I'm interested in people's experience of recruiting into the Inquisition, either hiring promising NPCs or using the Ascension mechanics for assembling a new cell.

Quite early in our game, I hired an NPC (from Purge The Unclean) to take up a post on my homeworld and keep an eye on happenings there. More recently, approaching Ascension, I did some more hiring in Damned Cities, and of a couple of NPCs created by the GM. Has anyone else offered Inquisitional service to NPCs they have met in their adventures?

The prime advantage I can see of hiring NPCs as opposed to constructing a new cell using Influence (aside from interesting roleplay) is they are likely to be a higher level and more experienced than your average acolyte (judging by a standard, starting-level Dark Heresy character). Also, it has seemed too much of a shame to leave certain NPCs to be ground through the Imperial machine and never given a shot at greatness.

The downside to this hiring is that acolytes are expensive to kit out and ferry around the place. Especially when they have a penchant for heavily-armoured vehicles... I'm hoping at Ascension, with a much greater income and Influence, this won't be quite such an issue. There is also the matter of making yourself responsible for their lives, which may or may not bother a particular Interrogator/Inquisitor.

So, have any of you hired fellow acolytes, or constructed your own cells? How are you using them? I think this could be a really interesting aspect of Ascension-level play.

The team in my game has recruited certain NPCs to the Inquisition over the course of their missions. They are pretty choosy and so far have not made any sweeping moves, instead picking out impressive individuals who have skills and abilities that far surpass their likely fate. So a skilled and competent individual with a potentially promising career ahead of them will be wished well and sent on their way, but someone similarly impressive and ultimately doomed for bureaucratic reasons they might just recruit. In most cases the recruits have been handed over to their patron Inquisitor or the Tricorn (this is before their Prime became an Inquisitor herself).

The procedure so far has been to use Inquisitorial authority (or that of their cover roles) to bind over the services of NPCs that stand out head and shoulders above the rest and then drag them along for the duration of the mission. At the conclusion they will either turn their erstwhile minion free or send them to the Tricorn for testing and assignment. In one case so far they have permanently added an NPC to the team. The newly minted Inquisitor has not yet formed an Acolyte cell network per Ascention, but it is only a matter of time. The team is trying to push their influence up a bit higher first so they can more reliably pull off requisitions and throw their weight around when they deem it necissary. Fortunately they are still alot better off than the Rogue Trader who almost failed a requisition test for a single laspistol! Now THAT was funny!

IMO a GM should adjust the test difficulty for recruiting new Accolytes based on the Inquisitor's political strengths and weaknesses as well as their current roster of allies and rivals. For example: Inquisitor Van Eisen is a former Imperial Guard officer who served under Inquisitor Skane. She has very close ties to Inquisitors Skane and Varak, the goodwill of a newly commisioned Rogue Trader family, friendly relations with Inquisitor Kaede, apparently has some sort of favour with Inquisitor Lord Maar and a recently revealed enemy within the Tyrantine Cabal. The team also has the favorable attention of a Magos Biologis of the Mechanicus. Van Eisen is Amalathian by nature and Ordo Malleus, although most of her allies are Ordo Hereticus. Current political powerbases include the Imperial military (especially IG) and the nobility. Obviously it will be far easier for her to recruit some promising Stormtrooper candidates and some of the more millitant members of the Ecclesiarchy than it will be for her to recruit a smuggler with expertise in dealing with the Dark Eldar Kabals.

I can answer you concerns regarding Ascension, you don't have money you have and influence stat as a cadre and you roll it like any other stat to requistion things, from ammo and personel to PDF and Imperial Guard Regiments to command, but with that your influence is constrained by other inquistors. It's a strange thing, but as a single stat covers, requistioning things, moving wealth, gaining information and much much more, ascension politics are only slightly less complicated that Vampire:The Masquarade elder politics. As for recruiting NPC's if the option is there then i can't see why you would but remember a starting DH character is supposed to be the cream of the crop, has some special, and most Imperial citizens are afraid of the "unknown".

Your Rogue Trader almost failed to buy a las pistol? That must have been embarrassing!

It's good to know other people have thought of hiring NPCs as well. It's always made sense to me. Sometimes you just meet someone who is amazingly skilled at what they do, but on a dead-end world going nowhere.

I think your Influence is certainly a useful way to decide on whether or not you have the clout to get hold of a number of acolytes, and on an individual basis, it could be modified depending on the situation. All the NPCs I have hired, for example, were keen to get away from their old lives and have a shot at doing something meaningful. This is probably largely because I have been hiring arbiters. If and when I try to get a Scum or Tech Priest, I expect I may have a harder time persuading them that their lives would be better used serving the Imperium through the Inquisition.

I appreciate starting PCs are technically above the rank and file of the Imperium, but on the other hand, the NPCs I've hired have always been higher than starting level. That has helped me with getting them straight into the action where I need them, rather than worrying about them being wiped out immediately if I send them somewhere too hazardous (which, as I've only just attained the rank of Interrogator, I can't afford).