Dark Heresy: running a campaign without money

[Jd Smith1]

We played a very successful inquisition based campaign years back - before any of the official 40k RPGs came out. In that campaign we were agents of the inquisition, rather than full-on inquisitors. That was great fun, and put us in a position where we were more like spies and investigators finding out what was going on before the actual Inquisitor would decide to get involved. We had very little direct authority or power in the eyes of other Imperial organisations like Space Marines or Adeptus Mechanicus. We might bully local authorities somewhat but even that was very difficult and they had limited resources we could call on.

I think the way to approach a campaign like this is that it will be closer to Call of Cthulhu or (unsurprisingly?) WHFRP than it would be to a game of D&D or Traveller.

Obviously that might not work for your group, @Jd Smith1

Sounds like a good campaign.

I plan on the PCs being agents, and low-ranking ones at that. I expect that they will pose as Administarium auditors a great deal, which would give them the authority and rationale to poke around without exciting nearly as much interest as the Inquisition would.

They're not going to be routinely trooping around in carapace armor lugging chain swords; they're not going to arrive on-planet with their own battlecruiser.

They going to show up inquiring about the failure to file full and complete Imperial Form XM-1187b on time. And to inquire why the submitted Imperial Form LB-477c shows a 5% discrepancy for the power generation station on the Isle of Ventura.

While the Imperium leaves most details of planet management to the Lord Governors, there is no reason to expect that they absolve those planetary administrations from reporting data.

Again, as the canon provided by Dan Abnett, First of His Name and Protector of the Lore, has shown us, subtlety is not a unapproved tactic for the Inquisition.

 

[dbm]

And clearly the reason for those discrepancies will be subversion by chaos or xenos which will need immediate resolution with prejudice to avoided further corruption or infestation.

Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?

 

[dbm]

The more I think about this, the more I think a system like Nights Black Agents might be a great candidate for re-fluffing as inquisition agents. Skilled individuals, investigating conspiracy, and ultimately finding and facing-off against foes of weird power and great danger. Definitely sounds like a match.

One to file away for future consideration, I think…

 

[Vaslov]

For some reason this question is stuck in my head. As I am sitting here eating lunch I recalled someone made a crpg for Rogue Trader. On the thought someone might of made a wiki with prices somewhere I did some searches. The crpg trail was a bust, but I did stumble across a DH wiki that might be of help. In the equipment links on the link below there is pricing for various items.

Heresypedia

darkheresy.fandom.com

Hope that wiki helps with some heavy lifting for you. Have a great time with the game.

 

[Jd Smith1]

For some reason this question is stuck in my head. As I am sitting here eating lunch I recalled someone made a crpg for Rogue Trader. On the thought someone might of made a wiki with prices somewhere I did some searches. The crpg trail was a bust, but I did stumble across a DH wiki that might be of help. In the equipment links on the link below there is pricing for various items.

Heresypedia

darkheresy.fandom.com

Hope that wiki helps with some heavy lifting for you. Have a great time with the game.

Thanks!

Its probably a couple years down the road, but I think it will do well.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

So, I'm looking at Dark Heresy 2e for a campaign down the road; I figure my players will go for a lighter system, and you cannot beat 40k as a setting.

The thing is, money is not a factor in the game, which makes sense, because I can't imagine Eisenhorn collecting receipts and worrying about a budget, but I have always run campaigns based on the four pillars of player motivation: XP, gear, money, and petty vindictiveness.

I'm not sure how to run a long-term campaign without that fourth pillar. My players go after gold dental work in non-fantasy settings, after all.

Anyone have experience with this issue?

We have a new mechanic that works in any game and I can't recommend it enough = DEBT

In any system where money is not tracked, but once in a while you want money or wealth to matter = make the players make a roll against gaining a Debt.
If they Crit = no debt, how generous!
if they succeed = they get a Debt, but its only 1 mission/easy to pay off
if they fail = its a honest to goodness burden of a Debt, and they will need to do a big job or obtain a narrative 'wealth item' to pay it off.
if they fumble = not only do you have a Debt, but they come looking for interest every so often to complicate your life, punch you up, etc etc....

........

This works so well!! As it FEELs more like money than tracking coins, and it gives the game more drama and danger to make enemies not ones who are able to kill you, but ones who can bury you in favors owed.

 

[Jd Smith1]

We have a new mechanic that works in any game and I can't recommend it enough = DEBT

In any system where money is not tracked, but once in a while you want money or wealth to matter = make the players make a roll against gaining a Debt.
If they Crit = no dbet, how generous!
if they succeed = they get a Debt, but its only 1 mission/easy to pay off
if they fail = its a honest to goodness burden of a Debt, and they will need to do a big job or obtain a narrative 'wealth item' to pay it off.
if they fumble = not only do you have a Debt, but they come looking for interest every so often to complicate your life, punch you up, etc etc....

........

This works so well!! As it FEELs more like money than tracking coins, and it gives the game more drama and danger to make enemies not ones who are able to kill you, but ones who can bury you in favors owed.

That's not for me. As I've mentioned, I am not interested in abstract systems.

 

[GrimCo]

Out of curiosity, what kind of things would your characters need to buy? And what world type do you plan to use? Cause Agri or Feudal is different than Forge, Pleasure or Hive. Agri world or Feudal might work on pure barter or use precious metal coinage, Forge world might not have any kind of currency at all (everything is provided by and owned by Mechanicus), Hive might have combination of barter/credit sticks/coinage/ Imperial credits, depending on what level of society you are in.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Out of curiosity, what kind of things would your characters need to buy? And what world type do you plan to use? Cause Agri or Feudal is different than Forge, Pleasure or Hive. Agri world or Feudal might work on pure barter or use precious metal coinage, Forge world might not have any kind of currency at all (everything is provided by and owned by Mechanicus), Hive might have combination of barter/credit sticks/coinage/ Imperial credits, depending on what level of society you are in.

I expect they would be operating on numerous worlds in the course of the campaign; I usually run campaigns of 40-50 sessions.

What they would need? Ammunition, food, medical gear, batteries, munitions, special equipment, better equipment, replacement equipment, clothing for the climate, clothing for disguises, rent vehicles when undercover, fuel for vehicles when undercover, bribery, downtime entertainment...the list goes on and on.

They'll draw some of it when operating openly, but you never get everything you need.

 

[MGibster]

Anyone have experience with this issue?

I played in a D&D campaign, Eberron, where the DM just said, "Money isn't a factor. Just assume whatever normal goods, services, or equipment you're purchasing for yourself is within your means. It went just fine. We didn't bother keeping track of coins or other treasures beyond some magic items or useful equipment we found. We were all agents of the state and doing our jobs was motivation enough. Now 5th edition D&D is fairly infamous for gold being meaningless passed level four or five, but it was nice not being concerned with it at all.

The long and short of it is the players need to make characters motivated to engage with the campaign as you presented it to them. For Dark Heresy, or any game set in the Warhammer 40k universe, every human being has their place in society to achieve the Emperor's grand plan. Maybe they're a farmer on an agri world, maybe they're toiling in the depths of a hive planet making knives for the Astra Militarum, or maybe they spend all day polishing all that gold armor for the Custodes. It's a quasi-feudal/fascist society, and the players are in a unique position of being outside the social norms but in a sanctioned way. They can't afford to make the Inquisitor mad because then what becomes of them? Where will they go? How will they survive? The players need to decide what motivates them to work for the Inquisitor. Maybe it will improve their social station? Perhaps they're fanatics who believe they're going to purge the Imperium of xenos and heretics. It's up to the player to decide.