So, in Stars of Inequity it talks about outsourcing objectives by getting NPCs to do them. Under Mustering Resources it says

"When attempting to acquire mercenaries, surveyors, intermediaries, or other hired help from outside the Rogue Trader’s house, the difficulty of the Acquisition Test is modified by the quality of the hirelings. "

This is fine. It gets the standard +10/+0/-10/-30 modifier depending on the quality. However, there is nowhere that I can find that states what the availability starts out as? Does a team surveyors start out as Rare or Extremely Rare or Common?

That's one of those GM discretions; however, if you have BFK you can use the availability of troops as a substitute. FFG did "GMs discretion" a lot throughout the books. It's a blessing and a curse.

OK, those look reasonable.

I always prefer the books to provide a baseline for rules and ruling as "GMs discretion" is implicit in RPGs.

Yeah, the BFK and Core rules seem consistent. IIRC there is Incompetent, Competent, Professional, Veteran, and Elite or something close to that. They weren't exactly statted out but its an easy extrapolation, given that their skills are 20/30/40/50/60.

In the core book they say "rules for acquiring retainers will be published in a future supplement" (or words to that effect) - did they ever actually publish said rules?

EDIT: Yes, they did, under "Representatives" in Stars of Inequity .

In the core book they say "rules for acquiring retainers will be published in a future supplement" (or words to that effect) - did they ever actually publish said rules?

EDIT: from the Errata:

Acquisition and retainers (page 274): Rules on the acquisition of retainers and component quality for starships will be available in forthcoming supplements.

Not really. The closest thing is in Into the Storm. The ship upgrade "Crew Improvements" gives +5 to crew rating at best quality. Its is an average rarity ship component, so this would be a -20 acquisition test.

However, in the same book it says you can only buy a ship upgrade one time per ship... so....

EDIT: was only speaking to crew rating upgrades

That's a shame. I'd like my players to be able to recruit specific underlings and retainers.

Its in Battle Fleet Koronus - under Men of Quality - that's been the best reference for Henchmen I've found

Yeah, that's a reasonable patch, but I still feel like there's a gap in the rules. What if my Seneschal wants to recruit a local merchant to be his factor in port, for example? Lets say he finds someone both loyal and well-connected - 'Professional' - so call it a -10 modifier to acquire him; the table says his "Skills and Characteristics" are therefore 40. Is that 40 in every Characteristic, or is 40 a median, or is 40 the highest/'focal' stat and everything else is lower? And Skills - does he have every single skill as Trained, therefore 40, or is it just referring to his, again, 'focal' skillset?

I'd House Rule it to be the latter in each case but when I first read that Erratum I was kinda hoping for more guidance than we got :/

I could make up an Acquisition Table for Henchmen if you want - I like doing stuff like that...

I'm not here to make demands on your time but that'd be awesome.

No worries dude - I'll have it posted by next week!

I have people of quality in my Acquisition House Rules. You can find the file here.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/175991-my-house-rules/

It's just like acquiring crew, but you are looking for the absolute best (-30), but only 1 (+30), so...

BACK TO HENCHMEN

So after doing some digging around to get a good general basis (over all in the Sci Fi genre) of what exactly we're talking about here - some key concepts and/or variables to consider are outlined below:

- Type of Henchman (i.e. their Quality Type)
- Characteristic Values (the ten associated to each Quality level - WS, BS, S, T, AG, INT, PER, WP, PER, *INF)
- Availability / Frequency (how likely would one be able to find "good" help)

- Loyalty Rating (each level is +20%, with Fanatic at 100% Loyalty to their Liege)

- Trappings aka "Gimmicks" (special gear and tools, some examples that come to mind; Jump Packs, Power Armor, Vechiles, Cybernetics, Etc.)

Now for trappings - the alloted "slots" (reads as "Personae features TWO special items") they count as Common Quality Gear - whatever is chosen. Now if the gear is downgraded - then the Henchman receives another slot in which to either improve another slot's Quality Level or just to acquire another piece of Poor level quality equipment...

*INF (Influence - from DH 2)

OK examples of play that come to mind as "Henchmen" or Men-of-Quality from other Sci Fi settings would be as follows:

SEE HERE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henchman

Example; So say I was a player and I wanted to acquire a guy sort of like Cad Bane (War Type) from Star Wars - to me that's a tall order - in terms of that henchman's competence and overall outlay; seems like he'd be pegged as an Veteran in our game system... (i.e. Veteran from Men of Quality in Battlefleet Koronus PAGE-126)

Next example - say I wanted to acquire a Henchman like say Dame Vaako (Social Type) from Riddick - I was at a loss herein off the top of my head for a good "social" type of Henchman - so I've opted to use her here. Again in her arena of expertise she'd be a Professional grade ambassador/diplomatic type...

Fluffwise: So demographically one should consider how frequent or often does one not only rise up from the trials of battles and war (War Type) - but more so survived all the rigors the Imperium and by extent the 40k Universe had (keep in mind I'm talking about evolution - i.e. the strong survive the weak get culled when talking about Warrior types.

