As our final offers of 2017 we presented two new collections featuring the 2008 First Edition of Dark Heresy, the first RPG set in the grim, dark future of Warhammer 40,000. Originally published by Black Industries in 2008, Dark Heresy, along with the other WH40K RPGs (Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, Black Crusade, and Only War) are now stewarded by Ulisses Spiele, publisher of The Dark Eye and the new Torg Eternity. Ulisses is also hard at work on a brand-new RPG in the WH40K setting, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Wrath & Glory.
1. DARK HERESY ESSENTIALS [start here]
Dark Heresy 1E Essentials had the core rules and major supplements — everything you need to begin your career as an Imperial Inquisitor in service to the Emperor. If you’re new to Dark Heresy, start with these books.
There were four titles in this offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $85) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
- Dark Heresy First Edition core rulebook (retail price $30): The complete full-color 402-page corebook, originally published by Black Industries and now by Ulisses Spiele. We included the free Edge of Darkness quickstart rules, all three Apocrypha files, and the hard-to-find fan-produced supplement The Calixis Sector Encyclopedia.
- Inquisitor’s Handbook (retail $25): The indispensable rules expansion.
- Purge the Unclean (retail $20): Three adventures for Acolytes of any level.
- Dark Heresy 1E Game Master’s Kit (retail $10): Useful charts plus a complete adventure, “Maggots in the Meat.”
Those who paid more than this offer’s threshold (average) price also got this offer’s entire Bonus Collection with five more supplements worth an additional $82.50, including Disciples of the Dark Gods (a sourcebook of cults and conspiracies, retail $25); the Creatures Anathema bestiary (retail $20); and all three adventures in the Haarlock’s Legacy series (Tattered Fates, Damned Cities, and Dead Stars, total retail $37.50).
2. DARK HERESY 1E JUDGEMENTS
The companion Dark Heresy Judgements offer included important supplements like The Radical’s Handbook and the rest of the 1E line.
There were four supplements in this offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $85), including several books about Inquisition factions: Blood of Martyrs, about the Ecclesiarchy (retail price $20); Daemon Hunter — the Ordo Malleus and the Grey Knights (retail $20); and Book of Judgement — the Adeptus Arbites (retail $20); plus the sourcebook for high-level play, Ascension (retail $25).
This offer’s entire Bonus Collection had five more supplements worth an additional $82.50:
- The Radical’s Handbook (retail $25): The agents of the Golden Throne who would turn the darkness against itself. One of the most admired Dark Heresy sourcebooks. Included Salvation Demands Sacrifice, an “overflow book” with material cut for space from the main book.
- The Lathe Worlds (retail $20): The red-robed tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Included the overflow book The Lost Dataslate.
- The Apostasy Gambit (total retail $37.50): The complete adventure trilogy The Black Sepulchre, The Church of the Damned, and The Chaos Commandment.
Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) was split evenly between the two charities designated by Dark Heresy publisher Ulisses Spiele: Doctors Without Borders and Bärenherz, a local home for terminally ill children in Wiesbaden, Germany.