Hello all!

I am preparing my first game night for my group and as I go through the plot several issues jumped at me. Maybe there are experienced GMs that could share their insights on the matter...

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First, this must have been asked many times before but I wonder how will I keep my PC directly involved in the action throughout the campaign. Do they gain less (or no) XP if they let the NPC do the work?

How do you deal with situations where the PC are directly involved, but they bring a huge number of retainer with them to assist, essentially reducing the challenge of the adventure to a miserable level?

And what about situation where they only bother to send troops?

In the end, they do have thousands of crew members at their disposal so it makes sense that they would act that way. But its not the funniest scenario...

Do you bother creating "sub-PC" for those situation where the main PC send their flunkies to the ground to do stuff? (multi-layer campaign?)

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What are the ways the group can lose Profit Factors other then misfortune?

For example, if they "buy" their way out from a criminal organization (paying a ransom for example), should it cost them points of Profit Factor? Or is this included in the "Influence" rules?

Also, if they make huge purchase, could it affect their Profit Factor?

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On another chain of thoughts, how do you build your scenarios? Do you create a main plot and create a number of endeavors around it for the players to chose from?

The whole setting of Rogue Trader, by its nature, is set to be played in a sandbox form. On the other hand, endeavors are quite detailed and it may be difficult to come up with one on the fly.

How do you prepare for your games? Any examples you care to share?

Thanks for the help guys!

To keep your Pc in the action they need a senario that can grab their attention or requires there direct intervention. a direct comfrontation with say the Inquisition or another Rogue Trader that dosen't so much require dice rolling but playing out the meeting through role playing. also don't worry so much about planning out an entire session. the idea behind RT is the Explorers searching the expanse for new venues of profit and other oddities. Let the players blunder into their own adventure, though you could have some simple endeavers to kick them in the right direction. The important thing to remember is to allow the players to have a direct influence on the out come leading to future events. make them want to personally visit the surface of a planet out of curiosity not because they have to.( exeption to this would be something like the unexpected shuttle crash). I hope you find this use full

The rule of thumb is if you want something done right, do it yourself. I told my players that. "There will be times you will and should have your minions deal a problem, but every time you don't get directly involved any success will be lessened and a failure will only get worse."

After a mutineer held a hostage and the players sent in a ton of troops (they have a barracks) I thought I should just tell them. The mutiny was crushed, but the hostage died.

I was happy with how I handled it, but realized if I was a player I wouldn't get it. So I told them. Total metagaming, I know, but simple.

A typical crew will have a quality of 30, giving a 30% base skill for any actions the mass of nameless NPCs undertake. Even an Elite crew has a base chance of 50%, which experienced PCs will exceed in their areas of expertise. The players should therefore be delegating to the NPC crew only those mundane tasks that they don't care about. Anything that is central to the success of whatever the PCs are doing should be done by a PC to give the best chance of success. This alone should reduce reliance on the crew.

As far as Profit Factor and major purchases go, Into the Storm states that a failed Profit Factor roll can be turned into a success by permanently reducing the Profit Factor by one per degree of failure. So while in theory it isn't necessary to burn Profit Factor in order to purchase, say, a Naval Cruiser, anyone whose Profit isn't at least 100 is likely to have to do so in practice.

I give this same bit of advice every time: Rogue Trader is NOT D&D. It is bigger, more powerful, and more epic in scope, and you need to adjust early on or you are going to have a hard time GMing them. This isn't 5 guys vs a goblin camp. They should be going up against organizations, dynasties, and empires. Don't fight the grand scale, revel in it, and encourage your PCs too.

If you start fighting your groups ability to use their resources at the begining, you are going to get in more and more trouble as the game goes on. Rogue Trader is a big, epic game with powerful PCs. You need to embrace this and prepare for it properly, not try to force the game into a smaller mold.

