System Rules

Dark Heresy 2.0 Beta House Rules:

Gear

  • Clarification on starting items: 3x items of rarity (-10) or higher. Upgrades on weapons count as separate items.
  • Outcast Starting Gear: Replace Chainsword with Chainblade.

Modified Weapon Tables

Ranged Weapons

Melee Weapons

Actions

Called Strike: Utility. 1 Ap. On your next attack your attack rate cannot exceed 1, and you select the body part to hit rather than roll randomly. Additionally you may add your DoS (after any Evasion checks) to damage.

Medicae: First aid heals the effect of a critical (stunning, bloodloss etc) but does not remove the wound. This can only be successful through extended care.

  • Actions can be carried between turns:
    • Unless interrupted by Wounds, Evading or similar distractions.
    • Maximum bonus for aiming possible to receive is 4AP.

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Dark Heresy House Rules:

Character Creation and Upgrades:

Players may create a Rank 1 Dark Heresy character using any of the available Dark Heresy source books (GM has final say on all characters, so don't break anything). Players will then allocate stats as per the 20/18/15/12/11/10/8/6/5 system.

  • Stat upgrades may not be purchased at character creation.
  • If during character creation you receive the same skill twice, you may cash in said skill for its exp worth or gain +10 to that skill.
  • If during character creation you receive the same talent twice, you may cash in said talent for its exp worth or gain the talented special rule.
  • All characters are treated as rolling a 6 on Wounds and starting Wealth.
  • Templar Calix, Gunslinger, Moritat and Mechanicus Secutor are considered Alternate Careers, not Alternate Ranks (if they already are, ignore this, I don't have the source books a work)
  • Players begin with starting equipment, and one Very Rare item.
  • Unwanted starting equipment may be sold for 1/3 cost.
  • Starting equipment may be swapped for an item of equal or lesser value/rarity, as long as the two items are like items e.g. Auto Pistol for Stub Automatic, Sword for Axe, Street Clothes for Factory Attire etc. If you are unsure, ask the GM.

New Home Worlds

Frontier World

Characteristic Modifiers: +5 Strength, -5 Intelligence
Starting Skills: Frontier world characters begin with Survival (Int), and Wrangling (Int) as trained Skills.
Tough as Grox-Hide: Due to their hardy physiques and general surliness, Frontier worlders begin with one additional wound.
Leery of Outsiders: Frontier world characters are suspicious by nature. Because of this outlook, frontier world characters suffer a -10 penalty on all Fellowship Tests when dealing with someone they have not previously met (exactly who this applies to is up to the GM).
Tenacious Survivalist: Life on the frontier can be filled with all manner of horrors. Frontier world characters learn at an early age to be wary of their surrounding and react quickly in the face of danger. Frontier world characters may re-roll any Initiative Roll they make, though they must accept the results of the second roll.
Xenos Interaction: Its a common occurence for humans on frintier worlds to interact and trade with xenos. Because of this interaction, Frontier World chracters are iimmune when cause by a Xenos with a fear of 1 or 2. If the Fear Test difficulty is 3 or higher, however it affects the character as normal. Of course this outlook often puts them at odds with members of the Ecclesiarch and as such they suffer a -5 penalty to all Interaction Tests when dealing with members of the Imperial Cult.
Starting Wounds: D5+9
Starting Fate Points: Roll 1d10 to determine a frontier world characters starting Fate Points. On a 1-5 he begins with 2 Fate Points; on a 6-10 he begins with 3 Fate Points.

Changes to Noble Background

Financial perks have been rewritten as follows:

  • Your starting wealth will be the starting wealth for your class, plus 300 thrones
  • Your income will be the income for your class, plus 150 thrones /month
  • In general, it is also assumed you have a "slush fund" not usable for mission gear. For mission expenses that the Inquisition will pay back (GM will arbitrate), anything requiring cash on hand of up to 1000 thrones, or credit with major trade houses / banking guild draws of up to 10,000 thrones (where accessible), there is no need to bother with accounting. It is simply assumed you pay, it and are credited back later.
  • Your roleplay slush fund also covers ambiguous "luxury and service upgrades" if available, once you have paid the base price for something. You always have enough money to appear rich, should you choose to. Within reason, these upgrades to not pass through tangible throne accounting in the game.
    • This only applies to upgrades usable by YOUR CHARACTER. (Remember, nobles are usually haughty and selfish.)

