For my next campaign, I've discussed with my players a few elements they wanted to be brought in, and I figured I'd bring it here for you guys to comment on before it hits the table.

Elements desired are, in no particular order: Tau!, Inquisitorial Shenanigans, logical reasons to apply bombardment cannon, Great Crusade, grand strategy, dystopian underbelly, and large fleet actions.

Brief into to playgroup: We all come out of tabletop 40K, and have all played a lot of Total War and similar long-term mass combat strategy games that have strong political and economic elements. My players want to be able to raise entire regiments, train and equip at their desire, and maneuver on anything from an individual person to entire battlegroup scale. They aren't afraid to get into detail, so long as that detail is relevant. We have a few 'favorites', player generated special snowflakes that form the core of the playgroup and a large stable of NPCs that get picked up when someone feels like it/has to leave his snowflake behind for medical treatment/does one of us have to watch every **** ship to get **** done around here?!? so there ends up being a pretty large character pool from people to draw on. I'll roll out and appropriately level up anyone my players ask the name of, and think up reasons why the main group shouldn't/cant go en masse, and it is not uncommon to play entire side campaigns through piloted NPC characters.

Now, to the playground:

This campaign is going to take place in the Vaskan Sector, about a quarter of the way between the Tau empire and the galactic core. Sector Vaskan is on a major warp route between the Segmentum Solar and the Realm of Ultramar, though it is not as well developed as one would suspect for this. Originally conquered during the Great Crusade, the sector fell almost in its entirety during the Heresy, and was not reclaimed until almost the end of the Scouring. The Ultramarines reclaimed approximately one third of the former worlds, enough to restore the main trade lanes, and deemed the rest as unfit for Imperial interest, seeding the former Imperial systems with the most dire of warnings. In the eight thousand years since the sector was reclaimed, it has been relatively quiet, with no major wars or misfortunes worth noting on the galactic scale. Human reavers and ork pirates are the worst threats in sector Vaskan, and Imperial efforts in the area are focused on protecting shipping. Political power lies in the various noble houses in control of the resources and factories that provide trade material, and while competition is fierce, it lies in the realm of economic warfare and the occasional assassin in the dark. There is a gross income disparity in this sector, with the wealth of the top .0001 equaling the wealth of the bottom 90%.

Campaign elements are 1) Tau invasion, 2) Reaver conquest, and 3) Secrets of Old Night.

1)Tau Invasion: Tau emessaries have began their typical gunboat diplomacy, using the plight of the workers to their benefit. On a particular subsector capital, they have managed to sway the planetary governor and a large part of the nobility into joining their cause. As the coup was only days away, a convoy of ships containing a regiment of Catchan jungle fighters pulled into port over the capitol and took shore leave. The Catchans are alerted to the coup by a loyalist party and manage to avert the turnover of power by executing the governor and holding the entirety of the planets nobility hostage in the governmental spire. Unfortunately, they don't have access to the astropath spire, or means of communications with their fleet, and are under peaceful siege by all the private troops/mercs the traitor nobles can muster. By the time the party gets there, the fleet has left them on the planet and the unconventionally trained catchans are clueless how to proceed. As there is an effective lockdown on government in this subsector, there is only so long the RT can leave this situation to simmer before something very bad happens. I gave the Tau three years on a turning wheel campaign to gather enough forces to take a more aggressive approach in the subsector, but are waiting at the slightest misstep to swoop the entire subsector up. They have been ceding every major city in the Sector with emessaries for the last two decades, they are motivated and prepared to take the subsector, with or without the help of the rebels... but it will take a while to raise the numbers to replace their contribution.

2)Reaver Conquest: The 2/3 of the worlds cut off from the Imperium did not all wither on the vine. Some of them actually flourished outside of Imperial Law, though they are warrens of xenos, mutants and psykers the likes of which would give even the most hateful zealots pause. Some of those systems are very aware of the existence of Imperial worlds, and have designs on how to claim them as their own. The only thing pausing their advance is their lack of navigators to steer their stolen ships through the warp, as all the ships they have left over from their ex-imperial days have long since had the warp drives removed. They lack the ability to construct new warp drives for themselves, so they must rely on stolen ships to carry them further than their own solar systems. Chaos figures are of course interested in helping them remedy this situation, at a price.

3)Secrets of Old Night: Assuming the players don't **** them up for one reason of another, I have cleverly hidden a world-spinner and three partial STC fragments in the system. All are located in horribly inconspicuous locations, usually adjacent to something very threatening but completely unrelated. Fragments are not even whole ones, just parts the local AdMech doesn't have.

Other assorted goodies are: One crusade-era battlebarge, of original Terran stock, possibly reconditioned for the Crusade, possibly commissioned for the Crusade, the AdMech can't remember. One Daemon weapon said to be originally used by one of the Phoenix Guard (The daemon is WP 83, totally unwarded. Can't wait for those mastery rolls!). One Brother-Sergeant of the Dark Angles that has been in stasis since a Son of Horus ventilated his abdomen with a chain blade.

