1 – Introduction

Hi everybody!

While reading the message boards and during lots of my own role playing sessions as GM or player there is one phenomenon I encounter very often. I call it the ‘Bigger Gun Phenomenon’ . It always seems to appear, when a player finds out, that there is actually some bigger gun, than the one already in his possession. Or when he gets the feeling, that he needs something with more ‘kaboom’ in it, since that darn orc over there simply isn’t impressed by whatever just hit him. I think we all know that feeling one way or the other.
In this guide I will try to give some help and ideas to handle this phenomenon without blowing up the whole campaign. I don’t want to tell you, how you are to play your game. That’s of course up to everyone by himself. But maybe my suggestions are helpful, so give them a try… or at least a little thought.

2 – There always is a bigger fish

In Rogue Trader, the player characters already start out with pretty impressive equipment. Additionally they don’t even need to care for enough cash, to buy better stuff, they just need to make a couple of acquisition tests and voila, say hello to a shiny new whatever, that ‘normal’ characters would only dream of. So it’s not very difficult for a somewhat resourceful rogue trader and his crew to gear up quite impressively. But the acquisition system doesn’t stop at personal gear. You can actually try to acquire pretty much everything your Game Master allows for.

At the boards I read a lot of interesting acquisition- requests and ideas. They are ranging from Tanks to Titans, from whole Space Marine companies to Battleships. Those are all nice ideas and can lead to a lot of fun, but by allowing for such acquisitions the GM enters dangerous terrain inevitable leading into what I call ‘the vortex of even bigger guns’ .

Let me give you an example. Let’s say the GM allows the players to ‘own’ a very mighty battleship. I’m sure there are thousands of totally sound and great explanations, why and how the players got into the possession of the battleship, just assume they got one, fully equipped and manned. Probably they actually needed it to fight that nasty Xeno-invasion at Pluto Minor or to fight off that spacehulk full of orcs near Port Wander. Now they got it repaired and start off into the expanse for new adventures. Everyone is happy… everyone? Well, you are the GM. Now what do you want to throw into the path of your heroes? Some raiders won’t really do, they don’t stand a chance against a battleship. What about another whole fleet of … whatever? Great idea! And then what? Do you want to bring up fleets of Eldar, Orcs or worshipers of Chaos every time? And don’t forget, as long as there is some bigger gun, the players will try to get their hands onto it. And soon you will need to bring up even more and better stuff until you face a battle between several doomsday-suneating-planetshattering killerbattlestations … on both sides.That’s kind of unrealistic (if you can say so in a universe such as the 40k-verse…)
The same problem occurs with ground combat, when you start allowing your players to bring in complete companies (or even squads) of space marines or heavy tanks or Titans or whatever the players may come up with. Sure, there are occasions, when such ‘acquisitions’ would come in handy. The rule book sports lots of possible endeavors and objectives, where such support would come in handy. You need to colonize a world and find it infested by orcs? Call in ‘your’ space marines to wipe them out! Some chaotic heretics overtook an ancient installation of the mechanicus? No problem, we got our own Titan to deal with whatever they can bring up! Alright, and then what? The players now ‘own’ a Titan, a company of Astartes or something like that. So they will squash anything ‘smaller’ just with a smile and the GM needs to come up with even bigger stuff to pose at least a little challenge for the players. And once he found something to get the players to their toes, they simply ‘acquire’ something even bigger, just to be prepared.
Actually it’s quite possible and can be fun to play that kind of campaign, but it would always be an act of balance and can easily end up in mass battles. Those can be fun, too, but if that’s what you want to play you shouldn’t go for any kind of role playing game. Try Warhammer 40k by Games Workshop for example.

3 – But we still need bigger guns!

So what to do as a GM? Of course you want to satisfy your players wish for better stuff. They want to develop their characters, want them to gain in power and achieve greater deeds, want them to experience (and survive) even more exciting adventures. That’s what role playing is about, isn’t it?

