After many delays involved with me being busy with post-grad work (I know, excuses excuses, but what can I say? Law is hard!), I've finally had time to finish up my review for the first non-prewritten campaign supplement for Rogue Trader, Into the Storm. This is what I know a lot of Rogue Trader players and GMs have been waiting for, adding more variety and flavour to the core game.
The premise for this book, just like The Inquisitor's Handbook for Dark Heresy, is to add more variation into the character building and developing sides of the game, allowing characters to deviate from the norm and into more specialised subsections of their overarching professions, as well as adding more equipment, weapons, etc to the mix. Into the Storm does this and more, with some of the planned parts of the core book that were cut for space issues being included, such as the "Roles" system (I'll cover all of these in more detail later), rules for vehicles and xenos characters, and added social, profit factor and endeavour rules. Added to this is a 20+ pages section all about Port Wander, the gateway to the Maw and the Koronus Expanse.
So, without any further ado, here is my review on Into the Storm!
ADVANCED ORIGINS
The first section of this book covers additions to the Origin Path, the character generation system for Rogue Trader. This includes six additional Home Worlds (Frontier World, Footfallen, Fortress World, Battlefleet, Penal World and Child of Dynasty), three new Birthrights (Fringe Survivor, Unnatural Origin and In Service to the Throne), Lures of the Void (Hunter, Crusade and New Horizons) and Trials (Darkness, Product of Upbringing and Lost Worlds), and four new Motivations (Devotion, Exhilaration, Knowledge and Fear). Added to this is an additional optional row of the Path, called Linage, as well as an Origin Path system for providing a background and tailored starting Ship Point and Profit Factor figures for the group's Dynasty and ship.
The additional home worlds all generally cover a niche not quite covered by the worlds given to us in Rogue Trader. Frontier Worlds are newly colonised planets, or those on the edge of the Imperium and must do without a lot of what many planets in the Imperium take for granted. As part of this, they will have encountered xenos before and won't be as xenophobic as the majority of Humanity, going so far as to be able to ignore Fear (1) and Fear (2) traits on xenos. They are tough and hardy, but in a different way to Death Worlders. Footfallen are those born in the Koronus Expanse, brought up with a knowledge of the street and learning that you have to have friends and know about the Expanse to survive. Fortress Worlds are akin to Cadia, your character having been brought up on one of those militarised worlds and been taught from childhood how to use a weapon and to respect authority. Characters from the Battlefleet have lived most of their lives on the vessels of the Imperial Navy, mixing the benefits of a military upbringing with the knowledge of how the vast ships of the Imperium function. Penal Worlds are exactly what it says on the tin, entire planets set aside as prisons for those who are exiled from their homeworld, and those that hail from such planets are a cunning and resourceful lot, always having "friends of friends" who might be able to get hold of some piece of equipment or another for the group. Finally we have Children of Dynasty, those who have been brought up as the heirs for their dynasty and have been taught in the ways of the Rogue Trader.
The other additions to the Origin Path are equally useful and varied, though all the additions other than the Home Worlds are generally slightly more powerful than the originals, and so have an XP cost attributed to them. The majority of them offer up 3 sub-options per choice, much like the original options for the Lures of the Void, which makes 9 total choices, rather than the 3 it originally looks like. They all offer something new, such as the False-Man choice from Unnatural Origins, whereby you are the products of one of the projects into cloning and genetic manipulation that the Imperium and Adeptus Mechanicus have delved into at one time or another, and so are slightly more advanced than normal humans (+3 to two characteristics), but are slightly unhinged, odd, or just plain unlucky for some reason as a result (-1 Fate Point or 2d10 Insanity). The Hunter choice especially adds options I've found to be popular amongst my players, namely options for Bounty Hunters, Xenos Hunters, or being Hunted yourself by an enemy.
I personally especially like the new Motivations, which include choices like Knowledge (which has the sub-options of "Knowledge is Life, Life is Knowledge", "Know Thy Foe", and "Knowledge is Power, Guard It Well") and Exhilaration, which provides for characters who are honestly just out here for the adventure and the experiences being part of a Rogue Trader crew can provide.
As for these bits, I honestly don't know how we did without them from the start. They cover such obvious character or personality traits that they feel like a natural extension of the game.
