calibur1 said:

What are you talking about? We've already explained how this game works, you just don't seem willing to accept it. There's no man behind the curtain. These aren't excuses we're giving you - they are the facts of the setting. A RT may captain a vessel of 95,000 men, but those men aren't elite storm troopers or star fleet officers. The vast majority are barely trained labourers.

You seem to be under the impression that every problem a RT could come up against should be solvable by throwing enough men at it. That isn't true. Sure, a tiny percentage could be solved in such a way, but that vast majority require the RT's personal attention. RT isn't D&D with spaceships. You don't just send wave after wave of men down into a dungeon and tell them to bring back loot.

Sample Endeavors included in the Corebook include: Establish an Imperial Colony, Exploit a Resource World, Establish a Cold Trade from Dead Xenos Worlds and Establish a Trade Route. Each includes two variants, each divided into three objectives that need to be met to succeed.

Let's say you want to establish a colony on an old Imperial World. Objective 1 might be to confirm the world is suitable. Upon investigating the world the PCs discover that there is a pirate base present on the world. How they deal with it is up to them - diplomacy, combat etc. They could make a deal with the pirates, giving them a cut of the colonists tithe to the RT in exchange for some protection. Or they could try to bombard the pirates from orbit - the pirates have some defences (a void shield, some small craft and a planetary defence battery), though taking the settlement relatively intact would be far more profitable. They can decide to intimidate the local leadership into submission, lead a ground force (take a few hundred men off the ship) in an attack, maybe the RT and his cadre (the other PCs) try to sneak into the settlement personally to sabotage the defences or assassinate the local leadership etc. They may need to deal with the pirate's ship when it gets back, of course...

Lots of options.

Objective 2: Acquire funding. The start-up costs for a colony are excessive. The RT should try to get a partner to help fund the expedition, again in exchange for a cut in the profits. If things went well with the pirates earlier - if they are either working with the PCs or else their settlement was taken intact - this will be much easier. This will mostly be a diplomatic objective, but there is plenty of scope for intrigue. Perhaps the RT can secure an alliance in exchange for performing a small favour... or maybe the current head of the merchant trade consortium is opposed to the plan, but his heir is another matter? Perhaps two groups want in on the deal... and one threatens to punish the RT if he doesn't agree to work with him.

Objective 3: Set up the colony: round up a group of idiots/pioneering souls and take them out to the planet. The RT has to convince them of the viability of the planet, put up with their complaints on the long journey there, deal with some minor emergencies (like when 50% of the colonists food for the journey turns out to be spoiled), but down a riot (he can either lead the effort himself, which puts him at personal risk but allows for a more controlled response, or else just order his men to deal with it, in which case casualties on both sides will be high, but hey, as long as the RT is safe, right?). Then he has to dump them on the planet and make sure they don't die within the first month.

Throughout this the RT has plenty of options. A lot of the time he really needs to deal with stuff himself, especially the diplomatic bits. At other times he can order his men to deal with it, but doing so (while safer) isn't always the most profitable options. And profit is essentially the main goal of the game. Nuking the pirate base from orbit is pretty easy, but will the profit factor bonus for the endeavor by 2. Taking it with an assault might the factor by 1 (there'll be some damage and casualties amongst your own men), as might an agreement with the pirates (some of the tithe will go to them instead of the RT). The most profitable option (but also the most dangerous) is for the RT and his cadre to cripple the defences or assassinate the leadership himself, forcing the pirates to surrender.

The second objective is all about the RT and his interactions with the other merchants. Odds are any tasks he has to complete to finish the negotiations he and his cadre will have to do themselves - his men aren't really suited to assassinations, sabotage, breaking and entering, spying, blackmail etc.

The third objective agains gives the RT some options - he can delegate much of it to his subordinates, but in doing so he probably loses PF. If half the colonists die of starvation, disease or riots, the RT only has himself to blame.

calibur1 said:

Again, you seem to be applying the mentality of a pasty faced gamer with no combat skills, an inability to live without a constant supply of creature comforts and a propensity to crap their pants at the first hint of violence to the head of an interstellar dynasty in a war torn universe whose very blood screams out for extreme adventure. The vast majority of RTs in 40k are all about three things: Profit, Reputation & Power gained through heroic and often life threatening adventures into the most dangerous areas of the void. We're talking the 40k equivelent of Drake and Kidd here, not Steve Jobs. The very essence of the book shouts 'get off the **** ship and get into the action' on every page, so I have no idea how you can call that a cop out.

