Background Checks, Divergent Specific Worlds of origin (such as Hive Mutant,

Or Once Upon A Time I…… Dusk and Tainted Blood of Malfi) use a combination of the
above modifiers and those modifiers presented in their entries.
For the Death Worlder, ignore the Rogue Trader Wounds
As it stands now in Dark Heresy, new characters have back-
and Fate rules and determine their total Wounds and Fate
grounds and pasts that are comprised solely of worlds of ori-
Points as if they were Feral Worlders.
gin, a few background package options, initial career path
bonuses, a roll on the Emperor’s Tarot and 400 XP, notions Example: Brien decides to make his character, who he has named
that help flesh out the character, but not as much as it could. Dante, a Hive Worlder. He further decides that Dante is from Gun-
The following house rules amend the mechanics of Dark Her- metal City. He notes his modifiers of +5 FEL and -5 T for being a
esy enough to enable characters to be a bit more competent, Hive Worlder (making his FEL 41 and his T 36) and then adds in
more diverse and a bit more fleshed out and start on par with his +5 BS for being from Gunmetal City for a starting BS of 49.
Rogue Trader characters without sacrificing game balance or
the feel of the setting. There was a Time!
Every character has a past, he or she comes from somewhere
Starting Experience or more importantly has experienced variable and different
While these house rules work just fine if using only the things. These events called Background Events, shape and
normal 400 XP starting XP (or 500 if using with Rogue mold a character before play starts and represent the experi-
Trader options), it is recommended the GMs use these ence and knowledge a character accumulates before the game
rules with characters that start with 1000 XP. begins.

Starting characters receive 500 XP to spend on Background

options. These XPs may be spent on a variety of options de-
Characteristics
Characters have their starting characteristics determined by tailed below, but may not be spent on advances, skills or tal-
rolling 2D10 and adding this roll to 25. The player rolls 9 ents based on a characters career path (with the exception of
times and assigns the results as he or she pleases, optionally, Rank Jumping, see below) that normal XP are spent on.
with GM permission, characters may be built using the op-
tional rules on page 14 of the Rogue Trader Core Rulebook Each of the following cost 100XP
“Allocating Points”. Background Event
Background of Note
If rolling, the GM may allow the character to have his or her Background Skill
lowest roll either rerolled or raised to an 11. This is entirely Characteristic Reroll
up to the GM. Fate Point Bonus
Heirloom Object
Example: Brien is creating a new character and he gets the following Rank Jump
results on his 9 rolls: 16, 12, 8, 3, 12, 19, 13, 14, and 11. Dissatis- Wound Bonus
fied with the 3 he asks if the GM is using the reroll or adjust to 11
rule and the GM says yes, allowing Brien to reroll the 3. Brien rerolls In addition these XP may be spent on Background packages
and gets a 9, much better. He scores turn out as follows (once adding as found on pages 26-38 of the Inquisitor’s Handbook and
25 to them): 41, 37, 33, 34, 37, 44, 38, 39 and 36. Deciding his pages 35-39 of the Radical’s Handbook. In addition, The
favorite character from the Eisenhorn novels is Harlon Nayl he assigns Exorcised (pages 70-71 of the Radical’s Handbook) is now
his characteristics as follows: considered a Background package as well as a Elite Advance
package.
WS 37 BS 44 S 33
T 41 AG 39 INT 34
PER 38 WP 37 FEL 36

I come from a Landunder!

Characters can use any of the origins from Dark Heresy Core
Rulebook, The Inquisitor’s Handbook, The Radical’s Hand-
book and Rogue Trader. Once a character has his or her ori-
gin chosen he or she applies the appropriate modifiers to his
or her characteristics as follows.

