So, with the imminent release of Deathwatch, I now have a group of players who want to play characters from across the three games. A Space Marine, a Rogue Trader and an Inquisitor (from Ascension).

So I've decided that the very first session is going to be 3 months into a massive shipboard war between the loyalist Imperial faction of the ship's crew including the three PC's, maybe 20% of the crew and the ship's navigator. The opposing forces will be either a Xenos cult that fell under outside influences, recidivists or mutineers of some other kind. Regardless, they'll have the loyalty of about 40% of the crew, including 2/3 of the security forces (about 2000 armsmen) and the now freed chained or indentured crew of the lower decks. Given that the ship's original crew was about 100K strong, and that during the course of the fighting, maybe 20 000 have been killed, that leaves roughly 20 000 ratings in what I call the "unaligned decks" where there's the potential for a shadow war of sorts going on with both sides trying to get them to throw in with them. This is aside from the Mechanicus forces which have sealed themselves in the Enginarium and have made it clear that if anyone attempts to force their way in, they will rouse the machine spirit of the plasma star at the heart of the great machine and cause it's fury to be unleashed in a manner that will destroy the ship and everyone on it.

I figure that the mutineers have taken the command spire and the Navigator Sanctum. But without the Navigator himself, the ship is just sitting somewhere in space, maybe in orbit around a dead world. I also thought about having it lost in the warp, but that creates a whole mess of new problems (which isn't a deal breaker by any means mind you : )

What I'm hoping for from the forum community is ideas on areas of the ship that I can flesh out and places where the war can be waged.

I've mentioned the command spire and the navigator spire, but what other points of interest can I add to the ship? The ship is a full sized cruiser, so I figure maybe a cathedral to the god emperor. Previous posts on the forum have mentioned the fungi-vat farms and the refuse reclamation plants, the munitorium and gun decks of course. I guess what I'm looking for is ideas about interesting places that I can make a part of the ship to give it a character of it's own. See, when the fighting is done and the ship is won back at the end of the first adventure, the RT player (who is starting off as the second in command of the vessel, the captain having been killed by the traitorous Security Chief / Arch Militant) will be given a warrant of trade for his heroic actions and the ship bequeathed to him, as it's reputation is now so sullied that Battlefleet Calixis wants nothing more to do with it. As the game continues from that point onward, I'd like to be able to revisit some of the places that I've introduced first as bloody battlegrounds for control of the ship. The Inquisitor and Space Marine will want to recruit his aid in tracking down the original source of the xenos corruption (or whatever) and I can take the game from there.

Thanks.

Hey Nerosfiddle! though i can't really help out on ship layout i'd like to commend you on your excellent idea for an adventure, one i in part look forward to laying on my own group at some point! floor plans for a ship would be a great asset but i fear we'll have to wait for that one 'till a book on ship construction comes out,, meanwhile,, have you tried havin' a look into starwars rpgs? i reckon it might be able to come up with some usefull ideas for a general ship layout from those,, i remember once playing the "Darkstryder?" campaign and that one included a very detailed map of a corellian corvette.. also, if you own a copy of any of the different versions of spacehulk you might be able to use some artwork from those and give it a go.. good luck,, it really is a shame that no general floorplans are available seeing that so much of a R.T game takes part on a ship,, FFG, get to it!!?

! : ?

I understand why floor plans might be problematic to produce. The size and complexity of the average Imperial star ship means that they would, in effect, be city maps. And while I'd love to see that one day, I'm content to allow ships to be am abstraction for now.

I'm glad you like the idea. I figure it's a good way to start the game off with the players learning about and growing to care for the ship.

The idea of using the star wars supplements as source material is a good one. I've got a bunch of the old D6 system books that I can mine for ideas. I think I may also have a bunch of deck plans for Noble Armada, the Fading Suns RPG starship combat game. I can probably use those as well. Heck, I might even dig up some of the old city maps from D&D and see if I can't steal ideas from there too.

