Hi fellow Gamemasters,

I have two questions regarding widely different areas of play.

The first is about telepathy. The Astropath in my group loves talking to people inside their heads, however, I am not sure I understand the difference between the basic telepathy ability (telepathy up to psy-rating x 1 km, depending on your psy-rating either just verbal, with images etc.) and short range telepathy, the actual power.

To me, it looks like basic telepathic ability as learned by having the discipline is just superior in every regard. You can selectively either talk to people you know, to people you see, or to everyone in a kilometres-wide area, without a roll and thus no risk.

Short Range telepathy is basically just the one-person version with much smaller range and a roll required.

So, what am I missing?

Second, Acquisitions: The Rogue Trader Core Book has two segments on Acquisitions, who to me look like they conflict with each other.

Once, we get a table where the time required and a modifier based on rarity and the size of the settlement you are buying at are listed.

Later on, you get a table where all the different modifiers are mentioned, and rarity is just a flat modifier, regardless of where you are looking.

Do they stack? (and thus make rare items insanely hard to get), Do they replace each other, one being the generic, the other the "detailed" variant, or do they apply to entirely different rolls and I just dont get it?

Also, provided your party docks at a station, and begins making acquisition rolls for dozens of items, how many do you let them make simultaneously? Can every player search for ONE item, and only roll for the next once he has acquired that? Or can they look for multiple items simultaneously? Can they support each other via the "aid another" rules?

Thanks in advance

Telepathy: Yeah, I think you have got it. The discipline is mainly just the superior version. Basically, the basic version has limited utility, you can just talk quietly to someone in your immediate area. Someone you could have talked with verbally, but with a greater risk. It is something any astropath could do, and in general you probably should give any bonuses for creative use as they are not really trained in it. The discipline version could concievably be used to make actions on a grand scale, grant bonuses for organizing troops, be used as part of an illusion, etc. It is the same as the difference between having a cargo hold and a landing ship by default, and having a cargo and lighter bay: one is just flavor and works on the party level with out much in the way of in game benefits, the other grants abilities and bonuses on a large scale.

Acquisitions: To me all of those tables are just focused on getting the idea across to you, the game master, and shouldn't necessarily be taken as gospel. The first table you mention is an implementation of the second, showing how the rarity modifier can be modified by population. In the end you need to use these as examples, because the actual situations are too complex to be modeled by tables. For example: (obviously pulling these numbers out of thin air) finding a las rifle (common, +10), in a villiage of 1500 (hmm, -20), on a feudal world (gah...-50?), that was PREVIOUSLY an imperial world ravaged by orks (...+30?), 1000 years ago (...).

You get it. Don't treat the tables as gospel, use them to undestand how the system works.

Finally, large scale aquisition: First of all remember the time modifiers. Dozens of item? Are they being searched for by the Rogue Traders personally, or their subordinates? The players can find items fairly quickly (an order of magnitude faster than their subordinates), but would have to find them sequentially. If they are literally looking for DOZENS of items they would be slower than their subordinates overall. If it is their subordinates they could look for them simeltaneously, but it could take weeks or months depending on the rarity.

As for "

Second they can probably look for related items of similar rarity together, though you would probably want to take into account quantity. Flak vests, las rifles, and cartridges can likely be purchased from the same supplier, but bolters would be seperate as they are much more rare, as would ship components, food, trade goods, and medicae supplies since you couldn't get them from a weapons dealer.

Or if you really wanted to save time you could lump them together but give them a large negative modifier for quantity, accrued rarity, and straining their PF, but I would discourage this for anything but the most mundane of items.

As for splitting their efforts: I wouldn't think they could "aid" eachother. I would let each player search for a related group of items, such as the flak/las/cartridge combo previously mentioned.

Remember though, they do have subordinates and should be thinking ahead. Before they leave on an endevor they should be sending out their subordinates to start aquiring materials that will be waiting for them upon their return. They are a business, not an adventuring party, and that is how a good business runs.

Khaunshar said:

There are not two sections on Acquisitions, there is a section on Acquisitions (which provides the rules on how to attain equipment, etc), and a section on Availability (which shows how likely it is for something to actually be available at your location, and how long it'd take to find someone who sells it if it is available).

Yes, they both stack. The first (Availability) section shows how long it takes to find what you are looking for, and the second (Acquisitions) is the set of rules for you attempting to acquire it once you've found the seller.

I would say that, unless they were looking for the same items together, they wouldn't be able to aid each other, and generally I only allow my players to make one acquisition roll per session/trip to a planet, as it makes them actually think about it. If they could just keep rolling until they got it, and could do that for multiple items, what would be the point? Sure, they might be able to do that in downtime, but not in the middle of an adventure.

I'll leave the Telepathy bit if you don't mind and tell you my solution to the acquisition issue.

I have ruled that both systems stack. That is, you need to find the item, then you need to acquire the item.

My players have decided that searching themselves for little stuff would be beneath their dignity and so they employ factors to do this for them. They currently have one on Footfall, one on Port Wander and one on Scintilla. I roll everytime they get into port.

They, and especially the player of the arch-militant, have MANY things they are shopping for. The arch-militants player essentially went through the inquisitors handbook and requested about half the stuff in there.

I have a spreadsheet set up to handle it all. It rolls all the dice and does all the maths for me so its actually very quick and easy now that its all set up.

For big stuff, like ship components, regiments of troops and so on, the Rogue trader and seneschal get personally involved and deploy barter/commerce skill checks to boost their PF.

I've also let them "burn" PF to increase their temporary PF for a single roll. They can burn a single point of PF to get a bonus of 2 points. This represents assets being liquidated, friendly contacts being hit up for big favours, etc. Basically getting short term gain but destroying the ability of that asset to produce long term gain.

e.g. Rogue trader fails his acquisition roll to acquire a new gellar field by 4 points. He chooses to burn 2 permanent PF to get a +4 bonus for this one roll. Hurrah, success!

In-universe, our rogue traders people have sold off a seres of manufactories in Hive Sibellus, selling for under their real worth to guarantee a quick sale. The cash for this is spent as a "donation" to the machine temple of the AM they were buying the gellar field off. This "donation" pleases the priests and they decide that for one who has honoured the Omnissiah in such a fashion, then maybe they could provide him with the new field.

Gribble, I love your system, and am going to use it. Thanks for posting.

Telepathy... there's something you've all overlooked.

Short Ranged Telepathy, Mind Link and Mental Bond all do essentially the same thing, to different degrees - establish a two-way telepathic link with the target. Short Ranged Telepathy has a limited range and is only single target, but it doesn't cause psychic phenomena, Mind Link is multiple targets and longer range, and Mental Bond is single target, long-ranged and permanent.

The basic technique, however, doesn't allow two-way communication. It allows you to project your thoughts into the minds of others over a distance, but it doesn't grant the recipients the ability to respond telepathically.