The Inquisitorial

By Bromide Hadral, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

I am currently GMing a campaign in which the Inquisitors are the main enemy. They are essentially playing the role of a behind the scenes dark side clandestine force controlled by The Emperor. My PCs are new members of a secret Rebel force called the Order Assassinorum (thanks 40k!) whose entire job is defeating the Inquisitorius (as I have deemed it for my game).

Essentially the Inquisitors have secret bases on several planets that the players are tasked with infiltrating and destroying. It's kind of a cool use of F&D material in a very Age of Rebellion type Rebel setting.

I actually have something similar going on with my players! They've had some run-ins with a crazed, rogue Inquisitor that had it in for one of the PCs (who is a decedent of the Sith race) and now the Alliance is basically looking at the problem and realizing they need to do something pro-active about these Inquisitors. Thus will be born OPERATION: RED SAND; An off the books Rebel cell of hired guns and force sensitives tasked with countering the Inquisition. I plan on upgrading their ship to a Blackade Runner and sorta running with a "Mass Effect" style game with them running around saving/recruiting people.

My endgame is to eventually have them "take part" in the Battle of Endor by launching an assault on the Inquisition's HQ during the attack on the second Death Star in an attempt to ensure that the Inquisition is not there to reclaim control when the Emperor falls. As I imagine that's something that the Alliance would have to do.

I'd be interested in what kind of cool Inquisitors you come up with so I can throw them at my PCs! :-D

I absolutely love this set up, it's a great way to integrate Edge and F&D charcters in an AoR game! Also like the "Mass Effect" style campaign. And while the Blockade Runner si a great ship (and very customizable) you can also consider the Marauder corvette who has an hangar and some fighters too, they can come handy in solo missions. I like the idea for the Battle of Endor but i'd let them really be part of it: they could be tasked to infiltrate the Executor and search Darth Vader's quarters or the Inquisitor's quarters (there must be some)to find the coordinates for the Inquisiton's base on Prakith, which being in the deep core is absurdly hard to travel to. Clearance codes for the deep core security zone would be quite handy too. Then they would have to flee the Executor before it crashes into the Death Star, maybe "helping it" by doing damage to the ship. then in the aftermath of Endor they strike at the Inquisition base.

As for any cool Inquisitors i think all of them are Force sensitive, so no non FS baddie, but one of them could be barely FS and overcome this buy having a really high inteligence cunning and knowledge, and relying on the Suppress power to reduce the other force sensitives abilites (think of a walking Ysalamiri) and on liberal amounts of cortosis armors or weapons to help. Imagine a force sensitive Cad Bane to get a picture.

One thing I've wondered about is how the Inquisition recruits new members.

In Rebels we see that they abduct Force sensitive infants, but that strikes me as less of a recruitment scheme and more hedging their bets in the long run. If you rely on infants for your new members you're going to be waiting a long time for that investment to pay off in the form of trained Inquisitors, but on the other hand if you get your hands on one such infant then that's one baby that won't grow up to be a Jedi. They're essentially nipping future problems in the bud while gaining a long-term reward.

The reason I've been thinking about this is one of the player characters in my game is a runaway Force-user who joined the Inquisition a couple of years before Yavin, but deserted after she felt the destruction of Alderaan. The internal structure for the Inquisition that I whipped together to accommodate this is that the Inquisitors we see in Rebels (The Grand Inquisitor, Fifth Brother, Seventh Sister) are the hardcore, indoctrinated and trained from birth agents who are more powerful and have a higher rank than the acolytes they recruit around 18-30 and train to support them. This way you have a force of powerful but valuable Inquisitors which require significant time and energy to produce surrounded by semi-disposable mooks who know just enough to wield a lightsaber and feel the Force. The PC was intended to be the latter, but now that she's free of the Inquisition and on her own path she has the potential to become more.