Thanks for the feedback.

The population of the ships is comparable to a small city, but with more usable area. So what I'm for my players is city with a similar population to their cruiser, looking at what the city has and seeing if there is a reason for that to not be on a 40k ship. If I can't find a reason, the ship will have something similar.

A lot of it will be changed, like individual houses changing to private rooms with shared entertainment, ablutions and mess halls. If there is any industrial area, that will be replaced with people operating the ship (though there are likely to be some manufacturing facilities aboard).

That should give you more areas of the ship than you need. If your players want to go somewhere not on your list, give some thought to adding it.

One point in favor of enabling the stalemate is that on such a large military ship, life support (including things like small scale medical facilities and food stores) are likely to be decentralized. With relatively small installtions servicing a section of the ship rather than a big one for the whole boat.

It makes things easier on plumbing length and also improves survivability - and from a RP angle, ite prevents whoever hols the bridge to shut off the opposing sections.

i'll try to get in contact with my old Starwars gm,, as far as i recall he has a lot of technical readouts on the deathstar and those might be handy when it comes down to shiplayouts!! also, i played an "official"adventure for DH a year or so ago that had us players investigate a spacehulk that at its nucleus had a "black ship" ,, i cant recall the name of the adventure but perhaps someone else in here who Dm'd it could look up if there are any usefull floorplan ideas included?! have fun,, i¨'ll get back to you if i find some usefull sites for add stuff!!!

For creating character, spend some time coming up with who's owned the ship, who's lived in each section and what kind of people they are. Would there be graffiti or defacing? Banners or other decorations? Is it strong in the Imperial Cult, with iconography tucked in to corners and bare walls, or did the Mechanicus never really let it go, leaving cogs and odes to the Machine Spirits eched in the walls?Think not only about cities, but about peoples houses to. These halls and rooms have been occupied for likely thousands of years. Over that time they're going to be modified and re-modified by the people who spend nearly all their lives contained in the ships adamanium hull.

Also worth considering is what type of pattern is it built off of (or at least is a particular section built off off). Does it have wide, street like corridors for vehicle and large scale traffic, or does it only have submarine like '2 people can only pass sideways' tunnels. Is it built in a logical grid or a maze like network? What has the war, as well as years and years of repairs done to it's structure?

The crew on the ship might speak different dialects if they were hired or pressed from different places recently. I am not sure how this would affect your game.

Gurps Traveller had lots of ship deck plans in its materials, and you can probably get them fairly cheap. Mix those with some D&D type buildings and it should fit I would think. I also think there are free downloads on drivethrurpg you can get.

The adventure does sound cool.

I like the idea of the ship having various graffiti tags to indicate which gang or guild controls that part of the ship. I'm also looking at finding schematics of Babylon 5, to see if I can steal ideas from there.

I imagine that the hallways would be much like on B5, for the most part wide enough for several people to walk through shoulder to shoulder, with certain areas that are wide open for markets and whatnot. And in certain lower ares of the ship, there might be truly cavernous areas with old industrial cranes and the like for moving heavy ship parts, munitions, maintenance and other industrial applications. I'm looking at source material for Necromunda for inspiration.

Pretty soon I'm going to start developing the "Black Holds" with the forgotten population lives. Mutants, scavengers, outlaws and heretics. I intend to make those parts of the ship truly unpleasant. Radiation leaks, toxic pools, poison gases, cannibals..the whole nine yards.

I appreciate the ideas that are being posted so far. If you've got them, please keep em' coming.

Dont forget the Ghilliams and Hullghasts lurking ever deeper in the bilges of the vessel. I can imagine any number of horrid little or even big vermin, Gloomhaunts, you name it down there.

What sorts of foetid and stinking mutants and mutated creatures can be shambling around in the hull?

