Black Crusade (RPG)

Black Crusade
RPG published by Fantasy Flight Games
Rule System	d%
No. of Players	3+
Session Time	10+ minutes
Authors	Sam Stewart, Jay Little, Mack Martin, Ross Watson
First Publication	2011
Essential Books	Black Crusade Core Rulebook The Game Master's Kit The Hand of Corruption The Tome of Fate The Tome of Blood The Tome of Excess The Tome of Decay

This is for the RPG, not the apocalypse-style crusades by Chaos.

Black Crusade is the fourth Fantasy Flight Games Warhammer 40,000 Role-Playing Game, and its main focus is the forces of Chaos, like cultists and the Traitor Legions.

This is the exact opposite of the earlier books in every way. Even the Human characters in Black Crusade are considerably more powerful than those from previous games, able to receive powerful mutations and game-changing blessings. The Chaos Space Marines are even more powerful, having the benefits available to human heretics as well as the hard combat capabilities of space marines, and weaponry ranges from rune swords, to daemonic bolters, to reaper autocannons. Alignment often leads to extremely interesting role-playing as well.

One of its greatest features is encouraging competition between players, often by making the personal goals of their characters mutually exclusive, or counterproductive to the mission, thus mirroring the climate of a Chaos warband. This can go very right, or oh so wrong.

Ruleset

Black Crusade still uses the same fundamental d100 system that the previous three RPG settings use, though tidied it up considerably by consolidating similar skills like all the stealth or athletics based skills into just one skill rather than two or three. It also made parrying it's own skill, rather than something a player could "just do", as well as changing the nature of talents like swift/lightning attack which put a bit more thought into how a player can use their actions and reactions each turn.

It also introduced the class-less system of "Archetypes" where no skill is restricted from a player because of their class. This is both a good and a bad thing when you really look into it. It gives the players the freedom to create their own character rather than being bound by limited options each level. The problem this causes is it actively promotes and rewards powergaming and savvy players will completely ignore useless skills and talents (in their own opinion) to give themselves the quickest advantage.

For example: Skills & Talents such as Swift/Lightning Attack, Step Aside, Dodge +20 and Blademaster are all available late in the character development in the previous settings can all be immediately purchased as soon as the player has the available Exp to spend on them in black crusade which can make combat situations much more difficult to manage for a GM, and those PCs will also likely be ignorant of commonplace lore and professional skills that they may not get by in social interactions very well. Often having been overlooked by the players because they have metagamed their own knowledge of the setting and haven't even thought of purchasing those skills as being completely unnecessary.

At least in the previous rulesets the restriction of available skills at each level forced the creation of an evenly balanced character of his type; a good Black Crusade GM should be reminding their players of the dangers of forgetting to remain balanced, unless of course they are running an exclusively combat-based (or any other focus) campaign.

The game also introduces two new mechanics: Infamy & Corruption. While Corruption was already a mechanic of the other settings, Black Crusade makes it absolutely crucial. Corruption is gamed far more easily as the players have the eye of the chaos gods, and so are more prone to mutation and divine "gifts".

Infamy is also a new stat that is accumulated as PCs advance through play, and is used to calculate the equivalent of "Fate Points" in the other settings, as well as determining how readily available purchases and equipment can be found when attempting to gain new gear.

The combined function of these two mechanics essentially puts a time limit on the campaign, as players have to gain infamy as quickly as possible so that they might "ascend" to daemonhood else they gain too much corruption and devolve into Chaos Spawn instead. Wait, no, no, nArghbwalagh! The actual values required for this are set by the GM and often hidden from the players, but it should always be remembered that Corruption comes more easily than Infamy and players should be wary about gaining too many "gifts".

Archetypes

Characters don't have classes, but instead have archetypes, each of which is apparently meant to be a blanket term for a specific type of character. Chaos has all sorts of mixed individuals with multiple skill sets; so unlike the other games, you don't have a talent tree limiting you to a specialization beside elite advances, but everything is available to everyone. The only limitation is alignment, which gives you discounts and penalties to the appropriate advances.

The PCs, affectionately called the Heretics, come in two flavors: Chaos Space Marine, and Disciple of Chaos ("regular" humans). Marines start the game equipped with stupid levels of combat abilities, but don't start with too much else. Humans are a bit more balanced in that regard, but will often struggle to keep up with the marines in combat.