So let’s have a look at some options you have as a GM:

First you can limit the occasions when your players can try to make new acquisitions for their characters. Acquiring something, especially larger amounts or more rare stuff takes time and effort. You don’t get, let’s say a Nomad sniping rifle, by just ordering one at amazon.imp. You might need to travel to a certain system, make the right contacts to strike the deal. In case of the Nomad the character also might need to stay there for a specific time to have it custom made for him. The more uncommon an item is or the larger the numbers ordered the more difficult and time consuming will it be to get it. The rule book got this pretty good covered on page 111ff. This means, that while a character is out, working on this acquisition, he is not automatically free for other actions. By limiting the amount of possible acquisitions, the GM already gets a good amount of control over the equipment level of his player’s characters and works best for the smaller kind of acquisitions like personal gear and the like.

Turn larger acquisitions into endeavors or even complete adventures. As said earlier, players sometimes want to get something really big. Larger ships, tanks, whole armies, titans, even their own planets. Those are all completely legal and sound wishes and offer lots of opportunities, not only for profit for the characters, but also for fun by playing to achieve such really big goals. You can and should write whole campaigns around salvaging titans or starships, founding or taking over colonies or building up your own personal army. But keep in mind, that such elements can easily outbalance your campaign as a whole and send you spinning in the vortex of even bigger guns.

To handle possible unbalancing elements such as titans, space marine detachments, too powerful star ships and the like, you can limit the availability or use or those elements . Either the PCs don’t actually possess the item, but have only easier ways to use them. For example the PCs might have found an ancient titan somewhere and helped the Mechanicus to salvage it. Of course the tech priest won’t allow the PCs to own such a powerful and ancient artifact. But they might allow them to use it when appropriate, but always with the option to deny such a request, if it would make things too easy. Of course the GM should allow the players to make use of those kind of acquisitions now and then, so the players can enjoy their new toy (even if it is technically not theirs… well, details… ).The point is, that some organizations in the 40k-universe simply don’t let others own something, that rightfully belongs to them. The Adeptus Mechanicus won’t allow a ‘mere’ rogue trader, to possess something like a complete titan. Beside that the trader won’t have any way to keep a titan running without the help of the Mechanicus and it won’t be possible, to keep something like that secret from them, since there are lots of tech priests already working on the traders ship(s) and one of them would find a way to spoil the news to his brothers.

The space marines of the Astartes are a similar story. You might manage to arrange for a squad of them or maybe a larger detachment to accompany the trader on a certain mission. But you won’t get them, to make station on your ship and follow you wherever you go. There are simply too few space marines in the whole galaxy to waste any number of them by letting them accompany a rogue trader on his journey for profit. There are few exceptions though. In the Space Wolves novel series the chapter of the space wolves sent a small squad of marines to serve as honor guards to the family of navigators who guide all their star ships through the war since the founding of their chapter. Those five or so marines would pose the maximum I would allow as a permanent detachment of marines and only in exchange for some immense service to that order/chapter, but that’s just my point of view.

Another way to keep things in balance is to add some considerable cost to the use of such ‘super weapons’. The Adeptus Mechanicus might ask for additional services, when they are to send their titan(s) into battle. Those ‘costs’ should be of that kind, that the players don’t use their super toys carelessly. But don’t make them too high, so the players still got their chances for using their acquisitions.

Last but not least there is one more tool the GM can use, to bring back balance into a campaign, which already got a bit off the track. If you already allowed something, that poses to be too powerful or that threatens to tip the balance, you need to find a way to get rid of the unbalancing element . The trick here is, to do it in a way, so the players don’t feel cheated. Some other faction (Inquisition, Xenos, mechanicus, …) might have learned about whatever it is, and starts harassing the players until they give it up by themselves. Or you can find some great last showdown for the element in question. Give that titan a really good last battle, let those space marines do something real heroic before they go down fighting or being called to other battlefields. Maybe you can give your players something more reasonable in exchange. You also should take the time to talk about it with your players so they understand why you feel some element of their arsenal to be unbalancing. Communication is the most important part of the whole game (and even the world), so don’t forget about it.

4 – Conclusion

I hope I could give you some ideas about handling the quite unique acquisition system of Rogue Trader. It is really not an easy task, to keep a good balance of allowing or denying acquisitions, delaying them a bit, limiting their use or even getting rid of them again. I’m sure there are lots of other ways to handle the roulette of equipment, since every group of players/GM is unique and needs to find its own ways. Just remember, role playing is about fun and as long as everyone has fun, it’s cool. Everything I wrote here are mere suggestions and everybody needs to find their own way of having playing this game.