I have considered using the old D&D adventure "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" as an adventure. The RT group comes across a really ancient cruiser from the Dark Age, which had once been a wild beast transport. It got lost in the warp, and thousands of years have passed for the galaxy, but it is only a few decades for the ship. So the RT and his crew get to fight warp tainted beasts and other strangeness.

you could have an entire under deck or two be nearly unrecognizable and foreign, and perhaps the source of strange allies for the group.

Was thumbing through the "Battlefleet Gothic" rule book and found something that I thought should be posted to this thread:

"We'll strain and we'll work and we'll toil,

In the the blood; sweat, grease and the oil,

From the moment we wake, 'Till our bodies break,

With the lash to keep us all loyal."

Chanted by rating work parties during hard labour.

BirdofHermes posted:

"We'll strain and we'll work and we'll toil,

In the the blood; sweat, grease and the oil,

From the moment we wake, 'Till our bodies break,

With the lash to keep us all loyal."

Chanted by rating work parties during hard labour.

I LOVE it!

That small passage has given me a bunch of ideas about the lower decks.

So far I've decided that the areas I'm going to flesh out are:

-Command Spire

-Navigator's Sanctum

-Astropathic Relay Spire

-Ship's Shrine

-Officer's Quarters

-Free Ratings Quarters

-Indentured Crew Pens

-Armsmen Barracks

-Water Reclamation and Refuse Recycling Plants

-Protein Fungi Vat Farms

-Common Market Area

-The Follies (Seedy part of the ship where crew go to let loose and deal with the Black Market onboard)

-Enginarium

-The Gun Decks

-Munitorum

-Lighter Bays and Cargo Holds

-The Dark Holds

I figure that gives me a fair amount of stuff to develop and that should give a feel for the size of the ship and hopefully convey a sense of a city in space rather than just a spaceship with endless corridors. I want my players to feel that going from the Command Spire to the Common Market is like going from the suburbs to downtown. And going to the Follies is like going into a crime ridden ghetto. And going to the Dark holds is like going into the swers without a map...

I guess I'll have to start coming up with names for a couple of notable NPC's for each area.

Again, any ideas or suggestions would be well appreciated. I have a feeling I'm going to need all the help I can get...

though somewhat out of context in regard to ship layout,, in my campaign i included an npc that really works well as a colourful character and dm tool, a Mortiurge named Judge Mors.. the pcs ship have the "Deathcult" background,, before the arrival of the mortiurge the way the group dealt with low morale was to have the deathcultist run loose on the ship killing away but alas they then had some trouble reigning them in again havin the mortiurge on board to end the rampageing works well ... also, readers of the comic "judge death - young death" might have a genral idea as to where i'm going with this character do "you" have some sort of internal policeforce working your ship apart from loyalist imp guard forces?

hey hey

! : ?

This sounds like a fun campaign. Random ideas:

• The ever popular air ducts could be very interesting, as the Space Marine can't fit or gets stuck in them.
• The core cogitator would be a prize, and will probably be defended to the death by Tech Priests who won't trust anybody. I imagine it as a massive chamber, many decks tall, with lots of high voltage equipment and catwalks leading all over the place.
• A flight deck would have plenty of space for combat, and plenty of toys and promethium to play with. It should be massive, and may even have room for a guncutter to take off and strafe before hitting the wall.
• Some ships have a hydroponics farm. If the ship is stuck in space, food may be getting scarce.
• The outside of the ship. The same assault craft used in hit and run attacks could be used to enter the ship behind enemy lines.

Into the Storm has ideas on different cultures in different areas of the ship. It also has rules for vehicular combat. While many place are too small for big vehicles, many are enormous and already are filled with walkers and the like.

See, this is why this forum is great.

You guys have frikkin' GREAT ideas!

I intend to steal from all of you : )

I love this idea and I might have to steal it (perhaps minus the space marine and inquisitor) but I like it as an introduction. As to 'deckplans' have you ever seen the Robotech/macross II deckplans by palladium. I think they would work very well for what you are looking for. For example here is deck one of the zentradi landing ship, which is only a mere 3000 meters in length. It is a very generic deckplan.

