[Interest Check] Rogue Trader: How the Void Was Won (System, NC)

Started by The Great Triangle, April 14, 2011, 06:50:19 PM

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The Great Triangle

I'm interested in running a game set in the warhammer 40,000 universe using the Rogue Trader system.  If you're unfamiliar with the setting, it's the year 40,000 and humanity is at the center of a vast galactic empire, surrounded by enemies.  In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.  Spaceships the size of cities travel through hell to get between the stars, and unleash armies of half human monstrosities who have become the guardians of mankind.  To survive in such a harsh universe, humanity needs to constantly find and colonize new habitable worlds, which is where you come in.  Within the Imperium of man, there are rare individuals granted a warrant of trade, a rare and powerful document that grants the right to own a spaceship, and take over whatever outside the Imperium you can lay your hands on. 

This particular game will focus on the crew of a starship granted the exclusive right to explore and colonize a particular region of space; the enigmatic Mextil Cluster, a stellar nursery filled with newborn stars and worlds full of opportunity.  Your crew has been granted the exclusive right to colonize those stars, but they're crawling with alien menaces and psychotic Reavers that were once human.  The game will focus on the challenge of overcoming the threats in the Mextil Cluster and establishing a thriving stellar empire there.  Tone wise, I'm going for something along the lines of Battlestar Galactica meets Firefly.  Much of the gameplay will be about scouting new systems, shooting down enemy ships, and maintaining colonies for prestige and profit. 

The game won't include sexual content as a basic component, but sexuality is reasonably common within the setting.  Whether it's getting it on with the native of some unknown planet, being ravaged by kinky demons, or gradually warming up a frosty space nun, you should be able to find it in the setting.  The game's primary antagonists will be the Reavers, humans who worship the ruinous powers and engage in incredible amounts of violence and depravity, and the Dark Eldar, a species of aliens who feed on pain and humiliation.  Naturally, PCs who want to engage in nonconsent will be permitted.

Rogue Trader is a system based game, but you don't need familiarity with a system to play it.  If you wish, you can simply narrate your character's actions normally, then let me use the system to resolve the success or failure of your actions.  You will need to be aware of how many actions you can perform in combat, but Rogue Trader is fairly simple in that respect.  To create a character, you will need to use the origin path system used in the game, but doing so should be fairly painless.  The origin path is a chart that details your character's background.  To create a character, you begin by selecting either a home world or a career, then moving up or down the chart.  For example, if you began by selecting your home world, you would select your birthright next.  The choices you may make are determined by the choices that have come before.  When selecting something on your lifepath, you may only select the option directly above or below the previous option, or options next to the one above or below your last choice.  The choices may need some translation, which you can feel free to ask me about, but basically, they tell a story of who your character is and what happened to him and her before he or she joined the crew of the ship. 

Link to the Origin Path chart:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/rogue-trader/support/PDF/rogue-trader-origin-path-web-quality.pdf

I will design the ship used in the game myself, but I will take input from players on what kind of ship they want.  I'll likely give the group a heavily modified transport ship essentially similar to the Millennium Falcon; really fast and awesome, but somewhat tempermental.  The ship itself will be a mile long and studded with hundreds of weapon systems, with a crew of thousands.  With these resources, you will conquer the galaxy.  I will also be giving increased starting equipment, including allowing players to start with secondary spaceships, so that the flagship of the group can be joined by a small fleet. 

So, anybody interested?



For players familiar with the Rogue Trader system, the expanded origin path choices from Into the Storm will be allowed, as well the alternate career ranks and elite advances from that supplement.  Xenos career paths will be permitted, but should be discussed carefully if other PCs wish to play puritan characters who despise aliens.  I have created custom Battle Sister, Death Cult Assassin, and Eldar Harlequin career paths for players who are interested in them.  The converted dark heresy careers have been designed to work better within the rogue trader system, and follow the same guidelines as Rogue Trader classes.  Since this campaign will feature a lot of Xenos, the Deathwatch Kill-Marine is a viable character choice, but the possibility of allowing a character that starts with significantly more power than the other PCs needs to be discussed carefully.  The Kill-Marine is unstoppable in close combat, but almost useless anywhere else.  I think this balances the character, but including a Space Marine could potentially throw off the tone of the game.
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Tagan

Color me interested...

