What do I want next in the universe of Rogue Trader?

1)The Epic-level game. Multi-ship (and multi-captain) fleets. Building your own legacy. Taking over an entire sector (and how to do that). Imperial Battleships. Establishing your own dynasy.

2)A bigger Tau book. With Tau ships, as well.

3)If (and this is a big IF) a Second Edition comes out, we need a place where more of the factions meet and there's more...friction for Traders to deal with.

What would you like to see?

A Second Edition would be the obvious choice.

Failing that, more xenos!

A book on all things large scale as you said in #1.

Nothing. I've lost all faith in the 40k line and seriously regret my last few purchases.

Alternatively, anything at all, so long as it supplies interesting and useful rules that don't immediately break down upon use, that aren't grossly imbalanced and that don't add to the overall power creep. Some more alternate classes that aren't crazy specific would be amazing too.

Nothing. I've lost all faith in the 40k line and seriously regret my last few purchases.

Ouch! What were your "last few purchases", out of curiosity? If you say The Lathe Worlds and Book of Judgment, then yeah, I can see that, but anything else seems like 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'...

Nothing. I've lost all faith in the 40k line and seriously regret my last few purchases.

Ouch! What were your "last few purchases", out of curiosity? If you say The Lathe Worlds and Book of Judgment, then yeah, I can see that, but anything else seems like 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'...

I quite liked The Lathe Worlds. It is full of ridiculously overpowered equipment and gear, but it's also meant to be for the high level Mechanicus who should have access to stuff that's way better than anyone else. The only problem I had with it is I think it felt more like a Rogue Trader book than a Dark Heresy book.

Nothing. I've lost all faith in the 40k line and seriously regret my last few purchases.

Ouch! What were your "last few purchases", out of curiosity? If you say The Lathe Worlds and Book of Judgment, then yeah, I can see that, but anything else seems like 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'...

Faith and Coin had a lot of ... unfortunate stuff as well.

Lathe Worlds actually works OK for me, but I use it for RT, not DH.

Well, I'd love to see more about the Tau, especially their ships and their components, with decent rules for their battlesuits and the choice to be one of the other castes instead of only the fire caste. Additionally rules to playing with an Eldar Corsair/Exodite/Craftworld Eldar and their ships would be greatly appreciated as well. Basically, I want more Xenos and options for using Xenos ships

So, two books so far-

1)The epic-level Rogue Trader game, with battleships, legacy creation, sector conquest, and all the really big neat toys.

2)Aliens-so far, the Tau, the Eldar (Corsair/Craftworld/Dark/Exodite), the two alien races in RT, and enough material that you can run a "Eldar Free Trader" or "Tau Trade/Diplomancy Ship" campaign.

Of the two...I really want #1 first but I can wait as long as #2 lets me somehow create a Eldar version of the Millennium Falcon and takes stuff everywhere...

Well, I'd love to see more about the Tau, especially their ships and their components, with decent rules for their battlesuits and the choice to be one of the other castes instead of only the fire caste. Additionally rules to playing with an Eldar Corsair/Exodite/Craftworld Eldar and their ships would be greatly appreciated as well. Basically, I want more Xenos and options for using Xenos ships

I just want some stuff on selling ships.

A more streamlined second edition with less overpowered PCs and less granular NPCs, I think it's really irritating having to look at a ten mile list of talents for an NPC like say Caligos Winterscale or a top ranking Rakgol and interpret all their combined effects. Just write in plain english how many attacks he makes every round and how much damage they do and what the base rolls are for each of the skills it has.

Since the Battlefleet Gothic is closed, and probably forever, I don't think we will see new ships.

Maybe I'm wrong.

2)Aliens-so far, the Tau, the Eldar (Corsair/Craftworld/Dark/Exodite), the two alien races in RT, and enough material that you can run a "Eldar Free Trader" or "Tau Trade/Diplomancy Ship" campaign.

I would prefer new aliens- the Koronus Expanse should be full of xenos new to the Imperium, including 'pocket empires' with their own distinct cultures. I'm tired of the few races with armies in the tabletop game being presented as nearly the only xenos in the 40Kverse, when the fluff makes it clear that there are supposed to be innumerable alien species, and the few 'main' races are just a sampling of the most widely dispersed ones (well, except for the Tau, who are supposed to represent one of many small pocket empires).

Since the Battlefleet Gothic is closed, and probably forever, I don't think we will see new ships.

Maybe I'm wrong.