LEVEL ONE: BATTLE POD BAYS
1. Forward Weapon Systems.
2. Double reinforced hull with retractable weapon compartments and
airlocks.
3. Reinforced inner hull (equals M.D.C. as outer hull) and combat
corridor with airlocks for Battle Pods and combat personel. Up to
sixty-four pods can exit/enter simultaneously.
4. Fighter Pod bay containing up to 960 Fighter Pods.
5. Fighter Pod's missile storage bay.
6. 6100 Battle Pods.
7. Barracks for combat alert Battle Pod squadron; 200 soldiers are
always combat ready.
8. Main engines and propulsion system.
Note: Ceiling height is 100ft (30.5m).
"E" indicates Elevator
"A" indicates Airlock
"W" indicates Weapon Bay

This kind of generic layout seems like it would work very well.

Salcor

When coming up with areas of the ship, another good idea would be to go through the list of components and create one location for each.

Yes, you have the Gun Decks. But there's not just one, several weapon components means several decks of different weapons. A raider might have two Dorsal mounts and place a Laser Battery on one and a Macrocannon Battery in the other, lacking Power or Space for Lasers in both. So a rift forms, where the crew serving the Laser weapons consider themselves a cut above the lowly Macrocannon crews, and the Macrocannon crews have an underdog mentality where they always try to prove they can take down the targets too. If a ship has Broadsides, the Port and Starboard crews have a rivalry for the most ships crippled, with the ones currently lagging complaining how the Lord-Captain "always turns the wrong way in a fight". Lances will probably require a smaller but more technically qualified crew- the top of any unofficial hierarchy and doubtless resented for it.

Not that any of this will be official, or even known to the PC, but should they ever enter a bar where the gun crews drink, these topics will come up.

The Bridge is one area where PCs will spend a lot of time, so make sure that's fleshed out. A Commerce bridge on a ship that has Lighter Bays will doubtless resemble Traffic Control at a busy airport. My PCs ship has the Archeotech Bridge of Antiquity, which we decided looked like the NERV command centre from Neon Genesis Evangalion (seen here for the aborted Weta version).

The Librarium Vault and Trophy Rooms were also chosen by my PCs. Working out the volume of the ship and the amount of space even one space point will give, a Librarium Vault on a Light Cruiser will be the size of the British Library and Library of Congress combined. The Trophy Room will be a similarly impressive collection of museum pieces. Each of these will make for atmospheric locations, and require a full staff of Librarians and Curators.

Finally, Crew is not just an abstract number. I keep track of which worlds the PCs recruit new crew from, and how much of the crew is likely to be made up of which people. If a ship which recruited its initial crew from a pious Imperial World, then replacing combat losses with scum from Footfall is going to create conflicts. Likewise, if the PCs recruit a significant number of crew from a Heathen planet, then they may find a section of the ship has turned into something reminiscent of the Little Italy or Chinatown communities in the USA.

There is a ships bridge map on page 391 of the main RT rule book. This gives you a good idea of where different stations are, servitor pits, etc.

Tantavalist said:

"...So a rift forms, where the crew serving the Laser weapons consider themselves a cut above the lowly Macrocannon crews, and the Macrocannon crews have an underdog mentality where they always try to prove they can take down the targets too. If a ship has Broadsides, the Port and Starboard crews have a rivalry for the most ships crippled, with the ones currently lagging complaining how the Lord-Captain "always turns the wrong way in a fight". Lances will probably require a smaller but more technically qualified crew- the top of any unofficial hierarchy and doubtless resented for it.

Not that any of this will be official, or even known to the PC, but should they ever enter a bar where the gun crews drink, these topics will come up."

Consider that stolen!

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

"There is a ships bridge map on page 391 of the main RT rule book. This gives you a good idea of where different stations are, servitor pits, etc."