Death World +5 S, +5 T, -5 WP, -5 FEL RT PG17

Feral +5 S, +5 T, -5 WP, -5 FEL DH PG14
Forge World -5 WS, +5 INT IHB PG9
Hive -5 T, +5 FEL DH PG16
Imperial No Modifiers DH PG18
Mind Cleansed +5 WP, -5 FEL IHB PG11
Noble Born -5 WP, +5 FEL IHB PG15
Schola Progenium No Modifiers IHB PG18
Void Born -5 S, +5 WP DH PG20
 nate Career Path! At any point in a character’s career, with
GM permission and as long as it fits the character in story, a
Dissention in the Ranks, character can spend 200 XP to go to rank 1 of another ca-
or how I got from there to reer. Careers that cannot be switched into are as follows:
Adepta Sororitas, Imperial Psyker or Tech Priest. However,
here! Adepta Sororitas, Imperial Psykers and Tech Priests can move
out of their career and with the exception of the Adepta So-
Ranks in Dark Heresy are “earned” in the current system and roritas, can spend another 200 XP to move back to their last
not gained by means of any coherent or logical sense other rank in their previous career.
then “you have X number of Experience Points.” With the
following option rule PCs and NPCs can advance faster in While in the new career path the character still uses his or her
their career field at the expense of being less capable and original Characteristic Advances table from the initial career.
experienced in their tradecraft, but offering more diverse
skills and talents available for advancement purchases. In order to ascend into a new career a character must meet the
following prerequisites.
Rank and File
Characters no longer “automatically” advance from one rank Adept INT or PER 35, or both INT and PER 30
to the next rank. To increase from one rank to another the Arbitrator PER 35
PC (or NPC) must meet certain in game and out of game Assassin WS or BS 40
requirements. At its simplest, a character must spend 100 XP Cleric WP or FEL 35, or both WP and FEL 30
to advance their character to the next rank. This allows char- Guardsman WS or BS 35, or both WS and BS 30
acters to skip over ranks without having to spend the re- Scum AG or FEL 35, or both AG and FEL 30
quired XP on advances and instead allows them to gain access
to new and diverse skills, at the sacrifice of having already Example: After a few adventures, Pete’s Legionnaire has had a chance
purchased skills and talents and other advances. to deal with the black market quite often and finds it more lucrative to
become a Scum and be involved with the underworld. Checking for
A character may not spend more then half his or her starting GMs approval, Pete spends 200 XP and is now considered a Scum for
XP to jump ranks. skill, talent and rank advancements. However, he still has to pay the
cost for characteristic advances as if he were a Guardsman.
Characters are no long required to keep track of their ex-
pended or spent XP as it is no longer used to calculate their
rank.

Example: Pete and Josh are creating characters for a new Dark Heresy
campaign. Both have decided to play Guardsmen, but while Pete is
more then willing to start off as a fresh recruit dragged from his bed in
the middle of the night and inducted into the Imperial Guard, Josh
wishes to play a spoiled noble born brat and opts to spend 200 of his
starting XP to start at rank 3, Armsman. Whereas Pete has all his XP
to spend but only on rank 1 advances, while Josh has 200 less XP left
to spend on rank 1, 2 and 3 advances and any additional XP he earns
can be spent at any of the ranks.

Rank has its Privileges

Alternate Career ranks are still available as normal and still
hold onto the requirements presented in early rules and
manuals, including rank prerequisites. However, to ascend
into an Alternate Career rank a character must spend an addi-
tional 100XP, unless the Alternate Career rank is available as
a Rank 1 option (such as Metallican Gunslinger or Penal Le-
gionnaire).

Example: Josh’s noble born Guardsman has a very influential father

who has pulled some strings for his dear son within the Lucid Palace
therefore Josh spends his next 100 XP to take on the rank 3 Alternate
Career rank of Chaliced Commissariat Operative. Meanwhile Pete
decides his character has had a real run of bad luck in the past and
isn’t in the Guard by choice, leafing through the optional Alternate
Career ranks available to him he settles on Penal Legionnaire and
selects it. As a rank 0/1 Alternate Career rank it costs him 0 XP to
take the rank.

Take this Job and Shove it!

Sometimes a Guardsman stops being a Guardsman and some-
times an unlucky rogue of Scum gets drafted. What results is
more then just an Alternate Career rank, but an entire Alter-