We're starting up a new game of Rogue Trader and the guy the players have selected to be a Rogue Trader came up with an interesting idea for him, to be a former member of the Adeptus Arbites. Maybe even a Chastener? He has a pretty interesting write up, and I would really like to accommodate him, because I like this character.

Basically, he was a ranking member of the Arbites over the world of Scintilla, but not actually in one of the hive cities, meaning that he spent most of that career in space, if not traveling the stars, going after smugglers and such, looking for Xenos contraband. He has worked with the Inquisition, as his job necessitated, and with members of the various Scintilla police forces, before he inherited his Warrant of Trade.

I'm wondering how I can help him make this character? Should we go with maybe an Arch-Militant and have him be the Warrant-bearer?

...I'd use the Rogue Trader profile to represent a Rogue Trader, but that might just be me. Many, if not most, Rogue Traders were something else before they inherited or were granted their Warrant.

I'd probably look at an Origin Path of Imperial World > In Service To The Throne (Born To Lead) > Duty Bound (Duty To The Throne), and then there are a few options for the last two rows depending on the fine details of his personality; it might be worth making one a 'free choice'.

Yeah, it's a rare character that cannot be represented while staying within the Origin Path. And it's an even more rare character that can't within one of the careers. Your Arbiter could easily fit within the RT, Seneschal, or AM careers, depending on their specialties.

I've always thought of the Rogue trader classes as sort of elite advances from one of the other DH classes. As Lonekharnivore and Errant knight pointed out, It's a rare character that can't be expressed within the Origin path.

As an alternative; You could manually stat out an Arbitrator from DH1 or DH2 to about 5000xp and then "Elite advance" him into the RT class. This would represent the character gaining his Warrant as a reward for service. The catch would be that this would probably be a new Warrant and this would heavily effect just how free and powerful your particular RT is.

Hope this helps.

I still think you can fit his story in the origin paths.

With some minor adaptations - something like replacing some talents or traits for new ones like "Bred for Justice: has to roll a -30 WP test to break the law" and changing the peer and enemies to things like (Peer: Inquisition, Adeptus Arbites | Enemy: Feckward Dynasty, Pirates, Cold Traders, some Radical Inquisition groups ).

Imperial World reflects better than Hive World for his background (he probably didnt have to deal with the crowds and everything that Scintilla infers if he was part of a spaceship, but would have the Imperial Creed brainwashed done "Better"), Battlefleet perhaps?

In service to the throne -> Duty bound -> Dark Voyage -> Prestige -> RT

As an alternative; You could manually stat out an Arbitrator from DH1 or DH2 to about 5000xp and then "Elite advance" him into the RT class.

Personally, I'd caution against such crossovers. The systems aren't really meant to be interchangeable without major houseruling. Better to retrace the steps of character generation and see if you can't build an equivalent with the rules provided by the system you are actually playing with.

I've always thought of the Rogue trader classes as sort of elite advances from one of the other DH classes. As Lonekharnivore and Errant knight pointed out, It's a rare character that can't be expressed within the Origin path.

As an alternative; You could manually stat out an Arbitrator from DH1 or DH2 to about 5000xp and then "Elite advance" him into the RT class. This would represent the character gaining his Warrant as a reward for service. The catch would be that this would probably be a new Warrant and this would heavily effect just how free and powerful your particular RT is.

Hope this helps.

Then again just because he's a new Rogue Trader doesn't mean he didn't inherit an older Warrant of Trade from a now defunct line, with all the extra privileges and entitlements it contains.

Perhaps even in his background he may have been responsible for catching a Rogue Trader in nefarious acts in Imperial space and was granted his Warrant of Trade as a reward.

Then again just because he's a new Rogue Trader doesn't mean he didn't inherit an older Warrant of Trade from a now defunct line, with all the extra privileges and entitlements it contains.

Perhaps even in his background he may have been responsible for catching a Rogue Trader in nefarious acts in Imperial space and was granted his Warrant of Trade as a reward.

The original post states he inherited his Warrant.

