I need some input on certain things. I have through quite a bit of the forums here, and it has helped to answer a few of my questions. However, I still have some concerns.

First, our current Rogue Trader game is imbalanced by three individuals: me, the Explorator, Gunny, our Arch-Militant, and Oscar, our Voidmaster. Oscar isn't nearly as powerful when not using a vehicle however, so his power can easily mitigated by terrain and the space availiable. Me and Gunny however are several levels above everyone else in terms of power. The thing is, the Arch-Militant is supposed to be death incarnate, and the ease at which the Explorator can become more powerful is shocking. I want to know how you handle imbalanced players, or just, players who are very good at combat, while everyone else isn't. Our GM has made several comments, stating that you shouldn't have anything more rare than extremely rare, even though we are Rogue Traders. The thing is, nothing i have is rarer than Extremely Rare, it just happens to be of very good craftsmanship... I don't understand the reasoning behind a Rogue Trader dynasty not having access to rare equipment. My dragon scale plate is a good example. It is stock armor that the Mechanicus give to field Enginseers. Enginseers barely count as Tech-Priests by rank. I'm an Explorator. I have several ranks above them, and the money to afford it. I just don't get it.

Second, is the balancing. Well, lack of, actually. Our GM likes to balance us down, while making the enemies more difficult to confront. The problem is that, well, Gunny exists. Our Arch-Militant can rip Hordes apart without any problem, and is nearly invincible within his heavy armor. His one weakness, which is Psychic powers, no longer affect him, due to the machine trait. I know that this kind of player is common, however, rather than have every other bad guy have a heavy weapon, the GM would rather remove some of the gear we have. This feels like a cop out, and that he doesn't want to stat encounters so as to be balanced. Fair isn't something that exists in Rogue Trader, but having balanced, streamlined combat while feeling that nobody is being targeted more for no reason, is important.

Third, is the amount of time and effort our characters put into the game, for how little we get out of it. To give you an example, we have been playing for a while now. It's been fun. A lot of fun. But there are problems. The main one is xp, and while I understand that the GM has final say in all things, he's been using rule zero far too often. Every other thing I ask to do is actually met with either a -80 to 90 check for it, or a no. I feel this is going a bit far in most places, and i need some input on how a GM should utilize rule zero more effectively, and not use it to completely limit players in what they can do. Here is the xp issue. We are nearing our second year of playtime. We are Rank three, and just barely rank three at that. I want to know if this is normal. i've got this feeling it isn't, and I just can't shake it. What are your insights and how do balance combat better? How do you hand out xp? How much? What is fair within the constraints of Rogue Trader? I really want to keep playing, but I've had quite a bit of bs happen to my character lately, and I feel I may not be able to. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, but I need an outside, unbiased source. I need someone who doesn't know me or my group to look into this and give me advice on how to fix it. Thanks guys!

Honestly, first thing I'd ask your DM is if he's still having fun just being the DM all the time and, in the same breath, if he wants to play for a while. Two RL years of only DMing gets you burnt out and cranky. We swap the DM stick between us in our group, keeps the creative juices fresh and, as a ncie side effect, prohibits some of the more rampant bollocks I've seen folk speak about online. If I recall right, he has a DMPC anyway, which is a pretty solid signla he just might want to play the game, too. Let him play it as a PC for a bit and have someone else try DMing a few sessions. Just don't go Monty Haul while you're at it, stick to his gear level. He'll eventually adjust it higher himself when he actually has to play by those rules. Just be careful to play it straight. Don't screw him, make sure everyone has fun, and he'll probably stop screwing you. If not, you can always breach the actual problems with him at a later date, then, but I'd try this first.

Every other thing I ask to do is actually met with either a -80 to 90 check for it, or a no. I feel this is going a bit far in most places, and i need some input on how a GM should utilize rule zero more effectively, and not use it to completely limit players in what they can do. Here is the xp issue. We are nearing our second year of playtime. We are Rank three, and just barely rank three at that. I want to know if this is normal. i've got this feeling it isn't, and I just can't shake it. What are your insights and how do balance combat better? How do you hand out xp? How much? What is fair within the constraints of Rogue Trader? I really want to keep playing, but I've had quite a bit of bs happen to my character lately, and I feel I may not be able to. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, but I need an outside, unbiased source. I need someone who doesn't know me or my group to look into this and give me advice on how to fix it. Thanks guys!

