Sorry for a lame title, guess I failed my risky action :P. Anways, I have a simple, yet vital question that could alter my warband signifigantly. Does the Inquisitor have to be your best idea for a character? What if you have a good idea for say, a guardsman or enforcer, and the Inquisitor, though the main protagionist(or antoganist ;)) is there to further your goals for your brillaint character concept rather than drive the story.
I guess what I'm rambling about is, what do you do if you have a character in the warband who's more colourful and plain awesome than your supposed "leader". We all know what would happen in Necromunda (I'm sure you'll get that reference) but what about Inquisitor?
For example, I have a really cool concept for a guardsman(technically woman), but I think she'd fit the role of a soldier betteer than a Holy Servant of Mankind. In fact, I am so pleased with the concept, that I would like her to be a driving force in the plot. Just an averge joe guardswoman who happens to in a special opps unit(comparable to modern day Marines or SAS, though not at a stromtrooper level). The issue is, that gauardsman, regardles of gender would have a hard time moving from place to place that isn't a warzone, let alone a reason. So she'd need either an Inquisitor or Rogue trader to work for, however I don't want her to be a deserter, so naturally she'd need an Inquisitor to give her motivation and the resources to fight the hidden war.
How can I make her the important character, yet still keep the army theme without dilluting it? Or at least from over shadowing my Inquisitor.
MacK
simples
(http://www.psyked.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/simples.jpg)
Make your other characters as interesting as *that* one. I try to make sure the whole warband have 'links' to one another... the mage-priest was involved with the shady experiments that created the rogue-psyker, and the guard veteran is the enforcer's old flame :P
Alternatively, just make the awesomest one the leader... not all warbands have to be led by inquisitors, one of my favourites is led by a humble tech-adept.
Quote from: Elva on September 20, 2010, 07:36:24 PMDoes the Inquisitor have to be your best idea for a character?
No. Not in the slightest. In many cases, the Inquisitors in my collection, while not bad ideas themselves, are a vehicle to allow me to explore other characters.
The obvious example from my collection, at least in my mind, is Silva from my namesake's warband. Hardly surprising, as she's an earlier character (although not originally designed for Inquisitor) who had developed her own personality before I had ever even conceived of most of the other characters in my current collection.
I'm not exactly worried by this - after all, my other characters, while not quite as "awesome", are still concepts I was happy enough with to develop, so there's nothing to really complain about.
Of course, there is one thing to be said - while not nominally in command, she is also Marco's partner and in some ways, more experienced than he is, so she's certainly got a lot of weight in any decisions that are to be made.
Mind you, a similar thing (if to a lesser extent) could be said of a lot of my characters. My Inquisitors have decided they're good enough to keep around so, for the most part, they're going to listen to their opinions.
In short, if you're happy to develop a warband where that's the way things are, do so - and don't forget that just because someone's not strictly in command that they don't have any control.
That is what I was hoping and needed to hear. I think Elva was unsuited for the role of Inquisitor, which is why I struggled with her so much. This new character idea, was actually based off of a model I converted for a WoD campaign with Elva as my character. I had been reading my guard codex and was inspired so I started to sketch guardsmen of all sorts, then I got the idea to draw that specific model and it became the inspiration for this new character. The main issue I had was probably starting with the leader and building around them, rather than creating individual characters. Alas I have learned my lesson, as always. I shall begin again with nothing but my ideas for Guardswoman Elli Neilson and build up from there(note: the last name may change). Many thanks for the helpful advice.
There is no reason why a warband needs an Inquisitor at all - they could represent a small independant cell following an Inquisitors orders, or even being directed by an ''off table'' Acolyte or Interregator. Thier (possibly mysterious) patron could provide them with any and all necessary travel permits, requisition chits and letters of authority required for them to carry out thier orders/investigations.
This means you can have a group made up of anyone/anything your imagination can explain. Of course, there is always someone who will question them or thier master, are they being manipulated for nefarious ends? are they even working for the Inquisition? - which is where the fun begins.
It does mean that the group may lack that central powerful character, so things should be that much more difficult for them to achieve; but then success will be all the more sweeter.
It also provides plenty of hooks for group interaction, is any one person in charge? is there a terrible rivalry? are they willing to make personal sacrifices to complete thier tasks? - which should make a colourful and enjoyable group to play with/against.
Edit: sp.
Think about it from a story perspective. If you were writing it up as a story, you could write it from the point of view of the guardswomen, even though the Inquisitor is the leader and sort of main character...
My warband doesn't have any Inquisitors in it. It has no leaders either. They all work together as a team. Well, there's meant to be no leader, but most of the members look to Kaan (my main character) for tactics and advice...
I'd just like to add here, a character's position in a warband doesn't always, or even very often, relate to their impact on a particular game, so just because your favoured character might be a 'minor' character doesn't mean she won't get a chance to shine. I can think of several games where inquisitor's have been ignobly gunned down, hit by a run of bad action rolls, and in one particularly memorable case fled in terror at the first sign of trouble, whilst their lesser henchmen go on to complete the mission in their absence. In view of which, I personally favour using interesting characters in whatever capacity suits their background, without worrying that they'll be overshadowed by their inquisitorial masters.
Reading the subject line, I thought this might be something very different - how to represent Abbadon's Chosen in ][ (answer - by dying, automatically.).
