Rogue Trader

[Krusk]

Similar to the "Bull Rushed into a pathfinder game".

I got berated into joining a Rogue Trader game one of my friends is running. I read the system, and basically had the thought "If I go into combat I will die". So I am a sniper/ships gunner and do my best to just avoid any mechanics, combat or otherwise, I can. (I maxed out Ballistic skill and toughness stats and ignored the others by and large) I'm fine with that I guess. Not every system is good, and sometimes playing the bad ones happens.

Here is the issue. The setting. The DM, and 2 of the other players are super into it, and warhammer 40k as well, and seem to think its the greatest thing since sliced bread. No matter how hard they try though there are a few things I can't get a grasp of. Maybe its because they turn every conversation into some tangent of how awesome the setting is, or maybe its because the setting is awful. I don't know.

1- Money- As rogue traders our ship has a profit factor that apparently represents all the stuff we own. This includes things like planets, mile long ships, and crews of over a thousand. My issue- Why bother ever making profit factor checks? Seriously, I have multiple planets I own. I don't buy that there are things I can't afford, or can't get.

2- The good guys- Apparently everyone is an evil dick. The entire setting. As someone who has little to no experience with the setting, my base assumption is "Every NPC we meet will be a horrible person, who tries to screw us always". So far I have not been wrong. Is this the general assumption for the setting. "Everyone is a horrible dick"? The DM has been known to do this with other setting as well, so maybe its just him.

3- Interplanetary travel- Apparently we travel quickly by opening warp holes into demon planes, and flying through them. OK I buy that. Apparently time passes differently there and we could appear a second later, or a hundred years later. How does anyone do any form of interplanetary business? "That thing I sold you will be there... one day?".

Can someone give me a basic outline of the various factions? As far as I have been able to tell they are...

1- Emperor- Guys who like the emperor. He is a corpse on a throne, but people follow him like a deity. Don't insult him or they get really mad.
2- Space Marines- Guys who apparently get mad if you buy their equipment on a black market and will hunt you for using it.
3- Eldar- Space elves. They use space elf magic to travel without going into demon world. Afraid of a demon called "Slannesh" I think?
4- Dark Eldar- Basically the exact same as space elves, but wear black.
5- Orcs- "Chaotic Stupid" alignment orcs.
6- Inquisition- Guys who hunt demon summoners and make sure people like the emperor.

I'm also having a hard time finding motivation for my PC that isn't. "Kill people who fight me for whatever reason". Suggestions?

Also of note, I don't particularly want to ruin the game. (I think the next one to DM after this campaign will be running pathfinder and I'm not in a hurry to get to that)

[Username17]

1- Money-

Yeah... those things don't make a lot of sense. Sorry, can't really help you there.

2- The good guys- Apparently everyone is an evil dick. The entire setting.

Yes. No exceptions. Sometimes fans will rant about how various factions are "less bad" - but they are saying that factions are the lesser of evils who keep slaves and commit human sacrifice. So, whatever.

3- Interplanetary travel- Apparently we travel quickly by opening warp holes into demon planes, and flying through them. OK I buy that. Apparently time passes differently there and we could appear a second later, or a hundred years later. How does anyone do any form of interplanetary business? "That thing I sold you will be there... one day?".

You don't ever order anything. Traders show up like peddler caravans from the Dark Ages. They have a bunch of stuff, they swap out things you happen to want for generally more totally value of whatever you have surpluses of, and then they leave. And you may not see another caravan within your lifetime, so anything you think you'll ever want you need to buy now, at whatever ruinous price they choose to impose.

Can someone give me a basic outline of the various factions?

Sure.

There is an Empire of Man, a Horde of Orks, two different sets of Eldar, Tyranids, Tau, Necrons, and Chaos. Basically all of them are dicks who perform human sacrifice to evil gods and fight all the time.

I'm also having a hard time finding motivation for my PC that isn't. "Kill people who fight me for whatever reason". Suggestions?

Well, that's pretty standard. The tagline for the entire setting is "In the grim future of HelloKitty, there is only war!" Seriously. I suggest buying up peoples' daughters. Have like a harem ship or something. People will totally go for it. They can always have more children, but this is their only chance to buy a Redalkan Tractor.

When you have enough hot bitches to make the crew of the Nadesico, do that.

-Username17

[Krusk]

So I was reading it mostly right.. Awesome...