So have fun,

Nadomir

My Vorpal Power-Chainsword +15 laughs at you and your game balance! ;¬)

I take your Vorpal-Power Chainsword + 15 and raise you Iux Pattern Master Crafted Mono - Power Foce Sword + 22!

( )

A mono-power-force sword, you say? Impressive. Now all you need is Hexagrammic warded, master-crafted Tactical Dreadnought Armour with conversion field and Aegis hood. Oh wait... they actually did that! ;¬)

Pah, tactical dreadnought armor... mono power force sword... I knew you coudln't do better than that

Fun all aside though. This is a splendid post Nadomir. With some good pointers of the whole bigger gun problem and how to deal with it. Luckily, my players are willing and able to deal with matters themselves but having all those security guards at their back and call sure makes my live as GM hard enough already.

Of course, I am mean enough to make them face a battlecannon or two. They were smart enough to run like juves towards a toy store once the first near miss blew apart a squad of their troopers .

I concur. This was an excellent post. Thank you for sharing your ideas.

Thank you Of course it's great fun, to use some big guns now and then. Demons, Orcbosses, nifty eldar and not to forget those pesty other rogue traders simply are not really impressed by a bunch of spotlight throwing las pistols. That's most likely the reason why FFG so significantly upgraded the starting gear in Rogue Trader. The trick is not to overdo it so the vortex of even bigger guns doesn't spin that fast.

Great post.

I find this "bigger gu vortex" can also have a poor effect on the atmosphere of the game. If all your PCs have power armour, they will wear it as much as possible, there goes the fancy clothing, high fashion, sexy bodygloves, elaborate jewellery, feathers in hats, etc that make the 40k universe colourful.

Likewise, carrying finely crafted needle pistols, or an archeotech laspistol falls out of favour when you all have bolt or plasma pistols.

Finding in game reasons to limit the players can work wonders, my PCs recently had a shoot-out at a state dinner held in their honour. Since it was a state dinner thrown by a planetary governor, they were in their finery, not power armour. It got very close indeed.

Uh, a shoot out in dinner clothing... neat idea

In fact the rulebook got a pretty helpfull, but rather short, section about upkeeping aquisitions. The GM can call for upkeep rolls when equipment got damaged or overused. Of course that only works, if the players profit factor hasn't allready skyrocketed. But still the GM got some options. He might reduce the players profit factor by letting some rival or authority aiming for the rogue trader's profit base. This can include saboutage or other criminal actions against the rogue trader, his staff and their valued possessions. Of course this will get the heroes to their toes to counter those actions against them.

There are always ways to get around all that super-stuff the player characters will undoubtedly gather up, like that dinner mentioned above or other nasty traps.Remember, there allways is a bigger, or even better, smarter fish out there.

To be fair, even if their PF has skyrocketed, there is the availability tables on page 111, which limit how quickly people can gain the rarer gear. You have to pass an Inquiry or Commerce test on that, and spend the designated (usually randomised) length of time looking for the item before you can even do your PF roll to see if you can get hold of it.

That, by itself, slows down the speed at which the players can get hold of the better stuff, because it takes into account quite how rare some of this stuff is.

Absolutely correct, Millandson. The problem is, that lots of game masters don't use such game mechanics to satisfy their player's hunger for bigger guns, just to make them happy, asuming this would only mean fun. It simply is the easy way. The players are happy (new shiny toy) and the gm has the easier time to get through the adventure... atleast at first glance. Like a drug a the players then need even more and more powerfull new stuff to be satisfied and the gm will soon spin helplessly in the vortex of even bigger gun. Some GMs/groups might be able to handle this quite some time, but in most cases it leads to a dead end.

Which is why, with really rare stuff, when they inevitably fail the roll to find if there are any available on that station, or whatever, one of the traders gives them a handy suggestion that, why, I know a trader on [planet here] that has a steady supply of such items! Why not try him!

Voila, set up for an Endeavour!

My solution is to just let them get most of the stuff in the book with Acquisitions. Why? With the exception of a couple Xenos weapons it's not that bad. Sure you have to scale the other side, but it's not like there is a down side the the PC looting equipment they already have. Armor like power isn't nearly as good as people think with the number of high pen weapons like hellguns in the game. The downside of wearing something with a battery, and the other subtractions from high pen it's hardly worth it. (That said having power armor makes a space marine fan very happy anyway.)

