Great value. Great art on the Chaos champions: grim, realistic, serious. Great stats, hooks. Please do more like those, any theme, it's very good work. Khorne, Orks, Dark Elves, Nehekhara. The format is awesome and convenient for GMs. And keep up with the artwork!

An excellent idea for a starting scenrio let down by really bad editing and mistakes abound throughout the text, having just ran it for my players the mistakes detracted from the fun. I would normally knock off one star but the mistakes and lack of proper proof reading mean I have to sadly mark it down another notch. Nice ideas but seriously in this day and age editing for even basic gaffs like wrong name on character sheets should not happen.

What we finally have in our hands is the long awaited release of the W&G starter set, unfortunately delayed by "Warp Storms" in development.

Let's talk about what you get:

• Tier 2 Adventure: 'Traitor's Hymn'
• Setting Book: 'Flotilla Guide'
• Premade Characters: 6 Tier 2 Player Characters to use in said adventure
• Handouts: Quick Rules summaries for "simplified" rules that are more fully covered in the Core Rulebook
• Tokens: Wrath, Glory, Ruin tokens (at least images with the PDF version

'Traitor's Hymn' I can't write too much without spoiling the whole thing, but what can be grabbed from the basic summary follows: '...the player characters are newly recruited Agents of the powerful Rogue Trader Jakel Varonius, each having recently proved themselves useful in some way.

They are on board a ship called The Herald Varonius as it transports influential guests to the Varonius Flotilla. During a banquet, an unexpected storm drags The Herald into the chaotic alternate dimension known as the Warp, or the Immaterium.'

From there things...go about as well as you'd expect with a forced warp jump. I did something similar in my own campaign oddly enough, so this would have been pretty useful a few years ago in a continuingly strange way I keep encountering W&G releases.

The adventure, having read through it, is fine the character flashbacks immediately tie you into the events that will transpire, so as a first timer product it's good to have that depth. The flow of the adventure is fine too, everything makes solid enough sense there's a really nice flowchart of the areas of the ship the players have to manage to get through to "fix" the situation they're in I really like it from a design perspective.

There are some issues:

• Typos - Within the first few lines there's a blatant typo that...is just weird and frankly shouldn't be there. It's obvious and annoying, and there are typos throughout, nothing that makes the adventure less usable, but certainly will catch you off guard
• Rules - These rules are actively stated to be simplified from the Core Rulebook, however there are just some blatantly incorrect things stated. There's a difference in my opinion of teaching someone the rules of the game without a lot of extra fine points, which most of this does, and having actual mechanical issues stated in the work.

New Things:

• Some simplified rules for quick things like perils, crits, mutations. They're useful for one offs if you want to grab them for that. I know I will for some of the things I run in my own game
• Couple ideas for House Rules, there are two specific things I know I'll bring to my table.
• Imperium Effects Table: Some scene dressing for the corruptive events going on during the adventure
• A way to remove corruption (not consistently but a rare example of it occuring)
• Vial of Holy Water - New useful attack, given the simplified rules it may need some modification (like with the Blessed Trait from FSPG)
• Bestiary Entries: These aren't inherently new, some are repeated from the Core
• • Possessed Mortal
• • Vox Shambler
• • Plaguebearer
• • Thaddeus the Wretched
• • Nightmare Hulk
• • Glitchling
• • Poxbringer
• • Cultist
• • Emaciated Rogue Psyker

'The Varonius Flotilla' This is a basic setting book that introduces people to 40k overall, but for those familiar with it, and specifically the Gilead System, this booklet goes in depth into the forces Varonius has to bare and gives us a picture showing all the planets in the Gilead System. This isn't a map however, which is still a little annoying as it'd be nice to know the orbital rings that each of the planets occupy.

The Varonius Flotilla is rife with adventures of their own, each ship occupying a Faction and having their own unique flavor and issues there-on for player characters to engage with.