The harem ship will definitely be my characters next goal, and probably be obtainable during our current quest. Current quest consisted of us saying "Well what now...?" and looking at the DM. He showed us a map, and asked where we wanted to go. I noticed some feudal planets and asked what they were. Then decided we ought to go harass the locals so to speak. Force them into mining all the precious metals for us. That sort of thing. I think we can work a "Mine all this stuff for us and also give us your daughters" sort of thing.

While not the groups rogue trader, I do tend to make decisions about what we are going to do, simply so something happens. (Leads to another question. Is the rogue trader PC supposed to be our boss?)

Thanks to the DMs "Stop sex cultists of ___" quest we just finished I established my character as a serious sexual deviant to blend in. A slave harem doesn't seem out of line, and like a decent goal.

Question about space travel. If no one ever arrives at a predictable time, how do armies work and what is the purpose of building a space military. If all the ships show up out of "Demon hyper space" at random times, how is any sort of space military supposed to function? How does SPACE TOTAL WAR work if this is how space travel works?

The DM tends to threaten us with "If you do that space marine faction will chase you down". (Those familiar with the setting then absolutely refuse to cross those guys, no matter how hard push. Are they scary?) How can they chase us down, if no one is ever anywhere at a predictable time? Those familiar with the setting seem to think thats a legitimate threat. I asked them about how this works and they gave a really round about answer that didn't actually answer me and was more of a hand wave of "it just works".

[Grek]

1- Money- As rogue traders our ship has a profit factor that apparently represents all the stuff we own. This includes things like planets, mile long ships, and crews of over a thousand. My issue- Why bother ever making profit factor checks? Seriously, I have multiple planets I own. I don't buy that there are things I can't afford, or can't get.

WH40K is a used future setting, where things used to be super awesome and then the Emperor died and everything went to shit. As such, there's alot of stuff left that is basically unique in the sense of "There are only 11 of these left in the entire universe. The rest were destroyed during the Black Crusade. It isn't for sale even if you had 20 planets to trade me for one." This also pretty much handles your motivation. Pick something that's on the list of "not for sale even for planets full of money" that your character might plausably enjoy owning and make it your goal to get one.

2- The good guys

You're basically right on the money. Every faction is horrible. Some rare individuals aren't, but everyone around them is. Only possible exception is the Tau, but even they have alot of bad points, like a caste system and possible mind-slavery of members of the lower castes. But the Tau are definately the closest thing to "Good guys" there is in the setting. Not popular with fanboys, though, and your DM is unlikely to include them.

3- Interplanetary travel- Apparently we travel quickly by opening warp holes into demon planes, and flying through them. OK I buy that. Apparently time passes differently there and we could appear a second later, or a hundred years later. How does anyone do any form of interplanetary business? "That thing I sold you will be there... one day?".

Warp travel usually doesn't do that. Most of the time, you get there within +/- a week of when you expected to arrive. At least in the fluff anyways. I'm not sure how rogue trader's rules match up with that.


Factions list:

Empire of Man: Loves the Emperor, who was basically Space Jesus, but then got killed. Allied with the Inquisition(spanish inquisition in space), Space Marines(huge dudes in power armour), Adeptus Arbites(space cops), Adeptus Mechanicus(worships technology and has robot parts), Imperial Guard(cannon fodder with lasers) and assorted other imperial bodies. Expect some degree of infighting between them and heaps of corruption. 90% of the people you'll be dealing with are going to be semi-loyal subjects of the Empire.

Eldar: Before the Empire, there was the Elder. They had an awesome life, but then they fucked up somehow and summoned a Daemon Prince(Slannesh) who now wants to eat/kill/tentacle rape every single member of their species and then eat their souls. They have supertechnology on par with the Old Empire and heaps and heaps of psycics. They are all huge pricks. Some Eldar, the Dark Eldar are allied with Chaos and, in exchange, are only eaten after they die normally instead of having evil chaos demons sent to eat them. Feel free to trade with these guys if you think you can get away with it. They'll still try to screw you, though.

Chaos: These are the dudes that killed the Emperor and wrecked the Elder's shit. Ruled by four evil Daemon Princes, Slannesh, Nurgle, Khorne and Tzeentch. Allied with Chaos are the dark Eldar and Chaos versions of everything the Empire has, ie. Chaos Space Maries, Chaos Guardsmen, Dark Mechanicus and so forth. They're 100% undiluted evil. Also, you fly through their Hell-dimension every time you use warp travel. Do not interact with these guys at all if you can help it, you will only get fucked. Possibly literally, with a barbed tentacle.

