Dark Heresy Settling In

As we continue with our Dark Heresy game we are starting to get the hang of the system and are running into a few things we aren’t thrilled with. The biggest is the whiff factor. Most characters test on their base stats, which range from 22 to 40 as a base. The average characteristic is around a 30, so a character will succeed in a roll straight up against that stat about one time in three. Not very good odds at all really and frustrating for the players who feel their characters are less than competent. The game makes up for this by modifying the roll with seven levels of difficulty, ranging from a +30 for an easy test to a -30 for a very hard test. This seems more complicated than it needs to be. As the game master I consistently fail to tell the players before the roll what difficulty level the task is as I am distracted by the storytelling. I am going to just add thirty to everyones stats as a given on rolls then only apply negative modifiers as needed. That way I don’t have to think about it unless I feel the roll is harder than normal and their success chance goes up by almost double for normal tests. This won’t help with the groups tendency to emulate the Holy Graffgar and roll all numbers in the 90s, but it would make my life simpler.

The only other rough spot in the game is with my rusty GM skills in general. The players are missing some very obvious clues such as hand written notes on desks the like and I am struggling with the balance of letting them make mistakes and my duties as a GM to point out the obvious to them. Hopefully I will sharpen up here and they will as well.

Overall the game is going well. The guys are bold and are rushing headlong into serious danger, but that is what keeps a game interesting. The 40k universe is a fun one to play in, this game has been needed for quite awhile and now that it is here it is no surprise it is doing well and getting people more drawn into the web of the Games Workshop hobby.