First Endavour, did I miss something

By Leogun_91, in Rogue Trader Gamemasters

So I played my first game yesterday but had no real endavours, all events where small enough not to be divided. Now the people have however explored a ruin at grace and I will offer them the chance to set up a colony. I made this as a greater endevour that can reach a higher total than 1200 as some of the objectives gives achivement points depending on how much you get (colonists give 50 per 1.000 colonists and there are other simmilar).

I divided it into these objectives

  • Land on the surface and explore a colony -50 achivement points-exploration (done)
  • Get suitable colonists -50 per 1.000 colonists- Trade- Obligatory
  • Get support of a noble house- 100 per noble house- Trade, Creed
  • Get resources (metal)- 80-Trade-Obligatory
  • Get resources (Agribeasts)- 100-Trade
  • Get resources (Plants)- 100-Trade- Obligatory
  • Get support from the machine cult-50 (150 if you get machine cult colonists)- Creed- Obligatory
  • Get transports -100- Trade (or criminal in extreme cases)- Obligatory
  • Get approval of the church- 300- Creed (very hard as one player has enemy ecclisiarchy) (changed to 100)
  • Destroy nearby piates-100 (150 if conquered or captured)- Military
  • Get support of the imperial navy and/or the imperial guard-100 (150 if both)

Required achivement 1200 - or the colony is too weak to prosper.

So the question is, Have I missed something important? I'm just checking as it's my first endevour.

Destroying Pirates (with or without help from Navy) would be something that should be done earlier on I think. Maybe after the noble house part, they could assist.

Oh.....I didn't set them up in a particular order, the explorers are allowed to do them in any order they see fit, ofcourse alot of it are conected in such a way that it fits to do it at a certain time or togheter

I see only one small problem- you have awarded a massive 300 for getting the support of the Ecclesiarchy because one character has them an enemy- that shouldn't be reflected in the task- in essence your rewarding the character for having an enemy. Put it back in line with the rest of the awards and its all good.

alexkilcoyne said:

I see only one small problem- you have awarded a massive 300 for getting the support of the Ecclesiarchy because one character has them an enemy- that shouldn't be reflected in the task- in essence your rewarding the character for having an enemy. Put it back in line with the rest of the awards and its all good.

Why is getting a noble house's support a Creed objective?

Think about setting up a few criminal objectives - surely some syndicates would love to support a burgeoning new colony, especially if they can either use it as an exclusive market for their products or even set up some fields of more... interesting plants.

You might want to include finding the planet in the 1st place or obtaining the location from a 3rd party. (IE A rogue trader found the world, but hates colonists. Hewants the PCs to do a task for him to gain info and rights.)

Dalnor Surloc said:


You might want to include finding the planet in the 1st place or obtaining the location from a 3rd party. (IE A rogue trader found the world, but hates colonists. Hewants the PCs to do a task for him to gain info and rights.)

Cifer said:

Why is getting a noble house's support a Creed objective?

Think about setting up a few criminal objectives - surely some syndicates would love to support a burgeoning new colony, especially if they can either use it as an exclusive market for their products or even set up some fields of more... interesting plants.

Criminal objectives are a good idea, I will add a few. (or maybe just the simple get support from a crime syndicate with a reward based on the number of syndicates)

About the creed thing I was unsure, the trade was a given but all noble houses are above the common man by the emperors will and by help from the church, a noble house must have a good support from the church to exist and therefore it would cross into creed while still mainly a trade objective.

While most houses will have some ties to the Ecclesiarchy (by donating generously to benefit their image, by sending a few scions to become men of the cloth or by whatever other ways), these ties aren't inherently stronger than those to, say, a trading partner or even a syndicate. Most noble houses consider themselves worthier than other people, but don't claim any legitimacy going back to the Emperor. Their power stems from the fact that they can enforce it.

Leogun_91 said:

Land on the surface and explore a colony -50 achivement points-exploration (done)

  • Get suitable colonists -50 per 1.000 colonists- Trade- Obligatory
  • Get support of a noble house- 100 per noble house- Trade, Creed

(...)

Criminal objectives are a good idea, I will add a few. (or maybe just the simple get support from a crime syndicate with a reward based on the number of syndicates)

Be careful that you do not include too many noble houses/syndicates/colonists-for-hire - for a couple of reasons:

1) You don't want your PCs to develop a "farming" mentality (i.e. "So, we have three houses... how many can we get in onee hour?")

2) The story suffers from too many factions that only play a minor role, but you have to flesh them out individually - i.e. representatives, base of operation, interests, etc. - that is a LOT of work.

3) Repetition is, generally, a bad idea. You cannot transfer the MMORPG or RPG quest system 1:1 into pen and paper. "Get the support of X factions" is, in pen and paper terms, either boring as hell (especially after the third faction), or takes waaay too much time if roleplayed properly. Also, the difference between getting a noble houses and a syndicates support is debatable...

If I might suggest a few alternatives:

-Get the colonists to follow you instead of your direct competitor, the infamous RT XY: 100 achievement points: Trade, obligatory

-Get support (Material, personnel, etc.) of a noble house: 100 achievement points. Trade, Creed

-Get support of a second noble house without the first noble house realising it: 150 achievement points: Trade, Criminal (Bonus points if it is a direct competitor of the first one)

-Bargain with a group of smugglers to keep your colonial workers supported with booze/drugs/slaves/weapons: 200, Trade, Criminal

No repetitions, some nice opportunities to make additional profit (alongside a few enemies), and less preparation work (at least compared to prepare ten different noble houses and syndicates, as well as a few opportunities to recruit colonists).

Cheers,

-Bone

Well I have had the endevour now and it worked well, the colony is up and running and they got the objectives togheter. As a GM that likes to improvise during play I will probobly not use this system much though, these things can be done as good without me telling the players what they have to do (suggestions are still good though) and the calculating of achivement points ruins the mood a little bit.

You could delegate some duties to the players for you to focus more on the story. Incorporate the endevor checklist into the story to form a free flowing narrative spun from the players choices. You could even simply not tell them how many points they need to have or how many points they get per achievement. That could be hidden information for your eyes only.

Telling the players what achievements they need could done via NPC. A mandate of their warrant or trade could be to contact the administratum from time to time for regular assignments. If they want to keep their warrant, its could be up to THEM to go make sure all their ducks are in a row by checking in regularly for advice....