With apologies to Dabat, whose excellent initial post has generated a lot of intriguing replies on the Dark Heresy forum, what weapons and equipment do your Rogue Traders and retinues use on a regular basis?

What is your "Shipboard" weapon and equipment loadout? (ie what do you carry on your person in the comfort of your own ship)

What is your "away team" loadout for hostile worlds? Or for business negotiations in Port Maw?

I've heard interestingly unhinged stories of gun caddies (servants to carry a wheelbarrow of guns and make suggestions as to what to use next) and horses in void suits...so what does your retinue regularly use?

The Arch-militant in my group (and the only one who has gotten around to submitting a full character and weapons plan) is after a best-quality silenced vox-operated hunting rifle with omni-scope for ground-combat, a shotcannon with motion-predictor and backpack ammo pack for boarding actions, and a naval pistol as a backup gun (plus a mono-truncheon, rationalised as being hollow, and 1/3 full of mercury).

The Seneschal is making noises about an inferno pistol and hellgun, along with cameoline-equipped light power armour, and at least one knife/kraken-tooth dagger. It's a little off, as his vague character plan so far has been a cockney Thufir Hawat...

There is of course a big difference between Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader. In Dark Heresy you often try to be as inconspicious as possible. In Rogue Trader you have to show of your importance. Even on shipboard duty you will probably strut around wearing your finest and best so your crew recognize you on sight. This could include a fancy suit of best armor even if it is uncomfortable to do so.

My astropath always carries her compact inferno pistol in a concealed holster. Otherwise she appears unarmed (although always dressed inthe most baroque and extravagant of fashions from across the sector).

In dangerous environments she wears best-quality enforcer light carapace and a conversion field. She also carries he best-quality mono-sword despite having no ability to use it.

My players finally created their own characters, and they haven’t really taken advantage of the “stuff” in the game. Other than the best quality clothing and concealed laspistols, they don’t carry much of anything. There are at least a dozen bodyguards on the bridge at any time, and they send heavily armed and well-trained contingents to handle any “problems” The PCs only get involved for diplomatic missions and business transactions, so there is no need carry anything more.

I've only GMed thus far, but my PCs have had some interesting armaments.

A brief game featured a RT who took a Power Sword from his starting list and paired it with a Good Quality Power Fist Acquisition, using the sword to parry and the fist to attack.

I've also had a Servo-skull customized to bear a small area effect Refractor field among my PCs, and a custom Guncutter that was made with the DH vehicle Apocrypha.

The most notable shipboard loadout I've seen thus far was the Lord Orion , a Sword Class with a Auto-stabilised Logis Targeter, and twin macro batteriesone laser, one plasma. It wrecked face.

My players tend toward carapace armor and bolt pistols. They have not yet grasped the concept of "shipboard loadout" vs. "away team loadout".

I will be introducing them to this concept soon.

Their loadout has actually caused issues with one PC who likes to carry a simple laspistol. She complains her weapon cannot hurt any opponents that will challenge the bolt pistol toting Arch Militants. And I tend to agree.

RT and Dark Heresy have huge numbers of flavorful weapons - and I would like to see them used. But most of my players came out of the miniature arena and they are used to buying the "good stuff" when it comes to weapons.

Haven't had a chance to actually be a player yet, but I've been thinking a bit about an Archmilitant with a Grox-Whip (hopefully modified with a powerfield) - either that or a "Professor Henry Jones Jr." style Seneschal with the same load-out.

calibur1 said:

..... Your not playing Rogue Trader are you...

alexkilcoyne said:

What do you mean? Rogue Trader is our pick-up game in-between our serious campaign. Believe me it took a LOT to get them to play again after the disastrous demo (see link below). They have come to the conclusion that if this is just about profit and glory then that’s how they’re going to treat it. So they take the jobs with the most amount of money versus the least amount of risk. It’s logical in the sense that {overhead – pay = profit}. Even if they take a dozen little less paying jobs compared to a big payoff job (that might cost them a fortune in repairs, lives, and maintenance) they come out on top. Any profit is good profit. And to ensure crew loyalty they have set up a profit sharing program. This is the best I can expect from them, and they dare me to tell them how to play it any other way.

