Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Even with a painted model and a backstory, an Inquisitor PC isn't truly complete until his character sheet is filled in. The nine little boxes along the top of the sheet actually go a long way towards to governing how we play our characters in game. They represent our characters' strengths and weaknesses, and mould how our characters act in the scenarios arrayed against them. I am not a fan of randomly rolling for characteristics as it can upset your perceived plans for the character. It's all too easy for a nicely modelled, chainsword-wielding fanatic to end up with low Weapon Skill and high Sagacity for example, or a nicely modelled trickster presenting an image of force with a chainsword to end up with a high Weapon Skill and low Sagacity. I much prefer to settle on characteristics myself. However, it is important to impose limits.

An Arco-flagellant is unlikely to be another character in disguise, so expect a high Weapon Skill!

One of Inquisitor's strengths is that players and GMs are free to stat and equip characters in any way they feel. Some players prefer high end campaigns, where stats in the 80s and 90s prevail, and some prefer middle of the road campaigns with stats in the 50s and 60s. I dare say there are some that play with no stat above 40. It doesn't really matter, as long as everyone involved is playing at the same level. As soon as one war band has stats which are more than +20 above everyone else’s, and brings meltaguns to a knife fight, it's often the case that that war band will dominate even with careful scenario design on the GM's part, and that can suck the fun out of a campaign for others.

A fair fight?

The Inquisitor rule book is an interesting beast when it comes to giving characteristics to characters. At the start of the book, it gives a rough idea to appropriate stats (p.15 Living Rule Book), with suggestions including: “a normal human would have a Toughness of 40-50” and under Nerve “a trained Imperial Guardsman would be in the 40-60 range”. If we turn to the back of the book and look at the sample characters, a Desperado is given a Toughness of 60 and a Nerve of 75. Is it the case that the authors are ignoring their own advice, or is the argument that the characters involved in an Inquisitor campaign are on a pedestal above the massed ranks of humanity? It could be taken either way.

For what it's worth, I prefer to play with stats around about the 50-60 mark, with particularly weak characteristics dipping down to 40, and focussed specialities going up to 70 or so. I do so as it means that actions aren't always a formality. To me, this makes games far more interesting as nothing ramps up the tension like a make or break roll to take out the big bad at the end of a scenario.

The savant Pret Hirschfield is one of only a handful of PCs with an Initiative in the 40s.

After settling on characteristics, I often look over the Special Abilities section of the rule book and the Carthax Wiki to see if there are any I feel appropriate to my character. Selecting Special Abilities can be a bit of a slippery slope however, and once you've chosen one or two, you start seeing others that might just fit. All of a sudden you have six or seven and you struggle to remember them in the heat of the action. Your declaration of actions slows down as you try and work out how the combination of abilities on your sheet will affect the turn; you remember you could have done something the previous turn; or half way through the game you bring out the ability that was scribbled on the back of your sheet as there wasn't any more room on the front much to the annoyance of the GM who now has to implement a do-over. I'm a big of fan of keeping games of Inquisitor flowing quickly, so I limit the number of Special Abilities I take, usually to two, but quite often some characters will have none.

Psychic and Exotic Abilities don't crop up too often, but as with Special Abilities, I tend to stick to a smaller number so things don't get out of hand. Usually, I don't give characters psychic powers from more than two disciplines as in my mind, psykers tend to focus on one discipline, and perhaps can draw on another power they trust themselves to use in the hectic action that constitutes an Inquisitor scenario.

Telepathy is unsurprisingly the Astrotelepath's primary discipline, but here he shows some telekinetic abilities by levitating spookily.

Equipment is the final piece of the puzzle for me, but most of the time I am governed by what looked cool during the modelling process and is already stuck to the model. The vast majority of my models are armed with stubbers, shotguns and more mundane hand to hand weapons as I have found through bloody experience that things like bolters and power swords can quickly end scenarios and character's lives! That's not an absolute rule of course - the only rule that matters when building characters is the Rule of Cool.

Every now and then, one of my characters comes with a fearsome weapon.

Where does Inquisitor Casimir Fearon come in in the character sheet department then?

	WS	BS	S	T	I	Wp	Sg	Nv	Ld
Fearon	59	63	57	58	68	72	70	68	71

Inquisitor Fearon is right-handed

Special Abilities: Compelling (see Additional Rules on the Carthax Wiki), Leader

Equipment: Auspex (Motion Tracker), Padded Robes (AV2) on all locations except head, Short Sword, Stubber with Infrascope and two reloads

Painting is underway... only now do I realise I forgot to add a pendant to the cord around his neck!

