Hi

I think I am going to start a campaign in this game not far into the future and some advice from you veterans would be great!

What published scenario would you use/start with? Wich ones do you find good/bad or so on?

Those are the ones I've seen

Forsaken Bounty - seems to be a short, learn to play intro but is it worth it? (We have plenty of RPG-experience sine before) I know the free intro to dark heresy wasn't that great, how does this compare?

Dark Frontier - picks up after Forsaken bounty

Into the Maw - the one from the core rules, seems to be a bit longer then the earlier ones

Lure of the expanse - We're going to do this one sooner or later, seems to be quite good if one listens to the community, but maybe a bit big for starters...

Have I missed anyone, any ideas or whatever, bring it on

The GMs kit includes- by which I mean mostly consists of- an adventure called "Whispers on the Storm".

It's definitely worth picking up. It's got lots of great ideas and atmospheric settings, and a creative GM could easily expand it to the size of the Lure of the Expanse campaign.

Even though Forsaken bounty is a bit short it gave our group a great little 'breather' to get into their characters. If we'd have started with Lure of the Expanse it would have been a bit daunting.

Both Forsaken Bounty and Into the Storm can be good starters. Forsaken bounty particularly if you don't have a void master. In to the Storm, in particular, lends itself to leading into Lure of the Expance, as it give the players a chance to meet one of the rivals, as well as some idea of working togeather before they land for the Lure's mission start. If they learn about both at the same time, then "Into the Storm' becomes this 'Quick Grab' before the "real" adventure gets started.

What about into the Maw , any comments on that one?

What scenario would you start with? I think I will play as many I can before I start up Lure of the expanse. I haven't got whispers on the storm yet, but I'll see if I can buy it soon enough as it seems quite good.

*facepalm*

I mis-wrote Into the Maw as Into the Storm . To much gaming, not enough sleeping. If you can trust your players not to have read it, Into the Maw is a great starter game. It can be done fairly quick in game time, gives something for basicly every Carear to do (but doesn't really reqire any) And introduces Fel, who comes back later in Lure . If you have the players hear about the Lure Plot Hook on Port Wonder then it really ups the time pressure as well as giving modivation to keep the ship relitivly undamaged.

I would pump for a smaller episode of your own making to explore the interaction of the characters before going off into the expanse, setting it on lets say Port Wander before they go off on their travels. Something light hearted and grimly humourous like a suddenly finding a dead ratling in the rogue traders quarters) with very little in the way of plot and just testing out the mechanics, so that the players get a feel for the rules:

1) Dead Ratling - letter bearing help from random rogue trader retainer in trouble

2) Strange letter with cryptic clue

3) Interact with local crims, get info.

4) Find willing transport Guide

4) Land Local asteroid near port wander with hidden base

5) Stealth creep round base with challenging enviroments

6) . Firefight Manageble if expendable mooks

7) Rescue Retainer that has a convenient warp route chart of parts of the expanse, giving you a +10 roll on navigation tests on your firt couple of games.

8) Possibility of other Irate Rogue trader who wanted the map turning up at a future date (You could make the map a futher part of a bigger puzzle)

Quicksilver said:

Would you say that "into the maw" rules out forsaken bounty? If I choose to start with that one or the other way around? Maybe those two are too similiar?

Captain Harlock said:

Yes, I've been thinking about making up something myself for starters, your ideas may come in handy, thanks Problem is time, I'll see what I can do

If they follow the pattern of Dark Heresy, many subsequent adventures will make references to what happens with "Into the Maw."

In fact, they already have with a certain Rogue Trader, Hadarack Fel, showing up in LotE.

Into the Storm is a decent starter, but I would advise a good read first, as in my mind, there are many elements that could do with expanding upon.

I myself will be staring with that one, but I intend to have a brief starter to build up a reason for Into the Storm.

As it will be the first game, I want players to understand the how's and whys they are together, as well as building up the whole expedition to the Kronus Expanse.

This is what I will be doing:

Asking how the players want to play it; Exploitation, Cold Market, Trade, Colony, Greed, Pure Glory, Exploration or Piracy/Privateering as a primary theme and which to be a secondary theme.. This sets up the back story, and allows various endeavours to be suggested as options.

Then I will be starting in Scintala and dropping a few names of Rogue Traders that roam the expanse, as well as a couple of legends (as per ones mentioned in the core book). The RT will know of a previous expedition of his Grandfather who ventured to the expanse and has since been lost, with no communication in over 100 years. I will also be flavouring enemies and potential rivals based on their primary and scondary choices of above.

I will be offering a straight forward chartist shipping opportunity from scintala to Port Wanderer (for 1 profit point), which a self respecting RT should decline. I will use this as an opportunity to reinforce what RTs (and crew) are.

