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 START TRANSACTION WITH CONSISTENT SNAPSHOT; /* 1197 = b040efc48ff04988d3b90bc501865cd6