The next part is Linage, which is an addition part of the Origin Path that you can chose if you wish to, and covers the heritage of your family or predecessors and what benefits such a heritage might give you. These cover anything from "A Long and Glorious History" which covers your family being a long established one with branches all over the Imperium, "Accursed Be Thy Name", whereby your family name is tainted, corrupt, or just plain not trusted by their peers, and "Of Extensive Means", which means your family is incredibly powerful and wealthy.
Whilst all of these are cool additions, none of my players are really yet to bother with them, as whilst they add some interesting backstory to the characters, that's nothing a player couldn't have come up with by themselves without any mechanical benefit, and the XP costs for them mean that, unless you are starting with characters that have additional XP given to them by the GM, you won't be able to afford any of them by the time you've bought up alternate Origin Path choices, which is a bit of a shame.
Finally we have the Ship and Warrant Origin Path, which provides the same sort of creation path as for characters. The Path covers the Age of the Warrant (from the Age of Rebirth, the period just after the Horus Heresy, through the Age of Apostasy and the Reign of Blood under Goge Vandire, to the Waning, the "current day"), the Fortune and Fate of your house (how well your dynasty is doing currently), how the Warrant was acquired, what events your Dynasty is known for and was involved in, the Contacts and Allies your Dynasty has, and finally how Renown your Warrant is.
These all allow your Warrant to be tailored to the level of wealth and what ship the group have fairly well, and also provide a bit of background for the Dynasty. However, sometimes the PF and SP amount given per option seems a little contrived for balance, and if you follow it like the book suggests, in the same manner as the character generation Origin Path, it's impossible to have a Warrant that is from the Age of Rebirth that is anything other than "Struggling" or "Fallen From Grace", and all Warrants from The Waning are "Rising Stars" or "Ascending", and so doesn't provide for very old Warrants that are still going well. Other than that little bit that irks me, it is a very useful tool that allows the tone and level of the game to be balanced a lot better than the original table "roll or pick an option" in the core rulebook.
Overall, other than the above mentioned little niggles I have about some of the choices or rules, this section is brilliant for adding more variety and spice to character generation and the personalities of the characters, the Dynasty, and the ship.
KORONUS CAREERS
It's in this part that one of the major draws of the book for many reside, the rules for xenos player characters, namely the Kroot and the Orks. Not only that, but additional alternate career ranks are available for every career, and new elite advancement backgrounds allow for access to a variety of skills and give a bit more background and personality to characters.
Firstly, and possibly most importantly, we have the two xenos races, the Kroot and Orks. Each of these races is dealt with separately, and goes into detail on the history, biology, psychology, technology, and then other bits, like how human medicine or medical treatment might affect a Kroot or Ork, and how Insanity and Corruption (the in-game mechanics) affect them both. It then goes on to cover the special traits given to them by their xenos nature, with the Kroot having the benefits of their fast metabolism which means that they can heal quickly and gain additional wounds when they eat fresh meat, as well as their natural fieldcraft abilities which allow them to be accomplished hunters and trackers. Orks, on the other hand, are tough bastards, being able to take a horrendous amount of abuse and keep coming for more, which is aided by their strong physiology meaning that simply stapling wounds closed will work fine on them. Each of the Orks and Kroot have their own Origins, with the Orks getting different skills or benefits from being from one of the different Ork Klans, where as Kroot get to choose from different genetic advantages they have from their ancestors having eaten more of a certain creature (such as being tougher if you have Ork genetics, or more clever and cunning if you have Stryxis genes).
Each race then has their own specific career table (they don't use the Origin Path because they aren't human), which covers the general skills that a member of that race would have (in this case, Kroot Mercenaries and Ork Freebooters), and both fill in a niche not currently covered with the human careers, in that Kroot are expert trackers, hunters and general stealthy gits, where as Orks are, for all intents and purposes, tanks, being able to take damage and give it in equal measure, being absolute monsters in close combat, as they should be. They also have special traits and talents they can each pick up that expand upon their xenos roots, with Orks getting benefits like "Lissen Ta Me, Cos I'z Da Biggest" (allows the Ork to order around people more effectively) and "Runtz" (gives the Ork some Gretchin, Squigs or Snotlings that follow him around and do things for him), and Kroot gaining Hyperactive Nymune Organs (gain an extra Reaction a turn) and "Kroot Leap" (which allows them to launch themselves over obstacles when carrying out a Charge action).
Overall, the Orks are done very well, with the rules and info covering their race very satisfactorily and characterfully. The Kroot could have used more coverage in my opinion, but what is there is good, and enough to play a Kroot relatively easily.