XP gain is based on overcoming obstacles, not how they do it. You don't give them x amount of xp for killing y amount of enemies. You give them X amount of xp for accomplishing a goal. They can get the same amount of XP regardless of how they attack a problem.

If the game challenge is "reduced to a miserable level" due to retainers it is you fault for not presenting them with appropriate challenges. It is just like a challenged being reduced by the characters having +10 armor. You need to be throwing the right kind of challenges at them.

If they only bother to send troops it is because you didn't make the situation important or critical enough to require their direct intervention. If they aren't needed personally, they shouldn't go personally, end of story.

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The group can lose PF either due to misfortune or spending them. They can always burn 1 PF for a +10 on an aquisition check. This represents spending so much it affects their PF.

You can also occasionally make them roll "maintenance checks" on particularly large items. If they fail they have the option to burn a PF to keep the item.

As for making huge purchases...that is what they do. They are billionairs. They should be allowed to, and encouraged to make big purchases.

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As a GM you are NOT a novelist or playwrite. You don't write "plots" per se, you write scenarios. You make a situation, interesting characters, and let them figure it out. I often don't know HOW my players are going to get out of a situation, but they always find a way, often with suprisingly epic results.

At the end of a session try to get their goals for the next session out of them. This will allow you to prepare enough material to run the next game. Find out which world they are going to next, or what they are going to attack.

Examples: (the actual scenario is about 6 pages long, this is a quick overview)
My players just ran through this scenario:

The Scenario:

They recently landed on Vaporius. Vaporius is ruled by a priest king who are gods unto their people, but seretly use a mind controlling water to enforce their rule. They live in glass cities, and the king is likely to request to see any offworlders to see him. The people look like X, the outer city like y, and the inner city like z. If they enter the city and start looking around they will be approached by the palace guards after two hours of exploration.

When brought before the king he wants them to partake in a water drinking ceremony. The water will make them feel cleansed and holy the first drink, even more so the second drink, and mind control them upon a third. If they refuse the king will be very offended and ask them to leave.

After making some offers to trade the priest king will have a beat up, tortured imperial missionary brought out and dropped before them. He will tell them the only thing he wants from them is for them to remove the local mission that is trying to turn his people against him.

Trade relations with the world are worth 2pf.

What my players did:
They entered the city and were brought before the King. They drank the water, and they attempted to open trade relations. The king brought out the tortured missionary and asked them to remove the mission.

My players were offended and aghast. Most of the party quickly suppressed the room with heavy weapons fire and flamers while the Rogue Trader dispatched the kings guards and demanded his allegience. They called in an orbital strike, pods, and tanks. A large portion of the military was destroyed via orbital strike, and their troops began slaughtering those that were left. At this show of force the priest king quickly aquiesqued and "converted". They plan on getting the king to order the mind controlled thralls to worship the emporer and to use them as shock troops in their crusade.

In conclusion

Too much of this game is built around being a powerful leader of a dynasty for you to spend all of your time trying to convince them to do things personally. When they have barracks, military landers, a fleet of ships, and enough money to buy whole worlds you will quickly find yourself kicking against the pricks if you are always focused on limiting their power.

Provide them with scenarios where it is in their best interests to be personally present. Provide them with foes and situations where their resources are necessary to overcome. Revel in the grand scale, and you and your players will all have a much better game.

riplikash said:

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot riplikash ! I am used to GM World of Darkness and therefore I am not used at all to have my players as the all mighty. With WOD it was a little easier as once the setting is established, all you need is to toss a problem to your players and have them maneuver through it. Now with Rogue Trader the setting keeps changing from acenario to scenario. New worlds, new people and new themes.

As a father of three, I don't have much time to play anymore (once per 2 months max) and not much more to prepare for a rpg evenings (30 minutes now and then). But still, its about the only excuse my buddies and I found to get together. Therefore, when preparing a scenario I need to be efficient...and the example you provided will help me a lot to achieve that!

