Hi all,

Some of you may remember me as the one guy who obsessed over his Raider-class ship for Rogue Trader. Who went on and on about flexibility and details and minutiae like that. Well, I'm happy to say I'm GMing my very first Rogue Trader campaign! Because the ship...was a huge waste of time. Seriously, I've never gotten blueballed so hard in my life. The GM quit and two members basically had a falling out JUST as we were introduced to the Wolfpack Raiders in the starting adventure.

But the spirit of greed never dies, so I decided to GM my own campaign. However, my players are a little more "unique" than the average classes. Currently we have an Astropath Transcendent, a Tau classed as an Explorator, a Kroot Navigator, and we MIGHT be getting a Voidmaster of some mutant type.

The reasons for them being what they are I handled and I actually very much like the Tau player's backstory (Earth-caste engineer on the run for the implicated murder of some Ethereals). However, it being my first time GMing, I want to make sure that one of these dudes doesn't have Deathwatch amounts of power or is so helplessly crippled he gets killed in the beginning.

So, I was hoping you guys could take a look at these stats and tell me if they look good! The starting rank is 1 and the first adventure is the default thing written in the core. I figure that's a great way to introduce the mechanics, by letting them read over what they could've done versus what they did. Sorta helps highlight how free-form the game is.

CRUNCH TIME

First up is the Tau Explorator. He was given the Tau racial modifiers, but being an Explorator, he's confined to that class although he plans to get an Alternate Rank as a Drone Controller later. He went through the core Origin Path, though. And instead of the Firewarrior talents 'n traits, he's got the Explorator stuff.

Gear: Good C. Pulse Carbine (grenade launcher is currently defunct and due to him being so far away from Tau space his character modified las packs to fuel it. However, the las packs only give 6 shots rather than the Tau ammo giving 24). Tau Recon Armor. Funnily enough, he elected to buy a case of Good C. Lho-sticks with his free PF roll. Apparently, he imagines his character as a cigar chomper.

Scores:

WS: 27
BS: 35

S: 32
T: 37
Ag: 44
Int: 57
Per: 46
Wp: 34
Fel: 22

The Astropath is your average Astropath. Nothing special. He's a tad annoyed he can't pop heads off the bat, but some GM stomping should fix that, right?

The other one is the one I'm most worried about. The Kroot Navigator. My reasoning for OKing that was that the Navigator ability is genetic. If her kin ate enough Navigators (as difficult as that is, but hey, maybe it's a Warsphere faring group) they'd get the Warp Eye.

Scores:

WS: 38

BS: 36

S: 35

T: 35

Ag: 38
Int: 34

Per: 42

Wp: 39

Fel: 38

She used the standard Human modifiers, but possesses the basic Kroot traits. Granted, she's been given the choice of either using the Origin Path or the Kindred menu but not both.

The Voidmaster is not made yet, but I'm just going to make him use standard Human modifiers rather than his own.

So, have I ruined the game already? Brought glory to the Emprah? Or is there some weird **** here? Canon-wise I have an idea: Since no one wanted to be the RT, he's in a stasis pod. So all sorts of weird **** gets passed around because Imperial bureaucracy is screwy like that. They're all cool with taking Non-Imperial and Speak Not Unto the Xeno trait, though. I want them to have fun, memorable fights for crunchiness. But I also want to see some good roleplaying and character development. But here, I'm just worried about the crunch.

Careful around those cigar chompers. The last time someone blew all his moneys on cigs, he turned out to be a dead shot that one-shotted nearly every boss.

That said, so far, they don't look all too outlandish or OP from what you've posted. They might need a humie face in the mix, though, eventually, depending on how you run speak not unto the alien. On the other hand, they could just operate outside the imperium, or trade with other xenos.

Rogue Trader isn't really about the combat crunch. You can hire small armies without a second thought. The real concern is narrative implications - this crew will find negotiations with staunch imperials very difficult indeed. =D

Hey, it's your headache, take any brand of asperin you want, but my advice, and I've said this many times to first-time GMs...

Don't do it. Don't go all crazy in your first game GMing. Don't allow xenos. Don't allow cross-overs. Go vanilla. Your players have set up a campaign that will be very hard for them to play. They are going to go rogue on you, and to prevent the game from dying you'll be forced into a situation where you have to give them winnable scenarios. In no time at all, your game will be out of your control.

The above is why I hinted it might be a good idea to run this party outside of the imperium, in xenos space. It pretty much eliminates most of the problems with an all-freak crew.

I hear you DeathByGrotz, but I would not recommend that option. They can voyage in uncharted territories and get away with their crew problems, but sooner or later they will want to go somewhere where there is more "stuff" available. They might need repairs. They might want ship upgrades. They might want specialized cargo. For one reason or another, they will voyage to a port where half of them (or more) will be anathema, and guess what? The GM will HAVE to provide them a winnable scenario, if only because the GM has already let them have their way.

There comes a time when a GM has to say, "No." I highly recommend doing it at the start of the game. I could easily write a page on this alone. Instead I am just going to play the experience card. I have been reolplaying over 40 years, most of that time spent as DM/GM/ST/Ref/WhatHaveYou. Campaigns fall apart when players lose interest. If they are going to lose interest because you say, "No," it's best to understand that on Day 1. Then you can find another game where "No" doesn't bother them. "No" is an unalienable right of the GM.

Gotta agree with Errant Knight on this, even if the players are experienced in RP/RT the system simply does not allow for easy RP with this. Heck many tech priests that work on any ship probably have Hatred Xenos and the like. It can be a short campaign, but interaction with humans is not gonna be easy.

That Kroot will have more assassination attempts than most RTs get in a lifetime (let's say, 1/hour?).

Nothing would get the Navis Nobilitie more freaked out than finding out a xeno employed by an RT managed to steal their genes.

Well, I will repeat what peopel said above:

Go vanilla first. No Xenos, no madness, no exceptions, no houserules before the game even started.

You PCs will be disapointed, but if they are really worth playing with... they will understand. This is not D&D. The Imperium is an ********** to everyone, even humans - specially those SPECIALLY intent on heresy? Tau in charge of imperial machinery, Kroot with stolen (read canibalized) navis nobilite genes.

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Well... If you REALLY want to go all crazy on this.

And if you really know Tau lore that well. Have than be Tau merchants rather than RTs.

Use the Jericho Reach map, some houserules for a Tau ship (and huge warp-jump times), and make it clear that military endeavors will be their main method of making profit.

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Still, this is a common mistake from new GMs and new Players.... Everyone wants to be that special little sunshine and in time the "normal" PCs becomes the exception. I won't even start on what my first RT group did....