The Conclave

~~~~~

A one-day narrative Inquisitor event, which will be using some of the games on the day to playtest the latest version of the Inquisitor Revised Edition rules.

The event is planned to be 28mm scale based on responses from players so far, but can be opened to 54mm players as well if enough people express interest.

The Player Pack can be found here (http://www.mediafire.com/file/1cbv2zu5lged9x8/Inquisitor+Guardian+Player+Pack+V0-1.pdf).

~~~~~

Original post:

As I've already alluded to in other places, I'd like to run the next playtest day for the Inquisitor Revised Edition sometime this year.

This will still be a normal narrative day with an underlying story to back it up (it'll just be that any games I GM will be using the Revised Edition rules (http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2387.0)*), and so I'm proposing that it helps fill in the currently empty schedule for Warhammer World this year.
*And IRE deliberately tries to keep the feel of original Inquisitor, with a very high degree of back compatibility, so it's not like you're going to be playing something grossly different.

I'm currently trying to phone WHW about dates, but I'm not currently getting more than an answer-phone. If people can pre-emptively rule out any of the following dates:

21st July
28th July
4th August
11th August

... then I'll know to avoid them if at all possible when I get through on the phone.
(My personal favourite would be 11th August, as this avoids me having to miss or work around other things, but I can do the others if absolutely necessary).

At the moment, I have a few potentially interested responses from 28mm scale players, but very few from 54mm players - I'm fine with this being a 28mm event, but it may be that we're not going to have (m)any other events in Nottingham this year!

I can do 28 Jul or 11 Aug, but am 28mm only.  Of note, 04 Aug is the Bring Out Your Lead weekend at Foundry in Newark, I don't know how much overlap there is between Inq & the Oldhammer communities, but thought I ought to point it out.

4th or 11th of august.
As mentioned elsewhere july is just too busy for me.

I have now booked the Necromunda Sector Mechanicus table (https://s20889.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/whw-gaming-tables-Necromunda-Table-%C3%94%C3%87%C3%B4-Sector-Mechanicus.jpg) and two standard tables at Warhammer World on the 11th August. (Unfortunately, Mining Facility 42 was already spoken for :'( ).

And with that, I announce Guardian:

