A bit of advice sought.

I have been GMing a group of friends through the Dark Heresy published adevnture since January 2001. We try to meet up once a month for a big day session. So far we have completed Edge of Darkness, Illumination, Purge the Unclean Trilogy, House of Dust and Ash, Anchor Point (my own adventure) and Tattered Fates. Damned cities shall take up our next couple of sessions and then Dead Stars after that.

This will leave them at roughly rank 6.

All my players and me are really excited about Ascension and look forward to taking the characters to that level. Plus Ascension now has the only published adventure that they haven't done.

Now I don't have time to complete my own adventures, I tend to adapt the published ones at best and I have now bought Lure of the Expanse for Rogue Trader. The Rogue Trader core rulebook was originally bought more as a source book for Dark Heresy as given our limited play time we realised that it was doubtful we would create new characters and start a semi new roleplaying game, fundamentally we also love the more investigative nature of Dark Heresy/Inquisition.

However, as they will soon conclude the Haarlock Trilogy and therefore have a couple of ranks to fill before returning for the unbounded goodies of Ascension I was thinking perhaps transitioning their current DH characters into a Rogue Trader campaign. Dependant upon the climax of Dead Stars this could work quite well as the Acolytes believe their Inquisitor to be dead. After finding what they think was his body one of the players has already started saying 'thank God for that, I am a free agent now'.

The group is made up of myself and 5 players, however it is rare for full attendance so it is usually 4 players. So do you think that the current published adventures for Rogue Trader (main rulebook, GM toolkit, Lure of the Expanse) are suitable for DH characters at rank 6 through to 8? Do you foresee any major headaches in that none of the characters are RT characters, they are:

Assassin

Scum

Sanctioned Psyker

Cleric

Tech Priest

I foresee that it could be a problem that none of these characters have access to skills and talents unique to RT and especially to do with operating a starship. I guess elite advances might be the best way around this?

The obvious other major hurdle is the lack of a Rogue Trader. I thought that he either he could be played as a group character, played by me as an NPC or as a distant master ala DH modus operandi with the Inquisitor. Perhaps he is crippled like Ravenor and stays on the ship at all times. Alternatively I could see one of the existing characters suddenly becoming a fledgling RT. Scum wins a warrant in a card game etc. The cleric is of the Haarlock bloodline but I would be concerned about letting them loose with such an ancient and powerful warrant.

Once the character reach the end of rank 8 the insidious pull of the Inquisition will pull them back to commence their Ascension.

Anyway do you think this all sounds workable. Comments very much welcomed.

well if you want to take out some of the headache involved in the ship mechanics or the certain traits and skills given to RT characters, just let them take the career and filter out the talents and skills you dont want. as for the ship allow NPC's to pilot it

One way of transitioning to a RT campaign is, of course, investing in the expedition. The PCs would not have a Warrant, but they would have a stake in the outcome, and due to their skills a welcome addition to a Rogue Trader's retinue. The investment could be granting the Rogue Trader access to something of unique value, be it a Navis Prima, valuable contacts or experience (such as the type you get in the service of the Inquisition), or it could be something as vulgar as funding (which Acolytes tend to be short on, though). Or perhaps their late (?) Inquisitor has mentioned them in a favourable fashion to a Rogue Trader ally/pawn, who decides not to let good talent go to waste because of a single mortality. Or, if the Inquisitor is not quite as dead as the Acolytes think, he may have arranged for them to have gainful employment in the Koronus Expanse - that is, out of the political scene of the Ordo Calixis, yet close enough to be recalled quickly.

Endless possibilities...

Starting Rogue Trader characters are equivalent to rank 5 DH characters, so I see no issue with power level and your rank 6 group.

Either elevate a suitable player character to Rogue Trader status (they got their grubby hands on a Trade Warrant somehow) or simply have an NPC Rogue Trader offer them berths on their ship in exchange for "services rendered". This would run pretty similar to how a typical DH group operates in that an NPC Inquisitor points them at a problem and says something inspiring, then moves on to manage other problems while the team does their work. This is especially good if you plan on steering the plot in any substantial way, as a PC Rogue Trader can effectively declare "we are going this way" and that, as they say, is that.

If it fits your story, makes some kind of coherent sense and is fun then go for it!

this has interesting potential. the character could be given the alias or disguise of a rogue trader and crew as a valuable tool in their investigations

I'm looking at a similar situation, only I may have some new players joining using RT characters. any thoughts on how to handle the different xp schemes? the RT one appears to use a slightly different scale.

Should I try to convert the DH chars into RT?

In Ascension, they put forward a new XP table to match in with RT, which goes from rank 1 DH. This makes DH characters rank six at a RT characters rank one, and follows the RT progression from there.

oh sweet,

All I have to do now is wait for my copy of Ascension to arrive...

I agree with what ThenDoctor said...let the NPC rogue trader and other NPCs take the command ranks of the starship and the PCs can be the ones to backup the captain and "take care of business" as they are used to while they gain xp and learn the new ropes. If you want them ( or they agree by polular vote or however your group does it ) to transition into RT classes then they would obviously start as rank 1 RT characters simply figure out which RT class they best fit and from then on they use the standard RT xp progression table and get access to the appropriate skills tables for their new class. I currently have a mixed group of RT and DH characters ( both NPC and PC ) since my DH Inquisitor has the teams ( PCs) running all over the expanse and back ( currently assisting a recovery op of a disabled Titan legios carrier in the Battleground )