Ignore this.... The reasons below are enough reasons for me to basically say that this idea was either pointless or avoiding the point of Rogue Trader, which is not suppose to be what I was trying to make it sadly. Though a point came up that this could be an interesting topic never the less so I will leave this here so people can speak their mind on this matter. I will still be looking at the posts on here, so if there is anything else that you would like to put in on the fact of what would happen if the emperor died, please place it here.

Wut? lololol hahahahha... no.

Come on, we all knew it was going to happen at some time.

How the hell did your Rogue Trader make it past the Adeptus Custodes, Imperial Guard Legions and Chapters of Space Marines protecting the Emperor? Pretty sure the Golden Throne is the single most well protected spot in the entire Imperium. If anything less than a Tyranid Hive Fleet (or several) could break through the forces protecting the Emperor, I'm pretty sure it'd have been done a long time ago.

O no, it was not my Rogue Traders. It was a NPC Pskyer. They released him from his prison but they didn't kill him

Yeah, I lack patience for stuff like this. "Look at how creative I am, monkey-wrenching the core fluff! Erm, so, what do I do now...?" If you didn't have a plan for the ramifications of your 'I'm-too-cool' campaign-busting actions, then why did you do it?

Run? I would say pray but you just killed a god soo....

Yeah, I lack patience for stuff like this. "Look at how creative I am, monkey-wrenching the core fluff! Erm, so, what do I do now...?" If you didn't have a plan for the ramifications of your 'I'm-too-cool' campaign-busting actions, then why did you do it?

I suppose I should explain, as this would see like I do have no idea what I am doing. The emperor has been on the throne for too long, and there are radical Inquistors who do believe heavily in the Star Child theory. These two things combined basically reacted a plan years in the making, and allowing the emperor to finally pass, which he allowed because honestly I can't think of really anything that could kill him if he didn't want to die. He knew this was coming and he accept it because he also saw he would raise again.

As for the ramifications of this action, I have thought this though. Due to the fact that millions of worlds require the Astronomicon to function to travel though the Warp, the worlds that are unable to supply the food they need will die (IE Hive/Forge Worlds) this is a given fact of life and it is going to happen. The Agri-World will most likely be alright, as they can feed their population. There will also be massive power vaccums that occur within every square inch of the imperium due to this happening, as everyone scrambles to keep things together (or to not die whatever). This also includes Space Marine Chapters, and due to the fact that the emperor is gone, Chaos and everything else will also come in while the Imperium is weak. I am very much aware of the ramification of my actions. I will be posting a full list of the ramifications tomorrow and you guys can tell me if I missed something, which honestly I most likely will because I am human and I do make mistakes.

My original plan is to have them literally go from Planet to Planet attempting to 'restart' the Imperium, at least at the smallest of scales, and when the Star Child is reborn then they will most likely hand it over to him/her to give him/her a foothold to start the Crusades again. This is my current thing that I would like them to do, but they will have to deal with the power struggles along the way, as you would expect. This will lead to enough plot hooks and other things for me to keep them busy for the 20-200 years it will take for Emperor to finally get hold and start pushing his/her power over the Imperium again.

I am simply asking this question for the thoughts and opinions of the people of what you believe would happen when the Emperor did finally die and the time inbetween the death and the reincarnation. If you believe I have done something wrong, (AKA a reason besides "it is against canon" ) then let me know your reasons. I have no problem hearing negative reviews as I did post this on the internet and that is going to happen, also I think that this might have been a stupid choice and if you think that give me your reasons why.

What do you/they want to happen? It was obviously a plan, and whether your iteration uses the idea that the Sensei will reincarnate the Emperor, or that they were a Tzeentch ploy, and He's gone eternal, may not really matter, at least on close inspection of time. The Astronomicon will NOT go dark, it will only go dim, and it's reach will severely shorten. Navigators and the Astronomicon were working for ages while the Emperor ruled Terra, so while He immensely strengthened it, He was also "merely" a facet of it. The lessening of the Astronomicon may be the only outward sign anything happened, and the Senate would suppress any spread of that information. Navigators will *****, but the Astronomicon fluctuates, so whatever. Otherwise, "regular" people don't interact with the Emperor, so His demise would actually be possibly easy to conceal, at least at first. Distant chunks of the Imperium will suffer, but not immediately, and the core of it won't notice.

