Hello Rogue Trader fans!

This week, it is my pleasure to present a designer diary by someone who needs no introduction, Ross Watson. Ross explains how to use the Origin Path to create the notorious Rogue Trader, Sarvus Trask.

cool. this has answered me a few questions. and it looks like a good way to think about the character's background. though, knowing my gaming group they will dislike the limitation of a specific path. eg: 'why can't i be a renegade noble born? or a rogue trader with the vengence motivation'

The "free choice" row option will help out there quite a bit.

that will fit perfectly! thanks for the reply.

It's important to point out two things:

1) The career row is not part of the chart, so you can choose any class regardless of your path. Of course, you can make it part of the chart if you want...

2) You don't have to follow the career chart, you can just mark your character's options and every time two or more players mark the same option, you have an intersection.

Hmm... seems I misunderstood the book... I thought the career row was separate from the path. Ross, can you clarify?

I've always assumed that the career role was part of the path and thats how we did it last week when we created characters. My take on it is that it wouldn't be part of the chart if it wasn't ment to be part of the career path. And according to the example, yes in his career selection, he was limited to the careers next to his prior choice. The optional rules in the book allow u to get around this though by having a free choice role. Either u start out knowing what career u want to play and work toward a homeworld or u know where u come from and that reflects what u can be according to the standard rules.

Of course I'm not an official rules guru so that's just my opinion.

Cervantes3773 said:

The designer diary seems to contradict that statement, it says:

"Although Sarvus Trask has acquired a disturbing tendency to speak to people who aren’t there, one step remains to complete the Origin Path. I must select a Career! From Prestige, my options are either a Seneschal, a Navigator, or a Rogue Trader."

So that seems fairly clear that as part of the "Standard" use of the chart you are tied to the career directly beneath the motivation and the one to the imidiate left and right.

mcneils5 said:

Agreed. However, I thought that there was a passage in the book that indicated that the career line wasn't part of the path. I don't have my book with me, but I'll try to check later.

It wouldn't make much sense to call it a "career path" if the path didn't lead to a career, would it? If the career option isn't a part of the chart, why isn't the chart called a "background path"?

The core rule book contradicts itself. On page 15 we are told that during standard character creation (not using the options in the Origin Path Options sidebar) we must follow the the Origin Path Chart on page 16. But on page 24, in the Home Worlds and Careers sidebar we are told , "there are no special restrictions on characters from a certain Home World gaining any Career of the player's choice." One could take this to mean that the limitations on the Origin Path Chart are not "special restrictions", or that the sidebar supersedes the information presented on the chart. I think we will have to decide for ourselves.

Leopold Cygnus said:

Well, it's called the Origin Path because it determines where your character came from and why s/he does what s/he does. Having your origin restrict your career choice makes for some pretty bland and predicatable characters. While a Rogue Trader from a death world is certainly rare, there's no reason why an enterprising Catachan can't be one.

As Atilla-IV said, the rulebook contradicts itself, and as it makes more sense to me for the career line to be separate, I'll be playing it that way.

Hi, everyone! I thought I'd weigh in here briefly to help clear up the confusion.

The sidebar on page 24 says: "In Rogue Trader , there are no special restrictions on characters from a certain Home World gaining any Career..." This is in reference to the Dark Heresy career system, where each Home World does have specific restrictions as to which Careers may be selected by someone with that particular background. (Feral Worlders can't be Adepts, for example.)

In Rogue Trader , there are no such restrictions listed under each Home World. However, the Career line is still a part of the Origin Path. If you strictly follow the Origin Path rules, you will not be able to make a Death Worlder Rogue Trader or Noble Born Astropath Transcendent. (That is not to say that they do not exist in the vast universe that is Warhammer 40,000, but they are rather rare.)

The reason the sidebar says there are no special restrictions, is that it is perfectly valid for the GM to allow the players with a firm (and acceptable to the group) character concept to make non-adjacent selections from the Origin Path, or to create a 'free choice row' for the entire group. In those cases, it would be possible for a Death Worlder to become a Rogue Trader, for example. Hence, the reference to "no special restrictions" on page 24.

Hope this helps clear things up!

Sam Stewart

FFG_Sam Stewart said:

It clears things up perfectly (and is basically what I suspected all along). Thank you.

/Also, sorry for calling you "Ross" earlier in the thread... all you FFGers look the same to me ;-)

No problem at all. Just happy to help.