Elite Advances and Careers

Elite Advances

  • Your character is broadly described by his Career Path. However, the Advancements listed are not the sum total of all that your character could learn. Sometimes your character will be exposed or has been exposed to certain Skills or Talents during play. (RT 39)
  • To purchase an Elite Skill or Talent costs 500 XP, the DM may increase or decrease the cost if seen fit. (Note: The DM should lower the XP cost if both a combination of Role-playing and Timing allows for a Elite Advance)

Alternative Career Advance: Field Medic

  • Embedded in active military units, these field medics are trained by the Drill Abbots of the Scintillan Knights Hospitaler. In perpetual and urgent demand, these harried men and women often suffer trauma-fatigue or psychological burnouts - though thats rarely enough to get them out of a deployment. Having seen those who ought to be dead stagger back to their feet to fight in the Emperors name, Medics are sometimes deeply religious. Having seen those who ought to have lived die inexplicably from minor wounds, they may also be deeply cynical. Between the ignorant masses and their fanatical colleagues, the (somewhat) educated opinions of medics often can inspire conflict; for this reason, Command keeps them distracted with a constant influx of patients. They are also almost always deployed singly in large units; partly to achieve the maximum exposure to their unusual skills, and partly to minimize the incidences in which several expensive experts are killed in witch-burnings or religious tiffs as opposed to just one.
  • Required Career - Guardsman, Cleric, or Arbitrator
  • Required Rank - 4
  • Medicae 100, Medicae +10 100, Master Chirurgeon 200, Evaluate 100, Jaded 200, Forbidden Lore (Mutants) 100, Literacy 100, Scrutiny 100, Scrutiny +10 100, Nerves of Steel 200, Rapid Reaction 100, Charm 100, Heightened Senses (Touch) 200, Common Lore (Ecclesiarchy)100, Carouse 100, Flagellant 100, Tech-Use 200, Interrogation 100, Trade (Apothecary) 100, Trade (Embalmer) 100, Chem Use 100, Paramedic 300,

Ascension Transition Package: Executor Felitial

  • Used for Ascended Career: Magos
  • "Is that your daughter, Governor? A charming child. Ha ha ha." -Magos Ambassador Horst Gortaen at the reception for the newly appointed Governor Feldrin
  • Description: Whether you have taken on the task of gaining knowledge about human interaction or you have decided to sacrifice your getting closer to the perfect form of the machine for the greater good of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the powers that be have granted you a boon and a burden. You have received extensive training in the social fields and been designated an emissary for the Adeptus Mechanicus.
  • Prerequisite and restrictions: Fellowship (30) and you may not already have or ever take any talents or bionic augmentations that cause a loss of Fellowship. If you go against this, you gain the Talent Enemy (All Factions of the Adeptus Mechanicus) as you are wasting the resources that were invested in you.
  • Effects:
    • Characteristics: You gain access to those Fellowship Advances: Simple (750), Intermediate (1000), Trained (2500) and Expert (3000)
    • Skills: Trade (Valet), Performer (Dancer)
    • Etiquette: As the Noble Born Trait, see Inquisitor's Handbook P15