Now, if the PC do decide to send underlings to do their "part", would it be appropriate to use the Background Endeavours provided in Storm? How do you deal with such situation?

Do you keep a couple ready-to-go endeavours in your pocket just in case you need something quick to toss at your players?

What are your sources of inspiration to get interesting endeavors?

Thanks again!

One thing I intend to do with my upcoming campaign is to actually have some of these NPCs fleshed out and play some of the scenarios.

Example: The PCs found an STC device - but they cannot remove it from the planet they found it on (without possibly damaging it) - so, they put a research team down on the planet.

A few sessions later - I hand them some pre-made NPCs - and run them through a quick little scenario. I'll explain the environment - and then hit them with: "the problem". So - whether or not the PCs solve the problem (using NPC characters) - the story will change.

Example: They succeed - perhaps their PF could go up due to successful research.

Example: They fail - they arrive at the research site some sessions later to find it gutted - the STC device in ruins.

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Some key notes - the scenarios will be quick, probably often violent and I will not tell them where they are or give them hints.

Some scenarios will be for upcoming encounters and involve genuine NPCs no under their control - while others will be their "henchmen" (this is for variety).

I want to keep them VERY short - maximum of a half hour of the session. They will get some reward based on the event even if it's "just" progression of their goals (like "research completed")

Plus - great way to have a lead in to new plot hooks.

Example: STC event - players arrive on the planet some time after to find the ruins the STC were in to be bombed - the device destroyed. One long NPC survives and recounts the tail of the attackers... which, of course, the PCs already have a connection to due to the little scenario of battle.

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So - just some thoughts to keep your "players" (not necessarily their characters - though it IS their character's interests) involved in the story.

Strictly a house rule of mine but on losing PF, i have a rule where the Dynasty's PF drops 5 points everytime they get a new ship.

Essentially this is the cost that their dynasty bears for running a ship, feeding the crew, making the constant upkeep, supplies, fuel, etc.

Of course, more ships helps them get their PF higher quicker, but the initial hit makes them keep in mind the cost of ships.

How has the profit factor hit per ship worked out? I think one of the difficulties with the rules as they stand is that almost every non-xeno ship the players defeat in combat can be salvaged and recovered to a ship in their fleet.

Obviously, there are some factors that can alleviate this. It takes time to salvage a ship, drag it back to port, etc. Also, if the players defeat a couple smaller ships, but some other factor (race against time, more enemies incoming, etc) forces them to flee, they’re denied ships as well. And of course there’s the occasional warp drive implosion.

The big problem is that, as stated, the more ships and firepower they have at their disposal, the harder it is to truly challenge them without scaling the game to ridiculous levels (i.e. giving pirates a fleet that battlefleet calaxis would be envious of). Even planetary invasions can become simple affairs – park fleet in orbit, pod/shuttle down troops from ships with barracks while a couple smaller vessels cruise into low orbit and lance strike enemy positions/anti-air installations.

Luckily I haven’t had this problem come up in the games I’ve run – the players always just wanted to keep it simple and stick to one ship. Has anyone else introduced a profit factor hit or some other penalty for running around with a large fleet?

Instead of -5 PF per ship, I was thinking along the lines of -1 for transports, -2 or -3 for raiders and frigates, -3 or -4 for light cruisers, and -5 for cruisers. Also, any ship with an archaoetech component or xenotech component adds -1 per component to their PF hit (for getting more seasoned and experienced tech-priests, paying off crew and officials to keep quiet about it, etc).

Any further ideas?

((Sorry to get off topic))

I just make equipping a new ship a HUGE undertaking. They have to get the proper forms, find the right contacts, reserve a space at a drydock.

On top of that, it takes YEARS to re-equip a ship. Now, thats not as bad you you might think, you can lose several months during any given trip, so it takes about 6-10 sessions depending on how far they are travelling.

They are slowly building a fleet, but they don't just grab every ship they defeat in combat and add it to their fleet either.