By request here is a brief overview of my warband's background and rules.
Inquisitor Gnaeus Conlitor
Gnaeus Conlitior was unfortunate enough to be born into a heretical cult. The Brotherhood of the Sacred Ruins was considered a minor offender on the Ordo Hereticus watch list and thus little attention was paid to it. Gnaeus was raised as one of the Brotherhood but he always had a sense of something not right about his friends and family. Unfortunately he did not act on these feelings until he found himself "volenteered" as the host of a Daemon. Thankfully there was one member of the Ordo Hereticus concerned about the cult's activities. Inquisitor Justine Yarabel burst in on the cult during the very process of summoning. A firery Monodominant at the time she purged all in the summoning chamber and banished the daemon back to the warp. The pitiful form of the child Conlitor his flesh unaturally rotted by the attempted binding was the only thing spared in the cursed place. For the first time in her career Yarabel spared the life of one touched by Chaos. She arranged for his bionic reconstruction, education, the sanctioning of his Psychic talents, his employment in her service and finally his ascention to the rank of Inquisitor. Shortly afterwards she vanished, her fate unknown. On first appearances it is easy to mistake Conlitor for a radical what with his dubious orgins and obvious taint of Chaos. Such an assumption would be ill founded. Conlitor is a Monodominant through and through. He is dedicated to slaying every last mutant, heretic and alien to cross his path. He has sworn should ever the Imperium be rid of taint for good he will take his own life. So ashamed is he of his dubious past he does not think humanity can be pure while he still lives. However he grudegingly appreciates that his existence is needed to smite the Emperor's enemies.
WS: 97 BS: 80 S: 61 T: 67 I: 75 WP: 86 SG: 86 NV: 89 LD:86 Speed: 5
Right Handed
Special Abilities: Leader, Force of Will, True Grit, Fearsome (rotted flesh), Witch Hound
Psychic Powers: Detection, Fireball
Weapons: Autopistol and Power Stake (As Power Knife)
Armour: Reinforced hat on head (2 +1 for Bionics), Carapace Armour to the chest, Flak armour to all other locations.
Bionics: Average Bionic Eye with Motion Predictor, Average Bionic lungs.
Other Equipment: 3 Autopistol clips, Gas Mask, Com Link
Guardsman Jake "Hangman" Ketch
On Archasia Compulsory Military service is a valuable part of the criminal justice system. Although not an actual penal legion the Archasian Regiments contain many criminals and neardowells pressed into service so that their skills can be best used to serve the Emperor. Jake Ketch was a petty criminal in the Archasian capital Astiria. Pressed into service in the Archasian XIV Jake's superiors quickly noticed anomlies in his behaviour. He had many unsavoury habbits and showed a tendancy for outright sadism. Rather than simply despose of this ticking time bomb the Commisars assigned Ketch as a specialist to the torture and execution division of the regiment. Within a few weeks it was clear that Ketch was in his element. Soldiers from his old squad began to refer to him as Hangman and the name stuck. Naturally such a skilled individual in the art of torture could not escape Inquisitial notice for long. Inquisitor Conlitor invited him to join his warband and he accepted.
WS: 75 BS:79 S:66 T: 62 I:60 WP:65 SG:73 NV: 72 LD: 73 Speed 4
Right Handed
Special Abilities: Medic, Dead Eye Shot
Weapons: Mars Pattern Lasgun (Metal parts made of a bronze coloured Archasian compound) Knife.
Armour: Flack to all locations except head which has an open helm
Other Equipement: 2 Lasgun clips, Com Link
More to come.
If you've been reading the thread about the 'Conclave standard' character profiles, then I'm sure you know that some people will consider these characters overpowered - but if that's the level your group plays at, then fair enough.
