Right now I'm in the middle of a 4th Edition D&D game with a bunch of guys from the network department at my university (including my father), some of their friends, one former employee, and the former employee's wife - that's been going on for about 2 years now. I came in as the new guy who didn't own any of the books when I started gaming with them, but my natural aptitude for analyzing and exploiting rule systems has led to me understanding the details of their character sheets better than they do (in some cases because I created a 'better' version of their character sheets and handed it to them). I compulsively create new characters and level them up just to see what options are available, for science.
In the past I've GMed in a couple of online Dark Heresy campaigns, and I still compulsively buy all the FFG 40K RPG source books and supplements (Rogue Trader, Deathwatch) even though I'm unlikely to actually play them any time soon. I just like reading through them, for fun!
PaulH said:
Out of curiosity, I bought Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy a couple of weeks ago and I thought it would be fun to run a RT campaign. But I was wondering overrall how the core game mechanics work in comparison to, say, D&D 3rd ed/3.5?
I gather you haven't really gone through the rules yet then? The core mechanics of those systems are
vastly dissimilar - with D&D, you have hit die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12), BAB (Base Attack Bonuses), AC, saving throws, etc - D&D is all about the core mechanic of leveling up and increasing your base stats while simultaneously expanding a character's options (raising/training in new skills, picking feats/spells).
Leveling up... doesn't work like that in Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch (the systems are all inter-compatible). For one thing, they refer to the various tiers as "ranks", but that's just a cosmetic difference - if you're playing a 3rd level fighter in 3rd Edition D&D, you don't get to "improve" your character until you hit the magic XP total for 4th level (apart from finding better gear or what have you). 4th level fighters with the same base stats and equipment are automatically going to be "better" than a 3rd level fighter - you have a series of plateaus and discrete jumps in performance at regular intervals over time.
In Dark Heresy et all, your origin (race) determines your initial statistics, your profession (class) determines your starting skills/talents (skills/feats) and gear, as well as the pool of upgrades you'll have available to you as you progress through the game. If your initial roll of the dice (d10s, the only dice these systems use) lands you with 11 wounds and a Ballistic Skill of 43,
those values will never ever ever go up on their own. Your stats
are your stats, unless you improve them via spending XP on advancements. Essentially you're presented with a table of options: A list of improvements to your core statistics (with varying costs for any given stat depending on what character class you are playing) that is available at any time throughout your character's life, and a table of possible upgrades to your skills or talents (and occasionally new traits or other unusual advancements), each with a cost and possible prerequisite.
You spend experience as you get it, and XP can be used for things that improve investigation skills, combat effectiveness, learning trade skills, you name it. The various ranks? All those mean (in general) is that once you've spent (not acquired) X amount of XP on advancements from your initial pool of options, you now qualify for an
additional table full of more options - you can still pick advancements from any table you have access to though.
There are loads of other differences - hit success is determined by a roll against your own skill at attacking things, not a defensive stat of your opponent (though they do still get to try to dodge in most cases), armor absorbs damage rather than making it harder to hit you, all tests involve trying to roll a number
as low as possible (01 is seriously the best thing you can possibly roll in a skill test) unless it's your damage roll (which is either a d10 or a d5 (so a d10 you divide by 2)), tables galore, critical vs regular damage (complete with a series of table for each hit location and damage type!), all actions use the same "pool", and of course all the rules for things like cybernetic enhancements, sanity and corruption... but the character leveling system is going to be the most prominent major difference between those systems. Folks with a background in D&D need to unlearn a lot of assumed concepts when it comes to how Dark Heresy characters work.