The Marines have the following Archetypes to start out with:

• The Champion is the all-rounder and leader type, good for any situation but not exceptional at any, barring command.
• The Chosen is the combat-specialist, often seen as a duelist or hero killer build. They specialize in straight up strength of arms, and can be made into any type of combat monster: Ranged, melee or heavy.
• The Forsaken is the lone wolf and the survivor, essentially a Black Crusade version of a Black Shield. They are practically built for extended operations, survival, and self-reliance.
• The Sorcerer is the auto-include magic user. He combines the flexible utility of a psyker with the massive physical power of a space marine, and is especially deadly when combat-oriented psychic powers are taken.

The Human disciples of Chaos have the following:

• The Apostate is the manipulator and schemer [read: the face]. This one is probably the least combat-oriented class, but is probably the class with the greatest utility since he has the highest potential for minions and manipulation.
• The Heretek is the Dark Mechanicus adept, and the obligatory tech character. Useful to have for Tech Use tests and crafting, and probably the toughest of the human archetypes with the upgrades available to him.
• The Renegade is the combat-oriented archetype for the humans. Strong, but lacking as much raw power as a Marine, yet more flexible.
• The Psyker has more psychic potential and power than sorcerers, but have a higher chance of bad things happening, and they start with the least combat utility.

From the Splatbooks

Each of the splatbooks introduce two archetypes for Humans and for Marines, each themed for, but not necessarily aligned to the corresponding deity.

Tome of Fate

• Thousand Sons Sorcerer - A slightly stronger Sorcerer that starts aligned to Tzeentch, that starts with Unnatural Willpower, more talents, more Lore skills, and a bolt pistol with Inferno bolts. He starts aligned to Tzeentch, so he can use psychic powers aligned to him from the start, and he can replace a the ones or tens die when he rolls Perils, and can take a Rubric Marine as a regular Minion of Chaos instead of a Greater minion. He's easily considered to be broken as hell once he starts racking up XP.
• Alpha Legion Marine - What it says on the tin, a member of the Alpha Legion. A sneaky marine who's about fighting smart, with some utility skills. He's great at deceiving people, getting underground contacts, and starting insurrections.
• Q'Sal Magister Immaterial - A Human character (in the loosest form possible) from the Tzeentch world of Q'Sal. Technically a mutant. He is the most powerful starting psykers, with Psy Rating x4, more XP to sink into psychic powers than anybody else, and the ability to direct the affects of his Perils rolls onto any visible target (friend or foe) at the cost of 1 infamy point. He has some nice utility skills that give him some limited capacity as a face and a sage, also starts aligned to Tzeentch.
• Idolitrex Magos of Forge Polix - An advanced Heretek, with higher quality augmentations and a Psy Rating x1. A mean, but otherwise standard mad scientist from the 40K 'verse. Has lots of talents that revolve around tech, and plenty of Lore skills and stuff that take advantage of his high Int score. Don't plan on relying on his talents as a Psyker at first, since his Psy Rating max is limited to his Corruption bonus.

Tome of Blood

• Khorne Berserker - CSM. "Blood for the Blood God" everyone knows how great these guys are in combat. Begins aligned to Khorne, if allegiance changes he permanently loses his close combat rules and a full 8 points from every characteristic. Always take the two Chainaxes.
• Night Lords Chaos Marine - CSM. Stealth and Shock Marine, specialized combatant focused on melee, while incorporating strong stealth and terror tactics, with other stuff to round him out outside of combat. Can come out of the gate with a fair Raptor build, and good for being brooding and edgy all the time, but surprisingly little emphasis in the crunch for being a space terrorist.
• Xurunt Frost Father - Human. Experienced tribal fighters with great leadership. Great close combat weapons, but still starts with using a bow and arrow, even if they can punch through power armor. Also starts out with a huge riding lizard. Plays well aligned to Khorne, and starts that way.
• Chem-Hunter of Messia - Human. Basically a drug-addict Renegade, with a lot of survivalist thrown into the mix. A great character for those who are addicted to drugs, these guys get good bonuses when substance abuse is involved. In addition to the effects of any drug, these guys gain +10 to any skill test bonuses, or +1 to any characteristic bonus, or an extra die roll for drug duration, and they can find the higher quantities easily. They can also make a drug that gives them Unnatural Strength and Toughness (+1) and Frenzy, but can kill anybody else that tries to take it. Best to go with Khorne or Nurgle.

