Explorator ideas

By mrobfire, in Rogue Trader Gamemasters

My group has a player who is focused on int based scholastic lores and such. I'm not really sure what would be a good session/encounter focusing on this character since it seems like it would be rather easy for everything to boil down to a single roll. Any thoughts on how to make interesting content for this character?

make him roleplay getting access to specific materials needed for undoing the -30 difficulty... put things outside his fields, so he has to interact with others...

Give him a complex engineering or research project that benefits the party, such as upgrading the ship's weapons or forging a suit of power armor for everyone in the party. Such a task would be an extended task requiring multiple rolls to represent each stage of the production process

For keeping him involved with the party, perhaps they have to explore an ancient ruin or abandoned ship and power's down in several sections, to get the most out of the "dungeon" he needs to be with the party manually diverting power to wherever they're going to next or perform a number of elaborate tech-rituals to appease several particularly cantankerous machine spirits controlling... whatever you want them to be controlling.

An explorator character thematically has a number of interesting roles to play - here are just a couple of ideas:

  • There is always the conflict of interest side, where the explorator character is influenced by either shadowy Mechanicus edicts or obsessions, such as examining similar signs of xenos tech or architecture across several worlds, dark age of technology artefacts or even more ancient super-high tech (such as the spoor of the Necrons - who are certainly present within the Koronus expanse somewhere). I GMed a Dark Heresy game where the Mechanicus acolyte was rewarded for loyalty to the Mechanicus by being allowed to witness the restoration of a Mechanicus Knight (like a mini Titan akin to an Eldar walker) from the Horus Heresy era. In the same way, an explorator character might be expected to be on the look-out for such archeotech, and may be working on a 'little project' in the bowels of the Rogue Trader's vessel. Certainly, in game terms an explorator character could be using such technology on the Trader's vessel itself, or jury rig a device that functions more efficiently than the normal standard pattern construct design. In any case, the knowledge based skills should always hint at a fine line between restoration and the tech heresy of new invention. Having such 'moral' choices would enrich this type of character I feel.
  • Restoring power to a long abandoned ship or vessel (as Psion suggests above) would enable your explorator to have an important role in solving the mystery of what happened to the previous crew. Accessing data logs, spotting unusual fluctuations in the behavior of the machine spirit of the ship or being able to monitor auspex readers around the vessel would enable tracking or spotting an enemy before they strike, in a typical 'Alien' or 'Event Horizon' style plotline. There would be plenty of opportunities for skill based tests of an engineering nature, as well as other tests to identify the nature of the threat if the explorator has any skills in this area.

mrobfire said:

My group has a player who is focused on int based scholastic lores and such. I'm not really sure what would be a good session/encounter focusing on this character since it seems like it would be rather easy for everything to boil down to a single roll. Any thoughts on how to make interesting content for this character?

When the group is faced with a tough riddle to crack, don't let the solution of the riddle to be determined by how succesful the skillrolls are. Rather construct the riddle and puzzling situations in such a way so that each succesful skill roll with a Lore skill provides additional clues.

An Int based character focusing on Lore skills will probably have access to a lot of information on the top of his or her head, figuring out which parts of information are actually relevant and/or helpful to the situation at hand however should not be determined by a skillroll.

Keep this in mind, and then toss some serious intellectual problems at the players that simply can't be solved with violence or brute force and let the intellectual guy shine.

1) Oh my emperor the Xenos/Muties/Pirates have damaged the plasma reactor, and the automatic venting isn't working. Let's hope the Explorator can fix the trouble while we provide covering fire....

2)Oh no it's a complex Xenos door. <Bloom> What do you mean the melta bomb barely makes it warm. <Bam, Bam> Sure hope the Explorator can get it open before even more... Argh my arm!!! <Bam, power sword sounds, screaming>. Hurry with that door we can't hold them off forever!!!

3)Ouch maybe I should let the Explorator check for traps.

4)What's that rune mean.

