Inquisitor’s Handbook (Dark Heresy) RPG Review
By Flames | April 29, 2008
The Inquisitor’s Handbook is a hodge-podge of bits and pieces scattering all around the game system and the background. It’s a goody-bag of weapons, skills interpretations, new background options and new ‘fluff’ which may or many not suit a particular player group. To me it didn’t feel like it had quite the same character as a player’s guide for other systems - ones which generally limit themselves to player advice and increasing player options - but it felt like an expansion of the corebook material overall, for both players and Games Masters. I felt, reading through it, as though some of the content here should have been in the corebook and vice versa, particularly the background information and the Calixis sector particulars. It would have made more sense, to me, to have increased the player and character creation options in the main book and then had the Calixis specifics in a sourcebook, or collected in this volume with the specific data appropriate to it. The ‘imposition’ of the Calixis sector as the group’s playground is just another aspect of the ‘hemming in’ that has been a criticism of Dark Heresy.
Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough
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Fantasy Flight Games launches new website for the Dark Heresy RPG
By Matt-M-McElroy | April 7, 2008
Fantasy Flight Games has launched a new website for the Dark Heresy RPG.
Dark Heresy is a roleplaying game based upon the universe of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000. The setting of Warhammer 40,000 is a dark, gothic future where the Imperium of Man is beset by dangers within and without. In Dark Heresy players take on the roles of Acolytes of the Inquisition, aiming to uncover and combat the enemies of mankind, be they aliens, heretics or mutants!
Read Grim’s Dark Heresy Review here on Flames Rising for more information about the core book for the game.
The new Dark Heresy website offers News, Official Errata, Downloads, Forums and more. Including the updated information that tells us Purge the Unclean and Inquisitor’s Handbook are now available in Europe and both books are expected to be available in North America in late April/early May!
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Dark Heresy (Warhammer) RPG Review
By Flames | March 8, 2008
We’ve been waiting a really, really, really long time for a Warhammer 40,000 RPG. I remember buying Rogue Trader - and still have it somewhere in a folder, it having fallen apart with use - and the promise in that was of a full-on Warhammer 40,000 RPG arriving at some point in the near future. That was 1987, it is now 2008 and, finally we get our Warhammer 40,000 RPG. It has a lot to live up Dark Heresy, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay was pretty much a masterpiece and gave D&D a run for its money in UK popularity, the wargames have ensnared generations of kids in their clutches and the 2nd Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, despite being a supplement treadmill and despite getting zero support from Games Workshop, was a success as well. Then, just as Dark Heresy does come out, and sells out pretty much immediately, we learn that GW/Black Industries are dropping ALL their roleplay etc lines, triumph and tragedy in one fell swoop.
Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough
Topics: Roleplaying Game Reviews | 2 Comments »
Flames Rising Shopping Updates
By Flames | February 6, 2008
Lots of updates to the Flames Rising Amazon Store today. Horror & Dark Fantasy fiction, games, movies and more. Included in these updates is the option to pre-order:
Ventrue: Lords Over the Damned (Vampire the Requiem)
Battlestar Galactica (Season 3)
Small Favor (Dresden Files)
Purge the Unclean (Dark Heresy)
Over at FlamesRising.RPGNow.com you can check out a ton of new eBooks like Thousand Suns from Rogue Games and Daemornia RPG: 2nd Edition from Better Mousetrap Games.
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Black Industries Closing Shop
By Matt-M-McElroy | January 28, 2008
The stunning news this morning is the Black Industries Announcement.
Black Industries regret to announce that Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods out in September will be the final product to be released from Black Industries.
Needless to say, I’m a bit stunned by the news. Dark Heresy sold around 20K copies this past week and Purge the Unclean looks to be a strong seller as well.
Topics: Horror News | 1 Comment »
False Gods Review
By Flames | July 20, 2006
The fleet of the Warmaster’s 63rd Expeditionary Force have departed the shattered system of the interex en route to Davin at the behest of First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers Legion. Expecting to find a world left under control and compliance of the Imperium of Mankind, the newly christened Sons of Horus Legion instead finds treason. The occupational forces left behind by the Warmaster Horus himself have turned against the Emperor and the ideals of the Imperium’s Great Crusade, and Horus vows revenge against those he once trusted who have betrayed him.
Topics: Fiction Reviews | 1 Comment »
Horus Rising Fiction Review
By Flames | July 12, 2006
The fictional universe represented by Warhammer 40,000 is intricate and full of no small amount of intrigue. There are hundreds of factions at work and in motion, set against one another. Plans within plans, mechanizations and motivations that prop up the grim darkness of the war without end in the 41st Century of the Imperium of Mankind. Within the pages of the Horus Heresy, a trilogy-in-progress, what can be described as the single most important chain of events in the history of humanity are brought to light and out into the open in colored detail rather than objective narration from the Imperial point of view; the civil war that befell the Imperium after the spiritual corruption of the Warmaster Horus, mightiest of the Primarchs.
