Rogue Trader

[z4carlo]

So my RP group played Rogue Trader for a while. We had a decent enough time but didnt really get many of the Rogue Trader specific rules, most notably Profit Margin. Basically the main problem is that its nearly impossible to create a some kind of combat situation when the Rogue Trader has a ship with 1000's of crew including plenty of guardsmen to bring along. Why wouldnt a Rogue Trader bring a full complement of Guardsmen with him whenever he left the ship, therefore combat is kind of irrelavent, to be honest why would the Rogue Trader do much of anything for himself.

So after a while we left Rogue Trader and started back up with Fantasy Roleplay. But I was watching Firefly again and imo that is what Rogue Trader should be! A small crew without some thoughts of grandeour taking any job they can to get by. So I set about trying to work out if you could make a similar situation within the Rogue Trader setting. Changing the Profit Margin into simple money would be easy. The biggest sumbling block is that as far as i know in the 40k universe there isnt a warp capable ship that doesnt have 1000's of crew and it would be quite limiting and quite a big step to give them a shuttle that wasnt warp capable.

Any ideas or any information about a small warp capable ship i might not have heard of?

[Caiphas Cain]

IIRC Eisenhorn had a warp capable ship with just a hand full of crew.

Maybe you should just use the Dark Heresy rules, and buy transportation as you need it.

[z4carlo]

Well I was basically thinking of using the Dark Heresy rules but within the above mentioned the Rogue Trader setting, is neither here nor there weather you bring DH rules into RT or RT setting/characters/background into DH. Any more info on Eisenhorn's ship? Was it individual or are the smaller warp capable vessels just lesser known?

[BigRob]

Eisenhorn didn't have a ship (he had a guncutter) and did alot of his warp travel aboard a friendly Rogue Traders vessel, this RT being an augmentist and having very few human crew but alot of servitors.

Getting your characters into a combat situation is very easy, even with a large number of soldiers on his side.

1: Armsmen are shipboard security, think of them as your red shirted starfleet security team. Their job is to die in large numbers to reinforce just how deadly the situation is, to make the heroes look heroic and/or as part of "Operation Human Shield". They will take on the hordes of enemy redshirts while the command team seek out the enemy commanders for the showdown, a fight within a fight situation. If you want to bring something better than a moderatly trained fellow in flak armour with a shotgun and the odd boarding flamer, your going to need to invest in some ship components. A barracks will allow a unit of household troopers to be carried, these may have carapace armour and hellguns with heavy weapon support, expensive to buy and maintain. If you want armour, your going to need to dedicate some cargo space to carrying it. If you bring along a transport full of army, then you need a frigate riding shotgun to keep it safe, nothing says yummy like a troopship.

2: Plot! Often the plot dictates the RT be there in person, wether through railroading "If he isn't the first to set foot on the planet, he can't claim it" or good old fashioned RP "The envoy refuses to deal with the monkey and wants to talk to the organgrinder". Remember being a RT is alot about making an impression and keeping face. A RT who hides on his bridge all the time behind his guards gets less respect and therefore will loose clients and fame. This is all easier than it sounds, my players often forget they have all the resources of their ship and play the game like its Dark Heresy......

3: Mad Skillz! Often the situation will require skills that only the senior staff have. How often in shows like Star Trek do the senior staff say "Hey, we have plenty of minions to do our work, lets have a few drinks in the ready room while they get slaughtered"? You need the missionary to inspire the men, the captain to lead them, the Explorator to disarm the ancient security grid, the Arch Militant to shoot them alot where it hurts and so on.

Profit Factor, the key mechanic of RT is very easy to use and as a GM I find it great, no more fiddling round with exchange rates between gold and silver coins and constant addition/subtraction, instead everyone has a credit card and an easily modified roll. It's nice to be able to breeze into town and pick up a few thousand laser rifles, two hundred grenades and a suit of power armour.

Good Luck, RT is great fun.

3:

[Hell's Angel]

Eisenhorn's guncutter should be inferred to be warp capable as written in the novels. Dan tends to write about a 40K society that has a far higher understanding of technology than 'the universe' should. (Not to mention access of said technology.) As a GM you have the authority to create any vehicle you think 'fits' your players needs to keep things fast and fun. In my Dark Heresy game my players have practically sprinted to Radicalism. As I posted in another relevant thread that was locked (thanks Dude) my players have revived a metal man and treat him like Commander Data. (Even though he acts more like Lore!) They have allowed him to operate on them, install cortex implants, even experiment on Xenos and Chaos tainted items! One thing that I have allowed is for the Metal Man to adapt tech using golden age nanites. He has thus created the following ship.

