SPOILER ALERT

There seems to be an option to have one of the players in Tattered Fates to be of the Haarlock line. I havent read TF properly yet but I was wondering if anyone has concidered this as part of their campaign. I have the perfect candidate: a scum character who comes from a noble background and who rolled 00 on the nobilty type table in IH ---> he comes from some dark and doomed lineage. I havent developed the characters dark origins yet (except for him having visions of his dead father during problems with the geller fields during warp transit at which time he was given coordinates to a mysterious location in the Halo stars) but I have now started to consider having him come from a heretical and purged rogue trader family (related to the Haarlocks). He might have been spared due to him back stabbing his family to the Ordos or his person being potentially useful some how. Mby it takes a living member of the line to operate the rogue trader ship due to eldritch technology of dubious origin? Is it too over powered to give the acolytes a star ship? I was thinking the RT vessel will be pretty messed up due to the Inquisitorial purge of the characters family. Should the RT-character have a minder with access to an implanted explosive device to ensure that he doesnt turn heretical? Any clever ideas anyone?

Handing a player a warp cabable ship is a LOT of power and/or influence. I would not recommend it, unless you have an eye on crossing DH with the coming RT for some very special gaming experience... which might not be a bad idea, after all!

But personally, I would just say "no"

Yup... one of the PC's in my game is a scion of the Haarlocks and, as such, it's starting to look like he's not long for this world. Still, it's really gotten him immersed in the calaxis history and lore which is always a good thing.

As for the pc's getting a ship, go for it! My group managed to get one a while back in a move that completely took me from left field -though i should have seen it coming. While they don't technically own it or captain it, they have commandeered it for their purposes and, if anything, it's only made their lives and travel more complicated.

The ship was a small freighter which also had a habit of smuggling goods for the wormy syndicate. While stranded on this ship during a warp storm, the captain came to learn that they were agents of the inquisition and confessed the sins she had committed and the curses she had brought upon her ship. Her conscience had been eroding her health and she was no longer able to sleep or live with the things she had been called upon to do for the syndicate. As such, confided in them that once they were deposited at their destination, her plan was to seal off the bridge and fly the ship ad it's cursed syndicate cargo and crew into the Sepherus sun so she and her ship could stand before the Emperor in final judgment. It was going to be a dramatic OTT scene where they're deposited on the icy world only to see a brief flair up on the sun a day latter showing a penitent captain trying to atone for the past and all that noise. However, they ended up chastising her for even thinking that she could force the Emperor to judge her by her time table and that His judgment shall come when He sees fit and not a second before. When He wants her, He will take her, but until then, she has a corrupted lifetime to atone for through service to the Emperor and His servants until he calls her to Him. That's how they got a ship complete with a born-again captain at the helm and It has been anything but easy for them to continue using it.

There was a mutiny attempt by the syndicate loyalists vs those loyal to the captain and the Ancestor Captains which the PC's found themselves smack in the middle of. Then there was the need for more men to man the ship after the slaughter (and the fun of stocking the engines for the PC's, manning the chapel, the medical bey, taking the role of navigator (and not Navigator mind you) ect as the ship was terribly short crewed after the slaughter. They then had to worry about the ship getting more crewmen if it was going to be able to sail them where they needed to go, an incident that cost them half their water and the fun that had to go through trying to get more so they could sail onwards. Then they found they had to go beyond the boundaries of the ship's charter and, not wanting to identify themselves as =][= agents at any blockades or customs checks (they're hiding out from a Lord Inquisitor who has it in for their Inquisitor and his network and want their trail to be as hard to fallow as possible), they had to navigate some incredibly fun (in a DMV on crack kind of way) red-tape to get a temporary one use emergency charter to transport much needed goods to a hive world. Soon, they will have to deal with the syndicate wanting to know what happened to one of it's ships and cargo, there was the arbiter that was investigating the ship who died during the mutiny which is going to come back to haunt them when he is listed as MIA, and so forth.

In the end, it would have been so much easer for them to simply book passage on another ship to get where they need to go. Having this ship tied around their necks has complicated their lives considerably. So, on the one hand, while having a warp ship is a Great Big Something, it is in no way overpowering as, suddenly, they will have a lot more to have to think about, consider, and do just to get from one star to the next. They will need a crew and that crew needs to eat so copious amounts of food will be needed which means the ship would have to earn money and don't forget that any ship going anywhere needs a charter to do just that. Very few have free range charters much less the needed navigational charts to go anywhere without a Navigator (and having one of those would definitly mean a copious amount of cash is needed to pay them and keep the ship sailing). I reckon the =][= card could be played to alleviate a lot of that worry, but that will only take them so far and could lead to it's own complications besides.

If you want them to have a ship, give it to them. It will give you whole new worlds of crap to throw at them ;-)

Well even if someone is the descendent of the Haarlock line (which was cool when it happened to us when Mike Mason ran it) - they would probably need physical possession of the charter and possibly some kind of adjudgement from Lord Hax or the High Lords of Terra if the claim is contested by other descendents. So no starships right away - perhaps not even in your PC's lifetime!

SJE said:

Aye, too true on that. Just look at the "book excerpt" in House of Dust and Ash which described Erasmus' fall and his return to slaughter his whole family. Once he had done such, he was awarded the title of The Haarlock by a council of Imperials from Sinophia, Scintilla, and Solomon and only then was he seen as being the bearer of the Haarlock Charter/Warrant.