The player character is an Inquisitor sent to the planet Galerius V to investigate rumors of a series of cults growing in strength. The player travels along with Amberly Ibric, a Puritan Inquisitor. They miss a scheduled rendezvous with Corax van Heppel, a Radical Inquisitor at Alpha Hive. Amberly proceeds to investigate the reports of cults while the player searches for Corax.

Corax, imprisoned by the Shade Gang, is rescued by the player, who is then directed to find a psychic transmitter that Corax was tracking down. The transmitter would allow the player to deal with the Genestealer Cult which Amberly has since located. After retrieving the transmitter, the player is ordered to eliminate the Shade Gang for their role in interfering with the operation.

With the Shade Gang out of the way, preparations to neutralize the Genestealer Cult are in place. The player can choose to use the transmitter to wipe them out, or to dominate them, so they can be used to further the Inquisition's goals on the planet.

The player finishes the quest line with either new allies in the form of the Cult, or with a hefty opinion boost from Amberly, which will make acquiring Imperial allies significantly easier later.

Click here to read the full quest design document.

The prompt for The Roots of Heresy was to create a quest chain in an established IP. I imagined the quest to be part of a hypothetical Warhammer RPG, however, it could be adapted to a long campaign of the Warhammer tabletop RPG Dark Heresy.

I wanted to take advantage of the IP to explore a narrative where the player’s allies in the Inquisition are as much in direct conflict with each other as they are with the opponents they seek. Rather than providing the player with clear “good versus evil” choices, I wanted to provide them with equally valid options that let the player weigh the merits of their choices without being told that some were the “right” way to go.

To do this, players can complete the quest in different ways, via investigation, combat, or communication. Furthermore, the quest reward is similarly evenly weighted regardless of how the player finishes the quest. I think doing so encourages agency - as a player of RPGs myself, I don’t like being forced down paths by having rewards heavily skewed in one direction.

DEVELOPERS

Michael Walker
Quest Designer