Needless-to-say, they don’t need a lot of personal gear to negotiate prices. They may be taking the “crap jobs” that other Rogue Traders might believe is beneath them, but their making a lot of money doing it. And the crew is happy, because they’re getting a piece of the action without risking their lives.

Forsaken Zombie Ship
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=123&efcid=3&efidt=242609&efpag=0#244496

Where's the glory then?

I've always thought the real meat of the game is the swashbuckling adventure, not hauling cargo across interstellar space. But of course, if your players disagree who am I to say any different.

Graspar said:

I have tried to drum the sense of “swashbuckling” into them, but they feel that what I’m telling them contradicts the rules. They have no personal investment in the setting, so all they’re going by is the rules. (Think of it as old Vampire the Masquerade without the meta-plot. All you have left is a bunch of superpowered emos and an unbalanced and clumsy game mechanic.) And the rules gives them stuff on a scale that they are not use to having until the end of most other games. They’re attitude is: “I’m not going to shoot you with my bolter. I’m going to have my company of soldiers shoot you with their bolters. I’m not going into a personal duel with you. I’m going to nuke your city from orbit until you’re nothing by a memory.” So rather deal with that we’re playing Settlers of Catan in space. The game mostly revolves around politics, business and intrigue. It’s not my choice of style, but this is all I have to work with if I want to run this game. It’s either one extreme or the other, and the game design doesn’t really help me out of that.

That actually reminds me, a few weeks back my friends and I were kibitzing around and we ended up in a roleplay of Rogue Trader. It was pure roleplay for the hell of it. No dice, no character sheets, just a story for the hell of it. Keep in mind before I go any further, that the Rogue Trader was a scrupulous man of his word. He would always keep it vows, even to his own detriment (Role play, remember?) This will be important later on.

A few stories in (we met more than once, but this has since ended) we are accosted by a noble who had killed an ally of ours (and a good friend of the Rogue Trader's) so that he would get a lucrative contract instead of us.

Our Intrepid, honest, Rogue Trader informed the mad "I will see you dead."

The nobel replied. "Then I challenge you to a duel to the death. Meet me at the Tomb World of Klybo So that your aids shall not have to go far to dig your grave."

Our Rogue Trader replied "See you at Klybo."

With that they both boarded their own ships and set off for Klybo. On the way our Rogue Trader told our Navigator to 'go slow and make us take longer to get there.' He did not want to arrive first, we assumed it was to keep the noble waiting.

When we arrived, our Rogue Trader asked where the noble was.

"On the surface, waiting for you." It was replied.

"Good." He replied. "Lock on Main batteries to that location. I want to see the mushroom clouds from orbit." Needless to say, we were stunned, it seemed like he had broken his word.

"What?" He asked us, after the deed was done. "I said I would see him dead. I never agreed to a duel."

Ahh, good times.

calibur1 said:

It seems that the problem is that the players have the idea that you can buy anything you want - you share profit with the crew, they're happy, you buy servitors, ships, and slaves to make you money while you're off seeking more profitable ventures. In my opinion, the 40k universe is far more medieval and feudal than the "golden age of capitalism" in which we live. It's more a time when a Lord is required to protect his vassals, when a man must lead from the front if he wishes to have the loyalty and respect of his men.

My solution to this would be to have those soldiers decide NOT to shoot the opposition, maybe even to turn their bolters on their leaders. Their motivation? A better offer, a more heroic, charismatic leader that is easier to worship as a hero than the Rogue Trader that sits in his vessel sipping amasec while his crew and guards die, or any similar reason would be enough (an apostate cardinal who appeals to their sense of zealotry, maybe?).

Force your players to show they're men and women of action, that they'll get their feet wet with the grunts or have their influence last only so long as it is the best offer on the table.