The Path of the the Omnissiah

All good things come in threes: Insanity, Corruption and Mechanization

  • Mechanization Points (MP) represent how far a character’s body and mind have become mechanized. This characteristic starts at a value of 0 and increases whenever one comes closer to being a machine. The Omnissian Track works similar to the Insanity and Corruption tracks. By accumulating MP, a character advances on the track. However, in contrast to IP and CP, the path of the machine is constant and predictable, it is the way to the divine logic of the Machine God rather than the incomprehensible process of corruption in flesh and mind.
  • This system is designed primarily for the Explorator PCs. In order to integrate the MP system into the rules as written, it is advisable to remove the talents “The Flesh is Weak” from the Explorator’s Career Advance Scheme.
  • Acquiring Mechanization Points
    • There are two common ways of acquiring MP: The first is buying tech-related talents. The following talents are considered to be tech-related:
      • All talents with the prerequisite trait “Mechanicus Implants”
      • Autosanguine
      • Binary Chatter
      • Conceiled Cavity
      • Electro Graft Use
      • Enhanced Bionic Frame
      • Logis Implant
      • Prosanguine
    • How many MP each of these talents grant depends on their XP cost in the Explorator’s advance scheme: Talents with an XP cost of 200 grant 1 MP, while talents with an XP cost of 500 grant 3 MP.
  • The second common way of acquiring MP is attaching cybernetics to one’s body. They are categorized as follows:
    • Enormous: The complex Mechanicus Implants are a category of their own: a character with this trait acquires 9 MP.
    • Major: This category comprises large cybernetics (a whole Respiratory System, all kinds of Mechadendrites, Bionic Limbs or anything similar in size) as well as implants that significantly alter the brain structure (MIU, Cortex Implants or the like). Each major cybernetic grants 5 MP to the character it is attached to.
    • Minor: This includes technically advanced smaller cybernetics with active functions (Scribe tines, MIU Weapon Interface, all kinds of artificial senses, Bionic Heart, etc) and minor neural augmetics (Locator Matrix, Memorance and Volitor Implants and so on). A character acquires 3 MP for every attached minor cybernetic.
    • Trivial: Low level tech augmetics, either very small (Vox Implant) or only providing passive features (Skin Implants, Cranial Armour) all belong into this category. Each trivial cybernetic grants 1 MP to the character it is attached to.

Degrees of Mechanization

  • The Fellowship characteristic may never fall below 01 through this.

When communicating with members of the Machine Cult, a character automatically gets a bonus to all Fellowship-related tests. This bonus depends on his Degree of Mechanization: Mechanized +10, Man & Machine +20, etc. up to Machine Soul +50.

  • The Omnissian Track is divided into six Degrees of Mechanization as described below. Whenever a character has accumulated enough MP, he automatically acquires the next degree and is then subject to the rules corresponding to it.
    • [0-9] Of flesh and blood: The character possesses either few and unremarkable cybernetics or none at all. These will not attract any special attention under most circumstances or have any effects other than those explained in the rulebook.
    • [10-29] Augmented:First marks of not being entirely natural become obvious. Beholders might wonder whether the character adopted the bionics deliberately or was forced to do so because he needs them in his everyday work and life.
      • Struggling Body: The character’s flesh is not yet accostumed to the various pieces of metal it houses. Whenever suffering hard physical strain, an Ordinary (+10) Toughness test must be passed. Failure indicates an inflammation has occurred and a single random cybernetic may not be used until the inflammation is cured.
    • [30-49] Mechanized: The character’s body is fitted with an increasing number of strange devices. More often than before, he acts like a machine. He gains the Machine (1) trait and constantly reduces his Fellowship by 1d5*.
      • Mental Conflict: As the unsystematic thoughts of his human mind struggle with the logical calculations of his circuitry, the character suffers 1d10 IP. Nevertheless, his body has adapted to the implants and is no longer subject to the inflammation rule.
    • [50-69] Man & Machine: Having overcome the weakness and doubts that plague lesser servants of the Omnissiah, the character follows the belief in the machine’s superiority with zeal and certainty. He gains the Machine (2) trait, and constantly reduces his Fellowship by another 1d5*.
      • Challenging Patient: Healing the character with the Medicae skill becomes hard (-20) and can only restore his health to a maximum number of wounds equal to his TB because large parts of his weak flesh are already substituted by pure metal. Further healing requires correlative Tech-Use tests. At the GM's discretion, surgeons treating the character might significantly hurt themselves when accidently cutting through power cables etc.
    • [70-89] Forged of Iron: The character frees his body more and more from the frailty of natural tissue. He gains the Machine (3) trait, and constantly reduces his Fellowship by another 1d5*.
      • Manufactured, not grown: The character no longer heals naturally. He can only be healed through Tech-Use tests (base difficulty of Challenging (+0)) equivalent to Medicae skill tests. These tests become very hard (-30) whenever there are no appropriate spare parts at hand.
    • [90-99] Avatar of the Machine God: Well-nigh nothing is left of the human being this machine once was. It gains the Machine (4) trait, and constantly reduces its Fellowship by another 1d5*.
      • Mechanical Purity: The machine is free from emotions and (nearly) all human needs (e.g. sleep), but also has to maintain his augmetics carefully, i. e. it must spend at least one hour each day on performing respective rites. These are represented by a Routine (+20) Trade (Technomat) test. Failure causes one level of fatigue which will last until the next successful maintenance test. The Manufactured, not grown rules apply as well.
    • [100+] Machine Soul: Finally, along with the digitalization of more and more of his thoughts, the character’s very soul has been transcribed into another complex programm running on his cogitator circuitry, ready to be uploaded on the Machine Altars of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The PC looses another 1d5 Fel (may not fall below 01 through this), Mechanical Purity and Manufactured, not grown still apply to his body.
      • Anima Codica: With a successful Willpower Test as a Full Action, the PC may upload his soul onto any machine capable of housing a machine or weapon spirit. The difficulty of the test is based on the machine’s complexity, ranging from Easy (+30) for simple devices such as a lasgun to Very Hard (-30) for machines as complex as starship components. If the GM deems the spirit of the targeted machine sophisticated enough, the test becomes an Opposed Willpower Test. The exact effects of a success by the PC are various and up to the GM. Generally, the machine will only do what the character wants it to do. Only under adverse conditions, the PC should need to make tests for operating the machine. Additionally, he may substitute any appropriate Test with an Intelligence Test. A weapon housing the soul may be counted as being of best quality and refuse to be triggered normally, controlled only by the strange spirit. Example: Because the tank is chasing the scavengers in rough terrain, the GM demands an Ordinary (+10) Drive Skill Test. As the tank now acts as Torian’s body, the Magos does not need to possess the skill and instead makes an Ordinary Intelligence Test. Firing the tank’s guns will still require a Ballistic Skill Test, but the PC counts as having all corresponding types of Weapon Training. Furthermore, while uploaded, Torian is not capable of hearing anything because the machine only possesses visual sensors etc. The soul programm in the body is deleted as soon as it is transmitted to a machine, so that there can only be one soul at all times. This also means that the character’s normal body is then immobile like a statue, unable to take any actions as long as it does not house the soul. Transmitting the soul programm back to the body can be done with another Ordinary (+10) Willpower Test as a Full Action.

