Which 40k Roleplaying game should I take up?

[Grailkeeper]

My friends and I are looking to start a 40k roleplaying campaing. Originally we all wanted to play black crusade (Everyone loves being a baddy) but it isn't out till January. Throwing it out to the blogosphere- have any of you played any of the 40k role playing games and which would you recommend?

[justsam]

i played a guardsmen-only campaign of dark heresy, which i really liked until we all died. if you want to retain the "rules? what rules?" feeling of 40k, though, i'd recommend rogue trader. you can go around and do what you want!

[gwensdad]

Depends on your "style" of campaign play I guess. If you love mysteries, Dark Heresy. Combat-Deathwatch. Doing whatever-Rogue Trader. Did you look at the sample adventure from free RPG day? They've had ones since at least Rogue Trader and maybe getting those 3 and playing all of them might help you decide.

[DrLove42]

I personally don't play, but a group of my friends play Dark Heresy. They seem to enjoy it :P

[Lane]

The choice depends on the players style preference.

Deathwatch is more combat oriented but still allows decent role playing ans skill use. Marines will probably not have much interaction with the public.

Dark Heresy is for players that want a lot of interaction with NPC's, lots of skill roles and good role playing, combat is likely but not the main focus. DH adventures tend to be GM lead, fixed objectives etc. It also has the most material out.

Rogue Trader adds ship combat and trading/ endeavors to the mix. Much like DH it relies on interaction but characters are higher base level so expect more powerful NPC's. Adventurers tend to be player guided,

All three use the same system with minor changes, source material is easily transferred between games.

[relasine]

It depends mostly on your role-playing experience and what you're looking for. Dark Heresy is most often investigation-driven, but could also have components of intrigue to it. I'd avoid Ascension, though. The power level in that book does not work particularly well in the system.

Rogue Trader is kind of strange, especially from a GM's perspective. The length and breadth of a rogue trader's reach, resources, and influence is incredibly high, consequently making the game fairly sandbox. This can make things awkward for non-experienced role-players and just plain difficult for new GMs.

I don't get Death Watch, really. Role-playing as a Space Marine seems strange. I just don't see how that game can be about anything else except for combat, which I don't think the system does all that well.

Black Crusade straddles the rift between Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader, being potentially on-rails/story-driven or lending itself well to sandbox-type play.

[Grailkeeper]

I'm actually the least experienced of the group- the others have just finished an 18 month long dn'd campaign. Is it possible to take the marine character rules from deathwatch and have a few marine characters in your Dark heresy campaign? Part of the attraction of black crusade is marines mixing with non marines.

[justsam]

from all the stories i've heard, marines are in a whole other league than DH folks. it's either going to be a challenge for everyone but the marine, or a challenge for the marine alone because everyone else will be dead already.

[Fellend]

from all the stories i've heard, marines are in a whole other league than DH folks. it's either going to be a challenge for everyone but the marine, or a challenge for the marine alone because everyone else will be dead already.

Pretty much

[Grailkeeper]

Thats a real shame. Is deathwatch just go into a place, kill all the enemies, repeat? or is there more roleplaying- exploration and problem solving, than that?

[Grailkeeper]

Thanks for your suggestions, but black crusade has come out in Ireland. I don't know why it isn't available online till jan.