Campaign Day and Carthax Sector Wiki Expansion

[Van Helser]

Ladies and gents of the Conclave,

I've been overseas for a few months now, touring New Zealand and now Australia on an extended honeymoon, and I've had a bit of free time to muse on Inquisitor. It's occurred to me that the unfortunate truth of it all is that Inquisitor players are a bit of an endangered species now, and player numbers have gone into a decline. It has never been the most popular of games, and with official support having been pulled, keeping the game alive has been made all the tougher. More than ever, it's up to the players to attract new blood and keep current interest going. What's the best way to do this? Provide gaming opportunities and inspire new scenarios and campaigns through world building. To this end, I'm planning games and writing background. I'm aiming to put on a campaign day at Warhammer World (or the new home for Conclave meet ups if Gav's Archesis day goes ahead elsewhere) as well as offering to run intro games at Blastastic! in Bristol in October.

What's Blastastic!? It's a wargaming expo run by www.angelbarracks.co.uk, a producer of 6mm scifi figures. I offered to run some Inquisitor games and at last contact, the organiser was happy to have me. Some things still need to be worked out before it's a confirmed date, but I hope to be there in October.

What about this other campaign day? The bad news is that it probably won't be until 2015. I don't get back to the UK until late July, have to job hunt, and start paying off a large credit card bill... Any more trips down south will be a luxury! Anyhow, this will be a traditional one day affair, with four or five scenarios. Veteran players will hopefully pitch in and GM a scenario or two, before a big apocalyptic show down. I'm planning a new campaign mechanic for this one; the resource cards we've got used to won't be present. Players will have side missions to complete that will have a big bearing on the final outcome, though these missions may go against scenario objectives. I still need to perfect things, so watch this space.

I mentioned world building earlier as a way to keep interest going. One of the great things about the 40k RPG line from Fantasy Flight Games is that every couple of months a new sourcebook or adventure has been published. I love devouring background, and this constant flow of material has kept me very interested in their games. While I've not been able to do any role playing over the last year because of real life commitments, I've kept reading their stuff and keep getting inspiration for campaigns and characters (which I will hopefully get to use if I can get back into the role playing gig). When there's a wealth of information available, it breeds creativity. Now, the writers for FFG are paid for their content and don't have to juggle real life with the creative process (for the most part), while we very much aren't in the same boat! However, with a bit of effort, I think that the Carthax Sector Wiki could get some fresh input and come to life more. With some more detailed systems, planets and dramatis personae there will be a greater scaffold for players to slot their games into. For those that struggle with planning games, ready made campaigns will make it easier to jump in. The Carthax Wiki is an under-utilised resource in my eyes, and could be harnessed a lot better to keep Inquisitor alive.

You'll find a few new pages on the Wiki. I've written some more about the Carthaxian Conclave, including a number of factions at large in the sector. The Penitence System is a detailed setting for gaming, and comes with the campaign Heresy in Hive Mercy. There's a few smaller pages about the Kalasa, Aranato and Melkner systems.* I hope to add more over the coming months, and I'm encouraging everyone to add something in the next few months too. It doesn't have to be much - a paragraph or two on a world, institution, hero or villain - but when totted up, it'll be a huge vault of background to explore.

When I return home, I am also thinking of starting a blog, Facebook page and Twitter account on my own gaming and modelling exploits. Through it, I hope to spread the word that Inquisitor isn't dead yet, and start to grow interest in the game. We'll see how that goes...

Got other ideas? Let's hear them! I love a game of Inquisitor and if someone else knows how to better keep me playing, I want their input!

Cheers

Ruaridh

*I've been doing this on the ipad, and struggled to format the entries on the Cuir sub-sector page to match the others. Hopefully someone could fix that for me? Pretty please?

[Heroka Vendile]

Good to hear from you Ruaridh, I did the formatting for you.

I did have the thought, that if we want to expand the Carthax wiki into a "sourcebook" of sorts, that it might be worth having some sort of annotation which notes with characters are PCs and which are NPCs?
While it seems a little like it'd break immersion, the best I can think of is along the lines that any headline/link to a character bio would have a super text suffix of PC or NPC. e.g., Inquisitor Heroka Vendile^PC, Governor Samson Larov^NPC

[greenstuff_gav]

might be worth having some sort of annotation which notes with characters are PCs and which are NPCs?

i like this idea; would love to see some of the NPCs available for use across campaign days; help get narrative going!

as to Angel Barracks campaign day, bristol is definitely close enough for me to travel to

[MarcoSkoll]

You'll find a few new pages on the Wiki.

