So, one of my friends wants to run this for a group of us, and I figured that was a good excuse to start up a discussion thread.
It's supposed to be a really good game. Looked through the book a bit, and the characters seems really detailed and well-fleshed-out. Are there any pitfalls as far as character creation we should be on the lookout for? Anything that's particularly awesome about the system, or anything that sucks in particular?
I really want to play this game myself, but I can't find anyone running it. I think I will actually go pick up the book - maybe I should run it myself. I really like Dark Heresy and from what I have read of this I think I would actually like it more.
I had an idea for a campaign that I'm running around here, and wanted to make sure it wasn't totally retarded.
One of the big "treasures" in my campaign would be a datapad journal they find hidden inside of a gold statue of the Emperor. The datapad would have been written by the Emperor himself and would be generally condemning organized religion and how it is detrimental to the expanse and progression of humanity.
It'd be invaluable because of its author, and extremely heretical because of how is basically says, "Hey - the whole Emperor's Cult thing? Kind of against what I wanted."
From there I could expand outward, having them making enemies with the Inquisition, friends with people who believe in the datapad, and etc.
I'm looking for loopholes in this plan. I know they don't have a lot of stuff written by the Emperor himself, but I thought I remembered reading somewhere that he didn't really care a lot for religion. Am I totally off?
EDIT:
Actually, I think the system is just fine. It gives you a lot of options as the GM, and lets you change the difficulty of certain scenarios depending on how descriptive your players want to be with how they're solving problems. The percentile system can get a little old due to its randomness, but it's no where then any other system.
I love the crosspathing origins system. It really helps when trying to figure out why the Hell you'd have everything together on the same ship.
I had an idea for a campaign that I'm running around here, and wanted to make sure it wasn't totally retarded.
One of the big "treasures" in my campaign would be a datapad journal they find hidden inside of a gold statue of the Emperor. The datapad would have been written by the Emperor himself and would be generally condemning organized religion and how it is detrimental to the expanse and progression of humanity.
It'd be invaluable because of its author, and extremely heretical because of how is basically says, "Hey - the whole Emperor's Cult thing? Kind of against what I wanted."
From there I could expand outward, having them making enemies with the Inquisition, friends with people who believe in the datapad, and etc.
I'm looking for loopholes in this plan. I know they don't have a lot of stuff written by the Emperor himself, but I thought I remembered reading somewhere that he didn't really care a lot for religion. Am I totally off?
EDIT:
Actually, I think the system is just fine. It gives you a lot of options as the GM, and lets you change the difficulty of certain scenarios depending on how descriptive your players want to be with how they're solving problems. The percentile system can get a little old due to its randomness, but it's no where then any other system.
I love the crosspathing origins system. It really helps when trying to figure out why the Hell you'd have everything together on the same ship.
That plot sounds...interesting. Your players are going to be running from pretty much everybody in the Imperium though. If played straight, one would think it would be a terribly short game. It sounds like it's the equivalent of giving a player a chest of Mithril coins in a low magic 2nd ed. DnD game, you can't really sell it or do anything with it, with the added bonus that everybody in the world wants to kill you for owning said chest.
Dark Heresy is pretty much Mook: The RPG, isn't it?
This game kicks things up a notch. They actually say that rank 1 characters in this game are the equivalent of rank 5 characters in Dark Heresy.
Yeah, rank 5 is pretty much the starting point for Rogue Trader, iirc. Dark Heresy has a book coming out called Ascension which would allow the Acolytes (PCs) to rank roughly equal with the RT folk, or so I hear. Dunno if it will allow you to reach Inquisitor status, but I'm pretty sure it will let you hit Throne Agent/Interrogator status, which is still awesome.
I don't have too much experience with Rogue Trader as of yet and it's also my first time GMing, but as far as things to watch out for: I've had a bit of an issue with an Explorator in my group. Primarily as it seems like some of the implants could use some work. Like what sort of weapons can be mounted with the MIU Weapon Interface (I believe that's what it's called anyway) is rather ill defined, simply stating "ranged weapons" and the Best Craftmanship Musclegrafts seem a little too convenient for min-maxing, as they essentially double melee damage at the cost of ten agility. Of course my Explorator player has essentially been a bit of a pain in my ass thus far.
