Warhammer 40k: Dark Imperium Rogue Trader

[Roleplay Frog]

Also...."going Farsight?" I'm an Enclave member from the start, thank you very much.

And also there's way better ways of depicting insanity than rocking back and forth! Not even all of which are perverted. *coughs*

Though all this moral grey discussion has left me with an idea for a non erotic campaign. Necron-adventures! None of that diplomatic nonsense.:

You detect lifeforms ahead. How do you exterminate them?

[TheGlyphstone]

And also there's way better ways of depicting insanity than rocking back and forth! Not even all of which are perverted. *coughs*

Though all this moral grey discussion has left me with an idea for a non erotic campaign. Necron-adventures! None of that diplomatic nonsense.:

You detect lifeforms ahead. How do you exterminate them?

Hey, even Necrons have more nuance now...Matt Ward is walking proof of how stopped clocks can still be right at least once per day. Not all 'Crons are Destroyer Cult...in fact the bestest and greatest of them loves lifeforms, as long as they are unique enough to warrant being added to his museum. :-)

[ChaoticSky]

Possessed are doomed to die by their daemonic visitor's hand Chaotic, sorry but no real way to avoid having your soul eventually consumed by them short of getting said daemon exorcised from your body. Daemons want to subvert, dominate and exploit by their very nature. They can play nice for a time if they feel like it but at the end of the day they do only look out for themselves and their patron gods. :P

That would be a fine answer if not for the fact thats literally the opposite of what i just asked, and ignores the fact i would have tweaked the rules so it wasnt a bad end(as mentioned in the original post, which youd know if you read it.)

Its going;
-How about A? but B would be kinda cool too.
-everyone says why they think B would be bad.
-GM says no to B.
-Okay, but what about A? Which, you know, was what i actually asked about.
-And then you go on about how i cant play B... but thats not what i asked about and has already been resolved o,o

Also @ Red, to be fair... you cant exactly blame Slannesh for the circumstances of their birth. Thats really the Eldar's fault. Slannesh never asked to be fucked into existence :P.

[TheGlyphstone]

Except it started with people saying 'no, A is bad', so B was given as an alternative that is worse. The GM has said A is not allowed as well anyways. It's clear you want to play this character, but this game and this group of players is not the right time to do it; we are near-unanimously against the concept, GM included.

As far as Slaanesh - arguably that was still its fault, because the Gods are outside linear time. The moment Slaanesh was born, it had always existed, which includes influencing the Eldar into their descent to hedonism in an arrangement meant to cause its own birth. :-)

[Roleplay Frog]

Chaotic, it's hyperbole to say 'everyone' here, as I expressed agreement to a degree. I do not think the chaos gods are innocent, they are parasitic existances by design. Nurgle is implied to have started the black plague with his birth and, even if he is innocent for that birth, he's actively spreading plagues thinking of them as gifts now. If you want to enter morality into the equation at all, that's evil, now removing morality alltogether works better, .. after all, lets not forget Warhammer was designed for nerds to bash figurines against one another all day.

I'm likely the one with the least idea about the system in current use, so I'm just gonna go with DM said it so we do it that way.  *shrugs*

[ChaoticSky]

The first part of that post was specifically to Drows post, where i asked what the GM thought about my original idea rather than the daemonhost.

And they replied with further speal about why the daemonhost didnt work.

If you asked to play a human or a tau, but were told you couldnt play a tau and asked for clarification for your human idea, you wouldnt want people to keep going on about the tau thing would you?

[Drowdeviant]

That would be a fine answer if not for the fact thats literally the opposite of what i just asked, and ignores the fact i would have tweaked the rules so it wasnt a bad end(as mentioned in the original post, which youd know if you read it.)

Its going;
-How about A? but B would be kinda cool too.
-everyone says why they think B would be bad.
-GM says no to B.
-Okay, but what about A? Which, you know, was what i actually asked about.
-And then you go on about how i cant play B... but thats not what i asked about and has already been resolved o,o

Also @ Red, to be fair... you cant exactly blame Slannesh for the circumstances of their birth. Thats really the Eldar's fault. Slannesh never asked to be fucked into existence :P.