I quite like the background, but in what way does Conlitor have an obvious taint of Chaos? Also, isn't he carrying a stubber rather than an autopistol?
in your story why would she let him live if anything else she would kill him because he was almost a daemonhost and she is monodiamant which means she'll purge everything that doesn't agree with her belifes. Also i suggest toning down your stats your inquisitor's ws could down a full 20 while his bs 15. his wp could go down by 10. also your guardsman's bs and ws could go down 10
I painted his skin rotted flesh. Essentialy his very flesh is corrupted by the short contact with the Daemon.
She didn't kill him because she took pity on him. The first step on her road to radicalism.
As for the stats my group uses the values given in the book. Everyone is on that level so there's little point in toning down.
In that case, if he's so obviously tainted, why was he raised to Inquisitorial rank? It might be worth adding in a mention that although disfigured by his experience, his soul was judged to be pure - if the taint went any deeper then it seems unlikely that any Inquisitor would consider giving him absolute authority.
Yeah I meant to mention how he is pure of soul. Even though he was brought up by a cult he always had a semi supernatural sense of right and wrong. Hence Witch Hound.
Cheers for putting them up.
I won't C&C on the stats, but I'd encorage your group to try working stats out based on the descriptions at the frount of the book. I have found that battles between more human characters and less god characters can be more fun.
QuoteThe Brotherhood of the Sacred Ruins was considered a minor offender on the Ordo Hereticus watch list and thus little attention was paid to it.
Unless they hadn't discovered it I doubt that this would be the case. It would surely be swiftly eradicated rather than ignored. Yarabel discovering the cult and destroyed it is more plausable.
I assume that his origins are know to nobody save himself as I doubt anyone could be made an Inquisitor if that history was known about them.
QuoteHe has sworn should ever the Imperium be rid of taint for good he will take his own life.
I like this a lot, esspecially as it is a shallow promice, as the Imperium will never be purified in his lifetime.
And I like the fact that he is a puritan dispite his radical background.
His abilities are OTT but i suppose that that is a power level issue. Scaring doesn't equate to fearsome though according to popular conclave opinion.
As for kit, I'd be a bit more imaginative for the armour values. Looking at the bounty hunter model I'd call it light carapace/reinfored heavy flack on the chest (Av5), heavy carapace on the abdomin, groin and legs (Av4) and Av 2 or 3 on his arms.
I'd say that the distinction between autopistols and stubbers is ambiguous enough that you could call the gun an auto pistol but if you have and 40k magazines around it would be a simple conversion to stich one on.
And just to beat someone else to it, clips are different to magazines, which are almost certainly what he wants three spares of.
QuoteNaturally such a skilled individual in the art of torture could not escape Inquisitial notice for long. Inquisitor Conlitor invited him to join his warband and he accepted.
There are a lot of individuals in the Imperium, I think it would be very natural for him to not be noticed.
Again, looking at the model he looks to be waring an extra layer on his chest, abdomin and groin. My temptation is to call this heavy flack armour rather than degrade the arms and legs to Av 2, so I suggest it for you guard characters too.
His lasgun:
I always suggest a mars pattern lasgun profile of:
Basic . D . Single/Semi(2/3)/Full(6) . - . 2D6 (+3 for double ammo consumption) . 60 . 2 . 25
as this is more plauable compaired to the auto gun.
Also the word you want is alloy, compounds are different (at last chemistry pays off).
A proffessional guardsman might well carry more ammo than this. 5 reloads would be a good amount whilst in the guard, and as he is still wearing fatigues I suspect he might still carry a guard issue loadout, assuming he has the pouches for it. I'd consider adding some stuff to his belt. Does he have the knife or the medi-pack on him? And I'd note that the knife can be used as a bayonet, unless he has traded in his issue one for a torturer's one.
As torturer it would be cool and original to give him some syringes of choke or something that he could use on victims or potentially in close combat.
Quote from: Inquisitor Cade on September 01, 2009, 11:13:13 PMScarring doesn't equate to fearsome though according to popular conclave opinion.
Scarring, no. Fearsome takes more than just being ugly.
