammer 40,000 universe via Dark Heresy, only this time we're going to be playing it vanilla style! That is, right out of the book. We'll also be using the Inquisitor's Handbook. I'll probably go over both of those in my next Rulebook Rumination so until then I just want to hit on a few things you guys should be keeping in mind during character creation. Remember, we use miniatures, so any mini you have or want to use is definitely on the table! Just remember - no space marines, xenos or anything other than a human. Imperial, at that.

Dark Heresy has character delineation just like anything else. In this game, instead of Race and Class you get Homeworld and Career Path. Your character will select (or roll randomly) from a homeworld that basically functions as his race. Homeworlds are chosen according to type, and we'll select a world from the Index Mardannon to be your specific homeworld. Your homeworld will determine what Career Paths you can choose from and gives you extra traits as well. The homeworld types are:

1. Feral World - You come from a world with very little technology or civilization.
2. Hive World - You hail from a world of giant cities.
3. Imperial World - Your planet of origin is much like modern Earth.
4. Void Born - You were raised in space, aboard a huge ship.
5. Forge World - Your homeworld is one of the fabrication worlds of the Mechanicus.
6. Schola Progenium - An orphan, you were raised by the Imperium.
7. Noble Born - You were born to a family of Imperial nobles.
8. Mind Cleansed - Who are you? Who am I?

In addition to those 8 origin points, you'll need to choose a Career Path as well. Career Paths are very similar to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Careers, but are more linear. You simply rank up, take alternate ranks and elite advances to flesh out your character. There are also 8 choices for Career Path, and they are:

1. Adept - A thinking man, not nescessarily good at combat or social niceties.
2. Arbitrator - A member of the Adeptus Arbites, the long arm of Imperial Law.
3. Assassin - A killer for contract.
4. Cleric - A preacher of the Imperial Creed.
5. Guardsman - A fighting man, a soldier.
6. Imperial Psyker - A mystic with various psychic disciplines.
7. Scum - Criminals, outcasts, thieves and miscreants.
8. Tech Priest - Member of the Cult Mechanicus, very skilled with machines.
9. Adepta Sororitas - A Sister of Battle a.k.a. Nuns with Guns a.k.a. Bolter Bitches.

With these in mind, conceptualize your character. Lets find a miniature for you to use, and we'll either order it up or you can simply use one of the thousands of minis floating around the Wargate. We want to have painted character miniatures at least!

As a final note, the group's Inquisitor is one Corvus Mandera of the Ordo Hereticus. We had a vote some weeks back where the question was put the the group about which Ordo they would most like to serve, and Hereticus won the vote almost unanimously. He won't be around much in this campaign, but it's good to know who's got your back.

Terrain (Back) Log: Green World Hills!

Yo, it's Bone again! This time I'm here to talk about more of our 'Green World' table - our hills!

These hills are only made of styrofoam, and they get a lot of use here at the Wargate - but the edges of the hills always flake away no matter what we do. I nicked a piece off with my fingernail just the other day during a frantic battle with the tyranids. When it comes time to make the 'Brown World' hills we'll be using some sterner stuff, as well as some molded components to try to avoid that issue.

All in all, we have 5 pieces for the set. I formed them from various trash bits of sytrofoam packing with a hot wire cutter, then used Elmer's School Glue all over the entire mess to create a sort of 'shell' for the hill so I could spray paint it. After that, another layer of glue, flock and details and that's how each one was made. It makes a pretty firm item that will stand up to most things. The styrofoam on the surfaces of the pieces does not crinkle due to the thick glue shell, and even the heaviest dreadnought or daemon prince need fear damaging them. Just those pesky nicks on the edges.

Very old Wargate veterans might recognize the hill in the lower left corner of that pic. It's another surviving piece of the 'ice world' table from the '90's! Now of course, it's been repainted and flocked but it's a very functional hill.

The best part about these hills is that they are easily replaceable! Built for literally pennies, these babies are also quite simple to make. If one ever gets destroyed or degenerates to the point of uselessness, they can always be recycled or a new one generated from crap laying around the house.