The planet explanations give Port areas a more thorough overview as well as a basic summary of the planet, each one has their own adventure seeds to further engage with.

Finally there are an additional set of adventures given to you in a very similar way to the GM booklet:

• Baying for Blood - Tier 2 - Somethings hunting locals on Ostia
• The Defence of Hill 09-L7-8B7 - Tier 2 - There's a hill under siege on Netherus and the players go to find out what's up
• The Wages of Cowardice - Tier 2 - Some servitors need to get made and the players get to help
• A Glacial Opportunity - Tier 2 - Something lays hidden in the icy wastes of Trollius and the players are dispatched to recover it
• Unfinished Business - Tier 2 - Someone's long lost sister reappears and the player's help them reconnect on Enoch
• The Dreaming and the Damned - Tier 2 - The players get embroiled in the retrieval of an Aeldari spirit stone

Bestiary Entires: These aren't inherently new, some are repeated from the Core

• Lictor
• Commissar Dak
• Combat Servitor
• Plague Marine
• Genestealer Cultists
• Genestealer
• Blessed Blade

Each of these adventures would run about the same length of time as an adventure in the Game Master's booklet, and seem intended to be run with the box set characters because they're all Tier 2 adventures, though you wouldn't get any experience without the core rulebook so at that point you could make your own Tier 2 characters or rebuild the provided ones I suppose.

'Premade Characters' Included are:

• Somnus - Sanctioned Psyker
• Sister Honoria - Sister of Battle
• Lachlan Teague - Rogue Trader
• Treave Molcon-22 - Skitarius
• Elatha - Aeldari Ranger
• Marius - Space Marine Scout

These could easily become some quick npcs, or even enemies, if you want to use them for your own games with already made players. They're made according to the core rules...where they don't get some rules incorrect it seems.

'Handouts' These rules are repeated in the 'Traitor's Hymn' adventure, and so suffer the same issues, they need some addressing for a bit of the "simplified" fine points, but are useful in a pinch.

'Tokens' Nothing to add here, they are what they say on the tin, I already have some USNA chips still so really not necessary for me, but nice to have if you don't have an alternative.

So, 3/5, it's an Average release, and not even because of the time it got delayed for (that's not in their hands). It's because of Typos knocking one star off immediately for the sake of just having someone read the thing, and also due to the blatant rule issues that even though they explain are 'simplified' are factually incorrect compared with the Core Rulebook.

I'd still like to hope and imagine that a proof-reader caught this stuff and they just had to get it out the door before it got corrected/approved, but as they say 'Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment'. I'll just repeat my mantra of "Listen to your proof-readers." and leave it at that.

Certainly not a Null Hypothesis situation where it was unusable, this is wholly runnable, and it looks good, it just needs some clean-up work...and Voidship rules, but that's a different argument.

There are olenty of characters with hidden motives (mercenaries are amazing and present so many options for the GM) and many compact enounters for the players to solve. E.g., meeting with Skarok, dealing with mercenaries, devicing a plan on where to face the orcs. It does involve quite a lot of combat, but not too much - the rules for simplified group combat are really useful. It can be daunting due to the number of combatants involved, but it really makes for a great scene the final fight! All in all, good three sessions worth of intense, perilous fun.

Ps. I played this in Mortensholm (year 2423) with Skarok as one of the Blood Axe Alliance chiefs, and the kidpanned boy as Jarl Sven Mortensson's heir. With practically no changes - worked like a charm.

A...confusing 3/5

This adventure itself is simply defined:

ADVENTURE OUTLINE The party are a group of Space Marine Scouts on a stealth mission in search of Neophyte Marius, a lost fellow Scout.

And this is entirely accurate. You are given some quick Scout stats to use and from there you can perform a short mission likely lasting one session maybe two if you really stretch something out, but this reads more like a Free RPG day adventure.

