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Inquisitor

Inquisitor Capsule Review by Charlie Engasser on 16/07/01
Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 3 (Average)
Ok game if you have deep pockets.
Product: Inquisitor
Author: Gav Thorpe
Category: RPG
Company/Publisher: Games Workshop
Line: Warhammer 40K
Cost: $39.99
Page count: 192
Year published: 2001
ISBN: 1-84154-077-3
SKU:
Comp copy?: no
Capsule Review by Charlie Engasser on 16/07/01
Genre tags: Science Fiction
Inquisitor is I believe, Games Workshop's first foray into an RPG for Warhammer 40K. In the game, the players are supposed to battle the enemies of the imperium 40 centuries in the future.

The Good:

1: As usual, the production values as far as the printed material are excellent. Games Workshop issues some of the best artwork going in the industry, rivaled only perhaps by White Wolf. The book is also chock full of photo's showing the game in action, or more precisly, how good their figure painters talents are, and it serves as much as illustrations as to how to paint the figures, as in-place adds to intice players into buying the (very expensive) figures (more later).

2: Rules: Anyone familair with the Warhammer universe will be pretty much at ease here. And more precisly, anyone that is an avid fan of Warhammer Fantasy Roll Play will be happy that there is finally an offical 40K RPG that doesn't fall far from the family tree. (Also, it helps to remember that in the orginal Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, it was illuded to that the WFRP world was in fact a forgotten 40K world).

The Bad:

1: Cost part one. Quite frankly, I'm a bit tired of GW (and others) expecting me to cough up $40 for a softcover book. First off, I'd gladly pay $60 for a hardcover with the kind of quality that went into the (first publishing)1st edition AD&D bindings, just so I know that I'd still have the book 20 years from now. Softcover books show a lack of pride on the part of the publisher in their own work. Softcover's are cheap and they fall apart and I'm getting kind of tired seeing these come out.

2: Cost part two. GW now expects everyone to pay $29.99 for one 50mm figure, and of course, you should buy the whole line. I've discussed this with a number of people that I know are interested in the game, and the concensis is this: $29.99 is an outrageous cost for one figure, let alone an entire line. And just wait until the Landraiders or the Predator tanks are released. The biggest problem with switching from a 25mm system to a 50mm system is that GW already has an entire line of 25mm figures that have about 15 years of history behind them. What exactly motivates someone to buy a 50mm figure when there are thousands of 25mm ones availible (not to mention that table space is halved)?

3: The game only has rules for Humans, Human Mutants and Daemons. The Warhammer universe is a big one and the enemies of the imperium are many. Completely ignoring races like the Space Orks, Eldar and most importantly, the Tyranids is a pretty glaring omission. I don't know if they will release more books with the other races or not, no mention has been made that I can find.

Overall I liked the system, even though it's a little light in some areas, but the whole time I can't get over the feeling that it is just a another way to gouge money from players by introducing what is the most expensive figure line in history, while at the same time, going to a new low in the ratio of binding quality vs cost.

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