Hey fellow GMs,

I am starting a game with the DH2 rules and going into Rogue Trader campaign. Players will acquire a ship and build up their profit. But i have one big concern... how to handle 'uber' loot. Being rogue traders, best quality power swords, plasmaguns and inferno pistols become logically available. They will own worlds, gather immense riches. how can it be unavailable to them?

How do you handle that? For example, their first adventure is 'into the maw', but being shipless, they will have to get patronage from another RT. But how to handle the huge treasure they can get at the end? You cant tell them that there is no best quality power swords in it, or anything else actually.

Taken literally my response would be to use the acquisition rules on page 271 of rogue trader or the requisition rules on page 140 of DH2.

But it seems to me what you're actually saying is that you're not entirely comfortable with your players getting powerful equipment and you want to know how to limit that. Am I correct?

Do you want these things to be unavailable?

Are you trying to run Rogue Trader with Dark Heresy 2 characters? Rogue Trader with Dark Heresy 2 rules mechanics? Or are you trying to run Dark Heresy Acolytes who have access to a ship?

Being able to buy heirloom power swords, arceotech, thousands of indentured servants, void ships, and entire cities and moons is part and parcel of the Rogue Trader idiom. Only the poorest of Rogue Traders has to struggle with the purchase of something along the lines of a single power sword. If you really want to limit their equipment then start them off with a very small profit factor (say 15-20) and try to keep a handle on how quickly it rises. Their Rogue Trader patronage may come with the stipulation that he/his agent gets first pick of the loot.

The Into the Maw adventure doesn't specify what form the treasure takes in the slightest. Make up whatever you see fit. You could say it's a hold full of a combination of rare earth minterals much sought after by the adeptus mechanicus, several chests of gems and gold ingots taken from an alien world, a shipment of 2,000 Hecaton Sprint Autocarriages plundered by a pirate who was then himself plundered by a rogue trader, and a stasis vault containing three mated pairs of 30ft tall genuine Carnasaurs worth a small fortune each to the right buyers.

Personally I don't worry about it too much. If my players can buy it with their 54 profit factor, then go ahead and track down that suit of best quality light power armor or whatever. After a year and a half of 2x a month gaming sessions they're pretty loaded out with "equipment." I can still either track down or create myself all sorts of stuff to challenge them or come at them from a different angles (ask about the poisoned toilet seat some day).

In pretty much any situation ,the GM gets to say what form the treasure takes. If it is several hundred tons of rare earths and minerals that the nearest forge world will give a (best quality cybernetic) arm and a leg, then your party will still feel good after taking it. Personally, I'd go on a limb and say - throw them a bone now and then. Just what if they did get a good quality power sword? It is a +5 to rolls. Sure, it makes them feel awesome, nothing gamebreaking when that genestealer cult hits...

Thanks for your replies and it makes much sense. i guess i am afraid things get out of hand. But its true, there is always a stronger badass than you out there. With chaos and all, should be easy.

Rogue Trader is a very different scale, and it takes some getting used to. You as a person are not that much more powerful, but you have better equipment and more importantly, you have resources. It's not the best quality power sword that trips up most GMs, it's the platoon of stormtroopers they're leading.

Yeah, really not used to that kind of power level. but i want to make the game as movie like as possible. creating those special moments that players love when they save the day despite all ods

Out of curiosity, how long are you thinking of doing DH2 "Acolyte" stuff before you hit "Rogue Trader" stuff? This might have a major influence on how you go about making the transition, and how it feels. Because as some noted above, this can be "Inquisitorial/interrogator with a ship" to "Made a Rogue Trader to get rid them" to "One of my fellow acolytes was secretly a Rogue Trade Scion, now we work together for the Imperium"

I was thinking of running Into the maw, they will have to get a 'patron' for it for a ship (obviously), and taking a part of the profit. Then they might have 2-3 more missions to gather enough money to refit their ship. Main story starts with one of the player who has their great grandfather a fallen rogue trader, with their warrant revoked. They will have to prove that they are worthy and gather enough ressources to refit their old dynasty ship. Planning on making them start with a 70pts ship with 20pts profit. The ship was worth more than the 70, but the inquisition removed all xenos tech.

Seems to me like you could just jump right into Rogue Trader, and skip the Dark Heresy entirely. Unless DH2 is your system preference (wouldn't blame you) then I'd just consider bolting on the ship rules and perhaps a couple of key talents.

There's nothing wrong with running Rogue Trader using different rules, if you are willing to house rule the changes. One of my current campaigns uses mostly Only War rules with bits of Rogue Trader bolted on (e.g. ship combat, profit factor, and acquisitions).

The scale of Rogue Trader does take some getting used to. If you like running sandbox games with lots of player options, I can think of few better. Remember that there are other dynasties out there, also the branches of the Imperium and plenty of hostile xenos, cults, and pirates. There are no shortage of challenges no matter how grand a dynasty's holdings become.

There's a lot of good advice in this topic. Spatula especially had some wise words.

You'll get used to the fact that your players are running around with power swords, power armor, storm bolters, everything else in the book and quite a few things you cook up that aren't. It's a higher power level than you might be used to running most DH games. But when you give your players a bigger stick, just have them hit a bigger monster. Their primary opponents won't be narco gangers, mutants, and poorly equipped cultists anymore. But other similarly sized organisations, and generally tougher and better equipped enemies. Enemies like the Rak'ghuls give most pause and if they chew through even that, you can always A) get creative with enemy tactics and B) throw some Deathwatch enemies at them.

Plus as gm it's always up to your discretion what is available to them, and in a somewhat less important sense how certain rules and loot works. There's some poorly balanced loot in the splatbooks in both ways that need some tweaking. But even something as simple as Into the Maw. My guys found archeotech coffee mugs. They were borderline indestructible and they kept the contents of the cup the same for an almost indefinite amount of time. That was my silly take on them getting PF without getting coming up with mountains of gear after they heard rumors of archeotech, but rare minerals work just as well.

lol @ the mugs.

Yeah i am setting myself for the power level of the game, and i think it will be amazing. Should be interesting seeing how they react to the power level of the game too... Demons, CSM, Xenos, its quite easy actually to cook out things that are strong. i really want to play with 'minions' and 'champions'. like waves of cultists they will decimate, but then comes the real baddies... will make them learn to conserve ammo and play defence lol. Tons of fun coming up.

That's one way to do it. It's something I've done a few times, toss a couple of waves of pretty poorly equipped minor threats at the heroes to get them warmed up, and then face off with the boss. The could be the minion statblock with marginally better stats and a flashy weapon or it could be an honest to goodness Chaos Champion. It depends on the scene and how killy your guys are. It'll take a little for you to get a handle on the relative powerlevels, and it'll take a bit for your guys to really hit their stride with crazier gear and high avoidance and soak. But even out the gate they'll be pretty mean compared to starting Only War and Dark Heresy characters.

Edit: Plus like I said in another topic. It's always fun to occasionally have your PC's minions fighting the bad guy minions in the bad ground, while your PC's fight the main badguys, or even just the toughest group of minions.