Experience isn't your problem. Your GM having his story messed up by your interference is your problem. Saying no is fine, but it needs to be reserved for things that are literally impossible. Even those guaranteed to get you killed should come with a warning.

Rate of experience is personal to a group.

It really does sound like your GMs "personal balancing" is really just for his personal amusement. If you aren't enjoying talk to him about it.

Honestly, first thing I'd ask your DM is if he's still having fun just being the DM all the time and, in the same breath, if he wants to play for a while. Two RL years of only DMing gets you burnt out and cranky. We swap the DM stick between us in our group, keeps the creative juices fresh and, as a ncie side effect, prohibits some of the more rampant bollocks I've seen folk speak about online. If I recall right, he has a DMPC anyway, which is a pretty solid signla he just might want to play the game, too. Let him play it as a PC for a bit and have someone else try DMing a few sessions. Just don't go Monty Haul while you're at it, stick to his gear level. He'll eventually adjust it higher himself when he actually has to play by those rules. Just be careful to play it straight. Don't screw him, make sure everyone has fun, and he'll probably stop screwing you. If not, you can always breach the actual problems with him at a later date, then, but I'd try this first.

I've had the same feeling for a while. I think he needs a break from Gming, and that he should play something. The problem with someone else taking the wheels in his campaign is that his has been heavily reffluffed. I don't know what he has changed and what he hasn't, so I can't take over, and I feel I'd be the best one suited to taking over. The good thing is that I will be running my own campaign soon, and he's playing in that. It will be a good break in between and should help to address some of the issues, mainly the power creep. Thanks man! Appreciate it!

Every other thing I ask to do is actually met with either a -80 to 90 check for it, or a no. I feel this is going a bit far in most places, and i need some input on how a GM should utilize rule zero more effectively, and not use it to completely limit players in what they can do. Here is the xp issue. We are nearing our second year of playtime. We are Rank three, and just barely rank three at that. I want to know if this is normal. i've got this feeling it isn't, and I just can't shake it. What are your insights and how do balance combat better? How do you hand out xp? How much? What is fair within the constraints of Rogue Trader? I really want to keep playing, but I've had quite a bit of bs happen to my character lately, and I feel I may not be able to. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, but I need an outside, unbiased source. I need someone who doesn't know me or my group to look into this and give me advice on how to fix it. Thanks guys!

Experience isn't your problem. Your GM having his story messed up by your interference is your problem. Saying no is fine, but it needs to be reserved for things that are literally impossible. Even those guaranteed to get you killed should come with a warning.

Rate of experience is personal to a group.

It really does sound like your GMs "personal balancing" is really just for his personal amusement. If you aren't enjoying talk to him about it.

I see your point. Thanks. I'm having fun as my character, but i know that if I try anything, or attempt to use my skills for most things, I'll be limited heavily or told no. Nothing I have tried is impossible. Everything I have made or fixed is possible within the fluff and within the rules. The problem with this is that I have talked to him about it. I was met with rule zero again. I just, don't get it. I still don't. I'll talk to him again, and see how it goes. I'm not very optimistic about it anymore though, haha....

The problem with this is that I have talked to him about it. I was met with rule zero again. I just, don't get it. I still don't. I'll talk to him again, and see how it goes. I'm not very optimistic about it anymore though, haha....

At that point if it's already been discussed and he simply shut you down it's a personal issue of his own interpretation. There isn't much you're going to be able to do to change his mind save ask everyone else in the group how they feel and have a group discussion about it.

One of your problems is the style the game has taken. If your Arch-militant is busy tearing through hordes and you think that's unbalancing, then you probably aren't thinking big enough.

Rogue Trader can be broken, but not by characters. Characters can always have a rock dropped on them. Your Explorator has fizbots for toothbrushes and power Swiss army knives in each finger tip? There's a rock for that. The Arch-Militant rips through hordes like confetti? There's a rock for that.

One man's rock is another man's asteroid.

Okay, silliness aside, you just can't break the game that way. If you are, then you aren't playing the kind of Rogue Trader that is commonly discussed here on this forum. You're playing D&D in outer space. You're dungeon-crawling in the corridors of spaceships. You're shooting and meleeing with insignificant numbers of opponents. You're counting the kind of treasure that can be stored in a chest.