The Alternate Career Ranks are next, and cover quite a few different interesting types of characters. These include Acquisitionists (those Seneschals who are good with illegal transactions, be it buying things on the black market or bribing authorities), Augmenticist (those who are obsessed with reaching physical or aesthetic perfection through bionic augments), Calixian Privateer (those Rogue Traders who have been given a Letter or Marque to protect their patron's ships or pillage pirate or rival ships or convoys), Drusian Adherent (those who are solid followers of Saint Drusus, and follow his example in trying to bring civilisation and faith to the Expanse), Flight Marshal (void-masters that are the leaders of star-fighter squadrons), Genetor (Explorators that are not so quick as others of their faith to disregard flesh and bone as being worse than plastic and steel), Gland Warriors (soldiers upgraded with glands that secrete combat drugs into their system and are therefore masters at close combat), Legend of the Expanse (those who have become renown in the Expanse), Navis Scion (Navigators trained in diplomacy and act as representatives of their houses), Transubstantial Initiate (Astropaths who believe that their Binding has brought them closer to the Emperor than any other can experience), Torchbearers (Missionaries who are survivalists who take faith to the uncivilised planets of the Expanse) and Xenographer (experts in xenos knowledge and information).
Meanwhile, Orks get Kommandos (sneaky gits who are good at sabotage, assassination and recon) and Mekboys (engineers and mechanics), and Kroot get the Kroot Shaper (leader of a band of Kroot).
These all offer up a lot of variety that helps characters have a more unique set of skills. I'd have liked a few more for Orks, and quite a few more for Kroot, but what is there is good, and hopefully each of those will gain additional Alternate Ranks in future books.
There are then Elite Advancement Backgrounds, which cover a few interesting concepts for characters. These include "Agents of the Throne", which allow your character to have skills that might only otherwise be available to an agent employed by one of the different organisations within the Imperium (such as Administratum, Inquisition, etc), "Glimpse from Beyond", which gives you different Forbidden Lores depending on what insanity-inducing things the character has seen, "Rite of Duplessence", which is for Explorators that have used technology to connect two brains in a single body, providing all sorts of benefits and negatives, and "Sanctioned Xenos", which are xenos that have been certified as being valuable to the works and cause of the Imperium and as long as they are employed by their Rogue Trader, they are allowed into Imperial space.
I like these backgrounds, as they are quite odd and quirky. I'm not sure how much use (other than Sanctioned Xenos) they will get, but they are a good addition none the less. All in all, this chapter is a brilliant one, and I'm glad for it's contributions to the game. It provides for more unique characters and development, which in my mind can only be a good thing. I do look forward to more information and rules for Kroot, Orks, and any other xenos PCs that turn up in the future.
EXTENDED ARMOURY
This is the bit with all the extra weapons, equipment, items, bionics, etc that your players/characters can collect and use, and the majority of them seem quite useful, offering different pros and cons to the weapons included in the core rulebook, as well as filling niches not previously covered.
The ranged weapons are nice and varied, with new las weapons such as the Lascutter providing something that wasn't previously covered (basically a man-portable las-welder for burning through bulkheads), and a solid projectile sniper rifle (the "Absolution") which allows variety by being compatible with all speciality autogun rounds. The Ripper Pistol (based off Sly Marbo's gun from the tabletop game) is awesome, providing a very powerful handgun that isn't a bolter and can incapacitate someone with a single shot. Other ranged weapons fill the "Rogue Traders are rich nobles" box, with a concealed bolter-cane being a ranged version of the real-world sword canes, and the "Wrath" duellist plasma pistol, which has no semi-auto fire, but instead is more powerful.
Along with all these we have new launcher weapons that you can equip your forces with, like mortars and mole-mortars (it fires the shells underground so they pop up under the enemy), hunter-killer missiles, smoke-launchers for vehicles and bases, as well as a series of new ammo for launchers like Minefield rounds (when the shell explodes it deposits mini-mines all over the area), Bloodfire and Toxin rounds (poison gas grenades), and Inferno grenades (explosive incendiary grenades).
There are also several exotic and archeotech weapons, as well as xenos ranged weapons, like Eldar blasters, deathspinners and lasblasters, Tau pulse weapons and Dark Eldar splinter weapons.
For melee weapons, there are an assortment of weapons, covering shields, sword-canes, parrying daggers, double-edged chainswords, neural whips, shock knuckles and thunder hammers. These all add a bit of flair to the character's armoury. Added to these are exotic weapons like Eldar powerswords and forearm powerblades, null rods (which hinder psykers from casting powers), and force weapons for psykers and astropaths.
