So my brother talked our DnD group into trying out Rogue Trader for a few months.

So Im the guy that made up most of our Characters, we have one of ever class in our party and three arch-militants.

I choose to play the Explorator because the idea of a Tech Priest sounded kinda fun, really simular to the Artificer that I was playing for the last year in Eberron (dnd 3.5). The thing is, ive never roleplayed in a sci fi tabletop game before.

I have honestly no idea HOW to roleplay my tech priest. So far I have just sorta been there, calling himself a Human Interface Unit and speaking in the 3rd person (never refering to myself as me or I only as Jace.)

So I am very boored. I cant get myself attached to Jace.

• 23 Weapon Skill
• 43 Ballistic Skill
• 30 Strength
• 41 Toughness
• 33 Agility
• 59 Intelligence
• 31 Preception
• 36 Willpower
• 30 Fellowship

Talents & Traits

• Technical Knock
• Quick Draw
• Rival: Rogue Trader
• Foresight
• Mechanis Implants
• Basic Weapon (universal)
• Melee Weapon (universal)
• Logis Implant
• Mechanendrite Use (utility)
• Talented [Tech Use +10%]

SKILLS

• Common Lore -Tech =Trained
• Common Lore -Machine Cult = Trained
• Drive -Ground Vehicles =Trained
• Forbidden Lore -Archeotech =Trained +10%
• Forbidden Lore -Adeptus Mechanis =Trained
• Forbidden Lore -Xenos =Trained
• Logic =Trained +10%
• Literacy =Trained +10%
• Scholastic Lore -Heraldry- =Trained +10%
• Tech Use =Trained +10%

Bionic Implants

• Mind Interface Unit -Good-
• Calculus Logi Implant -Good-

Items and Equiptment

• Carapice Light Body Armor
• Void Suit
• Vox Caster
• Sacred Ungents x2
• Micro-Bead
• Combi-tool
• Data Slate
• Rebreather
• Injector
• Dark Eldar -Injector
• Servo-skull with Lumin Globe
• Valkyre Targeting AI
• Dark Eldar Battle Clave
• Bolt Gun (Locke)
• Power Axe (Mezoa)

Creation Path

• Born upon A Forge Word.
• Birth Right is a Stubjack
• Lure of the Void is Duty Bound to a Dynasty
• Trials and Tribulations are a Lost World
• Motivation is Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well.
• Lineage is a Proud Tradition - Heir Apparent

Now I think that is all the relative information on my character sheets..

Now I need to know what to read, available on the web.. I cant afford $60 gamebooks.

Please advise me what to do.. In my gaming group I am generally the heart of the roleplaying and our motivation to play So i need help to understand my role in this, universe if the game world is going to more then to fly to X planet and kill Y.. most the other guys tends to enjoy the hack and slash more then the storyline.

Jace's only has one Skill to speak of, which is Tech Use and Jace is VERY good at using Technology.

• 69% to just walk up and use it.
• 79% if can Jack into the Technology
• 89% if can Jack in and Use the Combi-Tool
• 99% if can Jack in and Use the Combi-Tool and has 10 minutes to study the Technology.

You aren't just a tech-priest. An an Exploratator, you are a representative of the Omnissiah and the Machine Cult in the regions beyond the Imperium. Pretty much everything is your business in one way or another.

You are also a tech-priest. If you want your character to be a boring tech-priest, you can do that, and apparently have been. If you are trying to make your character more interesting you may wish to have him embrace the eccentricity that adepts of the Mechanicus are known for. There are factions dedicated to just about everything, from weapon-smithing and armor crafting to gravity to bioengineering. Pick something, or many things, for your character to have a personal interest in. Design a new gun for the dynasty to sell. Synthesize a poison to wipe out a pesky native species on a newly discovered world. Your problem seems to be that you aren't doing anything, so do something.

Read this.

Then realize that you are a representative of an allied technologically superior empire, you are not an Imperial citizen. You are better than all those around you. The starship you are aboard is a holy relic and its systems and machinery are mysteries for you to explore and covet. The knowledge you have brings you closer to the Omnissiah, and all the knowledge you gain brings you closer to perfection. All new, meaning ancient, tech that is discovered is yours by right, not the humans.

Use the humans to advance your agenda, for your agenda is the only one that matters.

Diversify your lore skills. +10's are great but you have a high Int and should focus on broadening your intellectual resources as much as possible.

Medicae is your friend, especially with a medicae mechadendrite. Being the sole resource for good medical aid is another angle to exploit, and who doesn't like experimenting on their friends without their knowledge?

Your motivation should tell you a lot. Knowledge is power, guard it well. You should be a secretive, sneaky,black hole like vault of information that the party has to work to get any knowledge of value from. You should also press that all information resources should be made available to you, by any means necessary.

Share and be friendly with the tools(party members) at hand while they can complain about it. Keep them happy. When the time comes they can be turned into a more useful servitor.

Con your Rogue Trader into fitting your vessel with a manufactorium. Spend your days building outlandish weaponry and gadgets with the power of SCIENCE!

I see that every one has given you some good advice on role play, but let me tell you something brother! Exploreators are MELEE BEASTS ! Armored Skin, bionic heart, machine trait, add those with some best quality power armor (military grade) and a best quality shield, and your a moster. The exploreator in my group is a beast, he solos orks 2-3 at a time. He has a Toughness in the 60's with close to 10-12 points of armor, with i dont know how much soak, and hes only rank 3. Get yourself a Power Claw or Thunder Hammer and go to town on your opponents. Furthermore, our Explorator has an MIU w/ a plasma pistol on it (think Predator) so when he is closeing the distance he can fire off a shot and melt faces!