As for seizing up planets to empire-build, whether for you, or for His triumphant return, the impact of either event may take years, and your characters might be deceased. I don't know, it's kind of hard to say what one should do, based on if most anyone will even notice a change.

I am simply asking this question for the thoughts and opinions of the people of what you believe would happen when the Emperor did finally die and the time inbetween the death and the reincarnation.

How about simply nothing. The Golden Throne was just tending to the Emperor's physical body, but his mind and spirit already passed away a long time ago, similar to real life where machines keep a body alive, but the person itself is basically a plant.

The Soul-binding, Astronomican and anything else super-natural is just the emperor having become part of the warp, similar to the Chaos gods bestowing some of his supernatural power on his mortal followers. The Golden Throne is basically the most holiest shrine to the Emperor.

Too anti-climatic? Oh well.

The Astronomicon will NOT go dark, it will only go dim, and it's reach will severely shorten. Navigators and the Astronomicon were working for ages while the Emperor ruled Terra, so while He immensely strengthened it, He was also "merely" a facet of it.

Yes, I was wondering about that not so long ago. The Emperor was part of the Great Crusade, but how could ships navigate then if he wasn't on Earth, fuelling/directing the Astronomican.

So yes, it will only go dim.

This is exactly why I asked. Thank you for your input because I completely forgot about those facts and you bring up a good point. Thank you.

The Astronomicon will NOT go dark, it will only go dim, and it's reach will severely shorten. Navigators and the Astronomicon were working for ages while the Emperor ruled Terra, so while He immensely strengthened it, He was also "merely" a facet of it.

Yes, I was wondering about that not so long ago. The Emperor was part of the Great Crusade, but how could ships navigate then if he wasn't on Earth, fuelling/directing the Astronomican.

So yes, it will only go dim.

Unexpected upside to the Emperor dying, the Nid's will lose interest in the Imperium because that bright light they were following isn't there anymore.

You've gone off the map. It's your game and have fun with it, but I wouldn't expect much cooperation on a forum like this. Most of the people here are playing Rogue Trader. Your game has gone off course. You're no longer playing Rogue Trader. You're playing a homebrew game of Galactic Domination.

The argument could easily be made that you left Rogue Trader when your party went Chaos, although you could bring in your own support with the Chaos Sorcerer rules that are in one of the supplements (forget off hand), but you're basically playing a megapowered game of Black Crusade. I'd try on that forum.

That said, what would I do? I'd understand that in any vacuum a host of stuff must rush in. Look at what has recently happened in Libya, Syria, and Iraq. Use that for a model. If you're a student of history then consider the collapse of the British and French Empires, or the Roman Empire. There's plenty of material there for playing an RPG.

And I wouldn't call the Nid reaction an upside. They won't get less hungry, they'll just get less predictable.

Alright, thank you for your advice. I will be revising and retconning this as all of your points are valid and I realized that there are major issues with what is happened. Thank you for your time and effort posting, and I am sorry for wasting your time with such a stupid idea. I did think that I knew what I was doing, but this is why I posted it here to figure out what I missed.

I am sorry for wasting all your time.

Okay, here are my initial thoughts. I will say that I'm echoing the sentiment a lot of people have put forward that this action sends 40K so far off the rails that it's literally up to you because this is the end game a lot of people have been playing for, and it changes everything.

The main change is that Terra is, in all likelihood, gone. The Emperor's body was sitting on the Throne, but his soul was tending to the ceaseless tide of daemons spilling out of the Warp Rift in the Golden Throne. The body was the anchor that allowed the Emperor to remain there, and he was not able to seal the Warp Rift while he was still alive, so I don't think it's a question of him lacking the power right now. Magnus really screwed the pooch on humanity with that one. Just as planned.