Dude I am talking about B. Possessed are fucked and daemonhosts are fucked. You can’t just tweak the rules cause you don’t like that. My problem is you appear to want to play a different sort of game as the rest of us and expect us to not complain when you propose stuff that can be seen as OP by us other players.

Also the rules we are using aren’t BC so it’s Con’s call as GM what he will and will not allow.

Respect for GM authority is a big thing for me man. Con already made his call. I know how you feel as I had that happen to me, but dems the breaks/brakes.

None of what I'm saying is meant personally. 40k is still a grim dark setting, dark imperium only lightened to a degree

[Roleplay Frog]

The first part of that post was specifically to Drows post, where i asked what the GM thought about my original idea rather than the daemonhost.

And they replied with further speal about why the daemonhost didnt work.

If you asked to play a human or a tau, but were told you couldnt play a tau and asked for clarification for your human idea, you wouldnt want people to keep going on about the tau thing would you?

Actually, I wouldn't have this discussion at all, as I usually throw things I think will be really controversial at the DM directly in a pm, where I detail what I wanna do and why. If they say no, that's the end of the dicussion, after all.

The only exeption to this is if I have an idea that's kinda out there where I'm not sure myself, let's say, a futanari Tau-gal, for unrelated reasons *cough* That I'd throw out to see how the other players react.

Reason I learned to do this is that my ego is fragile as shit and I take rejection as a personal thing which it usually isn't so I learned to avoid such things alltogether. Not saying this applies to you right now to be clear, speaking exclusively for myself.

I'd recommend stepping back, looking at a cute cultist-chan meme and then reapproaching the thing.

[TheGlyphstone]

The first part of that post was specifically to Drows post, where i asked what the GM thought about my original idea rather than the daemonhost.

And they replied with further speal about why the daemonhost didnt work.

If you asked to play a human or a tau, but were told you couldnt play a tau and asked for clarification for your human idea, you wouldnt want people to keep going on about the tau thing would you?

Not quite the same. If I had suggested playing a Gue'Vesa tau-aligned human and an actual Tau, and people said they don't want a Tau character in the campaign, and the campaign was about the First Damocles Gulf Crusade and open war between the Imperium and the Tau Empire, I wouldn't keep arguing the point into the ground about how a Tau loyalist human working alongside the Imperial loyalists is different and should be acceptable for the premise.

[Conundrum]

Chaos aligned characters do not work for this campaign at the start I feel so we can table that discussion for now.

[Red Leaf]

On that note - since we're thinking a bit more about party roles / stats / potentials for hi-jinx - I think I might put forward a sketch of where I am character-wise? I hope this is OK!

MAGOS CONSTANCE PENHALLOW

Void born - Adeptus Mechanicus - Scholariate - Explorator. Mostly a support/knowledgeable techpriestess, rather than a walking tank, but that build allows me to side-specialise in some fun areas - including piloting and, horror of horrors, social spec! Helping the Dynasty get the most possible out of their ship, and, well, that's a lot of long sinewy mechanical appendages, right?  ;)

I see her as very much a 'made to order' Explorator - some product of refined training and memetic virus indoctrination to be very, very devoted to her cause, and very, very, good at her job. The (post-)human equivalent of a beautiful, master-crafted power sword - beautiful, ornamented, something lovely to have at your hip on a fancy party - but ultimately monomolecular-sharp and utterly deadly. She was probably picked up by Hairyheretic's original RT master, or maybe by Hairyheretic's guy himself - as a fresh-out-of-the-forge promising young candidate. Possibly a bit more human-seeming than some other Tech-Priests (she took a human-ish name, even!), but - behind her eyes - a little bit more stare-y and zealously devoted to something that is hopefully the orthodox Mechanicum creed.