Heretek Modified Stormhawk Guncutter “The Defiant'
Length: 60 meters
Wingspan: 50 meters
Height: 15 meters
Type: Military Craft
Size: Massive
Traits: Anti-Grav, Interface Controls, Void Capable, Warp Capable.
Detection (Void): 25
Armour (Void): 8 Front, Side/Rear 6. [Armored Prow, and Armor Plating]
Hull Integrity (Void): 11. [Reinforced Bulkheads]
Turret Rating: 1
Drive: Modified Jovian Class 1 Drive w/Augmented Retro-thrusters (Archeotech Design)
Gellar Field: Warp Bane Hull, (Silver Hexagramic wards cover entire ship hull)
Engine: Micro-Strelov 1 Warp Engine (Proof of Concept Design.)
Void Shields: Castellan Shield (Archeotech Design)
Life Support: Ancient Life Sustainer (Archeotech Design)
Ship's Bridge: Armored Bridge of Antiquity (Archeotech Design)
Auger: Deep Void Auger Array w/ Auto-stabilized Logis-targeter (Archeotech Design)
Machine Spirit Oddity: Resolute
(Atmospheric) Narrative Speed: 2000 kph.
(Atmospheric) Tactical Speed: 25M/14 AU
(Void) Speed: 5
Handling Modifier (Atmosphere) [Pilot (Military Craft)]: +5
Void Maneuverability: +53
Armaments: (Pilot Operated) 1 Staravar Laser Macrobattery (Left /Right Cheek & Nose), (Gunner Operated) 2 Long Barreled Autocannons (Wings)
Staravar Laser Macrobattery (Ship/Ship): Strength 4, Damage 1d10+2, Critical 4, Range 12
2 Long Barreled Autocannons (Antipersonnel/Defensive) Range 450m (5AU), Heavy, S/2/5, 4d10+5, Pen 4, Clip 500, Reload 2Full)
Crew (4): 1 (Pilot/Gunner), 1 (Co-Pilot/Gunner), 1 (Navigator/Gunner), 1 (Engineer.)
Passengers: 5 (4 Luxury Passenger Quarters.)
Additional Facilities: Medicia Bay, Compartmentalized Cargo Hold.
Access Points: Back Access Ramp.

Base 'Void' Armor and Hull points were derived by rounding up, then dividing the Base stats by 10. Regular Rogue trader upgrades then effected the ship as usual. The only arbitrary stat I used was maneuverability which started at a base 45. Its small and fast for its size. Allowing it to do a 180 during the movement phase is likewise a given. I don't think they have any idea how 'soft' this vessel actually is, or how much trouble they will be in the first time someone doesn't scare when they hear the words 'Inquisitorial Business' and actually boards them for inspection.

[Snoddie]

I've been running a Warhammer 40k game for a while now using the Rouge Trader setting so I thought I'd throw my 2-cents in here for kicks hope it isn't too late. As for rules I would strongly suggest you take a look at Black Crusade for combat rules and how to deal with unnatural toughness and strength. I would assume that Only War will probably improve on the concepts even better.

As for combat with massive crews I do the following. Yes your ship is huge and you basically have the population of Detroit on your ship, but 1) your ship is not rated for atmosphere so you have to use shuttles to ferry men too and from the planets surface. These shuttles can take about 10 crew members I think my parties largest lander can take 20. So landing 1000s of men would take days until the get ship components that would allow them to do so quicker. 2) Your ship's crew is not like a modern military battleship, your "command" is more like being the major of a large city in space. Sure you're "the captain" but the majority of your crew doesn't even know what you look like let alone respect your authority. To them you are just a voice that yells over a vox speaker from time to time. If you want to recruit 1000 men to go planet side for you you're going to have to pull from the menials and lower deck population. (The higher deck crew members are too important to leave the ship and go planet side to shoot the locals). The lower deck crew members (at least on my rogue trader's ship) are just as likely to rob him and send his body out an airlock as they are to help him. So recruiting that many men from his ship would be an adventure all in it's own.

These are just suggestions, I hope they help.