[Malefic Polyhedron]

Okay we've been getting a lot of people chiming in on the Dark Ages line in general, but we still have yet to hear from any Inquisitors. What's the deal there? Does anyone actually play this game? If so what's the allure? I mean sure its fun to be the hunter sometimes, but as a long term campaign, I don't know that I've quite got it. So what's the attraction what about Inquisitor pushes your buttons and makes you want to take up the frock of the Inquisition?

[Jos]

I've just read through Inquisitor and Inquisitors companion.
Seemingly, it is made much more with the intent of being the counterpart to Demon (or Devil's Due, actually) than Hunter, although any and all monsters can be hunted.
The systems concerning personality and faith are excellent (on paper at least - I haven't tried it out yet). Instead of "only" having the option of falling from grace, Inquisitors have something called Callousness - which is a condition they enter when they get caugt up in the Hunt rather than their belief in God.
the story-potential in Inquisitor is almost limitless - from simple dungeoneering to political games in the most holy roman catholic church. The books are kept nicely medieval in their thinking about politics - the orders of the church doesn't bother (much) with money or the like, but the competition for getting a new saint nominated is fierce and seems to be one of the ultimate displays of power among other organisations within the church.
It's definitely a game, I'm going to play some time (soon).

[Temple]

Inquisitor (though I haven't actually gotten to play it yet) is one of the most moody, most involving games put out by WW. Taking on the role of christian fanatics can be off putting to some (which is inded why I haven't gotten to try it yet, and probably why this excellent game has so few fans), but the way I see it the intense emotional content and the ambience of faith and hope in the face of hopeless odds more than outwheighs this to anyone who bothgewrs to actually involve themselves in Inquisitor.

In short: Go buy!

[Malefic Polyhedron]

Well from what I've been able to read of it so far, I've liked what I've read. Unfortunately it’s in the middle of a large stack of books I'm trying to get through. But the political and moral implications of the game are all ready intriguing me. I am definitely looking forward to giving this book the thorough reading it appears to deserve. Thanks for the info Temple and Jos, anyone else have any comments that can get me to move this up the stack a bit?

[agasha kumiko]

I think I need to get the PDF if there is one.

[JanetT]

Well, *I* like it, but I'm biased...

What I like about the Inquisitors most of all is that they're human. They have some special tricks, but they're not themselves supernatural -- they are part of the Dark Medieval world and human society in a way none of the other supernatural types can ever be. They are by their very nature connected to other human beings -- families, friends, fellow monks or nuns, even children. They have responsibilities, they have a place in society, whether that's a tradesman's guild, a monastery, or a nobleman's household.

And yet they also have this shadow life going on -- they fight a war that is all but unknown to their fellows, whose battles are often kept secret even from those on whose behalf they fight. They know a truth about the world that others around them do not. Granted, the vast majority of the people in the Dark Medieval world believe in things like vampires and werewolves, the Fair Folk and witches and so on... but it's one thing to believe in their existence, and another thing entirely to FACE those things on a night to night basis.

I also confess I like the medieval religious angle. I have a fascination for the medieval church, and I've done a fair bit of research on it. I like characters who have faith, but struggle with it -- who want with all their heart to follow God's will, but aren't always totally sure what that means. I like the nebulous borders between good and evil this provides, between what is of God and what is of the Devil -- and how hard it is for mortal Inquisitors, who EXPECT things like good and evil to be pretty clear cut, to reconcile the fact tha sometimes it just isn't as easy as it sounded back during the recruiting speeches.

You can play an Inquisitor as a religous fanatic. But you don't have to. The real thing that unites the Inquisitors isn't faith (although faith is often a large part of it) but an understanding that there are monsters in the night, who prey on innocent people -- and that those who know about them have a God-given responsibility to DO SOMETHING about it.

In addition to the two Dark Ages: Inquisitor sourcebooks, you can also find Inquisitors in Dark Ages: Ravnos and Dark Ages: Toreador, and (if you can get your hands on it) the fiction volume that was in the Limited Edition for Dark Ages: Vampire.

[agasha kumiko]

In addition to the two Dark Ages: Inquisitor sourcebooks, you can also find Inquisitors in Dark Ages: Ravnos and Dark Ages: Toreador, and (if you can get your hands on it) the fiction volume that was in the Limited Edition for Dark Ages: Vampire.

