Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay

Dark Heresy

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay
Cover of Dark Heresy, the first book of the series
Designer(s)	Owen Barnes, Kate Flack, Mike Mason
Publisher(s)	Black Industries / Fantasy Flight Games
Publication date	25 January 2008
Genre(s)	Gothic science fantasy

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay is a role-playing game system with multiple source books set within the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The first game using the system, Dark Heresy, was created by Black Industries, which closed soon after the initial release. Official support was recently discontinued by Fantasy Flight Games.

The Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay system is explained and used with small differences in a series of independently playable games. Each has a different, narrow focus and multiple supporting books of its own:

In Dark Heresy, the players assume the roles of Acolytes working for an Inquisitor, who sends them on various missions. Depending on the type of mission, gameplay can involve investigation, combat, intrigue, or other genres. The Game Master is able to tailor his campaign to suit his player group through this flexibility. Since the players work for an Inquisitor, most missions involve rooting out heresies or matters relating to them. The game allows for many other missions, including wiping out dangerous gangs, gathering evidence of corruption, dealing with alien threats or eliminating rogue psykers.

In Rogue Trader, players take the role of a Rogue Trader and his or her crew as they operate outside the stellar and legal boundaries of the Imperium. The book provides, among other things, rules for interplanetary commerce and spaceship operation, travel, combat, and customization.

In Deathwatch, players take the role of surgically modified super humans known as Space Marines. These individuals are recruited from their native Chapters (fighting units of approximately 1,000 men) to serve as a military arm of the Inquisition, against particularly dangerous heretics and alien lifeforms.

In Black Crusade, players take the role of Chaos-corrupted characters. Black Crusade, essentially, is the corrupted version of previously mentioned Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying games. Characters are cast in the role of the villain, with the players actively working against the human empire and for the forces of Chaos in the sector.

In Only War, each player takes the role of an Imperial Guardsman, one of the billions of hardened conscripts constantly fighting on myriad fronts at the whim of the Earth-based government of the Imperium (Adeptus Terra).