Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy — Inquisitorial acolytes hunting heresy

"There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt."

Diced100

Players3–6

Prep~60 min

Foundry VTTCommunity

Complexity

What is this system

The classic Warhammer 40,000 RPG: you are acolytes, expendable agents of an Inquisitor, rooting out cults, mutants and daemons in the Imperium's hive cities. First edition arrived in 2008 (Black Industries, then Fantasy Flight Games); FFG's second edition followed in 2014. A d100 roll-under engine with Degrees of Success and gory critical tables. The line is no longer in print, but Cubicle 7 still sells the PDFs. It is the direct ancestor of Imperium Maledictum: the same percentile core, but harsher and more focused — one cell, one investigation, one heresy. Unlike the dice-pool Wrath & Glory, you are not heroes here, you are cogs.

Setting

The 41st Millennium and its rotting Imperium. First edition is set in the Calixis Sector, second edition in the Askellon Sector, where even the Inquisition's grip is slipping. Hive cities where billions live in filth, heresy under every flagstone, psykers who make reality crack — and an Inquisition that is allowed anything.

What it looks like at the table

Your acolyte, an ex-Arbitrator with Ballistic Skill 38, opens fire on a fleeing cultist. A Standard Attack adds +10, so the target is 48. The d100 shows 23: a hit with three Degrees of Success. Reverse the digits — 32, the body. The lasgun's d10 damage die comes up 10: Righteous Fury, and the GM reaches for the energy critical table. The cultist drops, but the whole hab-block saw the firefight — the warband's Subtlety plummets, and the cell you are hunting now knows you are coming.

Playstyle

Mystery Combat Horror Space

Key mechanics

d100 roll-under

Roll percentile dice against Weapon Skill, Perception, Willpower and the rest. Every ten points of margin is another Degree of Success or Failure. Hit location comes from the reversed digits of the attack roll.

Investigations

A typical mission is procedural: crime scenes, interrogations, surveillance, then the firefight. Second edition also tracks the warband's Subtlety, so loud methods carry a price.

Gory criticals

Damage lands on a specific body part, and the critical tables are split by damage type — energy, explosive, impact, rending. Fate points save you, rarely for long.

Insanity & Corruption

Psykers risk Psychic Phenomena and Perils of the Warp, and everything you witness piles up as Insanity and Corruption points. Knowledge is poison.

What people say

I'm particularly fond of its horrific random tables, mostly used to determine exactly how mangled you are by the specific kind of weapon that just critically hit you.— Robin Valentine, PC Gamer

Art & materials