I Like this idea, and i think the Inquisition receuited his members from the Jedi Service corps embers, so the washouts of the order that were still force sensitive enough; especially the padawans who were sent there because they passed the trials but failed to find a master in time. I think that the first inquisitors were trained by Darth Vader and the training was extremely darwinian and so only the fittest surivived and became inquisitors. Your recruitment idea works well now that the timeline is after Yavin, and the old service corps recruits have been killed or fully trained. I read somewhere that Shaak-Ti managed to save 3000 younglings in the aftermath of order 66, and while this is mot likely legends, you can use it as a motive for the Inquisition's job and as a source of force sensitives when needed.

I don't picture the Inquiston as a large organization anyway, relying on secrecy, rumors, and the Force to be feared, so they require only a handful of trainees to keep their numbers up; the death of the Grand Inquistor may well have crippled them during the Rebels timeline. And acolyte being like Inquisitor's padawans works nicely: the good ones become inquisitors the weaker ones die "in the line of duty". And you get strong rivals or lesser nemesis to throw at your party before the Big Bad joins the fight.

Edited by Lareg

One thing I've wondered about is how the Inquisition recruits new members.

In Rebels we see that they abduct Force sensitive infants, but that strikes me as less of a recruitment scheme and more hedging their bets in the long run. If you rely on infants for your new members you're going to be waiting a long time for that investment to pay off in the form of trained Inquisitors, but on the other hand if you get your hands on one such infant then that's one baby that won't grow up to be a Jedi. They're essentially nipping future problems in the bud while gaining a long-term reward.

The reason I've been thinking about this is one of the player characters in my game is a runaway Force-user who joined the Inquisition a couple of years before Yavin, but deserted after she felt the destruction of Alderaan. The internal structure for the Inquisition that I whipped together to accommodate this is that the Inquisitors we see in Rebels (The Grand Inquisitor, Fifth Brother, Seventh Sister) are the hardcore, indoctrinated and trained from birth agents who are more powerful and have a higher rank than the acolytes they recruit around 18-30 and train to support them. This way you have a force of powerful but valuable Inquisitors which require significant time and energy to produce surrounded by semi-disposable mooks who know just enough to wield a lightsaber and feel the Force. The PC was intended to be the latter, but now that she's free of the Inquisition and on her own path she has the potential to become more.

Also force sensitives could be recruited on Chardrilla.

Chandrila has more Force sensitve than usual?

I am currently GMing a campaign in which the Inquisitors are the main enemy. They are essentially playing the role of a behind the scenes dark side clandestine force controlled by The Emperor. My PCs are new members of a secret Rebel force called the Order Assassinorum (thanks 40k!) whose entire job is defeating the Inquisitorius (as I have deemed it for my game).

Essentially the Inquisitors have secret bases on several planets that the players are tasked with infiltrating and destroying. It's kind of a cool use of F&D material in a very Age of Rebellion type Rebel setting.

I actually have something similar going on with my players! They've had some run-ins with a crazed, rogue Inquisitor that had it in for one of the PCs (who is a decedent of the Sith race) and now the Alliance is basically looking at the problem and realizing they need to do something pro-active about these Inquisitors. Thus will be born OPERATION: RED SAND; An off the books Rebel cell of hired guns and force sensitives tasked with countering the Inquisition. I plan on upgrading their ship to a Blackade Runner and sorta running with a "Mass Effect" style game with them running around saving/recruiting people.

My endgame is to eventually have them "take part" in the Battle of Endor by launching an assault on the Inquisition's HQ during the attack on the second Death Star in an attempt to ensure that the Inquisition is not there to reclaim control when the Emperor falls. As I imagine that's something that the Alliance would have to do.

I'd be interested in what kind of cool Inquisitors you come up with so I can throw them at my PCs! :-D

I absolutely love this set up, it's a great way to integrate Edge and F&D charcters in an AoR game! Also like the "Mass Effect" style campaign. And while the Blockade Runner si a great ship (and very customizable) you can also consider the Marauder corvette who has an hangar and some fighters too, they can come handy in solo missions. I like the idea for the Battle of Endor but i'd let them really be part of it: they could be tasked to infiltrate the Executor and search Darth Vader's quarters or the Inquisitor's quarters (there must be some)to find the coordinates for the Inquisiton's base on Prakith, which being in the deep core is absurdly hard to travel to. Clearance codes for the deep core security zone would be quite handy too. Then they would have to flee the Executor before it crashes into the Death Star, maybe "helping it" by doing damage to the ship. then in the aftermath of Endor they strike at the Inquisition base.

