This is an interesting announcement from Black Industries (part of the GW publishing business).
The odd thing is I thought we already had a 40k Roleplaying Game from Specialist Games – called Inquisitor.
It sounds like the announced ‘Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy’ is using the same back story as Inquistor as you ‘play an Inquisitor’s Retinue’. So is it just a re-write of Inquisitor? Or an entirely new and incompatible system? I would imagine the later is more likely given Games Workshop’s history. In which case I would imagine Inquisitor is going to be silently dropped.
Imho the reason Inquisitor failed to take hold is the ridiculous idea that we’d all play using overpriced Games Workshop 54mm figures. Anybody that was interested in playing it would almost certainly have at least one 40k 28mm scale army already. So of course you’d simply use those figures.
I just hope ‘Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy’ doesn’t make the same error and actually treats 28mm figures as the basic scale for the game.
Originally spotted on Tabletop News Blog.
Its definately an interesting concept and its almost (but not quite) exciting. I would imagine that it would probably be steering clear of significant figure usage otherwise why wouldn’t GW re-release Inquisitor sans 54mm figures? or Necromunda?
Actually thinking about it both of those would probably require more effort to modify than writing a whole new system (or using the basics of WHFRP).
My assumption is that the game would lean more towards narrative story telling in the style of White Wolf and Vampire the Masquerade but anyone whos seen the latest WHFRP can probably enlighten us?
Anyone?
Please?
It’s a good point Aaron. As this 40k RPG will be released by Black Industries it may well be a ‘pure’ RPG without a focus on figures.
However Black Industries are still part of the Games Workshop umbrella so the cynic in me says figures will probably be involved in some way…
Still I’ve always liked the Dark Millenia because of it’s rich gothic back story. So it will just be nice to see that explored in more detail.
The reason for the new RPG is that Inquisitor isn’t really all that good (as n RPG) and is often really quite unbalanced.
Especailly if you want to play an RPG which often has things like threat levels for monsters and encounters that help a GM balance the monster(s) against the level of the party.
And I think that GW wants to stay away from having to build products like this in-house. Green Ronin has had great success with the WFRP product so it makes sense to have them produce a 40K RPG.
I have a copy of Inquisitor and I use it as a reference for Necromunda goodies when building new warbands but I wouldn’t begin to use it as a game system and I can’t see any dedicated RPGers using it.
Don’t forget, this will be an RPG made by a dedicated RPG company and marketed towards RPG gamers not 40K gamers.
Inquisitor is odd in that there is no inherent balance in the system. It’s all left to the GM. I own a copy of Inquisitor too and have to admit I’ve never played it…although I’ve come close a couple of times.
I do have a soft spot for ‘investigation’ style RPGs as well, being an old Chaosium Call of Cthulhu gamer too. The Inquisitor setting would seem ideal for that style of game.
It will be interesting to see what comes out in a year!
I do get a bit tired of whole inquisitor thing myself tho. Part of the appeal of Necromunda is you get all that dark imagery but its more real people(relatively speaking). Its not some uber powerful inquisitor with all his toys but someone who would be the equivalent of a modern day marine or commando, struggling to get buy in a hideous future.
Ah well, one of GW strengths is its back ground fluff. If nothing else it will probably be a great read.
That’s the problem with basing an RPG game around figures I guess – the focus is naturally on powerful characters because that’s what most metal miniatures in the GW lines represent.
I mean a fully kitted out Space Marine 54mm figure toting a bolter is always going to sell better than an Imperial scribe armed with his trusty multi-inker…
Hey I want my scribe and his multi inker
Don’t knock something until you try it. Yes Inquisitor can be unbalanced. But the game is only limited by the imagination.
I played Inquisitor from the very beginning and even now STILL enjoy it.
Yes it is easy to have a warband of space marines run rampant. But there is no fun in that. So its up to the GM t ensure nothing like that happens and to ensure that the scenarios are challenging, exciting and played out correctly.
Im not saying i dont like RPG’s. But Dark Heresy seems ot be just a dumbed down and expanded version of Inquisitor that stops annoying player from creating and using over powered character and warbands.
its a shame people can thelpthemselves when it comes to character creation.
I beleive that and peoples lack of conversion skills is what caused Inquisitor to fade away
Hi Distel, interesting comment. I’m curious though, do you play Inquisitor with the 54mm figures from GW, or just converted standard 28mm character figures from Warhammer 40k?
I believe Inquisitor probably died because GW weren’t that interested in supporting it if they couldn’t generate sales for their expensive 54mm scale figures. To be honest I can’t see any reason why you would use the 54mm figures when there are so many superb 28mm character figures in the 40k range now.