5)Where does our (mystery bad guy) get all these servitors come from. Wait Explorator dude you say they have serial numbers, and where they were built stamped on them? Maybe we should talk to those guys and figure out who bought them...

6)Medic, medic, medic!!

I find this thread slightly frightening. The fact that you don't recognice the Explorator as one of the more influential characters onboard the ship indicates that you as a GM don't have that good grasp of the setting. As a Tech-Priest explorator, he will have knowledge of the mystical rites of the Mechanicus as Psion points out, but I disagree that he should start making armor and weapons... that's not what he's there for. An Explorator does not work for the Rogue Trader, at best he is a ally and maybe a friend. His primary motivation should be finding technological treasures and bringing them into the hands of the Mechanicus... or at least into the hands of humanity. To avoid having everything coming down to a single skill roll, look up "Exploration challanges" in the book, which deals exactly with this sort of situations and as Varnias Tybalt says, don't just make it throwing dice until something works.. unless its a strictly lore-oriented issue, of course.. if its a puzzle the players might be able to figure out, then let them get further and more obvious clues as they pass tests. This works good in all manner of adventuring roleplaying games.

From a roleplaying perespective, there are a lot of things to think of for the Explorator... like the missionary, he is aboard the vessel not because he is hired, like the astropat, arch-militant, void-master and senechal, nor is he really there due to obligations like the navigator. He's its his calling in life. And that calling is a bit like Indiana Jones (actually, I think the Explorator career is a *lot* like Indiana jones), finding ancient lost treasures, kicking ass, being clever while doing it. Secondly, he's likely the highest ranking member of the Adeptus Mechanicus onboard, which means that if the player so wants he could easily take on the role of High Priest of the Omnissiah as well.

And lastly, don't let a player novice to the setting play a tech-priest, it always results in confusion and misunderstanding.

Think you are not seeing the same question as we are. The GM is saying the player wants to build a skills monkey instead of a gun bunny. We are suggesting ways the skills monkey Explorator can shine in a group. Certainly the Explorator is one of the 3 guys who can basically over rule the Captain. The navigator can refuse to go some where. The Missionary can call the Captain a heretic, and spark a mutiny. The Explorator is the head tech priest on board and a general stirke of the tech priests would cripple the ship. But if a player wants to build an academic style tech priest then a gm should let him, and find ways for that kind of character to shine.

PS- Not that I'm saying that any of the above actions are a good idea.

PPS- Personally as a GM I'd wait a few combats and point out to the player some of the bonic upgrades, and combat talents. There is a reason one of the power gamers in my group went for an Explorator over a Miltant.

With some pencil work, a scholastic check can spawn a sub-adventure unto it's own. Not all the time, but every now and again when the Explorator (or any other "Savant" background for that matter) retreats into his extensive shipboard library to make his lore roll, success wouldn't indicate an immediate answer, but a reference to where the answer might be found, along with a starchart showing how to get there (that will be of course encrypted or penned in an ornate, ancient, and long dead derivative of High Gothic!).

In order to get the required information the explorers have to find a lost archive, warded (naturally) by ancient/xeno tech automatons, or get into the vaults of some understandably uncooperative merchant prince's dead aunt ("Well if you're above a little B&E, looks like your out of luck."). Or whatever. The point is to put the Explorator in the front and making the decisions for a while, instead of waiting around to bypass a blast door's locks or clear someone's stubber.

They'll be leading the way in high "Indiana Jones" style, with (as Dalnor aptly reccommends) duel arm-mounted bolt-pistols blazing!

See, my entire group is mechanicus based. My players are an Explorator and a Rogue Trader from the Mechanicus, while I play a senechal to just 'handle the business' while they do their quest for knowledge thing. So not only do I have to come up with knowledge based rolls, but whole adventures for them. Does anybody have some more ideas?

mrobfire said:

My group has a player who is focused on int based scholastic lores and such. I'm not really sure what would be a good session/encounter focusing on this character since it seems like it would be rather easy for everything to boil down to a single roll. Any thoughts on how to make interesting content for this character?