Aside from that I would suggest checking out the official forums, as they have found what appear to be some errors in the book, such as the Arch-Militant lacking the talent for two weapon melee combat, and yet having a talent which requires it.
As far as Profit factor goes it can be rather important for getting better gear, throwing money and influence around when necesary, and for completing trade objectives (helps to acquire products to trade), but a low profit factor does not appear to be crippling.
Looks like we've ended up going with 50 ship/37 Profit Factor (bastards in my group took things that lowered it).
I ended up making a Rogue Trader. Other members of the group include a Void Master, a Missionary, an Arch-Militant, a Navigator, and an Explorator. I am pretty much the face of the group. Anyone spot anything that desperately needs to be changed?
Path:
Noble Born (Peer (Mercantile)) -> Savant (+3 Fellowship, Peer (Academic))-> Chosen By Destiny (Xenophile) -> High Vendetta (Paranoia) -> Prestige (Talented (Commerce))
There's a lot you can get with that initial acquisition. Sufficient poor quality muskets to equip an entire army (10,000+) for example.
Probably the downside to using a shield is that it'll take up a hand, so when the rabid xenos charges you swapping from pistol to power sword could be problematic. It'd either be a half action to stow the pistol and a half to ready the sword, or a free to drop the pistol and a half to ready. But if you drop the pistol you'll have to pick it up again later.
Although, now that I think about it there isn't actually a reason to draw the sword because you can use the shield to parry. Just shoot things in the face with a plasma pistol in melee. It's only a problem if they have a power weapon, because then they have a 75% chance to destroy your shield if you use it to parry.
Also, the 2 AP from the shield probably don't stack with your carapace as by the book only the highest is used unless otherwise specified.
Chrysis on
Tri-Optimum reminds you that there are only one-hundred-sixty-three shopping days until Christmas. Just 1 extra work cycle twice a week will give you the spending money you need to make this holiday a very special one.
Sadly it does mean a shield doesn't stack with other armor in that location.
Remember to use your free starting acquisition to do something fucking awesome. Like, I dunno, Five inferno pistols.
Because you don't have to test availability for starting acquisitions.
DON'T let anyone in your party use it on something stupid, or anything common craftsmanship. Try to convince them otherwise.
DO remember that you have wealth on an unimaginable scale and that you really can buy anything you want. If you can't get something just by asking, grease palms to the tune of thousands of thrones.
As regards the Emperor and Religion my understanding of it is he basically wanted to deny the Chaos God's worshippers and thought the best way to do this was to convince everyone that they did not exist. Even in the Emperor's time while he was alive though some people thought he was a divine figure even though he denied it.
Sadly it does mean a shield doesn't stack with other armor in that location.
Remember to use your free starting acquisition to do something fucking awesome. Like, I dunno, Five inferno pistols.
Because you don't have to test availability for starting acquisitions.
DON'T let anyone in your party use it on something stupid, or anything common craftsmanship. Try to convince them otherwise.
DO remember that you have wealth on an unimaginable scale and that you really can buy anything you want. If you can't get something just by asking, grease palms to the tune of thousands of thrones.
I was actually going to use the gear purchase on the Subskin Armor; seemed like a good way to go, since it explicitly does stack with armor and would give me a 9 AP everywhere but my head (plus toughness).
Are you really meant to, like, gear up the group with Inferno Pistols with that purchase? Because that's gonna make larger groups hella powerful out the gate, it seems. You can really get some crazy shit, there.
As a Rogue Trader GM, if people started gearing up their entire group with the starting purchases, I'd be peeved. Most characters already start with awesome gear, and with combat being as lethal as it is, I don't see why people would feel the urge to stack themselves even more. The purchase in my opinion, is supposed to be used for something awesome and characterful. 5 Inferno Pistols? Not quite what I was aiming for. Awesome implant for the explorator? Sure. Heck, maybe a player wants to use his purchase for a fitting ship upgrade, like say a Trophy Room for the Rogue Trader? Also cool.