In fact, the rules themselves absolutely encourage just such direct action. A lot of the skills that the Rogue Trader has are based around two things, negotiation and combat. Add this to the RTs ability to give a +10% command bonus to one person every round if he can see them, his access to the most impressive, awe inspiring and dangerous equipment around and the unique authourity to deal with things lesser men would be vapourized for daring to meddle with and you've got a character who is tacitly, by the rules and background of the book, required to personally impress, intimidate or kick the crap out of whatever it is that is in the way of increasing his Dynasties Fortune, Reputation and Power. Again, Drake, Kidd, not Jobs and definately not an RPG cop out.

But, as I've said, if you want a realistic simulation of a Naval Officer than you are much better off staying far away from this RPG and just downloading a lot of forms off the internet to fill out in between the occasional naval manuevers. That's about as realistic as it gets. Leave the adventure to the rest of us who can actually imagine a reason the Captain of a starship would want ot get stuck into the action (the thrill of exploration, diplomatic occasions, green orion slave girls, etc.)...

Luther said:

The Inquisition is watching you. To joke about consorting with Xenos in such a manner is dangerous territory...

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Tell it to my Renowned Warrant, buddy!

It's good to be the Captain...

Luther said:

+++Incoming Transmission+++

+++Thought For The Day: Only the Emperor's Light casts no shadow+++

Oh, you'll be back in Imperial Space sooner or later. You have to - you've got to unload all that cargo of dubious origin at some point or it's just taking up volume in your holds. And when you do...

Only those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear. Though they probably should be afraid anyway...

+++Transmission Ends+++

N0-1_H3r3 said:

I'll have nothing to fear because I'll have nothing in my holds but a pile of Imperial Thrones. None ever said that bringing stuff back was the only way to make money. Yarrrr!

Kaihlik said:

Um, no offence but this is the kind of dumb logic that had Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty beaming down alone onto unexplored planets every week. If you want to run a game where the characters are that kind of leader, that's fine, but don't try and pretend it's logical.

If you own a humoungous spacecraft and you make a living cruising the vastness of space trading in rare good, and employing hundreds if not thousands (or tens of thousands) of people to make your venture profitable, there is no way on earth that in the WH40K universe (with its various threats and nasties) that you are not going to spend a significant amount of money on a force of 100, 1000 or 5000 trained and equipped security personnel. The kind of personnel who are completely competent to "beam down" to whatever back water planet you're on and lay an ass whooping on whatever needs an asswhooping.

To pretend otherwise is to demand suspension of disbelief that goes beyond the acceptable.

May game will be completely different - featuring smaller trade ships (think Serenity) serving the outback. I doubt it will take much tinkering to achieve.

You can send them down to kill whatever, they wont be very good at it (trained for fighting on ships not on land) but they will do it and probably win if the numbers are in there favour. Also the security personel have a job if you pull them off thier job and get attacked you leave yourself vulnerable to boarding actions. The thing is that why do you want to go and whoop ass for no reason. Sure they can go down there and fight, but they cant identify xenos artifacts, they wont be forging relations with the planets inhabitants, in short they wont do what you actually need to do. They aren't even set up like a proper army so they cant fight on a large scale against real army anyway. In what situation are they actually useful on there own. What chance do 300 navel security have against a small city states army, even 1000 will get slaughtered. Ground forces and naval forces are strictly seperated in the Imperium naval forces are not trained to preform ground actions and are pretty much forbidden from doing so (Horus Heresy put paid to that).

Also how do you get them down there. Most ships dont have teleporters and limited shuttle capacity that you wouldn't risk in a warzone. Even if they do have teleporters they take forever to set up in the 40K universe so you cant beam down wave after wave of men (hence why they are used by marines who operate in small elite forces).

You can hire people who can do the job properly and fight on large scale and you can deploy them if needed but most of the time it isn't needed, sure bring down a bodyguard of security personel to the negotiations or to look through the abandoned ruins but why do you need an army when a few people could do. Your not fighting a war, you are making money.

What situations do you expect a Rogue Trader to be in where he can send in a few hundred navel personel to do the job he needs done?

