Hey all. I have a fairly newish RT group, and have a few things planned for them. But one in particular is bugging me.

The idea is that they find a planet that is either A.) Inhabited by a long forgotten Imperial colony/Abhumans, or B.) A primitive xenos race.

Regardless, their holy symbol is a two headed eagle, which is either expected or an odd coincidence, depending on which I decide upon. They won't learn much more until a religious ceremony is held to feed a flock of.... Space Marine sized two-headed birds of prey. (DundunDUN)

What they discover about these birds is that their feathers are actually crystals that have some crazy flubotinum properties. But these feathers are firmly attached to the bird, and removing them causes immense pain, leading to death.

It's an interesting concept, but I can't seem to think of a way to make the explorers actually... care about the moral decision. The birds are worth a lot from their feathers, and would also inspire immense faith (assuming they weren't dead on arrival), but I can't think of a way to get the traders to think about anything other than profit factor. Your thoughts?

It's what to expect from Rogue Traders, true. Also, careful on the "inspire faith" angle; Glovodon Eagles (and I'm not sure if that's what the Aquilla actually is, but Coteaz does have one, so I hope so) are an established thing, and having a giant, Frankenstein-like monstrosity parodying one (I in no way am accusing you of doing that, but it's how I imagine the people of the verse seeing it; the thing in an Aquilla can ride on an Inquisitor's arm, and this is an 8-foot tall beast with Chaos-tainted (when in doubt, blame Chaos) feathers. Better to kill it on sight) might cause more terror than inspiration.

All that BS said, if you do this, I wish you the best of luck. The folks of 40K are a rather simple, superstitious lot, so maybe they'd actually take it better than I think. Everything else is "bigger is better", so maybe these would work, too.

It's an interesting concept, but I can't seem to think of a way to make the explorers actually... care about the moral decision. The birds are worth a lot from their feathers, and would also inspire immense faith (assuming they weren't dead on arrival), but I can't think of a way to get the traders to think about anything other than profit factor. Your thoughts?

Well, the only way for them to care is for something to happen to someone they care about. Make one of the NPC tribal elders be funny/witty/charming/ or whatever, and warm him/her up to the PCs. Heck, you can even have a young Princess/Prince in a tribe, that one of the PC's has fallen head over hells for. Drag all this out for an hour or two (or 3 or 4 if everyone is having fun), and then spring the Bird-thing.

And if the PC's hurt the bird's or try to take one off planet, then a "random" NPC's commits suicide to appease the "God(s). And make the "random" NPC be the one standing right next the one they like/love. You can even have the liked/loved NPC volunteer (yelling out loud) to be the next offering to appease the God(s).

This doesn't have to be the tribal people either. It could also be crew or even the Adeptus Ministorum priests take a liking to the birds, and start causing discord among the ship, if ill befalls the creatures. Heck, you can even have the first few birds brought on board the ship die, almost causing a mutiny (make it be like -2d10 Morale). And if dissected to determine why, it's because the common flu some of the crew/handlers had killed them. The crew/Adeptus Ministorum priests take it as a sign that no more harm should befall the magnificent creatures.

Yeah it's hard to overcome the profit motive as that is a lot what RT is based around.

You could always put in consequences as mentioned above. One way might be to negatively affect PF. If the giant birds are considered to be manifestations of the Emperor's glory then harming them for profit may lead to trade partners breaking off relations in disgust or fervent elements in the sector acting against the Rogue Trader's interests, reducing PF (and possibly also military capacity) by more than selling the Bird's crystal feathers increases it by.

Interesting problem you've posed to your players... but only on paper. The coincidence of the xenos/abhumans worshipping what is essentially a living aquilla is a nice twist, but at the end of the day, these things are xenos worshipping what a pious imperial citizen would view as a mockery of the aquilla. Killing them and taking what they want is the "normal" reaction here.

Remember, the Rogue Trader's Warrant of Trade charges the dynasty with going into the dark, untamed edges of known space not only to profit by their endeavors, but to do the Emperor and his Imperium's work. Wiping out xenos, pseudo-heretics and... anything different... is part of the service the dynasty performs for the Imperium.

As GM and players, those participating in RT (or any 40K RPG for that matter) should remember that what is a moral conundrum to you in real life, is not really a difficult decision to your characters.

Yeah. I think you'll have a hard time getting the players to think about anything besides personal power or PF, which is pretty normal for any RPG. It takes good role-players (and a good role) to bring things like morality into a game.