In our game, the Explorator appears to be planning on taking over the ship. In every rpg we have played together he always has more fun quietly scheming and working against the rest of the party. We can never prove it, he is very careful. But out of game, we all know how much he gets off on messing with us in game.

In Rogue Trader, I suspect he has written subroutines throughout the command and control systems of our ship that would allow him to completely take over the ship if he ever needed too. I got the player very drunk one night and asked him if my character could trust his and I received an emphatic "ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!" as a reply, this was followed with much maniacal laughter....

What can be done about this in game? I am very careful not to Metagame, so my Navigator doesn't suspect a thing. None of the other characters know either. The rogue trader could probably figure it out, but he is is distracted with his new toys.

We just took over a pirate cruiser after a long and hard endeavor with multiple layers too it. And the Explorator has been spending A LOT of time on that ship. (In a side room with the GM away from the rest of us)

I KNOW we are walking into a trap...but there would be no way for my character to know that, so I just keep on walking with a smile on my face!

What do you make of it?

Why don't YOU try to take over the ship? Make an Acquisition roll and bring your own techpriests in, under contract by your house. Infiltrate the ship's system from your ambassadorial wing, dammit!

Plus, why isn't your navigator more paranoid?

Alex

Why don't YOU try to take over the ship? Make an Acquisition roll and bring your own techpriests in, under contract by your house. Infiltrate the ship's system from your ambassadorial wing, dammit!

Plus, why isn't your navigator more paranoid?

Alex

Alex, you are quite correct! This is a good idea and will be happening...

As for my Navis Scion, he doesn't know anything about technology. I am certain that an NPC Tech priest will be NO MATCH for a rank 5 PC, but it will still keep him more on his toes. I will bring one on for a special project that I am putting together to research a more secure method for transmitting crucial data back to House Maldoran, then subvert his purpose to my own ends! Buuhahahhaha

If he can run at all. If your Explorator takes over, and the Astropathic Choir, the Navigators, and the Priests aren't with him, he'll be facing down crew revolts, while unable to call for help, or even really go anywhere. If your ship doesn't have that one warp drive that doesn't use a Navigator (they suck, and you are there, so I'd guess they don't have one), he CANNOT warp jump the ship, unless he's secretly allied with Chaos aboard that other ship. Not knowing your crew's make-up, your Arms Master should be able to outgun him, and he'd probably need your Void Master to steer the behemoth you live on. This is why even Rogue Traders can't always be mega-dicks; too many of their crew are ALLIES, not SLAVES, and so they can thwart the RT's power, if they need or want to. Your Explorator is supposed to be there, keeping it going, and getting first crack at ancient relics most Tech-Priests will never get to touch, and be happy. If he isn't, and wants to conquer the ship, then he had better have better people skills then many Tech-Priests I envision, AND than your other player friends have, because it'll be a short revolt, otherwise.

A single NPC tech priest will be no match to a well build PC explorator at high rank. But a 100 or a 1000 NPC explorators is a different story. And considering the crew sizes on rogue trader ships and the immence commerce power of rogue trader characters aquiring services of a 1000 npcs is a not that hard. Speaking of which who are the NPC tech priests on board of your shipl are more loyal too single explorator or the rogue trader?

That said if you are reaaaly paranoid about a ship being taken over through hacking, I would like to point out that there is already an item (a command key of somekind about staff size) in one of the rogue trader books that is supposed to contains commands codes for the ships specificly to allow rogue trader to prevent hackers from taking over.

In addition, because of the anything even remotly ressembling true AI being heresy I would envision rogue trader ships to be more of battlestar galtactica style vessels: decentralized systems that require a lot of manual labor and a lot of person to person communications to function.

Finally if the rest of the players are cool with it: than plans to take over ships can be a feature instead of bug. You can have a nice game of thrones style campaigns where each PC has his own ships faction and is attempting to gain more influence/control in ship operation than the rest. Every single PC career path has means to take control or prevent others from taking control be the political influcen, techinical knowledge, fanatical religious following, control of military or space magic.