Kaihlik

Sorry, I don't think you really understood my point. The original question was whether or not you could use the critters from CA with RT. My point is that fighting creatures isn't really something a Rogue Trader should be doing. If part of the business of being a Rogue Trader is engaging in small arms combat (with creatures or anybody else) then part of a Rogue Trader's standard complement of crew would be a private military unit capable of engaging in such combat.

If there is any chance at all that the owner of a gazillion throne starship (with 50,000 people on it) is going to personally attacked by anything, he is going to be surrounded by a whole bunch of huge guys dripping guns. The idea that an RT is somehow going to regularly engage in gun battles is absurd in the context of the scale of enterprise they are running.

It's like suggesting that the CEO of Haliburton should be in Iraq hunting down insurgents who want to attack the company's operations there.

Why do the PC's have to go face to face with gribbly monsters for it to be a good story and game? Why do the PC's have to explore perilous tombs themselves for odd treasures for it to be a good game or story?

I know my players are going to get a hell of a lot of use out of their crew, sending them to scout areas out first, secure landing points, etc. -it's what those fellas get paid for after all, and they are already going to be taking a vet crew for this purpose. If there's ruins to be explored, their crew will do it, though only to recon the area and report any oddities back and await further command. Once secured, then the technical personnel (PC's) will come in to have a look at the oddities and decide where to go from there. Through all of this, however, they will still be the center of the story as it's their decisions on how they chose to pursue objectives that drive the story. Drama and tension dose not need to come from a slobbering beast intent on putting it's teeth through a character, it can just as easily come from dealing with their senior crewmen whom they've come to know well.

Perhaps trying to compare RT to old school Star Trek isn't a good idea. It seems to dictate that the only good stories are the ones where the crewmen have to fight tooth and nail themselves. Look at Star Trek next gen., there was a captain who didn't fling himself willy-nilly into danger yet still was the focal point of most stories (and was still in danger a lot too for you danger junkies). Babylon 5 had another captain that didn't go down to thousands of strange planets to end up with an inexplicably torn shirt and some hot girl after a manly fight, but still managed to be the focus of most of the stories which were, again, intriguing and enjoyable.

As long as there's tension (monsters and guns aren't needed for this, they're just the cheap way to achieve it), events that alter the PCs lives (loosing it or not is, again, the cheap way), the risk of the PCs loosing something the players of that PC and, more then likely, the PCs care about (again, it doesn't need to be the PCs life, that's the quick no-brainer solution), and decisions for the PCs to make that affect the direction of the story, then it's going to be at least a decent story. It's all you need for one. What creates the tension, what events change the PCs lives, and what decisions they have to make is solely up to the group, what they enjoy, and what makes sense for the story being told. It doesn't have to be monsters, life and death sword fights, and dungeon crawling.

RT is a bit different from many other adventure games out there. Sure, it's an adventure game, but not one in the standard vein. It has taken the adventure to the next level and requires a slightly different mindset and approach. Dungeon crawling and personal threats of safety dose not work so well, but threats to objectives and holdings told on a massive scale dose. If it can be done in movies and books, it can be done in a game. It doesn't need personal fisty-cuffs for it to be exciting and dungeon crawling should be left to rank amateurs when the dungeon is siting on a whole planet ready for exploitation. Rogue Traders don't rob treasures from tombs, they rob all the tombs on a planet of their treasures and then the planet of it's resources -that's something they are going to need the help of a lot on NPCs to pull off and that's why they have them.

It would seem that to pull off a full flavored RT experience, the GM really has to think outside the standard adventure template and start embracing new ideas and ways of working in tension and conflict that is logical and meaningful. it shouldn't be to hard, though. After all, with noting else added, the PC's are starting off in a bloody floating ancient (and probably not fully explored either, black holds and thousands of years of retrofitting can do tat to a ship) small town of people, each with their own aims and desires. A incredible amount of stories can be told on that basis alone without the PCs ever leaving the ship and the ship never encountering anything at all, but we know tat won't happen. Against this massive army of NPCs waiting to spill a story all across the deck-plates, the PCs ship will run into other sips that intend it harm (more drama and action and a threat to something the PCs care about!). Then, of course, even if the PCs never ever leave the ship in hostile territory, what about leaving to visit a resort on a pleasure world and the odd and entertaining situations they can get in there? And then theirs the negotiations with kings, governors, other RTs, Administratum officials, and so on.

