Duke Leif Grandessa- Rogue Trader & party. NEW CHARACTERS ADDED.

[Quickdraw McGraw]

Hello All, I've been busy building new characters and the models to go with it.    Unfortunately, I can dream them up a lot faster than I can make 'em.    I'm hoping everyone will read and tell me what you think.  I'm open to criticism. Thank you.  

First up is my main character.  He's a Rogue Trader with a long family history as rogue merchants.  I have lots of ideas for his warband.  Mainly there will be him and another two or three characters who will be revolving with other characters according to the mission or story. I'm currently working out all the story details.  So just the characteristics for now.  

Duke Leif Grandessa- Rogue Trader

Equipment: Decorative Reflective Carapace armor (+5) on chest, abdomen and legs; Heavy Coat on all locations but head; Stubber pistol w/laser sight & 3 reloads; Digi-Flamer, Melta an :)d Needle weapon rings; C'tan Phase sword; 5 dose De-tox & Spur Inhaler; Re-Breather; Average Bionic Eye w/Psi-tracker (under patch).

Special Abilities: Leader, Persuade, Feint, Hipshooting and Heroic
                                                                                                                                 
WS 64      BS 60        S 57         T 55          I 68        Wp 75     Sg 85       Nv 74      Ld 83

Leif Grandessa is not your run of the mill merchant captain.  He's more of a Indiana Jones/Capt. Mal Reynolds
type. He loves his ship and occupation but gets cabin fever easy.


Blayde Knole- Astro-Telepath (The Sanctioning Brand)

Equipment: Rune Staff; Psykana Mercy Blade; Psychic Foci; Purity Seals; 10 dose Psi-Omn Inhaler & 5 dose De-tox Inhaler; Flak armor on chest and abdomen; Heavy robes all locations and Man-portable Disruption Ephod (perks of working with a rogue trader).

Exotic Abilities: Soulbound, Warpsight and Psyniscience.
Psychic Abilities: Telepathy, Mind Trick, Dominate, Lightning Arc, Psychic Shriek, Mind Scan, Gaze of Death and Terrify.
                             
WS 48     BS 37     S 40     T 41     I 64       Wp  80     Sg  71     Nv  48      Ld  53

Blayde Knole is really my first character to possess any psychic powers.  He gets a lot of work on and off the ship.  I wanted him stacked with powers.  I'm just not sure if he has too many powers.  I didn't give him a willpower over 80 as I wanted to keep things interesting.  


The Janus Twins-Mutant Desperados

Equipment:  Siamese conjoined twins (as *Binary cortex); Third arm; Two hearts, two livers and a third lung (as +20% resistance to toxins & gas); Flak armor on chest, abdomen, groin and legs; Carapace armor on left forward arm; Pump Shotgun w/Rangefinder, an additional 10 standard & 6 Hellfire shells; Stubber w/2 reloads; Chainsword; Throwing knife; Frag & Smoke grenade; Rebreathers; a 5 dose Spur and Psychon injector.

Special Abilities: Regenerate, True Grit, Fearsome, Ambidextrous, *Wyrd-Detection and Hipshooting.

WS 60      BS  64      S  75       T  66       I  56       Wp  70     Sg *100      Nv  71      Ld 47

The Twins are joined at the abdomen at the rear facing away from each other.  The twins always have some one watching their back.  Literally.    Leif Grandessa uses the twins for their uncanny way of finding anyone. The twins rely on each other and their trust in other is hard to come by. Did I mention they're resourceful and clever.
With two heads and different personalities I felt the Binary Cortex equipment was appropriate.  However, they are
not as smart as a techpriest.  So I just doubled their intelligence.  Also they are not heroic types.  So that ability doesn't work either. In comes the wyrd-detection.  It's not a psychic power.  The twins just have that uncanny thing most twins have with each other and it manifests itself in their 6th sense/gut feeling when tracking.


Lars-  Wulfen Space Marine (Dark Magenta 2)

Equipment: Advanced Bionic Eye w/Range finder; Thunder Hammer; Bolt pistol w/4 reloads; Carapace armor on all all locations but head w/Re-breather & 5 dose MIU De-tox & Spur Injector.

Special Abilities: Mighty Blow, Bodyguard, Hyperactive Neuroglottis, Nerves of Steel, Spit Acid, Ambidextrous and True Grit.
                                                                                                                             
WS 85     BS  75       S 120        T  80         I 85        Wp 75      Sg 75       Nv 95       Ld 75

This one is a bit of a stretch.  However I wanted to include a free agent space marine without going renegade. This character is powerful but i notched him down a bit by replacing his power armor with carapace.  The story goes..

