Dark Heresy Character Background - Ragaa Kenter

As stated in my previous post, I recently acqiured the new 40k roleplaying game, Dark Heresy. My buddy over at the Ulthwe Eldar: The Only Way blog also picked up a copy, and we were excited to get characters rolled up and maybe get in a practice run to get used to the rules a bit. I have had some limited experience with the Warhammer Fantasy system and many years of roleplaying besides (MERP, WEG Star Wars, and most recently Savage Worlds), and my Eldar friend is also a seasoned roleplayer.


Intentions, however, do not make a gaming night.

We got caught up, though not bogged down, in an elaborate and rich character creation process. Dark Heresy may be the most enjoyable character creation process I have ever seen in a game. A limited amount of out-of-order page flips kept things linear and nicely organized. Chris made a Tech Priest and I decided to try out making a psyker.


We decided to give ourselves a couple of paydays (based on the going rates for our professions) to get some gear worthy of Acolytes in the employ of the Inquisition. Nothing too fancy or over the top, but I think we made our characters worth it. Ragaa was a random name from the tables (yeah, we rolled them on the random tables for a bunch of stuff... really funny, actually), and I chose the last name.


Ragaa Kenter, Sanctioned Psyker


Early in his life, Ragaa was robbed of his sight and most of his other senses by a psychic accident on a Black Ship. He does not remember much of life before that, only that he is comfortable in crowds and knows how to get things done on hive worlds that most people don't. His sight and other senses were restored to him shortly after, and the rest of his life was decided from that point onward. His head, now mostly covered in standard sensory implants, hid most of his facial features forever, and Ragaa spent the rest of his sanctioning tenure in complete silence, hating the way this his voice now sounded to his new augmetic ears.

After his sanctioning ended, Ragaa was recruited into the service of an Inquisitor in the Ordo Xenos, Maximillian Stone, who was a powerful psyker and a good friend to the erstwhile aloof and secretive Ragaa. Stone was killed in a raid on a Xenos weapons factory in the Hive World of Praag III, and Ragaa, having unfortunately survived the incident, was transfered to the retinue of another Inquisitor. Ragaa has yet to actively investigate for his new boss. In fact, he hasn't met the Inquisitor yet.

Ragaa is characteristically moody and hardly ever speaks in large groups, except to exert some kind of control over those whom he is addressing. His psychic abilities are developing, and he is already displaying aptitude in the areas of Telepathy and mind control. Though rudimentary at best, his powers will continue to grow as he serves the God-Emperor and His Inquisiton.


Well, that's all for now on Ragaa. I don't want to explore everything about him or delve too deep into the character before I've had a chance to play him and know what he's going to do on his own, without me trying to make him play a certain way.

Play 40k, read as much as you can, and always remember that no one expects the Inquisition.

The Emperor Protects,

D.G.

Dark Heresy - Purgated

Today's post was supposed to be about the bright and wonderful future ahead for all of us in the new 40k rpg, Dark Heresy. The book sold out before it was even released, with a 2nd Printing in high demand. It is a beautiful book that I will comment on in a later post.

However, after this announcement from Black Industries, the whole thing went up like a Planet Killer's reactor exploding in BFG.

Apparently Black Industries is closing its doors in September, just 4 books into the Dark Heresy line. The Black Library wants to focus more on its novels and doesn't feel that it is in its best interest to continue with the two rpg lines, WHFRP and Dark Heresy. Several of my frequented online communities are already commented heavily on this issue, and feelings are across the board. One fellow on a forum stated that the whole thing stunk of possible insider trading. While I'm not sure any of us would want that kind of investigation going on, I am confident that none of us can understand why GW would shut down what promised to be such a popular line of rpg materials.

In the months ahead, I will personally be getting at least one copy of the 3 remaining Dark Heresy books and the Game Master Kit to make sure that I have this small and wonderful piece of GW gaming history on my shelf.

Sad days beget sadness,

D.G.