Hi guys, I’ve got another post for you today. This one’s all about a game line that is near and dear to my heart:

Dark Heresy

I took over this game line in 2008 after five products had already been released for it through Black Industries. The core book was created by Kate Flack, Owen Barnes, and Mike Mason, with help from Alan Bligh and John French (not to mention some Dan Abnett!).

After the core rulebook, Black Industries produced a free RPG day adventure (Shattered Hopes), a character folio (this is the only item from this era that was never, ever reprinted by FFG), a game master’s kit (containing a screen and an adventure), a collection of adventures (Purge the Unclean), and a player’s sourcebook (The Inquisitor’s Handbook).

Black Industries had set the scene, so when I came into the picture I saw myself as a caretaker of something awesome.

When I joined FFG in June of 2008, I was made the Lead Developer of Dark Heresy. This was a big deal, as there were plans to follow Black Industries original goal of producing three game lines: Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch. Few people get hired by FFG and put in charge of something so big.

At the time I started, we had some unpublished material: there was an adventure, Edge of Darkness, that was already done but not up to the current production values, and another sourcebook, Disciples of the Dark Gods. Disciples was written, but not edited, so I turned over the editing to Sam Stewart while I learned how to do layout. I started my development work on Disciples by moving some of the monsters into Creatures Anathema, the next book (and the first I would complete as Lead Developer).

As Lead Developer, I guided the production of three sourcebooks and three adventures. The sourcebooks I was in charge of were Creatures Anathema, The Radical’s Handbook, and Ascension. I’m particularly proud of Creatures Anathema and Ascension — the first was my first book I ever took charge of 100%, and the second was my first book where I innovated and iterated on an existing system to build something fun and new. The three adventures I helmed were the Haarlock’s Legacy Trilogy.

I had done some early development work on Blood of Martyrs, Daemon Hunter, The Book of Judgment, and the Lathe Worlds, but all of those books (as well as the Apostasy Gambit line of adventures) were turned over to Mack Martin so that I could focus my attention on Rogue Trader.

My goals for Dark Heresy were simple. I wanted to expand the options for characters, build on the fantastic foundation of the setting (The Calixis Sector), produce timely errata, and support each major release with a free pdf.

For the most part, I succeeded, and I think I laid down a strong legacy for Mack to build on. Mack took the line to the end (the Lathe Worlds), and I thank him for picking up the ball.

My favorite books: Creatures Anathema and Ascension

Why? I enjoyed working on these books more than the others. We made some fantastic content for the game that added significant elements to the enjoyment of the game for our players.

My least favorite books: The Haarlock’s Legacy Trilogy and The Radical’s Handbook

Why? I feel like I could have done better on the Radical’s Handbook. Rogue Trader was distracting me big time during this period, and I had a bunch of new freelancers to wrangle. I think, looking back, I feel like this book didn’t live up to its potential. The Haarlock’s legacy trilogy would have been better as a single book of three adventures, with more room for John French and Alan Bligh to tell their epic tale. As it was, word from on high was to chop it up into three bite-size chunks. In the end, we released it as a single thing anyway, so… yeah.

Missed opportunities:

Dark Heresy is now gone, replaced by the 2nd edition. The setting shifted to a completely new area of the galaxy, so we lost a lot of material we’d built. If I had a chance to wrap up Dark Heresy 1st edition properly (i.e., I had still been in charge and had, say, six months or so to do something about it), I’d have loved to look at the line and see if we could wrap up some loose ends.

• I would have loved to do a hive book on Scum and Assassins!
• We should have done a book for the other two Ordos of the Inquisition. (More likely one book than two).
• There were some story elements I’d have loved to revisit: the homeworld of the Storm Wardens, the living planet of Woe, the ongoing corruption of certain worlds, the craziness of the Lathe Worlds, etc.
• One idea that I was considering was for the war in the Spinward Front (and the lie about the Crusade!) to have eventually touched off a wave of unrest, anarchy, and rebellion throughout much of the sector.

This post, and especially the “missed opportunities,” was inspired by this fantastic review of the line over at RPGGeek.