Customer Reviews
Great as a Sourcebook, very poor as an RPG - By: Emmet Boylan, 13 May 2008 
Before we sat down to play this, I would have rated it at a full 5 stars. It is big, looks fantastic & is full of great detail & atmosphere; the Misericord & the Tyrant Star being particular high points. If you have any interest in the 40K universe you will enjoy this read. If you intend to run a game using this as source material in a different game engine, you will enjoy this read.
Actuallly play the game as written & the cracks begin to show. It is based of WHFRP, if that means anything to you, except it is split into 8 classes with their own advancement paths which extend farther than the career steps in WHFRP so you start lower & can get higher, through smalller step if you get what I mean. The problem is you start off poorly skilled & the difficulty mods are too smalll for the size of the d%. For example, let's say you come up with a clever plan, & the GM awards you by making a task to difficulty levels easier, you have average skill scores & minimum skill points devoted to a skill. In Gurps you will be rolling under 16 on 3d6, with the bell curve that is almost certain success, in d20 with even a single skill rank you need a 4 on a d20, in Dark Heresy you are at 61%. Without a bell curve a d% means you will fail at easy tasks too often & it quickly become frustrating; begins to feel like what you do has far less effect than the dice roll. The party begins to "spam" checks as the rest of the party tries after the specialist has failed. The face man hacks the computer security the tech-priest couldn't, the cybernetic freak earns trust the priest or con-man fails to earn. The entire party misses the limping mutant at point blank range on full auto (bonuses max out at +30%, penalties also max at -30, so when you are firing at long range, in total darkness, go for a headshot).
When your character cannot do what he was built to do & others fluke it anyway you begin to loose immersion & suspension of disbelief. The tech-priest who cannot be relied upon to be a tech priest is what? When 3/4 of the party falll & hurt themselves for running in a dark allley with damp rubbish (one of whom is nearly killed by a rat) it is very hard to believe the characters were chosen by the inquisition as useful tools. Worst of alll a table of rabid 40K fans gave up, not because it was challlenging, but because we were bored to tears.
Calll of Cthulhu has a worse system granted, but only because it doesn't have difficulty mods. Calll of Cthulhu is more fun however as your expert can have 70% or 80% in his skill of choice & will only last as long as the first monster or book reading anyway. In Dark Heresy you are meant to keep your characters for a while.
If you are not a roleplayer, the above won't mean much & let me reassure you, as a book, it rocks, full 5 stars. The presentation & substance are top notch. As a game system it barely rates a 1. It could work as a game but you will have to bend over backwards & house rule to make it work. As it is sold as an RPG, I split the difference at 3 stars.
Black Shame - By: Flyingwizard, 15 Apr 2008 
Like alll recent Black Industries books this is a great full-colour tome oozing with darkness. It is better edited than some of the earlier works & fatter too. This game (if you are an old hand like me) has been promised since the late 1980s & what a glourius arrival. The only problem is Black Industries had already dumped the line, selling the rights to Fantasy Flight games (not Mongoose as a reviewer below said). I know Game Workshop IS Black Industries so its a shame that a company can't be bothered to develop its own great product.
Fantastic if you can get your hands on a copy - By: B F Pierce, 18 Mar 2008 
I struggled to get my grubby mits on a copy of the core rulebook once it had been out for a few weeks. And once I managed to get one, I realized why - this rulebook is fantastic. The presentation is incredible, the rules are great. They work on a percentile system - for example, taking a shot at an enemy? Roll under your Balllistic skill (out of 100) on 2 ten sided dice to get a number from 1 - 100, the lower the roll, the better you've done. I think this is much more intuitive than a D20 system. The background is also excellently presented.
Well worth the cost, & if you enjoy your roleplaying I highly recommend getting a copy. I'm only a casual roleplayer, but I'm glad I tracked down a copy.
For those who are unsure about the future - I've been told that Black Industries have sold or licensed the intellectual property to another company (I think Mongoose Games), meaning that future games will still be produced, just under another publisher. Two games in the works involve Chaos cultists, & a rulebook dealing with Dark Heresy characters that are developed enough to be taken as an Inquisitor's Interrogator - & work their way up. Sounds awesome
Worth the money - By: Jomi, 10 Mar 2008 Not being a roleplayer I can't reallly judge how successful this book is as a reolplaying source book. I bought this product simply as background reading. Viewed in this way it could be better, there isn't reallly a massive amount of fluff in this book. The illustrations are nice, & it is a hefty hard-bound tome, but I would have liked more stories & the like. Some nice skills for anyone that plays the Inquisitor 54mm miniature game though, & good ideas for characters too. Definately worth the price in my opinion.
Dark Heresy - By: Gavin Butler, 14 Feb 2008 If you are generallly interested in the Warhammer 40,000 world then Dark Heresy (published by Black Industries - part of Games Workshop) will provide you with excellent background material & ideas to develop in your own games. If you like the work of Dan Abnett, Ben Counter, Green Ronin or Rick Preistley, then Dark Heresy certainly comes with a good pedigree.
If you are interested in role-playing games per se, then Dark Heresy uses the same style of character generation & game dynamics as the Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play system, which since its first edition made role-playing more realistic & enjoyable. The system is based on percentages, so you'll need a number of 10 sided dice (d10s) to generate characters & play out interactions with non-player characters throughout the scenarios you design (or purchase when they are published).
In Dark Heresy, players can choose from eight main career paths (Adept, Arbitrator, Assassin, Cleric, Guardsman, Imperial Psyker, Scum & Tech Priest), with each career path alllowing characters to develop a range of skills (e.g. drive hover vehicles, interrogation, tracking) & talents (e.g. pistol training, disarm, deadeye shot). Each character becomes part of a team of Acolytes working for an Inquisitor & over time will accrue experience points to progress up through the ranks to eventuallly be recommended for a higher role within the Imperium.
In a positive way, role-playing games enhance personal team-building abilities, initiative, decision making, analysis/problem solving, leadership, strategy & planning & communication skills. As long as you don't alllow them to become an addiction, they can alllow you to escape (for a while) from the drudgery of everyday life. Remember it is fiction - not real life! If you are looking for a new set of challlenges, then Dark Heresy may be an option for you.
For parents, be aware that Dark Heresy does deal with `mature themes & concepts' (e.g. deamons, insanity, corruption, despair & death) & so some caution must be observed if being purchased for the younger generation. Perhaps, push them towards the table-top battle systems first?