As a rule, I take it to mean characters with a psychic aura that's just "wrong", characters with the obvious muscle power and bulk to tear you limb from limb (so, it could very well be appropriate for Space Marines), or anything where it's just plain obvious that charging it is a useless effort that will just result in your exquisitely painful death.
I tend to use Fearsome a bit more loosely than most, where characters can have Fear of specific other characters.
For example, a character that belongs to a person play with has fear of Silva from my warband since the time she nigh on turned him into mincemeat without breaking stride. He's not in any hurry to get within the reach of her (literal) claws again, and that's reflected nicely by those rules.
QuoteAnd just to beat someone else to it, clips are different to magazines, which are almost certainly what he wants three spares of.
You mean beat
me to it, surely. :P
QuoteAlso the word you want is alloy, compounds are different (at last chemistry pays off).
He probably does mean alloy, but there's nothing that stops it actually being a compound.
It wouldn't conform to any real world compund I can think of off the top of my head (although it should be said, Chemistry was by far my weakest A-Level.). Then again, I think we have to assume the normal sci-fi stance: "If you can avoid thinking about the science, you can get away with any old crap".
Although that does bring up an interesting question. If we assume that 40k has the same periodic table, what actually do things like "Plasteel" and "Adamantium" actually refer to? But that's not a topic for this thread.
My 40K universe reflects the sheer size and beraucratic nightmare of the Imperium. In a organisation as large as the Ordo Hereticus with as big a work load and such a divide in oppinon of what is and isn't heresy its more than possible for a cult to be marked down as no threat for a time until some firey Monodominant picks up on it.
I think rotted Flesh equates to Fearsome but I may rule a bad aura thing too just to be on the safe side.
I did mean Alloy. I only got a C at GCSE Science :P
Quote from: Gnaeus Conlitor on September 02, 2009, 11:55:24 AMI think rotted Flesh equates to Fearsome...
If you want all the characters to act like Primary school girls: "Oh, it's so ugly, I'm not going near it!!!"
It might equate to "Ugh, that's not right", but being scared of someone because they're not very nice to look at is just a bit daft.
The problem is scarring or disfigurement might equate to "Best be careful, this guy's probably pretty experienced" - alternately, it might equate to "They can't be very good if they ended up looking like that."
Similar thing with unblemished characters - they might not have much experience... but then again, they might be so unbelievably good that no-one can manage to come close to them.
Truly horrifically disfigured characters, to the point of "Dear Emperor, how can they
possibly still be alive?" might possibly qualify on the basis of "How the hell can I manage to kill something that can survive that?"
On an extra note, there's also a general agreement amongst my group that if a character manages to triumph sufficiently over something they fear (in a mundane manner, rather than an "aura" inspired fear), they are subsequently immune to it in future.
I should note that we heap penalties on most characters that cause the general
Fearsome effect by giving them serious penalties on anything that requires others to cooperate with them. On that note, I'm going to quote one of PrecinctOmega's Inquisitor haiku:
Power armoured tank!
Force halberd and storm bolter!
Your informant flees...The important thing is that characters that cause "aura"
Fearsome apply these penalties to tests to co-operate even with established allies!
That's not entirely fair. Most people in the Imperium live their lives without ever seeing a Daemon or a Walking Corpse and would naturally balk at having to fight one. Perhaps I should restrict Fearsome to non seasoned characters. I must admit I forgot I had it completly last time I played.
I do keep wondering if they should be something below Terrifying and Fearsome to represent this type of character. Disturbing or something like that. I'm sure one of us proposed some rules for such a thing on the last 'Clave - I don't suppose anyone saved it?
Quote from: Gnaeus Conlitor on September 02, 2009, 05:07:55 PMThat's not entirely fair. Most people in the Imperium live their lives without ever seeing a Daemon or a Walking Corpse and would naturally balk at having to fight one.
Which is why daemons and zombies SHOULD have Fearsome - They're unnatural. Daemons would kill you on the merest whim (and nasty aura definitely applies here), and Zombies... well, how do you kill the dead?