Leif Grandessa was scouring the surface of Prospero when he picked up a small energy blip.  The surface of the planet has been dead for many millenia.  Buried in ruins under thousands of years of blowing sands. Lars of the 13th company was caught up in a warp fueled explosion.  The explosion was a psychic blast that turned his pack into dust by rapidly aging them many thousands of years.  Lars wounded and his system falling into shock was instead transported Nine and half thousand years into the future.  Upon rescue and recovery Lars was brought up to speed on the events that transpired that day.    

Lars owes a life debut to Leif.  He will continue to serve Leif as long as Leif doesn't commit heresy or conspire with
agents of Chaos.


This is all for now.  I'm working on some techpiests and imperial veteran mercs for Leif's other warband members.

Thanks,
josh

[Darksinger]

Duke Lief Grandessa- Sounds like the Sorta Guy Darius (My =][=) would Love.

Carapace armour is Armour value 6, not 5. Just pointing that out. Reduced Carapace is value 5.

C'tan phase sword. Thats a nice weapon, to be sure. possibly a bit too shiny. Ctan weapons are very rare, (legendary, i think), and a rogue trader wouldn't be able to get one without Exceptionally good contacts. Unless its a family heirloom or something. Prehaps he recovered it from a dead Callidus, and kept it for himself. Could be an intresting bit of backstory.

Blayde Knole- I keep thinkng ''Knoll.'', followed by ''Furfaced pests from D&D''. Sorry bout that.

Regardless, I'm not sure what half his equiment does. No comments here, apart from he may have a couple too many powers.

The Janus Twins- I See what you did thar.

Interesting looking character. Could be very fun to play. Not much to say other than ''Hopefully, you know wht your doing'' and ''why do they regenerate?''

Lars- He sounds more like a scout with those stats. And since he wears carapace armour, it makes sense.

[MarcoSkoll]

Carapace armour is Armour value 6, not 5. Just pointing that out. Reduced Carapace is value 5.

That's entirely arbitrary terminology. I'd call it Light Carapace. In any case, provided its armour value is clear, the name is fairly moot.

One thing to add though is that normally armour values do not stack* (So that carapace and heavy coat would not combine for AV 7). I'm not sure it's actually explicit in Inquisitor (although it certainly is in Dark Heresy), but it is a very common house rule.

*Normally only the heaviest armour on a location counts, plus any bonus for cover, bionics or fields.
After all, if your carapace can't stop a shot, a thick coat isn't going to do much to help!

...and a rogue trader wouldn't be able to get one without Exceptionally good contacts.

Pretty much by definition, rogue traders have "exceptionally good contacts".
Overall, Rogue Traders are far more likely to make use of rare, unusual or powerful weapons than an Inquisitor, as they're far less bothered about being covert, and indeed, much of their reputation relies on their ostentations and display of conspicuous wealth.

However, if he's got a Phase Sword, I'd suggest that perhaps the fact he also has anti-tank jewellery is a little excessive. (That digi-flamer wouldn't tickle either...)

Blayde Knole- I'm not sure what half his equiment does.

A lot of that is in Rauridh's Sanctioning Brand article for Dark Magenta.

With two heads and different personalities, I felt the Binary Cortex equipment was appropriate.

Exactly how much can the personality of two genetically identical individuals who've had basically the same experiences during their life really differ? The Binary cortex represents two different individuals with their own ways of thinking and differing previous experience coming together.

I know I wouldn't gain a huge amount of reasoning power from having an exact copy of myself around to argue with. It would offer parallel processing ("You work on Problem A, I'll work on Problem B"), but it wouldn't bring any new viewpoint or experience to the discussion.

It might merit a small increase in Sg, but mutants are unlikely to have been well educated in the first place.

Also, I agree with Darksinger that Regeneration is a bit trite for a mutant - does it really add anything to the character(s), or can their mutation be handled in a less clichéd way?
Similarly, why are they Fearsome? Fearsome means that something is life threateningly scary - something dangerous enough that hardened warriors will actually stop and think twice before taking it on. Not that it's a mildly alarming/unusual sight.