The PCs interacting with their environment is the key to drama. If they stay on their ship, then that is their environment and interacting with it will breed the drama. If they go abroad Port Wader, that's their environment and that's where drama will lie. Actualy tossing themselves in front of a bolter is, really, just icing on the cake and isn't needed for a good dramatic story to be told with lasting consequences, losses, gains, character growth, and all that we've come to expect from a good story.

I was trying to counter caliber1 so I misunderstood your point. For the most part it will be things like ambushes, betrayals and encountering unexpected circumstances that will cause you to fight things from DotDG. The GM will set up scenarios where the RT will have to fight or may want to fight (under the eyes of his peers for example).

Kaihlik

Wait? What? I asked an honest question, and you felt you had to “counter” me, Kaihik? Why? Then Grashnak basically makes the same statement I did, and all of the sudden you’re his *****? What kind of a forum is this? All I wanted was a simple question answered, and all everyone said was how an RT is suppose to swing into hordes of mutant Dark Eldar with his senior crew and a bolter in each hand and a chainsword in his teeth. Now everyone is taking a 180 and saying there really shouldn’t be a reason for the RT to fight? That in a dangerous situation an RT would have a heavily armed retinue? That someone who is richer and more powerful than a planetary governor might have a battalion of storm troopers onboard his ship instead of just incompetent accountants with staplers? And that they might be actually more useful at doing things like scouting ruins instead of just drooling and waiting for a mutant to kill them by the thousands? It was you guys that had the treasure guarded by the Ork Empire, and that the RT had to kill his way through to the hordes single-handedly to get to the King of Kings or the janitor down on level 7548B of his starship might lose morale and think he was a *****. In the example I just wanted them to go get the fricken’ treasure! But apparently the consensus was that the crew was lobotomized and weren’t capable of doing a job outside of their own that even a Golden Retriever could be sent to do. And they would be mad about it? Mad! I don’t know what jobs any of you have held, but where I come from “multitasking” is a job requirement, and if I get mad and “lose morale” when my boss tells me to do something that’s not in my job description I can be expected to be fired. And NO I don’t need to know anything about the feudal system, Ilsoth. And I guess neither do you, because if you did you would know that if you got “mad” and lost “morale” and accused your liege of cowardice because he told you to do something beyond your job you would have been executed. So thanks guys! Thanks for a whole lot of nothing! I’ll be sure to come back to these friendly and informative forums when I need another questioned answered. Way to make people feel welcome. Maybe you should take some time out from playing games to learn some tact like adults.

calibur1 said:

Like you have, you mean?

This is how the setting works. If you don't like it, that's not the setting's fault. Lots of people do like that sort of thing, as demonstrated here. If you don't like it, don't do it, but don't insult the other forum members because they don't agree with you.

Hell, this is a game with aliens all over the place, daemons and gods, etc, and you think the captain doing a lot of the work is too much for suspension of disbelief?

Grashnak said:

A RT can hire mercenaries for that kind of work, yes. There are rules for it. They aren't going to be particularly useful, however. Brute force military tactics in which large numbers of troops are useful will probably be pretty rare. Even when it's a viable option, it probably isn't the most profitable option.

The RT is not the CEO of Haliburton. He is a warrior-captain of a military vessel who is one of the most skilled and dangerous men on board his ship. The only other people on board who come close are the other PCs. He can hire gunmen, who will sometimes come in useful. But a lot of the time an up-close and personal approach is best, simply because he and his mates are so much more dangerous than anyone else he can get to do the job. An RT accompanied by an Arch-Militant, a Navigator and an astropath can probably accomplish more than a regiment of mercs and with less collateral damage. They are the equivalent of an elite special forces team (with a psy-ops specialist).

Yes, you can hire goons. Yes, you can try to solve all your problems with them. No, you won't be making much profit, as your troops blow everything up and get themselves killed.

