Of Sanboxes and Imperial Worlds

Recently Hair Dave and I have been talking about running a high level campaign in Dark Heresy, and Dave expressed an eagerness to avoid the events of the previous campaign. This is not to say the last campaign was poor by any means; there were some good characters there and some suitably memorable events, however it did seem at times that our band of Inquisitorial Acolytes were less bearers of the Emperor’s wroth and more paranormal detective agency.

The other difficulty would be to run a campaign with such powerful characters, especially since the rules were never intended to allow players to be Inquisitors. Inquisitors cannot be questioned by any agency; they carry a Rosette that allows them to get their way in any situation and combine the two worst boons in role-playing Excessive Wealth with Status. In short it would be very dull to play as there would be no challenge in getting what we wanted.

To this end some compromises needed to be made by myself. I agreed with Dave that I would operate my Inquisitor under Special Exemption, meaning that whilst I had all my status and power I would essentially be on the fringes of the Inquisition, operating as a rogue. As such I would be keen to avoid drawing attention to myself I would try and avoid using my assets as much as possible and make a covert investigation. This is the best kind of compromise as it doesn’t remove something from the character but gives me a reason to explore other avenues first rather than just flashing my ‘Fix-It’ badge; which would make things exceptionally dull for all involved.

We also agreed to a Sandbox style game, which I think Dark Heresy is actually quite suited to. Slap a few stat blocks for menials, guards and the like on some record cards, generate a few places with ‘gothic’ names (I hear of something skulking over by the Generatorum, let’s check it out!) that seem like interesting locales, then decide on a mission. The mission can be very vague, just decide who’s at the centre and what they’re doing and then work outwards; who do they need? Who would be involved with their plans? What materiel will be needed to complete their plans? Each one is a clue (or red herring) that slowly allows the characters to rein the plot in. Drop in some chase scenes and combat when you feel it’s appropriate or the investigation starts to sag and it should lead to an interesting campaign.

The reason I think Dark Heresy really works for this kind of game is that it owes a lot to Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn and Ravenor Trilogies, which are full of interfering Inquisitors, dangerous Psykers and traitorous governors. Whilst you can include all of these elements in an event based game quite comfortably a sand box gives an impression that the locale you are in, be it an Imperial City a Ministorum Shrine or an alien world, is more of a living breathing entity that exists beyond the preview of the game. Certainly there are soft boundaries there, but you’ll hit them less often than with an event based game and they will be less obtrusive.

More and more I’m finding Sandboxes to be a preferable way to play role-playing games. Some people like detailed plots and a more cinematic play style with carefully planned scenes and set pieces, and I certainly won’t argue against that as a style of play. However a sandbox with a good GM can have all this and more, memorable NPCs can leap out of a random roll and a funny voice, interesting locations can just spring to mind as you’re playing and when you want an intense scene or an epic encounter atop a cable car in a hail storm you can have it because there’s no plan that says you can’t.