Fearon then is a bit of an all-rounder, with higher mental stats than the average, befitting his position as an Inquisitor. His experience in dealing with the varying branches of the Inquisition means that he can convince many of his course of action, and is reflected with the Special Abilities Compelling and Leader. His equipment isn't that unique or noteworthy, but as an investigative type, he doesn't need to be dressed for battle. With his auspex and infrascope he can track down his quarry in a multitude of environments.

That wraps it up for this entry. I'd love to see some other takes on character creation, so please share your ideas on Facebook and Twitter (@T_C_Inquisitor).

The Carthaxian Inquisitor 

Who are you?

Work on my Ordo Obsoletus war band is progressing. After selecting and assembling the raw components last week, I have been adding equipment with bits and pieces and sculpting details where needed. Although I had a vision in my mind of how I wanted the models to turn out when I began, it's not until things are underway that you can really get a feel for what will look good and what just won't work. It's not unusual to end up with something completely different from what you planned when assembly started. Some components won't combine without a lot of cutting and re-sculpting, and some things just don't look right together. So far I'm happy with how the Inquisitor looks; he turned out pretty much as I imagined; the Arbitrator is progressing nicely; the Psyker has undergone a transformation; and the Techpriest just isn't quite right yet.

The Inquisitor

The Inquisitor now has a lantern in his left hand, a gun sight on his stubber, and some bits around his belt. The lantern is a more “grimdark” source of light than a handheld torch, and adds to the investigative air I am hopefully building around him. It will also allow me to paint some source lighting, which is always a nice challenge. The gun sight is there for no other reason than because I thought it looked good (the Rule of Cool), and the pouches on his back help add detail to an empty space. The doll from Quovandius has found pride of place on his belt. It's an odd little piece, but there must be a story behind it (more on that later).

The Arbitrator

The Arbitrator has had his shoulder pads altered with ProCreate, adding detail to the right in the form of an Aquila grasped in a fist, and has had the left smoothed over. Initially I had intended to alter the winged symbol of the Inquisition on the left into a symbol more fitting the Adeptus Arbites, but in the end kept to the traditional decoration of the right pad. I have also removed the gemstone from the centre of his helm after trying and failing to get it to look like a convincing bionic eye. It has been suggested by users on DakkaDakka and Warseer that I add an Aquila atop his head and a shock maul, and I am heading in that direction next.

The Psyker

The Psyker has had the most work since the last blog entry. I replaced the head from the Judge with Jan Van Yastobaal's alternate head as it conveys more emotion and the strangeness of it works well with the inhuman oddity of psychic characters. His arms have been added, with his hands clasping a human skull. This is his psychic focus, allowing him to better sample the energies of the warp. I plan to paint the skull so that an aethereal glow emanates from the eyes. Finally a selection of equipment was added to his back to fill in a rather uninteresting void. I am pleased with how he is turning out – I hope he carries something of the supernatural with him.

The Techpriest

Lastly the Techpriest. Plenty of gubbins arrayed around him now. He certainly looks like a disciple of Mars, and couldn't be mistaken for anything else. Why am I so unenthused with him? I am wondering whether or not he's just too much of a conventional model. There's nothing new about the combination of parts used here, and he's undoubtedly the safest of the builds in the war band. If he was paint, he'd be magnolia. Tear him up and start again, or make further alterations? I have added sleeves since these photos again at the suggestion of a DakkaDakka user so that he no longer has a flak wife-beater, but I'm not yet convinced. All suggestions welcome!

Getting back to that freaky doll on the Inquisitor's belt... what's that all about?

Inquisitor characters are personalities after all, and it's important that every one has a story. How long that story is really comes down to the player's choice, but I think it needs to be more than just a name and occupation. In most cases a sentence or two will do. Let's take a long-standing character of mine as an example. Inquisitor Tomashek Goddard was originally conceived as a foil to Mikael Van Helser; a puritan daemonhunter on the trail of the daemonhost Voor'acht that Van Helser had fallen under the sway of. That's a compact description, but I think it's enough to grasp the character's motivation and plants an enemy as a plot hook. Of course, there's far more to Goddard (his biography can be found in the Amalathian Sourcebook), but if I was GMing a game where a number of unfamiliar players and characters were attending, as happens at most Conclave gatherings, I would only want the short, snappy version of his story so that I could throw him into the story of my scenario and get on with the game. However, if the player could only tell me his name, and that he was an Inquisitor, I would struggle to tell if the model was responding “in character” to events in the game.