Looking through the Creatures Anathema, I see plenty of potential antagonists for RT. The RT leads a clense mission to wipe out a nest of Hullghasts on a drifting hulk he wants to salvage (they've been slaughtering the mooks he sent over first). The RT attempts to get to the control room of an abandoned Machine Temple so he can turn off the defences (which have been slaughtering the mooks he sent in to strip the place) when he discovers it is protected by a Bronze Mailfect. He discovers that the techpriests he thought he was dealing with are actually False-men. Exploring an ancient space-station, he accidentally awakens the schismatical that has taken control of the facility. While beast-hunting on a deathworld he comes across critters similar to ripper-whips, phyrr cats or Osedex - nevery mind killing 'em, the question is how to capture them? Gloom Haunts or Maw-Flukes could explain why his men have been disappearing while exploring a dead hive-world (or... what if the bowels of his own ship are infested with the creatures?). More Eldar and Ork stats are always welcome. Enoulian assassins might strike at him while at Footfall or even Port Wander. Enslavers... *shudder*. Genestealers are a challenge for SMs, the RT will be lucky if he and his cadre can deal with them, never mind his crew. Same with a lictor. And simulacra are always fun... And the Daemons are a constant worry for anyone who travels the warp. The Lady of the Voids could easily wipe out the entire crew of the RT's vessel - he better hope he can take her out himself before the entire ship is lost.

There is no problem with debating the various potential play-styles of Rogue Trader—a game that can support a variety of play-styles, depending on what kind of experience a particular group may be looking for. However, inflammatory rhetoric and ad hominem attacks against other members will not be tolerated, and I am perfectly happy to lock this thread if things continue in this vein.

Let's remember, we're all here to have fun, play some games, and deal with the occasional deamon who gets through our Gellar Fields.

So, one thing promised with Rogue Trader was that it would support different styles of play, including having the command staff PC's having the resources of thousands of staff at their disposal. So if someone needs to take a shuttle down to a newly discovered planet to check it out, it neednt be the Captain, Science Officer (Explorator) and Navigator.

Unless they want to of course, and there is a huge 40K theme of leading from the front. But that support just doesnt seem to be in Rogue Trader.

But lets say that your Players are particularly risk averse, or just plain obstinate. You've got this great horror scenario planned for them to investigate a Necron tomb and instead they are opening it up with lance strikes and sending in their salvagers and xeno-archeologists backed by a regiment of elite Sardauker which they spent 2 sessions and half their Profit Factor acquiring?

It seems unfair to chew up their landing parties until they are forced to come down personally - they've made the decision they dont want to go and you'd just be railroading them if you forced it.

Naturally of course, if the players refuse to go to the drama, then the drama may come to them- either in mummy-style salvaged tech re-animating aboard the ship, or Necron naval forces being activated by the tomb's opening.

However, that might get a little repetitive. The best solution might be to offer greater rewards for personal risk- so if the salvage teams go into the Tomb, then you'll get the +5% PF, but if you go in, then you get the +5% PF and you are also in a position to learn a great secret of where the missing 10th planet was taken years ago. Or you engage the PC's personal goals and personalities in taking part in the action- Going down to the planet personally might lead to clues in what happened to their missing father, or give the Missionary the chance to make First Contact with the natives the 'right way', or the Explorator might have secret orders from the Ad Mech to secure a probe without anyone else knowing it was there, which will then lead to promotion.

Thoughts?

SJE

SJE said:

That's pretty much my feelings on the matter. Quantity doesn't beat quality when it comes to profit. Sending down the mooks to salvage the xeno-tech means missing a lot of the interesting stuff, simply because they don't know what they are looking for. Sending the mooks in to capture the ruins from the Orks means losing a lot of the loot in the ensueing battle. Sending the mooks into the Space Hulk means losing all your mooks and being left none the wiser about what's in the SH... (hulks are not mook-friendly environments).

Using mooks is like using a hammer - fine when you need a nail pounded, but not so good when you are trying to put up a pane of glass.

I don't know I have started thinking about PCs in RT in terms of the Dune Universe. Paul seems to get a lot of action. Duncan and others too. I am not sure that strike team style of play encouraged by DH is the only one for 40k.

macd21 said:

Not always- if you have selected the right tool for the right job, then they should be as successful as the PC's in terms of the Endeavor. For example, on a Military endeavor, if the PC's have recruited their IG regiments, shelled the enemy capital from orbit and then sent in their Astartes kill teams, there is no reason why they cannot conquer an alien planet without ever setting foot on it. If you are the General, then its OK not to lead from the front (as has been seen in the Black Library books like the Latter Era Crusades or Sabbat Crusades).

If you are not a combat character then, avoiding a war zone is perfectly valid choice to make.

What I'm saying is that the GM should respect that choice, but encourage the PC's to remain involved (rather than simply being risk averse) by giving them opportunities for personal development, for individual goals or personal profit.