Tome of Excess

• Noise Marine - CSM. Well, you know who this guys are, and what they are made of. They begin aligned to Slaanesh of course; and, enjoying it's gifts, there is little that they CANNOT hear with great bonuses to hearing. In battle, they get bonuses for every body involved in fighting, the more massive battles, the better. Being a masters of sonic weaponry, they are very shooty, and can enhance their output once per combat, or alternatively, force enemies to test willpower or get some nasty effects. As they start with sonic blaster, things starts getting loud all the time.
• Dark Apostle - CSM. Not strictly a Word Bearer, but these guys have all the same things: being a loud, charismatic, and influential servant of the Dark Gods. With their abilities, it almost becomes child's play to convert hordes of Imperial citizens to chaos. They can affect moar targets with their Interactions skills than any other archetype in the RPG books. They also can build altars and monuments to the gods, empowering rituals and rites aligned to the corresponding gods. They begin play with an Accursed Crozius, which is easily one of the most powerful melee weapons without possession (oh, and there's a possessed variant, too). They begin play Unaligned.
• Pirate Prince of the Ragged Helix - Human. Essentially a chaos Rogue Trader. Aristocratic and pampered. Really fucked up. Narcissism, influence, space ships and all this. Good things. They're focused on being aristocratic, piratical captains, they begin play with a space ship, and various high-quality crap, because anything less than the best will make them a lesser person. They begin aligned to Slaanesh.
  • Did we mention they have a space ship?
• Flesh Shaper of Melancholia - Human. Another lot of repressed sick fucks hunters of pleasures, they GM is actively encouraged to make these guys have to take willpower tests to avoid doing potentially stupid shit. Also, these guys can change their own flesh and bodies of others to gain some very interesting results. As they also have access to the (really broken) Rite of Fleshmoulding, with enough time and "resources" in hand, they can create their own sort of "space marines". The Rite of Fleshmoulding, which gains bonuses on unwilling subjects, can give Regeneration (6), Multiple Arms (6), Unnatural Stats (+6), and more. Sounds good, right? I'll take twenty! They start aligned to Slaanesh.

Tome of Decay

• Plague Marine - CSM. Papa Nurgle's favorite rotting pus-sacks. Immune to the negative effects of all diseases, and can use a special Reaction to take a Toughness test that lets them ignore the damage of the next hit by the number of successes on the test. (If this completely nullifies the attack, they gain Fear (1) against the attacker.) They can also spend infamy to release a cloud of smog and flies that hurts anything within 10 m. They obviously begin play aligned to Nurgle.
• Warpsmith - CSM unaligned. If you really felt left out by the Heretek's ability to be the tech-guy (and thus remove the need to protect a flimsy little bag of flesh), this'll be right up your alley. They can spend Infamy to fuck up any tech in their general vicinity, lead cybernetic Minions more effectively, and gain bonuses when creating Daemon Engines.
• Veteran of the Long War - CSM unaligned or aligned as wished. Anything goes type can duplicate an special power from other CSM archetypes at character creation if their alignment's are identical. Also gain one of their gear. Can generate fear in the souls of his hated enemies.
• Writhing World Sorcerer-King - Human aligned to Nurgle. A hideous psyker that always counts as unbound with bonuses when they use Nurgle powers. They are also made of worms, which they can summon as a minion.
• Death Priest of Mire- Human aligned to Nurgle. Can boost up weapons with extra qualities and eat corpses for extra toughness. Also able to destroy attacking melee weapons. Overall an enchanter/warrior type.
• Plaguemeister- Human aligned to Nurgle. Basically a plague medic with a vast lore-based knowledge. Able to heal better and of course infect others.

Splatbooks

• Core Rulebook - The main book, required for all the others to make sense. Including everything you need to play Black Crusade, it gives general information about the wide, twisted worlds of the Screaming Vortex, and basic rules about minions, daemon weapons, Chaos rituals, a pre-written adventure, and a glorious fourteen pages of mutations.
• The Game Master's Kit - Standard game master kit; comes with a GM screen with rules on one side, and art on the other, as well as a pre-written adventure. Take good care of it, and your Game Master's kit will take good care of you.
• Hand of Corruption - A pre-written adventure book in three acts, where the Heretics go to prison and teach everyone how to properly do prison rape also as infiltrate an industrialized Imperial penal world to bring the whole planet into Chaos' writhing, angry, slimy embrace. And when you almost get there...suddenly...Necrons!
• Binding Contracts - Binding Contracts is a Black Crusade adventure which follows a group of Heretics as they pursue the prophecy of the Many-Eyed, a dread oracle of Chaos. The Ruinous Powers have whispered to her that Solace will end in fire when a star descends from the sky. They murmur that the terror and confusion this event brings about must be properly dedicated to the Chaos Gods. Before this portent appears, the Heretics must infiltrate Solace and rally the wretched mutants that live beneath the hive. Then, once the star burns bright in the sky, they must lead their newly assembled army up one of Hive Solace’s spires, where they can cast down a rival sorcerer and take control of his ritual to summon a Daemon of unfathomable power to the Materium. If they succeed, the Heretics will have struck a blow against the Imperium within the Calixis Sector and won vast glory for themselves. If they fail, however, the unholy ritual could be their doom.