In fact, anyone might baulk at such a thing. That's what the difference in Nv stat represents.
(That said though, Zombies are likely less fear inducing than Daemons. Perhaps Fearsome needs modifiers to the Nv test to represent the effect more finely than just the two "levels" we currently have.)
People who are essentially ugly humans, are still human - you deal with them every day. Most of them have no special powers and there's no real secret to killing them. The fact that they're not pretty doesn't change that.
I personally wouldn't choose to charge them... but that's in the same way that I wouldn't choose to charge most of the people in Inquisitor. I would get my arse handed to me - possibly even literally, some of them are pretty weird.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on September 02, 2009, 08:32:08 PM
(That said though, Zombies are likely less fear inducing than Daemons.
Surely that's why you'd make daemons
Terrifying rather than just
Fearsome.
I suppose you could add modifiers to the Nv test to represent some things being scarier than others; but then you'd have to make a scale of scariness on which to rate various things - is a 'stealer scarier than a zombie and so on - which doesn't seem practical.
Quote from: Kaled on September 02, 2009, 08:38:34 PMSurely that's why you'd make daemons Terrifying rather than just Fearsome.
Physically embodied Daemons, yes - or most of them at least. But many Daemons on the table are simply Daemonhosts, which would generally only qualify for Fearsome, and I would rank them above Zombies.
Mostly because the Daemonhosts are a lot more dangerous. A zombie is "wrong", but unless you're diverting from the standard "shambling brainless (figuratively) corpse" trope, then individually, they're not all that dangerous, as long as there's some form of weapon to hand. A Daemonhost may be reined in, but it's still a malevolent (and highly intelligent) creature that could kill you a hundred different ways with ease.
Perhaps there is a justification for a "Disturbing" talent for truly ugly bastards and those things which are wrong, but not all that dangerous individually like Zombies
Yes, if you're talking daemonhosts rather than actual daemons, then Fearsome ought to be sufficient in most cases.
Maybe for differing Fearsome thingies, something like "Fearsome(-20%)" with the (-20%) the deduction from the Nerve value.
Sorry if that didn't make much sense, I'm kinda tired...
I think the problem with the whole fear/terror thing is that it's largely subjective. For example, I'd apply fearsome to a zombie, a daemonhost, my newest Inquisitor who on using Burning Hands appears to be self immolating like an Avatar, a Space Marine and an angry Ogryn.
Out of those, I'd probably get over the fear of the zombie so long as I had a weapon, the Ogryn I wouldn't charge but wouldn't find much more scary than any other guy with a gun or sword (all kill you just as dead), the Space Marine would cause me true fear simply because I couldn't hurt it, while the daemonhost or flaming guy would absolutely terrify me and most others, except that at the same time my Christian faith would give me some measure of protection against fearing demons/magic, whether or not you believe it would offer real protection.
I think there's a solid case for building lots of different grades into INQ2, if PO's not already come up with such a system already. I think the tests should also be taken for more than just charging - being charged, shooting at something currently unaware of you or otherwise catching it's attention should also be tested for, while someone who's just killed your friend should become more scary (including just basic humans IMHO), and attacking something scary that's beating the crap out of a close friend should have a reduced penalty due to group loyalty. Obviously you couldn't completely negate penalties for this, as the average guy isn't exactly going to try to rescue someone from a greater daemon, no matter how close a friend they were.
Would 5 or 6 levels of fear be about right? (something like Disturbing, Scary, Fearsome, Monstrous, Terrifying, Horrific)
The problem with having more than two 'bands' of scariness is that you then have three times as many problems as you do at the moment - classifying whether something is Terrifying or Horrific whether a particularly ugly mutant counts as Scary or just Disturbing. Either way, having it as simply Fearsome and Terrifying allows a great deal of leeway for the GM to impose modifiers (as it is his job to do!) on the fly depending on the circumstances. If you made more categories, you would just be forcing the game into a more strict system, rather than the organic flowing system that Inquisitor excels at.