Dark Heresy RPG to Skirmish Notes

 Somebody asked about my method for adapting the Dark Heresy adventures to the tabletop skirmish format. It's mix of "stand-up" role-playing and writing some tables to create some random elements for each encounter. 

I took a couple of pictures of my notebook pages to show my work on this. A picture is literally worth several hundred words in this case! 

This page shows my notes from the end of Carnival of Blood. Since we got our butts kicked at the end and had to run away, I had to come up with a workaround to get us to the final chapter, the 13th Hour. 

In the 13th Hour, I wanted us to do some role-play prior to the action, so I made up this table and Stu and I each talked to three of the characters. Based on some rules in TFA, we used our stats to interact with them and gain info. If we succeeded, we earned bonuses to our attacks on the Widower. 

I hope this provides some insight into my somewhat seat-of-my-pants process of adapting this amazing material to the tabletop. I should also add that Alan Bligh's work on these adventures is amazing. It is so sad that he passed too soon. But his work lives on. 

Thanks! 

--Scott

Concluding Tattered Fates Part 2

 After taking out Gang Boss Papa Grist, we earned our invitation to the Revel at Gabriel Chase. 

After arriving and  gathering some helpful clues with some social interaction rolls (and rules, see below!),  we faced the twin horrors of the Widower and the Beloved, a vile Chaos sorcerer. 

It was really a three way battle, as the Beloved wanted to be the one to take out the Widower so he could collect his essence and enslave him. The Widower just wanted to slay any living being it came across! Stu and I were hoping more hapless party-goers would wander into the Widower's path, but after he slew the first one, the others just seemed to randomly avoid him! 

It was left to us to face him. We had gathered enough info to learn that opening the fabled  Steel Clock and securing its Keystone would allow us to truly destroy the Widower for good. So we tasked Hanse Grebs and Septimus Dexter with making the Intellect checks to accomplish this extended task. Unfortunately, after just one attempt, Hanse Grebs was charged and slain by the Widower. 

Meanwhile, Stu's Vostroyan IG conscripts were harrying the Widower with withering fire form their long-las sniper. My servitor, Ergo-VI also added to the fire on the vile sorcerer. Eventually we took him out! Big relief there. 

Then we fought a desperate delaying melee against the Widower, and Dexter successfully opened the clock and destroyed the Keystone! The decadent city of Xicarph, and the whole world of Qaddis, were saved! 

Lady Melua and a Vostroyan battle the Widower; Hanse has already fallen!

Dexter works feverishly to open the Steel Clock. I was pretty happy with my quickly knocked together Steel Clock terrain piece!

Behind the clock, Ergo-VI and the Vostroyan Sergeant have finished off the Beloved and are moving around to engage the Widower just as Dexter destroys the Keystone! 

In all, my theory about adapting the Dark Heresy modules to my Techno-Fantasy Adventure* rules worked splendidly!

More to come! 

--Scott

* I have changed the title from Techno-Fantasy Skirmish to Techno-Fantasy Adventure because I have added enough RPG elements for folks to run the game as a simple RPG. So now it's keyword skirmish, co-op, PvP, and RPG! 

Concluding Tattered Fates

 Yesterday, Stu and I finished the first installment of the old Dark Heresy adventure series, Haarlock's Legacy.  Entitled Tattered Fates, we adapted this RPG adventure into a skirmish RPG format using my Techno-Fantasy Skirmish rules currently under development. Unlike the middle chapter that we played last week, we gave a good accounting of ourselves this time around, and we managed to save the decadent city-state of Xicarph, and the whole planet of Qaddis! 

The rules themselves are really rounding into form. There are things you just can't know unless you play them out on the tabletop, and we rounded off a few more rough corners yesterday. Check out some snapshots of the action! 

Our setup of battle number one. It was a rundown part of the city of Xicarph. The Spider Bride, our sometime ally, fed our target, Papa Grist, bad info. That gave us a chance to ambush him. 

