JP

I know I wrote this for myself months ago, in a playtest document, for myself but- this is straight up gibberish.

I revised this and... Made it more complicated. This is a very rough first draft with some ability ideas tacked on the end.

Formations
Knaves working together benefit each other, can offer aid and support and share resources. However gathered together they are more vulnerable to being surrounded or caught in the same snares, traps and attacks.
When two or more Knaves are in the same location they may agree, on either of their turns, to be in formation. Knaves may not change this status outside of their turns. You may not be in formation with an unwilling participant.
While in formation Knaves may share consumables and any effect which targets a Group. Knaves in formation may ignore the effect of being Outnumbered.
Additionally when in formation Knaves generate 1 Heat each time another Knave in formation damages an enemy, and are subject to effects in the location which have the Blast or Group quality.
When a Formation is affected by certain effects, such as Blast or Pinning effects, the formation must test against Breaking, see below.
Any Knave not in formation is considered to be working independently, even if they are the same location.

Breaking Formations
Formations can be broken by several effects:
One or more members suffers a Blast, Pinning or Stun effect.
One or more members leaves the formation forcefully.
When one of these conditions occurs the formation must test to hold their nerve and stay in formation. One member of the formation is chosen to try and hold the line. They test Presence and roll 1d20 for each Knave still in formation.
On a success the Formation persists and the Knaves remain in formation.
On a failure the formation breaks and all members are immediately lose

Formations and Tests
Formations make certain tasks easier and some more difficult.
Actions in which having a group for support, such as intimidating an individual, working together to force open a bulkhead or to sift through a Glyphbank for clues, gain an additional dice.
Actions which are complicated by having so many bodies, such as escaping through a narrow corridor, sneaking up on a sleeping guard or consoling a scared child, become difficult.
Outside of initiative, or rolls with immediate effect, you can easily choose whether to be in or out of formation when electing to perform an action, however the GM is advised to consider that when determining the outcome of an action.

Abilities and Formations
Some abilities affect formations specifically and can create moments when Knaves may form or disband Formations out of turn.
Rallying Call (Champion, Warcry, Loud) When performing an attack spend (x) Heat to trigger this Warcry. All allies within earshot may make a free move closer to your location. Those in your location at the end of your move may join your formation.
Shield Wall (Gear, Shield, Defensive) Allies in formation are considered to have cover when defending against ranged attacks.
Advance (Champion, Warcry, Loud) When performing a move spend (x) Heat to trigger this Warcry. (x) allies in formation may make a free move to the same location as you and end the move in formation with you. Allies that do not move form a separate formation in the original location.
Smoke Bomb (Gear, Consumable, Control) Consume this item. All creatures in the current location are Blinded and Obscured. Knaves in formation may break formation and move to an adjacent location as a free action.

I know I wrote this for myself months ago, in a playtest document, for myself but- this is straight up gibberish.

(I'm still off work ill, understimulated and have nobody to bounce ideas off really so now I am going to ramble for far too long about a thing I am noodling around. Sorry.)

I've been toying around with GayHalforc's Sledgehammer rules, which I like for a bunch of reasons but mostly the fact that it's a rules light hack of Dark Heresy, which is a foundational text for a whole bunch of designers (myself included) who looked at its combination of low power, high lethality and lovingly crafted cross section of the Warhammer 40,000 and asked the question: What if this had rules that weren't shit?

If you want to hack Dark Heresy then Sledgehammer is a good place to start. It actually leans closer to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WHFRP) but a simple reskin can set it in the 41st millennium and the rules are hacked right the way down so you can start reintroducing the crunch to a level that suits your own particular tastes.

For me this meant adding weapon traits (my group loves guns) and cribbing in Gamma World 7e's ammunition system (if you shoot more than once keep shooting cause you'll be out of ammo at the end of the encounter anyway), which is a brilliant rule I've always wanted to play with.

The other big change I wanted to make is more foundational; getting rid of the d% system.

It's something I've always wanted to do with Dark Heresy because percentiles get very 'mathsy' quickly, something made worse in the original system having variable bonuses and penalties depending on the situation. If you're shooting you +20 if firing full auto, +10 if aiming for a half action but +20 instead if aiming for a full turn. God only knows how lighting works, and thats before you even get to hit locations, cover and damage (Dice and weapon strength, minus target toughness, and maybe armour less the penetration of the weapon? ICK!)

None of which would be an issue if you didn't have to engage with that system, but stats in Dark Heresy are 25-40% range unmodified so you need to navigate all the variables to do anything reliably. Sure routine tests are supposed to get bonuses, but if they're routine why are we rolling at all?

I replaced all that with 1d10 roll under a stat between 2 and 5 (at base) which seems harsh until you throw in an extra 1d10 for having a relevant background detail and another 1d10 for anything that makes life easier. Anything under is a success, the highest of them is used for causing damage.

On the flip side particularly difficult tasks will steal a success after rolling, because that's how Heart: The City Beneath managed its difficulty and I found it suitably vicious for a hard edged setting.

Which brings us to the setting. One of the big problems with Dark Heresy's successor, Wrath & Glory, was that it tried to encompass the entirety of the 40k setting with its rules. Dark Heresy and its successors (Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, not so much Black Crusade) benefitted from focusing the action to a specific corner of the Imperium and the street level 'Cthulhu and boltguns' vibe of the original is definitely what I want to capture.

A big source of inspiration for playing Dark Heresy recently has been Warhammer 40,000 Darktide, which has a similar sort of vibe of picking your way through a massive hive city as the whole place goes to fuck. I'm not sure that I want it to be a full on warzone the way the Hive is there, but the idea of a place where Imperial rule is less absolute, rebellion more open; of a world straining at the shackles of distant masters and the space between the oppression of the past and the open rebellion of tomorrow, is something that appeals to me for reasons that you might recognise yourself.

So that is where my players will find themselves, with a name, an accusation, all of the responsibility and none of the authority needed to bring their target to justice and completely disposable to their distant masters.