---

~~~~~

Guardian will be a one-day narrative Inquisitor event, which will be using some of the games on the day to playtest the latest version of the Inquisitor Revised Edition rules.

The event is planned to be 28mm scale based on responses from players so far, but can be opened to 54mm players as well if enough people express interest.

Looking at the Warhammer World website, I noticed the following: "All models must be Games Workshop in full. This does not extend to bases, but includes all weapons, heads, arms legs, wings and so on."

Has any exemption been granted for this event?  If not I'm severely constrained in what I've got that's eligible*, and certainly haven't got a cohesive warband with a sensible backstory and depth of character.

*3 Frateris Militia, an Ogryn, a Pit Slave and an Astropath - that's literally it.

We haven't got any special exemption, but I certainly won't be enforcing the rule myself.

As far as the staff, they don't have the time to police the entire venue with a fine-tooth comb, and you'll be at an event where basically everything is heavily converted, OOP or outright scratch-built.
In eight years, the only imposter I've seen the staff spot was an unpainted WIP model in GW-has-never-sold-this-shade-of resin that someone had left out in the middle of a model-dumping table we'd deliberately set out as a display to attract people's attention.

(And that includes back when we used to get the staff to score the painting/modelling competition at the IGTs!)

I wouldn't be concerned, but if you are, I can probably offer up one of my own warbands for loan. (I know that's not ideal, but it is an option).

Cool, that's my concerns pretty much assuaged.  Having never played there before I had no idea how strictly this sort of thing is enforced.  I might throw together some emergency character sheets for my pure GW models just in case, but will plan on bringing one of my coherent warbands as Plan A.

Given that it's the weekend before my birthday I think I can swing it. I hope.

I'll be bringing both scales.

I've just finished putting together the draft version of the player pack for Guardian: http://www.mediafire.com/file/1cbv2zu5lged9x8/Inquisitor+Guardian+Player+Pack+V0-1.pdf

It's possible that some details will be updated as the event gets closer, but this should set out at least a general picture of how the event will be run.

Having not attended a Conclave event before, I'd appreciate a bit of guidance on the appropriate sort of character to bring as my principal protagonist for this event. 

My fall-back plan is my Rogue Trader, who I can easily see getting mixed up in this sort of shenanigans, however, I used her in my last Inquisitor campaign and quite fancy a change.  My 2 options (without re-purposing an existing model as a new character - which just wouldn't feel right) are a space mobster boss and an ex-guardsman preacher/cult leader (worships the Emperor, but not sanctioned by the Ecclesiarchy).  I see them both as relatively minor characters on a planetary scale - they're key players in their city, but have minimal wider importance.

Without knowing exactly how the campaign is planned, would such figures find themselves working with the Inquisition to find the Guardian?  Or could it be that an actual Inquisitor has leant on one or other of them (made them an offer they couldn't refuse) and set them on the trail, thus keeping that particular Inquisitor (or other interested party) at arms reach?

Quote from: Genghis on June 16, 2018, 06:04:28 PMWithout knowing exactly how the campaign is planned, would such figures find themselves working with the Inquisition to find the Guardian?  Or could it be that an actual Inquisitor has leant on one or other of them (made them an offer they couldn't refuse) and set them on the trail, thus keeping that particular Inquisitor (or other interested party) at arms reach?

Those are both possibilities.

There are other variants on that - rather than the Inquisition "making an offer they can't refuse", there's also the possibility that the Inquisition is  manipulating them - there are a lot of very wily Inquisitors out there who can make things happen by whispering the right lies in the ears of the right people.

If the mob boss was never told any more than the myths, he could be lead to believe that the Guardian was a powerful weapon that could elevate his standing above the city scale. Maybe the preacher believes it's a holy relic.
Of course, they might have second thoughts once they start realising exactly what they've got themselves into. They may be already in too deep - or maybe their "patron" Inquisitor sweeps in and makes it clear that quitting is not an option.

(That could actually be quite an interesting concept, characters who start developing an "Oh no, not again" attitude when they realise that they've just fallen for yet another Inquisition "tip-off").

Alternatively, the characters could come to similar conclusions without the Inquisition initiating anything.
It's not unthinkable that a mob boss would have visions of grandeur, looking to elevate himself above merely an annoyance to the local Arbites, and depending on which version of the story he's heard, he might wish to find the valuable artefact... or perhaps he's looking to get himself a favour from the Inquisition by being able to give them what they're looking for.

Or, to be honest, even a low-life of a mob boss doesn't particularly want to see the sector collapse around him as a warp storm tears reality apart, so maybe he's asked a few of his informants to keep an ear to the ground regarding those old legends... he might be acting more selfishly than an Inquisitor, but he does still have a legitimate interest.

And for a preacher/cult leader? Depending on how deranged and/or fanatical he is, he could interpret a dream as a vision from the Emperor, commanding him to lead his flock to rescue the sector from the oncoming threat.

While it can take a bit more thought to think about why non-Inquisitorial characters are getting involved in a story, there's usually the potential.

Cool, thank-you for the detailed answer.  I can definitely come up with something that works.  My main concern was not to accidentally turn up with a parochial character that I had to shoehorn into a situation way beyond anything he should reasonably have become involved in.  (Which is not to say, having become 'reasonably' involved in these shenanigans, he subsequently finds himself massively out of his depth...)

how is recruitment for this going on other forms Dave?
I see the event currently has a much lower interest on facebook than the Abyss event (the facebook event does not yet have the finalised date of the 29th Sept btw).

Quotehow is recruitment for this going on other forms Dave? I see the event currently has a much lower interest on facebook than the Abyss event

I've got three people who sound like they're pretty definite on Ammobunker (although one will be missing the first game).
As far as Facebook, I was always expecting lower interest in Guardian than Abyss, as it's IRE rather than straight Inquisitor - however, I wouldn't be that surprised if it also had a smaller percentage of drop-outs; just a gut feeling relating to the natures of the different events.

I don't think the turnout will be massive (actually, I'm kind of hoping it's not - I've only booked three tables), but it should be respectable.

Quote(the facebook event does not yet have the finalised date of the 29th Sept btw).

When I last talked to Dark Sphere they couldn't yet absolutely finalise that date - it was a case of "our Lambeth store will be absolutely chockablock, but the new store should be open by then" (completely paraphrasing), but when I asked when they could give me something a bit more solid than "should", I didn't really get anything back.

I'm planning to push it with them in the next day or so, but I've been a bit distracted by trying to take over The Conclave (insert "muwhahahaha" here) and get the latest version of the IRE rules ready for Guardian.

The latest draft of the IRE rules have been released ahead of the event:

http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2387.msg39147

Okay, I'm now unable to come to this, as the next day I've got driving to do for the honeymoon.
I should still be able to make the 29th though.

For anyone who is coming, a notification of a minor update to the IRE rules (you might have already seen it, but I decided to share it here to help remind people).

There's just a couple of minor tweaks from the version from a couple of weeks ago, but it also includes the rather useful crib sheet for detailing the differences from the main rules:
http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2387.msg39167#msg39167

I had a great time on Sat, thank-you MarkoSkoll for putting it all together.  This is now woven into Andrei the space mobster's story - he'll tell anyone who'll listen how he single-handedly killed an inter-dimensional space daemon with a single shot to the head (conveniently glossing over all the other shots put into it by everyone else present).

I had a rather unpleasant trip back (cancelled trains, getting sent to catch other trains I wasn't actually allowed to, then the train I could actually take getting held up because the replacement train crew were late), but the event went well from my perspective. It didn't turn up any major rules hiccups, although there were a few things I made note of (although you might not have noticed all of them, as I managed to handle some of them on the fly). Mostly it just demonstrated I should sort out a better quick reference sheet...

We managed to get some fair use out of the Paraelix terrain (but I do still need to sort out more doors for it!). Although the plasma generator did try fairly hard, it didn't quite manage to run its batteries flat by the end of the day.

I'll probably expand this at some point*, but so that the events of the day are properly bookended, the epilogue:
*I want to sort out a wiki for the Abraxis project, but I'm also wondering whether it should just be an extension to the Carthax Wiki to keep it alongside all the existing gameplay/rules articles on there.