I can see.

However, I'd note that when you're talking about the Graveel Hegemony on the Carthaxian Conclave page, it's not an alien empire.

Holiad got to decide what it was as part of "winning" the Succession, and as far as I recall from when I contacted him to see if it could be worked into the plot of "The Saint", he had decided that the hegemony in question was one of human psychic potential.
He didn't say much about what "Graveel" was, but I sort of had it in my head that maybe it had been a planet that had developed rampant psychic potential and now there's loads of its population spread out elsewhere across the sector for the Inquisition to have to cope with.
(However, that's just what's in my head, and he may not agree).

The Penitence System is a detailed setting for gaming, and comes with the campaign Heresy in Hive Mercy. There's a few smaller pages about the Kalasa, Aranato and Melkner systems.

Blimey, you didn't half feel like adding to the Cuir Subsector, didn't you?

At this rate (and remembering I think I have a system or two that may need adding from my own writing/campaigns), it's going to look more like a sector in its own right.

I did have the thought, that if we want to expand the Carthax wiki into a "sourcebook" of sorts, that it might be worth having some sort of annotation which notes with characters are PCs and which are NPCs?

It is a bit immersion breaking, but I think it would definitely be needed.

While I'm mostly okay with turning the Cuir Subsector into a more "open" setting (although I'd probably be rather peeved if someone decided that Pexir had been Exterminatused because the entire population had been discovered to be heretics*), I'd rather keep my control over my player characters.

*That said, I really do need to throw up some of the planetary bios. I know a lot about these planets that I plain haven't written up yet...

[Van Helser]

Good to hear from you Ruaridh, I did the formatting for you.

I did have the thought, that if we want to expand the Carthax wiki into a "sourcebook" of sorts, that it might be worth having some sort of annotation which notes with characters are PCs and which are NPCs?
While it seems a little like it'd break immersion, the best I can think of is along the lines that any headline/link to a character bio would have a super text suffix of PC or NPC. e.g., Inquisitor Heroka Vendile^PC, Governor Samson Larov^NPC

Thanks Euan. I think that's a good idea - it would make folk more confident in using non player characters for their own ends.

as to Angel Barracks campaign day, bristol is definitely close enough for me to travel to

Good to hear. I could've sworn I sent a message to you about this months ago... Anyhow; I might need a hand on the day with PR if you're interested Gav?

However, I'd note that when you're talking about the Graveel Hegemony on the Carthaxian Conclave page, it's not an alien empire.

The Penitence System is a detailed setting for gaming, and comes with the campaign Heresy in Hive Mercy. There's a few smaller pages about the Kalasa, Aranato and Melkner systems.

Blimey, you didn't half feel like adding to the Cuir Subsector, didn't you?

At this rate (and remembering I think I have a system or two that may need adding from my own writing/campaigns), it's going to look more like a sector in its own right.

I did have the thought, that if we want to expand the Carthax wiki into a "sourcebook" of sorts, that it might be worth having some sort of annotation which notes with characters are PCs and which are NPCs?

It is a bit immersion breaking, but I think it would definitely be needed.

While I'm mostly okay with turning the Cuir Subsector into a more "open" setting (although I'd probably be rather peeved if someone decided that Pexir had been Exterminatused because the entire population had been discovered to be heretics*), I'd rather keep my control over my player characters.

Wasn't sure about the Graveel Hegemony actually. I'll change it.

I picked the Cuir sub-sector as it was the one with bad things happening - the war on Ilythia for one - and thanks to the work you've done so far on it Marco, it seemed the simplest to add to for the moment. More will be done for the other sub-sectors next. I don't think I properly categorised Madavakos's location in the sector, and it was never my intention for the Antonine Cluster to be a sub... It's just a cluster! I plan to make that a location within one of the other subs. In fact, Pillarus Prime, has never been allocated to a sub sector either... Perhaps a central sub-sector for the well-established worlds is required. Something to do over the next few weeks while sunbathing I guess...

In order to protect planets from Exterminatus, we could put a note on to a planet's page along the lines of the "PC"/"NPC" idea to let folk know if they're fair game or not.

I look forward to any more input.

Ruaridh

[Heroka Vendile]

In order to protect planets from Exterminatus, we could put a note on to a planet's page along the lines of the "PC"/"NPC" idea to let folk know if they're fair game or not.

Maybe [Open/Controlled] abbreviated as ^{Open / Ctrl}?