However, what's really confusing here is that the stat blocks are short, the information is reprinted, there's basically nothing new (some basic information on Ostia that we didn't have and some expansion to npcs in the Absolvers not present before) mechanically speaking, and you have to have either the starter set (which will have their own characters if Soulbound is anything to go by) or the Core Rulebook which you could...just make your own characters.

The stats for scouts provided would essentially be best used with the quick rules of the free rpg day adventure 'Rain of Mercy' which I would sooner suggest you use for this as it's basically a oneshot length.

Honestly the release feels more like some spacing out of time for the Starter Set which remains terrifically delayed unfortuantely, I guess if each of the stated characters to come in the starter set gets something like this (as this adventure gives what amounts to an introduction to the Scout Marine character to come in said Starter Set) then it could be interesting.

However, currently it remains an oddbug of a release, it's certainly better than nothing but it's an average adventure which gives you nothing really new mechanically to chew on and it has a lot of typos, for 20 pages I found about 15 mistakes which just knocks a spot off the review for me anyways because again listen to your proof readers!

I guess I'm a little confused as to what purpose this release serves other than filling the timegap, so it gets an average rating, but if you want rules I suggest you just get Rain of Mercy and wait for the starter set to release if you really want to continue digging in.

The setting is vivid, the plot is railroaded but interesting. Details are lovely. The NPCs are invincible, and the campaign cheats to push the story. That does not do.

An example: One crossbowman shoots two people so fast that the second one dies before the first one hits the ground. In the dark, from afar. It is so dark and he is so far away, indeed, that the PCs cannot -may not- find him. If the NPCs can to things that the PCs may never be able to do -not MAY fail, not work hard for, but HAVE TO FAIL- that campaign is bad. Plain and simple.

Fantastic art. Always wanted to RP as a psyker or a Space Marine.

Cool.

Beautiful and well-written, I cannot get enough of this book and the continued support Cubicle 7 provides. It is a constantly growing, evolving system with a lot of support by people who care. The rules have a lot of wiggle room and plenty of optional variations, and the layout makes sense. This is honestly one of the highlights of my bookshelf and I cannot recommend it enough.

There isn't a lot to say about this, it's short, simple, and clean.

It introduces about a dozen shotgun variants and a similar amount of ammunition various, however the ammo variants can go in any Projectile weapon without the Heavy Trait.

In this PDF:

Shotguns:

• Standard Shotgun
• Combat Shotgun
• Artificer Shotgun
• Auxiliary Shotgun
• Varonia Honorbound Pattern Shotgun
• 'Incisor' Shotgun Pistol
• Varonia Primus Pattern Shotgun
• Astartes Shotgun
• Avachrus XII Pattern 'Gravefiller' Shotgun
• Avachrus II-B Enochian Sanctified Shotgun
• Ork Boomstikk

Ammunitions:

• Nethreun Penetrators
• Avachrun Forgeshot
• VXII Auto-GuideSys Targeting Shells
• Enochian Prayershot
• Gravedigger Shells
• Illuminator Flare Round
• Biologis Impacter N-MF-76
• Xenopurge
• Cryptclearer
• Wyrmsbreath

Some of the guns imply a bit of a more open application to them, and I'd like them to be more described. However, W&G has instances of this and they chaulk it up to "let the GM figure it out". Things like "This can be used as a blugeoning weapon". Those only come up like twice. The Auxiliary Shotgun could use some clearing up, but the ammunition is fine as far as I can tell.

I have serious mixed feelings about this title. It is, simultaniously, one of the Wrath & Glory books I now reference most often - and also filled with things so poorly thought through, I cannot believe the book was released in this state.

There are tons of small details that are head-scratching. For instance, there is a possible encounter in the Space Hulk section that's clearly Necrons - and the rules for Necrons were not released by time this book came out.