I don't know the system, though I once played a bit of Warhammer 40K, so I know a little bit of the history.

Thinking about character conception right now...

A noble born lady fallen on hard times, then finding a new path in life sounds about right, so...

Tell me about this... Noble Born, Savant, Duty Bound, Calamity, Fortune, Void Master.

Does that sound like a background?  Tell me what it all means precisely, and I'll flesh it out.

Cal1496

Very interesting concept!  Nice twist on the classic 40K idea, very nice!

Will get started right away!

The Great Triangle

Nice to see you around, Tagan.

Your concept Sounds pretty cool.

Basically, that set of choices implies that your character was born into a noble house, then went to a good collage and became a petty academic of some kind, then was pulled away from her home by duty, either to her family, the Imperium, or to humanity itself, and suffered a great calamity that rent her family apart.  Afterwards, she became a master of some aspect of running a starship, like the helm of a ship or a starfighter pilot.  Your character is motivated by the desire for profit, likely to restore her family, or perhaps just to live a comfortable life. 

A Void-Master can specialize as the helmsman of a starship, the chief gunnery officer, a starfighter squadron ace (the weakest choice), or the chief sensor operator (a surprisingly strong choice)
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Cal1496

Triangle, will you be purely running the game have an actual character as well?

And right now I am actually looking more stuff up on Rouge Trader so might take me a bit longer to get a character up than I thought lol  I like to be informed...

The Great Triangle

I'm going to be purely running the game.  My main motivation is to play a rather extensive set of campaign notes I've been writing, so the group will be exploring a fully developed area of space with 18 systems and a wide variety of worlds.  There are a couple of problems in the general area that can threaten the entire star cluster, and possibly even the galaxy, for the PCs to have fun with.
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Crovonovin

Hello TGT, good to see another one of your games going up!

My knowledge of the Warhammer 40k universe is rudimentary at best, but the concept of the Rogue Trader has always been significantly more appealing to me than the setting as a whole.  I won't be able to begin working on a proper character until tomorrow, when I'll have access to all my pdfs, but I figure I'll ask some questions anyway.

Is it possible to be a Techpriest in Rogue Trader?  I know you stated that space marines might be difficult to work into the scenario you have in mind (what with the rabid KILL ALL XENOS ON SIGHT mentality that is ingrained in most of them), but I'm not sure if this extends to their mechanized compatriots.  Regardless, I'm sure there are exceptions to every rule.  The steady, nigh-unavoidable loss of humanity that comes with the class could be very interesting to work with.

Will Psykers be allowed?  I'm not asking because I want to be one (Emperor forbid!), but because shit always seems to hit the fan when one of them is around and let off their leash.

SomeGuy

Oh man, I was actually just saying to myself earlier today "I'd really like to play Rogue Trader".

I'm seriously interested, I have almost all the books too. I'd like to hear what others are considering before picking a career, but possibly Void Master or Arch-Militant. I honestly think Ork would be loads of fun, but not sure how well that would work.

@Shihong- That would be Explorator, one of the careers in the main book

Creeper

I'd be interested. Probably as a navigator or astralpath.

Explorators are like the Indiana Jones' of the Machine Cult. They're pretty awesome.
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Too tired to post Wednesday night. Posts on Thursday!

Tagan

I think she'd be helmsman or sensor operator... depends a bit on the situation I suppose.

The Great Triangle

We still do need someone to play the Rogue Trader, of course.  (trust me, you don't want the rogue trader to be an NPC)

The Psykers in the Rogue Trader setting are Astropaths.  They're basically walking telepathic internet servers, and generally too distracted to be very threatening.  (If there's no PC astropath, long range communications will simply be done by a supply of astropaths who have their heads explode every time they send a long range message.)  PC Astropaths do have telepathy and mind control skills, which can be problematic, but I think a simple "No using your mind mojo on other PCs if you don't want a bolter shell in your skull" house rule should cover things. 