On the other spectrum - who survives long enough via the intrigues and espionage (Social Type) that goes on behind sealed doors and warded chambers.

My point being is the extent of the actual "finding" or these highly competent individuals - moreover why would they stop whatever they were doing with their lives and now decide to leave their base of power or otherwise and work for you? (i.e. their frequency and investment).

Anyhow all this was fleshed out for you the reader in order to explain and justify the statistics and associated mechanics given

Stay GAMING

Morbid

P.S. my materials - are for a SINGLE person acquisition!

I don't know about you - but for me the idea of a person finding say a handful of Bubba Fets or Darth Vaders or the like rubs me the wrong way.

These are people of distinction and competence - not merely nameless NPCs, but rather fully realized characters unto themselves...

This is fantastic, thankyou MD! I'll plug these into my game immediately

>>> say I wanted to acquire a Henchman like say Dame Vaako

well well well; yes i would....

I like the table so far but I think loyalty is a little odd. Most free willed individuals aren't going to be 100% loyal but they're not going to outright admit their disloyalty either. Loyalty is probably something that should be built over time and the PCs shouldn't be aware of the exact details. If they treat a retainer well and the relationship is mutually beneficial then the retainer should be more loyal than someone they've just hired after culling most of the planet they hired him from.

Perhaps a better and more visibly measurable statistic could be allegiances or side projects.

The higher this rating is the more allegiances or pet projects the hireling has.

So a highly skilled shipwright may have allegiances to the Adeptus Mechanicus and be working on a side project to make the recoil in macrocannons kill rattlings less regularly. This should impact on the hireling's available time and just how secret any secret plans they are party to really are.

I like the option to find Henchmen in number - ideally coupled with the base default modifiers does create instances where the base value for acquisition is below 0% (in the red, negative value = I like) - this facet of play should involve factors beyond the default PF value that the players possess - things like new alliances, peer talents, and all manner of other "acquisition buffs" seem appropriate towards gaining such quality "help".

As for Loyalty - that's a concept adopted from Shadowrun Contacts system - though one could split hairs and say - Darth Vader had a finite loyalty to Palpatine which wasn't 100% Loyal in the end lol.

Now to support "allegiances / side projects" the above concept of Loyalty can be taken to describe what you've outlined - with the difference being i.e. the lower the rating in this case - the less pet projects, distractions, and or allegiances the Henchmen is concerned with.

Concerns can vary from the simple like marriage and or a relationship (i.e. love or lust - i recall Anakin becoming all fricketity F-ed because of his feelings for Padme - betraying the jedi - as my example herein) to monetary gains or the like. On that note - the idea of a Fanatic doesn't bother me especially in the 40k setting - people follow ideas, concepts, and power all the time.

Anyways - as seen in the Trope - Henchmen come in all flavors and variates and as such - even instantaneous Loyalty can occur - especially in dealing with people (like Rogue Traders and their Peers) who can "set you up for life" - or otherwise show you a good reason to be on their side besides the Gelt.

At this point though - seemingly this is more cosmetics more than anything else - I always a s a GM like to have a foil when introducing new concepts that empower the player characters - so its not all one sided house rules wise.

I'm not so concerned with a loyalty stat existing as I am with the players having access to the details of the statistic.

Intrigue is one of my favorite aspects of the Rogue Trader game system so I prefer the idea that you could get a retainer that is 100% loyal (and indeed if you search for retainers within scholarship programs your dynasty sponsors this may be more likely) but you shouldn't have any way of knowing that ahead of time.

That way the players are more encouraged to interact directly with the hirelings, reward their behavior and monitor their actions which can create wonderful plot hooks for the GM.

I let my players see as little of the mechanics as possible, so they wouldn't actually be aware of the Loyalty stat.

In keeping with the shared concept of Loyalty is not known...

I've revamped the Table - replaced Loyalty with Status

The "Status" metric can be used by the henchman (once/session) to call in favors like; get info, cause awe or fear, find something, ingratiate themselves with a particular group, or whatever is appropriate and applicable for the situation at hand.

I imagine a Character can opt to go look for a "famed" so & so and know the rating without ruining the spirit of mystery therein...

Again as in all my works - a foil was needed - and as such for some GMs and PCs "status" won't matter much, and that great - should make your acquisitions alot easier - but for those who want Bubba Fet or Darth Vader = good luck!

Stay GAMING

Morbid

Yeah, so, it turns out this is covered by "Retainers" in Stars of Inequity .

Yeah, so, it turns out this is covered by "Retainers" in Stars of Inequity .

but IMHO it's not covered too well, so I welcome these homebrew

( if we are talking about p107 of SoI )

But... but Iike my version better LMFAO

This section (you mentioned from Stars of Inequity) does add depth to the whole of it all - the both of em a GM has all they need, one way or another in how any of this is handled. Thanks for the update LoneKharnivore - I will use it moving forward!

Stay GAMING

Morbid