Standard in Casual: Magic 2011 Breakthroughs!

It's been quite some time since my last Magic: The Gathering article, and so I thought it would be a good time to review some things from Magic 2011 that I thought were truly remarkable the first time I saw them. Rather than re-hash musings on the mythic cycles of Titans or Planeswalker-ed spells, I chose just a few spells to talk about that are fueling my magic induced frenzy of death at the moment.

Right now, both M10 and M11 are legal in standard until next month when M10 rotates out. M11 will soon be the only basic set in Standard, when Scars of Mirrodin releases in October. Shards of Alara will no longer be Standard legal, and the entire metagame will shift. Long ago I abandoned Shards when Zendikar brought true power back to the mono and dual colored decks (this is where I live - 3 colors always bothered me somehow on a primitive level). So for me, Scars will mark the end of my old enemies and a bigger card pool. Many of the cards in M10 are available in M11, and so certain deck themes will be allowed to continue into the Zendikar-Scars Standard environment.

These spells I think are acknowledged but somehow marginalized. I feel that they are a vital component of some of the most serious builds out there, even if people don't play them very much.

Fire Servant

Man this guy is hot! In Zendikar, we had Quest for Pure Fire, which allowed us basically to double the damage we could deal in one turn. With this guy, if he's been summoned then he's going to harm you. Note that only instants or sorceries are doubled, unlike the Quest. Still, with the right deck, especially one sporting a couple of Quests and Kiln Fiends or Chandra's Spitfires. The criteria required for each one of those abilities is slightly different, but interrelated.

Another angle one could take with this is loading the deck with tons of instant and sorcery spells (duh), but include your Quests and maybe some Reverberations to deal with those like minded fools using magic to hurt you. There's a lot of potential for damage dealing here, even if you stick to Lightning Bolts and Fireballs.

Phylactery Lich

Now here we have a winner. This guy gets it done, let me tell you. The biggest problem with the Lich is choosing which artifacts to include! Equipment seems a no-brainer, and with Scars coming up this particular card is set to become even more ridiculous. At three black mana, it pretty much demands mono-black - but a mono black deck filled with artifacts is totally awesome too!

It's easy to throw in all the high cost equipment, but you really have to include several artifacts that require a lower investment in mana. Sword of Vengeance is awesome, but requires a 6 mana investment to get the most use out of. Speed is of the essence in the format, where 2 turns could see you facing a great many elves or even eldrazi spawn turned hateful. Trusty Machete only requires half that, but what about Pithing Needle or other 1 mana artifacts? Definitely a prospect worthy of further discussion.

Steel Overseer

This is probably the most ridiculous yet. With Scars being an artifact heavy set, and probably block, this is one of the spells with staggering potential right out of the pack. I had the opportunity to duel a mage who got three of these onto the board...in a few turns I was dealt with thoroughly. In that game, I had my indestructible liches from earlier!

The possibilities here are almost endless, but the obvious choice is an artifact deck! These guys make it all possible...bring out your Ornithopters, Triskelions and Pilgrim's Eyes! Who even wants to contemplate the even deadlier Myr deck that will be possible in Scars? I'm sure we'll definitely see a marked appreciation of the value of these cards as the potential these monsters will bring to decks increases.

On the flip side, these will be high priority targets for your opponent. Want to keep em safe? Make sure to bring your Whispersilk Cloaks!

That's all for now, or until Wizards of the Coast sends me a Cease and Desist Order for using the card images on the site. Well, their AutoCard program doesn't seem to work in the Blogger shell, which is a shame really because that's a really neat effect. Oh well, I guess if I get an email / letter from their legal team, I'll just cut the entire Magic: The Gathering section from the blog and there will be no further mention of Magic at all on the Wargate. Since I'm pretty much the only player of Magic at the Wargate (save for a few oldschoolers) I'm talking to myself anyway. It also probably won't matter that I don't have any ads or banners here either. I'm small time.

Until then, I'm gonna do it my way. With pictures.