I just took a look at it. It's good for the most part, but I think I prefer the idea of the Navigator having an entire room to himself from which he steers the ship through the warp. This room is in a seperate spire on the ship, away from the rest of the command staff or indeed anyone else on the ship. Essentially, once he goes into the Sanctum, and the ship plunges into the warp, no one else goes near him until the ship plunges back into real space. It creates a real physical separation from everyone else on the crew that goes well with the figurative one that I imagine Navigators have to live with.

For the record, my Rogue Trader player came over yesterday and we finally got around to writing up the ship. Items of interest include:

-Shipmaster's bridge: I figure I'll include a 3D holographic strategic display ( which will be represented the BFG models we'll be using for space combats)

-Temple Shrine: I've decided it's essentially a cathedral on board ship. I'll be writing up the Missionary/Cleric in charge shortly.

-Munitorium: Can't really think of anything obvious to flesh out here...

-Observation Dome: again, I'm sure there's potential for something really interesting here, but it's just not coming to me.

Further, it's machine spirit roll gave it Martial Hubris and it's past history roll resulted in Turbulent Past.

Over the next week or so, I'm going to start brainstorming for memorable NPC's on board. I figure I should start by fleshing out the most common bridge crew, the head tech priest, the head cleric, the obligatory underworld kingpin who runs the shipboard black market...ect. I figure I should try to have about 20 NPC's that the players should come to know well on board. Here again, ideas are welcome.

It's starting to dawn on me how much freaking work I'm going to be putting into this bloody game : ) I've already started turning down offers to go to the movies in favor of staying home to write for the campaign. I'm such a hopeless fanboy...

I think the munitorum would be extensively honeycombed to avoid destroying the entire lot in case of critical damage. Also, I would place an ammo manufacturing plant in it to produce bolt shells, bullets, extra power packs.

I have given some thought to the cathedral, and just how many it would need to service at one time. Since you can have them come in shifts, maybe a good number is 1% of the crew can be in the cathedral at any one time. So a ship of 100,000 would have a cathedral for 1,000. The weekly services would run 12 hours a day for 7 days a week for this vessel, but perhaps that is typical for all vessels.

As far as the places that the crew live, I always thought that they basically built a city across the ship in areas which did not interfere with operations. I imagine that the captain and command crew (players) would have quarters close to the bridge in fairly luxurious surroundings, complete with hydroponic gardens, entertainment, you name it. As for the Navigator and the Astropath, I imagine them having seperate minarets near the bridge, allowing for maximum privacy.

As far as the middle level crew, they are the ones I thought live in the "town."

For the lower ranks I figure they live in barracks or small rooms near the town.

Serfs probably crash where ever they can near their posts, and slaves the same.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Any canon?

I am also curious about transportation across the ship. Do the larger ships have tube-cars running the length of the vessel and connecting to the elevators? Can you get in what is basically a 4-10 man horizontal elevator and traverse the ships length? Or do you have to walk everywhere? It would seem to me that such a system would be very useful in shuttling crew around during battles, moving ammo around if a depot is empty, damage control crews, etc.

Although there is definoutly no consences on this , most of the clips i've read have indicated that the ships are very compartmentalized, with ship crews rarely (if ever) leaving the general vicinity of their posts. There is a good story out there about a group of Lance turret operators who have never been out of their lance. They live there, eat there, worship there, find husbands or wives there, and die there.

So it seems quite likely that the vast majority of people the party runs in to my be very fimilar with their own section, but compleately ignorent of the rest of the ship.

I would imagine that a ship that is 20,000 years old would have a distinct culture and bloodlines. Just by normal geometric progression, their must be many many instances where the crew must actually be reduced in size due to births etc. It is a very interesting aspect of the ancient ships. I know they lose crew through death, battle, and quitting, but I would think that one of the best sources for a Rogue Trader to found alcolony loyal to his Dynasty would be to pull from willing and able ships crew, either as a reward for long years of service or just on the whim of the captain. A crew of 1,000 with a moral of 100 properly supplied and lead, would make a strong colony base. Rogue Traders who actually care for their crews, and try to keep them happy and keep them alive, would have an excellent source of such recruits.

