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I'm thinking of running an inquisitor campaign at my local club and, seeing as it's been damn near a decade since I last played, I'm a bit rusty on the rules. So, if you can shed some light on a few questions I would be most grateful!
1] Special Ammunition. How much does this cost? For example, 'standard' ammo is 50% of the weapon cost. So is a full reload of special Ammo 50% of the weapon cost + the relevant price if it's Rare/Common? For example. A Boltgun [5pts] with 1 reload [2.5pts] and 1 reload of special/rare ammo [7.5pts] Is that right?
2] Speaking of ammo. I can't seem to find anything about buying ammo for manual reloading. It seems odd that an automatic shotgun (20 shots) pays the same price for a reload (again, 20 shells) as a single barrelled shotgun who pays the same price for 1 shell!!
3] Pricing for shields. For armour you pay 1pt per 1point of armour on each location. So, for a shield that covers 3 locations and is AV4. This is 12pts? Right? If it's a rare shield it's 17pts.
Lastly, (for now) is anyone on that Inquisition 'Conclave' Forum?
Lord Borak wrote: Lastly, (for now) is anyone on that Inquisition 'Conclave' Forum?
Yes. We're not exactly a hive of activity over there at the moment, but there are some of us around.
Anyway, my very strong recommendation is do not use the Ready Reckoner beyond treating the weapon/equipment rarity list as a fluff source (so, for example, mutants probably wouldn't get their hands on exotic weapons). Not only is it beyond useless at determining a character's potential on the table, a points system gives players the idea that Inquisitor is a game about "winning" (which it really isn't).
Experience, good intentions and a GM who'll make the players feel the consequences are a far more effective system for balancing the game.
1) Experience: It's best to earn your own, but you can still borrow from others. There's something called the "Conclave Standard" that grew out of Derek Gillespie/Saussure's "Giving Birth to a Monster" article in Exterminatus 10. It isn't strictly a standard as such (having no hard definition), but it's a principle that the game works better and is more interesting without the massively high stats that show up in the original rulebook. People who have hit chances of 80-90% tend not to give their opponent much chance to react, which doesn't make for good stories.
My guidelines for players are summed up here (these are mostly based on the principle players will be hand picking stats, which can represent a character better than any random generator):
Spoiler:
The range of 1-100 establishes the limits of human ability. No mortal human could possibly be more than Strength 100, for example. However, as this is an absolute limit, a point that would only be obtainable by a very few genetically lucky individuals if they had an absolute dedication to only that and a complete neglect of everything else but base human needs, it should never actually happen.
Across most stats, the following holds:
A stat of 30 would represent an average human with no training whatsoever in the area.
A stat of 50 represents a character we could describe as competent in an area. They're not great and they don't stand out, but they're good.
A stat of 60 would be a someone who really knows what they're doing.
A stat of 70 represents a very expert level of skill.
A stat of 80 is practically mastery.
Most player characters will have most of their stats in the 50s and 60s. Some characters might get some 40s in there.
Many characters might have a stat or stats of 70 or above, but do not automatically have a right to it.
When you get to 80 or above (particularly if it's more than a single stat), this should only be very rare and well justified.
The mental stats have a bit more leeway on high or multiple high values, as a combination like Sg & Ld 80 is (usually) less dominating on the game than WS & BS 80.
There are a few extra limits I would intentionally draw:
> Ballistic Skill should cap out lower (more than 70 should be rare), as it's a skill that can have multiple +20 bonuses stacked on it. If you want to do a marksman character, use a typical BS but increase their aim bonus to +25 or so.
> Don't use Toughness values below 40 for PCs, even for the absolutely most frail and wizened character you can imagine. Characters that frail are not fun to play or play against.
You can fudge this a bit dependent on the exact spectrum of the characters in a group (a character might have an excuse to be more powerful if his allies are less capable than average) and also to make sure characters are entertaining on the table,
2) Good intentions: If your players are trying to "win" the game, then they're not really understanding Inquisitor. Inquisitor describes itself with the unique genre of "Narrative wargame" because it is neither a skirmish game or an RPG - it's overly detailed for the former, and omits a lot of the non-combat stuff from the latter. It can be seen as sort of somewhere between the two, but I prefer to describe it as "tabletop improv theatre" - the GM is the director and scenesetter, the players are the actors and the characters are their roles.
Described this way the game's intent becomes clearer - while the characters might be trying to come out victorious, the objective of the players is to enjoy the story by taking on the roles of these powerful and fascinating personalities. And sometimes the latter should take precedent over the former.
3) Consequences: A great many Inquisitor games are not set in circumstances where the characters would be expecting a fight. A character's equipment should represent a reasonable state of combat readiness to strike a balance between the times they're going in locked and loaded, and the times they're ambushed while quietly investigating runes in the underhive.
If a player wants his character to wear power armour and carry around a plasma gun in every game, then it has to be assumed he's carrying these around pretty much permanently, which will place him at a hefty disadvantage. It will not be hard for other players to track his movement, informants will flee (what a way to blow their cover as to be seen to be meeting with that!) and you'll have an interesting time keeping your supply lines open so you've always got power cells and hydrogen flasks available wherever you are.
Similarly, Space Marines. They're not trained for at investigations, and if an Inquisitor continued to keep one on his staff (rather than requesting their aid only when heavy combat is expected), then the Chapter Master might well have some choice words for the Inquisitor, because by no means are the Astartes mindless slaves to the Inquisition. (Astartes chapters are fairly independent, and very powerful - they're not easily threatened, even by an Inquisitor, so their support is more requested than demanded).
This can also apply in game. Rickety bridges, weak floors and boggy swamps are an interesting problem for characters in power armour.
~~~~~
It can take a little time and commitment for players and GM to reach that kind of approach to the game, but once achieved there's little need for a points system!
(Although this is quite lengthy, please don't misinterpret it as a scathing critique. I'm just rather obsessive).
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2015/04/09 10:26:51
The points I was using merely as a guide however i'm OCD when it comes to numbers and wanted to make sure I was doing something 'just right'.
As for the stats, I think I'm going to use the 'random character' creation thing from the 2002 Annual (Jesus, is it really 13 years ago?!?!?!) for people to create characters from. These stats seem a bit 'lower' than the ones from the Brig Green Book.
Lord Borak wrote: As for the stats, I think I'm going to use the 'random character' creation thing from the 2002 Annual for people to create characters from.
Yeah, that'd be the one from WD258 which Derek's article later built upon, splitting it down into more archetypes. If you're interested in the Exterminatus article, it can be found out on the web (but Dakka is relatively strict about IP infringement, so I can't directly link it).
Those generators do have a few problems (they don't struggle to produce BS values of 75 or more, which can be stacked with aim actions and make for un-enterainingly high hit chance), but they are certainly a better take on things than the stats in the 90s that aren't that uncommon in the rulebook.
Jesus, is it really 13 years ago?!?!?!
Indeed. I had an alarming realisation recently that my Inquisitor rulebook is now older than I was when I bought it.