I'm excited about all the response, though I may need another person to help me run the game if more than 7 characters are being run in it.  The PCs could also be divided on multiple ships, and engage in various adventures within the Mextil cluster under the Rogue Trader's warrant of trade. 

I'm also willing to allow multiple Rogue Traders, but only one will actually have a warrant of trade.
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SomeGuy

I figured Tagan with that character concept so far would be the Trader, probably with low Profit Factor but a kick-ass ship.

Semi-related- I love the newer Battle Fleet Koronus book

The Great Triangle

At some risk to the integrity of the game, I'll reveal the house rule I'm using for starting equipment.  The group will begin with 32 profit factor (plus or minus any adjustments for PCs) and each PC may begin with anything that could be acquired in a single acquisition roll.  The rules for acquisition can be found on page 271 and 272 of the rogue trader core rulebook, and commerce, barter, etc. tests may not be applied to assist the starting acquisition.  Remember the rules for combining multiple acquisitions.  Equipment from Into the Storm other than starship upgrades may be selected.  Items from Dark Heresy: Ascension may be selected with GM approval. 

To make it easier to assemble a fleet, each starship hull purchased by the group at the start of the game comes equipped with a full suite of essential components, provided that each of them cost 0 SP.  This explicitly can include poor quality +1 SP components.  Starship components from any book may be selected, and thunderstrike, mars, and mezoa pattern macrocannons, as well as gryphonne pattern torpedo tubes reduce the penalties to acquire them by 10.


Players who don't want to bother with all of this nonsense can either give their starting acquisition to other players, or allow me to select an appropriate suite of equipment to start with.
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SomeGuy

Sorry, asking for clarification: is that starting gear + acquisition roll(s) or starting gear + one item of choice + acquisition roll(s)?

SomeGuy

Bah, still can't edit. Forgot to ask- what about characteristics? Are we using point-buy or rolling?

Also- I'm currently thinking Arch-Militant or Harlequin, which I'd like to hear about.

If I do end up going non-xenos, I'd go with Unnatural Origin, Hand of War, and Fortune and I'm undecided about the others.

Winterborn

Gah! Someone always snags Arch-Militant before me! I want my Imperial gun porn!

Interest achieved, lemme dig through my Core for a career concept.

SomeGuy

Quote from: Winterborn on April 14, 2011, 10:12:34 PM
Gah! Someone always snags Arch-Militant before me! I want my Imperial gun porn!

Interest achieved, lemme dig through my Core for a career concept.

Hey, go for if you want it as far as I'm concerned.

Winterborn

Hey, thanks! To return the favor, if you go Xeno, I'll make my AM singularly open-minded. Meaning that he'll refrain from fragging the Xeno filth at the earliest opportunity with his awesome, unnecessarily large arsenal.

Just a question though, why not go for the Rogue Trader? You seem to have the know-how of the setting for it. I've just got the Core.

The Great Triangle

I haven't actually statted up the Eldar Harlequin yet, but I'll be working on it over the next couple of days.  The class will rely heavily on the perform skill, various interaction skills, and have many abilities to enhance mobility.  The career will be able to get the Signature Wargear talent from Deathwatch, to represent equipment loaned to the Harlequin by the worshipers of the Laughing God.

Death Jester, Shadowseer, and Troupe Master will be alternate career ranks for the shadowseer, though I'm not quite sure what the starting character background decisions will be.  Probably for determining what sort of Eldar the Harlequin has been traveling with before going aboard an Imperial ship.
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Crovonovin

Glad to see so much interest!  I've definitely decided on the Explorator path, but will be ironing out all the details tomorrow.  I'm sure by then most of the relevant character-building requirements will have been set anyway!

I'll have to do some extra research into the Tech-Priest creed and the Omnissiah, as they're not exactly my area of expertise (though I could say the same thing for any class at this point).  A cyborg tech-archaeologist with a serious case of wanderlust sounds right up my alley!

