Hello, I have recently started up a Rogue Trader game, one where my players are very much into what is happening and everything but we have a very slight problem. They do not wish to do any of the 'work', i guess you could say. They want to go out and just have crazy adventures, which honestly is not hard to do, but the problem is they also have a slight problem of " This planet is now mine, suck it!" plant a flag and then they move on and leave, expecting the people they left there to do it for them or for everything to work out.

I have told them this, and they basically told me that they don't want to deal with any of that and they simply want to move on to the next planet and deal with that. From what I can tell, Rogue Trader is suppose to be a game where dealing with starting up a planet or having to deal with political stuff, which apparently my players either don't want to do or IRL they aren't good at it. So, this leads to the main issue. How does a Rogue Trader grow in power without basically having to do these 'boring' things? Should I just have it be a off screen kind of thing, and if so how do I implement that kind of thing into the game in a semi-balanced way?

Also, I looked at the Stars of (Whatever Word) and the random planet generators and I don't understand how that works at all, so if someone could help me with that as well I would be very happy.

To leave all the colony-handling to the representative is not uncommon, and is actually practical. However!

-They need to find a competent AND loyal representative. Otherwise chances are the colony will either perish, or will be a throne-sink instead of profit generator, or will rebel against the dynasty, or will choose to pledge loyalty to other rogue trader dynasty, or will overthrow the representative, go into anarchy, will be plagued with chaos-worshiping/xeno-worshiping cults, or some combination of the above - that's what happens when you put guy from the street in charge. And believe it or not, competence AND loyalty are a rare mix.

-Said representative will contact them from time to time asking for money or resources - a young colony needs construction materials, supplies, weapons from las-rifles to orbital defense platforms, more colonists, astropaths, transports to export locally produced goods (you do want profit from the colony, don't you?) and a million other things which either cost time or money if Rogue Trader wants to pay for everything while doing nothing. Not that it will eat all the profits if the representative is good enough, but it will require more initial investments, and they will pay back more slowly.

-Once in a while, either calamities or opportunities will happen to the colony and they will require Rogue Trader's attention, or the colony will either suffer or miss it's opportunity. Some of them are described in Stars of Iniquity, and you surely can imagine more. Just keep in mind they should not happend very often.

I would say to them "Sure, let's play DnD in space"

however, whenever they take something and mismanage it,

or fail to manage it at all, then just let the PF suffer.

They can conquer and grab all sorts of places,

and only let their PF go up by 1.

Later on the misfortune table will bite them in the ass.

Just let them know they lost PF because that

settlement they ignored fell to some other force or problem

You can even foreshadow this:

• Week 1.- Conquer Beta Omicron. Gain 1 PF.
• Week 2. - Conquer Zeta Lambda, Gain 1 PF
• Week 3. - Sail for Delta Chi, hear bad news about Beta O..
• Week 4 - Conquer Delta Chi, hear bad news about Zeta.L. Lose 1 PF from fall of BO4.
• Week 5, - Lose 1 PF from ZL, but Conquer Kappa Quintos, etc. rinse and repeat.

Also Hold up Jonquin Saul and A.Chorda as good managers.

Make the players watch 1492 . Columbus did more than sail the ship and skewer the native.

On the other hand. If that's what they want, maybe just give it to them.

I don't have a game group, so I would be thankful even for a mediocre one.

The idea of the game is for everyone, GM included, to have fun. There isn't a "right" way to play Rogue Trader besides that.

That said, there are rules for NPC endeavours in Into The Storm and Stars of Inequity. Leaving the underlings to take care of matters unsupervised is a lot less time-consuming...but they might get it wrong.

It sounds like your group needs a bit more discussion on the issue. As GM, it IS important to speak up and say, "Look, as a GM, for me to enjoy the game, there has to be some degree of realism here. Just planting a flag and running off to the next big planet and expecting no consequences to happen, to me, is unbelievable and boring."

Maybe that's too harsh, I don't know. The other thing is just be upfront that they have to at least:

1.) find a competent leader and

2.) be willing to have the odd adventure where a leader from that planet sends them a desperate plea for help i.e. "Ork rocs have been detected entering the system, please come rescue us."

