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[Gnaeus Conlitor]

When I used to play at Games Workshop Enfield the character turnover was atrocious. Mainly because the regular Inquisitor players were shameless power gamers. I tried to make things a bit lower key when I ran a one off last year but one character's head exploded in the first turn!

[precinctomega]

I just remembered, that Saul XIII was killed on his first outing - decapitated by a mad monk with a power sword.

I replaced his head with a bionic skull and returned him to the table as Saul XIV.  Oddly, he's been a lot luckier since then.  Draw your own conclusions.

R.

[Alyster Wick]

I am going to go on record Molotov saying that I think your theory about the reluctance to use powerful weapons due to killing a character is 100% correct.  While I do not think it is the only reason (more powerful weapons lead to shorter games) it's definitely a big factor.

Many have expressed the sentiment that it's "their choice" when their character dies, not the dices.  I think we generally all feel that way, after hours upon hours have been put in creating background and motivation for characters combined with the seemingly endless process of getting the model just right we aren't going to let a little cube with divots tell us when the character dies.

However, getting shot in the head with a stubber and getting shot in the head with a plasma gun are two different things.  If characters keep coming back game after game from injuries sustained by lascannons, assault cannons, powerswords and meltaguns then the magic wears off.  The comparative "realism" that Inquisitor offers wears thin when the story is unaffected by characters repeatedly undergoing trauma that should kill them multiple times over. 

If too many powerful weapons are on the field (IMO) it makes it impossible to enjoy Inquisitor as more than a scaled up version of 40K, and I don't think any of us want that.

[MarcoSkoll]

If characters keep coming back game after game from injuries sustained by lascannons, assault cannons, powerswords and meltaguns then the magic wears off.

In many ways, Inquisitor characters are like comic-book action heroes - and we all know how many times they can survive injuries that should have killed them, or die only to get subsequently reincarnated.

... pretty much until the company thinks there's no profit in it.

Doesn't really matter to me what "killed" a character. If it was a stubber, they're tough enough to survive that. If it was a lascannon, then they're lucky enough that it was only a glancing hit.
Different excuses, but I have yet to see an in-game injury where there was no possible explanation for why they could have survived it.

[Kaled]

A meltagun shot to the head - 'Tis but a scratch!

[Dust King]

Personally I tend to avoid power weapons and such because you can have far more interesting duels with normal weapons, a duel where a character is killed in the first round is a lot less exciting than a drawn out fight between two individuals doing decent damage while a fire fight rages around them.

Also on a personal note most of my characters were created around spending long periods of time on low class worlds so I avoided having too many complex/high maintenance weapons, so more character than game reasons.

As for being killed off; most of my characters have incomplete 'stories' so I don't want to leave them unfinished. But attachment is probably a major factor, when you like a character it's hard to find them a fitting death (and dying a hero in battle never really feels satisfactory too me, it's like "they lived happily ever after", a bit hollow )

[Alyster Wick]

In many ways, Inquisitor characters are like comic-book action heroes - and we all know how many times they can survive injuries that should have killed them, or die only to get subsequently reincarnated.

I definitely agree, I just think that at a certain point when this happens game after game during a campaign the players may begin to feel as though their actions on the tabletop are being completely negated.  True, you could find some excuse or just retire the character for the duration of the campaign but I still think this plays a bigger role in attitudes towards fancier kit than has been previously acknowledged. 

Of course this isn't a problem in 1 off games where the results are completely ignored for sake of story anyway.

[Myriad]

It's a bit of both, certainly - miraculous survival can always be justified, Lok got taken out by a lascannon at the GT, but fortunately is already horribly scarred (he did get dragged off the planet - that mercenary needs a pay rise).  A chunk of it with me is not wanting to rework my models, which tend to be specific characters. 

But characters being 'killed' also shortens the game considerably alot of the time.  If alot of characters have power / carapace armour it can be important to have a few weapons to match though, otherwise a character can be almost invincible.