Thought for the Day: A knife in the dark is worth a hundred guns at dawn.

Dark Heresy
Quick ‘n Dirty Combat Rules

Initiative
Roll 1d10, and add your Agility Bonus. Don’t call out your initiative until it is asked for.

Attack Actions
Action Type Description
All Out Attack Full +20 to WS, cannot Dodge or Parry
Charge Full Must move 4 metres, +10 to WS.
Defensive Stance Full Enemies -20 WS, you cannot attack.
Feint Half Opposed WS Test, if you win, your next attack cannot be Dodged or Parried.
Full Auto Burst Full +20 to BS, additional hit for every degree of success.
Grapple Full Make a Grapple attack (see page 197)
Guarded Attack Full -10 WS, +10 to Parry and Dodge
Knock-Down Half Try and knock an opponent to the ground (see page 190).
Multiple Attacks Full Use Swift Attack or Lightning Attack talents to make multiple attacks
Overwatch Varies Shoot targets coming into a set kill zone, -20 to BS.
Semi-Auto Burst Full +10 to BS, additional hit for every two degrees of success.
Standard Attack Half Make one melee or ranged attack.
Stun Full Try to Stun an opponent.
Suppressing Fire Full Force opponents to take cover, -20 to BS.

Move Actions
Action Type Description
Disengage Full Break off from melee and move.
Jump/Leap Full Leap or Jump (see page 214).
Manoeuvre Half Opposed WS Test, if you win move enemy 1 metre.
Move Half Move up to your movement as a Half Action
Full ...or twice your movement as a Full Action
Run Full Move triple, enemies -20 BS and +20 WS.
Stand/Mount Half Stand up or mount a riding animal.
Tactical Advance Full Move from cover to cover.

Miscellaneous Actions
Action Type Description
Aim Half +10 bonus to hit as a Half Action on your next attack.
Full ...or +20 to hit as a Full Action on your next attack.
Delay Half Before your next Turn take any Half Action
Dodge Free Test Dodge to negate a hit.
Focus Power Varies Use a Psychic Power.
Parry Free Test Weapon Skill to negate a hit.
Ready Half Ready a weapon or item.
Reload Varies Reload a ranged weapon.
Use Skill Varies You may use a Skill.

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 Thought for the Day: A knife in the dark is worth a hundred guns at dawn.

The Attack
Step One: Test
To make a melee attack, you must be engaged with your target. Test Weapon Skill. When making a
ranged attack, you Test Ballistic Skill. If you roll equal to or below your WS or BS, you hit.

Step Two: Determine Hit Location

On a successful hit, you next need to determine where the hit landed. Using the Test result, reverse
the order of the dice, e.g. a roll of 32 becomes 23, 19 becomes 91. Consult the table below.
01 - 10 Head
11 - 20 Right Arm Step Three: Determine Damage
21 - 30 Left Arm Each weapon has a Damage listing. This is usually a die roll, plus or minus a
31 - 70 Body number. If you are using a melee weapon, add your Strength bonus.
71 - 85 Right Leg This is the Damage total. If you roll a “10” on any of your Damage dice, you
86 - 00 Left Leg have a chance of Righteous Fury!

Step Four: Apply Damage Righteous Fury!

From the Damage total, you When you roll a “10” on any die (this includes a result of 10
opponent subtracts his Toughness when using a d5 - even though the number is halved), it many
Bonus and any Armour Points that indicate that the eye of the Emperor is on you. This calls for a
protect the location. second attack roll, Testing WS or BS as if you were making
a second attack. If you succeed, you can roll an additional
Ranged Attacks 1d10 and add the result to the Damage total. Should the
•Ranged attacks cannot be Parried, result of this die also be a 10, you may immediately roll a third
unless you have a special Talent. 1d10 and add that to the Damage total as well. This process
•You do not add your Strength continues until you roll a number other than 10.
Bonus to the Damage of ranged
attacks.
•You cannot make ranged attacks whilst engaged in melee, unless you are armed with a ranged
weapon that is classed as a pistol.
•You must be able to see the target. You may still attack targets that are partly visible, such as those
standing behind a tree or behind other targets.