That's my two cents - I hope it's helpful.

Seems to me, after reading about your Q and A session after forsaken bounty that what they really need is to make more interesting characters, who actually gives a **** about something else than money. You know, a character with some kind of motivation to explore, gain honour glory and other stuff. That or learn to roleplay.

But then again, maybe rogue trader's default style isn't for everyone. I just have a hard time seeing any kind of point or indeed fun in playing indifferent space truckers.

There's an RPG with a catchy name!

"Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games bring you a Roleplaying game unlike any other. Take the helm as you seek to glean profit from the unforgiving galaxy of the 41st milennium in.... INDIFFERENT SPACE TRUCKERS!!!

Priceless

calibur1 said:

But it ignores the glory part - you know, Risk + Success = Glory and Fame.

Profit with minimal risk can be obtained anywhere. Vast profit and immortal glory need risk, daring and the guts to do something other than sit around watching everyone else do the work for them.

calibur1 said:

Nice, quiet, comfortable lives then. (By the way: a fortune in lives? This is the Imperium of Man... human life is cheap and plentiful, a natural resource to be expended for the greater benefit of the Imperium)

So what's the point? Where's the challenge? Where's the story?

calibur1 said:

A man risks life and soul whenever he journeys between worlds through the Warp. If you wanted to reduce the risk further, have them sit on a single world and delegate their moneymaking schemes to subordinate freighter captains and emissaries via Astropathic communication. Much, much safer...

Or, you could make things interesting. The 40k universe is not a safe or peaceful place, and there are many factions and groups with their own agendas which may be completely unknown. From the perspective of a relatively low-key, low-risk operation such as the one you've described, even a situation as seemingly foolproof as that can fall foul of all manner of machinations. Pirates (human or otherwise) may start raiding the trade routes you've established. The colony you set up may be invaded, or you may simply lose contact with it. That mining operation may stumble onto something it shouldn't have that nobody knew was there. A ship may get lost in the warp or caught in a Warp Storm.

Complications, difficulties, and other elements that play havoc with even normally low-risk ventures. Even if the players still delegate from the bridge, it's something to do aside from counting money. Even low-risk ventures should have some risk, and what may appear to be low-risk at first glance may have unforseen complications arise from it as the intentions of other forces and the vagaries of luck intervene...

Leopold Cygnus said:

ooOOOOOoooo what classes would be available in that one? Because I'm already half sold on it, three quarters if it has square pigs...

Seriously, the problem with Calibur's group isn't character motivation. It's, as he said, player investment and player motivation or, more to the point, lack there of. They obviously saw the game's concept as ridiculous or, at the very least, conflicting and, as such, don't care much for it. I would guess that they are simply playing it to humor Calibur and, while doing such, probably have it in the backs of their heads that they'll convince him how ridiculous or conflicting the game's concept is by how they play as well. This seems to stem from a misconception of the nature of Profit (partially illustrated by posters above), assuming it to strictly be monetary when that is but a small aspect of the overall meaning of the trait.

If Calibur wants to change things with his group, he, first and fore-most, needs them to actually invest in or care about the game, their characters, and the story being told. If these same players are also playing Dark Heresy and if Calibur is the GM for that as well, he shouldn't have a hard time doing this. All that would be required in that case would be to tie the two games together. Have events from one spill over into the other. When the RT dose some venture for this easy bit of profit, the acolytes have to defuse the horror that the end result of the endeavor unleashed on the calixus sector unbeknownst to the RT, or the RT bears whiteness to something through one of his endevors that sheds light on a confusing or foggy end to one of the acolyte's cases, etc. Possibly even have a special end of the season foil embossed collectors issue cross-over supper special extravaganza, what-ever.