A few new weapon upgrades (like exterminator cartridges) are included, as are an assortment of new types of ammunition, such as acid shells for shotguns and bolters, Organgrinder rounds (designed to rip through someone, causing additional damage), as well as different ammo types for melta, plasma and flame weapons.
These are all great additions in my opinion, adding some spice to the relatively standard items included in the core rulebook.
The new armour types and force-fields are good too, with heavy power armour and Dark Eldar armour covered. The force-fields have full rules, similar to those covered in Dark Heresy's Ascension, with conversion fields, displacer fields, refractor fields, Eldar forceshields, non-man portable power fields and Jokaero-created Salvation shields covered. I've been looking forward to the rules for force-fields since the newer rules for fields in Ascension were released, and these don't disappoint.
All sorts of gear, from new void suits and blast goggles, to new drugs, consumables, demolition equipment, portable hab-bases and perimeter defence systems and bionics are covered, as are a few pages of different exotic or xenos equipment, pretty much anything your character or players could come up with is included, which will help a lot of GMs with the various random requests that players make.
Finally, Ork and Kroot equipment is covered. Ork stuff covers melee and ranged weapons and armour, with all the standard gear covered, as well as a variety of "Kustom Bitz" that can be added to your weapons or armour (like Kustom Job, More Shooty and Spikey Bitz), whilst Kroot items include Kroot Hunting Rifles, Krootbows (which are very nasty, with both Tearing and Toxic qualities), and their leather armour and fetishes.
Overall, these are nice additions to the game, with most of the new items, weapons and armour covering areas that aren't covered by the items in the core book. None of these items are redundant at all, and should all provide a nice group of things for the characters to buy.
STARSHIPS EXPANDED
This is one bit that'll be useful to those who have wanted more options when it comes to starship creation, at least until the main starship book Battlefleet Koronus is released. This chapter contains info on serving on-board a starship, the organisation of the crew, and a brief section on what life is like serving on-board a Rogue Trader vessel. As well as this, there are additional rules for teleportariums, which help to balance the "overpowered" nature of teleporters in the core game.
There are also new starship hulls, with two new hulls for each of the transports (Loki-class Q-ship, which always has the "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" Past History, and Origion-class Star Clipper, which is **** fast) and light cruisers (Secutor-class monitor, which is designed for war, with it being able to take "Cruiser-only" shields, and the Lathe-class monitor, which is less designed for combat but instead has more space onboard), and one new hull for raiders (Cobra-class destroyer, well known from Battlefleet Gothic), frigates (a proper write-up for the Firestorm-class frigate, a modification of the Sword-class), and cruisers (the Tyrant-class cruiser, also of Battlefleet Gothic fame). We also have new "background packages", which are taken instead of a Ship Complication, and include ships that used to be Explorator vessels, pirate vessels, Imperial Navy ships, ships that were involved in the Angevin Crusade, and ships that have been recovered from planets' surfaces and repaired. All of these allow for greater variety and a more tailored background for your ship.
Next we have additional essential, supplemental and archeotech components, as well as additional ship upgrades that are available, such as having an entire crew of servitors, having a detachment of Storm Troopers at your disposal, or having one, or maybe more, atomic weapons at your disposal. The new components are great, with more choice for plasma and warp engines, void shields, bridges and crew quarters. The new supplemental components are good too, with new weapons (with two new macrocannons, broadsides and lances, with the melta-cannons being my favourite at present) and extra facilities, like arboretums (you can stay in space longer because you can grow your own food), astropathic choir-chambers (which help your astropathic choir to focus their powers when sending astro-telepathic messages), and auxiliary plasma banks (which increase the amount of power generated). The archeotech components are quite interesting as well, with new shields, upgraded cogitators, gyro-stabalisers for increased ship control and a few extra weapons.
Finally are the Ship Upgrades, which I really like. Having the opportunity, no matter how hard it might be, to get hold of atomics will be great fun, with the limited number making them into weapons of last resort. Having a full servitor crew is also something well known in the 40k setting, mainly from the Eisenhorn novels, and will be welcome to many people. Generally, these upgrades are pretty cool, and I'll enjoy using them.
