"The Macharian Sector is awash with violence..."
That’s not just the opening line of Cubicle 7’s newest resource, it is also the crux of the setting for Warhammer 40,000: Imperium Maledictum. Violence, deceit, manipulation, and the survival of the Imperium of Man by the thinnest of margins may be a common theme throughout Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40k setting, but it is ramped up in Imperium Maledictum, made more real and personal by the fact that the players aren’t the Aeldari or Astartes of Cubicle 7’s other release, Wrath & Glory. Instead, the players are often nobodies, individuals plucked by their Patron to do their bidding and advance their causes – often at great personal risk. These missions expose players to the fact that injuries, and eventually the more life threatening Critical Wounds, are inevitable and to be expected, but they absolutely need treated if you want your character to survive not just between campaigns but through the current scenario.
Thanks to Cubicle 7, we were gifted a copy a few days early to take a look at the newest splatbook for Imperium Maledictum. Titled Diagnostica Obscurus, it focuses on three unique Non-Player Characters (NPCs) that your players can come across in any setting, but it also includes a bit of information on the planet they were originally written for. With healing being a difficult and often expensive necessity, having NPC’s that can fill that gap for your party can mean the difference between life and a party wipe.
This splatbook contains three fully fleshed out NPC’s (minus Genetor Erudir Phi-VI, for the flesh is weak to the Mechanicus) for use within your campaigns. There is little to nothing of worth in this resource for players, but GM’s will find some great content within. Each NPC has a developed backstory, detailed enough to be more than just a framework but still very functionally able to be modified for your individual game. There are also four different hooks or plot arcs for each of the NPC’s, including three missions that lead to the penultimate “Apex Mission”; these four missions per NPC are enough to build an entire short campaign around, and include information for both supporting and opposing each of the NPCs.
The variety of the NPC’s is fantastic as well. You have Noxia Vex (Infractionist), an unlicensed medical practitioner scraping by through bribes in the shadows; Karzinth Half-Hand (Infractionist), who has arguably the most intriguing backstory and is [SPOILER ALERT] our first look at any NPC tied directly to the Adeptus Astartes; and Genetor Erudir Phi-VI (Adeptus Mechanicus), a borderline Heretek (corrupted former members of the Adeptus Mechanicus who chose to forgo the Cult Mechanicus for darker studies) obsessed with the potential strength of biological integration of xenos tissues into human hosts. While two of the three NPC’s are listed as Infractionist, they are extremely different even within that NPC family. In addition, the NPCs are each written for different planets within the Macharian sector – and different levels of their respective societies.
This level of diversity lends itself to the ease of use of these NPC’s by a GM. It would have been too easy for Cubicle 7 to just continue to push out content specific to Voll and Rokarth, with Chemical Burn and the eventual adventure book set on planet Voll, but instead they have two other NPC’s and their ties into their respective societies. Now, any GM will know that you can ignore that part of the NPC’s story and plug them in anywhere within your game, but it is nice to see a concerted effort by Cubicle 7 to expand further than the acidic mudbath of the planet Voll.
Dead Suns Company gives this resource an 9.0/10 – while it isn’t a necessary purchase for experienced GM’s, it is an efficient and great resource with good information in a condensed format that both new and experienced GM’s alike will find a benefit from.
Diagnostica Obscurus releases next week, and can be purchased from Cubicle 7’s webstore here.
*At time of release of this review, DSC is unaware of the pricing of this resource. Pricing may impact final score.