If he doesn't have a DH game to draw off of, then what's needed is a strong umbrella story, something to tie in their random grabs for profit into an unfolding story of intrigue and personal revelations, a story about the PC's (and not some NPC) that will eventually make them want to know how it all works out, makes them ask questions, or, in other words, get a bit invested. If a PC has no real past, then they become a Plot Monkey and get a really juicy past made up and slowly reveled by the GM for the purpose of this Unfolding Story of Intrigue. Toss in some recurring rivals (who do things the gallant way and rise in power so much faster as to outstrip the PC's, but also make them hate him or her in a way that makes the PC's and players obsess over how to really make that SoB pay) and the stage should be set. It'll take a good few games, but if the GM can hold things together, he just might trick the players into forgetting themselves and their inherent misgivings about the game and, heaven forbid, they might find they have more fun with RT then they ever thought they would.

I managed to avoid anything like this happening from the get-go. The crew of my PC's ship don't really care much at all for money and wouldn't know what to do with two thrones (joy girls at the port only cost one throne. Two, while a fine story they make, will do nothin' but wear me out or force me to the side!). What they care about is their ship. It is their mother, their god (heresy, i know, but Void Born, what can you do...), their everything. They prey to it's spirit for safe passage through the warp and fables are preached to them by the Lore Master from the ships long and extensive history. Most of them were born on the ship and the clan chiefs (it's crew has evolved a very clan like structure through the thousands of years that it's sailed) are all descendants of the original Naval Crew who were placed on her after she was liberated from the Apostate Fleets during the War of Apostasy and they're damned proud of that fact. According to the crew, money comes and goes and will drive the best man to ruin, but the ship, she always endures and will make the best man the greatest in all the galaxy.

When the PC's came by the ship, she was under a puppet captain consigned to doing "corpse runs" between a hive world, a war world, and a cemetery world, ferrying the dead nobles, rich gelders, and influential commanders to their final resting place... a far cry from what she had been in the past. We spent nearly two game sessions with the RT gaining capitancy of the ship and then winning the crew over so they'll fallow his command as opposed to simply doing what they're told while brimming with mutinous intent. In his inauguration speech (which the player had to come up with on the spot, but he did good), in an attempt to not only get them to accept him as captian but also accept the radical course changes and dangerous situations that were about to happen, he harped on the ship's past glory, the fact that it had not only seen Holy Terra but laid siege to it at the side of Sebastian Thor, that it had won naval engagements, shaped the face of the galaxy, and the fact that he was going to restore those glory days and make the stars tremble at her passing once again. After delivering this wonderful off the cuff speech he further scored 8 DoS on his Charm check to inspire the crew (a Fel in the 50's, a maxed out charm, the assistance of the Senechal in researching the speech, and a bonus for the in-character delivery of the speech coupled with a damned good roll made such possible). They will now fallow him to death and back for the Glory of the Ship... but that's the kicker. Definitely after that speech they are all 100% about the glory of the ship above and beyond anything else and if he ever shows that he's not out for glory for himself and the ship, he's going to have several thousand very unhappy campers to deal with.

tl;dr: Calibur's problem isn't PC motivation, it's player motivation; Calibur might want to think about making a deep and intriguing storyline to motivate the players and make them interested in the game and what is happening; my group doesn't have that problem.

Back on Topic

So far, the group hasn't had much time off ship, but from what's happened so far...

The Rogue Trader (and former no-good sewer scum) will wear what ever his valette puts on him for the occasion at hand, though he always wears his mesh combat cloak and his two best quality (and very shinny) autopistols. If he's looking to impress people, he will have his valette dress him in "something awe inspiring", put on his cloak, fill every finger with rings he pilfered from a Severus Barron a while ago as well as the signet ring he got off the mans wife after boffing her but before killing him, and strap on his best quality autopistols and best quality bolt pistol. If he's expecting trouble (which is most of the time), the only thing he changes is he tries to strap on more guns, as many as would fit on his skinny frame. Other then that, he tends to keep his microbead on him at all times as well as his multikey.