Orks: Basically standard fantasy orcs with guns and occasionally power armour/tanks. Can talk, and can be friendy with humans, but usually arent. Genetically wired to want to die in a fight, and get stronger/bigger the more people they kill. Led by warbosses who is the biggest and who killed the most people. All of their tech is useless if you're not an orc. Probably shouldn't trade with these guys.

Tyranids: These are the guys that inspired the Zerg from Starcraft. They want to eat your organs and reprocess your genetic material into more nids. If you see some, just fucking leave, because the whole sector is going to get glassed or eaten by space locusts. Do not attempt to trade with these at all, ever. Like, even less than you want to trade with Chaos.

Necrons: Even worse than the Tyranids, but rarer. Wants to kill everything ever and probably can. Your will probably never ever ever meet any. If you do see some, that means the campaign is about to end with you all getting killed, or you're going to get Deus ex Machina'd out of the situation.

Tau: Space communists with a caste system and a rallying cry of "For the Greater Good". They have robot servants our their ass and are usually OK. Assimilates other species into their society in a fairly okish way. Most of the time. Some rumours around that they also sterilize members of other species, but meh, it's not like you were going to have kids anyways in this campaign. They don't kill humans on sight, but will probably try to convert you over to their crazy communist caste system. If the rest of the crew is OK with it, just go along with it and hope it works out.

[fectin]

Yes, you should be scared of space marines. They are like people, but more hardcore in every way. Also, (and this part is key) they have plot armor and plot weapons. If they show up, they are extremely likely to win by GM fiat.

I think basically, everyone who isn't you gets to interact with the Warp in less horrible ways, because they all have psychers to navigate it. It's actually fairly easy for the empire, because they collect psychers from all their billion worlds, take them to earth ("Holly Terra"), and fucking light them on fire. Acts like a sort of giant space lighthouse.

[name_here]

The DM tends to threaten us with "If you do that space marine faction will chase you down". (Those familiar with the setting then absolutely refuse to cross those guys, no matter how hard push. Are they scary?) How can they chase us down, if no one is ever anywhere at a predictable time? Those familiar with the setting seem to think thats a legitimate threat. I asked them about how this works and they gave a really round about answer that didn't actually answer me and was more of a hand wave of "it just works".

Space Marines are that scary. They're the imperial elites, wear power armor, are seven feet tall, and have high-quality heavy tanks and are generally completely airmobile.

Most of the time, warp travel just takes a highly variable number of weeks, unless there's a warp storm in the area or something, in which case you can arrive at your destination any time from "five thousand years ago" to "never, because you're dead.

EDIT: all that only applies when you have a Navigator. You do have one, right?

The Tau are the least dickish race, which is to say that they just employ mind control on a massive basis and only murder the dudes who actually pissed them off when herding planetary populations into concentration camps. For reference, the imperium comes in at second least dickish with working entire planetary populations of loyalists to death because they got in a fight with chaos, sacrificing five digits of people to power the Emperor's chair and run the thingy that lets people steer in the Warp and arrive on some vaguely consistent timetable about 90% of the time, ordering the extermination of military forces for seeing too much, and so on.

[Daztur]

Question about space travel. If no one ever arrives at a predictable time, how do armies work and what is the purpose of building a space military. If all the ships show up out of "Demon hyper space" at random times, how is any sort of space military supposed to function? How does SPACE TOTAL WAR work if this is how space travel works?

You send an army at the enemy and hope it gets there. If it doesn't, send another one. If the first one ends up in the wrong place, there'll probably be something to fight when it gets there.

Also I don't think space travel is quite as unpredictable as you're assuming, things go according to plan more often than not.

[Lago PARANOIA]

For reference, the imperium comes in at second least dickish with working entire planetary populations of loyalists to death because they got in a fight with chaos

I thought that the Orks and Eldar come in before the Imperium; because even though it's extremely dangerous to live around them and they don't really give a crap if you live or die, they don't automatically have a policy of 'if you're different you die'.

[TheFlatline]

So I was reading it mostly right.. Awesome...

The harem ship will definitely be my characters next goal, and probably be obtainable during our current quest. Current quest consisted of us saying "Well what now...?" and looking at the DM. He showed us a map, and asked where we wanted to go. I noticed some feudal planets and asked what they were. Then decided we ought to go harass the locals so to speak. Force them into mining all the precious metals for us. That sort of thing. I think we can work a "Mine all this stuff for us and also give us your daughters" sort of thing.

While not the groups rogue trader, I do tend to make decisions about what we are going to do, simply so something happens. (Leads to another question. Is the rogue trader PC supposed to be our boss?)