This shows the TFS initiative system in action. The chits, or tokens, cut down the side-table management as you can place them right on the figures. It's great for solo and co-op play because randomly assigning turn order each round means you don't know who is going next!  

That's my scratch-built gun-servitor, Ergo-VI, next to my Adept, Septimus Dexrter. 

Papa Grist's bodyguard, Crackmarrow, really gave us a hard time last session, but this time we softened him up with ranged fire before he got to us. 

We got lucky and rolled the Xerxes result on the Strange Happenings table. This wandering Chaos warrior ended up fighting for us this game. His random placement put him right in the path of Papa Grist! 

Here we are finishing off Crackmarrow! Not pictured, but we also whacked Grist's other major bodyguard, the deadly psyker named Bliss. 

We couldn't let Xerxes have all of the fun! We piled in and finished off Grist in style!

At this point we earned our invitation to the revel that would put us face-to-face with the true horror behind the trouble in Xicarph. I will cover that climactic battle in the next post, but I want to conclude here by expressing my excitement for this current project. I am really satisfied about how these rules are coming together! 

More to come! 

Prepping The Game

 We've got a big game planned Saturday. It's the second installment of our Dark Heresy-inspired skirmish RPG campaign, and we're playing through Tattered Fates. 

As I adapt the module over to my own Techno-Fantasy Skirmish rules, I realized I needed some specialized models for one potential scene. I needed character models for the Spider Bride and her coterie of female assassins. I decided to hit my FLGS because I knew they had a decent selection of old Heroclix models. These would be ideal for re-basing and repainting. I bought six figures $3.00 USD. Amazing! 

Here they are! 

While the book describes the women as dressing in gauzy gowns, beggars can't be choosers! And I prefer the more martial appearance of this crew. The larger model was a female bride of Thanos from the Marvel 'Clix line. 

So they're done! Now I'll finish with something funny that's followed me throughout my hobbying life. Here's my "main" character for the campaign, my Magus, Nalan Sicarius:

I spent a decent amount of time painting him up, and the amount of time I lavish on a character generally has an inverse relationship with how long they live! And true to form, Sicarius "died" at the end of our second scene / battle last session. As I think I mentioned a few posts ago, Stu's main character saved him by rolling the "Resurrection Chamber" event. 

We'll see what happens this Saturday when we continue the adventure. 

More to come! 

--Scott

Dark Heresy Lives Again! Well, sort of...

 

My buddy and I decided to play through Haarlock’s Legacy, a Dark Heresy three book adventure published 13 years ago. We’re playing it as a co-op skirmish RPG, and using Techno Fantasy Skirmish, some rules of my devising.

Yesterday, we kicked things off with the Red Cages, the first chapter in Tattered Fates. This is the first book in the three issue arc that is Haarlock’s Legacy.

The first encounter was very spare in terms of setting. We started off awakening from being drugged and thrown into a pit and blood sport arena with some other unfortunates. Then, while a mysterious masked marauder watched from above, deadly beasts entered from opening gates.

We were set upon, and while some of the non-combat NPCs attracted the beasts’ attention at first, we ended up having to fight hard. This impressed our mysterious voyeur, and they eventually dropped a ladder for us to escape the pit.

Barbarella, my feral world female barbarian, barely escaped with her life. Our other characters all survived with minor injuries and we moved on to the next encounter.

We found the mysterious Vault 13, where we recovered our stolen gear and weapons, and found the half-dead Inquisitor Karkalla, who bade us to continue his mission and avenge him. After setting a fire as a distraction, we battled our way to the elevator that would raise us out of the hell of the Red Cages. My Magus, Nalan Sicarius was brutally cut down by the blunderbuss fire of one of the beast slavers.

While he “died” in post-battle, my buddy Stu’s character, Roddick, rolled the Ressurection Chamber event, and Nalan was able to cheat death at the cost of 1 point of Charisma.

Next week, we hope to get in the next chapter, The Carnival of Blood.