Overall, this chapter is a good hold-over for those looking forward to Battlefleet Koronus, and will keep them going for the next few months until that book is released. I look forward to making more NPC ships for my players to run into and not know what the ship's exact capabilities are (especially with the Q-ship and the Secutor-class).
VEHICLES
This is another much-waited-for set of rules, which allow us to buy and use all sorts of vehicles, from motorbikes to guncutters.
The overall vehicle rules are the same for all types, covering their speed, armour, structural intergrity, size and carrying capacity, which allows them all to be compared and interact with the core rules the same. However, rules between ground vehicles and aerial vehicles are different for combat, with ground vehicles being able to use one set of actions (such as "Floor It!", "Ram" or "Evasive Manoeuvring"), and aerial vehicles using other actions (like "Jink", "On His Tail", "Sideslip" and "Immelmann Turn"). Also, aerial vehicles must always keep moving, unless they can hover, otherwise they'll drop out of the sky. Vehicles also have their own Critical Hit chart, ranging from "Jarring Blow" (which risks stunning the occupants with the vehicle shaking about) to "Penetrating Hit" (removes armour by blowing it apart) and "Explodes" (you can guess what this does!).
The sample vehicles are varied, and cover all sorts of niches including motorbikes, cargo shuttles, passenger shuttles, fighter aircraft, drop pods and APCs. However, vehicles like Chimeras or some proper tanks (like the Leman Russ) might have been useful, though they'll hopefully be in future books.
Other than the limited space for sample vehicles, I like this chapter. Having actual stats for guncutters and Aquila Landers have been very useful for me in my games, and my players have already got a scout-bike each to drive around on when they're on terra-firma. I look forward to additional vehicles in the future.
EXPANDED PSYCHIC POWERS
This chapter covers new Navigator powers, new Astropathic powers (including a full new discipline called Theosophamy), and additional Starship Combat actions specifically tailored to Navigators and Astropaths, which helps make them more useful during starship combat than they were previously.
The new Navigator powers seem quite cool, with some being more "dark side" than the ones in the core book (like "Corrupting the Flesh", which gives opponents Corruption Points and can eventually cause Malignancies and mutations), whilst others come in quite useful (like "Refresh and Revitalise", which removes Fatigue, and "Disrupting the Empyrean", which makes it harder for other ships to enter or exit the Warp in that area). However, quite a few of them are different versions of "use the Third Eye to kill/maim/do nasty things to people", which means that if people have one such power, they're unlikely to choose others when they could go for powers that do different things.
The new Astropathic powers cover all of the original disciplines, including "Beacon" for Telepathy (which can be placed anywhere and can be detected by the Astropath several kilometres away, and by Navigators several light-years away, therefore allowing them to track rival ships if they've been tagged), "Auto-Seance" for Divination (increases the power of any other Divination power that is being used by another psyker), and "Death Grip" for Telekinesis (you crush the internal organs of the target). These all fill gaps in the powers from the core book, and will hopefully become standard powers to choose from.
"Theosophamy", on the other hand, is completely new. It is a discipline that involves direct manipulation of the Warp, including increasing the strength of the barrier between the real world and the Warp (which can hurt daemons and shut off psykers from the Warp), banishing daemons, and transforming a melee weapon into a warp weapon, coated in the stuff of the Empyrean. It's quite an interesting new discipline, and covers an area not really covered with any other discipline in either Rogue Trader or Dark Heresy.
The Starship Combat actions for Astropaths and Navigators now give both of these careers a proper place in space combat, and makes them a valuable addition to the crew in such situations. The Astropaths being able to help target the ship's guns better through divination, or using telepathy to allow ship's officers (PCs) to communicate mentally and therefore help each other with their tasks makes them great support characters. Meanwhile, the additional actions for Navigators, including being able to better position the ship and pursue/escape an enemy better are perhaps not quite so immediately useful, but great for the end of combats (in regards to pursuing and retreating).
This chapter was perhaps unexpected by many, but I think it's a nice addition for those who play Navigators or Astropaths and felt maybe a little left out of space combat, and felt there weren't enough powers in the core book for them.
ENHANCED GAME MECHANICS
Some parts of this chapter are sections that had to be left out of the core book due to lack of space (like the Roles system), and the rest is new, but it is all **** useful. This chapter covers the advanced social interaction rules (which are great for proper diplomatic actions or endeavours), meta and background endeavours (which allow the group to tie together several endeavours, and let them send off their lackies to carry out jobs for them, providing additional profit in the background), expanded acquisition rules (which makes acquiring things in bulk a lot easier but a lot more interesting), and "ship roles", which give positions on the ship to characters and give them bonuses for carrying out their duties and the like.