There is a rogue ordo malleus inquisitor roaming around the sector as well, using one of the moons of the formerly imperial worlds for a psyker farm/euqenics program/cloning lab (if you are familiar with the Bene Theilax from the Dune universe you aren't far off... just with more skulls and ****), stir up some of the local ork worlds into waagh-ing a major chaos reaver stronghold, locate the site of a legendary fleet engagement between the Dark Angles and Sons of Horus, use the threat of impending waagh to get imperial/non-imperial worlds to get along and eventually bring several valuable systems into the Big Daddy E's good graces (tithe rolls), locate and board the space hulk Rust Father to plant a warp beacon, and secure a trueborn trueborn emo space elf to compare against a non-emo space elf. Said Inquisitor is a completely unplayable, game-breaking walking plot mechanic that never showed her face from a set of DH campaigns that I played a couple years ago. Backstory is fluffy as ****, but here goes: born Terra, c.m39.800ish to a noble family in the Scandinavian conclaves. Selected to become a Rembrancer c.m39.960ish. stationed with the Blood Angles until sent home just after the Heresy. Ended up filtering through the Imperium Secundus and getting trained as a footsoldier before hooking back up with the Blood Angles. Begged passage back to Terra with an impassioned plea to Sanguinius. Ran ammo to gun emplacements during the siege of terra, until there were no emplacements to run to before finding herself in the radius of a mass-possession spell. Battled possession until horus' death robbed the demon of the bulk of its power. Found wandering the battlements by an Imperial Fist, naked with a bloody feather of Sanguius' her only possession. Inducted into Ordo Malleus six months later. Took part in cleansing of Mars, where she was terribly wounded by rad weaponry and granted a best-quality, absolutely singular example of a Right of Setesh (IIRC) not unlike something off ghost in the shell or Armitage, completely transplanting her brain onto a cybernetic body 95% indistinguishable from a normal human. She does not follow the tenets of the machine god and cultivated her own rogue mech cults accordingly that she may not experience the same tech decline that has plagued the Imperium at large, though it is almost entirely of heretical nature, if only for lack of proper chanting. Said inquisitor is also rabidly Xanthite, though she preserves her good name by never calling her loyalty to the Big E into question and slaughtering any that would try and hear her secrets, let alone whisper them. She is never, ever played by any character and is my crowbar to 'adjust' the campaign any time the inquisition is available to perform adjusting. She is relavent in this campaign because she is playing the dozen or so relavent RT's in the sector against each other, masquerading as a series of various contacts and interests. *Spoiler* One of her agents planted the bomb that damaged the cooling system that overheated the Gellar field that cause the dynasty's sole remaining hope and expectation flagship to have to drop out of the warp on holy **** short notice and pull into the subsector capitol from Plot#1. I hope the players find out and bring it to the inquisitor... if only for the rare excuse to exploit every hole in their plan like only a gm can before brutally crushing everything the players can bring to bear. Some of my players played in my Dh campaigns, so we will see who remembers Lady Blue if they decide to push the issue.

Core PCs are:

Dorian Van Der Myr, Rogue Trader Militant and Patriarch of House Myr. Lord-Capitan. Raised in the Schola Progenium at the behest of his family, until he was presented to his uncle on his 16th birthday. After several years campaigning with his uncle, learning the ways of waging war and building empires out of the rubble. At this point, Imperial authorities would beg House Myr to engage in crusades, or rescue hopeless defenses, knowing full well the weight of men, material and fire that House Myr could bring into any given warzone could prove the tipping point. All of that ended with the 13th black crusade, when House Myr was resupplying and training on a feral world close to the Eye. A large chaos fleet dropped out of the warp and managed to slip deep in system before they were detected by the pickets, and what resulted was utter ruin for the House, along with the Navy squadrons and Guard regiments accompanying them. Originally, forces were evenly matched, but a few escorts were pulled, through some sorcery, behind friendly battle lines where they could rain mutants and heretics on the feral world. Dorian barely made it back to the guncutters with six thousand men out of eighty, and what has been twenty capital ships and an equal number of escorts and transports was left with a pair of terrifically damaged cobra destroyers and the dynasty flagship, also horrifically damaged. Character was customized between noble and schola progenium, has four free +5 stat upgrades and pretty much anything the player could justify taking out of a DH guardsmen's sheets until level 5, along with a smattering of best-quality combat gear:heavily modified carapace, hellpistol & rifle, chainsword, some utility stuff too. Has a good bolter and bolt pistol, and non-primitive combat shield. bionic volitor implant, blackbone bracing, and hearing. HE is at PF 47 (the uncle was heavily leveraged) after scrapping the surviving escorts and consolidating their crew into his own, performing repairs (those he can afford), paying debts and selling what he could part with, including a few titles. En route to a few easy pickings in the Vaskan system to cut his teeth on before it was back to the Eye and the real enemy.

