Combating Inquisitorial Dispersment

[Elva]

Sadly, where I live there is little interest for Inquisitor, so only myself and a group of hardened veterans who hang out at my local GW play it. But, we haven't in a few years now, though we've been struggling to get another campaign set up. However, even that effort is faltering as two of our most important and relatively reliable players are now loosing interest and the battle seems almost lost. This leaves me and our GM, which isn't much of a gaming group. The best I can think of doing at the moment is talking to the manager and seeing if he could spread word around, but I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket.

I am wondering, from the perspective of vets like you guys, what to do. How can I get the group alive again with the interest dying?

[Jamas Orian]

Firstly: Have a planet on me to save having to think too long about making one - or steal ideas from it

I found, when I played in the Inq campaign that I was running at my local GW before specialist games got banned, that having a lot of spare models to hand and being super enthusiastic is very good for getting people interested.

[RobSkib]

Well for starters, where do you live? Injecting some fresh blood into your campaign, either through new people or experienced Inquisitor players can never be a bad thing!

Your story writing and character design can really effect the enjoyment of players in a campaign - an uninteresting storyline, or overpowered characters (if you're regularly seeing space marines, inquisitor lords, aliens and daemons on your board, for example) can quickly grind against your enjoyment, and defies the whole point of the Inquisitor experience. Do some research, ask around the 'clave for some good characters and stories, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would provide a few of their campaign ideas.

Have you considered tying it into a 40k scenario or two? Maybe an Acolyte's mission is to restart a long abandoned radar dish that would provide enormous intel on the enemy, letting some of your forces use the Flanking rule, or perhaps an Inquisitor has sent his best men to disable an anti-aircraft array allowing you to Deep Strike, , or even worse, a Chaos Magus has infiltrated a high-security Inquisitorial dig site where they have just uncovered some ancient ruins - can the Inquisitor return to the scene quickly enough before the Magus successfully summons an army of unimaginable power? And if he does, can the local PDF suppress the massed army of aberrations until the Grey Knights can arrive?

[Shannow]

Have you considered tying it into a 40k scenario or two?

I really like the idea of having 40k battles, say 500pt skirmishes using witch hunter/daemon hunter codices intermittent within a campaign to determine the setting of a particular scenario.

Not everyone mind, but I think now and again it would be really fun, and with Molotov likely to write some INQ28 articles provide a creative outlet for those with 54mm inquisitor but keen to use their 28mm counterparts perhaps.

Rob

[Elva]

These are all really good ideas. I'll be sure to try them out. And that 40k cross over idea might is particularly brilliant. Thanks for the Planet as well, you put a lot of detail into it,which I will have to examine for an unrelated campaign I'm GMing for some friends.

[MarcoSkoll]

I really like the idea of having 40k battles, say 500pt skirmishes using witch hunter/daemon hunter codices intermittent within a campaign to determine the setting of a particular scenario.

Actually, on that note, I've been pushing around ideas for a skirmish game that's something of a hybrid of a lot of GW's stuff. It's intended for representing larger scale conflicts (up to 30-40 models a side) that include characters out of Inquisitor alongside other, less heroic, forces.

It's not intended to be stand-alone game (although it could be, if you wanted), but instead act as a compliment to Inquisitor - mostly as a campaign tool, allowing bigger events than the normal ruleset can handle, but still keeping the main characters on the table (who are "exported" into the new ruleset via a set of guidelines and such)

Basically, if Dark Heresy is Inquisitor with more RPG and less skirmish, what I'm trying to write is Inquisitor with more skirmish and less RPG. (Inquisimunda might do that job for some, but I'm trying something a bit different.)
But this isn't a thread about my game design efforts, so I'll shut up now.

[Shannow]

But this isn't a thread about my game design efforts, so I'll shut up now.

Well then make a thread! It sounds exactly what I had in mind with my above suggestion and I would be curious to read what you've done.

[Morcus]

I apologise if you've done this already but it's not been said and if its not helpful to you it might be to others. Get everyone together and see what everyone wants to do. I believe you said half of your group is losing intrest so find out why. This might sound odd but maybe you should get together regularly to do something else for abit before restarting with Inquisitor, a break can do wonders (I've lost count of the number of times I've completely given up on Inquisitor and table top gaming in general, packed everything away and come back to it months or in cases years later). I can't say it'll work for everyone but it might be worth trying.

[precinctomega]

INQ, as a sell, is both easy and challenging at the same time.  In my experience, people who "get it", do so almost immediately and embrace the game with enthusiasm.  Those who don't, won't ever: these are people for whom it's just a game and who therefore expect things like balance and an easily-defined outcome.

