Characters

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CREATING CHARACTERS for Inquisitor isn't difficult, but the total freedom that is one of the game's best points means that if you don't pay attention, you can end up with something that people don't want to play against or isn't any fun to use.

Chances are most people have this sorted out already - if we did anyone can! So sorry if this looks a bit patronising. It's just some hindsight, so hopefully someone might learn from our early mistakes.

Stats

The main thing you're aiming for, assuming you're playing 'properly', is a character that feels right, and is not more powerful or less powerful than they should be.

It sounds simple enough; god knows we thought it was. However, there's a tendency we've noticed (among ourselves not least) to judge the toughness of a character by comparing them to the hardest one around, and consequently make them a bit too tough.

Thing is, most characters are actually harder than they look. Preacher Josef isn't weak, or even average - he's actually very tough. Of course Devotee Malicant looks feeble next to Tyrus - but how long do you think the average Imperial citizen would last in combat with him?

From what we can tell, a normal noncombatant human's profile would be something like this:

Which means that Malicant would mince poor Fred without breaking a sweat. Even my Astropath character, having been hanging around with an Inquisitor and doing the odd bit of training for a couple of years, could walk away laughing from a punch-up with many ordinary folks. Don't feel aggrieved if you don't have speed 6 or a +3 damage bonus, because chances are you're still a lot harder than most people. What would be the point of being an Inquisitor, or Guard veteran, if Bloke From The Pub was just as good as you?

Basically, what you've got to be wary of is boosting stats too much, or in fact lowering them, if it doesn't fit in with what the character is. Perhaps the best way of determining what's 'about right' is to look through the characters in the book. A freelance sniper, for example, won't have BS 90 because that's how good an Officio Assassinorum assassin is. Slick Devlan is an uncommonly good shot with BS 70, and Space Marines and Arbitrators - the best-trained forces in the Imperium - have a BS of around 75. For the sniper, then, something in the region of 65 to 80 would be about right, and other characters can consider themselves a good shot with a BS of 60.

Don't get us wrong here; campaigns would be boring if there were no hard characters at all. But, in order to make those characters as dangerous as they deserve to be, you need to make sure the others aren't too good. In our campaign, for example, you really don't want to get on the wrong side of Lord-Inquisitor Septiem; but if everyone was that powerful, where would the fun in being powerful be?

A few specific notes on a couple of the stats that we've found people can overlook:

Initiative Remember that Inquisitor is possibly the only GW game in which Initiative really does mean initiative. As much as - if not more - than reflexes, it represents decisiveness, combat awareness and instinct. This means that it's perfectly possible to have a character who is as physically sluggish as anything but still has a decent Initiative if they happen to be a dynamic, astute person. In most cases this won't be necessary but if you find a slow character's Initiative is too low for their personality, try boosting it a bit and giving them a movement rate reduction instead.

Sagacity This is a combined stat for common sense, intelligence, and education. This means that it's possible for characters to have a Sagacity stat that belies how intelligent or educated they are. For example, a character from a primitive world might be very intelligent, but would still have a low Sagacity because he'd struggle to understand modern technology until he got used to it, and wouldn't have much general knowledge beyond his own world. Similarly a highly educated character might have a lowish Sagacity simply because he's reckless or doesn't think things through.

Leadership As well as actual leadership qualites this represents discipline rather than bravery, and although it generally follows that cahracters with a good Nerve will also have a good Leadership it's not necessarily true. A brave civillian would probably have a low leadership because in a combat situation he'd lack decisiveness, and once he'd decided to run for it he probably wouldn't be back. On the other hand, even a relatively cowardly Guardsman would have a decent Leadership because of his training and self-discipline.

Abilities

A few well-chosen special abilities can really bring a character to life. Slick Devlan, a character of normal (for a player character) power except for being a very good shot, suddenly becomes awesome with the addition of his skills. The thing with abilities is that they represent things that people are extremely good at, not 'a bit' good at. I like to think I can churn out a web site, but if I was an Inquisitor character I wouldn't have the 'Design Web Sites' ability because I'm just not that good at it!

For example, having a high Initiative is not the only requirement for having the Lightning Reflexes ability; owning two pistols is not justification for Gunfighter; and not wearing armour doesn't necessarily make you Acrobatic. And, most importantly, ALMOST NO ONE is Ambidextrous.

Wow. That all sounded really miserable. Sorry.

What you're really trying to do is emphasise a character's personality and main strengths. Take Inquisitor Toshiro. His stats are good but not amazing, but rather than being incredibly tough, he's brave, a bit gung ho and a quick thinker - and consequently has the Heroic and Lightning Reflexes skills.

Equipment

Coming from Necromunda, a game where seemingly any 12 year-old can stroll down the shops and come back with a lascannon, and where a 6-wound melta-gun shot can result in a broken finger, it can be difficult to get your head round the sheer deadliness of some of the weapons in Inquisitor. In the same way as with stats, there's a tendency to judge effectiveness by the big weapons; a laspistol must be rubbish because it's nowhere near as good a bolter. In fact it's bolters that are extremely dangerous; smaller guns are 'just' good. Laspistols are certainly dangerous enough if everyone's got sensible characteristics!

This means that if everyone in your band has a bolter people are going to get sick of the sight of you fairly quickly. The problem is that if your weapons are too powerful, it can be difficult to run a campaign because the plot devices keep getting killed.

If you do find that people are taking dozens of assault cannons and the like, just get realistic about ammo availability; people will soon get the message when they can't get any new bolt shells, but everyone else's lasguns are still working! Remember that even Inquisitors, with their ultimate authority, won't be able to commandeer equipment if it simply isn't there to commandeer.

We're not saying don't use powerful guns; far from it. In our campaigns, there is no source of fear quite like Inquisitor Khainem's plasma blaster. The sheer terror it generates in opposing players is fantastic, and the relief when he fires it and misses, and so will have to wait 2 turns before shooting again, is almost tangible. However, that effect would be muted, and nowhere near as much fun, if everybody had one. If you save powerful weapons for a few characters, it'll both cut down on outright deaths and make those weapons justly frightening!

Conclusion

So, what you're aiming for is a campaign where the element of risk is provided by confrontations with the other characters, not whether the GM will let your mega-character in with his rocket launcher intact. Hard characters are good things - very good things. It's just that, in order for them to be interesting, you have to make sure there's actually a challenge for them. If you don't it becomes boring for everyone.

A good example of this is Inquisitor Khainem again. He's incredibly hard. In a one-on-one slugfest he'd take out most other characters in our campaign. So, to make sure things stay interesting for Jon and don't get too difficult for everyone else, Inquisitor Khainem's power has to be taken into account when our GMs are planning scenarios.

One particularly good game saw him locating and storming an entire terrorist cell on his own, with the objective not of killing the terrorists but destroying a particular file he knew they had. His individual superiority was great fun, and very characterising of the whole 'feel the wrath of Imperial justice' type stuff, but the fact that he was outnumbered and had to stop the terrorists escaping with a computer file meant the scenario was still challenging for him. In the end he just failed, the last terrorist escaping out of a second-floor window via a rope ladder and scooting off the table just as a plasma blaster shot vaporised the concrete inches from his ankles. Khainem did, however, slaughter four terrorists in entertaining fashion.

All you're really trying to avoid is a one-upmanship contest in terms of character power. If you can coordinate that with your players, you're onto a winner before you've even run a game.