Also for Stars of Inequity, there is a premade windows based generator you can find at: (and read the thread for more details) that generates systems & treasure for you for adventures.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/82650-rogue-trader-generator-tools-released/

I also think using the Into the Storm background endeavor system (and you can always house rule it to be a bit more favourable to the players) so at least as a GM you can account for them taking care of their colonies.

Not everyone wants to play a game called "Logistics & Dragons"

There are a few approaches I can think of that might help you and your players hers.

1) Make it clear that your players are not the major players of the Dynasty. They're the vanguard that go out, find the planets, settle the worlds, and maybe flash the Warrant. The bulk of the work is done by their family who take the worlds they pacify and begin settling them for themselves. The players are still welcome there and treated well, but it's their "family's" world, and if they start getting too uppity they'll find a veritable invasion fleet worth of paperwork to get through in order to access any of their family's Thrones.

2) Use the NPC system, and allow it to auto-correct. However I would rule that they get a base roll of 30, and then since they're (presumably) willing to work this colony into profitability you'll auto-burn PF to get it functional. Thus to start a colony if you roll a 63, you'll burn 4 Profit Factor on top of the costs of starting a world.

3) Just say no. They plant their flag, and the local inhabitants might always remember them and their heroic actions, but if they're not willing to spend time nor resources (you haven't made it clear if the latter is true), then they don't get colony worlds for nothing. They still get the glory for their deeds, but they have to spend some time there.

As mentioned, if you've got colony worlds I recommend periodically rolling for misfortunes or windfall. My rule of thumb is every year a colony's been there I roll a d10. On a 1, they get a windfall, and on a 10 they get a misfortune. I wish there were more misfortunes or windfalls in the book, but I just haven't had the time to put together a custom list.

It's all about the game you guys collectively want to run. There's a decent amount of mechanical advice in here, but the best advice is to talk with your players about what they do and do not like. Do they not like the leg work because they feel it's an anti climax after the big action scene? Do they not like social encounters? Do they only like broad strokes? Dealing with epic life and death scenes?

Find out what they do or do not like about it, and maybe come to some sort of compromise. There's no wrong way to play, if they never want to argue about the price of grain with a local merchant that's fine as long as you don't want to play out the scene of them arguing with the grain merchant. What I generally do is I try to make that side stuff fun in some way. My game is mostly about high adventure, so I have a few interesting NPCs who do a lot of the leg work and have fun interactions where they inform the players of their progress. And occasionally I'll have a complication show up that needs the player's attention. Something where either they get to RP as fat cats and feel like super rich and powerful people, or a situation that is itself somewhat heroic and requires fighting and action to resolve. Something that gives them the gameplay they like, while paying lipservice to the idea of industry. And being on the way to the climax, rather than being post climax.

"A shuttle carrying down 2 years of corpse starch rations and holy relics was shot down by some orks who are en route and going to loot it within the next 12 hours. If we don't recover it, our attempts to conquer these savage locals will be seriously delayed!" or "We need a special life support system to help filter the atmosphere. This chaos lord has one in a vault of treasures in his Footfall adjacent asteroid fortress!" Stuff like that, one or two of those is maybe all you need to have the players see that grunt work is being done, while still allowing the players to keep their hands clean of dreaded work.

My guys like it, but my guys also like social scenes where they can boss around, antagonize, charm those who don't easily capitulate to their desires. No tedious spreadsheets or roleplaying out everytime your RT has to go smooth out some egos with the locals. Just every once in a while they get to feel like powerful charming merchant prices, afforded a very rare status in an otherwise gritty setting. Whether it's politely pushing around a governor, snubbing an inquisitor, threatening a witch hunter, charming an archbishop, or bribing an Ork warboss. It's just another chance to enforce their will and power on others.

If you talk with your guys, you're likely to find some way to make everyone happy quicker. Happiness is a mechanic of expectation.

Thank you for all the help you guys have given!