First off, a big thank you to everyone who's GOT a copy of RT, and who's been good enough to whet our appetites with salacious details about the book!

What I really want to know about is Navigators: what are they like as PCs? What sort of powers do they have? How is their background handled? Are there details of the Navigator houses in the Calixis Sector and beyond? How combat orientated are they?

Navigators have a chapter to themselves, much like the Psychic Chapter for Astropaths. It covers background, the details and mechanics of each of the four types of Houses (Nomadic, Magisterial, Shrouded, and Renegade), and special Navigator powers and Mutations.

All Navigators begin mutated, with some modifiers based on House (F'rex, Magisterial Navigators get to choose from a few less extreme options instead of rolling, and they get a bonus to resist mutating further). You check to see if you mutate further each time you buy the Navigator Power advance.

Powers are a characteristic test, with modifiers based on Mastery. Purchase the power once, no modifier. Full Mastery is +20 at three total purchases. The default power* is the Lidless stare, where people stare into your fully opened eye and go insane and possibly explode--but your allies may be tempted by the siren song of the warp to look in as well.

*You get one other, which can be used to upgrade it for a +10 bonus and increased capabilities, or buy a new one.

Brilliant, thanks for that, RPG! Have you run the game yet? Has anyone in your group chosen to play as a Navigator?

I ran three sessions at GenCon, and there was indeed a Navigator. He had a great time, including killing an enormous bi-unipod mutant with the Lidless Stare and navigating the ship to two sessions ago.

RocketPropelledGrenade said:

Now that sounds nasty, what other toys can you play with?

You can rewrite your personal entry in the timestream to have previously moved in a different way, which is a limited teleport. Also, you can freeze daemons by locking gazes. Or learn secrets by staring into the future.

RocketPropelledGrenade said:

Hmmm, yeah I think I'll settle for giving my players a death stare, the rest have far too much potential for abuse.

Not nearly as much as you'd think.

RocketPropelledGrenade said:

True but... you don't know the players I've gamed with all that well. Some of them... give them an inch and they'll take a whole football field. True though, I don't have the book in front of me so I can't say too much. Hopefully that will change in a couple weeks.

what are the differences between the houses?

is there any juicy fluff that goes with the houses?

Thanks

Nomadic Houses suffer social penalties with "dirtdwellers," but gain Talented (Navigation-Warp), and can spend fate points to auto-succeed on Navigator powers.

The Magisterial Houses are less grotesquely mutated to start, gain mutations less, and specialize in the Lidless Stare Power. They also get some social bonuses.

Shrouded Houses lose a profit factor for the group, but get a bonus power (its a specific one, but they can ultra specialize in that one). They also get bonuses to Barter, Charm and Carouse.

Finally, Renegade Houses...they get an additional power, and can choose any three powers (which they do not need to have yet) and get +10 to them. However, they get an extra starting mutation, mutate more easily later, and get social penalties with "official bodies of the Imperium:.

RocketPropelledGrenade said:

Hmmm, have to say I like Nomadic and Shrouded Houses myself. The others I'll have to read for myself first.

Are there any lists of the various houses under each category? I'm starting a Dark Heresy game that is going to focus on a Navigator, and some information about the houses would help out alot.. until my collector's edition gets here.

Thanks!

Shadowspawn said:

Just a few names, no real specific description by house.