Thanks to the DMs "Stop sex cultists of ___" quest we just finished I established my character as a serious sexual deviant to blend in. A slave harem doesn't seem out of line, and like a decent goal.

Question about space travel. If no one ever arrives at a predictable time, how do armies work and what is the purpose of building a space military. If all the ships show up out of "Demon hyper space" at random times, how is any sort of space military supposed to function? How does SPACE TOTAL WAR work if this is how space travel works?

The DM tends to threaten us with "If you do that space marine faction will chase you down". (Those familiar with the setting then absolutely refuse to cross those guys, no matter how hard push. Are they scary?) How can they chase us down, if no one is ever anywhere at a predictable time? Those familiar with the setting seem to think thats a legitimate threat. I asked them about how this works and they gave a really round about answer that didn't actually answer me and was more of a hand wave of "it just works".

Let's see if I can answer some questions here. I don't *have* Rogue Trader, because I already own Traveller and Star Trek in Warhammer 40k sounds lame.

Anyway:

Survivability in combat: Not as difficult as you might imagine. Toughness is your friend, as is good armor and cover. While combat in this system is dangerous, at mid and upper levels it's not a meat grinder, especially if you have a psyker handy. Level 1 and 2 Dark Heresy characters are fucking tissue paper in a hurricane, but by level 4 or 5 they weren't terrified of going into combat.

Space Marines: Yes, they're that scary. And I don't even mean plot armor scary. If your GM has Deathwatch, he can run a space marine, one of which is roughly on par at 1st level with a max'd out Rogue Trader. To be brief: they have toughness in the 40's to 50's as a starting character, and unnatural toughness so that they soak 8-10 points of damage in their underwear. Their power armor is going to add another 8-12 points of damage reduction all over, so they'll soak 15-20 points of damage period. Their guns deal damage in the 20's. The have bullshit amounts of powers and the very best weaponry. They seriously send like 100 of them to fight a war that a million Imperial Guardsmen would be used for. HOWEVER- that being said, you'd have to personally piss off the space marines to get them to come after you. There's not a lot of them (1000 per chapter if I recall), and the IG does 99% of warfare and combat.

Space Travel: I use it as a plot excuse to bring new players in easily. Space travel is unreliable, especially when you start making longer trips. Dark ages caravans is an excellent way to think of Rogue Trader, since the entire setting is feudal based. Each planet is a government unto itself, wholly self-sufficient usually, who owes the Emperor a tithe and a few other things.

Motivation/Leadership: In theory, the rogue trader is supposed to be your boss. He is a member of a family who has a special dispensation to a particular trade route, probably several thousand years old, and/or authority to trade with species other than man. In reality, he doesn't have to be. He could be a pushover. Motivation is weak for me. You trade, but you have that profit factor, which makes any particular trade you make pointless. At least in traveller you had the monthly ship payment as a very real motivation factor: Pay your bills or lose your home. You're kind of hosed here. It's why I avoided RT to begin with. You're either playing Traveller or you're playing Star Trek, neither of which suit me in a 40k game.

Profit Factor: Don't think of it as "I own this planet, why can't I get this bolt rifle?", think of it as a check to see if your holdings can generate enough disposable income at that particular moment to acquire what you want. Diverse holdings are difficult to access. I *think* you can burn profit factor permanently to get what you want (Ascention Dark Heresy and Deathwatch allow this), which represents you parting with income-generating resources to get what you want *right then*.

Military viability: Again, the Space Marines have top tier equipment and only really fear warp storms to prevent them from getting where they need to get. If the Imperial Guard decides to launch a crusade, they draft 10 million troops and load them into a fleet of ships and warp somewhere. They probably expect 1-2 million troops to never appear out of the other end of the warp, or be significantly delayed. Then they have a horrible battle in space to establish orbit, and lose another couple million troops. Then the 6 million survivors land and start a 20 year ground war to conquer a planet one square foot at a time. During this time, more troops are warped in steadily. When that planet is conquered, whatever few millions of IG troops are left become colonists and settle on the new planet to add it to the Imperium (if it's hospitable enough for human life). The warlord of the crusade then goes to another couple planets, tithes and drafts another 10 million IG, and starts over again. Crusades can take *hundreds* of years. A few weeks one way or another isn't going to matter.

[Krusk]

EDIT: all that only applies when you have a Navigator. You do have one, right?

Heh. The DM mandated that we have one, and then basically said "I don't know the rules, and they are really complex. We will MTP this." And I said "So long as I am not the navigator I don't care".