Since we're discussing potential issues and areas of conflict (either spicy or exciting conflict, or potentially more divisive stuff) - I'll level with y'all that Magos Penhallow is, while not very corrupt, more than likely has some dangerous links with Abominable Intelligence, Silica Animus, and all that good stuff. I'd be interested in exploring this sort of radicalism, but actively without bringing Chaos into it (in fact, the Scholariate role makes you particularly good against resisting this sort of corruption - the OG Men of Iron seem to have rebelled against humanity because of their predilection for Chaos) - stuff inspired by sources like the Tabula Myriad from the recent Horus Heresy books, and The Machine from Person of Interest. Depending on how much this gets into more smutty stuff, I think that might inform her character a bit - like, SHODAN et al. are undeniably powerful sexualised characters, and I note with delight that DH 2.0 has a loyalist Imperial bit of gear that allows you to literally domme non-Imperial technology into line and bring its machine spirits (or equivalents) to heel (Adaptive Logis-Engine, Enemies Without p42).

Does that sound like it'd be a good fit for the party? Like, there's some potentially dodgy stuff towards the end there, but I feel it's a fit for what Conundrum's outlined of the game so far, allows non-hostile intrigues with other members of the player party, and even allows potential for weird smutty stuff if you're up for it!

[Roleplay Frog]

including piloting and, horror of horrors, social spec!

Sounds kinky but... trying....

-imagining social tech now-

Imagination done.

[Drowdeviant]

On that note - since we're thinking a bit more about party roles / stats / potentials for hi-jinx - I think I might put forward a sketch of where I am character-wise? I hope this is OK!

MAGOS CONSTANCE PENHALLOW

Void born - Adeptus Mechanicus - Scholariate - Explorator. Mostly a support/knowledgeable techpriestess, rather than a walking tank, but that build allows me to side-specialise in some fun areas - including piloting and, horror of horrors, social spec! Helping the Dynasty get the most possible out of their ship, and, well, that's a lot of long sinewy mechanical appendages, right?  ;)

I see her as very much a 'made to order' Explorator - some product of refined training and memetic virus indoctrination to be very, very devoted to her cause, and very, very, good at her job. The (post-)human equivalent of a beautiful, master-crafted power sword - beautiful, ornamented, something lovely to have at your hip on a fancy party - but ultimately monomolecular-sharp and utterly deadly. She was probably picked up by Hairyheretic's original RT master, or maybe by Hairyheretic's guy himself - as a fresh-out-of-the-forge promising young candidate. Possibly a bit more human-seeming than some other Tech-Priests (she took a human-ish name, even!), but - behind her eyes - a little bit more stare-y and zealously devoted to something that is hopefully the orthodox Mechanicum creed.

Since we're discussing potential issues and areas of conflict (either spicy or exciting conflict, or potentially more divisive stuff) - I'll level with y'all that Magos Penhallow is, while not very corrupt, more than likely has some dangerous links with Abominable Intelligence, Silica Animus, and all that good stuff. I'd be interested in exploring this sort of radicalism, but actively without bringing Chaos into it (in fact, the Scholariate role makes you particularly good against resisting this sort of corruption - the OG Men of Iron seem to have rebelled against humanity because of their predilection for Chaos) - stuff inspired by sources like the Tabula Myriad from the recent Horus Heresy books, and The Machine from Person of Interest. Depending on how much this gets into more smutty stuff, I think that might inform her character a bit - like, SHODAN et al. are undeniably powerful sexualised characters, and I note with delight that DH 2.0 has a loyalist Imperial bit of gear that allows you to literally domme non-Imperial technology into line and bring its machine spirits (or equivalents) to heel (Adaptive Logis-Engine, Enemies Without p42).

Does that sound like it'd be a good fit for the party? Like, there's some potentially dodgy stuff towards the end there, but I feel it's a fit for what Conundrum's outlined of the game so far, allows non-hostile intrigues with other members of the player party, and even allows potential for weird smutty stuff if you're up for it!

Seems like the sort of heresy my gal can get reasonably get behind.

Would Constance be open to being domme’d by our rogue trader’s beloved by chance? If so I see them getting on famously. After all knights are very close to AI as it already stands in canon(Knightsblade made it clear that ancestor imprints in knights can influence the pilot’s mind, being the case why only strong willed individuals pass the becoming ceremony). xD

Hell I see my gal getting along with Eldar and Tau more easily than orks and other brutish Xenos races.