Look for the people who really put effort into their normal games.  Obviously, it will help if they already play 40k, but you can also look for people who love the Black Library's 40k novels, or who play other science fiction skirmish games, like StarGrunts 2, or who are already predisposed to Specialist Games like Bloodbowl, Necromunda or BFG.

Invite such people to participate in a demo game.  This is usually best played as GM vs Player or, at most, two players vs the GM.  This gives each player plenty of game time and opportunity to grasp the mechanics of the game and the nuances of the rules.

Such demo games should include characters capable of at least some daring stunts and impressive feats, although the GM should also, of course, reward imagination with success.  Make sure the scenario is one in which the fates of worlds hang in the balance or great secrets wait to be unleashed.  The training scenarios from DM1 are good for teaching the rules to people who are already interested, but a bit pedestrian when you're trying to get a new player hooked.

In a recent demo game, I GM'd the player's attempt to prevent a notorious renegade inquisitor from stealing a precious (and powerful) Imperial relic abandoned in a cathedral annihilated by recent conflict but still protected by a battery of power fields.  Thus, the PPC had to prevent the antagonist from disrupting the fields and - when he naturally failed - get to the relic first to claim victory.  To mix things up, I threw in a small squad of deserters from an unspecified side of the continuing conflict who were hiding in the ruins.

R.

[GAZKUL]

a good source of interest is "recruiting" the more non-competetive members of the world as well as the D&D players and more traditional RPers in as they will be more interested in the background part.

[gwrulz]

Being a former Outrider/Komando for GW I can tell you this is how you get people interested:
1. Build a demo table
2. Paint as many different models as possible
3. Run a demo day - give out freebies and "dumb down" the rules
4. Run a "paint and play" league - get your local game store to give 10% discount on all special ordered items that are for the league and prepaid.
5. Run a league tournament with prize support.

Do as many of the above suggestions in the store and open to the public.  This is advertising!  Be excited about your ideas, the game, and be excited about random people's ideas (even the dumb ones).  When making a table keep it "small" but interesting.  I like the 4 foot circle for demo tables.

Painting an Inquisitor model when everyone else is painting 50 zombies or spearmen is a startling comparison to a potential player.  "Hmm, I have to paint how many models to play?"  This is how warmachine got such a big boost in the wargame market.  They promted the fact that you needed less models to play (and could use them unpainted).

In your league, start with the Inquisitor and a henchman.  Give players 3 weeks to paint/play.  Week 4 run scenerio driven tournament. Stay away from group games in tournaments.  Give prize support, doesn't matter what but I recommend trophies that double as terrain!  I also suggest that weeks 5-7 are used to grow the warband, week 8 another tournament, then start a new warband league!  8 weeks seem to be a good length of time to grow a warband.  Then starting another warband is nice because players will then have 2 warbands of their own to teach friends.

[Ynek]

stuff

I actually think that this is a really good idea. It's a lot of work, but getting people interested in a hobby normally is. Too bad my local Games Workshop isn't particularly fond of Specialist Games.

However, when giving out awards, I think that it would be appropriate to have no 'prize' for the tournament 'winner' other than the bragging rights that go with it. After all, Inquisitor is one of those games that it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, but it's how you play the game that matters. Therefore, having prizes for "most awesome model", "most original back-story", "best game spirit", "Most cinematic moment in a game". These are the things that Inquisitor is about. These are the things that are important, and thus deserve rewarding. - not just winning the game with the cheesiest, beardiest thing possible.

[gwrulz]

I seem to always give away "prizes" but they are always some gimmik such as Inquisitor scale barrels or other terrain that I cast up.  It costs me next to nada and I have extras from making my own, soo... bling!  The cool thing about these prizes are that they end up being used, and promote the game even more.  I should cast up some crates with The Conclave's website etched into them.  Hmmm, weekend project?

[Easy E]

Being a former Outrider/Komando for GW I can tell you this is how you get people interested:
1. Build a demo table
2. Paint as many different models as possible
3. Run a demo day - give out freebies and "dumb down" the rules
4. Run a "paint and play" league - get your local game store to give 10% discount on all special ordered items that are for the league and prepaid.
5. Run a league tournament with prize support.

Do as many of the above suggestions in the store and open to the public. 

This is priceless. 

Sometimes, I wish there were just something that were easy.  Everything takes a lot of work, and I only have a finite capacity for said work.

That being said, the advice is golden.