I don't know if this has been done before so if i am duplicating a thread then my honest apologies. I have recently aquired rogue trader corebook and have been a dark heresy veteran (i use veteran loosely, mostly player 1 time GM) and have been flicking through and think the game looks really fun, but i am really unsure how to make a good plot. What are some examples of the kinds of plots you use? I was thinking "ok im an explorer and i find new planets and stuff" what are some good ways to do and examples of subplots between Plot point A and Plot point B. How do you choose a good overall plot? What kind of things do you throw at players.

Apologies for the congested thread but essencially i am asking. What is the best kind of way to make plots

Sorry for writing this so badly

Ryorus

Well since this game will be a lot about endavours, I might suggest that you check over with the different examples of endavours listed in the rulebook and use them as a sort of "skeleton" for your plot.

Basically the endavour is a way of what the PC's can do to achieve profit. What you need first is something to set them on undertaking the endavour in question (perhaps a "treasure map" of some sort, or a "fallen" Rogue Trader who have lost his ship but have knowledge of the whereabouts of a way to gain great wealth). Once you have a clear view of how to set the players on the course towards that endavour, make up some difficulties and adversaries who stand in the way of their endavour to be successful (pirates, aliens, rival Rogue Traders, angry natives, The Inquisition etc. etc.).

An endavour can take as long as you want it to. You can let the players to be able to achieve all the objectives in a single evening, or you can determine that it will take several sessions for them to achieve each objective.

Also, if there's a way for them to achieve bonus objectives (due to differnt components on their ship or something similar) then achieveing these bonus objectives would be a great place to start building sub plots upon.

Also, if you want to maintain a sense of control and freedom for the players (as Rogue Trader is a very player driven game) you could create an introduction scenario, where the PC's will be able to get to know eachother better and establish their relationships towards another. Throw in some challenges for them to overcome (perhaps introducing a few recurring antagonists and rivals who will show up later on during the campaign for good or ill) etc. But at the end of the scenario you'll have given the PC's enough leads to pursue many different endavours from that point onwards, and by then you can have a sit down with the players and ask them which of these endavours they'll want to pursue (they should only start out with one ship after all so they can't be in several different places at the same time). Preferably you'll give them the choice between some endavours already presented in the rulebook (but don't show them to the players, just some fuzzy hints what they will be about so you can maintain your creative freedom and surprise them better), and because of the introduction scenario you'll have a pretty good feel for what sort of personality and relatuionship each individual PC has, an you can use that to introduce segments and NPC's that are relevant to the individual PC's to make the players feel that their characters are actually a part of the game world rather than a bunch of "newcomers" who have just been born out of their character bubble.

Hope it helps.

Every plot hook needs a public face. The steady rising of an ork Waaagh! is a threat, but the Chief Mek who stole a player's plasma pistol and fitted it onto his ever-increasing bionik arm gives them a personal reason to do something about it.

Likewise with 'random' encounters. If a pirate raider attacks, the PCs will turn their ship-guns on him and shoot until he stops shooting back. But if the pirate captain is constantly hailing them with insults, they're going to want to make a boarding party and cut his head off in person.

But if the pirate captain is constantly hailing them with insults, they're going to want to make a boarding party and cut his head off in person.

Once I'm shooting at them, I don't tend to listen to their transmissions unless it's something along the lines of "We surrender" - and the servitor running the comm knows better than to bother us with relaying any trash-talk (unless the enemy is clever and prefaces each insult with the word 'surrender').

There is a bit of an assumption that PCs are going to be hot-blooded and quick-tempered in theri dealings with others, but some groups may choose to play extremely cool and rational fellows. Some crews, particularly those formerly in service to the Imperial Navy, are likely to feel better with cool heads in charge.

You might also find this list pf RPG Plots to be of use, as well as Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering (though the latter is a bit pricey, it's well worth it to beginning- and mid-experience GMs)

I haven't had to come up with a plot for an RT campaign yet, as I'm going to be a PC this time around, but I have read the book and have some thoughts on that front.

In Dark Heresy, many of my plots were largely event-driven. Players were responding to situations and circumstances outside their control, which made sense, because they were relatively un-influential individuals with little resources or power. However, in Rogue Trader, this is not the case. The explorers are free people with enormous influence and tend to control events, rather than be controlled by them.

For this reason, I would focus, when making your plots, on other things, particularly character-driven adventure. Rely on personality and emotion to provide a driving force behind the problems. Make your PC's flesh out their backgrounds with plot hooks you can use to pull them into situations they would otherwise ignore and move on. Recurring villains have spectacular potential in this context, so they make excellent plot bases as well.

EXAMPLES

-The PC's make a simple trade run to a Frontier World that has ordered an absurdly large shipment of Lasguns. Upon arriving on the planet, they discover that the Lasguns are being bought to repel maurauding parties of Orks, the same species that destroyed and massacred the inhabitants of (Any PC)'s home planet.

-The PC's recieve a notice telling them that their Rogue Trader's brother has died. Looking into the circumstances surrounding his death, they learn that he was driven into bankruptcy by an extremely powerful Rogue Trader whom he slighted. Too powerful to take on directly, the PC's must now covertly sabatoge his power base in order to enact their revenge.

-An Eldar Farseer has a vision of one of the PC's causing massive destruction in some future event, and sets out with the intent to assassinate the explorer. The PC's could have to deal with his interference in their missions, hunt him down and kill him, find out why he wants to kill one of them and fix the problem, or some other course of action.

Alternatively, If you do want to create an event-driven campaign, identify what it is that enables the PC's to avoid event-driven plots and contrive events in a specific way to neutralize those resources.

EXAMPLES

-An assassin sabotages the group's ship's warp drive in the middle of the empty void. Stranded, they must defend the warp drive against further attack while attempting to ferret out the saboteur.

-For whatever reason, the PC's lost contact with their ship while dirtside. They must find their own way off world or re-establish contact.

My two cents on the general mindset to adopt when coming up with ideas. Might not be of help for coming up with a plot, but I think it'll make the plot you come up with good.