Also yes my gal will be a psyker, whether I am allowed to be the knight scion part of my original idea I regardless think we need psy support in our bunch of misfits. Plus I like the thought of playing someone who is blind but also not blind at the same time cause Astropath transcendents troll like that. xD

[TheGlyphstone]

As far as my Tau, I know he's part of the Farsight Enclaves. He was sent on extended detached duty - probably by O'Shovah himself - out into the Imperium looking for...something. I'm not entirely clear what it was he was sent to find, maybe something Necrontyr and related to the Dawn Blade. But while he was off in the galactic west, the Great Rift tore the Imperium in half. Now he's slowly working his way back and hoping to find a way through the Rift, through Imperium Nihilus, and eventually back home.

Like most Tau, he's very community and group-oriented in mindset, so being almost perpetually isolated and shunned by the humans he has to surround himself with makes him grumpy, and people who seem to actually accept him would get very much the opposite reaction. Obviously he thinks the whole mystical Imperial fascination with machinery and their fear of artificial intelligence to be superstitious nonsense, as embodied by his drone U'it who he keeps around as a pet/companion. He'd be very, very annoyed with anyone who messed with U'it. He's also got a battered and semi-functional battlesuit, though I'm wavering on if it's a Crisis or Stealth Suit model - that could be flexible depending on if people think the group needs a scout more than a Heavy Weapons Guy. Preferentially Stealth suits the concept better, plus my last RT game I was (literally) Heavy Weapons Guy.

So aside from the expected 'filthy xenos' conflict, he'd be exceedingly loyal towards a group that exhibited at least surface tolerance of him in return. Tech-priests and their rituals are quaint and faintly amusing in a baffling sort of way. Psykers are a total Outside Context Problem and make him uncomfortable. I have no idea how he'd react to the idea of interspecies relationships - it's probably a gigantic taboo for the Tau to even have cross-caste relationships, so probably horror edging into 'wait do people actually do that', and depending on who tries to pursue him 'not so bad after all'.

[Red Leaf]

Seems like the sort of heresy my gal can get reasonably get behind.

Would Constance be open to being domme’d by our rogue trader’s beloved by chance? If so I see them getting on famously. After all knights are very close to AI as it already stands in canon(Knightsblade made it clear that ancestor imprints in knights can influence the pilot’s mind, being the case why only strong willed individuals pass the becoming ceremony). xD

Hmm.

Open? Maybe. But don't for a moment think that she'd make this easy. After all - the whole point of the Rite of Becoming is that you have to prove yourself worthy, to fight and impose your will and win. And, even then? Well, every story GW's put out about Titans has them threatening to slip the leash and overpower their princeps; better be careful~

Although of course - just how much you know about Magos Penhallow IC might be a source of intrigue in itself!

[ChaoticSky]

So ive been looking over what options are available in RT2e, since the cultist is out, i have a new set of ideas!

As far as i can tell, the group doesnt have anyone to patch you up after shit happens, and the magos role is taken by the friendly neighbourhood machine anima fetishist ;) so a Biomagos probably wont fly. That leaves me with two options: A Sister Hospitallar, or a Psyker (Biomancy). The character would likely be a nurse/healer archtype rather than a 'doctor'. Ones got holy, ones more effective. Im not sure which would work better, but since there is already a SOB kicking around, it might be more diverse to have the psyker. Then again... everyone knows what sisters are like with each other *wiggles eyebrow* ;D

Then there is the Seneschal, which might prove redundant since the RT was Seneschal-ish in the past, but who wouldnt want a nice maid with all the skill and aplomb of Alfred following you around going 'very good sir' and pulling a digital weapon out of her bonnet. Also if the RT is taking the actual RT career, that probably cuts them off from the actual Seneschal stuff, so theres probably room for a actual one in the group. Also something something kinky maid. Maybe a Famulous, maybe a militant turned housekeeper.

The last one rolls back around to the original in-group purpose for having the cultist around: frontloading a fuckton of Forbidden Lore skills so she can advise the group on evil chaosy stuff. Only this time not a actual cultist herself. Not actually sure how i would build her otherwise, but im sure i could cobble together a supernerd adept without too much trouble. Might be sorta a inquisitional librarian? The book kind. Not the psychic powered super soldier type. Perhaps 'loaned' to the trader to help him accomplish his mission. Not sure how good shed be in a fight given how much id have to spend on those skills, but you never know. Alternatively i might beable to stuff the idea into the healer.

