I'm trying to become familiar with the character creator spreadsheet I found on The Dark Reign website. It's here for those interested, just scroll down to the 40K RPG sheet v.5.72

As I said I'm not all that familiar with psykers but I have to figure these characters to be psyker / Inquisitors. Any ideas beyond that?

Yeah, I thought about doing it. It would actually be a fairly big job, and you can bet that given the way forums work, when you present your efforts, people will rush to pick holes in them! Or even worse say "Not bad, but I think you should have done x,y and z..." Being damned with faint praise can be a bit disheartening when you've put a lot of effort into something!

My plan was to stat up the characters at three different points in their careers. With Ravenor, for example, I was going to stat him up as a young, skilled, good looking Interrogator, then as he was at the start of the Ravenor Trilogy, and then a final profile to represent him either as he was at the end of the Trilogy, or as he might have been as of 815.M41.

Remember that Ravenor is set some time prior to the DH setting, about two centuries I think, from memory. I always had in mind that by the start of the DH setting, Ravenor was grand master of the Ordos Scarus, but that's just me. I suppose it will depend on how Dan Abnett deals with characters' fates in the upcoming "Eisenhorn v Ravenor" trilogy.

My dream is that FFG will one day write up "Trilogy sourcebooks" for both Eisenhorn and Ravenor in the same way that West End games did for the better fictional works in the Star Wars setting. Imagine it: a book covering the entire Eisenhorn trilogy with a chapter devoted to characters and protaganists, a chapter devoted to vehicles and ships, a chapter devoted to an overview of the Scarus Sector and then specific worlds from within the Sector... and another one for the Ravenor Trilogy. And when Dan Abnett finishes the THIRD trilogy, another book along the same lines, with tips for running the whole thing from the start as PCs. I'd buy any number of such books.

i kinda would like to see it. the game i am running right now the big main bady is based on ravenor.....

Ravenor you'd go the path of the Imperial Psyker followed by Interrogator followed by Inquisitor. To properly model the chair, you'd need some vehicle rules. All I can safely say is MUI and four (Yes... *FOUR*) Psycannons (or two twin-linked ones ) combined with telekinetic/telepathic powers.

As for Eisenhorn... his power level is over 9,000. If you even attempt to try and model him your insanity points will go critical within minutes. Between the Sanctified Best-Quality Force Sword, the MUI Best-Quality Force Staff with special rules, the sorcery, the implants to increase his psychic potential, the psychic powers (he'd be one of those "Mind's Eye Open" as opposed to Ravenor or even Jaq Draco who started as a psyker), the daemonhost, the truly epic number of Fate Points he'd possess (at least 10), the talented at deceive (no facial muscles)... enough said.

Eisenhorn is not that powerful a psyker, he might know some more unknown/ unique powers but he should not have an OMG level of willpower.

The amount of times in the stories he was outclassed in the novels by raw power is an indication of that. Hell Ravenor probably has a higher willpower.

An on the subject of Ravenor, while he may of ended up "just a psyker" until the Dark Eldar cut him down in his intro, he was something quite physically capable

For Ravenor, Imperial Psyker > Interrogator > Inquisitor definitely makes sense. Regarding psychic powers, I imagine he'd have Mastery of Telekinesis and Telepathy. He also shows a hint of Biomancy (certainly not Regeneration...); Shape Flesh, I think. He's tried for Divination but never quite managed to pull it off. You could easily have mastered two psychic schools and have a couple of powers in another come Ascension, even if you're not going the Psyker route.

The only thing that might throw it off DH-wise is I'd suggest Noble as his background (given his 'breeding' and education, though I admit those could have been polished later), and that means less willpower. Still, I've made a Noble psyker and it can work fine.

Other than that, you'd need good Weapon Skill, since he was quite keen on melee (from the little we hear of his history) and that's very expensive for psykers to buy up. I'd take the scholarly rather than militant route since he has a wide range of skills and knowledge, and you can pick up a few useful melee skills there.

A nice sword, shoulder-mounted psy-cannon and a fine trenchcoat and I think you'd be about there with him in his Interrogator days!

I agree, these do seem like the correct steps. However, my reading of the Ordos Scarus are that they are somewhat more structured than the Ordos Calixis, and it may be worth exploring creating a series of alternate background packages that reflect this.

The Ordos Scarus (the Inquisition of the Scarus Sector) have an almost collegiate quality to them, with (apparently) a clear command structure. While Inquisitors in Scarus are as prone to internal conflict as anywhere else, they do seem to operate ostensibly within the framework of a unified organisation with a single physical HQ, divisional commands (Hereticus, Malleus and Xenos) and the tendency to all parade together when there is a major local Imperial victory. There also appears to be a degree of commonality in training methods and procedures; Endor and Eisenhorn were trained together, for example. My reading of this (and I could be wrong) is that in the Ordos Scarus, candidates for the role of Interrogator seem to be trained together in a kind of academy before then being assigned to an Inquisitor as an apprentice.

Contrast this with the Ordos Calixis, which has a far less unified approach, with individual Inquisitors having total responsibility for the training of their Interrogators and a central command which, whilst powerful, certainly does not seem to assign investigations to individual Inquisitors or seek to maintain day to day control over them.

I am not suggesting that the Ordos Scarus have to operate in a different way from the Ordos Calixis: I am suggesting that over the centuries, distinct cultures have evolved within the different sectors. Both sets of Inquisitors have the same (theoretically infinite) legal powers, but the way in which these are exercised varies across the two regions. In Scarus, it seems that a rather more monolithic organisation has been created. Perhaps this unity of purpose is a strength, but it does seem to leave the Ordos Scarus rather more vulnerable to infiltration, for example by the Cognitae. ON the other hand, the Ordos Calixis are less vulnerable to inflitration, but perhaps more prone to unecessary duplication of investigations and conflict betweeen Inquisitors.

So to reflect this difference of emphasis, you might want to create a background package for both Eisenhorn and Ravenor which suggests that they might have been "fast tracked" through some Ordos Scarus training college as promising potential Inquisitors.

If you really want to put the effort in, you'd also need to write up different background packages for each Acolyte/Throne agent mentioned in the books, to reflect the different circumstances of their training from that found within the Calixis Sector. You could make this as easy or as difficult as you like, really. With Harlon Nayle, for example, you could go Feral World ->Malfian Bloodsworn Background package ->Scum(Or Guardsman) OR you could write up Loki as an entire world with unique modifiers, THEN a background package for Loki/Scarus bounty hunters, THEN either scum or guardsman. And so on.

Personally, I think to do it right, you need to put a lot of work in. By which I mean weeks of work. I would love to do it, but it's tricky to justify doing, because one tends to want to create one's own Inquisitors and acolytes rather than someone else's... And it is tricky to see how to justify putting Eisenhorn or Ravenor into your adventures without a whole host of supporting information about the Scarus Sector written for DH.

But perhaps I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be... I do tend to do that...

Anything involving Ravenor is of interest to me... but yes, even I agree that putting that much effort into something in the name of existing characters, rather than creating afresh, would require a very special level of dedication.

What would stop you from creating Scarus Sector source material, though? Outlines of how they differ from Calixis (as you've begun considering above) would be very interesting. One gains the impression that Ravenor was hand-picked and trained to become an Inquisitor, whereas it isn't generally like that in Dark Heresy (which makes sense for a roleplay game), and consideration of a training academy has potential. It's been a while since I read Eisenhorn, so I can't recall the particular reference...

Still, if you were inclined towards expanding DH into the Scarus Sector, I'm sure that would have a great deal of interest and support.

As far as official material goes, I'm still awaiting expansion of far and dread Mandragora...