However, since I first picked up this blog address, Games Workshop has had a change of CEO, which precipitated a major change in company direction, including a revival of the Specialist Games - or some of them, at least.
(It should be noted that Games Workshop's stock price has quintupled since Kevin Rountree took over, and is at its highest level ever. Games Workshop is now a large enough company to be included on the FTSE 250. It's a powerful fable about listening to the customers and the impact of a good social media team).
So far, the Specialist games that have reappeared in some form are Blood Bowl, Necromunda and Warhammer Quest, with Adeptus Titanicus reportedly (somewhere) on the horizon.
There are a few other similar "boxed games", but these are mostly new creations (or new to me, anyway) used by GW for launching new miniature/terrain ranges and don't seem intended to be games with long term development support. (And as far as I know, the development of many of these is in no way related to the Specialist Design Studio).
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Anyway, to drift in the general direction of the point, Necromunda is of the returned Specialist Games the closest to Inquisitor, as becomes increasingly clear looking at the latest crop of Bounty Hunters announced by Forge World.
These give us a glimpse of the imagination and ideas the team have when they have the freedom to work on ideas that haven't got to be on the front lines of a warzone.
To start, we have Eyros Slagmist.
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| Eyros Slagmist. Image Copyright: Games Workshop/Forge World. Used without permission |
Fused with archaeotech cybernetics that grant him superhuman power, but at the cost of a burning thirst for water - and in a hive, he can only find it in great enough quantity by extracting it from his victims. In short, a delightfully 40K take on a vampire - but not an idea that would have worked well for the main WH40K game.
And then Belladonna.
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| Belladonna Image Copyright: Games Workshop/Forge World. Used without permission |
And she's on a quest to find her husband's killer - it's perhaps a mite cliché as a story goes, but we'll give it to them, as this exact version of the story isn't exactly one they've used very often - and it is still an example of the kind of story and model you. can't. do. with. normal. Warhammer. 40000.
And well, the model that broke the clock- Grendl Grendlsen
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| Grendl Grendlsen Image Copyright: Games Workshop/Forge World. Used without permission |
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Now, as for how this actually relates to Inquisitor...
I have to say I'm strongly sceptical about the idea of the Specialist Design Studio rebooting Inquisitor (whether we're talking about as a 28mm or a 54mm game).
That's partly in the sense that I don't think they actually would, or if they would, it's a long way down their priority list. It's a niche game that doesn't have a fanbase driving for it (much of the "INQ28" community actually plays "Inquisimunda", which is at its core variant gang lists for Necromunda and thus a very different game-play experience), and one of its unique selling points was the 54mm scale, which doesn't make much logical sense any more*.
(Also, the word from Gav Thorpe is that he's heard nothing about any such plans. Not that that guarantees anything, but it does make it less likely.).
The other thing is that I'm really not sure what direction they'd take the game in.
I've been playing the game since it came out and run about half of the community's 54mm events, so I think you can conclude that rather I like it as it is... but many people don't. I've met many people who consider it GW's worst ruleset - the metaphorical answer to a question no-one was asking.
If GW did reboot Inquisitor, I'm concerned that it could be dragged off in a more popular direction, into a game I just don't like as much.
My slow burning "Inquisitor Revised Edition" fan project has always been developed on the principle that it's not aiming to make the game more popular. It's not seeking out a new audience, it's for people who already like Inquisitor. It's intended specifically to address the issues that the community has identified and agreed on over seventeen years of games. (Things like static and repetitive melee combat, some rules that can be streamlined, a few balance tweaks, etc).
That's the kind of angle I'd like to see if Inquisitor returned - an approach that accepts that the system has always been its own thing and embraces that. I'm not however sure that's what we'd get.
Even though the Specialist Design team is headed up by nostalgic hobbyists, profitability would have to be a concern.
However, seeing these models does make me wonder what we would see if a rebooted Inquisitor ever was a thing. If these ideas are what Forge World can do with the small amount of extra flexibility Necromunda gives them, what ideas could they pursue if they were given the infinite scope of Inquisitor?
The team clearly has imagination. How much has the non-existence of Specialist Games been holding them back?
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* Although I still maintain that 54mm scale made sense in 2001. It allowed the delineation of the new aesthetic (this early review of the game shows that some people didn't realise Inquisitor wasn't really intended to use battle tanks or mindless Tyranids**) and the plastics technology just wasn't there yet. Most WH40K armies were mostly one or two part metals, and some didn't even have their core infantry in plastic yet, so the multi part 54mm miniatures were a completely different prospect as far as conversion and kitbashing.
(Plus, it was also the reason the game was made at all, because the sculptors wanted to do a larger scale range).
** That the author actually specifically singles out the Tyranids as Inquisitor's most glaring omission on a list that also includes Orks and Eldar (two races with actual sapience, and therefore ones that are actually possible to roleplay) in my mind sets out how badly they understood the game concept.
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