Campaign

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<<<scenarios>>>

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ng hostiles since 1892.

DECENT SCENARIOS form the core of any good Inquisitor campaign - the best plot in the world is a bit pointless if all of the scenarios consist of 'this warband has to shoot that warband' (as we found out...). With time we got better at planning scenarios, and so some of our best ones are presented here for the betterment of mankind.

The scenarios we have, by various authors and in various styles, are as follows:

The Starport Bombers by Inquis Xenos

In this scenario, a planet is under assault by rebel terrorists and an Inquisitor arrives to investigate.

The Inquisitor's requests for landing permission are mysteriously ignored, so he decides to investigate this and lands anyway.

Upon landing, he finds the starport totally deserted. After bit of exploration he bumps into a cleaner, who informs him that the starport is closed for Guilliman Day. Any even remotely challenging questioning (such as "well what are you doing here then?"), however, will cause him to panic and run off - he is, of course, one of the terrorists, and quite a weak-willed and stupid one. As he runs off he shouts "Imperial scum! You'll never find the bombs!"

At this the other terrorists, who had been hiding, realise that the idiot has blown their cover and attack. The Inquisitor, surprised at this, will have to fight off the terrorists, discover the location of the bombs, and disarm them before they go off.

What has happened is that it is indeed Guilliman Day, and the starport really is closed - that's why the terrorists chose today to bomb it! Unfortunately for them, they outsmarted themselves when they deactivated the starport's communications antennae to prevent the broadcast of automated intruder alerts - in doing so they also shut off the recorded message informing incoming ships that the starport was closed! Had they not done this, the Inquisitor would have been warned away and not landed.

Ian: When we ran this scenario, it was Inquisitor Harr'yet and Zakkariah who landed at the starport. They easily fought off the terrorist ambush (although Harr'yet did get bashed roundly over the head by one of the terrorists' hammers at one point). Once this had happened, I placed a couple of D10s by the edge of the table, with the 10 showing; then, every turn, I turned one round to 9, then 8, then 7 etc., all the while refusing to explain what I was doing. Obviously everyone knew that it was the bomb timer, but my refusal to admit this seemed to add to the tension!

I didn't want the bombs going off and blowing up Rowan's characters, but at the same time there had to seem like there was a risk of this happening or the scenario would have been really tedious. I therefore informed him that the two bombs (one for each character...) were in the control tower and departure lounge, but I didn't actually decide exactly where the bombs were until the last minute. It was with about 4 turns left on the timer that the bombs just happened to turn out to be just round the corner from where the characters were at the time!

This meant that, although there was never any risk of the bombs going off, I made it seem like the whole thing was planned - which meant it seemed to the player that there was a real risk of the starport being blown sky high with his characters still in it! In this way, a game that didn't actually feature much action at all turned out to be one of the best in the whole campaign just for the sheer tension it created, and given the vast amount of ad-libbing I had to do I'm really pleased with how it went.

Extraction of Information by Alexander Nelson

Character Warbands: 1+

Premise: During your investigations on this world you have discovered that the planetary governor has a secret database, with almost all the information you could possibly want. This would obviously help no end. The only problem is that the only copy is inside his personal chambers at his official residence, or so you originally thought. You now know that there is a backup copy of the memory core in a secure PDF installation, in a remote location and ripe for the picking. Just be aware that you may not be the only one who knows this.

Your method of attack is entirely open to you and you may chose to attack at night if you wish.

Objective: Take a copy of the files back with you. Take down the guards and anyone else who may be trying to access the information. Setting: This game could be played almost anywhere, obvious choices would be things like old ruins and jungle clearings. Whatever you chose there should be at least two buildings, preferably in military style and with accompanying barbed wire etc., of which one represents the information access point and the other represents the guards' quarters.

NPCs: You will need enough guards to give the attackers a hard time of it, a good choice would be a handful of basic PDF troopers, but there's nothing to say that the governor hasn't been tipped off and enlisted the help of more considerable troops.

Special Rules: The guards will be acting rather unenthusiastically, wandering around in a pretty random fashion with a few resting; reading; eating or whatever and one or two standing about outside the access point, unless they have been warned that an attack is likely, when a more pro-active approach would be expected.

To initiate a file download a character must use ten successful actions, each with a successful sagacity test. A failed test or a "risky action botched" result will mean that he will have to start again. After this is done the GM should, in secret, determine and note the download time. 2D10 + 5 turns is advised, before the disk/ chip/ bio-neural gel pack is ready to be removed.

Results: The GM should determine just how much the group gets from the information downloaded. A set of download tests with several restarts and followed by a short download time would not give much, but a skilfully executed reprogramming followed by a long download would.

Variants: The easiest way to change this scenario is to change the target, a minor bureaucrat's system would obviously be less valuable and less guarded than an Imperial Guard battle plan database or a secret Inquisition records emplacement. You could also have another warrior band guarding the base, either in exchange for access or because the files are theirs in the first place! Terrain would be swapped as appropriate.

Unearthed Goods by Alexander Nelson

Character Warbands: 2+

Premise: Group 1: Your sponsorship of this excavation has, after much hard work and delays, paid off. You have unearthed that which you seek. Yet there is bad news, your foes have arrived earlier than expected and you must face them to retain possession of the object.

Groups 2-3: You knew this would be a good idea ever since you heard of the lost artefact buried out in the wilderness, leave a few rumours to get the other mob to go out and look for it and then simply take it off of them. You never liked the idea of grubbing about in the dirt anyway.

(For 3 or more warbands only) Now the time has come, yet your allies must not be allowed to take the prize either, kill them all. Only you, your minions and the artefact must remain. You never liked them anyway.

Note that warband 1 should be only slightly less powerful than all the others put together.

Objective: Group 1: Drive off all attackers, retain possession of the artefact.

Group 2-3: Take the object from group 1.

(For 3 or more warbands only.) Then make sure that it stays yours and that your erstwhile allies don't take off with it.

Setting: An excavation site somewhere, with appropriate terrain such as tents, piles of tools and mounds of earth.

NPCs: To even things up a bit you can introduce NPCs to either side, guards, hired thugs, excavation experts or whatever.

Special Rules: Set up the first warband near the centre of the board, the others should be around the edges.

Results: Really dependant on what was being excavated. If it is an antique weapons cache then someone's going to have some seriously nifty kit for the next game. Ancient manuscripts could provide important bits of deamonlore. The object, and it's effects, should be chosen by the GM.

Variants: If you have a lot of forces (5+) then you can shunt some onto the defending side, giving them the same conditions as groups on the other side (get out with the artefact, don't let anyone else have it)

Hunter, Prey by Alexander Nelson

Character Warbands: 1+

Premise: There's been strange things happening on this planet and the Inquisition reckons that there's a large Xenos involvement, and so calls in the Deathwatch. When one of your operatives goes missing after "thoroughly investigating" one of the local drinking establishments you begin to believe them.

Objective: Simple, stay alive!

Setting: A sealed industrial complex would be great, alternatively a bio-research lab or a "no man's land" ruined city area locked away. You will also need the entrance/ exit points to be both fairly obvious and few and far between.

NPCs: You will need something big; Chaos lords, Tyranid monsters, Marine kill teams and others are all good. Use your imagination. Remember it will have to be able to take on everyone in a straight fight. A few local militia and civilians could also be good, so that they can be killed off to increase the fear of the warbands.

Special Rules: The characters and NPCs should be scattered around, wih the "victim" type NPCs closest to the monster(s). The exits will open after a fixed time (20 turns is good), with the exact time known only by the GM.

Variants: The big beastie(s) could be replaced by a disgustingly large and hard warband if you wish.