Books of ye Gods!

There is an ongoing series of books, each one is dedicated to each god, but gives plenty of general rules and fluff to expand on the vanilla game. Each one includes an expanded armory, more rituals, more enemies, daemons, daemon engines, information on worlds and places in the Screaming Vortex, a pre-written adventure, and introduces two archetypes for Marines and two for humans, all themed around the respective god. The books are:

• The Tome of Fate: The book on Tzeentch, and gives all kinds of info on him, his servants, and playing Tzeentchian heretic archetypes. Introduces the rapetastic Thousand Sons Sorcerer, as well as the Alpha Legionnaire; and two human archetypes that you wouldn't have heard of unless you have the core book: the Q'Sal Magister Immaterial and the Idolitrex Magos of Forge Polix. Other unique features include expanded psychic powers, rules for investigations, and more rules for Necrons.
• The Tome of Blood: The tome of Khorne, because who else would it go to? New features include turning weapons into Legacy Weapons (think of what sets apart a chainaxe from Gorechild); mounted riding rules, which of course edge into rudimentary vehicle rules; advanced horde rules and rules for large-scale battles. Not too much unique stuff, but then everything is about the ways to wage and rage war in Khorne's name. Also introduces the overtly broken Khorne Berzerker class, the Night Lords marine, the Frost Father who is a Khornate tribal warrior, and the Chem Hunter, a drug addict who was too hardcore to be thrown in with that pussified Slaanesh book. Oh, and ever wanted to summon a greater daemon? This is your tome! Also, it's the first book to mention Doomrider in ages.
• The Tome of Excess: Slaanesh's tome. Gives us the Emperor's Children Noise Marine and a Word Bearers Dark Apostle, also a Rogue Trader-like Pirate Prince and the surgeon/face Flesh Shaper. Also noted that there is no Unaligned archetype for humans, which is UTTER BULLSHIT frickin' sweet! something players should judge for themselves. New rules include extended rules for minions, verbal combat, seducing NPCs and fellow heretics, and has all kinds of small rites to perform to appease specific gods. The Khornate rites are the most amazing things ever, like rip the spine and skull of a still living enemy out intact and scream your allegiance to the blood god to grant you a little bit of corruption and infamy. The expanded armory includes drugs and rock'n'roll, but nothing explicitly about sex. Probably because Slaanesh is a registered sex offender and has to tread carefully, or something.
• Tome of Decay: The long-awaited splatbook for Nurgle, although it seems to combine both Nurglite topics and content that might have been included in the unaligned/Undivided book. Specifically, it has three new Marine Archetypes (Plague Marines, Warpsmiths. and Veterans of the Long War, which better fits the Chosen than the Chosen does), three human Archetypes (Sorcerer-Kings of the Writhing World, Death-Priests of Mire, and Plaguemeisters), rules for possession, building your own custom Daemon Engines, some stuff for running your own Black Crusade, ascension to Daemonhood, and, of course, the assorted new weapons, armour, enemies, and worlds that come with every book. A bit of a skub book because some felt it was a bit rushed when they finally got around to making it, and there could have been much more Nurgley stuff that was left out in favor of a lot of things that could have been more neatly filed under Chaos Undivided. Officially retconned that Daemon Princes had to be Marked by a specific god and so you couldn't ascend unless you chose one, which furthered the skub.

There had also used to be some rumours of a fifth book for Chaos Undivided, presumably covering unaligned archetypes (i.e. Black Legion and Red Corsairs) and providing the "higher-level" content, but, as we've said above, it seems to have been combined into the Tome of Decay.

See Also

• A character folio for Black Crusade. Heretical Huzzah

Warhammer 40,000 Role-playing games made by Fantasy Flight Games
Dark Heresy - Rogue Trader - Deathwatch - Black Crusade - Only War - Dark Heresy Second Edition