Why don't YOU try to take over the ship? Make an Acquisition roll and bring your own techpriests in, under contract by your house. Infiltrate the ship's system from your ambassadorial wing, dammit!

Plus, why isn't your navigator more paranoid?

Alex

Alex, you are quite correct! This is a good idea and will be happening...

As for my Navis Scion, he doesn't know anything about technology. I am certain that an NPC Tech priest will be NO MATCH for a rank 5 PC, but it will still keep him more on his toes. I will bring one on for a special project that I am putting together to research a more secure method for transmitting crucial data back to House Maldoran, then subvert his purpose to my own ends! Buuhahahhaha

Explorators don't do the most important thing well: socializing. Rumour-mongering. Spreading lies and deceptions. Misdirections and intrigue. Also, why one techpriest? Acquire a dozen, then conduct minor sabotage and blame it on him. Doesn't matter if he is really planning something. If his work gets scrutinized, his plans are probably foiled or rushed into action.

My Navi's Magistrate house has the experience of 20 millenia of intrigue under their belt, for example. I'll try to acquire **** voidship hostile takeover specialists from my house if necessary. Not that I really could because I'd be breaching contract with the RT dynasty, so in return I'd get shangai'd in the most unspeakable ways (not-)imaginable.

tl; dr = start eliminating rivals. no kid's gloves!

Alex

Very well then! I will go into more detail about our group and a small bit of our campaign so far.

Our GM is an eccentric genius who delights in not only breaking, but enslaving and ultimately obliterating any game system put in front of him. Because he is in fact smarter than the rest of us (Hard to admit, but true!) his villain's machinations are ALWAYS moving at all times regardless of what our crew is doing and he keeps the clockwork of this firmly in the back of his mind at all times. To keep track of it all, I have gone to extraordinary measures to keep it together, but still I cannot for the life of me crack the puzzles that lie all around us. He is 100% totally fair and never resorts to any kind of heavy handed tactics to prevent us from doing something that we shouldn't. He routinely laments that we have all the clues already to solve every puzzle in front of us, and that if we just piece it together the right way we will have our answer.

Our Lord Captain ISN'T technically a Rogue Trader...soon to be resolved. When our campaign began we held elections to determine who would be rogue trader. The player that one those elections then flaked out and decided to play an astropath instead. But not before stealing his fathers flagship, flying us to the edge of known space, and then sending his Character deep into a warp storm in search of a fabled world made of Solid Gold. Being the only surviving heir of his Dynasty, his seneschal was elevated to Captain of the vessel so that he could locate the rightful heir. (The head of the Dynasty is very old and Ill and trusts him implicitly to do this for him. He and his house had been serving as trusted advisers the Dynasty for 14 generations. This player has had a woman speaking to him in his mind for many years, they are in love. Their love is so strong, that much to the rest of the players surprise, this voice in his mind has now manifested herself on the ship and has joined our crew. (Not sure what she is yet, but NOT A DAEMON FOR SURE) She also helped him awaken his latent psychic potential and he has become extraordinarily powerful.

At this point in the story, the Lord Captain's body was nearly destroyed in a battle against a pirate lord on the bridge of his Cruiser "The Rightful Heir." His remains have been deposited into a floating sarcophagus and though his body is in fact quite dead (None of the Character know this), his spirit clings to the remains and he is essentially Gideon Ravenor. The player is 100% convinced that his love is in fact an minor Eldar diety that really does love him because she has saved him so many times. Needless to say, he does not lack in hubris. The rest of us have other ideas about her. The fact that up until this point in the campaign our Rogue Trader is actually a seneschal and does NOT possess a Warrant of Trade means that we have been severely limited in some of the things we can do. In fact, because we are new to this area of space, people just assume that because he is Lord Captain of a Light Cruiser and represents House Haxtus, he MUST BE LEGITIMATE...but he isn't! Therefore we have done nothing that would require us to interact with the Imperium of Man in any way.