Winterborn

Okay, I've got Forge World, Stubjack, Criminal, Hand of War, Fortune, Arch-Militant.

I was thinking that I could take Wanted Fugitive with Enemy (Cult Mechanicum) rather than Enemy (Adeptus Arbites), just to shake things up a bit. How 'bout it?

EDIT: Er, to make it more clear to those not savvy with the Origin Chart: Born on a world dedicated to churning out war materiel, he became something between a gangbanger and a mercenary, then did something that got the Cult that owned the planet hacked off at him. He ran, and now they're after him. Somewhere between then and now, he fought against Chaos worshippers, giving him a serious hate-on for those guys. Now a long-time merc, he's in it for the money and the protection from the Mechanicum that being in a Rogue Trader's entourage gives him.

Tagan

I wish I had access to the books.  I love ship design, both from aesthetic and tactical standpoints.

I was kinda thinking something along the lines of a great central scanner system in the main ship,  tying in every ship in the fleet, each ship having a heavy torpedo system that would be hard to lock on alone, but can be linked to the central ship's powerful system for major threats.

Probably just pie in the sky thinking, but it's an idea I've had.

Winterborn

Actually, from what I know of the setting, it's very likely to have a setup like that. The IoM likes its tactical/strategical situation to be locked in at a central command area. Since the flagship (our ship) would be the largest and thus the most powerful in terms of astropathic/technologic processing, it's very likely that the RT's hand picked Void Mistress would have overall command.

Did I throw in enough military-type buzzwords there?

SomeGuy

Hm, rogue trader might work well actually. Thanks for the suggestion.

As for ship design- we need to get a nova cannon, melta and vortex torpedoes are pretty damn awesome too.

The Great Triangle

#24
Quote from: Tagan on April 14, 2011, 11:11:56 PM
I wish I had access to the books.  I love ship design, both from aesthetic and tactical standpoints.

I was kinda thinking something along the lines of a great central scanner system in the main ship,  tying in every ship in the fleet, each ship having a heavy torpedo system that would be hard to lock on alone, but can be linked to the central ship's powerful system for major threats.

Probably just pie in the sky thinking, but it's an idea I've had.

That's a pretty cool setup, yes.  The ship I designed as an example ship uses a similar setup, but since it's built for speed, it can't equip torpedoes, so it uses short range weapons instead.  :-)


Quote from: SomeGuy on April 14, 2011, 11:50:38 PM
As for ship design- we need to get a nova cannon, melta and vortex torpedoes are pretty damn awesome too.

According to my files, you can get a clutch of melta topedoes to start with, but if you want a nova cannon, you'll basically have to build a ship which is just a flying nova cannon.  Vortex torpedoes are right out, though. 


Quote from: Winterborn on April 14, 2011, 10:56:53 PM
Okay, I've got Forge World, Stubjack, Criminal, Hand of War, Fortune, Arch-Militant.

I was thinking that I could take Wanted Fugitive with Enemy (Cult Mechanicum) rather than Enemy (Adeptus Arbites), just to shake things up a bit. How 'bout it?

That would be perfectly fine.  It would likely come up a bit more often, but that would be enjoyable anyway.


Here's an example starship:

The Kobras Aquairre  An Orion Class Star Clipper   

Speed 13  Maneuver +33, Detection +30
Hull Integrity 43  Armor 12  Turret Rating 1
Crew Population: 100   Morale: 100   Crew Quality: Regular (30)
Weapon Capacity: Dorsal 1, Prow 1

Complication: Xenophilious   Machine Spirit Personality: Blasphemous
Shuttle Capacity: 12