As for any cool Inquisitors i think all of them are Force sensitive, so no non FS baddie, but one of them could be barely FS and overcome this buy having a really high inteligence cunning and knowledge, and relying on the Suppress power to reduce the other force sensitives abilites (think of a walking Ysalamiri) and on liberal amounts of cortosis armors or weapons to help. Imagine a force sensitive Cad Bane to get a picture.

Thanks for the input! I think I'll end up providing my players with a choice between the CR90 and the Marauder. I suspect they'll go with the CR90 (they like the idea of a "stealth base" that can lurk outside of sensor range) as it's hardpoints allow it to support a number of cool things (and it comes equipped with Long ranged Turbolasers which, combined with Nightshadow coating, technically allow it to fire upon enemy vessels outside of their sensor range).

I like your take on the Battle of Endor, as the players would know the ship is doomed and (from a meta standpoint along with an in-game one) would want to complete the mission ASAFP. haha.

While I agree that Inquisitors should probably be force sensitive (and like your idea of a walking suppress wall!), I plan on dropping one into the game that "isn't" force sensitive. He is, but only in the most basic sense (some other Inquisitors view him as "weak" or non-sensitive). He'll be a mentally superior but physically crippled individual, housed within a suit of heavy power armor that helps keep him alive. He'll be in charge of training Stormtroopers zealously loyal to the Inquisition, and portrays himself as a righteous and charismatic hero of the Emperor. Think: Space Marine Dreadnaught. ;)

Haha, Space Marine Dreadnaught Inquisitor sounds really like a great concept. Go for it.

Chandrila has more Force sensitve than usual?

I was thinking more about the fact that the empire recruits many people on chandrilla.

Chandrila has more Force sensitve than usual?

I was thinking more about the fact that the empire recruits many people on chandrilla.

Good idea. The Rebellion does the same. Chandrila is a good spot for changing sides too.

Chandrila has more Force sensitve than usual?

I was thinking more about the fact that the empire recruits many people on chandrilla.

Good idea. The Rebellion does the same. Chandrila is a good spot for changing sides too.

Yup. In fact that is how I am trying to get my pc's to join the rebelion.

I'm working on a concept for a Gotal Inquisitor who was an Antarian Ranger leading up to Order 66. Abandoning his duties and going into hiding, he was found and turned by the Inquisitorius. Following the Battle of Endor, he's aligned with one of the Imperial factions in the Outer Rim, where naturally he will come across the PCs, including a couple of emerging Force Sensitives.

We're starting an EotE / F&D blended campaign. I'm pretty sure the force sensitives will be interested in the Inquisitor storyline, but I'm still trying to tease out my hooks to keep the more Edge characters engaged (without defaulting to a cliche where he killed their parents/brother/lover/planet/pet gundark).

Edited for autocorrect typos

Edited by Mitrokhin

I'm working on a concept for a Gotal Inquisitor who was an Antarian Ranger leading up to Order 66. Abandoning his duties and going into hiding, he was found and turned by the Inquisitorius. Following the Battle of Endor, he's aligned with one of the Imperial factions in the Outer Rim, where naturally he will come across the PCs, including a couple of emerging Force Sensitives.

We're starting an EotE / F&D blended campaign. I'm pretty sure the force sensitives will be interested in the Inquisitor storyline, but I'm still trying to tease out my hooks to keep the more Edge characters engaged (without defaulting to a cliche where he killed their parents/brother/lover/planet/pet gundark).

Edited for autocorrect typos

Interesting

Sometimes you don't need a personal connection. The party instantly knew vader was evil because he was with the empire. Same way that not every nemesis necessarily has to have beef with every member of the party; just having beef with some of them should be enough, but rather have villians that ping off all of them.

I am currently GMing a campaign in which the Inquisitors are the main enemy. They are essentially playing the role of a behind the scenes dark side clandestine force controlled by The Emperor. My PCs are new members of a secret Rebel force called the Order Assassinorum (thanks 40k!) whose entire job is defeating the Inquisitorius (as I have deemed it for my game).

