Dark Heresy RPG on SD.net?

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2008-02-07 05:22am

I'd sure like to play in a DH campaign, but meeting in a chat setting to play once a week is much preferable to PbP, where things move glacially and one missing player can delay everything indefinitely.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2008-02-07 05:41am

I'd be inclined to agree with DP. Dark Heresy's combat system is just too intricate to do well over forum posts, IMO.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2008-02-07 06:21am

Intricate? Nah, not really. Play by chat is possible, but in my experience I've found that if people are typing out posts in a chat setting can move really slow. If it was done by chat, there would have to be a voice chat component, to make the game more of a virtual tabletop. Players and GM do the action and the RP through the voice chat, while the virtual tabletop is used to handle combat positioning and rolls.

Play by post certainly can work though, and it would lend itself to varied timezones and writing styles much more easily.

KlavoHunter · Post by **KlavoHunter** » 2008-02-07 07:27am

I would gladly join in, especially if we used Ventrilo or something to facilitate this.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2008-02-07 07:40am

Hotfoot wrote:Play by post certainly can work though, and it would lend itself to varied timezones and writing styles much more easily.

Yeah, but wouldn't it take like a day just to do one combat encounter? If I want to move to a nearby pillar for cover and fire off a snap shot in one turn, I've then got to wait for all the other players and the GM to do their turn and get an update on who's still alive and where everyone is and then decide if I want to aim and shoot at Bad Guy A, or pull out my knife and slice Bad Guy B (or whatever). If everyone's in a different time zone, it could take forever.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2008-02-07 07:55am

Yes, combat can drag on a bit in play by post, but the chat room method has the logistical concerns that everyone has to be online at the same time anyway and have a block of a few hours where they can do things. Assuming everything moves at a good clip, it CAN move faster than play by post in a much more tabletop function.

However, there are distinct advantages to play by post as well. Plus, if everyone is online and posting at the same time, you can still get some serious movement there as well, while still allowing for people who can't partake in the other method.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2008-02-07 07:57am

Fair enough.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2008-02-07 08:08am

On that note, I'm willing to give GMing a shot. Rather than monolithically state one method or the other, I think it should be up for a vote. OpenRPG suits my needs for the tabletop end, but I think we'll have to finagle the chat aspect. Ventrilo or Teamspeak would be best, I think, but other options might work as well. Regardless of the method, we have to set it up and make sure it works.

Other than that, what I want first are not full-blown stat pages, but rather answers to the following questions, with regards to the characters you have in mind.

Tell me a story.

Tell me a truth.

Tell me your dreams.

Tell me your nightmares.

Tell me what you can do.

Tell me your failings.

Tell me what you will give.

Tell me what you want.

Tell me what you hate.

Tell me what you love.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2008-02-07 08:28am

For the record, I'm fairly indifferent to the medium we use, as I'm willing to give most anything a shot.

As for the character bit, I'd have a bit of difficulty with it. I very rarely develop much of a character beyond appearance and the most rudimentary aspects of personality when I first create him/her/it, and instead let the character speak for himself (so to speak) over time as the game/story develops. I do have a concept in mind, which I can give a very tentative stab at.

EDIT: redacted

EDIT 2: Disregard previous edit

Raj Ahten · Post by **Raj Ahten** » 2008-02-07 10:39am

So far it looks like there are 13 people interested in playing

However, only Brother Captain Gaius has volunteered for a GM slot. I'd be willing to Gm, I've got the time, and I have certainly GMed plenty of games before. My concerns are that I have never GMed online before, and I probably know less about 40k than many of the players would. (Dark Heresy is the first 40k book I've bought; I mostly know about 40k from the threads and fanfics on the board.)

Edit: One way that might be easier to play would be to have two GM's running two seperate games. 5-6 players is a lot more manageable than 12+

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2008-02-07 11:05am

Raj Ahten wrote:So far it looks like there are 13 people interested in playing However, only Brother Captain Gaius has volunteered for a GM slot.

Hotfoot wrote:On that note, I'm willing to give GMing a shot.

At this point, I wouldn't worry about the number of players. If SDN is anything like most online settings, the number of people who actually participate in some event ranges from 1/3 to 1/2 of the people who declare interest in it.

At this point, it looks like Hotfoot has a good idea of what he wants to run and how he wants to run it, while Gaius and Raj are significantly more tentative, so I think we should go with Hotfoot for GM unless we have too many actual players for one GM to handle.

Hotfoot: do you want PMs or posts?

Raj Ahten · Post by **Raj Ahten** » 2008-02-07 12:00pm

Hotfoot wrote:On that note, I'm willing to give GMing a shot.