So if the Master of Spies might want to go down to the Warzone so he can offer some alien spies a place in his agency now that theirs is crashing down around their ears.

The Explorator might want to go down to the Warzone to ensure and maintain the precious Machine Spirit of the Baneblade he acquired and formed a bond with.

The Astropath might go down to get closer to the psychic call he keeps hearing on an alien planet where the xenos have no psykers.

The Navigator might go down secretly to steal ancient stellar maps from the aliens star-museum as ordered by his Navigator House.

The Rogue Trader might go down so he can be on hand to negotiate a last minute surrender with the alien Emperor.

None of this needs to involve leading men in combat (though in a warzone, thats a possibility/danger) but rather comes from figuring out what makes your players tick and then giving them a motivation to get involved in the dramatic place and situation that you've planned. Carrots, not sticks!

I don't know I have started thinking about PCs in RT in terms of the Dune Universe. Paul seems to get a lot of action. Duncan and others too. I am not sure that strike team style of play encouraged by DH is the only one for 40k.

It certainly isn't and the GM should allow for goon action when it makes sense - there are quite a lot of situations which are best solved with liberal application of firepower. "There is no overkill - there is just Open Fire and I Need To Reload." However, when it comes to strike teams, the PCs will be the ones best-equipped and experienced to deal with most situations. That's why they're the Rogue Trader's Inner Circle, after all. They're the ones the RT knows he can rely on.

Further, as has already been mentioned, the Imperium and the Rogue Traders value a certain amount of panache, style and balls-of-steel. Reputation is a major part of profit, and "Then I and my aides stormed the kroozer's bridge and after the Explorator was done vomiting (yeah, seems they can do that even through their face plate), I fought the Waaaghboss in hand-to-hand combat. That ugly thing in the trophy room? Yeah, that's his choppa." sounds better than "And then I watched the bleeping lights on the tac-screen until someone voxed that the Waaaghboss probably died in an artillery strike..."

SJE said:

Sure, but even then the Arch-Militant should probably be coordinating the assault on the ground, the RT or the Void-Master should probably be overlooking orbital bombardment in support of the troops, the Astropath should be helping with communications and possibly monitoring the enemy for psychic activity, the Seneschal should be in charge of logistics etc. Lots to do.

And even before all that the PCs have to ask themselves whether an IG regiment + orbital bombardment was the best solution to the problem, or just the easiest?

Sorry there has been a bit of a misunderstanding. I made a mistake and mistook Grashnak for you as he quoted me and I expected you to reply instead of him (not helped by neither of you having avatars) as such my post was made with wrong preconceptions and thus I clarified for Grashnak what I was talking about. What I meant was that I was trying to counter your points about the unbelievability of getting involved as a Rogue Trader in order to try and change your opinion (as you do in discussions). I didn't mean that I was trying to counter you personally.

I just typed something quickly to try and clear up a misunderstanding, I wasn't expecting it to be interperated like you did, sorry for the confusion.

Kaihlik

The "default" Rogue Trader (if there is such a thing) is an almost perfect analog of a conquistador. Read up on them (and the other explorers of the age, Columbus, etc) and you will have an almost perfect idea of what a typical rogue trader is like and what he does. I am also firmly convinced that they were the inspiration used to develop the idea of a rogue trader.

If a player wanted to play like a CEO let him. It is legit, HOWEVER everyone else will treat him like a CEO, which in a feudal society like 40k is a large step down from a Rogue Trader.

As has been pointed out, it is part of what is expected of a rogue trader. To claim things himself. Much like knights and lords during the crusades led troops themselves. No self respecting noble was going to let some peasant or serf or sergeant at arms kill the leader of the opposing force or set foot first in the enemy's city.

But we are not just talking about the Rogue Trader, but getting all the PC’s involved – how many heroic stories are there in the 40Kverse of the blind Astropath leading the charge of the Light Brigade or of the Navigator duelling the Necron Pharon in single combat?

Fine, you can enforce the heroic myth of the Rogue Trader (and there are plenty of cowardly or unfit ones who you just don’t hear about- see Legacy for Shira Calpurnia for a bed-ridden RT) but you need to be thinking of the other 4 players as well- what is there motivation for getting involved. Providing that motivation to risk themselves is the art of the GM.

SJE