When you find that treasure planet and note that it's not controlled by the Ork bandit-lord and trusty band of merry nobs. It's controlled by Da Boss and his 15 million closest followers, who crew his Kill Kroozer, 8 favorite Ram-ships, and 6 Rocks. Or there's this great planet for colonization but there's also several million Exodite colonists already in place for a couple thousand years and they've trained the local wildlife as dino-mounts, not to mention the squadron of corsairs that have made it their life's mission to defend those Exodites that don't even know they exist.

That's when your super-kewl artificer-polished lathe-spec'ed power armor complete with dual-mounted melta-machinegun with underslug vortex grenade launcher doesn't mean a damned thing. You're just going to be another Rogue Trader that disappeared into the Expanse and was never heard of again.

Ships break games. Armies break games. PF can break games, but only because it buys ships and armies.

One of your problems is the style the game has taken. If your Arch-militant is busy tearing through hordes and you think that's unbalancing, then you probably aren't thinking big enough.

Rogue Trader can be broken, but not by characters. Characters can always have a rock dropped on them. Your Explorator has fizbots for toothbrushes and power Swiss army knives in each finger tip? There's a rock for that. The Arch-Militant rips through hordes like confetti? There's a rock for that.

One man's rock is another man's asteroid.

Okay, silliness aside, you just can't break the game that way. If you are, then you aren't playing the kind of Rogue Trader that is commonly discussed here on this forum. You're playing D&D in outer space. You're dungeon-crawling in the corridors of spaceships. You're shooting and meleeing with insignificant numbers of opponents. You're counting the kind of treasure that can be stored in a chest.

When you find that treasure planet and note that it's not controlled by the Ork bandit-lord and trusty band of merry nobs. It's controlled by Da Boss and his 15 million closest followers, who crew his Kill Kroozer, 8 favorite Ram-ships, and 6 Rocks. Or there's this great planet for colonization but there's also several million Exodite colonists already in place for a couple thousand years and they've trained the local wildlife as dino-mounts, not to mention the squadron of corsairs that have made it their life's mission to defend those Exodites that don't even know they exist.

That's when your super-kewl artificer-polished lathe-spec'ed power armor complete with dual-mounted melta-machinegun with underslug vortex grenade launcher doesn't mean a damned thing. You're just going to be another Rogue Trader that disappeared into the Expanse and was never heard of again.

Ships break games. Armies break games. PF can break games, but only because it buys ships and armies.

This. So much this.

One of your problems is the style the game has taken. If your Arch-militant is busy tearing through hordes and you think that's unbalancing, then you probably aren't thinking big enough.

Rogue Trader can be broken, but not by characters. Characters can always have a rock dropped on them. Your Explorator has fizbots for toothbrushes and power Swiss army knives in each finger tip? There's a rock for that. The Arch-Militant rips through hordes like confetti? There's a rock for that.

One man's rock is another man's asteroid.

Okay, silliness aside, you just can't break the game that way. If you are, then you aren't playing the kind of Rogue Trader that is commonly discussed here on this forum. You're playing D&D in outer space. You're dungeon-crawling in the corridors of spaceships. You're shooting and meleeing with insignificant numbers of opponents. You're counting the kind of treasure that can be stored in a chest.

When you find that treasure planet and note that it's not controlled by the Ork bandit-lord and trusty band of merry nobs. It's controlled by Da Boss and his 15 million closest followers, who crew his Kill Kroozer, 8 favorite Ram-ships, and 6 Rocks. Or there's this great planet for colonization but there's also several million Exodite colonists already in place for a couple thousand years and they've trained the local wildlife as dino-mounts, not to mention the squadron of corsairs that have made it their life's mission to defend those Exodites that don't even know they exist.

That's when your super-kewl artificer-polished lathe-spec'ed power armor complete with dual-mounted melta-machinegun with underslug vortex grenade launcher doesn't mean a damned thing. You're just going to be another Rogue Trader that disappeared into the Expanse and was never heard of again.

Ships break games. Armies break games. PF can break games, but only because it buys ships and armies.

