Customer Reviews

Dark Heresy RPG: Creatures Anathema

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a must have for any Dark Heresy GM. It has a few classic 40k creatures genestealers*, lictors, some eldar, and some orks, and some classic daemons. But don't expect to see all the classics Tau, Necron, most 'nids, and chaos types. Most of the book is devoted to new Calis sector ceatures. (If this is a good or bad thing depends on what you are looking for.) The new creatures are well thought out and suit the investigative campaign sytle of DH. These are better suited (some might argue) than the some of the classic table top units.

*Strangely missing info on the genestealers half breeds, and cults.

As said many times in various reviews for this book, what is in the book is excellent. What is not in the book is what I want more of.

I appreciate the storytelling, the various "files" on the xenos & other creatures in the book... but for the most part, "Creatures Anathema" seems like half of a great book.

I was particularly interested in the Eldar & Tyranid entries in the book. Whilst I can get by with the Genestealer & Lictor entries for the Tyranids, the authors simply waved away Genestealer hybrids by saying that they are outside the scope of the book. So you either have to make up your own rules for hybrids & infestations, or the Genestealers are pretty much a non-factor for you.

Likewise, the Eldar section begins with a beautiful picture of a Warlock... but no Warlock stats, no Eldar psyker abilities, and not even the stats for a standard Shuriken Catapult (ostensibly because there are no rules/stats for your standard Eldar Guardians). I can certainly make my own stats for Eldar Guardians, and I appreciate the usefulness of Eldar Pathfinders & the fact that Dire Avengers will be more commonly encountered than Warp Spiders or Shining Spears... but why no Eldar psykers? It's a glaring omission, especially since we get psyker abilities for summoning rats in this book. (Oh, yes, you can play as an unsanctioned rat summoner now, thank the Emperor, but you will not find rules for Eldar Warlocks) I guess I can also create my own Warlock abilities, and say that Farseers (like Inquisitors) are far beyond the scope of Dark Heresy... but there's hardly enough meat to put together a suitable Eldar encounter without knowledge of Eldar from the tabletop miniatures game.

Instead of more details on Genestealer Hybrids & Eldar wytches, you get more Calixis sector stuff. While several pages of non-minatures game beasties are appreciated, you get 34+ pages of non-sentient vermin/beasts versus 6 pages for Eldar and 8 pages for Tyranids?

Granted, the Eldar could have an entire book to themselves... but maybe they deserved more pages when you have so many beasts/vermin entries? Maybe an entry for Guardians or Eldar corsairs (since you shouldn't have to buy Rogue Trader if you don't want to)?

That's the frustrating part of the book. There's some great stuff, but it requires a lot more work if you are interested in Xenos threats.

For Ordo Hereticus games, don't even bother with this book. It's interesting, but not worth your time IMO. Get the other books in Dark Heresy, or get the Rogue Trader rulebook instead... you'll get info on Eldar Corsairs & Ork Freebooters as well as Kroot mercs, in addition to Rogue Traders & Astropath characters, which is FAR FAR faaaaar more useful than what you'll find in Creatures Anathema.
Rogue Trader RPG: Core Rulebook (Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay)

For Ordo Xenos or Ordo Malleus games, you'll find useful info here (moreso for Ordo Malleus, with Flesh Hounds & Juggernauts of Khorne, plus Flamers of whatshisname)... but Ordo Xenos acolytes in particular will need more help from a creative gamemaster to round out what's in this one.

Once again, the creators of the Dark Heresy line have created a winner. It's definitely a pretty book. Creatures Anathema has an amazing layout and what looks like brand new art. It is broken into different sections outlining the types of creatures that your acolytes might meet...Mutants, Xenos, Death Worlds, Daemons, and Tech Heresy are the main sections. However, this is not just a list of stat blocks. Each entry gives you plenty of background and adds adventures hooks on how to use these adversaries. On top of that there is a whole chapter on how to integrate the bad guys into your campaign. This is a "must have" for collectors and GMs.

I was looking forward to this book when it was announced, and I was not disappointed. It's a very good addition to the Dark Heresy RPG material.
Although it could've had more threats included, those that were are well described and their environments and motives are clear and concise. The sidebars for plot hooks and in-game Inquisitor journals and notes add value to the entries worth the lack of threats in my opinion.
My other minor qualm was the various spelling mistakes throughout the text. Most of them were spaces splitting the first or last letter from it's associated word, which doesn't bother me as much as it might others.

I bought this expecting to get a D&D-like monster manual with tons of different monster stat blocks. Instead, it's a very fluff-oriented book with descriptions of dead worlds, the warp, and how to specialize your campaign around Xenos or Warp Entities. It's not that it's a bad book, and I don't regret buying it. I just wish they had included more creatures.

Overall this is a good addition to Dark Heresy. Lots of detail, quite a few species covered, and some interesting story tie-in ideas. However, the book is rather short, and I wish they would have focused more on pre-existing alien races from 40k (even ones that were only briefly discussed in the old Rogue Trader). The main reason I gave the book only 3 stars however, was the apparent lack of any proof-reading before printing. The book is full of typos, words written together without spaces, and such bad grammer that it is hard to understand at times. Although the book isnt ruined by all this, it does become more than a little distracting and makes you wish that they had spent a little more time proof-reading the book before printing it.

Creatures Anathema is a great addition to the Dark Heresy roleplay game. This "monster manual" provides a lot of new rules and background for bestial threats to add to your roleplay campaigns. Like the other books in the series, it's filled with great artwork and is laid out in a highly aesthetically pleasing manner. This book could even be useful for adding some roleplay elements like "pop-up" monsters to narrative games of the 40K tabletop game and might inspire some model converting too.

The problem with this addition to my collection is not what it contains. But what it doesnt. It felt as if they'd left out just enough for it to be really useful. If however you are running a Daemon or heretical mechanicus game it will provide many NPC's for you to use. Of note, it contains enslavers, lictors, mega armor for orks, and eldar.

Even though not entirely useful now, it may prove worthwhile once i write more custom modules.

I am running a Deathwatch game BTW. For Dark heresy it may prove more useful.

I really liked it it has a genuine 40k feel to it. Gives plot ideas for the GM. thye one thing i wish it had was Chaos marines other than that a really good job was done.

well this a good book whit lot of new way to do a monster manual.
-inquisitor story about is personal meeting with the creature
-scenario idea
-imperial threat story on some of them

one others good must is all creature is pictured, seem simple but not all monster book do it.

But....this book is pretty slim, is not hold lot of creature, 143 pages on where you can see one creature take up to 5 pages on hit and most of them take 2-3 pages. you can found 3 mutans only, 9 tech heresy, 3 death worlds creatures, 9 vermins, 12 xenos (3 eldars, 3 ork + 1 ork pet), 11 chaos, total 47 creatures only.

in the end the strenght of the book is is main weakness too. each mob take too many place (some picture of mobs take a full page and story about mob can take 3 pages.

personaly i prefer a monster book where 1 mob take 1 or 2 pages max, a book with tons a creatures (like AD&D monster manual).

but this book IS a great add on for dark heresy, with lot of infos, story and idea about 47 creatures. i have only hope for a bigger one.