One of the more interesting things about RT for me is that option to play Imperial humans who are not utterly reactionary and xenophobic.

For instance, the Explorator in my game is intentionally not investigating a possible Abominable Intelligence ruling a high tech human colony because that conlony is prepared to trade him rare anti-grav engines. They also are transporting an alien prince around (though the crew refuses to serve xenos, so servitors bring him his food).

But do you see that in your games? Tolerance of aliens? Turning a blind eye to the heretical?

Do you tempt them with the promise of profit in return for tolerance?

SJE

SJE said:

Absolutely . Comes with the territory.

I think temptation plays a great role in a RT's life, but must remember that punishment awaits behind the corner.

even if players don't care too much of xenos or hereticals the rest of the galaxy does!

they can welcome a xeno prince on board when they're in deep void without too much problems, or deal with non-imperial humans dominated by a strange heresy, but when they return in imperal space someone from the crew begins to tell the tale, and we knows that inquisitions have ears everywhere..!

I guess what I'm asking for is examples of how your RT's have tolerated that which the Imperium doesnt and how you've punished them for it- either in play or an evil plan you have in your head which you will be using in play.

THx.

SJE

SJE said:

Short form of the current plot. The crew is trying to trace an Explorator ship that went missing decades ago. After having jumped deep into uncharted territory they run into an Eldar ship. Some tense moments follow ( maneuvers to better position, scanning etc. ) .Suprisingly the Xenos vessel does not initiate hostilities ( neither do the PC`s, they correctly estimate that they are more or less equal in firepower and a fight could go either way ) but hails them instead.

After a tense and long negotiation a deal is reached. The crux is that the Eldar claim to know some details about the missing ships route and activities. In return for this information they want some artefacts recovered from a planet further in the Expanse. The planet has some ( non-Eldar ) Xenos inhabitants. For some reasons of their own, the Eldar can´t visit the planet. The party gets the impression that some taboo is involved. They party is to go the planet and collect the items the Eldar want, WITHOUT HARMING THE LOCALS.

The catch? A) The local Xenos are the remnants of a species thats ancestors were ground to dust by the Imperium. They have degenerated to pre-industrial tech and remember their pre-exodus history only in songs and stories. But they do remember that Hu-Manz are the Evil Bogeymen. How would you react if the equivalent of Count Dracula suddenly materialized in front you? B) The Eldar are old "acquaintances" of the Ordo Xenos. The Seer has been on the Wanted list of certain factions of the Ordo for some time. If the Inquisition ever becomes aware that the crew has been in contact with this particular Eldar, they will want to have a nice little talk with them.

One of the players is a Freeminded Arch-Militant who have been deemed heretical by the Ecclisiarcy for thinking for himself and noting that the emperor may not be the best person ever to live. (He got enemy (Eclisiarchy) upon generation.

Soon a Freeboota Kaptin will join the crew with a shootabomba.

We may get a Kroot Player too.

Leogun_91 said:

I'm happy I'm not in your game... the Inquisition is going to burn you all. Also I must ask, why is a Ork willing to join a Human ship? He'd never willingly be a lesser to anyone. Human, Ork, or otherwise. Not to mention his own ****....really his crap... will turn into orkz or orky spore creatures within a few weeks. The ship will be taken over by orkz. Good luck Rogue Trader dealing with that.

DM Variyn said:

The Expanse is not that big a place, Rogue Traders still need to come in to land once in a while and that tends to be when the Ordo Xenos whack em. Orky Freebooters (speaking as an Ork player since Rogue Trader with about 15k of Orks) are renowned as being totally, utterly unreliable and likely to sell out their employer 100% of the time. He has no control over his spores and will soon have a Mob of Boyz lookin to expand, Hey look, here is a ship... one or 2 orky "improvements" later and dem boyz az a ship. Its the fable of the Scorpion and the fox, its in his nature. If they want to play something big n dumb, there are rules floating about the internet for Ogryn, at least they kinda fit the bill as a RT bodyguard type.

Wing Commander said:

<3 Wing Commander

To Leogun: The Calixis Battlefleet would NEVER fire on the Inquisition. To do so would mean certain death to everyone on that vessel.

SJE said:

In my campaign, the Rogue Trader is a bit of a xenophile and is happy to collect xeno weapons and gear, if not use it all that much himself. His wife (NPC) has become proficient in the Harlequin's Kiss. The PC Explorator definitely falls into the category of Adeptus Mechanicus who view xeno and non-STC archaeotech as things to be examined and salvaged. He's incorporated a "black pistol" of unknown xenos origin into a ballistic mechadendrite, disguising it as an unknown make of human pistol. The rest of the party doesn't know about that bit but likely wouldn't care, preferring their more "normal" armanent.

They just sold enough ghostfire pollen to fire up a company of troops to the Pry 41 underworld so not overly worried about criminality. Oh, and they've had dealings with a not-freewilled but relatively intelligent overseeing programme on a lost human colony (ordered it to produce data storage with the planetary records + cogitator to read the stuff).

All that said, the party have been pretty careful not to carry or use alien gear in Imperial space. They did keep a daemon weapon sealed away for the Inquisition to deal with and were happy enough to let an Ordo Xenos inquisitor (Karkalla to those who recognise the name) examine an armoured alien corpse they found (but hid the weapons - aforementioned black pistol and a rifle of similar design).

from france

kroot hate ork like no one else so no not both on the same team.

My Rogue Trader is very tolerant, and his team is just too screwed up to care. Our Navigator is so ridden with mutations that we call him "Mr Cthulhu". The only person that could raise any doubts about the rest of us hugging xenos and hauling proscribed technologies is our Senechal, but she's too busy counting Thrones and resolving her self-importance issues.