That's what I get for posting before I drink my coffee.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2008-02-07 12:51pm

I'm in and willing to GM, although Hotfoot looks like he's ready to grab the bull by the horns.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2008-02-07 02:38pm

I thought I would address some of Stark's concerns about Dark Heresy, so here it goes.

The game style has closer to Call of Cthulhu than rar! smash! 40K. Characters are mortals, skilled and talented mortals, but all too human and frail in mind, body, and soul. They may be called upon to deal with terrible foes because those foes must be dealt with and they are the best suited men and women available, even if they are horribly outmatched.

The Critical Hits mentioned are the most extreme ones possible, massive overkill results from explosive and energy beam weapons. Less extreme, but gruesome and potentially fatal results are more common. The damage system works something like this (for clarity sake):

1) reverse the to-hit number roll to find the location hit.

2) roll damage. Subtract the penetration score of the weapon from location's armour. Subtract Toughness bonus and remaining armour from damage result.

3) Target takes a number of wounds equal to the damage roll. If the target goes into negatives, it suffers a critical hit of the appropriate type (rending, energy, impact, or explosive) at that location. Critical hit value is equal to the negative wounds score.

The example criticals were ten point criticals, the worst of the worst.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2008-02-07 03:35pm

You know, PMs would be better than posts, so yeah, toss me a PM.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2008-02-07 03:36pm

IO, I'm fairly sure that Starl knows that sort of stuff about Dark Heresy. He knows about the nature of the game; he was more concerned with how people on SDN would play, and is not particularly interested in complete slapstick silliness.

Incidentally, I was hoping you'd GM, but Hotfoot's got some moves himself.

R.O.A · Post by **R.O.A** » 2008-02-07 03:46pm

I am interested in taking part in the RPG, but I do not know how it will work. For instance what will we use for dice rolls? What is to stop people from telling lies about what numbers they roll?

Or, maybe we could setup DH as kind of a STGOD type but where we only control one character. It could be easier to play that way, but then it wouldent truly by DH but rather a 40k roleplay.

But at any rate, its something I would like to play

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2008-02-07 03:52pm

R.O.A wrote:I am interested in taking part in the RPG, but I do not know how it will work. For instance what will we use for dice rolls? What is to stop people from telling lies about what numbers they roll?

The GM tends to handle all rolling, where rolling is appropriate.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2008-02-07 04:29pm

Ford Prefect wrote:
R.O.A wrote:I am interested in taking part in the RPG, but I do not know how it will work. For instance what will we use for dice rolls? What is to stop people from telling lies about what numbers they roll?
The GM tends to handle all rolling, where rolling is appropriate.

That is correct. If the game is done on the forum, I will simply use a spreadsheet with everyone's stats and a set of analog dice to get the results.

By the way, if this does go to virtual tabletop, I'll need availability times.

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2008-02-07 04:53pm

PM sent. I'm available all day Sunday - that's best. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, I'm busy most of the day and evening. Saturday I'm busy after six o'clock EST. Monday and Wendesday evening would be OK.

Raj Ahten · Post by **Raj Ahten** » 2008-02-07 05:25pm

I'm very flexible right now, and available pretty most all evenings EST. I'll send hotfoot a character idea via PM. Also, just how are we doing character gen?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2008-02-07 05:33pm

As far as character creation, I think I'll mod the system to a point-buy deal, or let people throw themselves upon my dice. Or something. We can work out the details.

P.S. I'm on AIM like, ALL the time. Seriously.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2008-02-07 05:36pm

I live in a completely different timezone to everyone here but Stark, I believe - GMT+10. This might be a sevre limitation in terms of availability, should it be done 'real time' as it were.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-02-07 07:14pm

Ford Prefect wrote:IO, I'm fairly sure that Starl knows that sort of stuff about Dark Heresy. He knows about the nature of the game; he was more concerned with how people on SDN would play, and is not particularly interested in complete slapstick silliness.

Jesus christ thank fuck someone on this forum can fucking read.

Doesn't AIM have a die roller function? Aside from the requriement for everyone to 'play' at the same time, AIM would seem to be the most efficient idea (assuming player discipline anyway). PBM would lend itself towards a more storytelling approach, which I personally would find more attractive.

Civil War Man · Post by **Civil War Man** » 2008-02-07 07:59pm

I might be interested in playing. I've been looking in a game to participate in, particularly since I graduated college and my gaming opportunities have primarily been cut to a Demon: The Fallen game I run. Dark Heresy isn't my first choice of system I want to try out (right now, that belongs to Spirit of the Century), but I'm not adverse to giving it a shot.

The only things that may prevent me from playing are my lack of 40k knowledge and my often borderline psychotic work schedule.