I've ended up, as I rework characters this way and that way, which a warband made of two characters who started off as individual ones (with vague plans for a warband) plus an in-the-pipeline third who is my favourite of the three... I do worry sometimes that some of my characters are a bit red-shirtish, and I focus too much on the main character. But there you go.
Now that I think of it, I had a better idea for a title just this mourning.
These are all great approaches to an issue that has plagued me my entire Inquisitor career. I'll see what I can do about giving them a test run. Many thanks.
Oh on a funny note, a friend gave me the suggestion to have a mutant with a red shirt named Jenkins who should suffer from Kenny syndrome(dieing every scenario yet coming back for the next one). We'll see if he can make the cut. ;)
Quote from: Elva on September 21, 2010, 11:26:30 PM
Oh on a funny note, a friend gave me the suggestion to have a mutant with a red shirt named Jenkins who should suffer from Kenny syndrome(dieing every scenario yet coming back for the next one). We'll see if he can make the cut. ;)
Funny you should mention that - we have a Guardsman warband which, alongside all the officers, sergeants and majors, has a couple of redshirts, one called Gene Ric. However, fate has decided that Gene Ric is to be the most outstanding member in that warband, regularly pulling off crazy stunts, mad across-the-battlefield shots and awe-inspiring feats of heroism. He's ended up with a bionic arm and leg, and he's still alive and kicking, literally!
Moral of the story is; beware the Redshirt, lest he become more fun to play with than the rest of the warband! :P
Hell, our circle has some warbands that aren't even Inquisitorial, not to mention including the actual inquisitors themselves. I also have three Inquisitorial acolytes who run retinues of their own on behlaf of their master, Inquisitor Kassor (I call these his cadres).
However, I must point out that I don't believe in necessarily focussing on one character, or even one character in a single group. Even in the very beginning, I treated a character who was just an Inquisitor's bodyguard with as much attention as I treated the Inquisitor himself, and have been ultimately rewarded with one of my most developed, recurring independent characters.
Quote from: RobSkib on September 22, 2010, 12:10:02 AM
Funny you should mention that - we have a Guardsman warband which, alongside all the officers, sergeants and majors, has a couple of redshirts, one called Gene Ric. However, fate has decided that Gene Ric is to be the most outstanding member in that warband, regularly pulling off crazy stunts, mad across-the-battlefield shots and awe-inspiring feats of heroism. He's ended up with a bionic arm and leg, and he's still alive and kicking, literally!
Moral of the story is; beware the Redshirt, lest he become more fun to play with than the rest of the warband! :P
Heh, we've had a similar situation where Mauve Shirt (look it up!) Eidon Sheer took an improvised weapon and with it bludgeoned my [T]70-something Skitaarius liuetenant into unconsciousness, quite possibly costing me the entire bloody campaign. I might add that this is my Skitaarius who had previously survived a direct hit with a krak grenade and been badass enough to jump to freedom through the hole it made in the floor at his feet - but one minor plot-fodder character with an iron bar brought him down when he was most needed. I have yet to hear the end of this.
Just out of intrest, is there any fluff references to the IG having an intelligence division of its own as it would sort of make sense and would give you a good reason to explain the use of Guard based teams.
I usually end up with more adhoc than themed warbands, which usually mean most members have huge histories. I tend to build up a portfolio of characters (Much more than I need) and sort of use that to cobble something together. There are a few that pop up alot and I used to write down alot info on what happened while they were with each other so I had a huge web of interconected characters.
I prefer to not play an inquisitor. the Best campaign I played started with a murder (we were all given a info pack by our GM whilst we were setting it all up) so I asked if I could play a Local homicide team which may have put me on a back foot but was really fun and added another faction which is where I think alot of the fun of Inquisitor is (In the fight by different departments of the imperium).
Quote from: Morcus on September 26, 2010, 08:04:03 AM
Just out of intrest, is there any fluff references to the IG having an intelligence division of its own as it would sort of make sense and would give you a good reason to explain the use of Guard based teams.
Not specifically the Imperial Guard, but I've heard mention of the Departmento Munitorum (which the Imperial Guard is subservient to) having a Divisio Tactica, which may well cover the military intelligence side of things.
Quote from: Morcus on September 26, 2010, 08:04:03 AM
Just out of intrest, is there any fluff references to the IG having an intelligence division of its own as it would sort of make sense and would give you a good reason to explain the use of Guard based teams.
I don't remember the details, and it may not have been a division of the Imperial Guard, but isn't there some mention of an intelligence service reporting to IG command in the first Gaunt's Ghosts novel?
yup, and there's further occasional references to spying networks serving the Dept Munitorum in the rest of the series (and in other authors books as well i'm pretty sure, although I can't recall which ones). As an organisation that makes mass war its business, I think it'd be a bit silly if the Munitorum didn't have various intelligence branches.
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on October 01, 2010, 01:07:38 AM
As an organisation that makes mass war its business, I think it'd be a bit silly if the Munitorum didn't have various intelligence branches.
Fear of corruption maybe?
I can't recall any references to an imperial guard intelligence operation, but I haven't read much black library. Certainly there's some demand for one :).
Since the inquisition hardly work to order and are quite selective about their involvement, it seems unlikely that any sufficiently high ranking sector governer / lord militant / naval officer doesn't run some kind of intelligence operation on the side. It can be imagined that some of these operations get quite large and powerful, possibly causing concern within the inquisition.