Heck, one of my players bough a Chrono(pocketwatch) for his Missionary, just so the character could whip it out and go "By the Emperor! It is a good time to die!" Both awesome and full of character, if not quite what I was expecting.
Gear is such a non-issue in any case, unless you end up with the 70/20 and even then, you'll be flying around in a ship capable of vaporizing any city from orbit.
As a Rogue Trader GM, if people started gearing up their entire group with the starting purchases, I'd be peeved. Most characters already start with awesome gear, and with combat being as lethal as it is, I don't see why people would feel the urge to stack themselves even more. The purchase in my opinion, is supposed to be used for something awesome and characterful. 5 Inferno Pistols? Not quite what I was aiming for. Awesome implant for the explorator? Sure. Heck, maybe a player wants to use his purchase for a fitting ship upgrade, like say a Trophy Room for the Rogue Trader? Also cool.
Heck, one of my players bough a Chrono(pocketwatch) for his Missionary, just so the character could whip it out and go "By the Emperor! It is a good time to die!" Both awesome and full of character, if not quite what I was expecting.
Gear is such a non-issue in any case, unless you end up with the 70/20 and even then, you'll be flying around in a ship capable of vaporizing any city from orbit.
This'd come down to two different styles of play for Rogue Trader then. I let my players take stuff like a brace of inferno pistols, a rosarius, a shuriken catapult, a bionic arm with integrated shock glove, and an MIU weapon implant with attatched hellgun. On the other hand, I threw them up against nine grots, ten orkz, two nobz, and a mega armor nob in a trukk in their first session. They only had to burn two fate points.
It basically comes down to that I'm playing rogue trader as "lolz 40k is over the topz" and you're playing at somewhere between there and "srs business grimdark space rpg."
To be fair, my current Rogue Trader game is very temporary - only four sessions of play - were it a longer game I'd probably not have let them have all five inferno pistols. But one? Sure. A Plasma Cannon? Sure. It's really clearly in the spirit of the rules to go completely out there.
Like I said, so long as they don't go hog wild with gearing up each other, they can do whatever they want. Plasma Cannon? Fine. Inferno Pistol? Fine. The game is all about being awesome, and so long as players don't try to the game the system too much, they can pretty much do whatever so long as it is awesome
It seems to me like the Storm Bolter is a "no duh" for the Arch-Militant.
The storm bolter is incredibly incredibly powerful - the only problem with it is that it chews through ammunition like no man's business. It'll make incredibly short work of anyone without a force field or power armor.
Yeah, there are a couple of games in various stages of begining here. I'm in one that is supposed to start this weekend on Wave. Everyone is on really different schedules and time zones (psycojester is our GM and is Oz I think, I'm east coast US working second shift, etc), so we are having trouble getting started.
I'm not sure what tone our game is going for, we don't have much money, but we have an awesome backstory as to why we are sort of broke and how we know each other, so it works out. Basically, the Trader's ship had a mutiny. Chaos invaded the ship, thousands died. The PC trader saved the ship by venting most of it to the void, killing most of the chaos infested crew. The PCs are survivors from that., pretty much starting over again.
One of my players, an explorator, wants to get a Compact Stormbolter for his acquisition. Personally, I think he's being a bit beardy since he intends to immediately put it in his servo-skull.
I have a couple of issues with this, foremost being that who the hell is making compact storm bolters?
What would you guys do? Is it balanced by the fact that there's no possible way for a skull to easily reload itself? Should I make his skull test to avoid flying wildly out of control if he fires it full-auto?
notmetalenough on
Samael the Radiant Faced-- Official Naming, Going Nuclear, Click on the Quest, Make She Run and Guild Measurements Officer - Clawshrimp & Co, Draenor-US
I haven't gotten the chance to run/play Rogue Trader yet but I am extremely familiar with Dark Heresy (on both sides of the table) and I've looked over the RT rulebook quite a bit so all I can say right now is that the system is pretty old-school in a lot of ways, so use those test modifiers to your advantage.