Game Mechanics

  • All game mechanics use the most up to date ruleset Fantasy Flight have released [Only War], with the exception of house rules.

Damage

  • All weapons count as doing 6 damage on the D10 roll, with +1 damage for every DOS. Mutlple Attack actions (Semi/Full Auto, Swift/Lightning Attack) only use DOS to upgrade the damage after they have gotten their maximum amount of hits.
  • Tearing weapons + 1 to damage.
  • All weapons use their damage from the most latest rules (ie Only War/ Black Crusade)

NPCs

  • If you score more than half a NPC Mook's wounds in one round then they die. NPC chars will use the same wounds system as you.

Miscellanous House Rules

Psychic Powers

  • Replace all instances of Will Power in power descriptions with 'Psi Rating Used'
  • Drawing on the Warp: It is obvious. You may cast with -10 to to conceal the fact that you are using a psychic ability.
  • Seal Wounds: Threshold 20, Overbleed every 10, it now heals 1d5+WB. Repeated uses of this power can be dangerous, however, not to mention painful, and the person’s flesh rebels against the intrusion of warp energy. If a person (including the Psyker) is the subject of this power more than once in a 12 hour period, they must Test Toughness or take an equal amount of damage (with no reduction for Toughness Bonus or Armour) rather than being healed. Each successive attempt will increase the difficulty of the Toughness test by 10. Other psychic attempts at healing outside of Seal Wounds will still increase this stacking difficulty.
  • Sense Presence: Grants infra-red which penetrates within the given range, allowing awareness tests to see living-beings letting off heat signatures through walls with a +30 bonus.
  • Dull Pain: Now only removes fatigue based off of Warp-related effects.
  • Provoking Phenomena: Provoking phenomena in an area can lead to strange events. Provoking phenomena twice in the same area leads to doubled strange events, and a weakened veil that extends 30 meters. Provoking three times will lead to a weakened veil which follows you. Provoking again…well… it's a mistake. All subsides upon 8 hours of rest, or continual invocation for that period of time if you don't wish to sleep.

Equipment:

  • Lance Strikes

Lance-strikes are pinpoint weapons which allow players the use of an orbital strike weapon. Deviation is be 1d100m from the specified target, or 1d10 if a beacon is used (how this is done is up to the GM). By the time the lance has travelled through the atmosphere it has the same stats as a Lascannon with Blast(5) and Plasma Cannon with Blast (5-15).