~~~~~

The Guardian proved to be utterly arcane machinery. Although based on similar technologies to the Gellar Field, magnifying those effects to affect a warp storm required the use of sorcerous techniques, and so, many millennia ago, Inquisitor Orestes struck the machine from the Inquisition archives - not out of fear of the machine itself, but out of what the close-minded might do to it if they became aware of its method.

His fears were not unjustified. The only Inquisitor present chose to do just that - or at least, he would have, had the Winterholme sextuplets, champions of Slaanesh, not beaten him to it.
The efforts of Virag Kondas ("The Stormhunter") and Andrei Sweeney (a heavily overwhelmed gangster, deceived into his part in the matter by an undercover Inquisitor) proved in vein, even with the assistance of Helena Van Brasing, the latest in the line of the Van Brasing daemon-hunters - and first cousin, one-hundred-and-seven-times-removed, to the Winterholmes themselves.

Although the Guardian may be repairable with time, as many records and blueprints were uncovered in the investigation to find the machine, it has, for now, not been fired.
As such, warp travel into and throughout the Abraxis sector will be even more wildly perilous than normal for many months, if not years or decades. The veil of reality will be stretched thin - ruptures and incursions into real space are likely to become more commonplace for a long time.

Whether or not Inquisitor Krohnweil is willing to openly shoulder the responsibility for this outcome remains to be seen.

~~~~~

There's been a lot of game reports posted on the Ammobunker thread, starting part way down page 4 - both Euan and Richard have extended their thanks and appreciation for your involvement, Genghis:

http://s3.zetaboards.com/The_Ammobunker/topic/9062054/4/

Glad to hear that it went well, and that the rules run smoothly.

Also great to add a few off-Conclave folks to the mix and get the 28mm community visibly active. The terrain looks cool at 28mm - more towering and monolithic.

Sounds like a good event all round (minus travel saga), nice one Marco.