Quick fire Endeavours based on choices taken will be like:

Exploitation - The RT has has an ancient chart it aquired recently to a world ripe with potential. It was colonised some time back, but no-one has heard from the colony.

Cold Market - Scintala has a thriving cold market of Xenos beasts utilised in expensive hunting events, arenas and for eccentric collectors. The RT is tasked with bringing back several beast to Port Wanderer where they will be transported to scintala. This is on the edge of legality

Trade - As exploitation, however the RT is to trade rather then exploit the colony

Colony - The RT is tasked with creating a colony of pilgrims who wish to follow on in the path of St Drussus.

Greed - The RT is offered more lucrative chartist shipping from scintala (worth 2 points). However this is a set-up by rivals to perpetuate a rumour of how weak and poor the RT House is.

Pure Glory - The RT is given a location of an artefact from St Drussus - if they can locate and recover this they will aquire great glory for the RT House

Exploration - The RT House has aquired an ancient warp corridor - but to where it goes is unknown. It passage (like the expanse it self) is frought with danger, and the corridor itself is hardly ever available, however it seems that it may be passable at this time.

Piracy/Privateering - The RT has been given information on a rival RT, who has by all accounts located a rich passage of trade. He has recently headed back out towards this source, and buy the time the RT gets there they should be able to remove this troublesome RT whilst it being possible of know one knowing.

So with the aims, back story and build I will kick off the game. Obviously when the reach Port Wander - they will get embroiled in into the Maw. I will then work on combing the 2 endeavours if possible.

Thats my intentions anyway.

I actualy started with Forsaken Bounty back before Rogue Trader came out. After the Core Rulebook came out, everyone made new characters, so it wasn't a real option for me. There's nothing keeping you from starting with Forsaken Bounty though - just set it outside of the expanse and you don't run into any issues meshing it with the "First Run" nature of into the maw.

I actualy ran Dark Fronteer as an interupt of Into the Maw . In the middle of the Maw Transit I had the worm-thiny take over and pull them into that adventure. It added an intertaining time element, because they still had to try and get back and get to the prize from Into the Maw before Fel took everything.

I haven't run Whispers yet because I wanted to run Lure instead.

I personaly like using published adventures for the first couple, because it allows me to concentrate more on learning the rules then on being worried if I have something for the players to do. Having the chalange numbers etc. already planned out is just one less thing to worry about when you start.

don't start out with a pre-manufactored adventure,, i always start out champaining with an adventure based on pc interaction and background story,, something simple will do fine for just that as roleplaying will anywho take up a lot of time and be the most enjoyable,, i set of my group with a simple task that allowed them to explore as much of the different new game mechanics as possible,,, in short,, the navigators son (also a navigator!)(always remember that pcs have families (the best dm plot device ever!)) had stumbled upon a (non-warpplanetarysystem) civilization lost in the warp for 9000 yrs,, the pc are hired by the navigators navigator house to subjugate this system in 18days (before imperial entagelments ensue and ruin the buisiness for everyone) and prepare it for strip mining (such horrible times we live in: ),, my idea was,, how would people on earth 200 yrs from now react if a gothic vessel showed up and started "colonizing" us (the pc being the colonizers) i created a peaceful pacifist background for the system (with the inhabitants of the system having theological emphasis on the christlike aspect of the emperor) and watched gleefully as the pc's tried all sorts of violent and diplomatic efforts to bring this society up to current 40k standards .. it was loads of fun having the pc watch the planetary news channels as they made their way through the system with people going insane all over the place with apocalyptic madness n stuff. in the end the pcs themselves got a really really bad taste in their mouth due to all the fascist bruhaha (mass suicide was one of the perks they had to cope with!) that they had to enforce on the population of the system but still they went on with the colonization project (how would you introduce the 40k universe to an ignorant population og 5 mill. people?) .. on a side note,, the background on the system was that of an inquisitorial vessel crashlanding with 2000 something survivors,, the pcs slowly discovered that the system had been "spiritually guided" by a greyknight dreadnought in stasis (secretly using psypowers to enter the dreams of key individuals through 9000 yrs) who had begotten the royal line of the system by impregnating (there was amongst the 2000 an adeptus mechanius survivor) an inq. captive somewhat hertical sister soriaty(also a survivor) (immaculate bearth anyone? ! . the pcs in the end recovered he dreadnought (lying hidden beneath the civilizations holy lake) and now have it stoved away secretly in the hollows of their ship and are looking for a way to get it off their hands - - which leads to the "lure of the expanse" adventure where i plan on them using it as a bid in the seven witches auction! : ) have fun!