One of my players, an explorator, wants to get a Compact Stormbolter for his acquisition. Personally, I think he's being a bit beardy since he intends to immediately put it in his servo-skull.
I have a couple of issues with this, foremost being that who the hell is making compact storm bolters?
What would you guys do? Is it balanced by the fact that there's no possible way for a skull to easily reload itself? Should I make his skull test to avoid flying wildly out of control if he fires it full-auto?
Rules as written says that a "Compact" upgrade hits the Acquisition Test for -5, making the total modifier -5, meaning he can't buy it at all.
Looks good. The only real things you'll have to fear are as follows:
Ships larger than you.
Ships your size with plasma batteries that get all up in your face and wreck you.
Ships that ram and board you with really good command scores.
Do you have 50 SP available? There are good things that don't take space but do cost SP for that last four you haven't spent.
One of my players, an explorator, wants to get a Compact Stormbolter for his acquisition. Personally, I think he's being a bit beardy since he intends to immediately put it in his servo-skull.
I have a couple of issues with this, foremost being that who the hell is making compact storm bolters?
What would you guys do? Is it balanced by the fact that there's no possible way for a skull to easily reload itself? Should I make his skull test to avoid flying wildly out of control if he fires it full-auto?
Rules as written says that a "Compact" upgrade hits the Acquisition Test for -5, making the total modifier -5, meaning he can't buy it at all.
Obviously, he needs a bigger skull, to house a regular sized storm bolter. Find an ogryn!
One of my players, an explorator, wants to get a Compact Stormbolter for his acquisition. Personally, I think he's being a bit beardy since he intends to immediately put it in his servo-skull.
I have a couple of issues with this, foremost being that who the hell is making compact storm bolters?
What would you guys do? Is it balanced by the fact that there's no possible way for a skull to easily reload itself? Should I make his skull test to avoid flying wildly out of control if he fires it full-auto?
Rules as written says that a "Compact" upgrade hits the Acquisition Test for -5, making the total modifier -5, meaning he can't buy it at all.
Obviously, he needs a bigger skull, to house a regular sized storm bolter. Find an ogryn!
Here's what I'd say:
It's a pretty epic quest to find the near-uniqueness of a compact storm bolter.
The example Servo Skull weapon is a Laspistol, even a compact storm bolter wouldn't fit.
And if he absolutely must have it? Well, the skull wouldn't be proficient anyway.
One of my players, an explorator, wants to get a Compact Stormbolter for his acquisition. Personally, I think he's being a bit beardy since he intends to immediately put it in his servo-skull.
I have a couple of issues with this, foremost being that who the hell is making compact storm bolters?
What would you guys do? Is it balanced by the fact that there's no possible way for a skull to easily reload itself? Should I make his skull test to avoid flying wildly out of control if he fires it full-auto?
Rules as written says that a "Compact" upgrade hits the Acquisition Test for -5, making the total modifier -5, meaning he can't buy it at all.
Obviously, he needs a bigger skull, to house a regular sized storm bolter. Find an ogryn!
Here's what I'd say:
It's a pretty epic quest to find the near-uniqueness of a compact storm bolter.
The example Servo Skull weapon is a Laspistol, even a compact storm bolter wouldn't fit.
And if he absolutely must have it? Well, the skull wouldn't be proficient anyway.
Well, the RT rules weren't super-specific so I was using the more detailed rules out of the Inquisitor's Handbook, which says that "conceivably any Pistol or compact Basic weapon could be fitted."
I did inform him that the upgrade he asked for would mean he can't get it in the free acquisition, which seemed to fix some of my issues with it. He's likely either to drop it for now, or to get a poor quality one, which I'm totally okay with.
I guess what I'll end up doing is that if the skull is doing too much fighting for them, I'll ramp up the difficulty.
notmetalenough on
Samael the Radiant Faced-- Official Naming, Going Nuclear, Click on the Quest, Make She Run and Guild Measurements Officer - Clawshrimp & Co, Draenor-US
You could also just wreck the skull with a single bolter shot.