Specific examples. Every time we go through the hyperspace, he rolls a die and tells us it takes X weeks. Then he rolls a percentile for each week, and if the number is low enough (I seriously think its "low numbers bad big numbers good") monsters appear on our ship. We shortened the last space travel time from 2 months to 1, when he pointed in the book and said see how far you go? Its like 12 months to go the entire double page spread. And I pointed out we were only going like "1/12th of that". He then said "Yeah, good point. 1 month".

Long story short, we have one and they make some rolls and stuff, but I think its all done by DM fiat. I'd care if it was my PC being rendered entirely DM fiat but whatever. In the end I don't.

[Krusk]

Session 4, we just hit rank 2.

Survivability- Most of the other PCs didn't invest in toughness. I bought "Space marine armor" that reduces 9, have subdermal implants and bionic limbs giving +2 or 3 depending where shot, and a toughness of 60~. and have like 19 wounds. Everyone else has toughness of like 35-40, much worse armor, and no implant.

In essence my PC can't be wounded by anything that wouldn't auto kill the rest of the party.

DM does have deathwatch. Side note, I think every foe we fight is some form of space marine reskinned. Most things take like 4 or 5 solid hits to take down, even on attacks dealing 20+ damage.

[TheFlatline]

Nah, it's normal for aliens and shit to have like 60 hitpoints and soak 10 points of damage per attack.

Now if you want to shred bad guys easier, repeat after me:

Fully automatic weapons are your friend.

If you get your hands on a heavy bolter, in one full round action (that takes like 15 minutes of rolling), on a good hit you do something in the neighborhood of 300 points of damage. Heavy stubbers and autocannons aren't quite as bullshit, but still, if everyone does the full-auto curb stomp on a badguy, he's fucking going down.

Case in point: Full Auto gives you a +20 to hit (why it's easier to hit someone when you spray & pray is beyond me, but whatever). At short range (which is 1/2 the base range increment if memory serves, and for heavy weapons like this you're talking within 20-30 meters) you get another +10. God help you if you're at point blank range, because that increases to +30. Aiming and/or bracing gives you even more bonuses.

With a ballistics skill in the 40's, you're going to be rolling under a target number in the 70's, and in the 90's at point blank range.

Every 10 points you beat your target number by is an additional hit.

Let's say you roll a 23, and your target number is 74. You just hit 6 times. And each one of those hits *could* result in exploded damage.

If you're using a heavy bolter, you then roll 2D10, take the highest, twice. You essentially have a 4 in 10 chance of the damage exploding. And you do that for each hit. Yes, damage reduction applies to each shot, but in the end you're vastly more capable than anyone firing single shot or narrow burst (which only inflicts an extra hit by every 20 points you beat the score by).

[Psychic Robot]

Survivability- Most of the other PCs didn't invest in toughness. I bought "Space marine armor" that reduces 9, have subdermal implants and bionic limbs giving +2 or 3 depending where shot, and a toughness of 60~. and have like 19 wounds. Everyone else has toughness of like 35-40, much worse armor, and no implant.

And now you've begun to encounter the problem with the system.

[Krusk]

And now you've begun to encounter the problem with the system.

Yeah, I don't know how the others didn't see this upon reading the book.

I had a full auto gun that I used for a while but I got tired of auto killing the entire enemy force. So I stopped, and then everyone else bought one. Now we have 3 guys who use full auto on everything and hold their own (For whatever reason no one else invested in Ballistics Skills) and another who simply makes cover fire with no attempt at success or damage. Forcing morale tests on the enemies.

I started asking for a sniper after my full auto stuff got boring and got a man portable las cannon. Apparently thats badass (And maybe supposed to be a two person gun?). Anyway, it basically 1 hit kills everything, even the majority of the demons.

[Psychic Robot]

I'm not sure if the sniper rifle errata from Dark Heresy is in the Rogue Trader book. If it's not, remember that you get an additional 1d10 damage per degree of success on your attack roll when you aim (maximum 2d10).

[TheFlatline]

I'm not sure if the sniper rifle errata from Dark Heresy is in the Rogue Trader book. If it's not, remember that you get an additional 1d10 damage per degree of success on your attack roll when you aim (maximum 2d10).

Plus there are talents that let you basically pick what spot you hit on a person without having to make a called shot. Useful to pick the weaker parts of the armor.

[Zinegata]

1- Money- As rogue traders our ship has a profit factor that apparently represents all the stuff we own. This includes things like planets, mile long ships, and crews of over a thousand. My issue- Why bother ever making profit factor checks? Seriously, I have multiple planets I own. I don't buy that there are things I can't afford, or can't get.

