Having now read through Rogue Trader, it seems to me that it is almost certainly going to be best suited to a sandbox style of game. As such I thought it would be cool to pool any endevours, antagonists, planets or monsters we might have in mind.

I'm planning to use the evil pirate lord Bloth from an old cartoon called "Pirates of Dark Water" as an antagonist in my Rogue Trader campaigns.

Basically he's going to be a pallid, corpulent mutant pirate captain, plying the Koronus Expanse for targets aboard his battleship "The Maelstrom", which is a Chaos battleship with it's hull decorated with the bones and remains of an old Void Leviathan (mythical void beast the size of a battleship).

Although I have yet to write up any stats, but im gonna get to that eventually.

This is what he looks like:

A bare-bones endeavour from me then:

A Little Glass Vial (greater +3)

House Jennika, your dynasty's ancient rivals, have begun importing a new drug from out-sector. It's a bright blue compound known as Long Red, used as a surgical analgesic; powerful enough that under its' influence you could have your arm crushed, set on fire and then amputated with a rusty, malfunctioning, blunt chainsword and never feel a thing.

The drug also produces a strong sense of euphoria which is very addictive, and so very profitable, with clients including the Departmento Munitorum, two Houses of the Navis Nobilite, and the Inquisition.

Your dynasty would profit greatly from controlling the Long Red trade.

Objective 1- Finding the Source

Themes: Criminal, Exploration

To steal a thing, you must first find it, and Jennika keeps the source of Long Red tightly under wraps. Perhaps one of their charts could go missing? Then again, they only send out lightly armed transport ships, and everyone knows civilian sensors are crap...

Objective 2- Obtain the Means of Production

Themes: Criminal, Trade

By guile or by force, the secret of producing Long Red must be yours. Assaulting the Jennika facility or bribing the staff, whatever works...

Objective 3- Control the Trade

Themes: Criminal, Military

Long Red is a xenogen product, and a highly profitable one at that. Jennika possesses only a Hereditary Free Charter. Consolidate your position as the only source of supply with blackmail, and/or a big gun.

I haven't quite decided on the exact nature of Long Red, but I figure that as it stands the endeavour is more than usable as a pick-up adventure. In case you didn't figure it out, I've watched Repo! The Genetic Opera recently.

Originally, I was going to have Long Red be synthesised from L-DOPA and norepinephrine extracted from the brains of dead/dying people*, but I figured that this was 40k, that wouldn't be horrific enough for the blackmail I wanted to include at the end; hence the xenos connection. I may alter it so that it is synthesised from the brains of the dying by a xenos species that has been declared xenos horribilis and anathema, but that may be going too far.

*Ok, I realise this probably wouldn't work, I'm not a biochemist. However, neither are my players.

Alasseo said:

How about pulling the Farcosia thing from Rejoice For You Are True scenario in Purge the Unclean from Dark Heresy? A drug made from psyker brains!

Watching 2012 last weekend gave me some nasty ideas for a game or two. The players enter a system where the local star has started giving off radiation that is slowly cooking the fuel water and ammo on the ship. Leaving them with the choice to either flee the system or face a potential ship explosion. Along similar lines is the PC's land on a planet that is rapidly tearing itself apart and the landing field where their shuttle puts down cracks in two seconds after the players are all off the shuttle, they then have to find a way to escape the planet before it goes boom.

Varnias Tybalt said:

I remember Pirates of Dark Water! Never thought of using it in a Rogue Trader campaign before though... Ingenious!

As a longtime fan of the Planescape setting, I've written a short concept for a space station named The Cage that pays tribute to the concept of Sigil.

The Cage is a massive space station set adrift amidst a tranquil nebula. The station is easily detected on the most rudimentary sensors, but gaining entrance is a complete mystery to most spacefarers. Rumor has it that those who find a way into the Cage can amass a fortune that would dwarf the Grandest of Imperial Houses.

The Cage actually exists solely in the Warp, what you're seeing is just a shadow. The station was crafted by demons, for the use of countless Realspace travellers such as yourself. The demons of The Cage do not serve any of the four major Chaos Gods or their ideologies. Instead they are more so a dark reflection of the very Rogue Traders that have invaded the Kronus Expanse. These demons seek profit above all else. But what does a Cager consider profitable? No matter, the prize of The Cage are the ports, for they connect to all points in the Kronus Expanse and beyond. Unfortunately The Cage isn't called such for no good reason. Those lucky ones that obtain access to a port will most likely find themselves and their ships stuck at berth. But those like you that will master negotiating with the demons, and solve the riddles of the station can use The Cage to gain dominance over your competitors, though I warn you the cost may be higher than expected.

So how about it Cutter? A of your navigator's blood and the charts are yours.

Cornelius Vermuyden said:

Yes, im rather proud of the idea myself.

