Hi i'm new to the community, pleased to meet you all!

I'm going to start running RT in a couple of weeks, any to tips for RT specificly? I've been running RPGs for twenty odd years..that was just scary writting that! I was just seeing if i could take notes from those trail blazers who have already been there and done it with RT.

This is my personal input. Not something everyone does and I'm sure people will post in response.

Tips

1) Like in all games but most importantly RT because its so high power. Say "NO!" to your players.

2) Always remember that its the Grim Future. Add gothic architecture everywhere and separation of social classes into PC interaction.

3) The Emperor Is God. Most players will aim to not be religious or not really read into the whole Ecclesiarchy thing. Try your best to combat this from the start.

4) Due to RT is a game where players can almost buy anything keep items rare. (i.e. In my game my players can only get best quality stuff if they start with it or by short "quests". Like an adventure to a forge world to get a arch-magos to personally make the RT and her Bodyguard magnificent armour.) If the players feel like they can have anything. They don't really care when their ancient hellpistol is dropped on the ground or kicked out of the airlock when fighting a mutant in their gun-cutter.

5) Watch out for a player or group trying to use NPC soldiers (armsman or mercs) to do all the adventures you have planned. Instead of you having a fun 4 on 4 fight turns into you having to have your villain a cult of followers to hold back the RT's army of lasguns.

This is just a few off the top of my head. I'll make sure to post anything else later if it comes to mind. Good Luck!

Varilyn brings up a lot of good points, to which I offer adjustments in accordance to my own preference.

1) He's basicly right about this, RT is a very open system and you've got to think before the game what you are and are not going to allow players to have access to, and stick wtih it. On the same end I warn against saying "No" to much - you don't want to crush every idea they have.

2) Also, Life it cheap, particularly lower class life. On Taros the Imperial Fleet evacuated rare equipment and left non-elite men behind. Above that, disiplin among the masses comes only from the tail end of a whip.

3) In this way it its like the Middle Ages Europe, or to an exent modern Isreal or Iran. Religion isn't a question, it's just a fact of life. You don't beleave the Emperior is God, you know it, and there's no question that everyone else knows it to (except maybe the Mechanicum). Don't think of it as being a religious person in modern america or england.

4) This I perhaps most disagree with. While Variyn has a good point to it, I beleave how much you have to run this depends on your group, and how much you want equipment to be a focus of your game. I personaly play much looser with equipment, which moves my groups focus from what stuff they have, to the plot based making of Profit. But I've got a group that'll make up stories & histories about a lasgun.

5) Ever notice how in Star Trek, the bridge crew is the first to arive on the scene dispite having to cross half the ship? Same thing applies here. Keep army vs. army conflicts to the background unless your particular group likes playing commanders-in-chief. This is one of those places where 1 & 4 apply.

DM Variyn said:

I'm going to play devil's advocate on a few points... Actually, I have something to say on all of them.

1)

It's always important, as the GM, to know where to draw the line. As I'm sure you know, the number one job of the GM is to make sure everyone is having fun, and sometimes that means keeping the PC's from running amok.

HOWEVER, more than many other RPG's I've played, RT is to a certain extent about saying yes. The PC's are, from the start, gifted with an extraordinary amount of power, and exercising that power is important to the feel of the game. So, your players want to hire a squad of space marines? Reject your first impulse. Make them jump through a few hoops, promise a few favors, and give them the Astartes. Now you've got some favors as plot hooks for later.

2)

Absolutely, it wouldn't be 40k without the backdrop.

HOWEVER, you're also going beyond the bounds of the Imperium. Not all societies are going to look like the PC's are used to, and deciding how to react to that is a part of the fun.

3)

I always found this to be a tricky problem. You have an entire galaxy-wide empire that is, at its heart, a religious state. But surely not all of its denizens can be zealots, right? Two thoughts on this count.