Thanks for the information I happened to drop out of White Wolf games at the time of revised so I never got into the DA line but since I got the DA mage PDF and dropping by on these boards my interest has been piqued. I am especially intriqued by the possibility to play a female character in such a male dominate milleu. And this particular period in history has always interested me.

Anyway thanks again I will be on the lookout for those and any mage books or the fae book that I see.

[Absinth_Minded]

Dark Ages: Inquisitor was the second Dark Ages book I bought. It sits in my shelf, all happy and signed by our own dear Janet. It is one of my favourite games by White Wolf because of the sheer stoyr-value of it. You can play any kind of character, as Janet said. You can also run any kind of story without it being to far from the themes of the game. It's a very well-rounded game that is sure to grant any troupe that picks it up years and years of great stories.

[Malefic Polyhedron]

Well, *I* like it, but I'm biased...

In addition to the two Dark Ages: Inquisitor  sourcebooks, you can also find Inquisitors in Dark Ages: Ravnos and Dark Ages: Toreador, and (if you can get your hands on it) the fiction volume that was in the Limited Edition for Dark Ages: Vampire.

But you have good reason to be a little biased. Thanks for the insight from someone with a closer perspective then those of us who have just read the book. I just finally got a copy of the Companion book today so now I can sit down and enjoy both books back to back. All in all I'm getting very excited to read Inquisitor and while I know an actual Inquisitor game would not be in my future (my troupe likes playing the monsters too much) the ability to run an antagonist with the Inquisitor info. I think it will make for a very different style of both adversary and hunter, then the players are used to dealing with.

[zenten]

I would like to play an inquisitor game sometime. They did make good antagonists for my DA Fae game though

[Absinth_Minded]

Yes. There's that side of the coin as well. The Inquisition shows that the DA line is the most crossover friendly of the OWoD lines, in that it can be combined with any game with Inquisitor PC's and any game can have them as NPC's and antagonists.

[JanetT]

Re: Inquisitors as both protagonists AND antagonists:
Exactly. They're designed to interact with other character types. They make strong protagonist player characters because they have a Mission and a driving goal, that requires them to seek out enemies of God...er, other supernaturals.. and come into conflict with them. And yet, they are also human beings, with human frailties and feelings, and different degrees of faith and experiences to draw upon. So it's easy to come up with stories for them in pursuit of their mission, but on the other hand, it's also easy to present them with situations where they're forced to make very difficult choices, moral judgments and be emotionally conflicted about where exactly their duty and God's will lies.

And they make potent adversaries for vampires, mages and even Fae, because they are inherently driven to that conflict, they often know a good deal more than the average mortal, they have unexpected strengths and abilities that can cause real problems for other supernaturals, and most of all, they have the support of the heirarchy of the Church and they're organized. And yet, they are still individuals -- you can play them (as antagonists) as fanatical religious zealots, or stretch the storyline by presenting them as formidable but not without mercy where mercy is truly merited. You can present vampire characters with moral dilemmas too -- because some vampires might AGREE with the Inquisitors when it comes to certain others of their own kind, and certainly there are mages who would agree with the Inquisition on the evil nature of vampires.... and so on. So you have the opportunity to create potent and formidable adversaries who aren't all alike, and can provide players with some surprises.

On women in the Inquisition:
Actually, we covered that in some depth in the Inquisitor Companion. (Female Inquisitors are featured in fiction, in the vampire novel DA: Ravnos, where a Sister of St. John gets to psychically kick Anatole's ass, and in the opening fiction for the Companion.) Women don't have it easy in the Inquisition -- but then, this is a time period when very few women had very much independence or power, and nuns were not supposed to EVER leave their cloister. (Obviously, the Inquisition managed to come up with some exceptions to that for their own people, or playing nun-inquisitors wouldn't be much fun. And historically, nuns were notorious for finding excuses to leave their cloister anyway.) But they do live under restrictions (especially if they're in Holy Orders), and that's reflective of the time and culture. (The men in Holy Orders live under restrictions too.) It's best to use those restrictions as part of the story, as challenges a character must face and find a way to deal with or get around within the rules, rather than ignore them (or not play such characters). And to me, that's part of the challenge of playing a female character in the restrictive setting of the middle ages, and the Inquisition -- finding ways to make the restrictions and setting enhance the story, and see what the character can come with to achieve her goals within the rules her place in society puts upon her (or by knowingly breaking the rules in a story-advancing way).