So anyone can add organisations, events, locations on an Open world/system, and only the original author should be the one to make any changes to a Controlled one.

All this may well mean some of us going through pages originally written by now-inactive community members to apply the tags though.

[MarcoSkoll]

I picked the Cuir sub-sector as it was the one with bad things happening  - the war on Ilythia for one

I think that's largely down having had the misfortune of having had me as the original author, and the fact that I tend to roll most of my stuff in there. (It largely started as a trimmed-down retcon of a sector I had first used pre-Carthax). On the other hand, some others are happy for planets to be generically "in the Carthax sector".

Mind you, perhaps I did go a bit nuts with the scale of what I wrote for Autumn 2011 - given that, in hindsight, I basically wrote a mini-Eye of Terror with the Scaro Passage, and then started a minor civil war in the wake of the event.

Still, I have been very tempted by further developing the story. I've had it in mind for some time that the Inquisition used impersonators for the Corporal (in a similar vein to how M.E. Clifton James played Field-Marshal Montgomery as part of Operation Copperhead).
Suffice to say that I'd rather like to do a character who happens to look an awful lot like the Corporal.

I have however started to try and write up stuff I know I haven't put on the Wiki (and have at least started trying to dig up dates from my notes to put together a loose timeline for Cuir).

~~~~~

Anyway, as far as Blastastic, I'm not huge on the concept of turning up to browse conventions, but I wouldn't be beyond being coaxed to help out or otherwise join in with affairs. (And, of course, if I can/do make it, I can offer at least the Rhino as a big eye catching toy).

[Van Helser]

Update time!

Had some more time to do some more world building. I've created the Al-Gheri sub-sector as a central, historic sub for the venerable planets like Pillarus Prime, Carthage and Irricadia which have cropped up at WHW events and in the Dark heresy VOIP. I've further populated it with The Prastian Straits, a series of linked systems including Rielsprit, Marax, and Colossus, and a few other systems yet to be bulked out. The Colossus system is especially full of worlds and locales to set games in. I've also added a bracketed message at the top of these systems' pages welcoming people to add to the wikis for the individual planets, and have put (NPC) beside the names of the Inquisitors I've added to the site recently.

Next up will be moving the Antonine Cluster into the Cuir sub and detailing the worlds in it some more. I also plan to come up with a random plot hook generator for scenario and campaign creation. Nothing more than a couple of sentences per entry. Along the lines of: "A xenos worshipping cult has unleashed a psychic call to attract their patrons to the world," or "5 assassins have come for your PC's head." This will be left open for others to add to.

Ruaridh

[Heroka Vendile]

tidied up Al-Gheri and a couple other sub-sector pages to have uniform formatting and to add the table of contents widget - as well as filling out some information about Bassit's Gulf, a region of my creation some time ago and current locale of the Dark Heresy VOIP.

[Van Helser]

I have the worlds of the Antonine Cluster all padded out now, and have moved the cluster into the Cuir sub-sector. I have reorganised the sub-sectors page so that there is now a category for sub-sectors, and one for regions, which are found within the existing sub-sectors. I made the division based on whether there was a mention of sub-sector distinction in the paragraphs on that page only. Please change things if I have it wrong.

I've also added four tables of plot ideas to the scenario and campaign design page to inspire. These should be added to by one and all. I came up with those twenty there in about half an hour!

I'm using a word processing app called Werdsmith (not a typo) on my iPad instead of Notes as it was eating battery, but now the text I've added is huge, and I can't seem to shrink it down any. If someone has time to see to that with a nice PC, that'd be great...

So, what's next? I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of Dark Heresy background packages for characters from Carthaxian worlds. Would that be desirable? It could help create some niche archetypes for the sector.

Also, does anyone have any feedback on the content that's gone up?

Ruaridh

[Heroka Vendile]

Added a "regions" section (both administrative and astrographical) to each of the sub-sector pages and decided to subsume Bassit's Gulf (my own creation) into the Al-Gheri sub-sector as an administrative region.

I take it the idea is that the scenario generator list will eventually have 100 entries in each category?
I've renamed your list of 5 plots as "quick chart" and added a "big chart" table for up to 100 entires to each of the 4 sections, as well as adding a few to each big chart.

[Van Helser]

100 in each category would be the goal.

I've been scribbling down some ideas for Carthax-specific archetypes in my free time. I'm getting back from my travels next week, and will hopefully have time to get things written up.

Ruaridh