Background: The Legendary Rogue Trader Kobras Aquairre was instrumental in establishing the Calxis sector by defeating the Cabal of White Sorrows, an Eldar pirate fleet that made the sector nearly unlivable.  Somehow, Aquairre located the secret anchorage of the fleet and assaulted their base with the full might of the Imperial Navy, boarding the Eldar flagship and personally killing their leader in single combat.  After the lore was won, Aquairre took the spine of the Eldar flagship as a trophy, and used it to construct an Orion Class Star Clipper.  The eponymous ship is one of the fastest human vessels in the galaxy, capable of traveling through both the warp and the void with frightening speed.  The ship was used by the Aquierre dynasty for over a millennium as a fast courier, carrying messengers to deliver secure messages that couldn't be trusted to astropaths, and running blockades during wars.  A few decades ago, the ailing patriarch of the Aquairre dynasty, Zoren Aquairre, became frustrated with the low risk missions that the war trophy and crown jewel of the family had been reduced to, and bestowed it as a gift upon a newly minted rogue trader, hoping that the namesake of the dynasty would live up to its legacy...  At least, that's the story.  More than a couple of reliable sources indicate that the inquisition had issue to take with the ship's massive amounts of xenotech. 

Description: The hull of the Kobras Aquairre has the sleek lines of an Orion class clipper, but with a frighteningly pristine hull, and embellished with a massive set of gravity sails.  The ship's lines are considerably more organic and rounded than most Imperial ships, but seem to come to spikes and points more often than would be expected.  The ship's hull is stark white, striped with the bright green heraldry of the Aquairre dynasty.  Instead of the typical broadside of guns on an Imperial ship, the Kobras Aquairre has Eldar-style laser blisters studded all over the hull, focusing a barrage of pulsed laser fire to overcome enemy ships.  The prow of the ship is studded with holes that resemble torpedo tubes, but the ship is too small to mount proper torpedoes, and incorporates a short range missile battery instead to fulfill the same tactical function. 

Starship Components:

Modified Lathe Pattern 2a Drive: The central drive of the Kobras Aquairre is a piece of technology that the tech priests who maintain it refuse to explain.  All that is known is that its power output is about twice what it should be for a reactor of its size, and the majority of that energy gets shunted to its engines.  The plasma drive itself it surrounded by extremely thick bulkheads, and a maze of passageways, many of which are dark passages taken directly from the ship's previous incarnation.
Miloslav G-666.c Warp Drive: The warp drive of the ship is of a model so fast and dangerous it is now considered heretical.  The ship can move between systems at insane speeds, but stirs up the warp as it goes, making warp incursions considerably more dangerous.
Omnissiah Pattern Emergency Gellar Field: Thanks to the unreliability of the warp drive, the Gellar Field of the Kobras Aquairre has multiple ranks of backup generators, and automatically turns on if the ship is exposed to excessive warp energies, protecting the ship from demons.
Repulsor Shield: The void shields of the Kobras Aquairre are constantly active and actively push against small particles, enabling the ship to effortlessly glide through nebulas and asteroid fields with no reduction in speed. 
Explorator Bridge: The bridge of the ship sits atop a massive cross shaped structure at the back of the ship which looks almost anachronistic.  The bridge tower is studded with dozens of antennae and complex sensor arrays, while the tower itself is flanked by a half dozen laser turrets in a circular pattern, intended to prevent enemy fire from getting through.  Inside, the bridge is covered in display screens and navigation consoles, designed to quickly and rapidly map out whatever the ship happens to be orbiting and analyze tactical options.
Vitae Pattern Life Sustainer: The life sustainer of the Kobras Aquairre is built right into the spine of the ship, and many of the ratings who maintain the system report increased stress thanks to the hideous alien murals carved into the walls of the chambers.  Invariably, they depict nubile young women being raped in increasingly imaginative ways.   One wall of the central life support control chamber is the name plate of the Eldar ship Altar of Torment.
Voidsmen Quarters: The crew quarters of the ship are very well appointed compared to most imperial ships, with each four crew members getting their own bunk.  Petty officers have private rooms, while senior officers (the PCs) have grand suites the size of ordinary houses, often spanning multiple decks.
Deep Void Auger Array: The Auger antennas of the Kobras Aquairre's bridge are supplemented by a vast collection of antennae and augur dishes running down the length of the ship's decks, enabling the ship to detect opponents from extreme range.

