So i've been absent for a while, my LGW wont let me paint any of my non-GW models there (fair enough), and my girlfriend wont let me paint any models in our brand new flat (less fair, i wear the pants. She tells me which ones), so i havn't been able to do anything with the models i'd bought.
In one of my last threads, i was discussing a 6 man warband (probably go down to 5 now), i had 3 done, but wanted to get the last two finished up. One of the characters is the guy i'm working on now, other than "medic" for his skills, i've had nothing to give him. However, i wanted to make him similar to the character M.M. from The Boys comic. Essentially a guy who, at first glance is a beast of a man, but his true worth is in his head. He's an avid investigator, and a bit of a techy, so i figured in order to make Andre Reed a more interesting character, rather than just "ex-guard with bionics", he'd be one of the key investigators of my warband.
I was wondering how best to create this sort of character, one who is alright on the battle field, but is worth his weight in gold off of the battlefield, when using your head is more important than flexing his fibre bundled biceps.
Would a boost to his Sg be enough to represent this? Or maybe some innate skill at being able to tell when people are lying? Or even a skill or two that let him plod along and add up the dots? A piece a of kit built into one of his arms that lets him do The Dark Knight esque CSI (Seriously, why didn't Bruce just BUY that stuff for Gotham? It'd save the people he couldn't)?
Does anyone have any ideas, or some guidance to help me make this guy a character, rather than just an Guardsman.
I think that to make a character an investigator it is mostly about the background and roleplaying instead of stats or special skills. After all, most inquisitors are investigators specially selected for the job. For giving him a personality I would base it on being an investigator at heart, the guard stuff comes second, more as something that happened to him than his calling.
I'd say you want to give him something that make's him "hyper aware" that allows him to detect the smallest of details (Such as a character hiding behind a crate aiming at him) and allows him to react to this observations you might want to look at Marco's Marco rules I think he has something similar with his telepathy powers
Or something that allows him to react out of sequence for example giving him an additional +1 to his speed without having a higher I
Obviously you nee to have a decent SG but I find this stat one of the least used in Inq games (One I try to use to compensate for this fact)
You could have a piece of kit that combines several auspexes too (in fact I've thought of this type of thing a battle helm that gives my character an enhanced awareness of the field)
Quote from: JoelMcKickass on February 21, 2012, 03:27:02 PMA piece a of kit built into one of his arms that lets him do The Dark Knight esque CSI
I like the idea. Some kind of investigative auspex. I'm not sure you really need many rules beyond it taking an Sg test to work and dependent on the difficulty/success of the test, the GM can decide how much you find out.
Other than that, a decent Sg and a bonus to relevant awareness tests (such as searching a room for evidence, spotting a suspect's uneasy demeanour and the like) would seem to fit most of the bill.
QuoteSeriously, why didn't Bruce just BUY that stuff for Gotham? It'd save the people he couldn't?
Because so many of the Gotham police are bent. It doesn't help if you've got all the tech in the world if the people operating it don't want to find the bad guys.
Quote from: Necris on February 21, 2012, 03:46:11 PMyou might want to look at Marco's Marco rules I think he has something similar with his telepathy powers
Marco's power is telekinetic, giving him the ability to vaguely "feel" the mass in the surrounding area, so I'm not sure that would help.
The book gives mechanicus characters that +20% to SG tests involving mechanical devices, so maybe a smaller bonus of 10-15 could fit with your guardsman's techy side. Something similar for visual awareness tests could work for identifying clues too.
A small flock of cyber-skulls always speaks to me of a clever character; perhaps hunter skulls with varied auspex and a hand-held or wrist mounted display to combine them. Or maybe give him an unconnected MIU so he can interface with cogitators and other systems freely, reducing the number of turns/actions a related task takes.
I'd like to avoid giving him a background and leaving it up to the GM to decide if he picks up on things or not. I mean, i don't wanna be that guy who points out "ahem GM, i think you'll find my Guardsman here is actually Herlock Sholmes, and should have been able to see this coming". Or something like that. I'd like to be able to let him carry on with his job, and try and get something that flows with the game, an extra test or two, rather than a scenario having something added on at the end.
I think i might incorporate something of all suggestions. Give him something incorporated into one of his arms that gives him a bonus to his SG, and has an specific auspex or two (such as that shot angle thing from CSI) that lets him find something out when he passes an SG test. Damage to the arm would affect just how well it works, such as amount of actions it takes, how hard he has to hit it to get it working again, the SG bonus he gets, things like that. He also has a bionic eye, so i could incorporate something similar that affects visual awareness tests as well. Something like that. Would that be something near to what i need, or am i over complicating this slightly?
Cyber-skulls would be something to use, maybe even grabbing a cyber mastiff and having it as a Sound-Wave type character rather than an attack dog, it sees stuff and relays it to him, but is incredibly weak, so hides and watches, rather than runs and kills.
Freakin' Gotham City man, maybe R'as had the right idea after all. I love hoe Gordon is the Comissioner, and Flack is still a scumbag.
Auspexes are a good thing for this kind of character, but I really like the idea of a weaker kind of cyber mastiff who serves as another set of senses. That would give him something special in a cool way.
This past weekend I got to play test an Investigative character with the home-made ability "Intuitive."
It allows him to take a sagacity test which pausing for breath and based on the test (and GM discretion) allows him to "uncover clues" (as a generic term for discovering more about the level). It also allows the character to substitute in his SG for Initiative during certain tests (GM discretion). This symbolized that the character was able to deduce what was happening with cunning and attention to detail rather than relying on blind reaction time to avoid/discover certain situations.
The pause for breath SG test somewhat alleviates your concern over it being at the GM's discretion (as your character takes a specific action and accompanying test so it keeps the ability on the GM's mind) and I was really keen on the substituting SG for Initiative (it worked our rather well).
On top of all that he was RPed well by the player using them and did have an auspex to go with his occupation. That said, as the GM of the game I did do some planning to make sure that the character's abilities would be useful in the scenario but rather than a downside I see this more as the general responsibility of the GM (to make sure the player has a good time).
Slightly OT, but now I want to create a Mendozian (http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=662.msg8703#msg8703) Inquisitor called something like 'Inquisitor William 'The Butcher' Benedictus, who believes that the Astartes have been corrupted by their superhuman power and need to be reigned in. He could be accompanied by The Francarisian, a psychopath from the planet Francarus, and The Familiar - a teenage female daemonhost. And of course, we can't forget Diminutive Humbert, his somewhat weedy acolyte-scribe.
...I may or may not be a -little- bit obsessed with Mr Ennis' awesome series...
I don't know if you've got Marco's big =][= download, but if you find the PDF in there called "The Judicious Remit", it's an article from Fanatic that covers various sorts of acolytes for an inquisitor, and one that seems quite appropriate is the Deductor. The article also has some items of gear you might find characterful, including a pict recorder, or the 40k version of every policeman's most deadly tool, the Data Slate.
Brimstone, i know exactly what you mean, i can't help but feel sorry for the Seven, especially if you're up to date with what's happened so far. All you need now is the Space Marine Scout who hates Space Marines...good look with figuring that one out.
I'll have a look at the Deductor when i get a proper chance. Being from Liverpool, Derby Day has me a wee bit pre-occupied now. I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of the Deductor, Intuitive, and the Weaker Mastiff. He'll have a bionic eye, so giving the Dog (aptly named "Terror") a few Auspexes, and letting him see what the dog can see through his own eye should be a way to play it.