Lastly, how are you handling injury effects?

~~~~~

Lars: I'm not sure I like the "He's from the past!" story. Particularly as I doubt anyone gets anywhere near Prospero these days. (Also, does Prospero even exist any more?)

That aside, does he really need the Thunderhammer? Space Marines don't need a weapon like that to make a huge mess. Could he not just use some large and ornate but unpowered hammer?

[Quickdraw McGraw]

Thanks you two for your encouraging words and honest critiquing.  
I'll try to answer all your questions.

Carapace armour is Armour value 6, not 5. Just pointing that out.

Very True Darksinger. Carapace armor is AV6.  Leif's armor is AV5. It's light, expensive and decorative.

One thing to add though is that normally armour values do not stack* (So that carapace and heavy coat would not combine for AV 7). I'm not sure it's actually explicit in Inquisitor (although it certainly is in Dark Heresy), but it is a very common house rule.

I agree with this 100%  I only mentioned the heavy coat covering all locations as it would look weird saying a heavy coat covers his arms and groin.  

However, if he's got a Phase Sword, I'd suggest that perhaps the fact he also has anti-tank jewellery is a little excessive. (That digi-flamer wouldn't tickle either...)

Anti-tank jewellery.  That's Hilarious!  You hit the nail on the head btw.  So no inferno or flamer digis.  Does a Krak
grenade sound a bit much then?  

With two heads and different personalities, I felt the Binary Cortex equipment was appropriate.

Exactly how much can the personality of two genetically identical individuals who've had basically the same experiences during their life really differ? The Binary cortex represents two different individuals with their own ways of thinking and differing previous experience coming together.

I know I wouldn't gain a huge amount of reasoning power from having an exact copy of myself around to argue with. It would offer parallel processing ("You work on Problem A, I'll work on Problem B"), but it wouldn't bring any new viewpoint or experience to the discussion.

It might merit a small increase in Sg, but mutants are unlikely to have been well educated in the first place.

Also, I agree with Darksinger that Regeneration is a bit trite for a mutant - does it really add anything to the character(s), or can their mutation be handled in a less clichéd way?
Similarly, why are they Fearsome? Fearsome means that something is life threateningly scary - something dangerous enough that hardened warriors will actually stop and think twice before taking it on. Not that it's a mildly alarming/unusual sight.

Lastly, how are you handling injury effects?

I see what you mean about the binary cortex not really as appropriate as I first thought. I had been working on a back story for the twins.  They may not have a formal education but the work camp all mutants are segregated to on their planet of birth does offer the 3 basics.  Writing, reading and arithmetic.  Some folks would see this a arming a possible mob with weapons (so to speak).  But when the mutant rate is steadily growing the governments of this planet had to act to head off any possible up rising.  They live their lives as second rate citizens.  If they want to eat they have to work like everyone else.  

So what if I remove the cortex, cut back on the Sg a bit...say 75.  And give them 360˚ field of view?

The regeneration is a bit redundant is it?  The whole purpose for the regeneration was to show the hardiness of their unique physiology.   Though it did strike me that the regeneration doesn't have to mean they will grow limbs back in two turns but just heal faster than normal.  Which could be better explained like giving them an extra Light injury to all locations or Double Toughness for system shock, consciousness and instant death.  Maybe?

Ugly doesn't mean Fearsome.  I don't know what I was thinking.  

This one is tough.  So let me explain and we can figure something out together. In the Alien Generator PDF it
discusses how to do this with multiple arms.  The Janus twins have 2 heads, 2 chests, and 3 arms. Owen-the twin
in the front controls both legs and the front right arm.  Artie-the twin on the back has two arms.  His left arm sits directly behind Owens right arm. I don't want to over complicate it. But If you facing Owen you can't hit Artie's chest and left arm.  Artie's head will also be hard to hit. But not impossible.  I hope this makes better sense.

The Janus twins are supposed to be an interesting and fun character to play, not a run of the mill mutant.  I hope I've done well to portray that.

Lars: I'm not sure I like the "He's from the past!" story. Particularly as I doubt anyone gets anywhere near Prospero these days. (Also, does Prospero even exist any more?)

That aside, does he really need the Thunderhammer? Space Marines don't need a weapon like that to make a huge mess. Could he not just use some large and ornate but unpowered hammer?

I orignally wanted to use a statis field of sorts to protect Lars all those years.  But where to find an constant energy source on a dead planet?  The Thousand Sons are masters of sorcery.  It could just be reworded that he was protected by a warp-fueled statis field for 9 1/2 thousand years.  

With Lar's strength, Mighty Blow and Thunder Hammer all together he would be a character killer.  I wouldn't want to play a game where the other player brings instant death machines to the board.  I agree with you Marco.  He could just use his nasty clawed hands and teeth to wreak the enemy. I'm going to give him a great hammer fashioned from obsidian.  Power weapons can't destroy this hammer.  

