Location, Location, Location

Ever since it came out in 2001, I have been obsessed with Games Workshop's cult classic "narrative skirmish" game Inquisitor.

With that said, I have never actually had the good fortune to actually play a game of it. As a strapped then-15 year-old who could barely afford 28mm miniatures, buying into a new range of 54mm minis was beyond my means. Not to mention those chunky metal models would have been well beyond my ability to build and paint. In the end, Inquisitor received only scant official support before being palmed off onto Fanatic and half a dozen or so issues of Exterminatus magazine, after which it was allowed to slowly die.

Nevertheless, the entire aesthetic of the models, setting, art and the arcane d100 system captivated me and has continued to do so for over 20 years.

Recently, I had the pleasure of watching an interview with John Blanche and Gav Thorpe by FilmDeg Miniatures on Youtube, wherein they spoke of the art and game design respectively. It was fascinating to hear Gav speak about his game design decisions and how they hearkened back to classic Old West Gunfighter games and the like. As such, the game mechanics were made deliberately baroque, as Gav described it, and were intentionally not made to be modern or cutting edge.

This made me wonder however, what if we gave Inquisitor a fresh lick of paint? What if we tarted it up a bit and made it a bit more palatable to modern sensibilities?

Well, let's give it a try.

First of all, I thought to dispense with the d100 for a d20, to reflect most tabletop gamers' familiarity with Dungeons and Dragons. Next, I considered the problem of the Attack Roll. It is something of the zeitgeist that attack rolls are on the way out, at least in the RPG space, with classic OSR fare such as Into The Odd and the soon-to-be released "cinematic, tactical, heroic fantasy" crowdfunded juggernaut MCDM RPG dispensing with them entirely.

In Inquisitor, one rolls to hit by rolling equal to or under one's Ballistic Skill on a d100. On a hit, one then rolls on the hit location chart. However, if the body part hit is behind cover then it is essentially a miss. Therefore, I thought, if we assume that combatants will naturally seek cover during a gunfight, why not skip the attack roll altogether, and go straight to the location roll? If the location rolled is behind cover, it's a miss. If it's not behind cover, it's a hit!

This is fine right up until we start thinking about applying modifiers. If we simply apply traditional +/- modifiers, we risk always getting headshots or always getting our feet blown off or some other slightly hilariously implausible outcome. So, let me propose a solution:

In the first column is the unmodified Hit Location chart. In the second is the Difficult Shot chart, where only even numbered results are hits. In the final column is the Impossible Shot chart, where only results divisible by 4 count as hits. So if you have disadvantage on your shot (target is at great distance, shooting while moving etc.) then your chances of a meaningful hit suddenly halve. If you are attempting an extremely unlikely shot (target is at extreme range or heavily obscured, shooting while sprinting etc.) then your chances are quartered!

This allows us to add penalties to hit without having to resort to +/- modifiers whilst retaining an even spread of hit locations. But what if we want to add a bonus? We can not double or quadruple our chances as easily as doing the opposite. Let us therefore refer back to our initial goal: bring Inquisitor up to date by using design language that the modern gamer is already familiar with. As such, let's loot the Proficiency Bonus from Dungeons & Dragons 5E, apply it to our Ballistic Skill and create a derived stat from it. Let's call it our Shooting Factor.

If our Ballistic Skill is between 1-20, then our Shooting Factor is between 2-6. If we have advantage on a shot (took the aim action before a shot, attacking an unaware or surprised enemy etc.), we can add or subtract a value equal to or up to our Shooting Factor from the Hit Location roll to place our shot. For example, if we have a Shooting Factor of 6, if we roll a 7 or less we can always choose to score a head shot! If you remember my old "Randomly Generating Magic Items in Warhammer Fantasy 5th Edition" post, we discussed how Rogue Trader allowed characters to alter their equipment rolls in much a similar way.

In summary: D20 roll under for ability checks. Attack rolls are made straight to location, locations behind cover are missed. Attacks made at disadvantage have their possible locations halved or quartered. Attacks made at advantage may be placed.

This post was inspired by Prismatic Wasteland's Blog Challenge: New (Year's) Resolution Mechanic! Thanks to them I have been inspired to at least write down some of the ideas that I have been sitting on for a while! So what did you think of this one? It definitely lends itself best to a gunfighter-style game, however melee combat would be a brutal tactic that could pay off if you're brave enough.

It's been a while since I last posted here and I'm not promising I'll be around much in the future but either way, until then!