EDIT: Though, to be honest, with a servo skull's crap Ballistic Skill and the fact that the skull wouldn't be proficient, you might as well let him have it for laughs.
My group met last night for a session, and we realised that having all of this awesome firepower becomes quite an issue when you want to take someone alive. I'm carrying a shockstaff which has low enough damage to chip away at opponents while at the same time being able to incapacitate them if they fail toughness tests, but that didn't really help when our Archmilitant punched the boss enemy right into maximum critical damage with his power fist.
I'm going to suggest next session that some of us stock up on accurate but low-powered guns for sublethal damage.
Or look for a needler. You can load needler guns with all kinds of stuff.
How many sessions have you played, RP?
It seems some groups start off with all kinds of stuff marked rare or extremely rare, or near unique or whatever. Which is cool, because wh40k can be as ridiculous as you want it to be.
Looks good. The only real things you'll have to fear are as follows:
Ships larger than you.
Ships your size with plasma batteries that get all up in your face and wreck you.
Ships that ram and board you with really good command scores.
Do you have 50 SP available? There are good things that don't take space but do cost SP for that last four you haven't spent.
Yeah, we have fifty. I was kinda hoping to save it, though, to boost our profit factor.
I'm sitting on a 51 command check, which seems decent. Though, if we roll xeno-tech, I'd seriously consider downgrading the guns, getting a teleporter, and buying murder servitors.
the comparison i'd make is that Dark Heresy is level 1 dnd 3.5 characters. rogue trader characters start out at level 10.
it's a total blast flying around in your space-cathedral-ship-city being a spacepiratecrusader.
On the flip side, the level 1 mooks have redonkulous amounts of authority.
Yet nothing comparable to a Rogue Trader.
You are after all, just the henchmen of an Inquisitor in Dark Heresy. In Rogue Trader, you speak with the voice of the Emperor when outside the Imperium, and not many individuals possess anything comparable to a Rogue Trader within the Imperium, even with his diminished rights.
Or look for a needler. You can load needler guns with all kinds of stuff.
How many sessions have you played, RP?
It seems some groups start off with all kinds of stuff marked rare or extremely rare, or near unique or whatever. Which is cool, because wh40k can be as ridiculous as you want it to be.
I think five sessions so far - it's a university-based group, so the sessions have been spread out quite a bit for Christmas break and the like.
That was only our second fight, as the endeavours so far have been largely roleplaying and business decisions in order to maximise profit factor. Our starting kit was pretty much the stuff in the chargen section, but we had a bit of an acquisition spree at the end of our last endeavour, making the most of our profit factor and the Seneschal's bonuses to acquisition rolls. My Explorator now has bionics in place of his eyes, ears, nose, heart and left arm, as well as subskin and cranial armour, an auger array and a logis implant. The rest of the party rolled for weapons, but I just went down the list of cybernetic improvements getting the Seneschal to roll for me :P
Luckily, we have a GM who allows us to attempt to get most of the awesome stuff while still making the sessions fun and challenging. Our Archmilitant may have a best-quality powersword and power glove, but that didn't help him pass his tests to notice that our cutlery was poisoned. 7d10's worth of temporary toughness penalty knocked him out for a large part of the session, until he teleported in at the climax of the fight to punch the boss into negative double digits.
I will be getting these books hopefully within the next month or 2, and attempt to get some interest going from the local PA peeps :P
Nax on
The following people are amazing and I love them: Wildcat, Timspork, Kias, Denada, susan, Sharp101, [GHSC]Ryctor, Matev, Matrias, ItBurns, Slapnuts, Dayspring, see317, and the unknown poster that sent me a box of Death Company! If you get them as Santees you should buy them amazing things!
Or look for a needler. You can load needler guns with all kinds of stuff.
How many sessions have you played, RP?
It seems some groups start off with all kinds of stuff marked rare or extremely rare, or near unique or whatever. Which is cool, because wh40k can be as ridiculous as you want it to be.
I think five sessions so far - it's a university-based group, so the sessions have been spread out quite a bit for Christmas break and the like.
