So as promised I will be doing a break down of the new Dark Hersy 2.0 Beta, and give you some insight into what is changing. Now remember that this is just the Beta so some things can change from what I put out here as problems can arise and then get worked out, but I think for the most part the core of the game is remain the same.
With this just being the Beta all the great art and the background of the setting was left out of the book. The game will be moving away from the Calixis Sector and into the Askellion Sector. Atleast we all get a great new area of the 40K universe to explore with the new addition. This was great news as have played D&D for years I got tired of there always being a new book about the same areas in the Forgotten Realms every single addition.
So creating a character has changed slightly from before and in a good way I think.
The process is still broken down into five stages.
Stage 1: Choose Home World
There are two additions, Forge World and Highborn bringing the total to six this time. Each Home World type get the following rules apply to them:
Characteristic modifier
Fate threshold modifier
Home World bonus
Signature mental trauma
and recommended backgrounds
The charecteristic modifiers are more interesting this time around. Were in the 1st Ed you rolled 2d10 and added 15, 20, or 25 depending on your homeworld, now you roll 2d10 + 25 base, and if your Home World as a "+" for Strength then you would roll 3d10, pick the highest two and add 25, and if there is a "-" for Toughness then you would roll 3d10, pick the two lowest and add 25. I think this overall will build starting characters that are a little stronger this time around, and GM's will not have the problem were the PC cannot pass checks constantly.
There is also the option to allow the players to allocate points instead of rolling, like what was introduced in Deathwatch.
Also, is a tenth characteristic to roll for called Influence, but more on that later.
Fate Threshold are 1d5 -X to determine starting fate. straight forward there.
Home World bonus is one (only 1) bonus for your home world type.
Signature mental traumas is a your characters unique way in dealing with problems in the universe. When you start to obtain insanity you will forced to use the mental trauma table, and when rolling, if you roll a double you will use your signature trauma instead of what is rolled.
Recommended backgroungs are just that. There are some ideal backgrounds for you to choose based on your Home World because of the characteristic modifiers and such, but you are not limited to these. 1st Ed had a limited amount of career paths to choose from. 2nd Ed removes that limitation.
Stage 2: Choose Background
This determines what you did in the past before being an acolyte. There are seven backgrounds to choose from. There is about 2 pages worth of info on what the background would have involved your character doing.
Adeptus Administraum
Adeptus Arbites
Adeptus Astra Telepathica
Adeptus Mechanicus
Adeptus Ministorum
Imperial Guard
Outcast
Each Background has a set of rules that applies to them. They are:
Starting Skills
Starting Talents
Starting Equipment
Background Bonus
Signature malignancy
Recommended roles
Starting skills are all at rank 1 for the characters which is a -10 modifier. The skills on this list bring the skills to rank 2 instead which is a+0 modifier.
Starting talents, equipment and background bonuses, recommended roles are self explanatory at this point.
The signature malignancyworks just like the signature trauma but is used after obtaining too many corruption points.
Stage 3: Choose Role
This is what you are currently doing as your position as an acolye. There are eight roles, and some great information on what the role entails.
Assassin
Chirurgeon
Desperado
Hierophant
Mystic
Sage
Seeker
Warrior
Each role has a special rule that applies to them and then there are two charts one for characeristic advencement costs, and skill advancement costs. This will effect the next stage.
Stage 4: Spend Experience Points, Buy Equipment
Each character will start off with 500 EXP to use at his/her discretion.
Characteristic advancements are bought by paying in EXP the modifier number on the chart for your role by the characteristic bonus for that characterisic (this is a # 50-150). For example. my strength is 38 for my warrior I would use 50 from the chart and times by 3 (3 for the strength bonus) giving me +5 stength for 150 EXP. Now each characteristic advancement is limited by the current overall rank of the character. So rank 1 characters can do 1 advancement, and rank 2 can do 2 per characteristic.
Skill advancements are done similar to characteristics by using the number for the skill you wish to advance on your role chart (this is a # 100-200). However you multiply it by the rank you are currently in. For example. I want to increase the deceive skill on my warrior to rank 2, I would take the 200 from the chart and times by 1( my current rank) for a total of 200. No skill can be increased higher than rank 5.
This format removes the need for pages upon pages of charts for skill increase costs. Great job FFG!
To get extra gear as part of starting out you get to use your new characteristic of influence for the first time by taking the influence bonus of your character to pick out highly available items (items with an availability of -10 or higher... 0, +10, +20. This comes into play when using normal requisitioning). so if your influence was 38 you could pick out 3 items extra to start off with.
Stage 5: Give the Character Life
This is the picking out the details section. You can make this as detailed as you want to go with you character, but these are highlights of what you need.
Name is what you need. Something like Smokin Aces
Divination: this is like your destiny. There are all kinds of weird things here that play with how your character develops under certain curcumstances or adds to your characteristics and takes awy from others.
Nature: This is where you answer all those deep dark question about why you are doing what you do. Just to flesh out your persona some.
The last thing here is that it starts to delve into elite advances and how to gain them and how they work. They each have an unique talent tree to use in addition to some specail abilities. There are three elite advances
Inquisitor
Psyker
Untouchable
There are prerequisites for becoming each of these. The Psyker and Untouchable prerequisites are low enough that a starting character can become one, but the book explains that because of rarity not everyone in the group should be one :)
Part 2 of 5
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