Gear Quality

  • Ballistic: GQ= Reliable and +5 to hit, BQ= Reliable and +10 to hit
  • Melee: GQ= +5 to hit, BQ= +10 to hit, +1 Dam
  • Data Slates:
    • A PQ Dataslate is a one-use device that cannot be written to nor files removed from. It is functionally useless beyond a single purpose.
    • A CQ Dataslate is a 40K Kindle insomuch that it can store and read multiple files, as well as take notes, access cogitators via physical jacks, and is in black and grey.
    • A GQ Dataslate is in full colour, and can access noospheric networks to gain more files.
    • A BQ Dataslate is a high-tech device that can be used for almost any reasonable purpose (within the realms of a modern computer worth around $10k).
  • Medikits:
    • A PQ Medikit allows a player to roll Medicae as if they had it trained for the purpose of stopping Blood Loss or Heal 1 wound per test (normal testing rules apply).
    • A GQ Medikit gives +5 to the relevant test and may be considered to hold rarer medical items.
    • A BQ Medikit gives +10 to the relevant test and may be considered to hold rarer medical items.

Weapon Changes

  • Grenades: Any items on the Grenades and Missiles Table 5-6 (RT 127) that do Explosive damage gain the Tearing special quality. Also the weapon “Krak” or “Krak Grenade” gains the Blast(1) special quality when a half action is used to place the charge. The character that places the charge may choose what squares are to be affected by the blast.
  • Scatter (revised): If fired at an opponent at Point Blank Range, each degree of success adds an additional 1d10 of damage up to a maximum of 2d10, additionally every two degree of successes also give a -10 penalty to dodge to a maximum of -20. If fired at an opponent at Short Range, each two degrees of success adds an additional 1d10 of damage up to a maximum of 2d10, additionally every two degree of successes also give a -10 penalty to dodge to a maximum of -20. When using this weapon on semi-auto or full-auto the maximum is 1d10 additional damage with a max dodge penalty of -20. All armour points double at long and extreme range.
  • Accurate for pistol weapons (revised): When firing a single shot, pistols with the Accurate quality gain an addition 1D5 damage per 2 degrees of success on a successful To Hit roll, up to a maximum of 2D5.

Additional Equipment Rules


Changes to Skills and Talents

Talents

  • Fearless: Allows you to ignore the negative effects of all Fear checks and to avoid pinning, but you must still roll on the fear table if you fail the WP test to see if you are driven further into madness by the sight. Any insanity gained from the fear test is reduced by 1 (this stacks with Jaded, making it 2 for sources Jaded effects). You still have trouble backing down from fights or avoiding challenges.
  • Favoured by the Warp: (rules as written replaced with) You may ignore the effects of the Weakened Veil for one hour by spending a fate point. You may also ignore rolling on the Psychic Phenomena table for any roles on a particular power by spending a fate point. Minor powers no longer chance provoking as long as only one dice is used and you are not currently sustaining any other power. If the Veil is weakened, minor powers no longer gain the before-mentioned effect but only provoke on "9"

Skills

  • Dodge
    • Dodging is now an opposed skill at all times
    • Dodging non primitive ranged attacks is at -20
  • Concealment and Silent Move: Concealment and Silent Move are considered to be a single Skill under the name of Stealth. If you have one, you automatically count as having Stealth.

Comments on Roleplaying Your Character

Dark Heresy is not just an action game. Acolytes are expected not just to deal with threats, but also to fully explore the threat including motives and potential broader connections. (In other words Plan A is not always the best approach.) That said, some people are better at inquiry than others. But even the Feral World guardsman with a Fellowship of 23 can contribute. Therefore I want everyone to be aware of my interpretation of the rules on the following:

Investigative things you can do without a roll:

  • Roleplay a conversation with a specific NPC who would be willing to talk to you
  • Ask a specific NPC for information that they have no apprehensions about giving. (Assuming they know anything about it at all)
  • Roleplay telling a plausible lie that the other party has no reason to disbelieve.

Things you can do with a roll (plus/including everything as written):

  • Inquiry - Effectively locate the right person / people to talk about a given topic, other uses listed in the book
  • Inquiry / Charm – Learn information people might be trying to conceal
  • Charm - Convince someone to help you
  • Deceive- Come up with a good lie, effectively "sell" a lie


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