Our Rogue Trader game is much, much smaller than the scope your speaking of. I know how crazy and just over the top a Rogue Trader game can get. The thing is, our scope, our space, is much smaller than that. Much, much smaller. We can't control armies. We don't get more than one ship. So, combat is balanced around us. oh, the rock you were speaking of? i was hit with that, and I have a feeling the further I go down the Explorator career, the more I will be hit with said rock. I've actually already covered most of these 'issues' with my GM, and it's pretty much settled. Me and him are no longer having any issues, and so it's all good. However, the fact that our combat and overall scale is tied directly to us, well, it just means that getting more powerful means encountering your 'rock' more and more often.

But you might be fighting someone who has the gear to take you down, or Rogue Traders that do have the money to burn and sit down and get the most expensive toys so they can be crazy prepared like pre-Chaos Konrad Curze Batman.

They don't even have to be crazy exotic gear. Stunspheres from Hostile Acquisitions, or Webbers from Core will usually immobilize anyone. A Stun action, a Grapple, even just knocking a person down over and over again is enough to cause inconvenience to people.

Wait a minute. You're the explorator in that terribad game with the Ork Kaptin. Dude, your GM is bad or at least poorly suited to running rogue trader. This is the guy with the special snow flake dark eldar dmpc. It sounds like the kind of game that most people here would walk out of. You've spoken to him about this, he's ignored you and brushed you off. Take your Ork bro and walk out. No game is better than a bad game.

You can lead a horse to water,

But you can't make him drink.

You can lead a man to wisdom,

But you can't make him think.

Wait a minute. You're the explorator in that terribad game with the Ork Kaptin. Dude, your GM is bad or at least poorly suited to running rogue trader. This is the guy with the special snow flake dark eldar dmpc. It sounds like the kind of game that most people here would walk out of. You've spoken to him about this, he's ignored you and brushed you off. Take your Ork bro and walk out. No game is better than a bad game.

It's not that he's a bad Gm, it's that only me and the AM have a scale of how powerful we should be and where we should be standing. WE are playing Rogue Trader in a non Rogue Trader setting. We had a long, disappointing talk about power imbalance and how the GM expects us to play. The thing is, me and the AM got our power legitimately, but the nerf bat still happened. I had my Cortex Implants removed and now, crafting and simply experimenting with anything will be nearly impossible. I don't want to walk out, I don't, but the fact is, I have sunk a lot of xp and time on making my character really good at tech-use and crafting, only to have everything i worked for removed or limited. I've even been using the Inquisitors Handbook crafting rules so as to 'limit' myself on creating things. Not that I had any trouble with that. I don't want to walk out, but the nerfbat is going to come swinging the longer I stay an Explorator. That, or I'll be hit with haywire weapons every combat encounter. I still don't know what to do...

You really have three options:

1) accept your lot, your GM seems like the kind of guy that won't change

2) have an open discussion as a group. Doesn't sound like it will work. Explain you aren't happy and you are considering leaving. If nothing changes leave.

3) Leave outright. If asked explain your position.

You really have three options:

1) accept your lot, your GM seems like the kind of guy that won't change

2) have an open discussion as a group. Doesn't sound like it will work. Explain you aren't happy and you are considering leaving. If nothing changes leave.

3) Leave outright. If asked explain your position.

Leaving is the only way to fix this. I have no choice. I'll have one last talk with him, and we'll see where it goes. Thank all of you for your input. I'll still be on the forums, and chatting with you guys is pretty fun. See you around.

See you. Hope everything works out all right with your DM. Best of luck!

Bit late, perhaps, but I am going to chip in here and say that there's situations where normal combat can be threatening still, on a rogue trader level. Aside from genestealers and warp incursions, there may also be very simple environmental factors that make things incredibly risky. Ever had to fight in hazmat suits, because environmental sealing just wasn't enough for that atmosphere? Or under water? 100 meters under the surface and a called shot against your oxygen tank can really mess with you. Then there's the, unfortunately rather cliche since Revenge of the Sith, fights in spaces where you really have to be nimble on your feet, be it an active volcano or a processing plant.

'course, you could order your men to just take care of all that. That is a legit solution as well. But do you really want those uneducated primates messing around with the sunken xenos spaceship?

Thought not!

Boil the ocean, you say? Well, that's certainly a very 40k way to do things. Bonux XP! The natives are understandably mad at you now, though. You may have to shoot your way out of the system.

Negotiate the wreck's recovery? I don't see why not. Pitch the planetary government your offer, then.