Essentially the Inquisitors have secret bases on several planets that the players are tasked with infiltrating and destroying. It's kind of a cool use of F&D material in a very Age of Rebellion type Rebel setting.

I actually have something similar going on with my players! They've had some run-ins with a crazed, rogue Inquisitor that had it in for one of the PCs (who is a decedent of the Sith race) and now the Alliance is basically looking at the problem and realizing they need to do something pro-active about these Inquisitors. Thus will be born OPERATION: RED SAND; An off the books Rebel cell of hired guns and force sensitives tasked with countering the Inquisition. I plan on upgrading their ship to a Blackade Runner and sorta running with a "Mass Effect" style game with them running around saving/recruiting people.

My endgame is to eventually have them "take part" in the Battle of Endor by launching an assault on the Inquisition's HQ during the attack on the second Death Star in an attempt to ensure that the Inquisition is not there to reclaim control when the Emperor falls. As I imagine that's something that the Alliance would have to do.

I'd be interested in what kind of cool Inquisitors you come up with so I can throw them at my PCs! :-D

I've got a few Inquisitors I am using in my campaign. It started out with the characters stuck on an old star destroyer/prison for force sensitives being freed and pointed in the direction of escape by an apparent rebel sympathizer. Once they were finally off the ship (taking the dusty, beaten up VCX-100 with nothing but scratches, dents, and what may be the letters (O-S-T) on the side [Hey, I felt I needed some sort of pop reference in the game without breaking out any major stars]) they discovered the star destroyer they were on was part of a large prison ship convoy constantly jumping from point to point around the galaxy so as to make it nearly impossible to find. I'm taking influence from the Shaak'Ti youngling rescue thing and maybe some Nazi death camp history as the Imprisoned Force Sensitives are being heavily experimented on in an attempt to enslave them to the dark side whether they will turn or not. The characters are hooking up with the Rebels in order to acquire the resources needed to track down this convoy and free the thousands of force sensitives being slowly turned into the Empire's super soldiers. The Convoy is commanded by a Grand Inquisitor (Abaddon, ala Warhammer40k, a Chiss former Jedi Shii-Cho sensei-type who was captured from the Jedi Temple and readily turned to the dark side in order to save himself, already of the opinion that the Jedi had grown weak) who currently serves as little more than a scary looking shadow in the game. The Inquisitor currently on the trail of the PC's is an old human man named Inquisitor Sun who slowly stalks after them leaning over his light metal staff/lightsaber pike in a methodical Sherlock Holmes sort of way. He has no real Force powers but his ability with the Lightsaber Pike is straight out of an old Kung Fu movie. The first time the PC's engaged him they were over confident as he only had 2 Troopers with him which the PC's dispatched in a single round. After a bit of talking and threatening to kill him, Inquisitor Sun activated his pike and started twirling around it, dodging nearly all their shots and strikes while summarily beating the bejeezis out of them in a taller, lazier, Yoda sort of way. His real force powers are his ability to parry and deflect attacks along with his fairly high melee and ranged defense scores, as well as his incredible investigation skills. His weakness is that he is actually quite frail and easy to kill if they can just manage to hit him a few times, not too mention the fact he would be totally defenseless without his Pike, having to resort to his considerable Brawl ability which means very little now that he is a 70 year old man. Grand Inquisitor Abaddon is a nightmare in melee combat as a shii-cho master with considerable force powers but has absolutely no ability to counter ranged attacks, ensuring he also has a weakness if the PC's ever end up directly encountering him in their attempt to overtake the prison convoy. Anyways I am just babbling with no paragraphs and barely any real sentence structure but there are my 2 Inquisitors so far and the basis for their involvement in my story.

Edited by sirfuzzzy

So I had a session of my campaign o Saturday and my inquisitor was killed by a really good crit. I think that the next one will have a lot of durable. :angry:

More years ago than I care to say, I ran a d6 Star Wars game and the party had managed to get themselves on the radar of what nowadays you'd call an Inquisitor, in a really bad way. He carried a lightstave of about 5' length having a standard length blade (giving him a good 8'+ reach). He had the 'virtue' of being a total psychopath, and a talent for ambush tactics.