I hope this a step in the right direction.  I've also encluded a background bit about Duke Leif Grandessa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duke Leif Grandessa backstory

With a bone grinding crunch the ship shook as another barrage of lasers kissed the port side of the ship.  Only moments earlier Capt. Leif Grandessa ordered to arm the laser batteries.  Leif Grandessa's Nova class merchant ship, "Victoria" was by all appearances factory with no up-grades.  His father had seen the wisdom some 30 years earlier to conceal a quad laser battery in her bow right beneath the bridge.  Beads of sweat formed along Leif's brow as the temperature in the bridge spiked.  Alerting him before the console display, that the lasers were charged.

He thought of the old man.  How he hated his father for so many years.  How he hated himself and could never forget the pain he caused his family.  So many events leading up to that night are still a mystery.  They say it was the "Creep".  A very addictive narcotic that cause blackouts. The truth is he just wanted to forget.  High out of his mind and behind the wheel of his new birthday present, the death of his best friend Theodore was his fault.
 
All Leif cared about in those days was money, drugs and parties.  The old man and him fought that night.  He would no larger cover up for his messes. In front of family and friends who came to see Leif in the hospital.The old man shouted that Leif was a disgrace to the Grandessa name and he disinherited him from the Grandessa fortunes.
As a friend of the family, the judge gave Leif an option. To ether serve 20 years in a penal colony or serve 10 years in "His Emperor's Navy". Typically Leif chose the easy route.  But he show them all. He's no disgrace and didn't need there money or charity

Years later as a junior officer standing on the bridge of "Terra's Light".  Looking down on the Armageddon system. A sight that changed Leif's life forever.  The burning of worlds, broken ships floating in orbit and the millions in casualties. Leif realized It was no longer about HIM.  His whole life he only worried about what he could get.   As lowly as a single drop of water in a vast ocean.  He could either let myself sink to the icy bottom or rise to the top and become something more.

Leif ran his fingers over his face finding the scars and eye patch hiding the bionic eye.  He had lost the eye that day, fending off Ork breachers.  But he had gained so much in return.  Leif Grandessa had found a purpose for his life.  

The smell of that new pine box returned to Leif's memory.  How he wish he had told the old man how he truly felt. Just how deeply sorry Leif was.  At the reading of the Grandessa will. Leif's younger brother Kyle got the family estate and merchant trade business.  Left to Leif was an ornate wooden chest!  Disappointed, he carefully opened it only to feel more ashamed.  Three treasures lay inside each worth more than the estate and business together!  A pictograph of Leif's father played on a small tablet. Telling Leif how proud of he was of who he had become and in turn about the three items from the chest.  A Warrant of Trade signed by the very Lords of Terra themselves.  The old man, Leif's father was secretly a Rogue Trader!? The merchant business was just a front?  The next item was a C'Tan phase sword (or so he called it). It glowed with an odd iridescence.  This sword is a Grandessa family Heirloom. Last but not least, was the ignition sequence for "Victoria". The old man's beloved vintage ship.

Leif's thoughts snapping back to the present.  White knuckled-hand gripping his command chair. Veins protruding from his neck...FIRRRE!!!

Thanks for reading,
josh

[MrMasochist]

Hey,

I like the character background alot. Really gives a sense of depth. Just not sure why it switches from third person past tense to first person present tense and then back to third person. Does not flow. But once the effort is made to read past that confusing section the whole idea is great.

I think that the siamese twins will be easy enough to play with as long as you make all of the oddities abundantly clear to your opponent and GM before playing.

The space marine is a little OP but I do like the lower strength and toughness and the lack of power armour. Might be worth him simply being a marine scout. I wonder if the thousand sons would spend the energy required to create a 10 thousand year stasis field. They would more likely kill him. If it was accidental they probably would have undone it to learn how and then killed him...   dunno.

Thanks

MrMasochist

[Ynek]

Just a small note:

Obsidian is a brittle, but sharp-sharding volcanic glass. It is not immune to the effects of a power field.

To be immune to the effects of a power field, a weapon must possess an energy field of it's own. Whether that comes from a power field generator, a shock field generator, a bound daemonic spirit, psychic energy, or magical cabbage is variable.

One exception are 'lathe' weapons, but I always got the feeling that they were written by someone who has no idea how molecular disruption works... (I.E. If it's made of atoms, it's doomed.)

[Quickdraw McGraw]

MrMasochist- sorry about the confusion in the writing.  I wrote it about 2 o'clock in the morning.  But that's really not my only excuse as I'm just a poor writer too.  I will edit it so it makes sense. 

