Am I the only one that thinks this is a good way of doing a DH 2.0 without invalidating all the old books? If the character advancement in Only War is like black crusade maybe we can get rid of the broken career rank system and apply the rules easily to our dark heresy setting without having to throw out all our DH supplements.

As long as they keep Dark Heresy in mind when they construct the rules, so its possible to steal the system to a home made DH 2.0, I am happy.

It has "Specialities" so I don't think it will be anywhere near as free as Black Crusade. I expect something more like Deathwatch, but possibly a bit more freedom. I also think so much freedom is much less justifiable within the Imperium than it is without.

How was the old career rank system broken? A bit wonky in some places, yes, but I wouldn't call it broken.

I really like the career tree system from DH. It's one of the unique things about DH that I'd always keep (I think the A-to-B-to-C-to-D-to... RT method is kinda stale).

BYE

 @borithan

The trouble was that with so many skills and talents, there were always some that sound like they should be logically available to the character, but aren't. Starting with Marksmen that don't get Marksman.

Which is what I mean by them being a bit wonky in some places. I don't think it means it is broken.

H.B.M.C. said:

@ H.B.M.C. :

I really hope that's a tease as to how OW will be structured since I know you were involved in the project. I do respectfully disagree about RT though. I think RT's advancement scheme is entirely appropriate for the type of characters relatively narrow environment (They are all Officers and command crew on a Voidship.). Since DH's characters focus on a broader swath of imperial society the advancement tree scheme is more appropriate. Characters may all start in roughly the same place but their choices and experiences in life could lead to vastly different outcomes. I'm thinking the "tree" scheme would be more appropriate to guardsmen since they were all recruits ('Conscripts' was the term in DH) at some point.

Hi there,

It's not a tease of anything, just how I feel about RT's character progression system. Granted, RT is the game I am the least familiar with, so my opinion could change with experience. Coming from Dark Heresy, with its tree system that I like quite a lot, I felt the RT system was too limiting. Then Ascension had the same system, and I wasn't too happy about all choice being removed in future products. Thankfully that wasn't the case, as each game since then has had a new style of doing character creation/progression, with DW's multiple tables, and with BC's completely open tiered advance system. I really like the idea of each game doing things differently, so I can put up with (so to speak) the A-to-B-to-C-to-etc. Rogue Trader method, because it's really the only game that has that so far. Finally, character creation/progression were not the sections of the book I worked on, so I can't speak for what's happening with those.

BYE

I had heard that for some reason FFG didn't like the caree tree method. Now, I can't vouch for that (purely a rumour) and I have no idea why (though with subsequent approaches I suspect they may have felt it limited characters too much to what was available in their particular branch), but that is what I heard.

I also found the Rogue Trader progression a bit flat, and I liked the approach for the Space Marine ones too.

Overall I have found the Black Crusade mechanics to be the most intuitive. (full auto and lightning attack are my primary examples) I hope that this brings together what I love about DH with updates to some of the odd clunky things that were present on the first outing. DH 2.0 it is time

I have mixed feelings about the BC method of advancing a character. I liked the way DH handled these despite its flaws. I like progressive slow advancements. With the BC system, you can just concentrate on obtaining a view powerful abilities that in DH would only be available for higher level characters. Fearless for example, it should not be available to any character who just happened to survive his first adventure. There need to be put limitations into the game that makes sure that the good stuff takes a lot of time to obtain.

C1d said:

I'm hoping for some analog of Black Crusade's version myself, freeform is the way to go, even if it is just your specialty represents the costs, get rid of 'ranks' and let things progress and you take skills as you want/need them.  Far more realistic and interesting that way.  Not to mention helpful in a game which might otherwise have some nasty combat casualties, let you tweak to be bad ass or general as you want.

If the career options are right, it might be able to play a DH game using OW rules with minimal house ruling.

If the base rules of OW keep all the good changes made in BC and introduce further improvements, house-ruling in certain career options, powers and items will be vastly preferable to playing DH.

borithan said:

BC has 'Specialties' too. Though they really only determine a starting ability and some gear and talents.

Realism isn't really a concern for someone designing a character progression system. Unless they are trying for realism.

I'm hoping for something more free form than DH, RT and DW as well.

I thought they were called "Archetypes" or something in Black Crusade?

I enjoy a multiple table progression path as well, however I think the thing many people are ignoring about Rogue trader is that it doesn't stick to just a single table path if you buy nigh any of the expansion books as they used the alternate career charts that allowed for the same type of progression. Now given, DH offers both and I do find the more options the better, but where RT falls a bit short on that it does expand on what the players can do (ie instead of being limited to working for someone else you work for yourself and set out for far vast adventures.)
That said I do hope OW does use the multiple chart progression as the somewhat more rigid mission structure needs that to make the players feel less rail-roady.

I really hope they don't go the BC route with this one. Freeform worked quite alright in BC, but what's good for Chaos isn't equally good for the true sons of the Emperor.

Some variation on DW's multi-table system would be nice, if they find a way to make specialties less bland and less artificially restricted.