Most Gratuitous Abuse

[Gnaeus Conlitor]

What's the most Gratuitous abuse you have seen of the Rules' lassiez faire attitude to fair play? I remember fighting an Acrobatic Blood Angel Death Company with a Conversion Field. Anyone top that?

[RobSkib]

I know someone who uses the overwatch rules for his (high speed, high Initiative) sniper in the most annoying fashion, he will make his first two actions either aim or shoot, and his final two actions will always be overwatching the character he has just shot, so he can take another shot either at the end of the turn (thus effectively giving him a free shot right before he takes his turn again) or right before the character he is overwatching takes his turn. Overwatch was never meant to be used in this way, dammit!

[MarcoSkoll]

Both of those are total GM failure. With a good GM who actually follows the spirit of the game, then anything like this should be nipped in the bud immediately.

If someone turned up a table I was running doing either of the above, I'd tell them in no uncertain terms to take a hike.
"Oh, your sniper is doing that overwatch thing again? By the way, did I mention that this area is notoriously prone to clear sky lightning?"

Inquisitor isn't about perfectly balanced play, but it is about enjoyable and sensible play. It's technically the GM's game, and he - or perhaps she, if you're lucky - is supposed to decide the characters (if they let you use your own completely unmodified, then they're doing you a privilege) and the rules.

They're also supposed to encourage interesting and punish uncharacterful play - I'd happily bend or ignore a rule for the sake of it doing something entertaining, but trying to use a rule outside of the spirit of it (but technically inside the letter of it) for the sake of winning, then you can get bent.

[greenstuff_gav]

If someone turned up a table I was running doing either of the above, I'd tell them in no uncertain terms to take a hike.
"Oh, your sniper is doing that overwatch thing again? By the way, did I mention that this area is notoriously prone to clear sky lightning?"

i had a squad of 5 Wraithguard (with a warlock to guide them) who would appear and have an agenda, a great need for the survival of the Eldar Race .. that often required overpowered characters to die horribly.

[MarcoSkoll]

Now that sounds like a plan.

Fortunately, I'm not in the position where I have to deal out that kind of harshness on my regular players (they're a very reasonable bunch who couldn't give a toss about "winning"), so for the few occasions I deal with people who do have the wrong end of the stick, "vengeful weather effects" is a more cost effective method.

[RobSkib]

I really have to use that idea more - I'm a regular GM (and by regular, I mean EVERY SINGLE GAME for the past 5 years!) so I tend to go fairly easy on my regulars, which often leads to flagrant abuse of the rules. Having looked the 'overwatch' rule up, however, I must have completely misread it the first time round, as I understood overwatch as being able to aim at a certain area, and taking an aimed shot whenever you pleased during that turn. As it happens, you can only overwatch an area without an enemy in it, and if you take a shot, you don't get any aim bonuses. Result! I can't wait to dash that acursed sniper's tactics to the ground by quoting rules - something he has a habit of doing with annoying frequency whenever it involves his characters dying.

[MarcoSkoll]

... by quoting rules - something he has a habit of doing with annoying frequency whenever it involves his characters dying.

Actually, players quoting the rules in Inq is of little use. "GM's decision is final" has that side-effect.

Anyway, Inquisitor's rules are scarcely more than guidelines - not that I recommend being too lax with them. The players do need to feel that they're playing a game with some structure.

I'm a regular GM (and by regular, I mean EVERY SINGLE GAME for the past 5 years!)

Ouch. I enjoy GMing, but it's not something I'd want to have to do every single time.

[RobSkib]

Yeah, everyone else sucks too much to GM, and although I do enjoy it, it's difficult to command authority to people that you see every day. Still, I'm going to enjoy pissing on his sniper parade, however

Also, a character with a high BS and deadeye shot (providing they aim and get a placed shot, of course) can always hit either the head or the groin. Now, you can't say it's particularly out of character for a sniper to shoot someone in the head, but shooting them in the groin because they'd rather not shoot an arm or a leg raises some eyebrows. It's not exactly characterful, the noble sniper who shoots people in the butt when they're backs are turned. Bah. This thread is just turning into a Grumpy Old Inquisitor thread, and damn right! Too many new kids these days running around punching each other in the groin... grumble...

[Gnaeus Conlitor]

I shot a Space Marine in the groin once. he came back the next session with a bionic groin.

[precinctomega]

I have a regular player in my gaming club whose Inquisitor is totally over-armoured.  A lot of players, when first encountering the character, have complained about it.  But I allow it happily for two reasons: first, the model has been extensively converted to represent the massive amount of armour; and second, the character has a long and inglorious history of being shot repeatedly in the head, so it stands to reason that he would learn from his earlier mistakes!

R.

[MarcoSkoll]

Also, a character with a high BS and deadeye shot (providing they aim and get a placed shot, of course) can always hit either the head or the groin.

If someone has scored a placed shot, I make them call their intended hit location before they roll for location, and for better or worse, the modifiers will always be applied to move them towards that pre-chosen location, whether or not they're capable of hitting said location, or would have preferred to hit their rolled location.
For one thing, it makes most sense, and for a second, it keeps play fair.

I've got quite a few of these house rules. Some people would probably find me quite a harsh GM, but I'm really more "tough but fair".
If you're playing reasonably, then what I do will hardly bother you. If you're playing unfair, then you'll start to hit these things.

That said, talking about overwatch, I DO have a twist on the rules called "Freeze!" - Basically, you call a "Freeze!" action, and you're allowed to say: "My character will shoot if X happens OR if Y doesn't happen." (Within in-game universe conditions. "About to start his turn" is not acceptable. It's called Freeze, because that's more or less that I first wrote it for - Surrendering, or "stand-offs".)

Quite commonly tied to combined talking actions ("Stop, or I shoot"), but there's no demand for what the character says to be the same conditions as what they will actually shoot under.

Here, you almost exclusively do it towards a target in sight. If the conditions are met, then the character fires, almost as if on overwatch (levels of aim ARE allowed, provided the target is in sight). Basically, it's an offset shooting action in much the same way as overwatch. Instead of shooting in the Freeze action, you put that action aside for later in the turn, for if a set of conditions are met.

This kind of thing helps make character actions feel more simultaneous, rather than sequential.

I shot a Space Marine in the groin once. he came back the next session with a bionic groin.

Ah, the wonders of Imperial Medical science.

[DapperAnarchist]

Didn't see this myself, but a local Redshirt described a game where he 1) fielded a Devastator Squad (yes, squad) and 2) one of those dragged himself, his unconscious sergeant and his rocket launcher (which was in a hand, not stowed) up a ladder... I didn't say anything (it seemed rude) but my thought was "Not if I were your GM..."

[MarcoSkoll]

@DapperAnarchist: You know, I think that's a winner.

But I do have to wonder what the GM was smoking to agree to that. I guess they must just have been as ill-educated to the point of the game as the sod who brought the squad.

[precinctomega]

Frankly, the fact that the game was deadly enough to result in what sounds like a humiliating withdrawal for the Space Marines is enough to make me forgive him on that one.

R.

[MarcoSkoll]

Either that, or it makes you ask what horrific monstrosities the other players brought to the table...