Flag-Captain Finnick Poul. Commander of the fleet while the Patriarch is away. 500-odd generations of serving house Myr, the will of the emperor is the will of his house, and the will of his house is his only purpose to enact. Well-versed in tactics of void-battle and leadership of fighting troops, the flag-cap is the old hand that Dorian is not. Blames himself for death of former RT (he's right) and pushes the fleet and the current RT to meet his impossible standards. Void-born, customized high level niche stats. xp is gained at 10% of normal. Best quality bolt pistol and power sword, good refractor field, good mesh bodysuit. Bionic volitor, arm, eye, ear, voice amp and mandatory locator beacon.

Commisar Lucius Lymon. Not 'technically' a commissar anymore, but attached to House Myr for many years by the commissariat and empowered to bring some standard of martial pride to the filthy masses of untrained, soft meat waiting for the grinder. Another high xp character that levels at 10% normal rate. Best bolt pistol and power sword, commissariat approved best quality carapace armor (with appropriate modifiers for number of skulls). Bionic arm, blackbone bracing, volitor implant, eyes.

Euphrati Cassini. Noble Scion of House Cassini, the best navigator Dorian could afford after limping back to cypra mundi for refit. Banished from the good graces of her house until she return with something of worth. rolled this character almost entirely RAW, player and I added a few talents and traits, and the conditions of her banishing granted her an additional navigator power, but she is the only navigator being supplied to house myr at this time, and is expected to flounder in the warp, bringing the poor rogue trader house to an ignominious end, along with the upstart fool of a navigator and whatever unfortunates happened to be bound up with them at the moment.

After they drift into limbax for repairs, Kaori and Orman turn up. They are feral void-born from the space hulk Rust Father, and Dorian is ordered by the Ordo Malleus (if he find them/asks why they are there) to take Orman and Kaori to the hulk as fast as possible. Recovered during a DH campaign many moons ago, I am bringing in Orman Viridian as the explorator and Kaori Vermillion as... a character. **** it. She's there, deal with her. (Like her melta charge dealt with your Gellar field) These are two members of a tribe the inquisitor, a few stupid OP henchmen (demons bound into warded power armor with void grenade failsafes, alpha plus psykers, psiber bonded customized thalaxii, etc...) found themselves relying on for local intelligence on the hulk and bought a new life for themselves and their tribe.

Orman is a tech-priest originally rolled out totally custom, halfway between guard and techpriest with a few extra origin buffs, he's about level four now. definitely a walking disaster that the character picking him up is excited to set loose. good custom modded bolter and pistol, common power armor, best chainsword, special harness, bionic locomotion, blackbone, volitor, heart, lungs, enhanced coil. cyber beast familiar Origin story was him sneaking into no-mans-land to rescue a tank and got caught in an enemy advance, pretty much so the player could chew up whole units with him to demonstrate the difference between PC and NPC strength and the value of fate points.

Kaori is an assassin taken to a healthy level four and a spattering of choices out of the first couple guard levels. runs with a heavily modded custom best quality las carbine (special enough for the snowflake), good bolt pistol with special ammo, best chainsword, best non-primitive combat shield, a pair of power knives, heavily modded best power armor, a best sawn-off over under shotgun with special ammo (saved her life in a few campaigns), throwing knives, genestealer claw trophy knife, and a long, narrow box-shaped case she refers to only as 'it' or 'mine'. (It's a demon weapon named Haegarroth from Kaori's last DH campaign). blackbone bracing, bionic hearts, volitor implant, chem glands, autosanguine, enhanced hearing, vision. Latent psyker with chameleon, familiar bond, and favor. I use a modified version of psychic powers so she runs everything but familiar bond at a +15 on 53 WP, and bond is a +10, and perils only get triggered on doubles, which is impossible with one die. This is her first campaign with psychic powers... we will see if she is strong enough to stand without being soul bound...

Still trying to figure out the best way to bring the tau interests in the subsector to the players' atentions. I can filter the other plot hooks through the inquisitor's network and through that use the RT to get some of her dirty work done... until my players decide to screw over the Imperium, the inquisitor, or both. Trying to figure out a way to delicately put it that the tau are behind the failed coup has so far eluded me... I can't have some noble emissary show up and ask if Dorian has ever heard of the greater good, as the commissar will open his skull with a bolt round, and the commissar is attached to the freshly minted RT's hip whenever he is off the flagship. a message can get through from the outside to dorian in secret, but the flag captain and commissar have better charge of the ship than he does... they could forcibly detain him if they chose, and the tau know it; they can't be overt or they risk attention. So, my players have created a situation where I must play the subtle game if I want to get the campaign clock ticking.