House Rules
Pages in this section are:
+++house rules main+++
+++optional rule changes+++
<<<faith points>>>
+++armoury+++
+++experience+++
+++equipment faults+++
+++new talents+++
+++non-character rules+++
INQUISITOR CAN be a fairly harsh game. Traditional RPG-style elements like hit points are thrown out the window to make way for a far more realistic system, where a single shot can spell the end of the mightiest hero (unless it's a Space Marine [hawk, spit]). This, we reckon, is brilliant, as it attaches tangible levels of tension to every dice roll.
However, it's a problem because half the point of Inquisitor is the modelling side. People who spend hours converting and painting a fantastic model to fit a detailed background they've lovingly thought up, get quite rightly pissed off when it gets killed in its first game by some smug bastard with a power sword. It's also a problem because of Inquisitor's narrative element, and the tendency of warbands to get mauled by injury or death can play merry hell with a GM's attempts to plan his plot lines.
Potential solutions include re-introducing the dead model as another character, which is unsatisfactory because models take on their own personality and using a model whose original character died just 'feels' wrong; just pretending the death didn't happen, which is also unsatisfactory because it removes any element of risk; and carrying on anyway, which is unfair on the person who spent time, money and effort on the model, only to get about half an hour's use from it. We suspect that maybe the designers, used to being able to secure any part from any model within minutes and for a negligable sum, rather forgot that mere mortals are subject to these factors.
As a compromise, we present Faith Points. Lifted mercilessly from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's Fate Points but subtly renamed with a more 40K-like tint, these are sort of 'main character points' that allow heroes and plot devices to avoid non-dramatic, or just plain inconvenient, deaths. The more devout, heroic, and generally important a character is, the more they have. Faith points represent a character's determination, will to live, and most of all downright outrageous luck - as if someone, or something, was watching over them...
A Faith point can be expended whenever a character dies. In keeping with the nastier nature of Inquisitor, Faith points don't completely stop the damage; they only remove the 'fatal' element of the hit. If you jump off a cliff in WHFRP and use a Fate point, you emerge unscathed; jump off a cliff in Inquisitor and use a Faith point, and whilst you won't actually die you'll still turn most of your bones to jelly!
If the character was killed by having their head Crippled, they can expend a Faith point to count the injury as Acute instead, meaning they will go (or stay...) out of action rather than die. If their injury total hit their Toughness, use of a Faith point means their injury total is reduced to one lower than their Toughness and any bleeding stops. The effect of Faith points on other sorts of death can be improvised by the GM.
Faith points are one use only; they are not restored at the end of a game. Extra Faith points may be granted at the Gamesmaster's discretion - for doing something ludicrously heroic, being granted a vision from the Emperor etc. When creating a character, they receive a variable number of Faith points depending on what they are and whom they serve:
Inquisitor D3+2
Leader of other Imperial warband, Rogue Trader D3+1
Member of Imperial warband D3
Leader of other warband D3
Member of other warband D3-1 (minimum 1)
Any alien D3-1 (minimum 1)
Note that by 'Imperial' here we mean official, or officially sponsored, organisations like the Adeptus Terra, the Ecclesiarchy etc. Just being human isn't good enough! If there is a conflict - for example an alien who is a member of an Inquisitor's retinue - use the higher of the two possible rolls. The Emperor moves in mysterious ways...
