Initial skills matching in GUMSHOE Dark Heresy

I went through Dark Heresy RPG and Trail Of Cthulhu and compared the skill sets. Sticking, for now, to the basic skills from Dark Heresy and not looking beyond ToC I compiled this match, which is pretty impressive. There is a lot less work here to do than I fear, clearly Messier Hite and Laws knew someday it would come to this. I can see that I'll need to add some kind of specialisation option to Athletics, to allow people to be particularly good at Contortionist, or more likely Dodge. There are quite a few GUMSHOE skills I'll want to added to GDH. Finally I realise that the list of Lore skills will be quite large and I should consider if PC's should get more investigative points to adapt to this increase. Probably not.

Dark Heresy Basic Skills with existing Trail Of Cthulhu GUMSHOE counterpartsAwareness - Sense trouble
Barter - Bargain
Carouse - Athletics
Charm - Flattery or Flirt
Concealment - Conceal or Stealth
Contortionist - Athletics
Deceive - Reassurance
Disguise - Disguise
Dodge - Athletics
Evaluate - Art history (partial)
Gamble - Streetwise (partial)
Inquiry - Interrogation, Reassurance or Assess honesty
Intimidate - Intimidate
Logic - Cryptography or Physics
Climb - Athletics
Scrutiny - Assess honesty
Search - Conceal
Silent Move - Stealth
Survival - Outdoorsmanship
Swim - Athletics
Tech Use - Mechanical repair or Electrical repair
Tracking - Shadowing

Trade - Craft or Art
Animal Wrangling - Riding (partial)

ToC GUMSHOE Skills missing from Dark HeresyCredit Rating
Evidence Collection
Language
Locksmith

Medicine

Oral History (gossip, traditions, folklore)

Streetwise

ToC Abilities To ConsiderAthletics
Conceal (items)
Disguise
Driving
Electrical Repair
Explosives
Filch (pilfer)
Firearms
First aid
Fleeing
Health

Mechanical Repair
Pilot
Preparedness (kit, stuff)
Psychoanalysis
Riding
Sanity
Scuffling
Sense Trouble
Shadowing
Stability
Stealth
Weapons

Dark Heresy Lore SkillsCommon Lore:
Adeptus Arbites
Machine Cult
Administratum
Ecclesiarchy
Imperial Creed
Imperial Guard
Imperium
Tech
Underworld
War

Forbidden Lore:The Black Library
Cults

Daemonology

Heresy
Inquisition - Ordos (Malleus, Hereticus or Xenos)
Archeotech
Mutants
Adeptus Mechanicus

Adeptus Astartes
Psykers
Warp
Xenos

Scholastic Lore:Archaic
Astromancy
Beasts
Biologis
Bureaucracy
Chymistry

Cryptology
Heraldry
Imperial Creed
Judgement
Legend
Numerology

Occult
Philosophy
Tactica Imperialis

GUMSHOE Dark Heresy

In The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future There Is Only Heresy.

While not a straight conversion GUMSHOE Dark Heresy is based on the original game, particularly around background and occupation suggestions. As GUMSHOE is a points based character system there are no enforced classes though, and players are free to imagine their own backgrounds if they wish. Characters spend points to gain access to class abilities. For example to gain augmentation, the character must buy points in Tech Priest. The starting power level is akin to Trail Of Cthulhu, in that the characters are talented but still starting out. The game will also feature troupe style play, like Ars Magica, where each player also has one or more secondary support characters, mostly likely more combat based. This is not to say that investigators, the primary characters, shouldn’t take combat skills, there is danger in every corner of the 40K universe, but when needed the investigators can call in combat retinue. 

There Is Only The Emperor, And He Is Our Shield And Protector.

The sanity and stability rules will be used from Trail Of Cthulhu, however Sanity is called Faith, and is a measure of how far from the emperors light the character has fallen. There are of course many ways that a character may descend, towards Chaos, towards rebellion, towards The Greater Good, towards selfish corruption, or towards inhumanity. Pillars Of Stability, that which helps you keep your faith, will come from the reasons behind your dedication to the inquisition, and can range from pious belief to utter self-interest. It might be that you’re a naive believer in His Divine Light, you may rationalise that only the Inquisition stands between mankind and the darkness of the void, it might be utter devotion to your lord inquisitor that keeps you sane or it might be you see power and righteousness trickles down to you through service.  

Big Guns Never Tire.

The gun-crunch and combat rules will mainly come for Ashen Stars. Further action elements can be discovered in Essoterrorists 2.0 and and Night’s Black Agents. Ship to ship combat, and design, as and when we need them will also come from Ashen Stars. Characters spend points to access more powerful weapons and armour than basic equipment. However while they can loose these items situationally, you get them back between acts. Likewise found items are yours only until the end of the current adventure unless you buy them with points.

The Flesh Is Weak.

Biomechanical augmentation can provide special abilities from Mutant City Blues. These tend to be things that enhance senses and provide beyond human-normal capabilities. However these enhancements reduce Faith as the character becomes less and less human. 

And When You Gaze Long Into The Warp The Warp Also Gazes Into You.

Psychic powers also come from Mutant City Blues and from a greater range. Psykers use the Quaid diagram in much the same way as intend in the MCB rules and gain the drawbacks of psychosis when they cross power boundaries. Some MCB powers are not available as psychic powers however. There is also always the danger of the perils of the warp.

Many Are The Faces Of The Enemy, And Many Are The Hands Which Do Its Work.

Investigative abilities are the main stay of the characters and much of the game will be driven by their application. This means that characters will get a separate pool of points to spend on investigative skills. 

A lot of work

After the fantastic roller coaster of running the Owl Programmable Pedal Kickstarter, I've been preparing and starting my new job [Development Manager @ Gamesys] and have been pretty exhausted. This weekend however I'm at GW's centre in Nottingham for Throne Of Skulls. I decided to take a similar lists to last year but with a Helldrake and more MoN Chaos Spawn, so I've been busy painting them. Here is a picture of the Plaguedrake, made from a bitz from a Vampire Counts Zombie Dragon, Daemon Prince and Forgefiend. I'm very pleased with it, although the painting needs a lot more work, it's 3-colour ready.

I'm getting a really strong itch for some roleplaying again though, after our Inquisitor game finished. While I really want to run the D&D Slavelords campaign, with A0, my group isn't so keen on fantasy, so I'm tempted either by The Armitage Files ToC or running GUMSHOE Inquisitor using Bleeding Rim Ashen Stars rules.     

Bookhounds of New Crobuzon

After reading Ken Hite's excellent Bookhounds Of London I'm daydreaming about running a Bookhounds mashup of Ars Magica set in New Crobuzon.

The players would take the role of a magical bookshop's guards, bookfinders and sellers as well as alchemists and ingredient sourcers. So many games, so little time.