Nerosfiddle said:

Having a room for the navigator does have a footing in some fluff, The Hinterlight from Ravenor has one coming off the bridge.

But a whole spire is in my opinon a bit over kill as it would require a way for the Rogue Trader to communicate with the navigator, comms would work but what if the power is lost? Either just before or after you leave the warp, and if the navigator is a PC and the s**t hits the fan...

Well thats enough late night rambling from me I kinda lost my train of thought.

-NiaTraps

On the goldrakeI rolled a D6 to find out how many areas are nominally not under the Rogue Traders control.

I fleshed out the areas, which I have decided to be areas of the ship that the Rogue Trader's ancestors have decided by charter are independant areas, which allows flexibility for unusual or unsavoury characters that are not quite part of the ship hierarchy

THE PLATFORM: A Rotgut house that is responsible for drawring to the dynasty redictivits and free thinkers and intellectuals alike. It is said that if you can find your way aboard the ship on that deck the Rogue Trader has to grant you asylum. Difficult to find unless you follow the exact route this sizable deck is a grimy alehouse and assorted berthing that however is a hotbed of intellectuals and troublemakers fleeing imperial oppression. The fourth holder of the Tenax warrant being a free thinker himself granted the original owner his protection and has stayed like this ever since. While it has seen a lot of use it still draws a sizable crowd of those with fashionable (or pretentious) ideas and including a few officers who seek a better level of conversation than the one on the decks.

THRACES LOUNGE: A recaff house near the gallery Decks, here can be found most of the passengers that have hitched a ride. The area is actually owned by a mercantile seperate house after the 5th warrant holder lost those decks in a game of Regicide.They run their own affairs and all manner of deals can be struck here over a hor drink.. Quite unusual as there is a inordinate amount of cogitator engines overhead here. No one not even the worker in the lounge or the tech priests have figured out know what they are doing there or what data they are processing.

THE SHELLS: A free area granted to the gunnery crew in recompense for the bravery during the gothic war. Small low and cramped its a den of gambling whoring and given to raucous entertainment and not a bit of fighting. The Dynasty enforcers are seen in this part of the ship more often than anywhere else though it can be argued as many leave the area as enter it to put down any fracas.

theres others.... but what Im getting at is I think that if you are going to involve inquisitors or astartes there have to be parts of the ship which are not entirely under the rogue traders control to broaden out narratives.

I love the medieval/conquistador aspects of the Rogue Trader and Battle Fleet Gothic, so I would design a ship based on the layouts of European cathedrals and galleons and ships-of-the-line from 1450-1850. Based on the look of the generic Imperial cruisers, I'd have a bridge the size and shape of an actual cathedral, but also like the bridge of the Star Wars' Star Destroyers. The main ship would be all engine in the stern (Ambulatory in a cathedral), and all guns in the fore, port and starboard. I envision each macro cannon being housed in the side of the ship (Aisle) like the cannon of ships of the line, while lances are in massive turrets like Dreadnought battleships, with most of the gun system below the exposed part of the turret as well.

Crew would sleep where they could, the gun crews likely in their compartementalized area around their cannon in hammocks and mess tables, or if better living conditions are made available ("voidsmen accommodations"?), then in bunks in large mess decks below, above and between the gun compartments. Crew and maintenance facilities and workshops are spread around hither and yon. All this would fit nicely in the basic layout of a cathedral, just compartementalize the large main areas like the Nave and Choir, with guns filling the Aisles.

I just picture lots of large open areas filled to the brim with machine and humanity, while lots of small compartments and passageways. Perhaps the Naive/Choir is where the main cargo is stored, if it's been converted to be a Rogue Trader vessel rather than a ship of war.