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Hey everyone
I got my hands on some old (high pants, nose hair old) white dwarfs, read inquisitor battle reports, saw modelling guides on them and background stories...
Suffice it to say that I'm hooked. Does anyone know how common Inquisitor games are in Brisbane (Australia)? What kind of places run campaigns along these lines?
Also, how are warbands limited? Is it points-wise like 40k? or is it quite different...
Thanks a lot for your help (if i get it, if not i understand, it seems like its kind of old)
K

Even when it was out I never saw nor heard of anyone playing =I=. People bought the models cause they were cool but no one I know of actually used them.

One big problem was there was no points system or balance. The GM was supposed to do that himself.

For gaming the Inquisition most people do a Necromunda =I= hybrid called =I=munda or play Dark Heresy.

I've seen a total of 2 games played when it was first released.

Supposedly, people like the rules using regular scale 40K. On the net, it was known as Inq28.

kaled wrote:I wrote this guide a while ago - hope it helps;
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?autocom=ineo&showarticle=465

There's also a slightly updated, but less pretty version here;
http://www.the-conclave.co.uk

Also you might want to check out Dark Magenta, the Inquisitor fanzine;
http://darkmagenta.co.uk/

And this thread compiles tons of useful stuff;
http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=34.0

Heres some interesting links if you want to have a look.

All credit to kaled of course...

Thanks for the links rev

No worries.

motyak wrote:I got my hands on some old (high pants, nose hair old) white dwarfs

Oi, I'm not that old! Inquisitor only turned 10 this year.

Anyway, in response to the pessimists above, I have to quote PrecinctOmega's response to the surprised person who had stumbled across the 2009 Inquisitor Grand Tournament in the WHW gaming hall: "Yes! People still play Inquisitor!". It's not as popular as it could have been, largely because people didn't really get the point of the game, which does without game balance in order to allow the freedom to do some truly spectacular things.

I've seen Mexican standoffs between nearly half the characters on the board, plasma bolts fired as warning shots, my Inquisitor nearly downing a Valkyrie (scratch-built in 54mm) using gravel and half bionic warriors having a chainsword duel under the wing of a flaming aircraft... all in the same game. I totally failed at my objective, but with a game like that, how could I lose?

Does anyone know how common Inquisitor games are in Brisbane (Australia)? What kind of places run campaigns along these lines?

It's only really in the UK that there's a moderately dense organised Inquisitor community. In Australia, you'll probably need to make your own group - which might be as simple as asking around your local clubs to see if anyone bought some models years back and would like to use them again.

Also, how are warbands limited? Is it points-wise like 40k? or is it quite different...

Entirely different. The rulebook did try and include a "Ready Reckoner" points system, but most experienced players agree that the RR is a heap of junk that doesn't actually sum up a character's power at all accurately. (Really, don't use it!)

A standard approach amongst veterans of the game is therefore simply that of co-operation and reasonableness. If you're ever writing a character thinking "Oh man, this guy is going to kill everyone" as opposed to "This character is going to be really interesting and make the game fun for everyone", then you're doing it wrong.
A degree of thought about the importance of subtlety to an Inquisitor can also keep things in check. A bolter might be one hell of a weapon, but it'll make you stick out like a sore thumb. A stub-auto, on the other hand, is something that you can carry without giving yourself away...

Ultimately though, it's the Games Master's call, as technically he chooses the characters that play in the game - even if normally that is afforded to the players as a privilege.

Ha didn't mean anything by the old thing, in retrospect they weren't even that old, I just found one where the blood angels were released brand new! Not sure how many editions ago it was, but it was quite ze old vun (that I can find anyway, there aren't many kicking around my area)
Righto, I'll nose around my local clubs and see who is keen...I hope some people are.
And if a campaign did go on, would you say maybe 3 men in a band? 4? Probably no larger though right?
And yeah, the narrative kind of story is what got me interested in the first place. In a battle report in a WD this tech magos got shot in the head, and he survived and it generated psychic powers because his brains got all squiggled up...made me just want to have that depth in a game that I can play (unlike 40k. I play guard and have to laugh sometimes at the slaughters that are perpetrated on my men ha).
Thanks for your help
K

I don't think of the White Dwarf issues around the time of Inquisitor being old because that's about the same time I stopped buying regularly and I forget how long ago that was. No correlation though, I liked Inquisitor - it was the rest of the magazine that wasn't as much fun any more.

motyak wrote:Ha didn't mean anything by the old thing, in retrospect they weren't even that old

Well, depends. By the standards of GW's target market and their assumptions about customer attention span, 10 years is indeed a long time. At 22, I'm certainly at the younger end of the gamers who can actually remember the release of Inquisitor, but that's still a fair bit older than GW's average customer.