Now what motivates the PCs. Well increasing their profit for one. Also what about one of a kind artifacts? You can't use acquisition to find something no one in the Imperium has ever seen before. Personally as a GM I put things like best quality rare items, and common quality unique items beyond the reach of profit rolls. This sort of thing is never sold. You have to take it from someone or prove your worth to an important someone(s).

Also I believe in being careful what you ask for. Get a company of Sisters. Better be prepared to walk the straight and narrow Imperial Creed. Get a Titan better be prepared for your tech priests to demand you get rid of all that Xenos tech. Want Space Marines? Be prepared that they will demand a share of the loot (share being ~= all the best items). Be prepared that they may just decide not to fight if the cause isn't just or foe worthy of them. Certainly don't expect them to be cannon fodder.

Or perhaps a different idea could be to have adventure that didn't depend on weapons.

I try to mix the 'no need for guns' element with the 'you have to pay to maintain it' element. If you can afford those upkeep tests, sure. But if you can't, well... and a battleship has a lot of upkeep.

Although I do not actually intend it, I simply let my players lose the things they have pretty fast.

For example, the Rogue Trader in my campaign wanted to give a plasma pistol to an unarmed allied NPC during a firefight. He threw it. After having rolled a 95 on that Test, he never got to see his gun again.

The explorers recruited a company of soldiers and equipped them with lasguns and flak armour. Some nasty ork bombz shred about a sixth of them within a single round of combat.

The interesting thing is that I do not have to plan such events, they occur almost 100% naturally during my game.

Yes, yes, yes, this is all very good theory handwaving stuff, but my players want to know how much a Rhino APC is.

.. You know, despite the complaints, I've never had a problem with the aquisition system...

You don't need bigger guns to beat them, you need smarter guns.

Players get a battleship? Have raiders jump it from behind. It's unlikely that the player will ever get a shot at them. (And remember, the BFG blue book talks about pirates with over 50 raider and frigate sized ships and three cruisers. Not that it would take them that many to pound a lone warship to a flaming ruin).

Players fighting something you don't want them to own? 'The (big bad here) presses a button on his lecturn. You hear a voice boom 'Self Destruct will commence in five minutes... self destruct will commence in four min, 59 seconds.... self destruct will commence in..." and make sure the control lecturn is locked.

Players (why on earth would anyone let them) have a Titan? Introduce it to a lone soldier with a vortex grenade (which will kill or seriously damage a titan!).

Players have a fleet? There are lots of ship eating things out there. Kraken. Necrons. Dark Eldar Pirates. Asteroids. The Warp.

Players have Space Marines? Hit them with a plasma weapon. Fire a krak missile at them. Vent them into space. All things that a regular human can do against Adeptus Astartes. (That you will never see Graham McNeill do.) Space Marines board a mysterious hulk for them? It's loaded with genestealers. The players have found and gained the loyalty of a lost Space Marine legion? Virus Bomb them.

My point is that there are lots of ways to deal with aquisitions beyond mechanics, and some of them are a lot more fun for the players. If the players can come up with a reason that they own it that's plausable, you can create an equally plausable one about how it just got blown sky high.

Yes but then you run into the even greater implausibility of "where did all the ships go?"

No matter the fluff, it is clearly stated in both reality and fiction that this is a world of limits. There are only so many vessels in the Expanse, so many owned by the Imperium, so many their enemies. However once your players are owning and/or wiping out any large portion of them, you begin to weaken the fabric of your game. By this I mean the sustainability of your version of fiction. By enduring any great change, you weaken the believability of your game. It can happen in subtle ways, most noticeably when your players start to treat your roleplaying game as more of a strategy game.

Rogue Trader was designed to be played on a massive scale in comparison the Dark Heresy, not like BFG or Apocalypse(this can be argued).

I have to disagree. Example: Space Marines are rare. Much rarer then ships, actually. And yet we have examples in the book where people have whole squads of them. Over 500 murder class cruisers were produced at Port Maw between M33 and M37. Probably a similar number at Hydraphur. And these are a cruiser type that is no longer in service with the Imperial navy. Figureing the ships that joined Abaddon, losses, Reserve Fleet ships, training vessels, and the rest of the sort of fates that ships meet, if only 10% of them found thier way to a Rogue Trader, that's 100 cruisers. Or more then a sector fleet worth.

