Inquisitor Marco Robert Skoll

[MarcoSkoll]

No amount of text will 'justify' some things in the minds of some people.

I don't intend any offence to Ferran by this, he is entitled to his opinions - but I'm not inclined to put much weight on them when it doesn't seem he's considering mine. Background and personality are what I see as the key element in my characters. Posts prefaced with "didn't read it"... well, what am I to think?

To ask a serious question, how can a claim of acceptance of all approaches to the game be combined with what comes across as a display of apathy and irreverence for the roleplay and character driven aspect of the game?

they're certainly coming in for a fair bit of criticism on here (it does make me curious about what people would say about my characters...)

Well, you know what they say about curiosity and the cat. Some of the criticisms seem to be more levelled at me than the characters - bit of a shame when I went to the trouble of saying that I was posting the characters out of interest in fixing them.

I'm almost tempted to see what would happen I posted up the character sheet for Inquisitor Lord Geirra - would I pick up personal criticism for a character I created 8 years ago and which I have admitted for a long time was a horrible mistake? And if not, why does another situation with a character I created at some point in the past, and which I have said I know needs fixing earn me such?

Part of it is that they seem to be intended as a pretty potent warband, however they don't seem totally overpowering compared to the types of characters I see at Conclave events

It's curious to see how there seems to have been more controversy relating to Silva than the reasonably similarly statted Kai Gillmore - the only thing that has really been questioned is his Adrenal Surge ability (and I'm not too surprised by that one, as I only cobbled the skill together the week before the IGT).

Their abilities and equipment are different, but not exactly unequal. While Silva's weapons might make her pretty brutal in hand-to-hand, she's not clad from head to toe in thick armour.

And in the end, Kai was supplied almost entirely sans background. I wonder whether he got extra leeway because of his origins in GW art?

If it was any consolation, I thought Marco Skoll was a fine example of an Inquisitor, certainly not overpowered.

Well, he's served well so far, but my characters are treated somewhat like my opinions.

I work hard to make my beliefs and opinions justifiable and fair. What that tends to mean is that I've rationalised them very solidly and can present a whole horde of arguments for them - but if someone else should happen to present a more logical and better supported argument than I can, then until the argument for that case is bettered, I have a new opinion.

The same thing applies to my characters. While I don't like to do things that force me to change their canonical history (the loss of True Grit may make a few things a bit odd, but not irreparably), I'll come back and change them if for whatever reason they don't "work".

[Flinty]

After my comments on Silva, I suppose I should say something here.

I think Marco's background is interesting and well thought out, his equipment and abilities fit in well with that. I do like the wyrd 'mass awareness', an interesting concept well executed. Glad to see his stats have come down,  but then that is a personal thing.

Again, a personal quibble, the combi-tool advantage - its a small one, agreed, but surely any character could lay his/her hands on a fancy Leatherman if they wanted - why is his so different it confers a bonus? Does his gunsmithing skill really need to roll over into mechanical stuff in general?

My only problem is this Soul Bond, but Ive made my position on this clear enough in the Silva thread and I'll be interested to see what other people come up with for this.

[MarcoSkoll]

The combi-tool advantage - its a small one, agreed, but surely any character could lay his/her hands on a fancy Leatherman if they wanted

Combi-tools are not "a fancy leatherman" - they incorporate all kinds of crazy stuff. Miniaturised laser saws, sonic couplers, concussive drills, inductance hammers, electro-agitators and cryo-solderers.

Although it depends on the model really. That's your basic version, but if you've got a bigger budget and good connections with the AdMech, you can get the one that comes with the tool that can both get parallel lines to meet and remove the toughest stains (leaving your red robes redder than red), and a nano re-assembler that automatically inscribes devotional hymns in the molecular structure of whatever you're working on.

I think that explains the difference between a modern day multi-tool and a 40k combi-tool - the latter is a wee bit more sophisticated.

Does his gunsmithing skill really need to roll over into mechanical stuff in general?

If you understand the principles of guns well enough to manufacture and modify them, then you it's unlikely you won't have a good grounding in mechanical theory.

[Kaled]

It's curious to see how there seems to have been more controversy relating to Silva than the reasonably similarly statted Kai Gillmore - the only thing that has really been questioned is his Adrenal Surge ability (and I'm not too surprised by that one, as I only cobbled the skill together the week before the IGT).

