Hi, fellow Akolythes and GMs.

I'm wondering, if there is any information about the plans FFG has with DH. The last supplement we had was "The Lathe Worlds". Is there any news about the next DH publications I missed?

They haven't announced any upcoming books, so we don't know. I'd like to see an overhaul of the rules in a DH 2. It'd be great if it was in GURPS, but another if a DH 2 would happen, it would probably use the skills and talent system from Only War. Not too shabby either.

Keep in mind that people were saying "The line is dead!" before Lathe Worlds was announced, after Lathe Worlds was announced and after Lathe Worlds came out, so FFG could announced 10 new DH books tomorrow and someone would still say "The line is dead!".

I think it's safe to say that they have plans. I very much doubt they'd abandon it and walk away without even mentioning it. When Tanhauser came to an end they did mention that the expansion they were previewing would be the last one "for a while". I'd expect similar treatment for any of their other long-standing lines, whatever area it may be from.

BYE

Well, the line isn't dead for sure, but we can't really say it's alive and kicking as well…

If I remember correctly, 2012 has seen one release (maybe another adventure too? Can't remember for sure) which can suggest certain things and it's no wonder that people were (and are) speculating if the line has been abandoned. 

What I suspect the case is that FFG has five W40K RPGs to tend to and their writers might as well write for the Star Wars RPG too. Dark Heresy is the oldest brother and does suffer because of that - I mean I don't see Rogue Trader, Deathwatch or BC supplements slowing down. Which is bad (from my personal point of view :) ) because I still like DH, kinda like RT but couldn't care less for the other lines, including Only War.

Of course FFG will put resources where the money is and that's understandable. :D I'm just a little sad to see DH getting less and less attention.

Once OW has been battle-tested some more, I would be all over a 2e that brought DH into line with the most recent rules developments.

But please no classless affinity selection, I hate those. It just removes some of the excitement of reaching the next rank and now you can perform this awesome new talent, or know a new skill, with BC, it felt like I was powergaming trying to get the best talents and well, anyone could get anything. I liked how some careers never got some stuff or got it later on. It made the careers different and it was nice looking over a new rank table and seeing what you wanted, how to spend your XP.

Cymbel said:

On the other hand, a classless system does give more flexiblity. In Dark Heresy there's just a few skills that a given class can't get regardless of circumstances without GM intervention (as elite advances).

Okay, a classless refined elite advance system would be great, but still let careers have their tables

Maybe I'm just an Old School geezer, but I like having classes/careers!

Probably a side-effect of being introduced to rpgs with AD&D…

Careers and career paths are part of DH as much as multi-table advance schemes are part of Deathwatch. Each game does advances a little differently, and I'd rather than unique aspect of each game remain rather than everything becoming class-less archetypes.

BYE

Adeptus-B said:

Some multiclassing would be nice though:)

That is what Alt Ranks and Elite Advances are for

Cymbel said:

Alternate ranks and elite advances give you access to some new character concepts the people who wrote them considered cool.

A true multiclasing system (like 3.5 D&D) gives you access to any concept you(the player) consider cool.

I think the current ruleset of Dark Heresy is pretty solid , but there's just a few concent you simply can't do. For example, take a regular guardsman who one day discovers he has psychic powers and decides he wants to develop this aspect further. If this happens in the character's background, no problem: take the Psyker class, buy some appropriate weapon trainings and you're golden.  Doing that in game(starting off as a guardsman who discovers his psychic powers) on the other hand is much harder. You could get the Nascent Psyker elite advance, but that only gives you 1 power and you can't improve on it, or you could take Warp Dabbler, but that's Chaos Sorcery mainly.

I would like to see more stand-alone-adventures, especially for low- and mid-level Akolythes. Empire-shaking intrigues and plots so save whole sectors are not my style, to be honest. I prefer the dirty basic Inquistion work: the chaos cult around the next corner of the macropole; the nice little xeno infiltration of a trading company or a planetary government; the casual demon, ready to devour a few more of his heathen followers; the two-faced rival Inquistor playing strange games…

Normally I prefer non-class systems but I think that the class system in DH works very well and wouldn't want to change it. But then again I probably wouldn't cry if some of the rules were tightened up a bit.

Laoin said:

I'd like to see more one-shot adventures, too. I don't dislike big, epic missions, but the can be difficult to insert into an ongoing campaign. Good, short missions, on the other hand, can be very useful, dropped in as needed to moderate the pacing of the campaign or to 'stall for time' as the GM developes a larger story arc.

As long as we are presenting our 'wish lists', I'll repeat two things I've asked for in other threads: an Ordo Xenos sourcebook, and either a big Calixis Sector sourcebook or multiple, smaller Subsector sourcebooks.