If we assume that the number of ships that derived from the same hull were produced in similar quantities, the numbers start getting very large.

Further, the number of ships in the expanse is never clearly stated. While it is limited, this is not due to lack of ships avalible, but rather due to the lack of Warrents of Trade and Rogue Traders who can afford to maintain ships of the line. Remember, selling a ship is almost always more profitable then wrecking it for parts, and navies always need funding. (Even ones that don't pay crews, and can whip slaves to build thier ships.) The reason that Napoleon didn't simply grind England under had less to do with tactics and more to do with limitations of funding. Despite being a despot, Napoleon needed funds (hence the Lousiana Purchase.) to fuel his armies and navies.

So, the loss and/or damage of one, or even five, ships is not really going ot put a major dent in the ships avalable. Consider the sheer number of wrecks it would take to make something like The Battleground or The Processional of the Damned.

The Processional of the Damned is mentioned to have several thousand ships of random and unknown make in it's midst. The book compares this to this the entire Segmentum Pacificus fleet in size. The ENTIRE Segmentum fleet. This includes ships of the line, transports, etc. Divide that number by one hundred and you get how many Navy ships are in the Calixias Sector. This leaves you with 150-200 Naval Vessels, maybe half of that dedicated combat craft. Of course this disregards independent traders but we can assume that they won't be warships due to the Imperium distaste for rogue fleets wandering it's territory. I believe this is even commented on in the book.

If a cruiser is so plentiful, how come everyone doesn't start with one? How come they are mentioned as being priceless in the fluff, things exchanged for a great service like single handedly discovering a valuable STC? When does the Navy just let a privateer have a battleship? The simple answer is that they don't.

Much like an Inquisitor, a Rogue Trader only has lots of power in theory. Sure they could technically own a fleet, but the powers that be wouldn't like that to happen. Sure they might own an empire of wealth, but when did the Admin ever need an excuse to "requisition" the aid of Rogue Trader. Never mind when every Inquisitor in the Sector comes running to them to get help banishing some forgotten evil. Refusing either person's requests would leave any RT open to reprimands at best, forfeiture of their warrant at worst. Then again this is the spirit of power in Warhammer 40k. The more power you get, the more responsibility is thrown on you, the more you become part of the very system you thought you were above.

.... um... RT books talks about it on page 348: the phrase is 'uncounted thousands' and states that if every dock in the segmentum Obscurus launched a brand new ship at once it might come close. (Most worlds that have orbital docks have three or four at least. Port Wander probably has significantly more. God Emperor only knows how many Port Maw and Cadia have)

Also, comparing anything to Battlefleet Pacificus is a bad idea unless it's to say 'smaller then'. Pacificus has a fleet of staggering size by anyone's standards. Reading through the fleet lists for Macharius' conquest the numbers start losing impact. Over five thousand cruisers. Rivaled the Great Crusade in size. Upwards of fifty battleships took part. Donia (Later Macharia) was the point at which it anchored and the fleet was large enough to be visible from the ground, day and night.

Rogue Trader Battleships and Grand Cruisers:

Duchess Iolanthe - Battleship - Winterscale Flagship (pg 6, Epoch Koronus (A History of the Koronos Expanse)

Gaunt Triumph - Grand Cruiser - Unknown (same)

Righteous Path - Grand Cruiser - Possibly the players, since they have salvage rights (Into the Maw)

Son of Seth - Battleship or Inquisitorial Black Ship (unclear) - Kobras Aquairre (Dark Heresy Timeline)

Navy loaning Rogue Traders ships:

The Battlefleet put ships under the command of Esme Chorda. a privateer (Epoch Koronus)

Lord Solar Macharius assigned several escort and crusier squardons to Rogue Traders during his Crusade.

As far as them being plentiful, consider: you CAN start with one. At level 1.

BaronIveagh said:

Let's just say that the Processional of the Damned is huge - immense beyond belief, and in defiance of all reason. The second Designer Diary for Lure of the Expanse previews the inclusion of the Processional of the Damned, and this is mentioned: "[Wrath] Umboldt told of a vast procession of wrecked space hulks, as if all the lost ships in the Segmentum (or perhaps the galaxy) had washed up on this benighted shore."

It seems very deliberately to be an impossible number of ships.

Dont they carry money onthe ship?