Inquisitor Grand Tournament 2012 - March 31st

[Heroka Vendile]

bonus points if you turn up wearing an Inquisitors rosette.

[Stormgrad]

is that just because you made one?

[Heroka Vendile]

haha, no I have not.

[Inquisitor Octavian Lars]

I have, but can't make it!

[Kaled]

Since I've recently been asked a couple of questions about how the tournament works, I thought I'd post this on here as I'd dug it out in answer to one question, in the hope that the information is useful to others as well;

Not wanting to sound stupid but how do you do a tournament for something as alien to the concept of a win/loose game as the Inquisitor rule set, where (to me at least) it's better if your character fails his objective (looses) if you've kept him/her/it in character than if you were to break character simply in order to achieve your goal (win)?

Glad you asked the question, as if you were wondering then I'm sure other people are too.  If you look at the scoring system you'll see that only a small proportion of your points come from achieving objective.  There are far more points on offer for having cool characters and playing in character, for playing imaginatively, for helping to make each game into a fun and exciting story, and for playing with imagination and flair.

I've won the tournament twice (which is part of the reason I volunteered to run it this year), and I can only think of one or two games where I achieved my objectives.  Just bringing a warband equipped with the best weapons and armour is likely to help you achieve your objectives as you mow down the opposition, but won't win you many points in the other areas (and anyway quite a few entrants bring scenarios where military muscle is of only limited use).

To give you an example from my experience in the event a couple of years ago; one excellent scenario I played in was set in a vault guarded by sound-activated sentry guns - characters wearing heavy armour, such as my Inquisitorial Stormtrooper, had to move quite slowly to avoid making noise whereas my unarmoured Sister Hospitaller could advance quite quickly.  The two sides sneaked towards the objective not daring to shoot at one another for fear of setting off the sentry guns.  I asked the GM if there were any fist-sized rocks in a pile of rubble my characters were passing, my opponent looked confused until my warband started throwing rocks at his characters - the noise of the impacts setting of the sentry guns resulting in at least one of his characters being wounded and the rest being forced to dive for cover (later I remembered one of my characters had a couple of grenades, which made even more noise!).  At the climax of all this sneaking around, my characters had their objective and were fleeing towards the exit, closely pursued by their rivals - my Stormtrooper stayed behind so the Inquisitor & Sororita could get away, and ended up in a chainsword duel with every sentry gun in the place blasting away at him and his opponent!

I gave the GM a good score for the scenario - it was fun, it required thought, and was very tense.  I believe he gave me a good score too - partly for achieving my objective, but I think mostly for how I went about doing it.  I could have just sneaked all the way to the objective avoiding the opposing warband or just blasted away and ignored the sentry guns, but instead I used them to my advantage.  I would guess my opponent got a decent score as well - he didn't achieve his objective or come up with the rock throwing idea, but he was a great opponent and him and his warband were good fun to play against.

All in all, me, the GM and the opposing player enjoyed the game - it told the story of an exciting little encounter and was fun for all concerned.  That's the sort of experience that, in my opinion, will win you points - something fun and exciting plus a bit of thought and imagination.

The tournament briefing pack will come out sometime in January, but will be pretty similar to the one from last year with some minor tweaks to the scoring of the P&M round (and a requirement that everyone has a name badge or suchlike). For anyone who hasn't seen it, the old pack is still up on the Dark Magenta site.

If anyone has any more questions, feel free to post them here or send me a PM.

- Dave

[Kaled]

Afternoon all,

Just a quick update and a proposal.

I've started updating the briefing pack and it should be ready for release in a week or so. Advance tickets will go on sale around that time as well.

I've also been asked about Inq28 at the IGT. While I plan to keep the main tournament as 54mm, I am considering running a side event for Inq28. This would probably take the form of a campaign that can pretty much run itself so as not to use up too much of my time, but may also include a P&M round and some simple scoring for GMing & playing. This all depends on how much support there would be from the Inq28 gamers, but could be a good opportunity for everyone to meet. So, if you'd be interested, please let me know. Similarly, if you have any suggestions then I'd be happy to hear them. Finally, if we do this then I'd like to share responsibility for the Inq28 side of things, so if you'd like to volunteer then please drop me a line.

- Dave

[Molotov]

Kaled - INQ28 at the IGT is a grand idea. However, it really does depend how much interest you get. If only two people turn up, it wouldn't be that fruitful for you. I'd love to help, however March 31st is my birthday, and SWMBO's patience stretches only so far...

[Keravin]

Depending on work  I might be interested in the Inq28 side of things.   Not looked at my diary for a few days so no idea yet whether I'm already booked up.   I don't have enough experience with the game yet to look at helping running things.

[MarcoSkoll]

I'd love to help, however March 31st is my birthday, and SWMBO's patience stretches only so far.

Call it a gaming birthday party.

As to the idea of 28mm gaming at the GT, I like the idea, as anything that helps unify Inquisitor as a game is a good thing. We are, ultimately, all playing the same game, if with different models, so it would be good to get a chance to all meet each other in person.

Maybe, even though it's not exactly practical to be running the GT at both scales, it could even serve as a precursor to a unified dual scale event. I've got some ideas for how to pull that off - they'll need polishing, but based on the plans for other events, I think the earliest date would be about Summer 2013, so there's time to think.

[Kaled]

For a dual scale event, people could bring whatever scale models they want and play to collect 'resources' then the finale could be played across multiple tables again, with some tables at different scales to others. It'd be annoying if the top players, who would normally be opposing each other on the main table of the finale, had to be split due to playing at different scales but it's not a massive issue. And players could bring 54mm and 28mm versions of their primary PC and still use him in every game even if they play some games at 28mm and the rest at 54mm. But perhaps we should move this to another thread to start discussing ideas for other events in 2012?

I'll leave the idea of a 28mm side event at the IGT open for a week or two before making a decision. If you're interested then please post as it'll need at least half a dozen players to go ahead.

[Keravin]

Well I've flagged it on Ammobunker which seems to be one of the main areas for INQ28.

[Kaled]

So far I haven't had enough responses to make it worthwhile holding an Inq28 event, but I'll give it another week to see if more potential attendees - so if you're interested please let me know...

[greenstuff_gav]

i can bring 28mm, but i likes 54mm

also, is therea pack to go up? maybe worth advertising on the usual forums.. Warseer, TGN, TTFix?

[MarcoSkoll]

As and when there is a pack, I'm happy to put it up on the Archive to try and save Dark Magenta from a pounding (although I suspect that without Warseer's front page, it's less likely to happen this year).

[Kaled]

There'll be a pack very soon. The main thing that still needs doing is the poster, but I'll try to get that done this week and then we can start advertising it across the forums.