It is interesting.  I've just compared Kai's stats to my IG stormtrooper and they're extremely similar - none of their stats differ by more than 10 points and most by only 3-4.  Silva's stats don't seem unreasonable to me, neither does her equipment.  I'm still not convinced about her arm from a background perspective, but rules-wise it seems fine.

As for the revised Marco, I think you've lowered his stats far too much.  His mental stats were fine in the first version - they were about on a par with my younger Inquisitors and lower than some of the more experienced ones which seems fair.  Other than his strength which was higher than that of any of my unaugmented characters (not that there's anything wrong with that), his physical stats were pretty similar too.  I'm going to post Kaled's stats in a moment - maybe we're both going wrong with our character profiles...

[MarcoSkoll]

As for the revised Marco, I think you've lowered his stats far too much.

Perhaps. I do look at that profile and think "Hmm".

As far as his mental stats, he was sporting an Sg that was in excess of Lyra - besides the fact she's over twice his age and been serving the Inquisition for almost three times as long, she holds a Doctorate.
That may mean that she should be a higher Sg than she is (76, to save anyone needing to look it up), but in the end, she should almost definitely be higher than Marco.

In the end, when I look back over the topic, while there were some criticisms, there was a reasonable amount of more moderate feedback - the people with stronger criticisms were just more vocal.
What I'll probably do is look back and adjust him again - he was better than I think he should have been, but what I have now isn't right either.

One thing I can say though... I don't think I'm going to be posting Frost's profile. She's meant to be nasty (in both senses), and discussion of such a character no doubt degenerate into a complete mess.

[Kaled]

I've been wondering about why your characters came in for so much flak and was thinking, could it be because you tend to have a lot of special rules for your characters?  Your characters tend to have a lot more unique rules than many others - perhaps people tend to see these as making the characters more powerful rather than as adding character?  don't know...

One thing I can say though... I don't think I'm going to be posting Frost's profile. She's meant to be nasty (in both senses), and discussion of such a character no doubt degenerate into a complete mess.

That's a shame - I have to say I'm curious about her.

On a different note - have you been working on models for these guys?  Are you still planning to bring them to the Spring Conclave?

[Ferran]

... and seeing him as 300+ years...

"Into his third century" doesn't make someone 300+ years old. I'm in my first century, but only 21.

Ah yes, prior to your correction I had mistakenly believed that we are currently residing in the C20th, but some basic calculations based on the knowledge that you've kindly imparted have shown me the error of my ways. Your correction was indeed necessary - I suppose it's on account of my sub-160 IQ that I make these silly mistakes.

In all seriousness though, whilst I was under no misapprehension that the verbal mistreatment I gave you in your Marcoskoll thread might permanently silence your backbiting/sniping/generally behaving like some pathetic spurned conquest (never does with your type), I had hoped that there would be at least a couple of days of tranquility. Alas not. I'm sorry you got butt-hurt in that other thread at that other place. Had I realised that you had such a sensitive posterior I would have left well alone, believe me.

Will you continually be sniffing around mt posts with your little jibes and, coincidentally, perfectly contradictory views? Quoting me or otherwise mentioning my screen name in your replies? Making your mildly tedious corrections and thinly veiled references? I suppose I'll find out soon enough with your relpy to Kasthan's post. If so, please be aware that you'll be doing it for the benefit of the other readers (and yourself of course), because although there's no official ignore function, more's the pity, you do have a distinctive avatar to provide adequate warning of your presence. I'll be utilising this to ignore anything that you type. Be under no illusions, I really couldn't care less what you post. The only reason that I dignified your Marcoskoll thread with any sort of response was the fabulous irony contained therein. So congratulations, you've won your little vendetta. I know I wasn't fully committed but for a few posts, however I'll admit that it was some wierd kind of fun, at least for a little while. Sadly I must now return to the real world. I can only shudder at the thought of what it must be like to be immersed in the strange, strange world of Marcoskoll 24/7. Probably real sweet.

At this point I should apologise profusely to the rest of the Conclave community, all members/posters/random anonymous readers and lurkers, particularly the mods/admins. I had hoped to confine this to Marcoskoll's thread but that didn't work out too well, seems that Marcoskoll still wants to interact with me in some fashion. Be assured that it won't happen again, normal service resumed at my end.

[DapperAnarchist]

But... He's right. I mean, this is the second Century in which I have lived, but my first century (or part thereof) of life...