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Interview with artist and author Keith Senkowski
By Flames | February 4, 2005
How did you get into gaming?
Well my first experience was with a choose your own adventure type book which had a character sheet and everything. All I remember about it was that it had a crazy looking snake-man on the cover with a scimitar and a black cover.
Then in high school I met some guys and they introduced me to DnD. After that is snowballed into all sorts of games and I had found my new addiction.
What can you tell us about Conspiracy of Shadows?
Conspiracy of Shadows is my first published game. The idea behind it was the question, “What if the X-Files was set in a world based on medieval Eastern Europe?”
The system is my attempt at creating something that can accommodate both cinematic style play and the grit of realism. I think I succeeded pretty well. In many ways it is a descendent of the games Sorcerer and Conspiracy X, two of my favorite games.
How did CoS develop? Where is it headed?
Well the game started development years ago as a home-brew system I used from time to time with my friends. I had no real aspirations for publishing it until I ran across some small press published works of high quality. I saw them and said, I can do this too.
The game is head towards at least one more book, maybe two. I’m also planning on continuing to write issues of my free e-zine, Exposing the Shadows for at least a year. I’m not big on source books unless they offer something that will help facilitate game play. I could write reams and reams of pages on the setting, but that really is just self indulgent in my mind. I would rather see other folks write their own stuff with the system and or setting, sell it and make a few bucks. In fact I encourage folks to do that if they want. I only ask that I get a peek at it before hand and a comp copy.
What can you tell us about “Polian” the setting for Conspiracy of Shadows?
Polian is essentially my Eastern Europe analog. I looked at the parts of Eastern Europe that interested me the most, researched like crazy and then constructed a society tweaked towards my own aims. It is a land filled with turmoil, both of a cultural and religious nature. Then I smacked down upon a rough, distant past reminiscent of Robert E.
Howard’s Hyborian (sp?) Age.
What can we expect to see in future issues of Exposing the Shadows
Well, I’m a big fan of tool-kit design so most of what we will see is going to be more things of that nature. I try to write things that can easily be used to create your own stuff or that can be readily plugged into a game. For the immediate future I am writing an article on four separate Conspiracies, an article on streamlining the weapon’s and damage rules, one that fixes the flaws in the alternate magic rules and a complete adventure. After that I have no real plan and will most likely write based upon feedback from folks.
What can you tell us about your work on The Shadow of Yesterday?
Well, I was contacted by Clinton R. Nixon (the creator of TSOY) after he saw my artwork in CoS (got to love acronyms) and asked if I would be interested in doing some art for one of the chapters. I work pretty fast and turned around the pieces in a week so he asked me to do some more.
Since then there are plans in the works for me to illustrate his first supplement (Yesterday’s Herisies) for the game cover to cover. He also purchased an article I wrote on cults for it. I’m really excited about it as I have not done a cover before nor have I worked in color for years.
As an Artist, do you have a favorite medium? Why?
I pretty much stick to ink and watercolor paper with brushes. It is something I discovered a long time ago and it allows me to work in a style similar to that of my biggest influence, Frank Miller. However, lately I discovered digital inking as a viable alternative when I am under the deadline gun.
When working with color I usually combine the black and white style with watercolors because they contrast each other nicely. However I used to do a lot of work with acrylics and would like to try mixing acrylic color work with my stark contrast black and white work.
What makes for a good night of horror gaming?
Oh man this is a loaded question. Okay I will do my best to answer it in short form. After all I am writing an entire book around “how to play a Conspiracy of Shadows game” which can be used to run any sort of horror/conspiracy game. The first key is to have a group of people that have a good sense of each other’s desires for what they want from the game and are willing to get into the game’s atmosphere. Also the GM should have a good understanding of what makes good horror/suspense games (not books or movies, though there is overlap). Those are the two keys, for more you are going to have to buy my book when it is done later this year.
What do you feel are the biggest differences in working for a big publisher and being small press?
Never worked for a big publisher, just a bunch of little ones, so I really can’t say much about it. Being a “Do it Yourself” publisher is a lot of work, but very satisfying. Everything is done on a very personal level. I fucking love it.
What’s next for you?
Well, like I said I am planning on working on art for Yesterday’s Heresies and continue to write issue of Exposing the Shadows. Also I am doing some touch up work for the cover of the Mountain Witch and designing the logo for With Great Power… At this moment I am writing the Conspiracy of Shadows Game Guide, which covers how to create and run a horror/conspiracy game like Conspiracy of Shadows, filled with all sorts of useable tool kits. Finally I am in the planning stages of a modern day conspiracy game called Resist. It revolves around the conflict between perceived reality and actual reality. It is a mix of the movies Conspiracy Theory, Seven and Fight Club. I’m really excited about it as it will be my most ambitious project yet, both artistically and as a designer.
For more on Keith Senkowski’s art and Conspiracy of Shadows, visit the Bob Goat Press Website.
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