Inspire and Player Characters

By Myrion, in Only War Rules Questions

So the Command skill has Inspire as a Special Use.
Originally I thought that I could use this as a fairly standard buff skill. Then, someone on the forum pointed out that it talks about followers, and that the other Special Use, Terrify, doesn't apply to PCs normally. Instead, there's a special talent for the Commissar which allows it to apply to PCs. So I thought it only applied to NPCs.
Now, I've read some more, and that just seems really odd to me.

The descriptions for Command and Inspire only talk of followers, not PCs, a terminology which I don't see anywhere else in OW. At the same time, they talk about organizing and inspiring your squad mates. Since comrades never test against skill or characteristics, this can only mean the other PCs, right?

Similarly, in Final Testament, and whenever else it comes up, it is recommended not to roll for NPCs, instead making their efforts purely narrative and based on what the PC squad does. Which, again, would make Inspire rather pointless. (Sure, you could make Inspire purely narrative too, but they didn't.)

Then, in HotE, there is Stirring Rhethoric: A Tier 3 talent, which allows you to spend a fate point to improve the bonus from Inspire to +10+5/DoS. This talent explicitly talks about affected characters , which is normally a term reserved for PCs! Of course, FFG is rather loose about terminology, but still.


What do you guys think? Does Inspire affect PCs? Would you allow it, as GM?
For the record, I would. Without Heroic Inspiration, it is a Full Action, which can fail, which balances it in my eyes.

In this case, I believe "Follower" is a bland term meaining anyone who is subordinate to the character in question, in this case, including PCs. I say this because it's one of the only things a Sergeant seems able to do to other players, his followers. So many other things specifically say Comrade, so if this was jujst for them, or them and NPC's, I like to think that they would've wasted the words to say so. In my mind, the Sergeant has the inferior weapon (pistol vs rifle), possibly a melee weapon, and a number of boosting/coordinating responsibilities. Here, that means he'd be shouting at the other players, giving them bonuses, until the enemy closed to within pistol range, and then assault comes, because laspistols and plasma pistols have short range. Otherwise, why does the party have the Sergeant? He's a booster, in my opinion.

Honestly, so many of the other Sergeant things, the ones that do say Comrade, torque me off, and I wish they could affect PC's, too. It's especially irritating because in Black Crusade, such abilities of the same name DO affect other players; that's why I earlier asked the forums about how the two games mesh; the cool Inquisitor in there has several party-buffs, and they are good, but she doesn't have Comrades, per say, so they'd be useless unless she can use her better ones, from BC (weird because, on the whole, I like OW more than BC, except here.)

The Sergeant has the same main weapon as everybody else in the regiment, not just a pistol.

Sry, my brain was falling back to TT, and many images show a pistol-toting, sword-carrying Sergeant/Officer walking along with the grunts. Yeah, I suppose in the actual game here Sergeants should have the same lasguns the rest of their team soldiers do.

I think his Comrade abilities kick ass as is.