The social interaction rules provide for persuading people over time, such as through negotiations or a formal dinner, to be better disposed to you, and therefore more likely to react favourably to any requests or actions you make. This covers things like, as per the example in the book, recognising the uniform and medals of an official and then using that knowledge (such as asking him about his service, or applauding him on his heroism) to make him more likely to sign the ship's manifest without actually having made sure you weren't bringing contraband off your ship. As someone who likes the social side of gaming more than the action side, I really like these rules, as it makes having a variety of knowledge skills all the more useful.
Meta and background endeavours further expand the base endeavour system by helping you not only build a series of linked endeavours that would form an entire campaign, but also sets down rules for your players sending members of their dynasty off in other ships to carry out missions without their involvement, providing for additional profit in the background if things go right, and great plot hooks if it all goes downhill. Obviously only those who like or use the normal endeavour system will like these, and anyone else will see it as a waste of space, but as an expansion of a base ruleset, I think it will come in useful.
The expanded acquisition rules, as I stated before, can make things a lot more interesting. Purchasing large amounts of goods at any one time can bring a lot of attention your way, both good and bad, which could lead to your rivals or enemies discovering your whereabouts and hunting you down to plunder your holds. It also helps to restrict the rampant spending that can happen in some groups, where they just try to buy anything and everything they want all at once, leaving less to be gained in the future. It also gives rules for when "cost is no object", allowing you to burn points of Profit Factor to help make sure that you get what you want, but leaving your coffers a lot worse for wear. These rules should help balance the, possibly too open, acquisition system in the core book to not only make things more interesting, but make sure that your players don't buy themselves into boredom when they run out of things they want.
Finally we have the Ship Roles system, which provides a large selection of different positions on-board a starship, giving each of them a set purview, a list of examples for subordinates and skills important for that particular position, and a benefit in the form of modifiers for carrying out your duties. These run from being "Enginseer Prime", the leader of the Tech-Priests on the ship, who gets bonuses to the "Emergency Repairs" action, to the "Chief Bosun", who keeps the crew under control and keeps them prepared for anything, which gives the NPC Crew Rating a +5 bonus. I've really liked the addition of these rules, and have introduced them as soon as I read them. It's almost a shame they couldn't have been fit into the core book!
All in all, this chapter adds a lot to the core book, expanding upon some of the things most important to the Rogue Trader game, namely socialising, profit and day-to-day ship life.
PORT WANDER
The final chapter of this book is the gazetter on Port Wander, "the Guardian of the Maw", and the first stop for anyone planning to enter the Koronus Expanse. There are about 20 pages on Port Wander, covering the area of space around the Port, the layout and construction of the station itself (including a map!), descriptions of the main areas of the station (from the Command Decks to the Solstice Imperialis, a former pilgrim ship that has become part of the station and the centre of religion on Port Wander, to the several hab stations and asteroid bases that orbit the Port), the major factions (Battlefleet Calixis, the Adeptus Mechanicus, the various Merchant Houses and the Navis Nobilite are the main ones) on the station, the "notable persons" of the Port, and the various laws of Port Wander. We then have a few pages on the other planets of the Rubycon II system, and the Battlefleet stations and presence in the system, including a few additional ***-bits about the method of supply for the Crusade in the Jericho Reach, which is the setting of Deathwatch.
Whilst Port Wander doesn't seem to be quite as important to the Koronus Expanse as Footfall might be, the additional info on this station has persuaded me that it might be high time my Rogue Trader group has a little trip out of the Expanse and back into Imperial space.
CONCLUSION
After having read the entire book, whilst there are a few things I'd probably tweak for my group, it is, all in all, a brilliantly useful book of the same level, if not higher, that The Inquisitors Handbook is for Dark Heresy. It gives much greater freedom and variety for character creation and development, provides a tonne of new weapons and equipment, both for the characters and their ship, for your players to collect, and expands upon some of the most important parts of Rogue Trader. I would rank this as an essential purchase for anyone who likes Rogue Trader.
Putting a number to it, I'd give it a solid 8.5-9/10 , as everything that is in it is good, and it leaves you waiting for more!
I hope this review proves useful to any/all of you, and I look forward to reviewing the next book that FFG has in store for us, Edge of the Abyss!
Jordan "MILLANDSON" Millward
