So I just started running a RT game a week ago and one of the players ask the question:

"What do we do after Rank 9?"

Obvious answer was lets get to Rank 9 first before we start planning whats after that. It does raise a question, what to do after that. A part of the book mentions that the characters are ready for the next step in the gaming universe, but doesnt state anything specific.

Do the characters (now powerful, rich, etc.) move on to using Deathwatch campaign rules, Only War, or start a new system perhaps with characters that serve the old ones?

Appreciate any help/guidance.

No Ascention level play has been done for Rogue Trader as of yet, so there's nothing written after that last level. You can always just keep playing and say "ok start buying elite advances for all those things you want but couldn't fit in to the normal advancement and background."

Apocalypse World has the interesting advancement option of making another (extra) character. The GM is running a world full, so the players should be able to handle 2 each, right? Or 3... Or so goes the argument.

Alternate Rank careers are an option, but that's mostly a variant on the Elite Advance suggestion.

Then there is the fan-made Rogue Trader "Ascension" supplement (Legends of the Expanse, or something) Never tried it myself.

A game a friend of mine ran for us had it's own solution. We continued with the plot to see where it took us. Ending up with the RT becoming so rich and powerful, he couldn't really travel around anymore, he had to stay home and handle his empire.

So that's what he did. He settled down, found a bride. Had a couple kids. And then we time-skipped 20-30 years and picked up with the RT's heir taking over some small part of the dynasty and venturing off into the unknown, with us playing the new crew.

Yeah, eventually, I think characters do just grow to a point where you need to say "put this aside, and run someone else." I have a group of friends who play d6 Star Wars, and have been since the early to mid-80's, same characters. They have their own variant universe, and some REALLY OP characters, except that they only get together two or three times a year, these years. They also got to the point where their characters had kids, and so have played them up over the last decade. Sometimes I look at them playing what to me is an outdated system, a campaign filled with references that are "wrong", or different (they got to make their own stuff up, and certainly weren't going to change their hard-won accomplishments to mesh up with Timothy Zahn, and the other good Star Wars EU writers), and I wonder how they are STILL playing the same characters, after all those years, and what they still have to get better in. I think the Jedi rolls 19d6 in attacks with a lightsaber (Lightsaber 10, Control 9).

Depending on when you feel the game is at a good cut-off point, I could see making new vassals, and maybe giving them a ship, and having them go make a profit in the Reach, or appoint a vassal to oversee their finances, and go themselves, with the higher combat stuff, and less infrastructure, sort of. Otherwise, I feel you get to a point where (and this can actually happen EARLY in RT, if everything I've read is true) you are maxed out in the things you want, and just getting extras, while either nothing is challenging to you, or things are MADE challenging, and then you wonder how the "lesser" RTs, and denizens of the Warp, handle those problems, or how good are you, really? I think there comes a point where just getting more Elite Advances, to fill out your XP quota, after you have everything you need to be good at what you do is just a bit droll. Time to start something new, at that stage.

Few game systems run well into the epic stages, and even fewer GMs run good epic games. Some people just can't let go of their characters. That's too bad.

I understand wanting the story to go on, but it ceases to have challenges when the characters get too powerful. Really, if you want that long-term a game, and have players capable of playing that long term, then you need another system. If sci-fi is your raison d'etre then I'd recommend CT. You can play those characters week after week, and even after a decade they won't be too OP. They might be too rich, but a good (read: devious) Ref can fix that.

My RT game has been running for over 3 years. near on weekly, with a few breaks for a couple of months here and there, particularly around Christmas & New years.

we're well passed rank 8, I think we are sitting at over 55,000 XP all told. I went straight seneschal. After i had spent a huge amount of XP I counted my Alt Career in Xenographer as Rank 9.

It really depends on how much fun you and the group are having as those characters. There can still be so much left to do in a game like RT< still so much fun and adventures to be had and tales to be told. But there does come a point when you need to go "Ok, we've played out these characters. We need to move on." Then you sit down with the GM and discuss what your character does after that, and if you start a fresh as heirs to the Dynasty or what have you.

For example I established fairly early on that my seneschal was going either Inquisitor or Privateer depending on options available to him. He has a ship in waiting and enough personal wealth to buy himself a middling noble title on scintilla. And being a Seneschal the smarts to make it work and grow.

My GM is starting to bring more and more Rakgol into the fray to present more of a challenge, and Chaos Marines are starting to get involved. And we've had our first dealings with Necrons of a sort (we have a Scarab in containment.)

Ship wise, even though we are only at 94PF, we run about in a Battlecruiser. Our Dauntless took on 5 ships alone, before 4 more entered the fray and we got 2 allies as backup, while out ship was broken like so many dreams, we outright killed 6 of the ships and their captains before our ship went down and we have to abandon it.

Gear wise, I have Best quality ignatus power armour, sold a small fortune to get an Executioner pistol, and have toxin and microgrenades foe when my best quality inferno pistol and Executioner aren't up for the job. Oh and the Eldar power sword and tau pulse pistol and and and.... It all gets a bit, comedic. genestealers aren't a treat unless we are sufficiently mobbed. Which also happened recently, but we have 9 companies of storm troops an IG regiment and a scratch build home grown IG regiment. We have Land speeders, Leman Russ tanks. unless we start going fleet battles (Mathhammer grind), and mass warfare its a tad hard to challenge characters like ours.

Also I tend to make my GM cry when I improvise beyond what they imagined. (yes I gloat a little but its those moments that make a game truly fantastic when you make the GM go "wait, what, oh, god dammit!"... Sorry Vawn).

In all I love the game I play in, 2 players (RT and Seneschal) and the GM, all on the same wavelength for how the game should be played.

but its drawing to a close with these characters I feel. While buying insane amounts of X or Best Quality Ship component Y is fun, but its just not the challenge it once was. And its getting on time for when the Characters need to move on without the players and us assume new roles in our setting.

Edit: sorry went full retard on that post.

If any of you would like to give it a trial run, I created an effective Ascension book for Rogue Trader called Legends of the Expanse, which can be found here . It provides an additional 3 ranks to all core classes and adds in several talents from the other 40k lines. I haven't yet had the chance to give it a real play test yet, so any feedback is always appreciated.

I've found that the 40k games are actually pretty good with keeping the balance past max level. The Deathwatch game I ran wound up going 10k xp or so beyond their max rank, and because of how the system worked with being able to purchase more from previous ranks it balanced out fine. It seems like Rogue Trader would work just as well, though it would probably begin to reward those who had taken alternate ranks more as they could get more versatility backed up by elite advancing missed ranks. Although conversely the straight characters could begin purchasing Elite Advances to round out theirs, so hmm, something to consider.

I've personally found that as long as the players and the GM are having fun, it's worth it to keep the game going. Besides, the GM can always pull out the misfortune table if the Dynasty gets too ambitious.

Thanks LodgeBlackman99, I pulled that website up from a different post and found it through google. We are no where near ready, just now hitting Rank 2 after 4 weeks, but it is something to look towards later. Additionally, I am looking at alternatives if the players get bored with Rank 9+ or need a break and use the RT crew as points of reference for Dark Heresy 2 ed characters, perhaps run a campaign on Footfall keeping it all interlinked.

Also I tend to make my GM cry when I improvise beyond what they imagined. (yes I gloat a little but its those moments that make a game truly fantastic when you make the GM go "wait, what, oh, god dammit!"... Sorry Vawn).

Oh I applaud what you did there, it was just the point a few days later where I was making a joke about what happened and then realised that you played me into that position expertly that made me go "...Wait... GOD **** IT STEINAR"