EDIT: Oh and as a Tech Priest you believe that the flesh is weak, you need more bionics, by now you should have replaced all your limbs with good or best quality cyber arms/legs.

Thanks for all of the advice i do want to make him more interesting. I did not realize that he was from an allied nation. that link was very handy.. now i can flesh out my background a bit more too.

We havnt yet left the light of the Emperor's space yet. last week we just finally aquired our Rogue Traders Charter and our first ship which is a temptist class, it is an ancient ship with a couple archtech devices, like the o2 scrubbers and the improved jovan drive.. something else too i am not sure exactly which.

About half of the party has a rival rogue trader which is our RT's brother, he and the lines matriarch stole the famlies cruisers.

Our rt's patriarch is sending us on our first mission to the khronas expancse.

We only have about 6500 xp each so were all still only rank 1, ill broaden out my lore skills once i hit r2. one of my creation talents grants a +10% to all scholastic lores, so gm is allowing me access to all of them.

I do have the profession armor and weapon smithing so now that I have access to the labs onboard our ship i can make something of them. We only have a profit factor of about 35 right now so funding is limited somewhat at the now.

"allied technologically superior empire" I like that, will have to use that.. did NOT know that.. ive never played 40K though i have a couple space wolves codex's as i am fascinated by wolves in general.

"medicae mechadendrite" Ill have to look up that when we get together this week.

ive already successfull hacked into our ships primary computer and granted myself full access to ALL information that it contains and set up processess to auto update my data slate with any new information that is important.

My party members as organic tools, i kinda like that idea...

Our ship is fully loaded no available space for a manufactorium. Its in the plan if we ever get a chance to upgrade it into a larger ship.

Bionics...Im still mostly organic side from the basic explorator and two implants i have spent xp to upgrade. I will set my plan to upgrade myself as much as possible. But my toughness can only increase to 56, have improved it once already. Power armor is in the plan down the road for all of our party that wants it. Ill look into the melee weapons mentioned. but my melee skill can only go upto 43, 53 if its balanced. MIU im working towards now and upgrading my servo skull to fit a pistol as well.

Thanks for the good advice. I was lost and confused about what i can do with Jace.

Well, a lot of great options have already been mentioned. In particular, the tech-priest in my game is a Lore god, with the ambitions that there is nothing in the known galaxy that he doesn't know something about (hey, its good to have dreams...).

If you want to be more of roleplayer, remember that the primary job of an Explorator is to increase the Cult's knowledge and search for ancient tech. So everytime a mission or plot point comes up, look at it as a chance to obtain or learn as much as possible for the Cult and constantly try to get the group to look into "those harmless old ruins" or whatever is happening. That way you can still help motivate and move the story along. Even if you don't always get your way, it can still help the group to get into the spirit of things.

Considering that many of your fellow players are hack'n'slash happy Arch-Militants, viewing them as expendable servitors-in-training is entirely appropriate as well.

Another facet is to combine your Explorator with a sort of Missionary concept. In other words, he's not just after tech...he's also looking for new recruits to the cause of the Machine God. Perhaps his secret ambition is to turn the Rogue Trader fleet into another Explorator fleet? Constantly seeking out converts to the Machine God's service, or offering the other players bionic upgrades to bring them "closer to the Omnissiah" are also ways to set yourself apart. Of course the Arch-Militants will probably be only too happy to go under the knife, thinking they are going to get upgraded. At that point you could get quite creative with any "improvements" you want to make...

But in any event, constantly searching for people with the knack and deep respect for technology and bolstering the numbers of tech-devoted on board is a way to add some more goals to your character, and roleplaying to your group. Just keep in mind that those who do not convert are most likely hereteks, and should earn your undying enmity...

We do have a missionary in the party so that already leads to some good potentual. Hes tried to convert the entire crew to following his views, however the engineering department has stanchly refused to side with him, he rolled a 100 on a couple fellowship roles.

Last week we arrived in port wander (iirc, the gateway to the khronos expanse) I plugged myself into a random date port, uploaded data on our three Archeotech ship mods for the Cult to study. Shortly afterwards an Explorator tried to steal our ship to gain control over the aforementioned tech. It seems our GM is not running the Cult as one unified group, He has the various branches playing off each other. Life Support, Propulsion, General Data are three distinct groups not even unified in structure.

There is also only one bionic engineer in all khronos space who wont be back to the port for two months. Once I hit rank 2 and gain the medicinte skill will I be able to perform bionic upgrade rituals to enhance my fellow party members. I do not think I will be able to work on myself, will I?

For your last question, it depends on the modification. If you've taken multiple bionics and The Flesh Is Weak talents, a large chunk of your body should be replaced with machine parts. So the question becomes one of access, made much easier with utility servo-skulls, mechandendrites and MIU-guided servitors.

The missionary shouldn't be trying to usurp the mechanicus, I'm pretty sure there are gentleman's agreements between the organisations to not provoke each other. Even if not, you could use this as an opportunity to unite the disparate mechanicus factions onboard into an iron wall against the non-omnissiah worshipping deluded.

On your original query, there's been a lot of good advice. I'm playing a character using the explorator advance scheme, but as a Magos Militant who was "advised" to take his xeno-tech reverse engineering ways out into the expanse, where his "kill them and study their gear" approach to xenos would be of some use. He's been a blast to play with his bizarre ways and competence in multiple areas (melee, shooting, technical, some knowledges and good old medicae). A few elite advances into such things as demolitions and interrogation for added hilarity. I never get bored playing him, since he has so many options between his skills, talents and vast quantities of best quality bionics.