Needless to say, the party's first close range encounter with him resulted in a full retreat under cover of nearly indiscriminate blaster fire. They spent a long time healing, and were never quite so cocky going up against their nemesis again.

My policy over the years has been simple: The bad guys can do anything you can, but if you're smart enough to realize when it's time to cut and run, I will reward you with survival.

If you can do it in style... So much the better.

Edited by Neuroticjohn

More years ago than I care to say, I ran a d6 Star Wars game and the party had managed to get themselves on the radar of what nowadays you'd call an Inquisitor, in a really bad way. He carried a lightstave of about 5' length having a standard length blade (giving him a good 8'+ reach). He had the 'virtue' of being a total psychopath, and a talent for ambush tactics.

Needless to say, the party's first close range encounter with him resulted in a full retreat under cover of nearly indiscriminate blaster fire. They spent a long time healing, and were never quite so cocky going up against their nemesis again.

My policy over the years has been simple: The bad guys can do anything you can, but if you're smart enough to realize when it's time to cut and run, I will reward you with survival.

If you can do it in style... So much the better.

Interesting.

I've got an Inquisitor working w/ the criminal underworld, using organized crime contacts in order to find rebel cells. He (she?) is extremely intelligent, and either A: very unhappy with her placement in the criminal world, or B: very happy with her place in the criminal world and actually enjoys the seedier bits. Now that i've started actually saying She, I might make her female once we start! She'll be working with the hutts at first. possibly killing the main hutt antagonizing the group at some point. I haven't fully ironed out all the details but I plan on running the beginners game on friday with the inquisitor making a quick, scary appearance.

I've got an Inquisitor working w/ the criminal underworld, using organized crime contacts in order to find rebel cells. He (she?) is extremely intelligent, and either A: very unhappy with her placement in the criminal world, or B: very happy with her place in the criminal world and actually enjoys the seedier bits. Now that i've started actually saying She, I might make her female once we start! She'll be working with the hutts at first. possibly killing the main hutt antagonizing the group at some point. I haven't fully ironed out all the details but I plan on running the beginners game on friday with the inquisitor making a quick, scary appearance

Sounds a interesting idea, though it sounds more interesting that the death of the Hutt should be done in such a manner that it's pinned on the group, which might require a quest line or so to get the immediate heat off the party. Perhaps initially put the inquistor at a very servitude relationship to the Hutt, when in truth the roles are heavily reversed, indoctrinated to the point where he personally takes the battle to the group and gets killed. Then, the antagonist comes in and either finishes him off (if they don't kill him) or stares through a window as suddenly, the mood of the Hutt enforcers rapidly change as they begin their legendary vendetta...

I've got an Inquisitor working w/ the criminal underworld, using organized crime contacts in order to find rebel cells. He (she?) is extremely intelligent, and either A: very unhappy with her placement in the criminal world, or B: very happy with her place in the criminal world and actually enjoys the seedier bits. Now that i've started actually saying She, I might make her female once we start! She'll be working with the hutts at first. possibly killing the main hutt antagonizing the group at some point. I haven't fully ironed out all the details but I plan on running the beginners game on friday with the inquisitor making a quick, scary appearance

Sounds a interesting idea, though it sounds more interesting that the death of the Hutt should be done in such a manner that it's pinned on the group, which might require a quest line or so to get the immediate heat off the party. Perhaps initially put the inquistor at a very servitude relationship to the Hutt, when in truth the roles are heavily reversed, indoctrinated to the point where he personally takes the battle to the group and gets killed. Then, the antagonist comes in and either finishes him off (if they don't kill him) or stares through a window as suddenly, the mood of the Hutt enforcers rapidly change as they begin their legendary vendetta...

hmmm... I like this. ooooh I could even go off into a riff of The Warriors. A session of about 5-6 encounters during a race across a planet to get to a safe area where there exists the only piece of evidence able to clear their names. inquisitors are FUUUN.