Long story short, thinking outside the box is awesome for players AND GMs.

I'm not sure I would use environmental hazards as the default solution, though of course they can (and probably even should) come up every now and then. However, I'd say a more obvious path would be to remember that anything the players can get their hands on, someone else can, too. The lesser threats, the mooks that need killing, that's what you have your armies of faceless NPC goons for. The player characters can swoop in for the big boss fight, or they get caught unprepared because someone set a trap for them. As the saying goes, all paths lead to Terra.

As far as balancing characters against one another goes, the GM and the players should work together and use not only mechanics but also narrative roles. Maybe the Explorator is an awesome psychic and maybe Gunny is an awesome Arch-Militant - if you feel the Void Master falls too far behind in ground combat, consider his role as a high-ranking officer of the ship's command crew, and treat him accordingly. I'm sure he will feel a lot more useful if you allow him to command his own squad of troopers to serve as cannonfodder and damage boosters. The Arch-Militant could instead focus on the role of bodyguard and personal enforcer.

I'm not sure I would use environmental hazards as the default solution, though of course they can (and probably even should) come up every now and then. However, I'd say a more obvious path would be to remember that anything the players can get their hands on, someone else can, too. The lesser threats, the mooks that need killing, that's what you have your armies of faceless NPC goons for. The player characters can swoop in for the big boss fight, or they get caught unprepared because someone set a trap for them. As the saying goes, all paths lead to Terra.

As far as balancing characters against one another goes, the GM and the players should work together and use not only mechanics but also narrative roles. Maybe the Explorator is an awesome psychic and maybe Gunny is an awesome Arch-Militant - if you feel the Void Master falls too far behind in ground combat, consider his role as a high-ranking officer of the ship's command crew, and treat him accordingly. I'm sure he will feel a lot more useful if you allow him to command his own squad of troopers to serve as cannonfodder and damage boosters. The Arch-Militant could instead focus on the role of bodyguard and personal enforcer.

I suggested making combat more role focused, and less about ourselves. He responded with a no. Also, we don't get to control armies, our 'scale' is too small for that. WE have to solve everything by OURSELVES to get anything done.... It doesn't make sense, our men have weapons and armor, but bringing more than say, three mooks was far too much. We simply can't do it. so, there ya go. Balancing characters is apparently about who is the weakest? This guy? Ok, everyone now has this guy's power level. I don't want you to be stronger than this guy. That didn't actually happen, but in honesty, he really doesn't want us to have any of the gear we do. The problem with that, is, well, we do, and we got it fair and square. And he can't deal with it. So, we will see. That is all I can say.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I wasn't suggesting armies , but was thinking more along the lines of a small landing party. You know, a bunch of redshirts .. 5-10 armsmen.

But your description makes it sound as if the group should sit down with their GM and talk a few things through.

If your GM wants the weakest character to be the standard ... perhaps you and some of the 'stronger' character's players should talk to the weakest character's player about how he/she can strengthen their character. Also ... how strong is the GMPC relative to the 'weakest' character your GM wants you guys to be on par with? Because I would find it hard to believe that a GMPC - Dark Eldar or otherwise - is likely to be the weakest character.

Also ... there's a rather significant baseline and potential power differences between different careers.

Explorators, by their very nature are likely to wind up tanky without really trying very hard, and while not the simplest career are pretty solid when built and played decently or better. And with the Mechanicus Implant advances, they get a nifty set of tricks even without much equipment.

A Void-Master ... is hugely build and equipment dependent. And dependent on playstyle as well, because while they can be built into almost anything, not every build is equal.

Wait, just noticed this: "My Cortex Implants were removed" How exactly did that happen?

Javcs brings up an important point about Rogue Trader. The careers are not necessary balanced against each other based on their personal combat capabilities. There's nothing inherently wrong with using Rogue Trader as Space D&D, but you can't necessarily expect it to work out of the box that way. Void Master's aren't meant to have Personal Combat be their forte, they're meant to shine when flying or otherwise operating Void Craft. It's like building a Mounted Combat based Paladin in D&D3.5 and wondering why they're falling behind in a dungeon crawl.

Oh, and I second the "talk to your GM and see if he's happy running this game." It strikes me like you'd be better off with a different system or setup. Deathwatch perhaps, or reflavored d20 modern.