[MarcoSkoll]

Leave it. Whatever personal disagreements there are between Ferran and I will no longer be continued on the main forum.

Please leave any discussion of the matter well alone.

[Inquisitor Cade]

I've always liked the character of Marco, I think he's a bit of a generic hero (with the special power, magic sword, saintly attitude and lack of major weaknesses) and I'm a sucker for such characters. Looking at the revised stat line (I've been off the ball replying to this thread) I see no issues. I'm a great believer in the background justifying the stats, so personally don't see a problem with the sword or the high average stats.

I'd be more comfortable if he were a psyker than a wyrd, as I'm not sure wyrds are canonical at all, but you seem to be exploring it interestingly.

I'll take a look a silva later but I'd guess her stats would take more flack than Kai's as he is a storm trooper, so would be expected to have higher stats for the most part.

[Kaled]

@Cade - You think the revised statline is better? I still reckon it's too low...  I'd be interested in your assessment of Kaled's profile.

Why wouldn't wyrds be canonical?

[MarcoSkoll]

I'd be more comfortable if he were a psyker than a wyrd, as I'm not sure wyrds are canonical at all.

GW's policy is essentially "Everything is canon", no matter how contradictory it all is. Very much EYHBTIAL.
As Wyrds got their mention in the Inquisitor rulebook, it's therefore pretty reasonable game as far as canon is concerned.

I'll take a look a silva later but I'd guess her stats would take more flack than Kai's as he is a storm trooper

... whereas she's a Staff Sergeant with 20 years of serving both the Imperial Guard and the Inquisition in very close-in and violent combats. She might not nominally be a Storm Trooper, but her actual combat experience is almost exactly what you'd expect of the longest serving and most skilled of Storm Troopers.

It's not like Storm Troopers are somehow superhuman and able to attain skill levels that no other Guardsman (or woman) could possibly reach.

[Inquisitor Cade]

I'm not saying that wyrd aren't canon, but I don't get them, so in a game I wouldn't really know how to treat them, except by the rulebook interpretation as super psychic power with apparantly no risk, which seems wrong to me.

Looking again at the revised stats, the mental ones (Wp, Nv & esspecially Ld) have suffered a bit much.


The longer serving (surviving) storm troopers would be much more than 20 year vets. I'll need to take a look at the stats of Kai again though before I defend my speculation. I will postulate that the skills of a guardsman turned agent would be rather more diverse, but less combat capable than those of a stormtrooper.

[DapperAnarchist]

What do you mean you don't get them? I think Marco's given a rather good explanation of what he understands as a Wyrd...

Why would Storm Troopers be more than 20 year vets? Modern storm trooper equivalents (the Special Forces units of the world, according to Gav Thorpe) wouldn't get much more than 20-25 years experience before they drop out (around the age of 40-45). Even thinking that the IG accepts a younger age for raw recruits, 14 or 15, unless their spending rejuv on them, Storm Troopers are going to be wearing down by the time they hit their 30th year of service. Which would imply to me that most Storm Troopers are really only going to have about 10-15 years of experience, and 20 years would be exceptional, what with the horror of the 41st millenium.

[TheNephew]

I must confess that I've only read the short version this time round, but given the long-term exposure to references to MRS, I'm going to pretend I've got enough background context to comment properly on him.

As Cade says, MRS makes a good hero (I probably wouldn't use the term generic - perhaps 'classical'). As such, I'm in favour of his one fairly unique ability, his high level of combat ability, his intelligence, magic sword and all that jazz.
All of it is background-justified to my satisfaction, and from what I remember of your stance on the matter of how special Inquisitors should be (to justify being chosen as an Inquisitor) the stats marry with the background well.

I suppose if MRS spent much of his childhood learning to shoot, and developed close-combat skill early on as well, the time needed to maintain high levels of both proficiencies would be less than someone who wasn't born into such skills, so it makes some sense that he has physical stats where they are (or even where they were) while still maintaining the mental side of his Inquisitorial post.

I like the Wyrd power, and for balance reasons the test is a good idea - if it was entirely unrestricted, and fluff-only, then I reckon it .would. be impossible to sneak up on a telekine, and that would be fine.

Hopefully my attention span will stretch to Silva's thread as well, and I can see how the stats and skills turn put on her as well. But I've got about two week's worth of Conclaving to catch up on...