(And on the somewhat-related subject of female vampire characters in a male-dominated milleu: Dark Ages: Ravnos, Dark Ages: Brujah, and Dark Ages: Toreador all feature female protags who aren't the well-known sigs, but face their own challenges in very different ways... none of which involve being capable of kicking their male counterparts' undead asses.)

[Genevieve LeClaire]

Janet

I love you. I can say no more than that...I love you....

*bows before Janet in supplication*

[JanetT]

Awwwww......

Thanks... (hough I can't take credit for the Sister of St. John who kicked Anatole's ass, that was Sarah Roark's doing.)

[Malefic Polyhedron]

The dual nature of the Inquisitors and their uses as both protagonist and antagonist is something I am looking forward to using in my Dark Ages game. I've always preferred a conflicted adversary versus a simple two dimensional 'evil' badguy. From what I've gathered from your posts Janet, (Ms. T if I'm nasty), the Inquisitors are precisely what I am looking for in a good multi-facet opponent for my game. I am definitely jumping this one up on my 'to read' list and am looking forward to learning more about the Inquisitors, both through my reading and during the month of Dark Ages.

[agasha kumiko]

Thanks for even more good information Janet.

[Kahluah]

I don't think I can sum up Inquisitor any better than JanetT has done so. It is probably one of the best written gaming books I've ever had the pleasure of coming into contact with, and I'm wishing like crazy my Inquisitor game hadn't fallen by the wayside because of the real life concerns of my players. Maybe one day I might even resurrect it on S'n'E. *ponders*

[Absinth_Minded]

Inquisitors are in a way the most well-rounded character types in the Dark Ages setting, because of the ammount of different ways you can portray them. This is because they are in the end mortals. Vampires are undead, bloodsucking creatures of the night, mages wield magics far beyond the ken of any mortal man and so on. In a world like the WoD there is no black or white, only shades of gray, and when creating the game the developer and writers seem to have kept this close at heart at all times.

[Malefic Polyhedron]

Inquisitors are in a way the most well-rounded character types in the Dark Ages setting, because of the ammount of different ways you can portray them. This is because they are in the end mortals. Vampires are undead, bloodsucking creatures of the night, mages wield magics far beyond the ken of any mortal man and so on. In a world like the WoD there is no black or white, only shades of gray, and when creating the game the developer and writers seem to have kept this close at heart at all times.

I would agree, the Inquisitors are easily the most well-rounded, and ultimately the most tragic of the characters. If they fall and are driven to corruption and madness it is typical their own hand that has brought them there. Having seen what they have seen they find it hard to turn their back on what they know to exist. But they still have a choice, in the end their choice to pursue this calling and to fight these creatures, even knowing the odds, is what makes them so fascinating.
They are only human, with all the weaknesses and frailties that come along with that. And unlike so many other creatures in the Dark Medieval they are aware of their weakness and persevere in spite of that. That gives them an air of the 'noble madman' that I find fascinating. They are driven by matters of faith and responsibility to pursue an agenda that is impossible within their lifetime. They do this for little recognition and with the potential reward of death and madness. What more can you ask for in a protagonist or antagonist? They are tilting at windmills and have the courage to do so in the face of that very truth. And they do it in spite of their very mortal nature to recoil from what they hunt and unlike virtually everything else in Dark Medieval they do it for the betterment of others. Every other thing in the DM that seeks a supposed 'higher goal' is rarely doing it for the sake of anyone other then themselves. The Kindred in pursuit of Golconda or the Mage who seeks mystic understanding is looking to better themselves not anyone else. But like so much else in the WOD those that are acting for the sake of others are the ones cast in the role of the villain?

(Can you tell I finally started reading the book and am deeply digging it?)

[JanetT]

......They are tilting at windmills and have the courage to do so in the face of that very truth.  And they do it in spite of their very mortal nature to recoil from what they hunt and unlike virtually everything else in Dark Medieval they do it for the betterment of others.  Every other thing in the DM that seeks a supposed 'higher goal' is rarely doing it for the sake of anyone other then themselves.  The Kindred in pursuit of Golconda or the Mage who seeks mystic understanding is looking to better themselves not anyone else.  But like so much else in the WOD those that are acting for the sake of others are the ones cast in the role of the villain?

(Can you tell I finally started reading the book and am deeply digging it?)

Whoot! Another convert!

Not only tilting at windmills... sometimes they actually hit the suckers, and knock 'em flat. Not every time... sometimes the windmill wins. But they hit often enough to worry windmills across Europe....

(Lemme know whatcha think of the opening fiction... I sometimes wonder if anyone reads 'em..... )