Nobody expects the Holy Ordos of the Emperor's Inquisition

So D&D is slowly wrapping up and everyone's eyes are turned to things to come; Giz's freeform Space RPG is next up and after that we've all been stung by the Dark Heresy bug.

Dark Heresy has got to be one of my favourite games to play and the idea of running it intrigues me aswell. The grim darkness of the 41st milennium is a rich and (not so) vibrant setting with endless opportunities for adventure. It also has combat that is frequently quick, brutal and deadly and with Medium Dave's recent acquisition of the Inquisitor's Handbook; equipment lists that would satisfy even the most ravenous of equipment junkies.

It's shaping up to be quite a campaign, a sandbox world of interesting locales through which to perform our investigation and no doubt have shoot-outs and speeder chases in the best tradition of Ravenor and Eisenhorn.

What is better than this though is the thought and effort people have been putting into their characters. I thought I had put some effort in, but a quick brainstorm after D&D on sunday left us with a solid cadre of characters each with their own motivations and goals. In retrospect my own character seem a little bland by comparison.

Here's the run down of what we have:

Amanda- Playing Alessa, an alpha level psyker with a specialization in Biomancy who runs a brothel and houses some minor mutants to cater for her clients more exotic tastes.

Rachel- Reprises Nik, her assassin from our previous game who has gone on to have three kids and started her own Death Cult beneath a hospital.

Giz- Playing the bastard son of a noble household he is forming a web of spies and finding the secrets of his family so he can blackmail his way into a position of inheritence.

Medium Dave- Playing Tech-Magos Tiresius Kepplar, formerly of an explorator fleet he came into contact with tainted technology and has developed a penchent for the forbidden art of artificial intelligence. His goal is to create a machine with a sentient mind and he carts around with him he very realistic Janus Simulcra with him.

Myself- Inquisitor Eisen Alon Garvel, Ordo Hereticus. Operating under special exemption Garvel has fled to this planet to seek those who destroyed his apartments on Machaevo Primus and bring them to justice. A radical Oblationist he seeks forbidden knowledge knowing it damns him and turns the secrets within against the foes of the Imperium.

As you can see there's a fair bit of meat on these bones and it's given Hair Dave (who is running the damn thing) alot to think about. Having discussed it with him we did decide on a sand-box as being the best way to run the game and upon further thought I think a sandbox might be the best way to run Dark Heresy.

A sandbox with its multiple paths and 'on the fly' gaming gives the players a kind of universe without limits. Consider starting your game amongst the frozen spires and vent-gardens of Machaevo Primus investigating obscura smuggling that is funding a Pleasure Cult dedicated to Slaanesh; you could go many ways about this, interrogating the dealers, looking through manifests, kidnapping and interrogating cult members or just storming the place with a Flamer and a loud-hailer declaring yourself the Emperor's will incarnate. Even better, if the cult leaders break and run you can then persue them off world, possibly chasing them back to their dark masters.

The whole point is that it gives the players options, rather than relying on them to take the bait and get hooked into the story. If they ever slow down and become frustrated at their lack of progress do what Hollywood does and drop the plot on them. Maybe there's an assassination attempt on a party member's life? Perhaps they ump into their target by chance and get involved in a speeder chase amongst the huddled towers of the hive? The options are endless.

I think the sandbox method has also addressed a problem we had with our previous Dark Heresy sessions; the fact that the party felt like a glorified detective agency. A sandbox allows us to control the ebb and flo of the investigation and it feels lass like a static mystery that needs to be solved and more like a war of feint and counter feint as we try and prove our suspicions about our target.

In this case our target is the planetary governor who may or may not have been consorting with the powers of Chaos and from the way Dave has been cackling things could end up being very bad indeed.