Im wondering, since the Rogue Trader PCs are roughly equivalent to Rank 3 or 4 or 5 in dark Heresy (cannot remember the post that was in, but it was either Rank 3 or 3000XP or 5500XP, guess Ill be doing some searching today) will that make the character generation take longer or will it be more modular in nature?

Meaning that things such as you core career (for example Astropath or Navigator) will have what is basically 1000XP of advances already included in it and then you go and purchase packages that reflect prior experience (similar to background packages in Dark Heresy) each that are worth 500-1000XP. And unlike in Dark Heresy you could have more than one package, each one covering like 3-5 years of previous experience.

Or will we be flipping though a dozen pages trying to spend 3000XP? I know I once built a NPC this way and it took a while and I got way too caught up in characteristics (which in Dark Heresy are just too expensive, they need to revise that LOL) and before you knew it, the officer I was building didnt look anything at all how I wanted.

Ive been a fan of background generation influencing stats, skills, experience and talents since the early days of playing Cyberpunk back in 1994 and while Im not sure I want random roll tables (such as in the Central Casting books, which are awesome) but a modular kit/package deal system would work, save time and add depth to a character.

Peace.

Spending the 5500 XP by hand would indeed be rather clumsy. Considering that DH opted for a very simple mechanism that allowed fast character generation (select a homeworld, select a career, roll some dice, spend some money and take up to four advancements - that's it), I don't think RT would abandon this simplicity by keeping the same procedure. I'd imagine you could either handpick your advancements or get some package deals, likely detailing the past of the character just as the IH backgrounds did, but on a larger scale. After all, the Lord Militant being a "veteran of hundreds of battles" hints that most characters already have quite a bit of backstory.

I'm sorry I'm new around here but is it confirmed the PCs will start at higher ranks then DH ?

Yes. According to a postcast referenced in one of the Dark Heresy design diaries a starting RT character will be roughly equal to a DH character with 5500 exp.

LuciusT said:

I knew I heard/read it somewhere. When I went through the posts again looking for the reference I never thought of relistening to the podcasts, and I never would again anyway.