Not sure if this has been asked before,so I'll ask anyway!!
As a new warband, I'm thinking about starting a last chancers warband,would this work,or is it a no go???
Cheers
Matt
It has the issue that Penal Legions are a military faction, and thus it's not going produce a varied spread of characters (your choices are mostly heavily armed and of few morals) nor one that necessarily has a place in most Inquisitor scenarios (which tend not to focus on suicide missions).
It's not impossible, but it's really an idea better suited for a Kill Team like game.
Of course!!!!! the Last Chancers are just the name of the 13th Penal Legion!!!
They have a rotating roster so you can include pretty much anyone you want and call them a Last Chancer!!!
But wouldn't it be more interesting to make your own Penal Legion, rather than tying your warband to an official character and legion???? Penal Legions are hardly uncommon after all!!!!!!!
Certain penal legions of note include:
>The 33rd Vorkarion
>The 12th Garrog "misfits"
>The 128942nd Cadian deserters
>[REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE GOD-EMPEROR'S HOLY INQUISITION]
Actually, they're all made up on the spot, but it's not too difficult. Feel free to use any of these for your characters, but as MArco has already stated, they'd be better suited to kill-team. Including one penal legion trooper (with or without explosive collar) in a warband would be fine to me, but a whole group? Inquisitor is not a squad-based game, it's about individuals.
I don't know what the current rules for last chancers in 40k are like now, but I always think of these guys http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1150013
Don't think of them as criminals that are being used because they are disposable. Think of them as Prisoners that have been given a second chance because of their unique abilities, and they will fit right into Inquisitor.
Quote from: Charax on May 21, 2012, 07:54:10 PM
But wouldn't it be more interesting to make your own Penal Legion
this f'sure; either an Expendables (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expendables_(2010_film)) / Last Chancers style team that are disposable (infact, don't the Last Chancers all die as a reward?), or an A Team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Team) style group of talented guys under the command of an Inquisitor...
Penal legions are interesting, but they suffer the same problem as imperial guard units. They are typically used on the frontlines, fighting the enemies of mankind, they are not really suited for covert investigations, quite some of the people who end up in one are a bit too unreliable for those things.
Penal Legions can be drafted from criminals of all sorts, not just those originating in the military. An Inquisitor my well have their own "pet" penal legion that exists outside the imperial war machine, allowing him to recruit whatever criminals he see's fit into it's ranks.
Non-combat archtypes are just as easy to place into a penal legion – Need a sage? How about a brilliantly minded munitorum clerk who was betrayed and caught selling to the black market.
Maybe "last chancers" wasn't the best term, but maybe a unit under orders from an "inquisitor",an assorted motley crew!!!
Cheers
Matt
[[After posting this reply in the wrong section, it finally arrives at the correct destination...]]
I agree with Dolnikan on this one. Like other frontline soldiers, a whole warband of penal legionnaires might be difficult to fit into an Inquisitor narrative. Why, for instance, would they be in the gambling dens of Sceleris Hive, in the heart of the Levitus Subsector, when they shouldn't be allowed out of sight of the Penal Commissars? One or two soldiers here and there as muscle or bodyguards for a more important figure, but a whole warband of them inevitably comes across as a bit dull. They're all basically heavily armed and armoured muscle. All of the characters in an all-soldiers warband will play virually the same way on the tabletop, which is kinda uninteresting and bland. Even if you go with the traditional "rifleman/medic, sniper, heavy weapons guy" combination, you've still basically got "three heavily armoured shooty characters" which, even though they are armed differently, will play the same way on the tabletop.
However, it's not impossible to work something out. For instance, the warband could be a commissar-representative of the Penal Legion administration, who goes from place to place negotiating treaties, terms and agreements on behalf of the Penal Legion. The Commissar in question might have a handful of "trustees" who tag along with him as his chosen bodyguards and aides.
This example is interesting because it sets the scene for some internal conflict. How do the bodyguards feel about the Commissar? How does he treat them? (Personally, if he treated them well, I think it would make for a much more boring story. Todorov famously said that a story without conflict is not a story.) Similarly, the Commissar's desk-jockey aide would probably be a non-combatant, making for a more interesting warband with some nice variation.
You would have the Commissar, in his dress uniform, (to make a good impression with those he negotiates with) a beautifully crafted laspistol and his ceremonial sword, and then a penal legionnaire bodyguard, wearing manacles and an explosive collar, along with a beaten up old lasgun or hellgun (he is protecting a commissar, after all...) and finally, there would be the aide, armed with (probably) his favourite tin teacup... Which he can go all "chronicles of riddick" on you with... I think I like the idea of the little, apparently harmless aide being a psychotic mass-murderer... After all, everyone ends up in the penal legion SOMEHOW....
The reason I'm suggesting a commissar is because a commissar operates within a limited pool of people from which he can recruit his bodyguards and/or staff. An Inquisitor can have the pick of the entire Imperial armed forces. Why would an Inquisitor pick a penal legion for his bodyguards and attendants? What is it about penal legionnaires that he finds so valuable that he's willing to put his trust into a bunch of hardened criminals? I don't know about you, but I think it would have to be something pretty amazing. A commissar, on the other hand, might have no other choice... Particularly if the commissar is a penal legionnaire himself.
To summarise, I'm not saying NOT to base a warband around the idea of a penal legion, but just to make sure that you are careful how you go about it. A warband of just front line soldiers is, for want of a better word, boring. As has already been said, it's a better idea for a kill team or 40k army. Go with something varied, with some interesting relationships between the team members. These are the sorts of things that add depth and humanity to a warband.
I hope that at least some of what I've said is of use to you.