Inquisitor Tomashek Goddard

My Ordo Obsoletus Inquisitor's story starts now, and that doll is an important part of it. I will keep a loose framework to begin with, as undoubtedly, I will have better ideas down the line. I'll keep things compact for now for the same reasons, and to make it easier for others to understand who he is. Allow me to introduce Inquisitor Casimir Fearon:

A student of the discredited Schola Perceptus, the young Casimir Fearon served in the Carthaxian fleet's Arbites corps. Fleeing from a purge of Perceptus alumni, he found himself indebted to Inquisitor Epsis of the Ordo Obsoletus for concealing him from his hunters. After six decades of service, the elderly Epsis elevated Fearon to the rank of Inquisitor, suitably impressed with his acolyte's deductive skills and open mind to the shrouded face of the galaxy. Inquisitor Fearon now travels the breadth of the Carthax sector lending his expertise to events the Ordos cannot fathom. Secretly, he desires to expose the truth behind the purge of the Schola Perceptus, and uncover the conspiracy that saw his alma mater and classmates put to the pyre. He carries a doll he plucked from the ruins as a memorial to those lost.

I will be getting back to the models now, and trying to work out just what to do with the Techpriest. Check for updates on The Conclave, Facebook and Twitter.

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

The Box of Shame, and the Renaissance

Sometimes we start projects and fail to finish them. Quite often in wargaming circles, new shinier models come along and grab our attention. Sometimes we start something with great enthusiasm, but find our excitement sapped by the sheer amount of work required to turn our vision into reality. Sometimes we're just plain lazy. Put your hand up if any of these apply to you.

My hand is raised. I am so bad at completing things. I think I have made over 50 Inquisitor figures, and failed to finish at least another 20. Why? I'm not sure I can come up with an honest, comprehensive answer. I'm probably over-critical of my output, and if something doesn't look like it will live up to my expectations, it never gets to see the light of day. I'm also lazy, and I have a demanding job. I am listing excuses here.

Just a selection from the box of shame...

If I was a fanatic, I would stand up here and swear that I will never again fail to complete a project and make it my life's goal to dig out all the half-built, half-painted models from my attic. I'm not though, so I have a far more mundane promise to make.

The point of this blog is to get people excited by Inquisitor again, whether they are old-timers like me, or a potential new recruit that's never heard of the game. The principle I am working from is that content inspires more content, and that dormant Inquisitor players need to be reminded of the joy that the game brings, and new players need to have their attention grabbed. My promise then, is to get building and painting Inquisitor models and show them off to the world. It's not much, but it might just catch the attention of enough people to get them in a building mood and start them sharing their new creations.

With all that said, let me show you how I go about building models.

I usually have a simple, one or two word basis for any war band I dream to put together. Monodominant, Ecclesiarchy, mutant rebels, Genestealer cult... you get the idea. This nucleus lets me start thinking about the general philosophy of the group. For example, is the Monodominant bombastic and outspoken, or does he work behind the scenes? Once I've worked out the answer to the question, I think about which archetypes would lend themselves to the group. A bombastic Monodominant might draw to him followers of the Red Redemption, while the more subtle Inquisitor may have a cadre of silent assassins.

Whole bodies, legs and torsos from my bits box.

Once I've settled on the plan for the group, I sort through my bits box to start piecing components together. I usually start with legs and torsos and try out combinations that look like they'll roughly fit together without too much work. Severina/Sevora's legs clearly aren't going to work with Tyrus's body, but there are plenty of combinations that work, or will work with a little bit of sculpting or disguising of the join with ammo pouches, holsters, books or whatever other bits of ephemera the denizens of the 41^st millennium lug around with them. I love Sergeant Stone's legs – their wide stride lends a great sense of dynamism and menace to every character that includes them, and Slick Devlan's quilted flak jacket-wearing torso works for just about every possible archetype. I usually look at arms next, often in combination with weapons to work out what suits the pose and finally the head. The head is the focal point of every model, so it's important to have it well-positioned. This often means cutting or extending necks and sculpting hair and hoods to get things right. I find Slick Devlan's head to be a good all-rounder, as it's in the mid range of sizes and comes with a reasonably lengthed neck. Heads that are trickier to work with are the Judge's, which are quite a lot smaller, Covenant's, which is a lot bigger, and Tyrus has an incredibly long “neck” so that the head sits above the collar of his armour. Sawing it to fit other torsos is a necessity.