ONE, if a person comes from the Imperium, they should believe in and venerate the God-Emperor. After all, it's not exactly like modern religions in that you can't really deny the existence of the God-Emperor. (Huh, plot thread idea...) I think, however, its important to make the distinction between belief and piety. All characters are going to believe in him, but the extent to which they venerate him and the degree to which they define themselves by their beliefs is going to vary. One of my PC's for example, who was not pious at all, had a fervent hatred of the Ecclesiarchy, and looks to the Emperor for the strength to defy them.

TWO, if a person wants to play a non-religious PC, let them play someone from the Koronus expanse.

4)

I certainly think that PC's should not be able to find custom-made items lying around the marketplace, but RT is a game in which to ease up on item restrictions. Because the scale in RT is larger, individual items, barring quite exceptional ones, should not be an issue. I can only think of two restrictions I would impose on the players.

FIRST, they should have to buy their gear in appropriate locations. You should never be able to find baleful eyes at a feudal marketplace, no matter how well you roll, unless the plot has placed it there. Likewise, you should have a hard time finding a suit of plate mail, should you want one, on footfall.

SECOND, do find a distinction between generic items, and those that they should have to commission. Particularly armor. If they want something, make sure its setting appropriate, and make finding a contact who can make the item part of the roll. Finally, make them wait at least a few days, depending on the item.

5)

I know I'm getting long winded, but I want to use this to segue into what is more or less, MY CENTRAL IDEA:

Rogue Trader is a step above Dark Heresy, and many other games, in terms of scope. You've got crew, a ship, vast resources. As the game progresses you may even gain control of other ships or settlements. In my opinion, you can't deprive the players of these things without losing the essential feel of the game.

So what does this mean for a GM? Rogue Trader is not a game where you can force your players into a dungeon crawl or drag them through a series of events. The PC's simply possess too many resources. RT is about freedom and ambition, and maybe orbital bombardment. It's about the PC's thinking big and you, as a GM, have to do the same.

So think big. Scale up the conflict, scale up the obstacles, scale up the enemies, scale up the rewards, scale up the risks. Rogue Traders don't fight cults, they fight planetary uprisings, or crews of orc raiders. The captain sends in his troops? They have a horde of hulking mutant brutes. Escalate the enemies so that they have resources in some way comparable to the players, and make the players use those resources. For taking out these more dangerous enemies, don't be afraid to give them greater rewards, too.

Rogue Trader is a game built to be larger than life. If you limit it to an individual scale, you're limiting the potential of the game. My two thrones, plus some change.

And also: Welcome, nice to have you!

Power level is always going to be a factor. I play Exalted so i have an idea of what thinking big can leave you with!

Thanks for the suggetions, in fact i'm lovin' it as i feel anything out there lready will help me make the best expereince for my players. (i've been reading RT novels a lot recently!)

One thing i have been having a think about is trade routes, now i don't want my players acting as the people who will run up and down trade routes as that will get very boring very fast, however after players have set up a route do you think it's best that they:

a) Negotiate with free traders to keep the route open.

b) Have ships from their dynasty step in aat that point.

Also how have you guys all delt with the concept of a RT fleet, that the Dynasty has a support network and i need to set there expectations before hand.

I'm running the senario from the book first, however i'm changing elements such as the ship is a legendary Ork pirate ship that raided Winterscales treasure ship and also going to borrow heavily from Goonies. I'm also droping Fel and adding an Ork pirate searching for it in the system for added Xenos fun.

One possible idea, which would be particularly apt if their ship had the Finances In Arrears complication, is to have the dynasty mortgaged up to their ears, and effectively acting as the trail-blazer for a much better financed cartel/consortium/imperial House for a share of the profits; that way, if the dynasty manages to establish a trade route, you don't have to explain why this otherwise (relatively, compared to the Senatorum Imperialis, at least) resource-poor group of adventurers suddenly has x other starships, even if they're only Thunderstrike-, or even just turret -armed freighters. Yes, negotiating with Free Traders to maintain it is a good way to do it (++good RP value), and valid, but I have to admit, having them deal with a shadowy set of backers who will maintain their ill-gotten gains for a hefty price is also a nifty way of throwing plot hooks their way.