That was only our second fight, as the endeavours so far have been largely roleplaying and business decisions in order to maximise profit factor. Our starting kit was pretty much the stuff in the chargen section, but we had a bit of an acquisition spree at the end of our last endeavour, making the most of our profit factor and the Seneschal's bonuses to acquisition rolls. My Explorator now has bionics in place of his eyes, ears, nose, heart and left arm, as well as subskin and cranial armour, an auger array and a logis implant. The rest of the party rolled for weapons, but I just went down the list of cybernetic improvements getting the Seneschal to roll for me :P
Luckily, we have a GM who allows us to attempt to get most of the awesome stuff while still making the sessions fun and challenging. Our Archmilitant may have a best-quality powersword and power glove, but that didn't help him pass his tests to notice that our cutlery was poisoned. 7d10's worth of temporary toughness penalty knocked him out for a large part of the session, until he teleported in at the climax of the fight to punch the boss into negative double digits.
Jeez, do you guys not play with rolls to find equipment? Or did you just spend the better part of a year not doing anything but purchasing things?
We had incredibly good luck with the acquisition rolls, so that the stuff that we found didn't take long at all. Still, we only got half of what we were looking for, and it did take us the better part of a year, but as a secondary part of the acquisition was training another company of elite guards it made sense to stay in port for a while.
Posts
This game kicks things up a notch. They actually say that rank 1 characters in this game are the equivalent of rank 5 characters in Dark Heresy.
it's a total blast flying around in your space-cathedral-ship-city being a spacepiratecrusader.
One of the big "treasures" in my campaign would be a datapad journal they find hidden inside of a gold statue of the Emperor. The datapad would have been written by the Emperor himself and would be generally condemning organized religion and how it is detrimental to the expanse and progression of humanity.
It'd be invaluable because of its author, and extremely heretical because of how is basically says, "Hey - the whole Emperor's Cult thing? Kind of against what I wanted."
From there I could expand outward, having them making enemies with the Inquisition, friends with people who believe in the datapad, and etc.
I'm looking for loopholes in this plan. I know they don't have a lot of stuff written by the Emperor himself, but I thought I remembered reading somewhere that he didn't really care a lot for religion. Am I totally off?
EDIT:
Actually, I think the system is just fine. It gives you a lot of options as the GM, and lets you change the difficulty of certain scenarios depending on how descriptive your players want to be with how they're solving problems. The percentile system can get a little old due to its randomness, but it's no where then any other system.
I love the crosspathing origins system. It really helps when trying to figure out why the Hell you'd have everything together on the same ship.
That plot sounds...interesting. Your players are going to be running from pretty much everybody in the Imperium though. If played straight, one would think it would be a terribly short game. It sounds like it's the equivalent of giving a player a chest of Mithril coins in a low magic 2nd ed. DnD game, you can't really sell it or do anything with it, with the added bonus that everybody in the world wants to kill you for owning said chest.
But as far as rule of cool goes, go for it.
Yeah, rank 5 is pretty much the starting point for Rogue Trader, iirc. Dark Heresy has a book coming out called Ascension which would allow the Acolytes (PCs) to rank roughly equal with the RT folk, or so I hear. Dunno if it will allow you to reach Inquisitor status, but I'm pretty sure it will let you hit Throne Agent/Interrogator status, which is still awesome.
Aside from that I would suggest checking out the official forums, as they have found what appear to be some errors in the book, such as the Arch-Militant lacking the talent for two weapon melee combat, and yet having a talent which requires it.
As far as Profit factor goes it can be rather important for getting better gear, throwing money and influence around when necesary, and for completing trade objectives (helps to acquire products to trade), but a low profit factor does not appear to be crippling.
I ended up making a Rogue Trader. Other members of the group include a Void Master, a Missionary, an Arch-Militant, a Navigator, and an Explorator. I am pretty much the face of the group. Anyone spot anything that desperately needs to be changed?