The Senechal tends to dress in an extravagant yet comfortable fashion while aboard the ship and will only carry his BQ Hell Pistol (with a charge pack and not a capacitor back-pack). If he's expecting trouble or looking to impress folks, he will strap on his best quality sanctified and blessed ancient carapace armour that has been in his family since before they knew they were a noble house and strap on his B(b)Q Hellgun (ya, he still pretty much just has the starting gear for his career and path choices). The only recent addition to his wardrobe is an Azure Narco-Ferret (a strange beautiful blue ferret like creature that sprays a poison when frightened -though not deadly to humans, it dose have some rather strong mind altering psycho-active effects on those it sprays. Kids call it Freakin' the Ferret) which he's recently acquired (their only acquisition test for personal gear so far) and wears on a leash to keep it on his shoulders -he felt that there simply wasn't enough shoulder-pets being warn about Port Wander (especially for a port packed with buckannears) and is trying to revitalize the trend.

The Rogue Psyker (she fallowed the Scum from DH to RT) doesn't really alter her load unless the situation strictly deems that she should (like in the void, she'll wear a void suit). She always wears a flowing multi-layered dress and corset with more black lace then actual fabric but so layered it's hard to tell complete with a black shear veil and a copious amount of various prayer scrolls sealed, pined, and sewn into her garments that she rustles like parchment in the wind anytime she moves. Her only gear is a simple but elegant lace and feather collapsible fan, an Emperor's Tarot Deck, a poison ring with a dose of Morphia-V, and a bag of odd baubles and trinkets. She hasn't found the need for any other material possession and no-one else has felt the need to get her anything... except for more prayer scrolls.

Sending npcs to do a pc jobs should in most cases means that the task fails, simple because they aint as highly trained as the player character are and they aint on some hollyday postman trade mission.

On topic:

As rogue trade on ship combat or any fast combat missions i wil be using my good qui power armor + power sword and plasma gun. Photo contact linses (always), and 2 smoke grenades oh and a helluav expensive charm i carry in a armored seal. Emporer protect

For long base mission on planets i wil be using a best qui carapest armor instead, and some iron rations as extra + repirator/gasmask and enogh thrones for small bribes and what not. Ofcause all dependt on what type of planet you land on, weather gear could be very usefull some places.

I use my free acusition roll on having shifting clothes, so i use that for noble dinners and when im on my ship and just relaxing with my wife or officers.

My arch militant use a multi melta as her specilize weapon and got grav holde etc for it, so i feel well protectet. She uses a best qui light power armor or carapest armor also depending on the time of the mission.

The group always carry a vox and our explorer also have a servitor who is very good for medical checks and have a medical kit with it.

Oh our ship is blessing with a teleportation device but it can only teleport 1 person per 30sec or so (rule from gm about the teleport) and ofcause if need a fix spot/lockon so no running etc but nevertheless having a get away card like that helps alot in many situations.

Graver said:

I’m not naïve. That’s exactly what they’re doing, and I expected that from them. After they created their characters I ran them through Into the Maw. Not to give away any spoilers… but they sold their information to the highest bidder and literally never went on the adventure. When Orbest Dray protest too much they made him disappear. So they haven’t left the Calixis Sector yet, and I had to quickly come up with a replacement scenario.

Right now they have been trading between Scintilla and Iocanthus. The jobs are humdrum, but they’re making decent money doing them. Waving the carrot of profit I subtly drew them into the violent politics of Iocanthus (just to get them to do something). They hardly leave the ship now, and if they do it’s not without a small army of well-paid bodyguards. When they get back to Scintilla I’m planning to offer them up a supposedly easy endeavor of escorting an archeological expedition to Morwen VI. The discoveries I have planned there hopefully will get them to go exploring into the Koronus Expanse (or what they call the Corona Lite).

Could I punish their characters for their actions? I sure can. I can also not run Rogue Trader either and throw the book in the garbage, because this is what my players want to do, and so that’s what I’m stuck with.