I've used a similar situation in Dark Heresy (neatly providing the dispossessed Noble with a source of wealth, and the party with interstellar travel), by giving them nominal control of an Ecclesiarchy-flagged vessel. The Ecclesiarchy took advantage of that by sending their ship on missions of its own (mostly for carrying capacity), which didn't always agree with the instructions given by their Inquisitorial masters.
Given the make-up of my current gaming group, the next RT campaign I run (starting in a couple of weeks) is probably going to run in a similar fashion, with much in the way of conversion-by-the-chainsword, with them essentially acting as privateers/pirates FOR THE EMPEROR! Of course, no pirate can survive in the long run without logistical support and backing somewhere a little more settled/stable, if for no other reason than they need someone to sell their loot for them (inluding prizes). Given the OTT nature of the setting, that is certain to be even more true, and it probably makes sense that a "respectable" faction back in the Imperium is going to take a quiet interest in the effort of a group of Rogue Traders-apparent, even if they turn pirates-blatant, especially if it lets them get in on the ground floor of new markets/routes.

They won't necessarily want it known that they are doing so, though, especially if that new opportunity is dealing in proscribed goods, or with Xenos or other non-Imperial worlds. Yay for conspiracies and mutual blackmail attempts!

1) NEVER assume that anything (equipment, Skills, Talents, mutations, psychic powers - especially psychic powers) from Dark Heresy will work neatly in Rogue Trader. There are many differences, some obvious and others less so. That's not to say that you can't draw from DH materials, just be sure to check over them and be prepared to sand off any rough edges before putting them into play.

2) DO NOT use Dark Heresy characters alongside Rogue Trader characters. No matter what the game says, the two don't balance well at all. The advance costs for Skills and Talents are generally so much lower for DH characters that RT characters will feel mightily shafted and the problem will just keep getting worse the more XP the characters have spent.

My player rolled haunted on their ship! Love it, got to write some lovly background to bite them with on that. Any more tips on the logistics side of a sector wide trading organisation?

Unless they can make the Aquasition check to 'free it up' all the other assets in their Dynasty have to make money to support themselves. As an example from my own game, the Rogue Trader did some very good charming and got Capt. Cobolt from the downloadable adventure become part of her orginization. I ruled that unless she could make the aquasition check to 'maintain' the new ship, it would be off running basic trade routes to recover the cost of operating said new ship.

I figure a major Rogue Trader Dynasty might have several of these mundane transport, station offices, etc. who are busy making money for the Rogue Trader so she can afford to maintain the flagship and all her fancy gear and retainers. The ship and what's on it isn't the sum total of what a Rogue Trader owns or controls, its just the 'descressionary' items they can use to forge new avenues of profit.

My groups dynasty is freshly started and literally all they had was a rather beat up cruiser and a whole pile of dosh. They've since acquired factors, offices, another ship, etc.

Due to their own lack of mercantile vessels they simple sell access rights to any trade routes they acquire to free captains. In my own version of the Koronus expanse there are many free captains with smaller merchant vessels. These guys rent trade routes off the rogue traders that own them. Most rogue traders can't be bothered to personally exploit the trade routes they create so they rent out the rights to them.

The free captains generally don't have the wealth or authority to acquire true warships and they don't have the authority to deal with cultures as emmissaries of the Emperor as Rogue Traders do, hence they end up doing the grunt work in the expanse. Moving bulk goods from A to B.

The more powerful rogue trader dynasties usually end up acquiring free captains and their ships, either through piracy, loans, purchase or whatever. As such rogue traders from the BIG dynasties (in my setting the Chorda, Winterscale and Haarlock dynasties) own many merchant vessels outright, have many more free captains indentured to them and also rent out many many trade routes that are carefully monitored.