The organization is also bizzare. The section on Space Hulks? Interesting and flavorful. The section on servitors? Same could be said of that. Cults of the Forsaken System? Lots of very fascinating takes on what makes a cult, including a surprising number that are not Chaos, Genestealer, or any of the usual suspects. The talents? Possibly the most useful section of the entire book. But what do all these things have to do with each other? You could arguably come up with some explanation yourself, but the book doesn't even offer a token framework for binding all these disparate parts togethers. It has the "feeling" like they had a bunch of different sections that didn't fit well into another book, so they lumped them all together and published Redacted Records.

The talents, however, are going to be the most divisive.

On the one hand, they offer something that's been sorely lacking: cheaper talents, including a ton in the 10 xp range. Many of them are cool, flavorful, and an exellent addition to a build. Adding "devastator marine" and "assault marine" as talents instead of full archetypes also proved particularly inspired; I have to congradulate Cubicle 7 on the elegance of that solution to the lack of "basic" Astartes builds.

However, the talents are also HORRENDOUSLY balanced. Some of them are fine. Some of them are "Enviable Grace," which helps you Fall Back, makes you outrght immune to one condition, gives you bonuses against two more, and could potentially allow you to access tight spaces - all for 10 xp. And the problem isn't only with one talent: "Built Tough" suddenly makes it easy to lug around an autocannon, "Fashionista" has Wealth as a prereq despite it being a consumable resource - the whole thing just feels ludicrously inconsistent in how well it was proofread, or even how well the people making some of the talents knew the game they were working on.

TL:DR - There is a lot in this book that I enjoy. However, it very much has the feel of something rushed to publication and tossed out before it was finished. I don't regret my decision to purchase it - I might even tentitively encourage others to do the same - but it badly needs Errata.

An all-time classic and great to see it back for 4th edition. This is WFRP in a bottle - horror, suspense and a night in the pub. Still one of the best intro adventures for those new to the game. It would make a great one-shot at anytime, but the best value for a GM is to drop new players into the middle of this and watch them flail, flee (surprisingly often, they flee) or somewhow fight their way through. Welcome to the Glorious Reikland!

Great adventure you can play in a session (or maybe two). Not quite the full five stars as it is a bit railroady - the characters need to be in the location and kept there for it to work. Still, a great romp with a good mix of fighting, investigation and diplomacy, some interesting and reusable NPCs and a big bad that is horrific, pathetic and sympathetic all at once, which isn't a bad trick to pull off.

A relatively good product for the price. Your enjoyment will probably depend a lot on what, specifically, you wanted to get out of it.

It comes with rules for psychic blanks, a new archetype (the Sister of Silence), and new equipment (for said Sister of Silence) - which, all together, is quite frankly a shocking amount of material to find in a tiny suppliment that only costs $2.

I, personally, found the accompanying adventure interesting, specifically because of its lore implications to the Gilead System. I also was intrigued by its suggestions on how to handle the way people react to psychic blanks, along with how to run silent characters.

However, while narratively rich, it is mechanically dry. The adventure is very short - likely only a one-shot - with very few encounters or skill-checks with meaning. It seems to mostly exist to introduce the Sisters of Silence to the Gilead System - and thus falls short of putting the player characters front and center. As a side mission or introductary mission to a wider campaign, it works fine. But it is unlikey to be satisfying to players all by itself.

An excellent addition to your collection.

Highlights:

• How to play Ogres, 3 new classes, including the Butcher who casts magic from the Lore of the Maw.
• Star Signs, reminiscent of 2nd edition, and adds optional, mechanical benefits/detriments for being born a certain time of year in Character Creation.
• Massive-scale warfare, that lists the process and battle rounds where PCs engage in 'scenes' that affect power levels on both sides of the fight, and how much it costs for army upkeep. This section also leans on gaining psychological traits after a massive fight as well, and the potential to recover from them.
• How to create magical items, which is very expensive and takes a great deal of time if you craft it yourself (and how much it would be to hire someone else to do it).
• Throughout the book are adventure hook ideas that are very good, very inspirational, utilizing the lore, NPCs, and mechanics in the book.