Parts for four new models laid out.

I have started a new war band this week to further explain my building process. The nucleus for this group was “Ordo Obsoletus”. This minor Ordo investigates the mysteries of the galaxy, and is something I haven't yet covered in all my war bands thus far. My Ordo Obsoletus Inquisitor would need a group of skilled investigators to cover every potential branch of study. To this end, the group thus far consists of the Inquisitor, a sort of Noir detective, a Techpriest to apply the knowledge of Mars, a Psyker to divine the answer, and an Arbitrator to get the truth out of suspects.

The Inquisitor has one of Kal Jerico's heads, two of the Bounty Hunter's arms, Eisenhorn's torso and Josef's legs.

The Techpriest has Gruss's head, legs and unattached mechadendrites, Slick's torso and bionic arms from the "Cyborgs" by everyone's favourite Russian manufacturer of 54mm toy soldiers.

The Psyker has Sergeant Stone's dynamic legs, Sergeant Black's torso under the ProCreate and Von Castellan's coat tails. His arms are from Malicant, but haven't been secured yet.

Lastly, the Arbitrator. Eisenhorn's legs with the Thorian's torso and attached head (previously sawed from his legs for another model), the Judge's shotgun arm and a bionic arm from the aforementioned "Cyborgs" with cut down 40k bolter.

There's a long way to go. I have started some sculpting to fill in gaps and align parts, but there are many components to be attached yet. This process will likely take a few weeks, so stay tuned. I will be updating a thread on The Conclave as I go. As always, feel free to share your WIP pictures on Facebook or on twitter (@T_C_Inquisitor).

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

Visions of Heresy

One of the great things about working in miniature in general is the ability to bring just about anything to life. If you can imagine it, then you can build it. To a point at least. Not all of us can whip out a sketchbook and doodle a great character (I know I can't – I suck at drawing), and fewer of us can then create an exact replica in miniature. We each have our limits, and just about everyone I know has to draw inspiration from somewhere else for their Inquisitor figures.

Inquisitor Tannenberg, by John Blanche - I managed to score a print of this from Ebay years ago.

The art of Games Workshop is an obvious place to start. 30 odd-years of drawing and painting is out there in rulebooks and on the cover of novels to gaze at. I'm sure most of us will be familiar with at least some of the studio's artists over the years, not least John Blanche, the art director, and man whom a lot of the inspiration behind Inquisitor came from. If you can track down the Inquisitor Sketchbook, released in the wake of the game, you can find a number of concepts for the game imagined by Mr Blanche, some that made it into print, and some that didn't. Recognisable ones like arco-flagellants grace the pages alongside less familiar solar priests, and an archetype I will one day get around to realising in a model – the pirato-grafter. The pirato-grafter is said to love grafting organs and appendages to his flesh. Four-armed, spider-eyed assassin anyone? Of the artists to have graced the studio, my personal favourite is Adrian Smith, particularly his 80s/90s work that appeared in the Realms of Chaos books and Warhammer 40,000 2^nd edition. A large number of his pieces appear in the Inquisitor rulebook as well, and he was responsible for presenting Blanche's concepts in the “Creating Characters” section.

Cherubael, by Adrian Smith

With the 40k RPG ranges going from strength to strength I have to recommend checking them out for modelling ideas. There is a lot of great artwork in these books from previously untapped sources. A number of the artists featured in their pages have not worked in the GW design studio, and provide a number of fresh takes on the 41^st millennium. Within the the Fantasy Flight Games range there seems to be a move away from traditional pen and ink drawings to digital compositions. I feel this is a great development, and there are some superb illustrations where photo-realism has been the artist's goal.

Dark Heresy Tainted Noble of Malfi by DeviantArt user Cryptcrawler...

...And my take on him in 54mm.

