..finally played a bit.. and a question about psychic bolts

[monkhmer]

I'm home visiting friends and family over the holidays and I finally got my old gaming buddy to try some Inquisitor.  We did a simple combat to test the rules.  I played a "Slick" and he played a Rating generated from Character Creation and Advancement supplement.  "Slick" was able to get off a few rounds but in the end the Rating charged his position, leapt over the obstacle/cover between them and attacked with a chainsword using Furious Assault.  The first hit was to the head, unarmored.  Boom, dead dead dead.  In hindsight I hadn't been using Gunfighter and Ambidextrous to their full extent but the Stubber and Revolver had a heck of a time trying to penetrate his carapace armor.  It was quite fun.. although I'm a long way from fully understanding all the rules.  I'm going to reprint all of the files as a compendium of sorts and give him a copy too.. it is the season of giving afterall.

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Next, I have a question about psychic bolts.  Especially Storm of Lightning, what would be the active characteristic to test?  Would Ballistic Skill or Willpower be tested? 

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[Ynek]

Next, I have a question about psychic bolts.  Especially Storm of Lightning, what would be the active characteristic to test?  Would Ballistic Skill or Willpower be tested? 

Both.

[RobSkib]

Stubber and Revolver had a heck of a time trying to penetrate his carapace armor

With 2D6+2 damage, you were struggling to roll 6 and above with two weapons?

Without trying to sound overly critical, there are just a few points I'd like to cover - first up, I can't stress how important it is to create you own characters and play with them. Even a generic grunt with a stubber and a knife would be better to learn the rules of Inquisitor than to use the "Penalty Avoidance" characters that the rulebook provides as examples - Gunfighter, Ambidextrous and Hipshooting still gives me the shivers. In fact, when you say that you 'forgot' about those special abilities, the only thing they do is grant immunity to certain penalties. You'd do better learning the rules if you use a character without every shooting special ability in the book!

Secondly, elaborating Ynek's comment, you will use both stats. You use Willpower to cast the psychic power (minus penalties for range and difficulty) and then you use a Ballistic skill test to determine whether the succesful psychic bolt attack hits. Failing the first results in a Wp loss (D10 for every 10 failed? something like that), failing the second means the bolt attack misses the intended target. In this case, you can largely ignore the second failed result. However, a canny GM might point out that you target was standing a little too close to a large promethium tank, and even though the bolt attack missed the intended character, it did happen to ignite the fuel dump behind him!

[MarcoSkoll]

Next, I have a question about psychic bolts.  Especially Storm of Lightning, what would be the active characteristic to test?  Would Ballistic Skill or Willpower be tested?

Personally, I test any "to Hit" rolls for psychic powers (be it a bolt, or perhaps a telekinetically thrown object) using the psyker's Willpower in place of their Ballistic skill - of course, this is after you've made the psychic test.

I still apply all the normal modifiers for shooting (except aiming - I apply any concentration bonus here instead), but because Ballistic skill represents their control of firearms, not their control of their psychic powers, it seems more appropriate to use Willpower as the base for the tests.

However, this is completely a house rule - under the official rules, you'd test on Ballistic Skill.

With 2D6+2 damage, you were struggling to roll 6 and above with two weapons?

A little odd. It's only a 1 in 6 that 2D6+2 will fail to roll over 6.

Anyway, I very much agree with the sentiment of using a character who hasn't got all different kinds of skills. To be honest, it's best to learn with a skill-less character, because then you've got the raw framework for all characters, and you then modify from that.

[monkhmer]

Regarding the low damage rolls.  We didn't understand Injury Total and Injury Level correctly.  We were playing as if one had to get through armour and then pass the base injury level as well to score a Light, Heavy, etc.  So, yes, we are still sussing out the rules a bit.

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Regarding psychic bolts and BS vs. WP.  I hate to have to point at 40k but if BS were the active "aim" characteristic for psychic bolts then wouldn't Eldrad, Tigurius, etc. have better BS scores than WS?  It seems to me that most psychic characters have greater WS than BS in most of the codexes, etc.

[MarcoSkoll]

I hate to have to point at 40k...

Unfortunately, 40k is even more of an abstraction at times than Inquisitor. Still, under strict terms, in both games, you do use BS for psychic bolt hit rolls (although a lot of psychic attacks in 40k don't need a hit roll)

In Inquisitor, Wp is available as an alternative (and makes a lot more sense) - but I would only do that by prior agreement with the other players*.
*Mostly because my psykers almost universally tend to have better Wp than BS.

[precinctomega]

Or abandon the clunky INQ psychic system and use something more elegant...

R.

[N01H3r3]

Or abandon the clunky INQ psychic system and use something more elegant...

R.

Robey, have you seen the psychic system in Rogue Trader (the new RPG, not 1st edition 40k) yet? Decent system, and easier to adapt to Inquisitor than the system from Dark Heresy...

[monkhmer]

Or abandon the clunky INQ psychic system and use something more elegant...

R.

Robey, have you seen the psychic system in Rogue Trader (the new RPG, not 1st edition 40k) yet? Decent system, and easier to adapt to Inquisitor than the system from Dark Heresy...

I recently picked up the new Rogue Trader and any advice on how to integrate Inquisitor and it is welcome.

[precinctomega]

I have not, yet.  But I commend even the Dark Heresy system to INQ players who want to have a more streamlined, intuitive approach to psychic powers.  I was actually initially inspired by WFRP2's magic system when it comes to INQ2.

My main objective in designing the new psychic system was to make it possible for players to enjoy something of a psychic metagame, with psykers battling for domination even as the bullets fly around them.

Powers are more subtle and less show-boaty, although there are still a few psychic bolts in the rules.  I most incorporated all of the current psychic bolt rules into one generic power - a psker may fling pure warp energy, supersonic stone fragments, delicate knives or blasts of dark energy, but at the end of the day, they're all basically psychic bolts and have pretty much the same effect.

At the last playtest, it was generally agreed to be a pretty slick system by those who used it.

R.