Introducing the Ordos took care and effort since my rogue trader PC had a back story in which the Ordo Xenos bear a long-standing grudge for his grandfather's supposed involvement with Eldar, a daemonic blade, and a dead Inquisitor. Ahem. These exploits by Godwinne Menogoth did in later years prevent their dynasty from having any navy reinforcements during a catastrophic Ork Waagh which sacked nearly all the planets of their dominion inside the solar segmentum. All but a Loki-class transport and the crippled flagship are left... So then it's up to Sarvus Menogoth to seek out allies with the Machine Cult or perhaps with Eldar so to defy the Inquisitors, of course find treasure, and bring the return of the M. dynasty. Right at the start I have to be an inquisitor?!! Yeah right! I decided to keep the suspicion level down but maybe catch him in the act somehow.

During the first endeavors our explorers receive a kind of "Care Package from the Inquistion" (that my navigator co-wrote up). At first they all thought the crate was a bomb. But after they read the card, pried it open and found new armor, courtesy of the great Ordo Malleus, they all rejoiced (even me, because they ended up using the equipment for a while)

My rogue got himself a "royal" combat cloak with fitting xenomesh; voidmaster: a bodyglove that increases his Dodge; navigator: a unique displacer field, and my astropath got the flexsteel suit that doesn't quite fit well (you will fall down if you run in it).

Anyway the next time they're in Port Wander they find their partners at the Rubicon trade house in shambles because of what one friggin' seneschal did. He first rigged the market, turning the trade house against itself (not difficult at all) and destroyed what was left using slaanesh drugs on the lady merchant. This got everyone's attention including the inquisiton.

Having to go deeper into Imperial space to sell off all his cargo, he goes to a hive world and makes a new deal. At that same moment the seneschal is at large in the undercity. Long story short: It took a really bad poker game, a slippery chase through city streets and a high-speed maglev train to find this guy and take him down. Only at that moment I choose the Ordo Hereticus to show up in a Fury interceptor and take the man into custody. The Aquila works like a charm!

If I ever bring in Ordo Xenos it will be to hinder the rogue trader. That's my way of foiling my good friend's character, because after all he did it himself.

Recently a chance to interfere in the rogue's plans using a member of the Ordo Xenos has risen up... I intend to take it.

Rogue trader sarvus menogoth and company are going after the kasballica mission on footfall. They aim to steal from the cold traders after a deal they're witnessing is done, then probably kill a certain crime baron present because of... reasons.

First they posed as smugglers to obtain information and soon found another smugglar looking to sell xeno weapons with a stryxis who knows where to find more. They agree to help each other out so to carry the word of a Stryxis the extra mile convincing the Kasballica they want to pay for an expedition.... but when the deal is struck they (I mean just Sarvus) pulled their guns and expected to begin attacking before a treacherous third party appeared on the flank.... Sslyth mercenaries!!!

Alright what's happening?? well that's for them to decide next Saturday - that's where I left it. If they take the smuggler's advise and don't fight the payoff will be more Profit Factor, but I doubt to see that. So I planned an encounter.

I expect my group to attack despite heavy opposition and try to righteously kill that crime baron or maybe get the smugglars caught in the crossfire which will mean a great deal to those working behind the scenes. They may end up discovering that their smuggler contact is really an acolyte of the Ordos with a mission to sell counterfeit xenotech/starmaps to have the Kasballica track what they need finding.... If the group screws with the Inquisition it's going to lead them onto uneasy ground...they may have to run an errand or two... It might mean a break from the rogue trader's plans or be just an anticlimax but the surprise should be total.

Undercover acolyte was based off of Interrogator Deric Oktavian in H.A expansion.... Last meeting his cover wasn't blown...the deal went off without a hitch because the rogue had incredible command skills.... no big encounter started as I had thought: only the Stryxis died!

Menogoth dynasty have begun dealing with cold traders oh good Big news for the guy who didn't wanna play Inquisitor GM not very long ago... anyway I'm glad it turned out the way it did. It's a future adventure seed that can force them on an endeavor with the Ordos in a very sensible way. When they're all rank 8 and anything less would've been done by now, yeah expect the Inquisition.

By now the five PCs are rank 4 or just below. They have three endeavors going right now and never cease to surprise me.

Rogue Trader- Sarvus Menogoth

Navigator- Alte Icarus

Void Master- Malakai

Seneschal- Integra

Arch Heretek- Prime

Arch Militant- Rook (killed off)

Astropath Transcendent- Kasmirre (retired)

Explorator- Josias Dark (mortally wounded by xenos)

Rogue Trader GMs, you may find yourself taking things out on the rogue trader in the shape of overwhelming encounters followed by calamitous misfortune before ever cutting parts out of a script. Remember before that I said the dynasty had 3 endeavors running.... these symbolize 3 interconnected objectives I gave them to build their profit on while reaching an endgame by (x) rank

If I had a bar chart you'd see they eventually got from it reasonable amounts of CQC/space combat, Profit/STCs/treasure, intrigue, world-views, etc... In practice however, running more than 3 "opportunities and distractions" will leave your explorers standing still, wishing Profit Factor would just go up without perforating real-space to risk it again.

The game is totally broken when it comes to designing your own campaign... that's the fun part I may have underestimated because I just realized my friend playing the rogue trader, he's even more invested about it than I am... he continually rants about what happened, and other things people did or he might have done

This campaign started last august with 3 people and I've learned a lot about roleplaying since then.

I've enjoyed doing this Inquisition thread so maybe I'll write a new topic in future. It did sort of become a campaign log gone off on a tangent, and hardly scratched the surface of what I'm really doing with House Menogoth. But that's just so you don't have to know from me how much fun running RT can be.

If you like this and want to know more tell me