A single planet may seem valuable, but when there are a million inhabited worlds out there then that lone planet doesn't seem so valuable anymore.

Profit factor checks, BTW, should only be done when purchasing common goods in bulk (i.e. 10,000 rifles), or when you are acquiring something very rare. You should never use Profit Factor checks to get something like an ordinary pistol or a mug of beer. You are so seriously rich that you can assume you have those mundane stuff.

Also, note that when you buy weapons (even uber rare ones), it already comes with unlimited reloads when you go back to your ship/armory - because the PF cost also supposedly includes ammo and maintenance.

2- The good guys- Apparently everyone is an evil dick. The entire setting. As someone who has little to no experience with the setting, my base assumption is "Every NPC we meet will be a horrible person, who tries to screw us always". So far I have not been wrong. Is this the general assumption for the setting. "Everyone is a horrible dick"? The DM has been known to do this with other setting as well, so maybe its just him.

You dont have to be an evil dick though. And frankly, the evilness of 40K is exaggerated -- at least as far as humans are concerned. It's definitely not the sort of place for a Captain Picard, but a rough and tumble crew like say the guys from Serenity would find the place liveable.

3- Interplanetary travel- Apparently we travel quickly by opening warp holes into demon planes, and flying through them. OK I buy that. Apparently time passes differently there and we could appear a second later, or a hundred years later. How does anyone do any form of interplanetary business? "That thing I sold you will be there... one day?".

It's supposed to be a Dark Ages setting in space, so reliable trade similar to the modern world does not exist.

However, the vagueries of Warp Travel do tend to be more the exception rather than the rule. Sure, some ships get trapped for 2,000 years in the Warp, but only very few do.

Think of it more like the Age of Sail. There's a chance your ship won't make it to port. There's also a chance that your cargo will be unbelievably late OR uneblievably early. But most of the time the ship will arrive sometime within the same month you expected it.

All this however, does make trading a very dangerous but lucrative venture - which is a major reason why people become Rogue Traders in the first place.

[Red_Rob]

Its worth pointing out that the extreme dickishness of the "good guys" in WH40k is supposed to be an understandable reaction to the extremely hostile universe they live in. For example:

The Inquisition roots out any suggestion of heresy from the One True Faith and responds with methods up to and including planet wide sterilization. Dicks, yes? Well, not really when you consider there are actual Demons from Hell that actually possess people and that entire worlds have been dragged into the Warp where these forces gained enough of a foothold.

The Astronomicon is a beacon powered by the sacrifice of hundreds of psychics every day, rounded up from the Imperium's worlds and herded to slowly die on Earth. Dystopian Nightmare fuel? Well, when you realise that untrained psychics in this universe attract Demons and other Warp parasites likes moths to a candle, and the fact that without this beacon interstellar trade would cease and the universe would be plunged into a new Dark Age, it seems pretty reasonable.

Interestingly, in a lot of the earlier 40k stuff it referenced humanity being at a turning point in its evolution, and that the psychics that were appearing were the first untrained appearance of what would be a new strain of humanity. It suggested that this was a dark point in humanities history but that the dawn was right around the corner.

[Spike]

1- Money- As rogue traders our ship has a profit factor that apparently represents all the stuff we own. This includes things like planets, mile long ships, and crews of over a thousand. My issue- Why bother ever making profit factor checks? Seriously, I have multiple planets I own. I don't buy that there are things I can't afford, or can't get.

Seriously, everyone else has touched on this already but: You are not buying a gun, you are buying an army worth of guns, or a near unique gun that was made a thousand years ago by the michelangelo of gunmaking. Or you are buying a starship, which is the size of a small moon and takes decades to build. Most of your 'planet' wealth is paid in taxes, and probably isn't that efficient anyway. I'm not a fan of abstract wealth systems, but in Rogue Trader I give it a pass. Its far from perfect... its pretty hard to actually lose PF doing day to day business (adventures, whatever), so it tends to just trend upwards endlessly.

2- The good guys- Apparently everyone is an evil dick. The entire setting. As someone who has little to no experience with the setting, my base assumption is "Every NPC we meet will be a horrible person, who tries to screw us always". So far I have not been wrong. Is this the general assumption for the setting. "Everyone is a horrible dick"? The DM has been known to do this with other setting as well, so maybe its just him.

Sounds like the GM. The Imperium, as a whole, is pretty distopian, but a RT is one of the elite. Adventures, even in Inquisitor... where you are looking for scum, have plenty of decent chaps for you to meet, along with snobbish dickheads and out and out villains. People are people, even in 40k.

