so... I have gotten my players leveled up enough and set up to try to settle a colony on Choir ( with some administratum convincing lol). They have encountered a dangerous flora ( emits nitric acid that slowly wears out armor, dropships and eventually skin), and a fauna that is akin to the worms from Tremors ( as a quick description). Looking for some ideas on how to "challenge" them on getting resources throughout the Kronos to encourage growth.... I have some ideas but would love more as long as their not too railroading.

Thanks,

Scammer

A challenge, hm?

How about "how to actually get people to live there?". You can arrange for criminals, turning this into a penal colony... but this needs paperwork and playing favours and perhaps scratching someones back. You can try to honestly advertise for your colony, even offering a "fresh start up"... but that might get you in trouble. Local planetary rulers disliked seeing THEIR populace being drained away and you can bet that some "contract bound workers" are going to forge papers. Which in turn could lead to your "planet side recruitment office" getting in trouble with the Enforcers.
And: honest advertising might not be well adviced if the planet sports a flora that tends to spew acid (a Deathworld, I guess?). But what shall you do? Leaving out the details will work... but your soon-to-be-citizens will feel BETRAYED. That could turn into a riot in the making.

A thing aside: those people willing to leave are usually people that don´t fit in somehow. Besides from the poor an the downtrodden, those who have very different religious view tend to be most willing to leave (think about the Mayflower ). How will the Ministorum react? How will YOUR priests and crew react? How mixed will your colony be? Will they all get along? Doesn´t need to be civil war, but problems might show up and a leader is a leader because he makes decisions. Decisions are hard if both solutions have an unwelcome side effect... or consequences one might not be fully able to gauge.

depends on the planet you're colonizing. I assume since its named its in one of the books or something but I dont remember it.

any planet will need people like Greg said. a highly forested planet might need metal for buildings or machinery, fuel to run them, starting equipment for your colonists to survive with (thinking machettes to hack paths, flamers to stop the acid flowers before they spew, those pre made hab shelters), sounds like you'll want to bring in plenty of plascrete to lay down so worms dont pop up right in town etc.

they could always need specialist colonists as well. some catachan style jungle guides so scouts actually return, tech priests for whatever machinery, enforcers or even a guardsment regiment to be garrisoned there if a full defence is needed. missionaries if your colonists arent up to snuff on their oh holy vows. basically any adeptus faction might want to be represented there as per usual with all newly founded imperial worlds.

maybe even food could be a problem there. if the plants spit acid, I'd bet eating the plant would not be very pleasant. hyper worms might be too hard to kill to count on, gardening themselves would be difficult if dirt means getting eaten from underground.

then theres always luxury items. definitely not necessary but a little comfort from home can go a long way in keeping people happy on Planet Tremors and could make for a trade item to get more production.

any little thing they could want or need that they cant make themselves, they'll be asking the rogue trader to import. maybe just a couple things at a time, but quite a few to start to make it survivable all the way til your next visit

Isn't Choir in the Unbeholden Reaches? That's like... DEEP expanse. Anything you need to import to get that colony running is gonna cause you problems. Trouble with establishing footholds in the darkest corners of the unknown is there are dreadfully few trade routes, and even if there were the profit (or the favour owed) would have to be staggering to convince traders to operate along it. This means setting up there will require some extremely careful planning on your players' part.

And if they decide to blow all that off and decide to just drop some colonists there and hope for the best, the best is most likely a mound of corpses. The worst on the other hand....

and hope for the best, the best is most likely a mound of corpses. The worst on the other hand....

I'm gonna have to use that line at some point.