It will give me a good chance to turn those cartoon characters into something a bit more "mature" (let's face it, as cool as certain cartoons could be back then, they were still largely kid friendly and... Well "cartoonish"). This way I can present these evil pirates as they would have been in an R-rated movie or something.

Also, I like to use inspirations or crossovers from obscure sources in my games. When you're a GM I find that it's pretty hard to use pop-culture references because as soon as you do that, all the players will instantly know where you got the idea from. But "obs-culture" ("obscure culture") references on the other hand are just gravy in the way that most players won't know where you got the inspiration from, so your ideas will seem fresh and new to them. And even if one or two of them might just have read the same book or seen the same movie as you have and can call you on it, it's all in good fun anyway because it's not like you're trying to take credit for the source material anyway.

The following is meant as a frightening monster encounter "while in the warp". Perhaps, it is located a certain warp lane or region... Perhaps the pc have heared from it at a port or in legends (leading to more boni with the test since they have a good idea of what will happen)

The Thing Not Meant to be Encountered
Allow every player character either a challenging (+0) test for Awareness or an easy (+30) test for Psyniscience . Every pc that passes the check get´s the sudden and overwhelming feeling that something catastrophic is going to happen within the next minutes.

Hopefully, this is given as a warning to the captain.
Hopefully, the captain orders for an alert.

Because a view minutes after his dark foreboding, next to ship will materialize a warp born horrific and writhing mass of tentacles, teeth maws and eyes so large that the ship dwarves against it! Everyone able to perceive this horror (the Navigator for sure!) has to pass Fear test -30 while every other Psyker has to pass a Fear Test -20 since he/she senses the presence. The sound and everything that follows is simply frightening (Fear test -10).

Unfortunately, the ship is now right beyond and beneath its twisting tentacles! Five success at a challenging extended check for Pilot (Space Craft) are needed to manoeuvre the ship away from this Horror. Every failure means that a tentacle hits the ship, colliding with the Gellar Field and forcing it to its limits while the ship will shake and tremble (1d5 damage to the ship).
After each hit, a hard (-10) test for Tech-Use is needed stabilize the Gellar field. If no successes are achieved, the field will flicker (and another encounter will happy shortly thereafter).

If the alert was sounded, however, all the tests are +10. If they Captain and his officials had an idea about what might happend (from legends or rumours at a nearby port) the bonus might be even better then this

I'll just go ahead and print this entire thread for my GM folder.

For the thing not meant to be encountered I'll probably let them all have heard stories somewhere, but require an intelligence test -20 to recall and make the connection, mediated to +0 for characters with total recall.

Ok, here's another adventure seed (and seed only), which could be skipped in favour of simply giving people a ship (your players or their NPC enemies):

The legendary privateer captain, Lord Sebastion Yssarille Passer is dead, and his heirs can't afford to maintain his ship, the Night's Pride . Consequently, they're looking to sell it, either privately or at auction; it is known that the Imperial Navy is keen to acquire her, as the Pride is reputed to be able to catch any ship it can kill, and kill any ship that can catch her.

Any Rogue Trader of a military bent, or with an eye to turn pirate would do well to own her, by fair means or foul.

Night's Pride

Hull: Dauntless CL

Speed:7 (9 in combat)

Manoeuver:+13 (+25 in combat)

Detection:+20 (+25 in combat)

Hull Integrity:60

Armour:20

Turret:1

Shield:1

Weapons: Prow Titanforge Lance Battery/Port Ryza Macrobattery/Starboard Ryza Macrobattery

Jovian3/Strelov2 drives, Standard Geller field, single void array, vitae-pattern life sustainers, voidsmen quarters, command bridge and M-201.b Auger Array

The Pride is also fitted with a Compartmentalised Cargo Hold, a Barracks, a Trophy Room, an Observation Dome and carries boarding craft fitted with Mk14 CAT Assault Servitors (counts as Murder-Servitors).

Complication: Wrothful Machine Spirit; Wrested From a Space Hulk

The Night's Pride is a pre-Apostasy light cruiser commissioned for Battlefleet Obscurus in late M34. She was designed for the role of piracy-suppression, a task in which she performed admirably; primarily thanks to the extremely heavy plasma cannon she carried. The Pride was lost in early M37 during a warp storm while on patrol in the Vincies Sub. She was found drifting through the outskirts of the Tambrah system by Yssarille Dellarque Passer in 638.M40, completely undamaged, her crew dead of old age. He claimed her as salvage, much to the annoyance of the Admiralty, and since then the Night's Pride has served as the flagship of the Passer Flotilla. In that time, the Passers have captained her through a number of truly epic actions, most notably the Breaking of the Tenhoyser Blockade, the capture of the pirate ship Seabeam as her hull burned with plasma fire and the Harrying of Rogue Trader Wilhardt Flederman.
Despite the ship's excellent pedigree, her officers and crew complain that her systems just don't seem to work properly unless she's at General Quarters...