1- Emperor- Guys who like the emperor. He is a corpse on a throne, but people follow him like a deity. Don't insult him or they get really mad.
2- Space Marines- Guys who apparently get mad if you buy their equipment on a black market and will hunt you for using it.
3- Eldar- Space elves. They use space elf magic to travel without going into demon world. Afraid of a demon called "Slannesh" I think?
4- Dark Eldar- Basically the exact same as space elves, but wear black.
5- Orcs- "Chaotic Stupid" alignment orcs.
6- Inquisition- Guys who hunt demon summoners and make sure people like the emperor.

A proper 40k game you won't be dealing too much with 'factions' like that. The Emperor is less a faction than a terrain feature. Rogue Trader is an exception, in that you can actually deal with aliens without shooting them in the face, but depending on your GM your main 'faction' issues should be rival Traders. Orks can be comic relief (cockney soccer hooligans with big axes) or brutal badguys (they don't die easily, and can survive having their head cut off (briefly), don't apparently feel pain, are utterly immune to fear and will kill you for the lulz.

Within limits you can deal with an Inquisitor as a near equal, depending upon the GM. They are the gestapo, but a Rogue Trader, particularly a successful one, is a ranking Party Member, meaning they can't just disappear you for the Lulz.

Other factions would be the Ecclesiarcy (the Church of the Emperor), who are serious about heresy and burnination. The Imperial Navy (who have bigger, meaner ships), the Adeptus Mechanicus (tech priests, with all the cool toys) and the sector nobility (who, arguably, tell the other factions what to do). You probably won't deal much with Space Marines, even if you commit the heresy of trying to use their stuff (unless you take it directly from them... but seriously, they don't investigate and hunt down thieves. Thats the Inquisition's job... Of course, if they KNOW where you are... yeah.. bigger meaner ships and a thousand immortal superhuman killing machines/walking tanks will be coming to take it back.)

The thing about the factions is that you can seriously ally with them, which will shape how your ship works, and how your adventures play out.

I'm also having a hard time finding motivation for my PC that isn't. "Kill people who fight me for whatever reason". Suggestions?

Look at the bigger picture. You have the unique characteristic of actual freedom, and the ship/money to do what you want. You have the remit to actually go out and colonize worlds and exploit them on behalf of the Imperium. Most of your peers are fellow Rogue Traders, and they all want a share of your pie (because its faster and easier than going out and finding and exploiting their own worlds), so they'll try and take it from you. To keep the edge, you want to take their pie, or find some lost El Dorado of myth and legend for the quick and easy score.

Your motivations should be on that scale. Killin' dudes in the face is fine, but sort of... petty in the face of that sort of play. Wiping out all the Eldar in teh entire sector? That's a Rogue Trader goal, though maybe not a very profitable one. Settling your own personal 'Space Empire' is fucking Canon... though unless you want to play total war, making that 'Space Empire' part of the Imperium is probably wiser than the alternative.

Since your dude isn't the Rogue Trader himself, technically you don't have the remit to do that per se... but you can still have a say in a group goal, or you can set a personal (game wrecking?) goal of proving your worth to get your own Charter, or take his. (Seriously: The GM should have pushed to give the 'RT' role to the most proactive player... or allowed multiple RTs (they can and do work together)).

Hope that helped.

[sabs]

Why am I trading if I own a couple of planets? Why not just.. stay on my planet, and see how many different women I can fuck in 1 day?

[TheFlatline]

Because you hold a special dispensation from the Emperor allowing you to trade. Losing that will eventually doom your family lineage to becoming cannon fodder again some day down the line.

The Rogue Trader contracts date back thousands of years. They let you see parts of the galaxy that literally mean you can be burned alive for heresy if you were anyone other than a rogue trader (or inquisitor, or space marine, but those two probably are burninating the places you'd be visiting).

I imagine once you're wealthy enough, you'd go trading just because it's something that almost nobody else can do. Anyone can fuck a bunch of women, but even the nobles can't say openly that they trade and have visited with the Eldar.

[TheFlatline]

A bit on the Inquisitors:

You have more to fear from them than from the Space Marines. The Marines have better things to do than to swat a single rogue trader, but the Inquisitors.... sooner or later one *will* check your ship out for traces of heresy, which include letting xenos culture taint you. What that specifically means is up to the Inquisitor to decide.

There is only one person in the universe who is above a sanctioned Inquisitor: the Emperor himself. Everyone else is suspect.