So there's a question of what His resurrection means. Is he Emperoring it up in the Warp and still providing a beacon, or was He reborn into a new body and has been birthed somewhere in the Imperium? If the former then you can get by with actually very few changes other than the Imperium freaking out that its homeworld is gone. If it's the latter, then even if He sets up a new Astronomicon, warp travel is going to be so messed up for awhile because people are going to assume they're plotting a direction relative to Terra, but it's really being plotted relative to somewhere else so they'll be massively off course.

I like that everyone is cluing in not on the spiritual and political ramifications of this act, but the problem it's going to make with driving. The space highways are going to get so congested.

Okay, here are my initial thoughts. I will say that I'm echoing the sentiment a lot of people have put forward that this action sends 40K so far off the rails that it's literally up to you because this is the end game a lot of people have been playing for, and it changes everything.

The main change is that Terra is, in all likelihood, gone. The Emperor's body was sitting on the Throne, but his soul was tending to the ceaseless tide of daemons spilling out of the Warp Rift in the Golden Throne. The body was the anchor that allowed the Emperor to remain there, and he was not able to seal the Warp Rift while he was still alive, so I don't think it's a question of him lacking the power right now. Magnus really screwed the pooch on humanity with that one. Just as planned.

So there's a question of what His resurrection means. Is he Emperoring it up in the Warp and still providing a beacon, or was He reborn into a new body and has been birthed somewhere in the Imperium? If the former then you can get by with actually very few changes other than the Imperium freaking out that its homeworld is gone. If it's the latter, then even if He sets up a new Astronomicon, warp travel is going to be so messed up for awhile because people are going to assume they're plotting a direction relative to Terra, but it's really being plotted relative to somewhere else so they'll be massively off course.

I like that everyone is cluing in not on the spiritual and political ramifications of this act, but the problem it's going to make with driving. The space highways are going to get so congested.

Also valid point.

No matter what happens, if the emperor comes back or not, there will be civil war throughout the imperium. People will be grasping at power, some will get hysterical that their god died. You also have to remember the emperor isnt (or at least he claims not to be) a god, and was very adamant that people not think of him as such. So when he does come back he probably wont like the fact that everyone worships him as a god. The ecclesarchy is almost as powerful as the government in the imperium, so they may not be to happy about their god telling them they are wrong, or even having him back in the first place, as they would lose a heck of a lot of power. Their will be attempts to conceal that he is dead, which may or may not work out, but chaos will know right away, and will definitely try and take advantage of this.

The biggest problem, other then daemons poping our everywhere and civil war, is that all the other races (eldar, dark eldar, hrud, necrons, orks, enslavers, tau so on so on) are not going 2 stop doing what they are doing, but the imperium is going 2 have a very hard time dealing with any of them now. Even if the potential civil war does not destroy the imperium, a lot of the fringe worlds are going 2 get lost. And with less support from the imperium, many planets may simply revolt.

One up side is that the ultramarines already kinda have their own little nation far away from the emperor, so they might actually be able 2 keep some level of control in their sector.

Also the guy who actually killed the emperor and anyone involved with him could easy just go and become full fledged daemon princes if they wanted. Im pretty sure chaos would be more then happy to help out the guys who killed the emperor

Also primarchs. This is basically the 40k endtimes, and with their father dying, if any of them are going to come back, now would be the time. Also as stated above. RIP terra.

No matter what happens, if the emperor comes back or not, there will be civil war throughout the imperium. People will be grasping at power, some will get hysterical that their god died. You also have to remember the emperor isnt (or at least he claims not to be) a god, and was very adamant that people not think of him as such. So when he does come back he probably wont like the fact that everyone worships him as a god. The ecclesarchy is almost as powerful as the government in the imperium, so they may not be to happy about their god telling them they are wrong, or even having him back in the first place, as they would lose a heck of a lot of power. Their will be attempts to conceal that he is dead, which may or may not work out, but chaos will know right away, and will definitely try and take advantage of this.

