Inquisitorial Mini-Campaign

[cheetor]

Starring Richard E Grant as "Inquisitor Verhoeven"

I got together with gaming buddy and played a four game mini Inquisitorial campaign a couple of months ago. As we we trying to represent the sort of super spy shenanigans that take place in Dan Abnetts Eisenhorn books we decided to use the 7TV ruleset from Crooked Dice. That game was designed to represent games inspired by James Bond, Sapphire and Steel, The Man from UNCLE and various other sorts of skewed reality stories told via television set, which suited the sort of romp that we wanted to generate.

"THRILLING alien graveyard shootouts!"

The game was a long awaited chance for me to use a load of the RT themed (if not always actual RT) miniatures that I have been painting over the last few years. I got a kick out of playing games with my Squat techpriest in particular for some reason.

"MIND BLOWING jet pack escapes from stasis grenades!"


Additionally the games were a chance to try to generate a number of differntly themed tables using my slowly expanding terrain collection. Its not display quality stuff, but with a few minor exceptions it performed pretty well.

"SHOCKING anti-psyker violence!"


In order to set the scene I wrote up intros to each of the four scenarios in the style of a script (or at least what I perceive to be that style). Creative writing isnt my forte, but even despite that, the silly, cliche-riddled text pieces contributed to set the scene setting an awful lot. Just try not to wince too much

"GRIPPING shanty town gunfights!"


The series is split into a series of blog posts, each linked to below if any of you fancy a look. I would love to hear any feedback that any of you guys may have about it. I have plans to explore other corners of the Segmentum Obscurus in a similar fashion in future, so any feedback that might make future sequels and spin-offs better is very welcome.

=][=nquisitor
A Matter of Honour

PROLOGUE
ACT 1
ACT 2
ACT 3

 

[patatovitch]

Very pleasant !
I like especially the scenery.

 

[Asslessman]

I really enjoyed it. Great photos and well presented report.
One thing I like is to have some presentation of each side before battle to give some story about each main character so that you get the who's and why's of the battle.
Private weird and Padre do it and I find it's adding some real substance. This way the rules or technical aspects disappear.
That's the only thing I'd want to add to an otherwise brilliant betrep (and I have to say I'm far from being able to make one of such a quality).

 

[cheetor]

Very pleasant !
I like especially the scenery.

Thanks. The industrial scenery needs some proper work done to it. It will happen eventually.

I really enjoyed it. Great photos and well presented report.

Thanks.

One thing I like is to have some presentation of each side before battle to give some story about each main character so that you get the who's and why's of the battle.

Thats an interesting point Asslessman, I will bear it in mind the next time that I am prepping something like those BatReps. I have a few opinions on miniature character development though, which are slightly contrary to those that you mention.

While I loved looking at maps of imaginary fantasy lands and cutaway diagrams of AT-ATs and the like when I was a kid, I dont enjoy being given too much information like that any more. Storytelling is often railroaded by too much detail added regarding exactly where and when certain imaginary events took place, thereby limiting further exploration. The modern WH40K universe feels a little stifled in that way to me these days, particularly in comparison with the deliberately wide open RT setting. My comic book or TV-show-continuity-following obsessive side likes maps and timelines, but my creative side does not.

Playing fun toy soldier games with a friend has a strong, group storytelling aspect for me. A lot of the fun of that is the chatting and goofing around that takes place while playing. The enjoyable events that occur in the games are unpredictable and in themselves provide cues to developing a models character: some models seem to be unlucky, some seem to be very accurate, some seem to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time etc.

I have loose ideas of what a models character may be like while I paint it, but in general I like for the characters in my games to be defined in a very broad fashion initially (Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, Gunslinger, Veteran Soldier etc). Then as various things happen in games they organically develop a character, rather than have a specific character prescribed for them, almost like how main characters in a TV series are fleshed out a little bit episode after episode. Defining a character as a certain type (aggressive, lucky, Machiavellian, useless) in advance can often end up running contrary to how the models personality appears to develop during play.

Does that make sense?

Note that I am not saying that other approaches are somehow "wrong" of course, but that this is the approach that gives me and my small group of gaming grognards the most satisfaction and entertainment.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[Asslessman]

Does that make sense?

It actually does. I also like to have a slight idea of how I imagine my characters when I paint a model meant for skirmishing or roleplay. From what you say, you start from a loose concept (Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, Gunslinger, Veteran Soldier etc) and I actually do quite the same with some little extras like a proper name or a brief story (2 lines tops),I don't want to know their full family tree, complete psyche or story so I believe we're actually on the same page here.

Playing fun toy soldier games with a friend has a strong, group storytelling aspect for me. A lot of the fun of that is the chatting and goofing around that takes place while playing. The enjoyable events that occur in the games are unpredictable and in themselves provide cues to developing a models character: some models seem to be unlucky, some seem to be very accurate, some seem to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time etc.

I also strongly approve with you on the fact that the best part of a charcater's history (imho) is the one you built by playing them with your friends. Maps and cutaway diagrams are good but they're meant to be read alone at night so their actual impact on the game is not as important to me.

that this is the approach that gives me and my small group of gaming grognards the most satisfaction and entertainment.

and that's the most important point.


Reading back what I wrote, I realise I was imprecise and it may have sounded like "lesson giving" sorry about that.
I believe it's the former GM in me that just wanted to know what the characters are, not necesseraly how they behave because just like you do, I like for them to take life on the table.

Thanks for the feedback

Well thank you for taking the time to write a constructive answer to a blurry comment, I've seen you doing it on some over threads and it's nice to read more than one liners to understand other people's POV.

 

[cheetor]

Reading back what I wrote, I realise I was imprecise and it may have sounded like "lesson giving"

It didnt sound preachy to me in any way

Well thank you for taking the time to write a constructive answer to a blurry comment, I've seen you doing it on some over threads and it's nice to read more than one liners to understand other people's POV.

I dont post my stuff unless I want to chat about it. I do tend to waffle on and over clarify though. Its hard to get the balance between being precise and curt right when communicating online