Dark Heresy The Inquisitor's Handbook: The Ultimate Player's Guide [ハードカバー]

The first follow-on sourcebook to the Dark Heresy line, the Inquisitor's Handbook is an interesting lot of player options that generally add good flavor to the universe, but can ultimately be skipped by those who want value out of their gaming purchases. It is of limited use for players with existing characters unless they want more junk/equipment to haul around. For gamemasters, it adds background flavor, but you may get as much out of the Black Library novels as you would this sourcebook.

The addition of new general homeworlds & backgrounds, such as Schola Progenum & Noble-born characters, were generally pleasing.

The specific unique backgrounds, such as the Gunmetal City hivers or the Battlefleet Calixis void-born... they seemed wrong somehow, as if they invalidate or diminish those unique characters who did not chose the unique backgrounds of those specific settings. Why shouldn't a Malfian hiver have as many unique features as a Gunmetal City hiver? I guess I am being picky about this, but I think these unique backgrounds were a waste of space. Ditto to the profession-specific backgrounds... Tranch War vets get a specific label, but a creative character who says their Guardsman fought Xenos in the Halo Stars gets no swanky special stats? The backgrounds are too limiting.

The Adepta Sororitas profession is a welcome addition, but at the "idiot flunkies of a stupid Inquisitor that hires useless Guard Conscripts" power level of the game, Sororitas characters are even more useless & pointless as any other sacrificial pawn of the Inquisition. At higher power levels, Sororitas characters should be outfitted with equipment & faith powers that totally outstrip their comrades... even your standard Sister of Battle in the tabletop game has power armor & a bolter, not flak armor + flashlight like a Guardsman. So while I might run a Sororitas campaign, the inclusion of the Sororitas is kind of a mixed bag, especially since we don't get rules for Inquisitors, Spess Mariensss, or even Interrogator-level characters.

Also, I had the impression from other reviews elsewhere that the option to play a Commissar was in this book. Not completely true. The book introduces the Calixian flavor of Commissariat, but there are no true rules for running an Imperial Commissar (i.e. going up through the ranks from Cadet-Commissar like Gaunt). This was a disappoitment, but given the power & authority of a true Commissar, it's not surprising that a "real" Imperial Commissar should not be an acolyte-flunky of an Inquisitor. As a fan of Colonel-Commisar Gaunt, I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of rules, but also relieved.

The majority of the book is devoted to specific types of worlds in the Calixis Sector, along with arms & armor from those worlds.

Due to this skew towards gear & equipment, I guess I would describe this book as an equipment book with some additional flavor & player options. The benefit is that you get "famous" gear like the Hecutor autopistol & Scipio-pattern naval pistol (albeit in a Calixis Sector copy of the Scipio), mentioned in Dan Abnett's Inquisition books.

The question must be asked, however - why don't you just use the basic Hand Cannon & call it a Scipio? This book gives me dozens of different statlines for weapons that I probably would disallow due to the overwhelming book-keeping requirement. Creative characters should name/label their guns without prompting from this book, IMO.

In the end, it's an interesting sourcebook, but too expensive for what I got from it. With Creatures Anathema, I guess I thought it was great & I wanted more of what was in the book... disappointing in that it was too brief. With the Inquisitor's Handbook, I think it was interesting, but I mostly didn't need what was in the book... disappointing in the length of mostly irrelevant information/stats. Again, I'd still recommend the Rogue Trader rules as a supplement to the Dark Heresy line before the Inquisitor's Handbook, at least from the Game Master's perspective.
Rogue Trader RPG: Core Rulebook (Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay)

The Inquisitor's Handbook is separated into the following:

Chapter I - Advanced Character Creation
In this chapter, it the book gives characters alternative worlds to choose from (Forge, Mind Cleansed, Noble Born, and Schola Progenum) as well as introducing elite packages for starting characters, and specific homeworlds which offer boons and banes.
Chapter II - Calixian Career Paths
This chapter introduces (in my opinion) one of the most powerful character classes in the game - the Adeptus Sororitas sister, as well as offering different variants of existing classes. I advise GMs to read these carefully before allowing them to be taken. Some of these include the Black Priest of Maccabeus (a militant sect of Tech-priests who hunt demons and are a bit insane), Moritat Reaper (a god of blades, at the expense of not being able to use many modern weaponry) and (my favorite) the Nascent Psyker (an unsanctioned Psyker with random psyker powers... hold onto your hats!). Every class (including the new Adeptus Sororitas) has an alternate career path.
Chapters III through VIII
These chapters are essentially one big arsenal of new weapons, armor, and gear, from Feudal World scale armor to Inquisitorial witch-hunter gear. Chapter VIII also goes into religion and how it is viewed in this sector of space, as well as describing several Holy Days and Saints.
Chapter IX - Life as an Acolyte
This chapter goes briefly into how an acolyte functions within the Inquisition, as well as introducing Contact rules and Alter Egos, which are both fun. It also goes into an expanded list of how certain skills can be used.

At the back of the book is a compiled list of all weapons and armor from both the Dark Heresy Core Rulebook and the Inquisitor's Handbook.

While a good source book, it isn't strictly necessary to play. Many of the weapons simple have a different name and history, while having the same statistics as their "generic" brothers. While interesting, a clever GM could do this by himself. The character area is where the book really shines.

A solid 4 out of 5 (and a hell of a good price on amazon!).

This hardback expansion to the Dark Heresy roleplay game is just gorgeous. It's 255 pages of pure creativity, adding all kinds of terrific depth to the Dark Heresy game universe, such as:
- Advanced Character Generation
- New "Calixian" Career Paths
- Feral and Feudal World Background
- Hive and Forge World Background
- Frontier World and The Void Background
- War Zones Background
- Holy Ordos Background
and more.

Seriously, the artwork, history, charts, and new rules for Dark Heresy take it up to a 5-star gaming system. This book really fills in the cracks of the already wonderful Dark Heresy core system. With the discount offered here on Amazon at the time of this writing, it's a "must-have" book for Dark Heresy players and game masters. Highly recommended.