Next is our Explorator, who is a Genator. He does all the normal crazy and horrible things you would expect from a Genator PC. The player himself we generally refer to as "The Great Betrayer" because he can never ever be trusted as an ally in any game situation EVER. He has earned this reputation for duplicity in countless ways. He has slowly build a veritable army of servo skulls, some have cameras, other have syringes loaded with drugs to enduce a variety of effects. He has recently become VERY close to the Explorator of our recently conquered prize, the Cruiser "Rightful Heir"

Next is myself, a Navis Scion who after the untimely disappearance of our rogue trader became a seneschal and second in command for the ship. I keep detailed starmaps of the area with dossiers on every known system we have intel about. The map itself is very large and printed on vellum. I have created a complicated code of lines and ciphers by which I can read the starmap and give the Captain information about where to go next in our journeys. Also, as seneschal I keep records about every other conceivable thing that we engage in or own. (Also, I talk like palpatine all the time) In the game I am extremely close to our Lord Captain, he worked with my brother for a VERY long time before that ship was lost to warp storms and destroyed. Usually the captain is so engrossed with his own storyline that he leaves the particulars of running the ship and commanding the troops to me 90% of the time. I also serve as the Diplomat for the ship as well, organizing state dinners and seeing to the logistics of running a dynasty.

Then there is our Astropath (the player that quit being RT in the third play session) - He is very focused on freezing things and being the creepiest bastard possible. He has no apparent agendas, though for a while he flaked out on the game completely and the captain simply referred to him as "meat" because he was a raving lunatic.

Our Assassin / Pilot is JC Denton - He is heavily augmented and has large sections of his memory completely locked with technological and psychic blocks. All we know is that he is apparently "not human" but we do not know what that means at this juncture. His past is wreathed in shadow. The player himself is obsessed with being the best at whatever he is doing and NEVER misses an opportunity to escalate a situation. He has triggers installed in him by our explorator that enable him to be rendered unconscious at any time with a signal that he can emanate. The explorator routinely shuts him down mid sentence and drags him off to his labs for alterations and experimentation.

EDIT: Our Missionary is totally loyal to the Ship and the Lord Captain - He has a large number of pilgrims aboard that have followed him for many years that he lovingly refers to his "Seraphim." He has slowly militarized them and equipped them into a shock force that is totally loyal to him and him alone. The will do anything he asks

There are a few minor PC characters that come and go as guest stars here and there. But they are not core to the story.

Hopefully this gives some insight into our group...

A single NPC tech priest will be no match to a well build PC explorator at high rank. But a 100 or a 1000 NPC explorators is a different story. And considering the crew sizes on rogue trader ships and the immence commerce power of rogue trader characters aquiring services of a 1000 npcs is a not that hard. Speaking of which who are the NPC tech priests on board of your shipl are more loyal too single explorator or the rogue trader?

That said if you are reaaaly paranoid about a ship being taken over through hacking, I would like to point out that there is already an item (a command key of somekind about staff size) in one of the rogue trader books that is supposed to contains commands codes for the ships specificly to allow rogue trader to prevent hackers from taking over.

In addition, because of the anything even remotly ressembling true AI being heresy I would envision rogue trader ships to be more of battlestar galtactica style vessels: decentralized systems that require a lot of manual labor and a lot of person to person communications to function.

Finally if the rest of the players are cool with it: than plans to take over ships can be a feature instead of bug. You can have a nice game of thrones style campaigns where each PC has his own ships faction and is attempting to gain more influence/control in ship operation than the rest. Every single PC career path has means to take control or prevent others from taking control be the political influcen, techinical knowledge, fanatical religious following, control of military or space magic.

Our Lord captain was worried about a takeover of the ship, so he acquired a captains Rod for that purpose. But the explorator programmed it, so I can only assume it is worthless or can be overridden by him. Also, the Explorator has carefully executed purges of the vast majority of the tech priests on the ship. Accidents have decimated large numbers of them. I can only assume that this was organized to ensure that the ones that were not loyal to him were the ones being killed.

I think this GM should be cloned so that everyone has a chance to play in a game like this.

Personally I think one of the characters should consider taking a rank in Arch-Heretek, Augmentisist and Colchite Servo-Master

This combo could probably keep the Explorator on his toes and at the very least if more and more of the crew start getting replaced with servators then he has a chance of surviving the purge.