Noble Born (Peer (Mercantile)) -> Savant (+3 Fellowship, Peer (Academic))-> Chosen By Destiny (Xenophile) -> High Vendetta (Paranoia) -> Prestige (Talented (Commerce))
Attributes:
Weapon Skill 42
Ballistic Skill 31
Strength 35
Toughness 32
Agility 36
Intelligence 41
Perception 36
Will Power 37
Fellowship 51 (1 advance taken)
Trained Skills:
Awareness
Charm
Command
Commerce (+10 from Talented)
Common Lore (Imperium)
Dodge
Evaluate
Inquiry
Literacy
Scholastic Lore (Astromancy)
Speak Language (High Gothic, Low Gothic)
Talents:
Air of Authority
Pistol Weapon Training (Universal)
Melee Weapon Training (Universal)
Peer (Nobility)
Peer (Acadmics)
Peer (Mercantile)
Talented (Commerce)
Paranoia
Renowned Warrant
Gear (stuff to choose from only):
Best Craftsmanship Storm-Trooper Carapace
Plasma Pistol
Power Sword
Subskin Armor
Gonna ask if I can start with a shield. I'm not really seeing any downside to using one.
Probably the downside to using a shield is that it'll take up a hand, so when the rabid xenos charges you swapping from pistol to power sword could be problematic. It'd either be a half action to stow the pistol and a half to ready the sword, or a free to drop the pistol and a half to ready. But if you drop the pistol you'll have to pick it up again later.
Although, now that I think about it there isn't actually a reason to draw the sword because you can use the shield to parry. Just shoot things in the face with a plasma pistol in melee. It's only a problem if they have a power weapon, because then they have a 75% chance to destroy your shield if you use it to parry.
Also, the 2 AP from the shield probably don't stack with your carapace as by the book only the highest is used unless otherwise specified.
Remember to use your free starting acquisition to do something fucking awesome. Like, I dunno, Five inferno pistols.
Because you don't have to test availability for starting acquisitions.
DON'T let anyone in your party use it on something stupid, or anything common craftsmanship. Try to convince them otherwise.
DO remember that you have wealth on an unimaginable scale and that you really can buy anything you want. If you can't get something just by asking, grease palms to the tune of thousands of thrones.
Are you really meant to, like, gear up the group with Inferno Pistols with that purchase? Because that's gonna make larger groups hella powerful out the gate, it seems. You can really get some crazy shit, there.
Heck, one of my players bough a Chrono(pocketwatch) for his Missionary, just so the character could whip it out and go "By the Emperor! It is a good time to die!" Both awesome and full of character, if not quite what I was expecting.
Gear is such a non-issue in any case, unless you end up with the 70/20 and even then, you'll be flying around in a ship capable of vaporizing any city from orbit.
This'd come down to two different styles of play for Rogue Trader then. I let my players take stuff like a brace of inferno pistols, a rosarius, a shuriken catapult, a bionic arm with integrated shock glove, and an MIU weapon implant with attatched hellgun. On the other hand, I threw them up against nine grots, ten orkz, two nobz, and a mega armor nob in a trukk in their first session. They only had to burn two fate points.
It basically comes down to that I'm playing rogue trader as "lolz 40k is over the topz" and you're playing at somewhere between there and "srs business grimdark space rpg."
To be fair, my current Rogue Trader game is very temporary - only four sessions of play - were it a longer game I'd probably not have let them have all five inferno pistols. But one? Sure. A Plasma Cannon? Sure. It's really clearly in the spirit of the rules to go completely out there.
The storm bolter is incredibly incredibly powerful - the only problem with it is that it chews through ammunition like no man's business. It'll make incredibly short work of anyone without a force field or power armor.
So tempting.
I'm not sure what tone our game is going for, we don't have much money, but we have an awesome backstory as to why we are sort of broke and how we know each other, so it works out. Basically, the Trader's ship had a mutiny. Chaos invaded the ship, thousands died. The PC trader saved the ship by venting most of it to the void, killing most of the chaos infested crew. The PCs are survivors from that., pretty much starting over again.
I have a couple of issues with this, foremost being that who the hell is making compact storm bolters?