Now, the more powerful you are, the harder it is to charge someone with heresy without there being backlash, which is where you as a rogue trader gain wiggle room. Not a lot, but some.

Also, a full inquisitor basically has access to everything in the Imperium if needed bad enough. They have an Influence stat like you have a Profit Factor, only Influence lets them recruit 10,000 Imperial Guard, commandeer an entire battle fleet, or order all life on a planet exterminated (All of those are expensive, but entirely do-able).

[fectin]

Why am I trading if I own a couple of planets? Why not just.. stay on my planet, and see how many different women I can fuck in 1 day?

Why do CEOs work for more than a year at their ridiculous salaries? Because it's fun, and because you can seriously effect change.

It's a little weird, but it's basically the Apollonian impulse (ignoring Paglia's sexual aspersions).

[Spike]

A bit on the Inquisitors:

You have more to fear from them than from the Space Marines. The Marines have better things to do than to swat a single rogue trader, but the Inquisitors.... sooner or later one *will* check your ship out for traces of heresy, which include letting xenos culture taint you. What that specifically means is up to the Inquisitor to decide.

There is only one person in the universe who is above a sanctioned Inquisitor: the Emperor himself. Everyone else is suspect.

Now, the more powerful you are, the harder it is to charge someone with heresy without there being backlash, which is where you as a rogue trader gain wiggle room. Not a lot, but some.

Also, a full inquisitor basically has access to everything in the Imperium if needed bad enough. They have an Influence stat like you have a Profit Factor, only Influence lets them recruit 10,000 Imperial Guard, commandeer an entire battle fleet, or order all life on a planet exterminated (All of those are expensive, but entirely do-able).

There is a whole hierarchy of power at play. The puritan Inquisitor who will totally burninate you just because you have some Xenos artifacts aboard your ship, regardless of the fact that you are(may be) totally authorized to have those due to the terms of your charter, has a whole list of dude above him that can tell him to feck off. I believe Dark Heresy explicitly comments that the Sector Governor is the political equal of the Lord Inquisitor of the sector... not immune to investigation, but needing a powerful, airtight case, to do anything about.

Thus Rogue Trader implies a certain minimum of political gamesmanship to the profit factor. A whole bunch of rich and powerful people are making big money off of your RT, and if you have connections (and really, you should...) you can totally tap those to put pressure on the Inquisition to reign in an attack dog... even though, yes, the Inquisitor in question is officially higher on the food chain.

I'd put Influence and Profit on the same general level. While Influence might allow you to raise imperial guard, Profit Factor can allow you to hire mercenaries. You might not get Speesh Marines and Skitarii on your ship, but you can 'make' cyber-berserkers with Power Armor (for MASSIVE costs in PF)... I would say that, if you had to point out a difference in 'power' between the two that it is situational. In some cases influence is better, in other cases, handing over big piles of space gold is better.

[Krusk]

Since your dude isn't the Rogue Trader himself, technically you don't have the remit to do that per se... but you can still have a say in a group goal, or you can set a personal (game wrecking?) goal of proving your worth to get your own Charter, or take his. (Seriously: The GM should have pushed to give the 'RT' role to the most proactive player... or allowed multiple RTs (they can and do work together)).

He is one of the more proactive players, and knows more about the setting than the GM. Its just that if someone ever says "I am doing ___" he won't step up and stop you, and will just follow along. I tend to be the one to do that, as the other players are A- New to RPGs, B- The quiet GF along for the ride, and C- "Has no interest in anything but combat, and sucks at, it self proclaimed munchkin". We also had a second disinterested GF for a while. In the end the game is typically the RT doing what the DM wants, if/when he presents a plot, and me and New to RPGs doing things that sound fun, him following my lead (Neither of us know warhammer).

Also during character gen, my PC and the RT's PC have a linked past with him pulling me out of (Trip to spice mines for crime) because we grew up on the same hive world together. My PC feel he owes him, and if ever countermanded usually falls in line with what the RT says.

For what its worth, his PC apparently used to be inquisition but they "Promoted" him to rogue trader to essentially get him out of the inquisition. I think he just got secret re-hired and so we should probably be able to consider them allies.

I do like the idea of setting up our own planetary system, and might take that as a long reaching PC goal. Everyone else will be too scared of "DM fiat no" to go along with it, but my PC can totally lay the groundwork on the sly. Probably even getting them to help inadvertently. Like I said, we are currently planning to conquer some feudal worlds and force them to mine their planets dry. I could see fighting the empire as a fun character goal, but I also see that having to come way later on.