A single NPC tech priest will be no match to a well build PC explorator at high rank. But a 100 or a 1000 NPC explorators is a different story. And considering the crew sizes on rogue trader ships and the immence commerce power of rogue trader characters aquiring services of a 1000 npcs is a not that hard. Speaking of which who are the NPC tech priests on board of your shipl are more loyal too single explorator or the rogue trader?

That said if you are reaaaly paranoid about a ship being taken over through hacking, I would like to point out that there is already an item (a command key of somekind about staff size) in one of the rogue trader books that is supposed to contains commands codes for the ships specificly to allow rogue trader to prevent hackers from taking over.

In addition, because of the anything even remotly ressembling true AI being heresy I would envision rogue trader ships to be more of battlestar galtactica style vessels: decentralized systems that require a lot of manual labor and a lot of person to person communications to function.

Finally if the rest of the players are cool with it: than plans to take over ships can be a feature instead of bug. You can have a nice game of thrones style campaigns where each PC has his own ships faction and is attempting to gain more influence/control in ship operation than the rest. Every single PC career path has means to take control or prevent others from taking control be the political influcen, techinical knowledge, fanatical religious following, control of military or space magic.

Our Lord captain was worried about a takeover of the ship, so he acquired a captains Rod for that purpose. But the explorator programmed it, so I can only assume it is worthless or can be overridden by him. Also, the Explorator has carefully executed purges of the vast majority of the tech priests on the ship. Accidents have decimated large numbers of them. I can only assume that this was organized to ensure that the ones that were not loyal to him were the ones being killed.

This is a good angle for an ambassador. I mean... how sure can we be that tech-heresy is not taking place? It would be a shame if you'd, say, run across some ad mech force due to a navigation mishap and they would have reason to believe that innovation was being conducted by your explorator.

Or an inquisitor...

Think more Babylon 5-intrigue but 40K-style! You must become more Londo!

Alex

That's always seemed to be the problem with Explorators; they're able to get their Tech-Use so incredibly high that they almost feel compelled to come up with insane plans like reprogramming the cogitator core to accept them and only them as the proper owner of the vessel just to have a challenge.

As has been said, the Explorator player may be plotting so well that you don't know about it but he made an active decision to start plotting, so why don't you do the same? It sounds like the Missionary has a small force that would make removing him problematic, but the RT and Seneschal don't seem to be doing much in the way of Machiavellian scheming.

• Hire mercenaries that respond only to your orders - loyalty is something the Explorator can't just Tech-Use his way to with everyone.
• Start dealing with organizations outside of the Adeptus Mechanicus (Hereteks, Xenos etc) when you need repairs or anything high-tech done - this should remove some of the Explorator's power base.
• Get a new lord captain's baton and don't tell your explorator about it!
• If he's a Genetor and doing the usual bio-cybernetic malarkey then go find some interesting creatures for him to experiment on and keep him busy. Similarly keep shoving official duties in his direction so he has to think on his toes more - he might slip up if you're lucky.

Ultimately the game sounds like it is more about internal politicking than the endeavors of the dynasty, and while that is fine if everyone is happy with it, if you're struggling to enjoy it then have a chat with your GM.

As has been said, the Explorator player may be plotting so well that you don't know about it but he made an active decision to start plotting, so why don't you do the same? It sounds like the Missionary has a small force that would make removing him problematic, but the RT and Seneschal don't seem to be doing much in the way of Machiavellian scheming.

• Hire mercenaries that respond only to your orders - loyalty is something the Explorator can't just Tech-Use his way to with everyone.
• Start dealing with organizations outside of the Adeptus Mechanicus (Hereteks, Xenos etc) when you need repairs or anything high-tech done - this should remove some of the Explorator's power base.
• Get a new lord captain's baton and don't tell your explorator about it!
• If he's a Genetor and doing the usual bio-cybernetic malarkey then go find some interesting creatures for him to experiment on and keep him busy. Similarly keep shoving official duties in his direction so he has to think on his toes more - he might slip up if you're lucky.