What does everyone think?Opinions 2: The Opinionating

[Drowdeviant]

So ive been looking over what options are available in RT2e, since the cultist is out, i have a new set of ideas!

As far as i can tell, the group doesnt have anyone to patch you up after shit happens, and the magos role is taken by the friendly neighbourhood machine anima fetishist ;) so a Biomagos probably wont fly. That leaves me with two options: A Sister Hospitallar, or a Psyker (Biomancy). The character would likely be a nurse/healer archtype rather than a 'doctor'. Ones got holy, ones more effective. Im not sure which would work better, but since there is already a SOB kicking around, it might be more diverse to have the psyker. Then again... everyone knows what sisters are like with each other *wiggles eyebrow* ;D

Then there is the Seneschal, which might prove redundant since the RT was Seneschal-ish in the past, but who wouldnt want a nice maid with all the skill and aplomb of Alfred following you around going 'very good sir' and pulling a digital weapon out of her bonnet. Also if the RT is taking the actual RT career, that probably cuts them off from the actual Seneschal stuff, so theres probably room for a actual one in the group. Also something something kinky maid. Maybe a Famulous, maybe a militant turned housekeeper.

The last one rolls back around to the original in-group purpose for having the cultist around: frontloading a fuckton of Forbidden Lore skills so she can advise the group on evil chaosy stuff. Only this time not a actual cultist herself. Not actually sure how i would build her otherwise, but im sure i could cobble together a supernerd adept without too much trouble. Might be sorta a inquisitional librarian? The book kind. Not the psychic powered super soldier type. Perhaps 'loaned' to the trader to help him accomplish his mission. Not sure how good shed be in a fight given how much id have to spend on those skills, but you never know. Alternatively i might beable to stuff the idea into the healer.

What does everyone think?Opinions 2: The Opinionating

I am a psyker. ;)

[ChaoticSky]

I am a psyker. ;)

Huh, thought you were playing a knight scion who was maybe going to be the RT's wife or something. I must have missed it.

What kind of psyker?

[Red Leaf]

So ive been looking over what options are available in RT2e, since the cultist is out, i have a new set of ideas!

As far as i can tell, the group doesnt have anyone to patch you up after shit happens, and the magos role is taken by the friendly neighbourhood machine anima fetishist ;) so a Biomagos probably wont fly. That leaves me with two options: A Sister Hospitallar, or a Psyker (Biomancy). The character would likely be a nurse/healer archtype rather than a 'doctor'. Ones got holy, ones more effective. Im not sure which would work better, but since there is already a SOB kicking around, it might be more diverse to have the psyker. Then again... everyone knows what sisters are like with each other *wiggles eyebrow* ;D

Then there is the Seneschal, which might prove redundant since the RT was Seneschal-ish in the past, but who wouldnt want a nice maid with all the skill and aplomb of Alfred following you around going 'very good sir' and pulling a digital weapon out of her bonnet. Also if the RT is taking the actual RT career, that probably cuts them off from the actual Seneschal stuff, so theres probably room for a actual one in the group. Also something something kinky maid. Maybe a Famulous, maybe a militant turned housekeeper.

The last one rolls back around to the original in-group purpose for having the cultist around: frontloading a fuckton of Forbidden Lore skills so she can advise the group on evil chaosy stuff. Only this time not a actual cultist herself. Not actually sure how i would build her otherwise, but im sure i could cobble together a supernerd adept without too much trouble. Might be sorta a inquisitional librarian? The book kind. Not the psychic powered super soldier type. Perhaps 'loaned' to the trader to help him accomplish his mission. Not sure how good shed be in a fight given how much id have to spend on those skills, but you never know. Alternatively i might beable to stuff the idea into the healer.