Extra Stuff

• The Great Hospice, which is interesting if you want to use it, or inspiration from it, for asylum-type adventures and NPCs. Personally my mind is going to Arkham-esque fun for my players with this.

Considerations

• Though not mandatory, trappings for the Ogre Butcher, and making magic items, require rare monstrous guts and items, which this Archive states you can get from the Imperial Zoo supplement.

Overall

An excellent book. Frankly, I'd get it just for playing Ogres, but the other stuff in here is exceptional, useful, and entertaining. It's all great, not just for the Ogres and their lore, but especially for those whose players have gotten so rich and powerful and the GM needs PCs to spend all their money and risk psychological horror in warfare.

AFTER C7 RELEASED THE UPDATED VERSION:

My current thoughts on this release mirror 'Wings of Valkyrie' from the Bloody Gates series of adventures.

It's...alright, really the adventure is just sort of present. It's a wrapping paper for the material that is actually useful, not only Psychic Blank's but the Sister of Silence archetype.

The archetype has been fixed, and the wargear has been improved, and they added the necessary wargear to complete the archetype (at least as far as I can check the math it's been fixed).

So why is it only 3 stars now instead of more?

The adventure could be a bit more, it's two encounters wrapped in some lore, so it's not got a lot in there to put in the toolbox, and frankly it shouldn't have been released in the state it did. If it originally released like this?

Probably still 3 stars, if there was more here probably 4 (even with the issues still present), but I don't think that it'd be much of a challenge for the intended Tier of play even with the noted improvements of the second encounter.

All in all, and I'm assuming the proof reader caught this and C7 was just rushed for a quick release here, there should have been another pass over this before it got out the door.

Below is my original review: 2 Stars

I'll open by saying at this point I'm just frustrated.

The basic summary of the material follows:

his is a short adventure for Wrath and Glory designed for Tier 3 or 4 agents, tasked with recovering a vital ‘navigational asset’ from the grips of a Chaos Sorcerer and his warband. In fact, the ‘navigational asset’ is an enclave of the Silent Order, whom the Rogue Trader Jackel Varonius hoped could aid in getting a message out of Gilead by calming a path through Cicatrix Maledictum.

And this is accurate, think of this as...buying a dlc character in a video game and this is their short introduction mission The material is a little more than the adventures in the game master's kit, but shorter than something like an adventure out of 'The Bloody Gates' series. The adventure probably won't really challenge a Tier 3 group, it's two encounters but in my experience a Tier 3 can handle it well and a Tier 4 will blow through it. It does have some interesting lore implications, for people playing in Gilead.

You Get:

New enemy profile (Taranax the Eye - Chaos Sorceror) who is misisng a psychic mastery talent A new Psychic Power (Diabolic Strength) labeled incorrectly as a Discipline Psychic Blank ability this is actually alirght, there are a couple points throughout the work that combine into a neat little package New Archetype - Sister of Silence Prosecutor The math is incorrect, and it's missing wargear (her armour) New Wargear - Witchseeker Flamer, Executioner Greatblade, Psyk-Out Grenade To me these all seem fine, though I do think the greatblade could use brutal or rending that's just opinion Advice on playing a Sister of Silence character This is actually pretty interesting since you're playing a mute So why is it 2 Stars?

Proof reading, I read this in an hour and a half, it's basically 8 pages of actual material and there are still those glaring issues.

Either their proof reader isn't being listened to, or worse they aren't catching this. Neither are ok, not when you're actually introducing new material to the system itself. I don't care if it's $2, the community deserves to have the math correct on an archetype at this point, and all wargear present in the work. Affliction Ascendent suffered just as poorly (worse admittedly since it's actually missing material to make it wholly unplayable whereas here you can get by with giving them Sororitas armour). It's not ok.

This is useable, and I will be using Blank elsewhere in my own games, but that's only giving it 2 stars.

Listen to your proof reader, or if it's a matter of them not having actually caught this get a new one