Ultimately the game sounds like it is more about internal politicking than the endeavors of the dynasty, and while that is fine if everyone is happy with it, if you're struggling to enjoy it then have a chat with your GM.

Some great ideas here! And oh yes I am totally enjoying all aspects of this campaign! Not complaining in the slightest. My Character is a political monster, but that has been focused entirely on building allies and keeping my enemies at each others throat OUTSIDE the ship. Because our ship is riddled with Xenos Tech, we can't really rely on the Admech for much external support. Our tech priest informed the Admech that we had a bunch on Xenos Tech aboard and they have politely insisted that we turn it all over to them for study. I can only assume he did this as a way to keep us from replenishing our supply of techpriests. (we have a ghost field, and runecaster aboard, our ship is Xenophilious)

I know that he can't betray us TOO OVERTLY, because the captains True Love "Illyria" is a beyond ascension level Alpha Plus Psycher. I have personally been killed by her twice(burned fatepoint) because I had the unfortunate responsibility to inform her that the Captain had requested we leave him behind on a world that we could not retrieve him from (Trans-Dimensional.) Another time because I was foolish enough to look at her with my warp eye, and it simply burned my mind out like I was staring into the sun. (Burned another fatepoint, gained some insanity) He have a tenuous relationship now...

I have seen her kill THOUSANDS of people with a rage filled thought, in fact her power is growing more and more intense. If she perceives that the Explorator is going to bring harm to the Captain she will simply obliterate him.

I think I have gained some great insights here for things I can try and pull off to undermine his efforts...I just pray that I'm not too late!

You have a power gamer in your group that apparently likes to spoil other peoples' fun. I don't mind power-gamers. I just don't like the ones that get their jollies by screwing over the other players. If that's your cup of soup go get involved in a LARP. LARPs need player-character conflict to prosper. GMs don't have enough time to keep 30-50 people engaged at all times.

So, you find an IC reason for your character to hate that character. You devise a scheme to get that character alone and surround him with your 30 best bodyguards and kill him.

The next time you get drunk with the player you can tell him that this is how you will play until he stops playing the way he does.

Most groups have one. Me, I look around until I find a group that doesn't have one, which is probably why I don't game as much anymore, well that and family and career and all that.

You have a power gamer in your group that apparently likes to spoil other peoples' fun. I don't mind power-gamers. I just don't like the ones that get their jollies by screwing over the other players. If that's your cup of soup go get involved in a LARP. LARPs need player-character conflict to prosper. GMs don't have enough time to keep 30-50 people engaged at all times.

So, you find an IC reason for your character to hate that character. You devise a scheme to get that character alone and surround him with your 30 best bodyguards and kill him.

The next time you get drunk with the player you can tell him that this is how you will play until he stops playing the way he does.

Most groups have one. Me, I look around until I find a group that doesn't have one, which is probably why I don't game as much anymore, well that and family and career and all that.

I understand, our group has been gaming together weekly for close to 8 years now. I've got kids and a job and all that stuff. The group fluctuates between 5 and 12 people usually. I don't really mind him playing like that because it ALMOST never detracts from the game. This is more about what to do to thwart his dastardly efforts in game, in character.

The other thing you could do is to make it LOOK like you have plans, when you're not up to anything at all. Regularly pop out of the room with 1 or 2 other players, arrange to meet up before the game or linger afterward to talk in private to someone and just generally whisper and pass messages to others. It'll put him on the defensive for a while.

The other thing you could do is to make it LOOK like you have plans, when you're not up to anything at all. Regularly pop out of the room with 1 or 2 other players, arrange to meet up before the game or linger afterward to talk in private to someone and just generally whisper and pass messages to others. It'll put him on the defensive for a while.

Emperor's Balls!!! That is a fantastic idea...I can game him both psychologically AND in character! Consider it done, I will be sure to post updates to this...

No, don't do it! Not subtle enough! Hire NPCs that make the Gamemaster have those NPCs approach other folks and talk to them in private. Don't draw suspicion to yourself, draw it on some other PC... like the missionary.