Is it me or does the conclave as whole find space marines one sided characters?  As much as I'm digging this character and personality created.  He just doesn't seem to fit, does he? I may have to go back to the drawing board.

Ynek- Yes you're right it is brittle and wickedly sharp!  Last night I was thinking of something one of a kind.  I then remembered that the commanding officers of the dark angels space marine chapter and successors. Use a master-crafted weapons called Heavenfall blades.  Cut from an unusual meteorite.  The metal was as black as obsidian.  And I'm writing this it occurs to me.  The Heavenfall blades are probably energy enhance too.     

Thanks for your replies.  Later I'll repost the edited parts.
Josh

[MrMasochist]

no hassles.   The writing wasn't bad at all, it simply wasn't edited for flow and continuity before you posted it. Not really an issue, I'm just a Writing Nazi so that's where that came from.

as far as space marines go I don't mind them in game if you pre-warn your opponent and allow him to refit his arsenal (inquisitorial spy networks are large enough to know that a space marine is wandering around and he/she would make sure that he was packing enough heat to deal with the threat) to include power weapons, bolt weapons, portable rocket launchers and similar space marine handing weapons. These weapons, while ostentatious are definitely what my inquisitor would gain access to when dealing with even a space marine in carapace with diminished stats. otherwise its just not fun for you or your opponent. The issue I think you are finding on this forum is that as far as back story goes for marines it has all been done before.

anyway, thanks for the characters, I look forward to their evolution (and models?)


MrMasochist

[Quickdraw McGraw]

MrMasochist- thanks again for reviewing the backstory.  I've edited it already but I won't be reposting it until I'm all finished. 

As far as the wulfen space marine goes I'm going to pull him for now.  I haven't started his model yet so no worries.   I have three more characters ready to post soon.

And yes, I do have most of the models for my characters.    Leif Grandessa is be based off of Eisenhorn. Blayde Nole will be based off the navigator model.  The Janus twins are based off Sgt. Stone.

Cheers,
Josh

[MarcoSkoll]

One exception are 'lathe' weapons, but I always got the feeling that they were written by someone who has no idea how molecular disruption works... (I.E. If it's made of atoms, it's doomed.)

Given that the disruption field itself is pseudo-science, then the idea of counter pseudo-science is not unreasonable.

Actually, once you introduce the idea of a disruption field, the idea that it can be countered is fairly logical.

Two options come to mind:

1) Such materials have an internal structure that acts as similarly to magnetic or electric shielding, the disruption field being inverted by the appropriate equivalent to electric permittivity or magnetic permeability and therefore cancelling itself out. (We can't currently shield from gravity, but it would be possible if you could find a gravitationally conductive material. And evidently, the Imperium has done essentially that with their gravity technology.)

Basically, like the fact that there's no electric field in a perfect electric conductor, there's no disruption field in a perfect disruption conductor. The problem then is that... well, that it's conducting the field elsewhere (namely your hand). But then, it doesn't have to be a perfect conductor - just good enough to weaken the field within the limits of the molecular bonds of the material.

2) As any field must have a field strength (indeed, the power maul has variable field settings) and no field will be infinite (Again, refer to the power maul, which shows a power field can be weak enough to not immediately rip through flesh or armour and are not automatically "everything is destroyed") so there is no sense of "all atoms are automatically doomed".  So, the molecular bonds really are just that strong - at least strong enough to survive what the average disruption field generator can produce.

And as their AV 25 shows, Lathe weapons are very tough (beyond most power weapons), but not completely invulnerable (Lascannons or Meltaguns).

[Quickdraw McGraw]

Marcoskoll- Would be so kind as to enlighten me about these Lathe characters, please?  I've read that name somewhere before but all I can think I can remember is there alien.

Thanks, Josh

[MarcoSkoll]

The Lathes are a trio of forge worlds (Het, Hadd and Hesh) in the Calixis sector where their extreme gravitational interactions can be used to produce particularly tough and dense materials.

[Quickdraw McGraw]

Wow, I was way off.  LOL  

So would this increase the rarity level of their goods?  Say for example, a chainsword from their forgeworld would be an exotic weapon?  But immune to breakage?  If so then how would you treat a power sword that's immune to breakage?

Thanks,
Josh

[MarcoSkoll]

It'd certainly increase the rarity - it's a "Very Rare" weapon upgrade in Dark Heresy, which is the most scarce of the original DH rarities (they added rarer ones later).

However, normally Lathe weapons are only basic bladed weapons - "mundane" axes, knives and swords. I suspect the cost, complexity and weight of forging a chain or power weapon from the Lathe alloys is prohibitive.

[DapperAnarchist]

Well, power, shock, daemon and force weapons are already immune to breaking, so it could be a power Lathe blade... but it would make no difference. You can't be more immune.