Main Cargo Hold: The ship's main cargo hold is somewhat cramped by Imperial standards, but still capable of carrying about 10,000 passengers or thousands of tons of inanimate cargo.  If the PCs wish, the cargo hold may be converted into a hangar deck for attack fighters, turning the ship into a carrier vessel.
Gravity Sails: The gravity sails of the Kobras Aquairre stick out hundreds of meters from the ship, and harness celestial energies to enable the ship to move even faster.  The ship has suffered about 6 incidents of friendly fire thanks to being mistakenly identified as an Eldar vessel over the years.
Auxiliary Plasma Banks: Despite the incredible power output of the ship's plasma reactor, it requires several additional small plasma reactors located just underneath the spine of the ship in the center of the vessel.  The plasma reactors help power the field bracing and the powerful weapons systems of the ship.
Field Bracing: Because of the ship's small size, it cannot mount the heavy armor usually used to keep a ship functioning in combat.  To compensate,  the ship has a network of internal force fields that help prevent crew members from being sucked into space during normal operations.  Unfortunately, in combat, the fields are too busy keeping the ship from falling apart to reduce the effects of depressurization.
Xenos Habitat Towards the aft of the ship, a section of the original Eldar crew quarters have been perfectly preserved, including the bridge of the Altar of Torment which is now a conference room with a xeno garden.  Inexplicably, these quarters include massive amounts of exotic alien sex toys and pornography, which have led to serious problems for crew morale over the years, but Eldar seem to be comfortable in them.
Luxury Passenger Quarters Forward of the Eldar quarters, and just below the bridge are several decks of absolutely fantastically luxurious quarters, complete with multi deck promenades, zero gravity energy beds, and an integrated monorail system.  Many of the deck officers make their quarters in the theme park like luxury quarters, having little contact with the regular crew as they simply ride the monorail to the bridge to be with the other officers.
Observation Deck: The very front of the ship is a large, open chamber with spectacular views into the void on three walls.  A number of specialized sensor arrays in the room provide even more exotic views, and sources of vital intelligence.  Depending on the captain, the observation deck has usually been either a bar and nightclub, a military ready room, a restaurant, and in one memorable occasion, a single ludicrously gigantic bedroom for the captain to have epic orgies in.
Dorsal Starcannon Laser Battery: The compact laser blisters of the ship make life for the gun crews much more pleasant than on most Imperial ships, though the strange xenotech often makes them hard to repair when the ship gets damaged.  Unlike most ships, the Kobras Aquairre doesn't have any standard defensive turrets, but simply uses its starcannons to shoot down incoming threats.
Prow Jovian Missile Battery: Studded around the observation deck is the missile battery, a fairly unpleasant section of the ship which tries to use sheer volume of missiles to make up for the fact that they're only 3 meter long medium range rockets instead of 60 meter long torpedoes of doom.  The armor of the missile tubes is all concentrated behind the missile launcher to protect the observation deck, which the shipwright who built the ship valued much more than the missile tubes.  Working in the missile tubes is considered the worst assignment on the Kobras Aquairre, and the button on the bridge to vent the missile battery to space shows signs of heavy wear.

Modifier Summary:
Navigation Tests to pilot the ship through the warp gain a +15 bonus. 
Halve the duration of warp voyages.
Does not suffer maneuver penalties from Celestial Phenomena made mostly of small particles.
+225 points towards trade objectives
+100 points towards criminal objectives
+100 points towards exploration objectives
+50 points to objectives involving peaceful interactions with Eldar
+10 bonus to interaction tests with Eldar
+10 to BS tests to fire the Starcannon batteries
-30 to tech use rolls to repair the ship.  (only -10 if the character doing repairs has forbidden lore (xenos)

Weapons:

Dorsal Starcannon Laser Battery  Strength 4, Damage 1d10+2, Crit Rating 3, Range 4  Superior Accuracy
Keel Jovian Missile Battery  Strength 5, Damage 1d10+2, Crit Rating 5, Range 6
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