What would you guys do? Is it balanced by the fact that there's no possible way for a skull to easily reload itself? Should I make his skull test to avoid flying wildly out of control if he fires it full-auto?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
SP: 46
Sword-class Frigate
Speed: 8
Detection: +15
Armour: 18
Space: 40
Power: 45
Manoeuvrability: +20
Hull Integrity: 35
Turret Rating: 2
Weapon Capacity: 2 Dorsal
Space used: 40
Power used: 44
Power: Jovian Pattern Class 2 Drive
Warp Engines: Strelov 1 Warp Engine
Warpsbane Hull [2]
Single Void Shield Array
Command Bridge [1]
Vitae Pattern Life Sustainer
Voidsmen Quarters
M-201.b Auger Array
2 dorsal-mounted Sunsear Laser Batteries [2]
Compartmentalized Cargo Hold [1]
Ships larger than you.
Ships your size with plasma batteries that get all up in your face and wreck you.
Ships that ram and board you with really good command scores.
Do you have 50 SP available? There are good things that don't take space but do cost SP for that last four you haven't spent.
Obviously, he needs a bigger skull, to house a regular sized storm bolter. Find an ogryn!
Here's what I'd say:
It's a pretty epic quest to find the near-uniqueness of a compact storm bolter.
The example Servo Skull weapon is a Laspistol, even a compact storm bolter wouldn't fit.
And if he absolutely must have it? Well, the skull wouldn't be proficient anyway.
Well, the RT rules weren't super-specific so I was using the more detailed rules out of the Inquisitor's Handbook, which says that "conceivably any Pistol or compact Basic weapon could be fitted."
I did inform him that the upgrade he asked for would mean he can't get it in the free acquisition, which seemed to fix some of my issues with it. He's likely either to drop it for now, or to get a poor quality one, which I'm totally okay with.
I guess what I'll end up doing is that if the skull is doing too much fighting for them, I'll ramp up the difficulty.
EDIT: Though, to be honest, with a servo skull's crap Ballistic Skill and the fact that the skull wouldn't be proficient, you might as well let him have it for laughs.
I'm going to suggest next session that some of us stock up on accurate but low-powered guns for sublethal damage.
How many sessions have you played, RP?
It seems some groups start off with all kinds of stuff marked rare or extremely rare, or near unique or whatever. Which is cool, because wh40k can be as ridiculous as you want it to be.
Yeah, we have fifty. I was kinda hoping to save it, though, to boost our profit factor.
I'm sitting on a 51 command check, which seems decent. Though, if we roll xeno-tech, I'd seriously consider downgrading the guns, getting a teleporter, and buying murder servitors.
On the flip side, the level 1 mooks have redonkulous amounts of authority.
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
Yet nothing comparable to a Rogue Trader.
You are after all, just the henchmen of an Inquisitor in Dark Heresy. In Rogue Trader, you speak with the voice of the Emperor when outside the Imperium, and not many individuals possess anything comparable to a Rogue Trader within the Imperium, even with his diminished rights.
I think five sessions so far - it's a university-based group, so the sessions have been spread out quite a bit for Christmas break and the like.
That was only our second fight, as the endeavours so far have been largely roleplaying and business decisions in order to maximise profit factor. Our starting kit was pretty much the stuff in the chargen section, but we had a bit of an acquisition spree at the end of our last endeavour, making the most of our profit factor and the Seneschal's bonuses to acquisition rolls. My Explorator now has bionics in place of his eyes, ears, nose, heart and left arm, as well as subskin and cranial armour, an auger array and a logis implant. The rest of the party rolled for weapons, but I just went down the list of cybernetic improvements getting the Seneschal to roll for me :P
Luckily, we have a GM who allows us to attempt to get most of the awesome stuff while still making the sessions fun and challenging. Our Archmilitant may have a best-quality powersword and power glove, but that didn't help him pass his tests to notice that our cutlery was poisoned. 7d10's worth of temporary toughness penalty knocked him out for a large part of the session, until he teleported in at the climax of the fight to punch the boss into negative double digits.
Jeez, do you guys not play with rolls to find equipment? Or did you just spend the better part of a year not doing anything but purchasing things?