And just to reiterate: many future Rogue Traders, members of established dynasties, are sent off to serve in various branches of the Adeptus, or the Battlefleet, or any other Imperial institution deemed appropriate, before they inherit the Warrant. There's no need to come up with odd reasons for the change from Arbiter to RT.

For instance, Bastille was never intended to inherit his family's Warrant; he was sent off to the Navy as much to keep him out of his brother's affairs, as anything else, and he, overall, excelled at the post. When things went pear-shaped at home, and other things started to be much less excellent where he was, he put him and ship together, and ran home, to "inherit his Warrant", by whatever means that took. Your pre-Judge could have been sent there to learn AS a Warrant-inheritor, to learn about the legalities of the Imperium, and to drum a sense of discipline in, before being "promoted", or he could have been sent away to protect the heir-apparent, and to a place where he would be taught discipline, loyalty, and such, maybe learn how to take his sibling's orders, and be loyal, even give them a law-enforcement in-angle, for their future, and then the unthinkable happened; now, he must take up the Warrant, himself.

I know my two, one had no idea they were part of anything that had a Warrant attached, and he went as far through the navy as you can, without someone else dying to allow you a promotion, and then they discovered the Warrant. He was the kind of loyal man they wanted out on the perimeter, keeping the Imperium safe, and he wanted to be where he could decide how best to serve the people, so win-win. The other was a prince, of sorts, his whole life, and knew what he'd inherit. His dour, militaristic father kept him close, and tried to drill military might into the boy, but to know avail. He DID, however, pay to have Aedan trained in combat by Storm Troopers (or some mercenary equivalent, before I get flags about "Storm Troopers aren't like that!", or something else. Aedan's only sibling, his sister, was raised and trained to administer his dynasty, while he went out and did all the suicide-work. You have to decide how cut-throat the individuals, and the dynasty, are, and then take steps to put people where you need them.

We wanted to stay in the basic Rogue Trader route for his character, so we ended up doing what Yorke suggested, basically, and make him a Rogue Trader. The player playing his Seneschal has become something of a Professor Henry Higgens, training the neophyte a la My Fair Lady (My Fair Lord Captain?), which has made this all the more amusing. Our Arch-Militant was a criminal he used to pursue, but now that he's gone Rogue, he's found he can probably make more money "breaking Good(?)." It's been interesting to say the least. Getting the Astropath and a Navigator to round out the retinue was, at least, not nearly as harrowing as it was when I was playing the Rogue Trader.

what Yorke suggested

cough, cough

...I'd use the Rogue Trader profile to represent a Rogue Trader, but that might just be me. Many, if not most, Rogue Traders were something else before they inherited or were granted their Warrant.

I'd probably look at an Origin Path of Imperial World > In Service To The Throne (Born To Lead) > Duty Bound (Duty To The Throne), and then there are a few options for the last two rows depending on the fine details of his personality; it might be worth making one a 'free choice'.

it might be worth making one a 'free choice'.

This segues into something that I've been wanting to ask but didn't want to make a whole thread for. I've not had a chance to look at all the background paths that carefully yet; my question is... as long as it makes narrative sense with the character's back-story, is there anything potentially game-breaking about just allowing a player to pick what they want from each list rather than being limited to three sub-options after each choice? Are there certain combinations which are bad news?

Core book p15:

Personally I make the Career row a free choice; I don't like that a Rogue Trader can only have one of two Motivations, for example, or that you can't have a Void Master motivated by Renown.

I, too, make the career path a free choice, but I make my players stick to the Origin Path otherwise. Many people don't. Yes, there are broken combinations, quite a few. The extras in Into the Storm add in several more possible broken combinations. Witch Born is heavily abused. I'd never let a Missionary pick that option, but I've seen it done.

I just recommend you take a look at the reasons your players want a particular option. That usually tells you whether you should allow it. "It fits my character's backstory" is always preferable to "I want that skill/talent." Then again, created backstories can usually fit into any Origin Path. After all, they weren't intended to tell the entire story....I don't think.