Shooting into Melee

There will be times when a target is already engaged with another enemy. Ballistic Skill Test
against these opponents are harder than normal. You take a -20 penalty to the Test.
Optional Rule: GMs keen on reinforcing the merciless nature of the 41st Millennium may rule that
if you would have hit the target were it not for the penalty, you instead hit the target’s opponent.

Weapon Jams
Such is the capricious whim of the 41st Millennium that many of the ranged weapons will have an
unfortunate tendency to malfunction. To represent these occurrences, an unmodified result of 96 to
00, in addition to being an automatic miss, also indicates the weapon has jammed. A Jammed
weapon cannot be fired until it is cleared. Clearing a Jam in a Full Action which requires a Ballistic
Skill Test. If the Test is successful then the Jam has been cleared. If the Test is failed the weapon is
still Jammed, though the character can attempt to clear it again next Round.

Faster Combat
Sometimes, combat can be bogged down if there are multiple combatants. To speed up combat,
roll in advance any Tests you will take in your action, and work out results for when your round
comes up. This way, combat will take less time, and you can get back to finding heretics and traitors

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 Thought for the Day: The foolish man puts his trust in luck, the wise man puts his trust in the Emperor.

Dark Heresy
Quick ‘n Dirty Additional Rules

Fate Points
Fate Points allow you to turn luck to your advantage, hitting with that bolter shot when you would
have otherwise missed, or cracking the security code on a door just in time to make a hasty escape.
Using these twists of fate, you can take a few more risks, which makes the game faster and far more
exciting than would otherwise be the case.
That said, you have a limited pool of Fate Points and whenever you spend a Fate Point, you
reduce your pool by one. Fate Points are restored at the start of the next gaming session. Spending
a Fate Point allows a character to do one of the following things:
•Re-roll any one failed Test. The results of the re-roll are final.
•Count as having rolled a 10 for their Initiative.
•Add an extra degree of success to a Test.
•Instantly recover 1d5 Wounds.
•Recover from being Stunned.

Burning Fate
Sometimes a re-roll or an extra degree of success is not going to be enough to save a character’s life.
In these instances, the character may choose to burn a Fate Points and permanently reduce their
Fate Points by 1. The result is that the character survives whatever it was that would have killed
him, but only just.
Note that you may burn a Fate Point even if you have already used all of your Fate Points for that
gaming session. This just means that at the start of the next session, when your points are restored,
you will have 1 less Fate Point.

Degrees of Success and Failure

For most tests, it is enough to know whether you succeeded or failed. Sometimes, however, it is
useful to know how well you succeeded, or how badly you failed. This is particularly important with
social skills like Charm and Inquiry, as it gives the GM a guideline to help determine Non-Player
Character (NPC) attitudes.
Measuring degrees of success and failure is straightforward. Compare the result of your Test
with your score. For each full 10 points by which you exceed your Characteristic, you achieve one
degree of success. Conversely, for each full 10 points by which you fail, you gain one degree of failure

Weapons
Name Class Range RoF Damage Pen Clip Reload Special Weight
Laspistol Pistol 30m s/-/- 1d10+2 E 0 30 Full Reliable 1.5kg
Lasgun Basic 100m s/3/- 1d10+3 E 0 60 Full Reliable 4kg
Autopistol Pistol 30m s/-/6 1d10+2 I 0 18 Full - 2.5kg
Autogun Basic 90m s/3/10 1d10+3 I 0 30 Full - 3.5kg
Shotgun Basic 30m s/-/- 1d10+4 I 0 2 2Full Scatter, Reliable 5kg

Armour
Name Location(s) Covered AP Weight
Quilted Vest Body 2 2kg
Light Flak Coat Arms, Body, Legs 2 4kg
Guard Flak Armour All 4 11kg
Mesh Vest Body 4 1kg

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