Away from the 41^st millennium, inspiration can be drawn from a number of sources, not least TV, films and video games. The Mad Max trilogy has always been a favourite of mine for post-apocalyptic rabble, and there's a trailer for the new Tom Hardy vehicle (ha!) doing the rounds on the 'net at the moment if you need refreshing. Sci-fi staples like Star Wars and Star Trek can provide inspiration, even if their universes are a little too “clean” for my liking. There is a gamut of other, potentially lesser known, films that could be combed for ideas, such as Dark City, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, and the more up to date Elysium. Game franchises like Fallout, Doom, Bioshock, the Elder Scrolls, Half Life and Dead Space all serve as inspiration for heroes and villains. Just about every example of these media will have the potential to inspire, just look at Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau!*

My Reclaimator, wielding a Fallout 3-inspired combat shotgun.

Within traditional art circles, there are a number of artists and pieces that have the right amount of bizarre for use in the 41^st millennium. If you don't know who Hieronymous Bosch was, just go and google his name and look at the images that come up. His illustrations of hell are probably his most famous pieces, and what makes his paintings even more incredible is that he was painting these in the 15^th century. Its surprising he wasn't burned at the stake! William Blake is another whose paintings could be used to draw inspiration from, especially his renditions of the nine circles of hell from Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy, which were often bloody and horrific. His illustrations of the punishments dealt out are particularly gruesome. I'm sure those better versed in art history can come up with some more images and artists worthy of study.

The Schismatics and Sowers of Discord, by William Blake

So, I've covered the basics. Most of you will no doubt already have drawn inspiration from some of the sources I've listed above. I'm not so sure that many of you will know about the following however. The World of Wearable Art is an annual show held in Wellington, New Zealand that encourages artists and designers across the world to come up with incredible outfits that are less fashion items than they are pieces of art that are hung on human bodies rather than on gallery walls. I came across the WoW while travelling through New Zealand earlier this year, first learning of it in the Te Papa museum in Wellington, before travelling to Nelson on the South Island where the WoW entered existence in the late eighties. While there I visited the WoW museum which had an exhibition of the most recent year's work and had videos of the show. The show is part theatre, part dance, part fashion catwalk and has a number of themes running throughout it. Last year's Victorian freak show was a particular highlight. I don't think description can really do some of the pieces justice, so here are a few.

I can't encourage you enough to google for more. So many fantastic ideas that really could be turned into denizens of the 41^st millennium.

What are your sources of inspiration? Please share where you get your ideas, and if you have models based off artwork please post pictures on Facebook or tweet us @T_C_Inquisitor.

*For those not in on the joke, Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau was the sample Inquisitor presented in the Rogue Trader Rulebook. If you don't get the references in his name, then there's no helping you!

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

P.S. After composing this piece I came across this thread on the Ammobunker which is a treasure trove of grim pieces for the 41^st millennium. Not exactly safe for work, so browse at your own risk!

The Trouble With Models.

I have been fortunate enough to see some downright beautiful Inquisitor models in my time, excellent concepts realised with technically perfect conversions and superb paint work. I've had the pleasure of seeing some of these models “in the flesh” as it were, and been happy to have lost out in Painting and Modelling competitions to them. There's nothing better than a stonking model, something that I'm sure all Inquisitor players can appreciate.

Conclave user Kaled's beautiful scratch-built Sister Hospitaller quite rightfully won the Inquisitor Grand Tournament top model prize a few years ago.

As I alluded to in my first entry in this blog, I feel that Inquisitor was the first game I played where I was encouraged to create my own character and given free reign to put him or her together in any fashion I liked. Inquisitor Mikael Van Helser was hardly a breathtaking example of kit bashing, but I wanted my character to have a daemonsword, hand flamer and shuriken catapult, and that's exactly what I modelled him to have (in hindsight, he was a bit of a travesty with that combination, but we live and learn). The freedom to create someone that did not have to be tied to a specific faction from the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop was completely new, and we newly liberated Inquisitor players only had our imaginations as a limit to our creations. I feel that the new scale I was building models for was a fantastic chance to get away from the familiar 40k tropes too, as everything was new and there would be no familiar archetypes in my new miniatures. I soon fell in love with 54mm, and really enjoyed the process of fine-tuning painting techniques for the scale. Converting too became a favourite past time, and no amount of cutting, pinning and gap filling seemed too much of a stretch. I have Inquisitor to thank as well for teaching me to sculpt: I went from struggling to jam greenstuff between joints to sculpting (imperfect, but passable) models from scratch.

A passable Celestial Lions Space Marine Scout.