The Universe wastes nothing! There are still references and pictures of BFG ships in the newest codexes put out by GW. Personally, I think GW will eventually do a limited release of BFG again like they did with Space Hulk. In the meantime, With the demise of the specialist games line, FFG should actually have a freer hand with translating the BFG stuff to the RPG format. I would even love to see ffg start making the BFG Mini's (Since GW no longer does) but I don't know if that will happen.

Since the Battlefleet Gothic is closed, and probably forever, I don't think we will see new ships.

Maybe I'm wrong.

You're probably right, but they could still import them to the RPG lines as Radwraith mentioned above. Don't be such a heretic Traitor. Hehe.

To much?

Since the Battlefleet Gothic is closed, and probably forever, I don't think we will see new ships.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Off the top of my head:

Siluria

Cardinel

Viper

Galaxy

Chyribdis (Nicor)

Any sm ships

Any battleships

And that's before we get to stuff that just gets named

2)Aliens-so far, the Tau, the Eldar (Corsair/Craftworld/Dark/Exodite), the two alien races in RT, and enough material that you can run a "Eldar Free Trader" or "Tau Trade/Diplomancy Ship" campaign.

I would prefer new aliens- the Koronus Expanse should be full of xenos new to the Imperium, including 'pocket empires' with their own distinct cultures. I'm tired of the few races with armies in the tabletop game being presented as nearly the only xenos in the 40Kverse, when the fluff makes it clear that there are supposed to be innumerable alien species, and the few 'main' races are just a sampling of the most widely dispersed ones (well, except for the Tau, who are supposed to represent one of many small pocket empires).

Couldn't agree more. If you've been into 40k for a couple of decades, you see endless cycles of Orks, Eldar, Tyranids...with the occasional Tau and Necron supplement more recently. It can get a little samey now and again.

The 40k RPG series has actually done more for expanding the number of xenos species than just about any other part of the whole 40k line, with the Sluagth (appearing in DH waaay before they appeared in Forgeworld's books) the Yu'Vath, the Rak'gol, the Enoulians, the Stryxis and many others. However it never hurts to see more.

I'd love to see not only new aliens but interesting relationships between them. The Culture novels are very good at anticipating how multi-species regions of space would develop over hundreds of thousands of years, with advanced cultures mentoring or exploiting more primitive ones, wars erupting, diplomatic manoeuvrings... I'd love to see some of that nuanced depth of field in dealing with xenos.

The Culture novels are very good at anticipating how multi-species regions of space would develop over hundreds of thousands of years.

How do you know that? Have you had many opportunities to test Banks' predictions?

When I think "rogue trader" I think "alien mercenaries". We don't have a lot of xenos empires and xenos ships out there. Sure, Stryxis, Rak'Gol, and Yu'Vath vessels are around but you can't really ask them to join your fleet. Apart from the main races we don't have a lot of options.

I need more species to do battle with (both meanings of "with") and for more worlds in the Expanse. Really. I know we're all colouring in the various places, but a few more Gazzetteers of human and xenos worlds out there would add so much value to existing stuff. Plus, it won't be easily dismissible as a source book as the bulk of it won't even have rules.

Personally, I've been obsessed with BFG ships for a while so I wouldn't mind a "Battlefleet Koronus Part Deux" at all. Maybe with workable ground war rules?

And yes, it's time they do something with the max ranks.

I would really really love to see a rewrite of how Acquisitions work; I'd happily murder a few puppies for a system like Only War's regiments, where you pick from a pool of abilities and acquire bonuses for the Dynasty (Spy networks, manufacturing contracts, tithes to space marine chapters that confer the ability to request their aid, etc.). Would go a long way to inspiring my players to do more with the dynasty if they had some kind of framework and history behind it rather than "We have 70 Profit Factor, yay us!"

Other than that, I'd be interested in an book that sticks the explorers back in the Imperium, just for something a bit different.

I find Rogue Trader slightly paradoxical. On the one hand, they have nigh-infinite power, within their sphere, and access to the best of everything, but on the other hand they write much of the material so that it can be baby's first adventure, and so many "planned" events are not to hard, once you get some gear and XP under you. I say this because I think, from the book's perspective, they want your players to have to act out building some of that spy network, or finding those rare-in-the-Expanse Space Marines, and prostrate yourself before them, hoping to become friends. While the building project you describe would be neat (systems like Stars of Inequity might even benefit if you had a more real list of "things the Dynasty has just sitting around"), the book often takes your Dynasty as brand new, meaning you DON'T have those things, and need to use good role-playing to get them, rather than picking them off the list.Oath-Bound to the Angels of Death was a cool Ascension talent, but not one you should just get to spend XP on; prove to me that you have earned the respect of the Astartes! That sort of thing.