To stay on topic:

The Rogue Trader and Void-Master (Mastery of Space) each carry a best-Craftsmanship laspistol and best-Craftsmanship mono-sword. The Navigator (and second-in-command) and Seneschal each carry a best-Craftsmanship hellpistol. And the Explorator carries a best-Craftsmanship laspistol. They have armor and access to better weapons, but they have no need of them.

My loadout so far personal wise Is a best- crafted las-pistol, common power sword and needle pistol for weapons, for armor i have a suit of best-crafted light enforcer armor and a suit of common power armor.

The current ship for my Rogue Trader is the sword-class frigate Kursk. The Kursk is fitted with twin Sunsear laser batteries simple because of the balance between range and damage. The rest is mostly standard components with exeption to the voinsman quarters, Warpsbane hull, combat bridge and Vitae pattern life support system.

the rest of the party consists of 2 other rogue trader, arch- militant. guard veteran, and sister of battle medicae. Not sure on load outs. Exept the one Rogue Trade has a archeotech fitted raider, and power armor, and plasma pistol for personal protection

Were a ways into campaign, so we've gotten some nice goodies.

I'm the explorator; my current combat loadout is void sealed storm-trooper carapace combined with subskin armour, with a good quality power axe, a best quality power glaive (power maul with +1 pen), a bolter with red-dot sight and motion predictor, good quality photo-contacts, and 3 frag and 2 krak grenades. On ship I sometimes take the helmet off and put it on my belt.

Next rank I intend to put a powerclaw on a weapon mechidendrite.

My awesome Voidmaster, Jak Xanatov, has his best-Craftsmanship hand cannon with ammo selector and red-dot sight (it is his Saint Varnae's Hand custom boarding pistol... it's already been shown to be vastly inferior to bolt weapons ); the power sword that is part of his Naval officer uniform, and a few odds and ends, mostly.

Oh, and the Lightning Fury , a guncutter that was my free acquisition and which I recently managed to convince some tech-priests on a forge world to fit some shields onto. It has a twin-linked multilaser in the nose and twin-linked rocket launchers in each wing. I can't wait to use it.

Serafina Alaric holder of the Silver Warrant of House Alaric , Peer of the Imperium and Lady-Captain of the Sapphire Wave finds it pleasing and efficacious for her wardrobe to be composed as follows:

When "being seen" aboard the ship she will be wearing conservatively styled but extremely expensive noble fashions; I'm thinking pseudo-military looking jackets, big boots, lots of braid and also expensive gowns and dresses, to mix it up a bit, but always with that element of grandeur and enough finery of the kind that might denote some sort of rank if only you knew enough heraldry. This sort of thing, I feel, probably impresses the ship's company and reminds them they're in the presence of someone who is one part military hero, one part high nobility and fully their Lord (or Lady, in this case) and Master.

When not actually putting on a show, as it were, she will be kicking about in what amounts to casual riding gear - good quality, fashionable but hard-wearing boots, tight-fitting trousers, again of good quality hard-wearing material, blouses or possibly more utilitarian tops and one of several 'bolero' style jackets. Potentially in a variety of colours but mostly I see it being tans and other shades of brown, apart from the blouses/tops and some of the jackets.

In the event of a potentially hostile situation she has some high-quality Storm Trooper Carapace armour which has been suitably marked with her heraldry (possibly a bit stupid - "Look! That must be the important one, shoot that one!" - but very in character for a noble Rogue Trader, I think), as well as an assortment of weaponry, including a Plasma Pistol and Power Sword but the one item she always has with her, partly because it's so valuable, partly because it's a very nice weapon, but mostly because it reminds everyone just who is in charge, is her Archaeotech Laspistol. I think that this serves almost as much as a badge of rank and sign of her power and wealth as it does as sidearm, so I'm playing to that idea.

Our campaign is still pretty new, so at the moment it's mostly starting gear. However, everyone except one player used their free acquisition for good quality storm trooper carapace! I guess the group's expecting trouble. Gee, what are the odds of that happening?