In my opinion, the Inquisitor range included some of Citadel Miniatures best sculpts, with my personal favourite being the Adeptus Arbites Judge. There were some not so great figures too (I'm looking at you, Callidus Assassin), but the quality of the line was generally pretty high. One of the best things about the line was that, for the most part, the miniatures were multi-part figures, which allowed for easy conversion by simply swapping out components. Goodness knows how many combinations of parts there were, especially when the booster packs of additional weapons, heads, arms and legs were included, and the Painting and Modelling forum of The Conclave would see novel constructs each month that made even veteran modellers wonder how no one had come up with that combination before. We were also blessed by the heroic scaling of 28mm Citadel Miniatures that meant that a large number of components worked just fine at 54mm. I have a few models that use 40k ork arms with no adaptation needed, and plenty of weapons from 28mm look realistic in the hands of Inquisitor figures (rather than ridiculously large!).

40k ork arms were put to good use on this mutant.

The golden years weren't to last though, and first Games Workshop stopped its component service, and then started to reduce the Inquisitor range as moulds began to wear out. Finally of course, all the Specialist Games ranges were discontinued in 2013. The lack of immediate access to Inquisitor figures is an inconvenience, but it is not really that much more difficult to game at 54mm than it was a decade ago. Ebay is always an option, and at any one time you're likely to find a handful of Inquisitor figures up for auction. Most don't tend to go for more than they would have when Games Workshop were still selling them, and if you don't mind paint-stripping, you can usually pick up pre-owned, painted characters for a few pounds/dollars/euros each. There are some models that were rare even when GW were selling them, including the Civilians and Kal Jerico, so expect to pay big bucks for those.

There are Inquisitor models for sale right now! If you're quick you might still catch these auctions...

Through Ebay, a manufacturer of cheap, plastic 54mm figures was discovered by members of The Conclave a few years ago. This Russian company came to our attention through its “Insurgent” models, who all had Inquisitor Eisenhorn's face. Clearly, this wasn't above board, but surprisingly, Games Workshop either didn't notice, or didn't care enough to stop them, and a number of us now have a squad of these “Insurgents” as NPC goons for our games. For around £10, including delivery from a seller in Moscow, you could have these models in your hands, and with a quick paint job, and minor conversions if you were that way inclined, a fully functional warband for Inquisitor. Bargain. It turned out that the company behind these models had a large range, including Roman gladiators, Cossacks, American Confederates, Minotaurs, Orcs, and the hilariously named Battle Gnomes (dwarves to everyone else), which were all available at knock-down prices. As well as the “Insurgents” I put together some pirates and cyborgs. They all look the part with minimal work.

Conclave user Brother_Brimstone shows off the Battle Gnomes.

If you are a bit more discerning about the figures you like to own, the historical figure market is saturated with exceptionally high quality 54mm figure manufacturers. One of the wonderful things about the 41^st millennium is that practically any time period from history can be represented in the Imperium, so Roman generals, 17^th century pirates, and members of the 101^st Airborne can all rub shoulders in the service of the Inquisition. A number of fantasy and sci fi ranges have blossomed over the last few years too, and from these ranges can be found aliens, daemons and barbarian heroes. For those interested in checking out these alternative ranges, the Carthax Wiki has a page dedicated to alternative model suppliers, and can be found here.

Another of Kaled's models, Jessamyn Rae began life as Pegaso Models' Nokjagerin.

So, is there trouble with getting hold of and working with 54mm Inquisitor figures? I don't think so. Hopefully you'll now be aware of the beauty of the Citadel range, and have seen a few examples of alternative figures that have impressed you. Dispelling the unease that some people have about working at a different scale to what they're used to is a bit more of an ask, but you'll just have to trust me that all the techniques you know already are transferable, and will result in a great model. Most of the weapons and gadgets in your bits box work fine at the larger scale too. Just give it a try, and even if you don't end up gaming at 54mm, you'll have a nice display piece for beside your computer.

If you want to see more pictures of tasty, tasty models, then follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

P.S. a week has passed since Scum, Subs and Muties was made available for download. I've had a bit of feedback so far, but would love to hear more!

