I have ordered this game from Amazon, and I'll probably get it in a month. so I have little grasp of what is in RT world. I do have Dark Heresy and I am the dedicated GM.

One thing I would love to do is make one of the PC:s (with him willing) an Inquisitor's undercover acolyte. So that he has an oblication to report to the Inquisitor everything heretical he sees.

To do this, I try to lure the PC rogue trader at least little bit to the radical side of the Imperium so I have a good reason to sneak one Inquisitor acolyte aboard.

So when campaign progresses, I want to lure that acolyte to the dark side, little by little. Just a nudge here and there and see what happens.

Anyway, long rambling short, have anyone infiltrated RT -game with a DH -character, without anyone else in the group knowing? I would love to play the players a little bit against each others *evil grin*

Doing that without the players knowing would be rather hard to accomplish if some of them have a modicum of knowledge about the mechanics of the game. A DH career pushed up to RT levels will feel very different to a starting RT character - usually lower attributes, but more skills and talents.

Agreed. In my opinion, the differences in XP scale makes the two games not really compatible for mixing PC's. If you wanted to do this, I would make the acolyte a RT character, using those rules, who just happens to also be an acolyte.

XP scale isn't much of a trouble IMO. I give XP to players according their actions. I have "little black book" where I write what they do and when (when their actions makes a difference, or just when they roleplay well) and distribute XP after sessions. And they get to use that XP only after campaign is over or when they use a lot of time to acquire new talents or boost older ones.

They all can make RT characters, but I ask one of them if he wants to play his character as an Inquisitor acolyte as well. To make the deal sweeter, I'll give him access to extra equipment and extra contacs.

So everybody advances like RT, but one of the characters secretly is reporting to his Inquisitor.

Everything this undercover character does what he doesn't want the rest of the group to know, would be roleplayed outside of the group. (He is living next door from me, so that would be easy).

I just love the opportunity to play the characters against each other. (in the ROLEPLAYING sense..)

As it appears your doing, the simpilest way to do this is to just build the character using Rogue Trader. Just because your character class didn't come from Dark Heresy doesn't mean your not on the Inquasition's payroll. An Arch-Militient, Seneshal or even Missionary all make good choices for being under the Inquasition's wing.

I urge caution going forward with this, you really have to know your group dynamic. Some groups enjoy this level of working against eachother, other just find it anoying. You also have to be ready for the potential consequences. I know I couldn't do this with my group, as soon as they were found out the Rogue Trader would just order him spaced.

Keep in mind the Inquisitions power ends at the edge of the Imperium. The RT becomes the will and voice of the Emperor as soon as he leaves the Imperium. By their very charter RT’s are granted extreme leeway in what they do so long as it serves the Imperium in some form. Even within the Imperium it is difficult for an Inquisitor to do real harm to a RT. An Inquisitor can make life within the borders very difficult, but a RT is only going to worry about drawing the ire of only the most powerful within the Inquisition. That said, it is usually in a RT’s best interest to placate the Inquisition while within the Imperiums borders.

Thank you very many for you input.

I'm not planning to make the Inquisition to come down on their necks. I just want to see that one players face when he is playing shadow games with the rest of them. And he can report back to his boss what ever he wants. I bet at first he reports too little too often so his boss forbids to contact him without any real data. After this it'll be couple of campaigns before he has opportunity to send anything. And that player has to write down on a paper what he want to report. According this paper I'll give him some extra XP.

Pretty soon however he is going to be tempted to take one little xenos gun or something for himself and that is when the long steady slippery road to damnation starts.

I don't think that they start blasting each other, not without a good reason first. In DH one of the PC:s got tainted and an arm was growing from his chest. Other players hesitated to shoot him, looking at me and asking "should we kill him now or what?" I just smiled at myself and said "i don't know, there is a mutant in front of you. He looks really much like your old comrade. What do you do?" (Or something similar, can't remember how it went anymore =) )

Anyway, the only point in this is that I want players to ROLEplay this game, not ROLLplay it. Maybe if one player is techpriest, he has to report back to his boss. Secretly, of course. *grins*

My warning was only incase their ROLES take them against each other. You can always count on Rollplayers to work togeather. Still, sounds like you've got it fine with your group. Good luck.

One thing came to my mind when I was working last night..

Has anyone tried with their group to have 2 Rogue Traders in same vessel? Like brothers of old and crumbled dynasty or something?

How would it work? (At the start they only have one ship, and there would be 4 players)

elPANTERA said:

The problem I see with this is that there aren't too many ways to build a Rogue Trader with their advancement chart looking as it does, so a lot of doubled competence is bound to come up.

But other than that and a potential for power struggles, it's definitely viable.

Yeah, I'd be generous with elite advancements, or just let them pick a second carear they can buy advances from to repersent their 'specialty' to diferentiate them.

Or wait for the extra stuff in "Into the Storm"? It's been described as the "Rogue Trader's 'Inquisitor's Handbook'", and that's fairly accurate

Well, it does say "Explorer's Handbook" on it.

MILLANDSON said:

uuuu MAMA!

That is something to wait for!

in the meanwhile I'll read core rulebook AGAIN (space combat is a bit vague to me.. I think I have to make few ships and do little battle with them on my own.. And I want to use my BFG miniatures on a large hex grid paper. I just have to figure out distances in that map.) My downfall as being a GM is usually that that I go too detailed in everything.. I just have to loosen up a little, but I fear that will slow the game down and make me look too hesitant and that is bad strike under the belt for the players confidence in me.

Anyway, I can't thank you enough for your help!

Inquisitors (specifically of Ordo Xenos) have a documented distrust of the Rogue Traders in general, and it is not unheard of for the Inquisition to work with Rogue Traders for many objectives.

If played in secret, then it will be cool, as the player doesn't have to stand against the group, merely report back what he feels is needed. Also there is no saying that the Inquisitor Acolyte can't be self serving, making lies etc about other RTs within the expanse with the hope of limiting competition.

What I would have though is a clear brief from the Inquisitor on what he wants his spy to do.

If the Players are aware (in game or out of game) it becomes a little trickier, and you are more or less going to see the acolyte airlocked at some point unless he tows the RTs line, and I suspect you would see more in the lines of setting up opponents of the PC RTs house, unless of course your group happily don't play on knowledge they are not supposed to know.

Finally, it is possible the RT has sanctioned the Inquisitor to have his acolyte aboard - maybe in an attempt to show how truly clean he is - perhaps a dark/shady past in the RT house. The options then open up, maybe the Inquisitor just wants to take the RT house down for some personal/crazy reason, or centuries old grudge. If the RT knows about the acolyte and assumes he is on side - he could then secretely plant evidence and commit treachery to condemn the RT.

As to DH character - I see no problem to play one, maybe give them some advances in stats, they should be on par with RT characters soon enough, though maybe a little wider skill base.

As to the Inquisitors remit and the RT outside of the empire, a lot may depend on where the actual PC Rogue Trader house is situated. If the actual holdings are in the Imperium, there could be reasons for the Inquisitor to want to meddle with the RT, grudge/politics or a genuine wish to have eyes and ears beyond the imperium, and have some inclination of future xenos threats.