Can you use the creatures from Creatures Anathema and the like with Rogue Trader?

By Blustar, in Rogue Trader

Posted at

SJE said:

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?

In the case of the Astropath, they'll be there anyway. There's a long history of Astropaths on the front lines, simply because having high-speed efficient communication with, say, orbiting ships, is a considerable asset.

SJE said:

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)

For Rogue Traders, there's a lot of importance placed on prestige and reputation. You don't hear about cowardly or unfit Rogue Traders primarily because they don't have the means or the will to do what's necessary to gain prestige and acquire a significant reputation.

SJE said:

Providing that motivation to risk themselves is the art of the GM.

No, providing that motivation, then making them regret it, and yet having them still wanting to go back and try again later... that's the art of the GM.

Posted at

SJE said:

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

Well first of all you seem to be equating blasting bad guys in combat the only way to be involved in the adventure. I think you need to rethink that.

That having been said you do have a point, combat can be time consuming and if everyone is not involved then they are just left sitting there twiddling their thumbs.

However there are reasons that you can come up with to get almost all (all but one) of the player types into the fray without to much trouble. The one real fly in the ointment is the navigator. Trouble may come to him (he would be a nice target for capture or killing by your enemies) but for him to go looking for it is a stretch. No one in our group wanted to play a navigator so it is not a problem, but if you had one it would pretty much be up to them to come up with a reason why they are going into harms way. Perhaps they are just weird and are adrenalin junkies, perhaps they have some rare knowledge. The best our group came up with was that a. the head of the navigator house did not really like this particular navigator, and b. set up a cut rate price on his services with the rogue trader with the stipulation that he go wherever the rogue trader went. You know to broaden his experience... (or as the head of the navigator house hopes, get him killed).

Posted at

No1 Here- Actually I think you’ll find that prior to the release of the latest IG codex there was zero tradition or history of Astropaths being anywhere near the front lines- as planetary resources they might be in the Generals bunker defended by a regiment of crack troops to remain in contact with the ships, but they were simply too rare to risk going near danger.

Ilsoth – I was following up on my example above of a military Endeavour involving the conquest of a world. Yes, you’d certainly argue that a Seneschal would be personally involved as a decision maker and trader in Trade endeavors, but that’s harder to justify in this situation for example.

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calibur1 said:

Deserters? Where are they going to desert to, the Warp? And there's nothing in the Creatures Anathema that a 1000 or 100 crew, armed with las rifles, can't handle. If something does attacke en masse, does the book cover large-scale combat? As for leading by example... The commander of a warship doesn't get out and load the crusise missiles with his crew. Nor does a aircraft carrier commander fly with his squadrons. And neither does a troop transport commander lead the marines storming the beach. They all do what they're expected to do, and that is to lead from the battle bridge, sending orders down the chain of command. There is no question of reputation. That is what the crew expects from their "Captain."

TorogTarkdacil said:
If you think, that hundreds and thousands of your troops alone could handle these situations, then I could only wish you good luck and slightly remind you, that this isn´t a Star Trek or Star Wars... this is Warhammer 40 000 :)

calibur1 said:
macd21:
Again, am I’m seeing that space and mass combat seem to be the going trends here? If so, how does RT cover these? If my RT is to gallantly lead his brain-dead crew of hundreds or thousands into battle, is mass combat at least fast and easy? What about ship weapons and defenses? Since a lot of this game seems to ride on space combat, does RT have an extensive list of ship munitions or even ship types (including xenos)? Can I assume that my bungling crew know how to operate the ship’s defenses, or does my RT have to run from turret to turret himself and fire while piloting the ship and handling engineering? Or is this the job of our missionary while the deaf and mute junior officers are staring at the walls?


calibur1 said:

Luther:
No. That is a complete cop out, and NO rpg gets off that easy. It is in poor design to assume adventure for adventures sake. Even D&D has the most primitive of excuses to adventure… The PCs are poor, unemployed, homicidal sociopathic thieves who kill and grave rob for fun and profit. Eventually the psychopaths kill enough things to become kings themselves, and then the game either ends or takes a different direction. That direction usually means confronting the kingdoms of the other psychopaths and their retainers and hirelings, or challenging the gods for power. At that point the PCs are so powerful that doing the tasks themselves is too beneath them. If you want to turn RTs into Errol Flynn, that’s fine, but I want a **** good logical and believable reason to do so, because I’m the one who has to feed this excuse to the players without them rolling their eyes and chuckling.


Grashnak said:

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.


Grashnak said:

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.


Posted at

SJE said:

No1 Here- Actually I think you’ll find that prior to the release of the latest IG codex there was zero tradition or history of Astropaths being anywhere near the front lines- as planetary resources they might be in the Generals bunker defended by a regiment of crack troops to remain in contact with the ships, but they were simply too rare to risk going near danger.

Astropaths aren't exactly rare. At least, not compared to other Sanctioned Psykers. They are (as per the 2nd edition Codex Imperialis, and the original Rogue Trader rulebook) commonly seen on almost every world in the Imperium, every starship, every military outpost. An individual world may have hundreds or thousands of Astropaths. They're a vital resource, but one produced in sufficient quantities that they're far from irreplaceable.

Given the propensity for officers of the Imperial Guard to travel to the front lines, it stands to reason that Astropaths would be found amongst their command staff. The fact that they've only just been put into the armylist in 40k is essentially irrelevant in this regard (though they did have rules back in the original Rogue Trader, and their background is one of the few elements that remains largely intact since then, so their presence on a battlefield isn't exactly without precedent). I can't imagine that the famed Lord Commander Solar Macharius would have gone into battle (and he did lead from the front on a number of occasions) without an Astropath nearby to keep him appraised of matters elsewhere.

Seneschals... the book makes it pretty clear that they're intelligence experts and spies as much as mercantile advisors, with what the book describes as a "hands-on approach". While they might be most comfortable determining the best prices for his master's cargo, intelligence is intelligence, and war is just another business transaction (as noted elsewhere in the rulebook). They are to merchants as Indiana Jones is to Archaeologists - similar job description, more time spent punching people in the face.