Free captains don't, as a rule, rip off their rogue trader masters. People in merchant vessels shouldn't piss off people in warships.

As for running the game,

1) Give your players moral choices. Power and wealth by hard work and effort vs power and wealth the easy way with xeno-tech, mutants, witches, etc. Let them decide if they want to play honest or not. My players are fairly loyal imperials and hate xeno/mutants/witches so far. Although the rogue trader does collect any weapon he finds (even dirty xenos weapons) for his museum of weapons in his quarters.

2) Think big. Conquer worlds, discover lost cultures, fight wars, steal space stations, blow up bits of footfall, badmouth the navy to their face, tell the inquisitor where to go (only do this last bit when in the expanse). Rogue Traders have only each others as peers, all others (save the God-Emperor of course) are their inferiors.

3) Force them to do it personally. Don't let them use their mooks for all their battles. Emphasise the fact that if they hide behind their men they will lose all respect from friends and foes. Have gun fights over elaborate state dinners. Rogue traders are dashing and courageous individuals and should lead from the front. If they don't lead from the front, their troops should start to suffer from moral problems, their factors start to cheat them, their foes become emboldened, etc. Let them know this is a likely consequence and they'll throw themselves at the foe.

4) Make best quality harder to get for exotic items. Asking their factor to get them a suit of best quality power armour is boring and dull. Make them travel to a forge world to hire the services of an eccentric master armour smith. Of course, he wants them to do <plot hook here> before he can make the armour.

Thanks again, you guys are amazing and i feel very welcome in this community.

I thought I'd bump this thread, it has some great advice in it.

Since it has already been bumped.

Always remember this is 40k. People lead from the front. Space Marines do, many Imperial Guard commanders do the same. At least those that are widely known.

Youre RT wants to be a widely famous RT? Tell him that leading from the safety of his ship is for the likes of Horus, utter failure awaits you. If you want to be more like Marneus Calgar, get up there into the first trenchline and start making a breach in the enemy line.

You can apply this liberally for anything. Have the masses of soldiers/clerks/crew do the basic joibs, but get your PCs to add the final touch. PCs handle the major negotiation. Let mooks handle the fine details of how often tradeships are going to come in for actual trade.

I've run and played in a few games, a lot of the points made above are good advice but every GM should do what suits their own style best. Most of the games I've been in the GM assumes that the Dynasty has a load of transports and things that are part of their profit factor which go along the trade routes and things once they are established but if we want to drag them out of the vagueries of background stuff our profit factor goes down since if we pull four ships off transporting goods and things so we can take out an ork pirate our profit factor will be hurt, once they go back it'll likely go up a bit but not necessarily back to full. To be honest no ones ever dragged these ships away in any of our games from their usual duties.

Rogue trader can be a fantastic game as with the power and level of freedom the players can tackle the same situation from multiple different ways such as diplomatically, militarily or through underhanded tactics... usually a combination. This can and is daunting as a GM as no matter how much you prepare the players will come up with a use for something you didn't expect since it's hard to keep track as time goes on off all their contacts, gear and other resources.

Once the GM and players feel comfortable and have a few adventures down the GM can just dangle a few potential adventures for profit factor and say or whatever mad scheme ye come up with, it's usually a good idea to let the players start discussing this between sessions a bit with you so you have a vague idea of what they are thinking of, so when they want to go pirate hunting you don't just have that wolfpack ship in the corebook to work with or other premade ones in the books but could have come up with the tale of Admiral Ak'Bar a mutant Imperial Navy Officer who led his current crew in mutiny against the captain of the ship went renegade and started giving himself all sorts of titles, leading a pirate band of smaller vessels from his Dauntless Class light cruiser Red Leader... ok not a great example thats what you end up with on the fly sometimes when tired but still fun to be able to dart off and say lets go to that weird place there is no background on! A blank slate for the GM.

I'd love to hear how Jesusjohn's game went/is going?