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The Inquisitor’s Handbook was the first splatbook released for Dark Heresy. It was also the last book published by Black Industries before they closed up shop. The resulting book is one that is full of welcome additions to Dark Heresy, as well as many things that the game would probably be better off without. I’ll be taking the errata into consideration for this review.

The first thing introduced in the Inquisitor’s Handbook are four new homeworld types: Forge World, Noble-born, Mind-cleansed, and the Schola Progenium. Forge world characters are from the domain of the Adeptus Mechanicus; they gain an intelligence bonus and treat Tech-Use as a basic skill.  The other three options are better described as origins rather than as homeworlds.  Nobles are made of money, connections and charisma,  Schola characters are the orphans of the Imperium and the Mind Cleansed are people who may have learned too much but are too valuable to simply kill off.

Let’s look a bit more at the Mind Cleansed (mostly because this is the only origin that I have a slight problem with).  They start the game with the Jaded talent (immunity to non-supernatural terrors) in addition to a +10 Willpower bonus to resist Fear and Possession.  Note that this will stack with Resistance (Fear).  In addition to this, Mind Cleansed characters have +5 Willpower (in exchange for -5 Fellowship).  This ridiculousness is supposedly balanced by the “command word” that the Inquisitor possesses, and the “Through a Mirror Darkly” trait.  TaMD causes the character to immediately roll on the shock table (without bonuses from traits, talents or conditioning) whenever circumstances call forth a relevant repressed fragmentary memory (there is a note for GMs to use this sparingly).  Mind Cleansed characters are ridiculously geared to become strong-willed Imperium-conditioned operatives; it’s a bit extraordinary (and therefore out of place) compared to other origin options.

The thing I like about Dark Heresy is that the characters are non-extraordinary human beings (a stark contrast next to D&D and Exalted).  The non-extraordinary characters are selected by the Imperium of Man and flung against all the horrors and heresies that the Calixis sector has to offer.  The Mind Cleansed origin seems contrary to the spirit of Dark Heresy by giving player characters the almost-extraordinary conditioning necessary to shrug off some truly ghastly terrors.  If you let your players choose their origins (rather than rolling for them) I’d advise you to exclude this one (and noble-born as well (that’s a lot of money)) and insist on requiring a roll for the Mind Cleansed origin.

So yeah, I have a slight problem with Mind Cleansed, but that’s nothing compared to the big problem I have with the specific origins and background packages that the Inquisitor’s Handbook provides.  With these, you can say that your character is specifically from places such as the savage world of Dusk, or Gunmetal City, or the unforgiving Volg hive of Fenksworld – all you need to do is roll your homeworld as usual, say “I want to come from that particular world” and adjust the traits as necessary.  If these adjustments were all as reasonable as the Battlefleet Calixis origin then I’d have no problem with them; however, Dusk and Gunmetal City are here to sully things for those of use that prefer a more brutal game.

Dusk is almost alright.  The origin, not the world itself.  The world itself is a lifetime of nightmares coalesced into the form of a planet.  The only real problem with Dusk is that characters from there treat all Fear tests as being one rating lower.  I think that this should be replaced by Resistance (Fear).  As it is now, a character from dusk can later gain Resistance (Fear) and stack it with the benefit of this particular trait.  So suppose that two or three players in your group roll the Feral World origin, and they select Dusk as their specific homeworld.  This could make the late-game rather challenging for the game master, as his two or three Dusk-born players roam about slaughtering the Fear Rating 4 terror that was supposed to be a challenge for the party.

Gunmetal City is just too much.  How would you like it if everyone in your group that managed to roll a Hive World origin decided to start with +5 Ballistic Skill?  Such players have a theoretical chance of reaching 65 Ballistic Skill (take my word for it, this is nuts).  Oh, sure, they take a -5 penalty to all tests when they don’t have a gun handy, but what self-respecting acolyte in the service of His Holy Ordos would allow that to happen?  In addition to this, they gain solid-projectile pistol training and a +5 on any tech use test involving projectile firearms.  This is more than a little nuts.

Origin choices like these are just ridiculous.  If characters had to roll a second time to see which specific world they came from, then these options would be less problematic.  They really feel out of place (to me, at least) in a game like Dark Heresy, where otherworldly terror and certain doom lurk around every corner.

Then there’s the background packages.  Hey, you can choose these and combine them with the retarded homeworld you chose!  Let’s dig in!

The packages for Adepts are pretty tame.  Abitrators get some good stuff, though.  The Red Vaults of Lugnum nets them Jaded and +3 Willpower at the cost of 100 xp and 1d5 Corruption points, whereas the Calixian Pattern Killings gives Talented (Inquiry) and +5 to either Perception or Intelligence (a steal at 200 xp).  Assassins have a truly overpowered option in The Moritat, which costs 300 xp.  They start with -5 Fellowship, 1d5 Insanity points, training in 3 very useful skills, the Jaded talent and a new gear loadout that includes a mono-sword.  They also have a trait that allows them to treat all edged weapons as though they had the Tearing quality.  That mono-sword they start with?  It’s effectively a chainsword.  These guys start with a chainsword.  I know that the beginning of the chapter included that “ask your GM first” bit, but that should never be used as an excuse to write something so ridiculously overpowered.

Guardsmen get a package that’s simply too good to pass up.  For the low cost of 300 xp, 1d5 corruption points and 1d10 insanity points they can get +5 Willpower, Resistance (Psychic Powers) (as if the willpower boost wasn’t good enough) and one additional fate point. Excuse me, what?! A guardsman’s first willpower advance costs 500 xp, and you think it’d be a good idea to give him an extra willpower advance, Resistance (Psychic Powers) and a fate point in exchange for some insanity, corruption and a paltry 300 xp?  Have you lost your damned minds?

Psykers can spend 300 xp and gain 1d10 insanity points in order to start with Resistance (Psychic Powers), +5 Willpower and immunity to Mind Scan effects.  …I can’t go on.  I feel dirty just looking at some of these packages.

Dark Heresy, in its default state, offers a deliciously delicate and low-powered (with the exception of more than a few psychic powers) RPG experience.  Why have some of these specific homeworlds and background packages not been errata’d out of existence?  If that seems unreasonable, then surely the errata could bring them down to acceptable levels?  Fantasy Flight Games just released the third edition of the errata for the Inquisitor’s Handbook (and the core rulebook), and this nonsense persists for some reason.

I haven’t even looked at the alternate advance ranks or the new equipment yet.  I guess my reviews really are too long-winded.  Be sure to come back next week, when I conclude my review.  It should be shorter (I hope).