The biggest problem, other then daemons poping our everywhere and civil war, is that all the other races (eldar, dark eldar, hrud, necrons, orks, enslavers, tau so on so on) are not going 2 stop doing what they are doing, but the imperium is going 2 have a very hard time dealing with any of them now. Even if the potential civil war does not destroy the imperium, a lot of the fringe worlds are going 2 get lost. And with less support from the imperium, many planets may simply revolt.

One up side is that the ultramarines already kinda have their own little nation far away from the emperor, so they might actually be able 2 keep some level of control in their sector.

Also the guy who actually killed the emperor and anyone involved with him could easy just go and become full fledged daemon princes if they wanted. Im pretty sure chaos would be more then happy to help out the guys who killed the emperor

Point

Ignore this.... The reasons below are enough reasons for me to basically say that this idea was either pointless or avoiding the point of Rogue Trader, which is not suppose to be what I was trying to make it sadly.

Aww. I was hoping to actually provide some constructive advice. Ohh well. Happy gaming Sinpoder. Don't let everyone else's views get you down, just because yours are different or unique. All that means was that your idea was imaginative, and simply needed polishing. Off course, how long it would of taken something this huge to polish is..... beyond words, so to speak.

You can easily look at the quotes and figure out what was said. I will continue to look though this thread to see what people think, so if you wish to place constructive advice here then by all means do so. It might help someone who is alittle better at this then I am figure it all out.

When running RT...or any game...stick to the script the your first time out, and probably your fourth or fifth. For most games, give the players a concrete starting objective that is currently beyond their capability (slay the dragon, awaken the sleeping princess, avenge your father's death). Then, give the players a series of adventures that force them to travel, grow as individuals, and gel as a group. Give them time to develop their characters' personalities.

In RT, give them pirates to fight, ancient ruins to explore, xenos to confuse them, rivals to confound their plans, and a background war that threatens to overwhelm all their well-laid plans. When everything comes together your players will know it and they will tell you it's time...no need to make this stuff up. Then let them achieve their original objective, or at least take a shot at it. If they fail, maybe they go back to square one and try again. If they succeed, game over, start another. Fu was had by everyone.

If you have to ask complete strangers what to do with your plot, then your story is out of control; it isn't your story any more. When you've run a few vanilla campaigns you won't need to ask anyone's advice on plot, just rules clarifications, or ideas on challenges or rewards. It's sometimes hard to come up with new and exciting monsters and treasures, not to mention dungeon crawls. There's nothing wrong with vanilla campaigns. My most enjoyable long-term games started very vanilla. I'm sure most long-time players and GMs would concur. It's those games that start vanilla and turn into something else by player design that really last. When the GM forces it, it usually spirals out of control and crashes.

You're asking about my ideas rather than advice right?

The astronomican would sputter, and possibly die, but maybe just get dim. Warp travel will become significantly more difficult. If the death can be covered up proper like, business as usual except navigator PCs are getting a -whatever on their nav rolls. There might be too much psychic backlash to check it on the quiet tip though, like millions of psykers Inquisitors included receiving visions, massive warp storms, billions just pop head asploding. If it gets out, the Imperium will fall upon itself in a race to the bottom, their would be massive sprawling civil wars in which the already feudal Imperium will break down into 100s of openly hostile empires. They'll be generally more vulnerable to xenos and enemy forces, and life will generally be more grim dark from a human perspective.

This is all assuming the Emperor stays dead, and that Tera is not overrun with daemons from something mentioned in something I never read. If the Emperor comes back that could be a messy 2nd puberty for the Imperium that ultimately fixes quite a few problems. But that if that did happen, it'd take possibly thousands of years. It could also just as easily, maybe more easily lead to further ruin. He can come back as a harmful figure, another Chaos God, or just mega jerk(more than before).

It would be a bad thing. But do as you will friend, an Emperor less Imperium can be a fun setting to play in if you and your players are comfortable coming up with that story. Good luck.

One possibility is covered by http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Story:The_Shape_Of_The_Nightmare_To_Come_50k