Alex

The other thing you could do is to make it LOOK like you have plans, when you're not up to anything at all. Regularly pop out of the room with 1 or 2 other players, arrange to meet up before the game or linger afterward to talk in private to someone and just generally whisper and pass messages to others. It'll put him on the defensive for a while.

This is an awesome idea. I had a character in a different game system that always did this. I had little inconsequential projects that were not far reaching all the time. I'm still not sure if I had a nack for making the projects sound really neat or if the GM(s) loved to mess with the character because the projects without fail ended up going horribly right. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoneHorriblyRight

Even without that projects with high security that hint at subtle machinations are a great way to deal with this.

This exactly why I turn to the internet, I knew you folks would come up with some twisted ideas for how I can mess with him...

I'm wondering how a tech priest can keep up with the deceit of not one but two seneschals. It seems that the fact that he's scheeming something should have been caught by them a long time ago.

"Chief Enginseer Gershwin, did you ever figure out why we had that odd spike in Tech Priest accidents and deaths over the last year and a half?"

"The investigation is still ongoing, I'll let you know if I find anything conclusive"

He's holding something back

I'm wondering how a tech priest can keep up with the deceit of not one but two seneschals. It seems that the fact that he's scheeming something should have been caught by them a long time ago.

"Chief Enginseer Gershwin, did you ever figure out why we had that odd spike in Tech Priest accidents and deaths over the last year and a half?"

"The investigation is still ongoing, I'll let you know if I find anything conclusive"

He's holding something back

My Explorator failed to convince one of the Tech-Priests on board that his experiments were sanctioned or for the good of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the Tech-Priest swore to bring down the Explorator by reporting his actions to everyone possible until he could be reformatted.

One maximal plasma pistol to the back later, and our Explorator had heroically saved the crew from a vile heretic who henceforth received posthumous blame for EVERYTHING that ever went wrong on the ship. So your Explorator could just cop to the murder and claim it was for the glory of the Omnissiah.

I'm wondering how a tech priest can keep up with the deceit of not one but two seneschals. It seems that the fact that he's scheeming something should have been caught by them a long time ago.

"Chief Enginseer Gershwin, did you ever figure out why we had that odd spike in Tech Priest accidents and deaths over the last year and a half?"

"The investigation is still ongoing, I'll let you know if I find anything conclusive"

He's holding something back

My Explorator failed to convince one of the Tech-Priests on board that his experiments were sanctioned or for the good of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the Tech-Priest swore to bring down the Explorator by reporting his actions to everyone possible until he could be reformatted.

One maximal plasma pistol to the back later, and our Explorator had heroically saved the crew from a vile heretic who henceforth received posthumous blame for EVERYTHING that ever went wrong on the ship. So your Explorator could just cop to the murder and claim it was for the glory of the Omnissiah.

That's excellent! I can't wait to play this Sunday, I am going to go full blown Moriarty on him...

I'm wondering how a tech priest can keep up with the deceit of not one but two seneschals. It seems that the fact that he's scheeming something should have been caught by them a long time ago.

"Chief Enginseer Gershwin, did you ever figure out why we had that odd spike in Tech Priest accidents and deaths over the last year and a half?"

"The investigation is still ongoing, I'll let you know if I find anything conclusive"

He's holding something back

My Explorator failed to convince one of the Tech-Priests on board that his experiments were sanctioned or for the good of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the Tech-Priest swore to bring down the Explorator by reporting his actions to everyone possible until he could be reformatted.

One maximal plasma pistol to the back later, and our Explorator had heroically saved the crew from a vile heretic who henceforth received posthumous blame for EVERYTHING that ever went wrong on the ship. So your Explorator could just cop to the murder and claim it was for the glory of the Omnissiah.

Which again is lying, which falls under the deceive skill, which again the Explorator is probably going to be terrible at, especially when compared to Seneschals and Rogue Traders and such.

"Chief Enginseer Gershwin, did you ever figure out why we had that odd spike in Tech Priest accidents and deaths over the last year and a half?"

"It was Tech Priest Hernandez. He was fomenting heretical tendencies among the priesthood and killing anyone who got in his way."

He's lying to me. Poorly.