Righto, I'll nose around my local clubs and see who is keen...I hope some people are.

If there aren't any old players, then your best bet to make new ones is to find the people more into the background and the idea of doing things that many other games (GW or otherwise) can't offer. In any case, steer clear of the power gamers, as the point of Inquisitor is not "winning".

And if a campaign did go on, would you say maybe 3 men in a band? 4? Probably no larger though right?

I've got groups in all sorts of various different sizes, from one man bands to large chunks of the sprawling networks of an Inquisitor.

Bear in mind, that just because a group might be six or seven characters, it doesn't mean you have to use all of those at once - you can use a selection of them as the mood takes you or as the mission briefing is set out. Normally, I'd recommend that in game each player has most 3 or 4 characters, although you might need to rein that in if there's several players or more than a couple of NPCs, as too many might make the game pace drag a bit.
Not that a big game can't be fun, but until you've got experienced players, it's probably better to start small.

MarcoSkoll wrote:
I've got groups in all sorts of various different sizes, from one man bands to large chunks of the sprawling networks of an Inquisitor.

Bear in mind, that just because a group might be six or seven characters, it doesn't mean you have to use all of those at once - you can use a selection of them as the mood takes you or as the mission briefing is set out. Normally, I'd recommend that in game each player has most 3 or 4 characters, although you might need to rein that in if there's several players or more than a couple of NPCs, as too many might make the game pace drag a bit.
Not that a big game can't be fun, but until you've got experienced players, it's probably better to start small.

We used to use a point system for characters. It wasn't a point system for BUILDING characters, but a system for building the force. For example, a team could be 4 points. Most Characters are worth 1, the 2nd Inquisitor level and a couple types(IIRC, things like the 2 Eldar types) are 2 points, the 3rd Inquisitor level and a few other types(like actual Ordo Assassins) are worth 3, and a Marine is worth 4.

It didn't restrict you in equipping or building a character you wanted, but it helped(note, didn't say fixed) with the power balance between characters.

For a few recent one day campaigns we've run at WHW we used a variation on that idea. Each player started the day with a set number of resource cards, then for every resource he 'bet' on the game he could use one character (with the GM being able to say that powerful characters cost more resources), up to a limit of say three or four characters. At the end of each game the pool of resource cards was divided up between the players by the GM depending on how well they'd done in achieving objectives (although most GMs also tended to award the odd resource to players who maybe hadn't done well at achieving objectives but who had done something exciting or cool). Thus the number of characters each player got to use depended partly on how well they did in each game. Of course, players could be careful and divide resources between the games equally, but by taking less characters in each game they might reduce their chances of winning, so many players just go for broke and hope they win enough resources to have a decent warband in the last game. It worked rather well and gave an easy way to see who was winning the day overall.

Not sure if Marco is going to use the same system for the campaign planned for later this month, but whether he does or not you'd all be welcome to bring some characters and join us in Nottingham for a few games.

kaled wrote:Not sure if Marco is going to use the same system for the campaign planned for later this month

In short, yes, I'll be using the system.

I'll also be borrowing something from Van Helser's Summer Conclave in that there'll be missions where matching up certain types of resources will offer a bonus. I've yet to decide exactly what bonus, but there will be one. Probably not free ice creams, more likely it'll relate to the scoring.

but whether he does or not you'd all be welcome to bring some characters and join us in Nottingham for a few games.

I know we do get people flying in, but Colorado is a wee bit further than the Scottish Highlands.

Well, I had been thinking more about the people reading the thread who are in the UK, but if any of our international cousins want to join us then that'd be good.

It might be worth posting threads about the event on a few of the other forums where Inquisitor is (occasionally) discussed - it's always good when we get new players joining us.