Character Clichés?

[Raellos]

Hello. I want to know what the worst Inquisitor character clichés are for some fluff I am writing for a 40k event. I've already got a "clichéd sultry gunslinger" and an "ex Imperial Guard hard-man and obligatory psychic blank".

What are the character types that seem to come up most?

[the_gobbo_king]

Hey there,

Some of the most common character cliches include:

- The Cold Sniper (i.e Sorel in Ciaphas Cain)
- The Ultra Smart Savant/Leximechanic (i.e. Savant Mott in Ciaphas Cain)
- The Medic (i.e. Hawk Eye in *M*A*S*H*
- The New Guy/Trooper (i.e. Private Polonsky in Call of Duty)
- Captain/Sergeant Dependable (i.e. Sergeant Roebuck in Call of Duty)
- The Tech Adept (IMO, the guy that will always insist on using the Dawn of War accent)
- The Unconventional Guy (i.e. Han Solo from Star Wars)

Honestly, just look on TV Tropes, you'll find hundreds of character cliches. I use the tropes to base some of my characters on...

Scott.

[DapperAnarchist]

Check the Dark Magenta site - "Oh To Be An Inquisitor Part 1" is an entertaining if occasionally cruel approach to the cliches and foolish choices in character backgrounds, like the deathbed promotion or the juvenile exorcist...

[biggreengribbly]

I find death-row-recruitments a fairly common cliche to stand alongside the death-bed promotion

[Charax]

Fortunately the Thorian Sourcebook basically makes people who have had deathbed promotions "half-inquisitors" by making other Inquisitors able to revoke their status.

Which is hilarious

[DapperAnarchist]

Good plot point though - "I'm an Inquisitor!" "No your not" "Well... I'll become one!" "Sure, whatever" - Cue vengeance.

[MarcoSkoll]

Cue vengeance.

Cue Inquisitor shooting not-Inquisitor in the head for getting in the way and no-one giving a monkeys...

[DapperAnarchist]

But... but... vengeance! Please sir, can I have some vengeance?

Though, yes, that's true.

[precinctomega]

Mmmmm... vengeance.

And - on-topic - refer to TV Tropes. None of the archetypes described the_gobb_king are cliches, but they are tropes. That is, they are a perfectly reasonable starting point for any character (indeed, I think I have at least one of all of them!) but need to be handled with imagination to be fully-rounded characters.

I'd add to the list the Mary Sue character: the one who bears a considerable resemblance to the creator but with all of their imperfections removed. Fortunately, the 40kverse tends to be unmerciful to Mary Sues - my long-time PC, Inquisitor Richard Nemesov, began life as a Mary Sue* (I was younger and more ignorant in those days) but later was captured by a daemon, infected with a horrible wasting disease and is now obsessed with sustaining his own life. He was last seen in the custody of Inquisitor Benedict Saussure charged with the murder of his former patron, the Inquisitrix Kang-Ju Ki.

R.

*In his previous life as Archimedes Vorn, Arbites Investigator.

[MarcoSkoll]

That's one form of the Mary Sue, but it often refers to a broader definition of a character without significant flaws, who is written to be be more special than everyone else and who the story revolves around unduly.

Also, I'd stress that similarities to the author do not necessarily mean the character is intended as "Author v2.0".
I wrote my namesake with a similar area of expertise to my own not because he's meant to be a version of me, but because I wanted to be able to write him as a character who actually knew his way around the subject.

[eyeolas]

A very minor cliche, but one that is often used as a get out clause for justifying the rest of a character's background and training, is "orphaned" characters.

Is it too much to ask that your character was brought up in a loving family for a good part of their childhood?

[Ambience 327]

Of course, characters raised by the Schola Progenium are (and should be) quite common in Inquisitor because the Schola Progenium is a prime recruiting grounds for the Inquisition, Arbites, Sororitas, Commissariat, Assassinorum and even the Storm Troopers. The fact that those raised by the Schola Progenium are the orphans of Imperial servants who gave their lives in service to the Emperor means that many such characters can realistically have orphan-hood as part of their background.

[Ranger S2H]

ok, so we have all the cliche's and tropes down, but what are the most unconventional/wacky ideas you've come up with?

I was personally thinking about creating an exceptionally cowardly sniper :P

[Nasha]

My psychic wasnt really psychic...he just thought he was....until a game where he actually passed a psychic test and used an Impel to knock an Inquisitor round a corner....shockingingly true...

kerby

[Mr. Ultra]

@the_gobbo_king, thanks for that info, it's very useful to me!

[Easy E]

A feral-worlder who was terrified of guns.

[the_gobbo_king]

A Law Enforcement Officer who isn't a complete administrative tool...

What?

[enyoss]

The maverick law enforcement officer who doesn't play by the rules?

He's got a gun in every hand, and a girl in every spaceport... yadda, yadda, yadda.

[the_gobbo_king]

Ah, good point:

A Law Enforcement Officer that actually strikes the middle ground - being neither a cowboy cop or an administrative tool.

[DapperAnarchist]

And isn't a cynical worn out wreck, ruined by the impossibility of his job.