What does everyone think?Opinions 2: The Opinionating

I really like all of these ideas, honestly! There's a bunch of different utility options available in Psyker, which might allow you to diversify between your character and Drowdeviant's (who is an Astropath, iirc?) ... but also worth noting that the Sister Pariah career in the document Conundrum linked allows you to dabble in a range of abilities and non-Militant Orders that, as you say) would seem to fit with all the stuff you talk about (Hospitaller medic, Dialogous/Pronatus sage, Famulous Seneschal, etc). While not all of them are filled in, there's enough between the DH 2.0 books and the RT 2.0 document to mechanically support a jack of multiple trades - you'd just need to decide whether you went Adepta Sororitas background -> [role of your choice] -> Seneschal, or Adepta Sororitas -> [role of your choice - probably Steward] -> Sister Pariah.

@Conundrum - to keep momentum up, when would you like us to start writing up our characters (either mechanically or in terms of background)? I feel ready to do the latter (and probably the former) - subject to a few details linking Constance to Hairyheretic's trader!

[Drowdeviant]

Huh, thought you were playing a knight scion who was maybe going to be the RT's wife or something. I must have missed it.

What kind of psyker?

Astropath transcendent. If Con isn’t comfortable with me being both a knight scion and a psyker I would just be a somewhat pious and lovely astropath that found a loyal and loving hubby in Hairy’s RT

...Also fun fact given enough exp Astropath Transcendents have superior sight to normal people and access to all non chaos psychic disciplines...and can flame thrower the fuck out of hordes.

[TheGlyphstone]

Combining Knight-Scion and Astropath seems like an odd combination lore-wise, at least. I could see a minor psyker whose powers were hidden from the Black Ships by her family to protect their lineage, but full-on Soul Binding and Sanctioning seems like it would be at odds with remaining party of the nobility. Imperial sanctioned psykers are property, not people, after all. ;)

And well...yeah; given enough XP psykers can do literally everything.

[Drowdeviant]

Combining Knight-Scion and Astropath seems like an odd combination lore-wise, at least. I could see a minor psyker whose powers were hidden from the Black Ships by her family to protect their lineage, but full-on Soul Binding and Sanctioning seems like it would be at odds with remaining party of the nobility. Imperial sanctioned psykers are property, not people, after all. ;)

And well...yeah; given enough XP psykers can do literally everything.

Well rogue traders don’t play by the rules for the most part remember. ;)

Plus radical inquisitors usually see the value of treating psykers betters since they typically delve into that shit quite heavily...and wouldn’t it be good to have a good first impression with the ynnari by having a fellow psyker around? ;)

Plus for all we know her family is known for producing psykers. ;)

[SaintSicaire]

I think it's more the combination Scion/Psyker that is a little...odd. I mean, since the soul of the Scion leaves an imprint in the Knight, it might do weird shit to the machine if said Scion is a Psyker... I mean, from a pure narrative standpoint, I really like the idea, but lore-wise....eh?
Also, filling the roles of psychic shenanigans AND heavy firepower seems a bit...greedy? :D

Speaking of roles and firepower:

Given the character drafts until now, maybe we need someone more simple who can do the shooting and the hitting?
Since I'm not super-convinced of my first idea of playing the navigator (Well, my first idea was a tech-priest, but Red was faster with their -honestly better^^- character), maybe I'd switch over to Skitarii? That is, if we want to double down on the Mechanicum-guys...But maybe, Red's "Mail-Order-Adept" came with a free watch-dog?

[TheGlyphstone]

I think it's more the combination Scion/Psyker that is a little...odd. I mean, since the soul of the Scion leaves an imprint in the Knight, it might do weird shit to the machine if said Scion is a Psyker... I mean, from a pure narrative standpoint, I really like the idea, but lore-wise....eh?
Also, filling the roles of psychic shenanigans AND heavy firepower seems a bit...greedy? :D

Exactly - well, not so much the greedy, but the lore perspective of having someone who is both a Sanctioned Psyker and a Scion of the Knight House. Even if the psyker is treated well, they should still have legally forfeited their standing in the line of succession, if not be outright disowned. Having psychic talent in your bloodline is not something any noble lineage wants to be known for in the Imperium; at best it's a dirty secret they try to hush up. Trying to justify both simultaneously feels odd.


Role-wise, I'm going to angle towards stealth/scouting and ranged damage.

[Roleplay Frog]

I'ma do Battle Sister and double down on that. What's they good at in this edition? :p