Also, Rogue Traders lose so much power inside the Imperium, I imagine many of them, with their Ork Mekboys, Kroot mercenaries, and grav sails just avoid the whole place as much as they can, maybe going to Scintilla or the Lathes when ABSOLUTELY necessary.

I might be a fan of another book of places, with unique treasures, some awesome salvage or trade opportunities, and plot hooks aplenty. A handful of off-things in Lure of the Expanse can be more intriguing than it's end, and I like how Hostile Acquisitions and the Koronus Bestiary both draw from its unique places, and add extra cool options to these already options of the Dread Pearl quest. Some more places, be they lost planets, ghostly stations, hulks, or what have you, and the cool information, artifacts, and monsters you might find could be awesome. Looting a ship of the Astrarium AND a ship's unit of enhanced boarding-repelling Murder Servitors would be a nice day, especially if it was on the way to a world where some cool weapon was said to have been lost (ship or personal, I don't care). I know I could make these things up, but sometimes I'm just short on creative thinking.

I harp on this tone a lot, but I feel like unless you've got a brand-new, just-minted-by-the-administratum Warrant, your Dynasty should have something concrete that represents the vast wealth that backs them. Favours, trading routes, debts of loyalty and whispers of revenge should be something that the players begin with. Plus, if there are concrete rules for 'You have a spy network in this area', it's more likely that the players will actually want to do that sort of thing. I've run games for a lot of different groups both online and in meatspace, and the one thing I always find is that unless I'm pushing things into their laps to work with, they'll just wait for things to come to them. I want to see the players discussing the merits of having exclusive trading rights over a spice versus the ability to draft an Imperial Guard regiment at their whim. I'm more than capable of houseruling it, but if I can point to an official book and say 'Here are the basic ideas for things you can do, with the mechanical benefits and requirements included', I expect I would see a lot more interesting stuff happening.

I just find it difficult to figure out what they SHOULD be able to start with. Earning it is one thing, but "just having it" because we said so at the start of the game? I'm not so fond. It makes perfect sense, but seems tricky to peg down, what with power-hungry gamers being that, and all.

That's why you do it like Only War's Regiments. You get like one point per ten Profit Factor. Space Marine Tithe costs like 5, Spy Network costs 1. You could also limit it by the Warrant Path so that only x,y,z origin can take Space Marine Tithe, etc.

I agree with you guys. In many ways RT seems to favour a "newly minted/created Rogue Trader" style of play than what is clearly intended to be the norm: ancient dynasties of Rogue Traders.

One area where the current set up of Rogue Trader is good is in making the Dynasty's ship effectively another character, with huge amounts of detail devoted to the ship's features, weapons, characteristics etc.

However, as Errant and venkelos both correctly point out, RT is comparatively weak when it comes to mechanics devoted to generating the dynasty itself in the same way.

There should really be equal emphasis on characters, ships and dynasties when it comes to generating a campaign. The dynasty, like a ship, should be like a third character for each player, one that brings advantages and disadvantages. At the moment, as Errant says, there are relatively few mechanics which allow players to define their dynasty, and it would be nice to see some.

I like your Only War regiment comparison, Errant. I hadn't thought of it in those terms, and I hadn't thought of a scheme where you "buy" spy networks, Astartes oathed troops etc. This is a brilliant idea.

I had independently considered writing up some rules for a system that defined the scope of players' Profit Factor. My thought was that a profit factor of, say, 51 is unlikely to be just a vast pool of gold in a vault that players can swim through like Scrooge McDuck; rather it would consist of "holdings" that players can define and buy as a way of adding flavour to their dynasty. So say 10 of the total profit factor might represent cold hard cash held in bank vaults, 10 might represent a palace on Scintilla, 20 a minor hive on a hive world and the remainder ownership of a moon in orbit around a pleasure world, and so on. My idea was more of a "flavour" and setting mechanic that could be used to generate endeavours and campaigns, as players risk parts of the dynasty's portfolio, or have their holdings attacked by rivals. So if players decide to spend some of their profit factor, they have to liquidate their assets.

Actually your theoretical system and mine might gel together quite well: you could convert profit factor into a mix of "assets" (spy networks, military forces, Astartes pacts etc) and "holdings" (what the bare profit factor actually consists of - money in vaults, property, shares in vast commercial enterprises etc.)

So a profit factor of 51 equals 51 "asset points" which can be used to generate things like quality of household troops, knight freelancer allies etc, and it also equals 51 "holding points", which the player has to commit to a mix of liquid cash, property and long term investments.

Generate systems for buying up assets and holdings and you've instantly got a lot of flavour for your individual dynasty. You could work in a merits/flaws system for both assets and holdings, too; allies/enemies, investments/debts etc.