Scum, Subs, and Muties

More than any other game I know of, Inquisitor is the easiest to write content for. This is down to the fact that the rulebook doesn't acknowledge itself as the final word in Inquisitor gaming, and actively encourages GMs and players to get out there and do things however they like. It's a great little trick, and over the years it has let me come up with loads of things for the game, inspired by numerous sources. In recent years, the 40k RPG line has provided dozens of sourcebooks for those games, and all of them have been ripe for plundering for use in Inquisitor. I've taken many things from them and moulded them to fit in with Inquisitor. It's not as simple as copying and pasting though, as the games have as many differences as similarities, especially when it comes to skills and talents. I do love playing the 40k RPG line, but I do so for a chance to use my noggin to unravel labyrinthine plots, rather than the tense and exciting final showdowns that Inquisitor provides. Quite a few of the skills and talents used for the former seem a bit redundant or too complex for Inquisitor. Many of Inquisitor's writers described a game as the last ten minutes of a film or TV episode where the set-up has given way to the action (whether a nerve-wracking infiltration or pyrotechnic shoot out), and quite a lot of the skills a Dark Heresy acolyte might have wouldn't need accounting for on an Inquisitor character sheet. One would only need to agree with the GM whether or not your character would understand the words in a daemonic tome, or know how to activate the cogitator. Otherwise, the pace of the game is slowed down for dice-rolling and the checking of skill descriptions in rule books. Following the TV episode analogy, a Dark Heresy campaign would be a series arc, with all the scene-setting as well as the action.

Eve Crobuzon comes out guns blazing in the finale.

Some of you will be sitting here thinking why bother with Inquisitor then? Well, I feel that the action sections of an RPG campaign are just not as satisfying as manouevering a physical model around a tabletop. There's a disconnect between you and your player character when it's an abstraction of a battlefield, and no models duking it out. The answer may be to play RPGs with models, but with the rate that characters evolve and change through RPG campaigns it's hard to keep up with the modelling requirements, and time and space is a universal issue. Inquisitor also benefits from the fact that you can choose whether to be cooperative with other players or get into a fight with them. Hacking down your fellow characters in an RPG would shorten the playing experience considerably!

Hector Ganz isn't above a bit of backstabbing...

The latest inspiration I've taken from the 40k RPG line is to provide more options for less than noble character archetypes for Inquisitor. I think that the Scum archetype from Dark Heresy is just one of the best named careers in practically any RPG; it oozes distrust, lies and knives in the back, and is far more evocative than say, Assassin or Guardsman. It's more than a name too, as having a scummer on the books can give an Inquisitor access to the underworld of a planet, system or ship, where just about anything can be procured and anyone can be bribed. Amongst all the paragons of faith and purity in service of the Inquisition, a scummer is a bit more of a questionable character that wouldn't baulk at doing the dirty work often required of those in the service of the throne. All in all, having a scummer or two on the table provides for a bit less dogma and a bit more bending of the rules. The first part of the sourcebook I'm presenting today gives a hand to those who wish to develop a scummer for their warband, and includes a couple of related archetypes, thieves and reclaimators. You can find it here.

Hive Scum are just the worst.

As well as Scum though, the 41^st millennium is full of other groups that are cousins to humanity, often abandoned to the worst of the galaxy and treated little better than the enemy. There are those whose minds have broken under the strain of the madness around them; those whose separation from their fellow men has changed their appearance forever; those whose origins owe more to flawed science than nature; and those hapless individuals whose genes have been ripped up and re-woven by pollutants and the warp. The second part of the sourcebook details The Insane, Abhumans, False Men and Mutants. You will find mental afflictions and mutations for the first and last groups; and for the second and third groups, archetypes for ratlings, variatus beastmen, scalies, Afriel Strain guardsmen and a group of gene-spliced False Men known as the Sons of Meridian.

You sump-sucking mutie.

The second part of the sourcebook then provides a wide-ranging number of options for creating your own characters from outside the common avenues of the Imperium. Abhumans can provide an interesting alternative to the common man without going as far as to recruit xenos (and certain accusations of heresy!) to a warband, while False Men and their flaws allow for the exploration of the terrible science of the 41^st millennium. Mutants are something of a favourite of mine, and I'm sure other fans of terrible 80s sci fi will agree that they have a soft spot for the bug-eyed and tentacled freaks from the sump. The Insane presented a bit of difficulty in writing as such things can be a bit too real, and can cut far too close to the bone. In creating the section, I was keen to keep things relevant to the game above all else. I think I achieved a selection of afflictions that make for interesting quirks for Inquisitor characters.

You can find part two here.

I hope that you all enjoy the sourcebook, and welcome any feedback you might have. In a few weeks time I will put together a blog entry with comments from readers, both on the subject of the sourcebook and on the blog in general. Next time I am going to talk about the most important part of the game - cool miniatures!

The Carthaxian Inquisitor