I tried running with endeavours at the start of my campaign, but have mostly found them to be more of a hindrance than a help. I find that to be a little shame, as I am relatively fond of campaigns that focuses on macromanagement and building power and wealth.

I guess as a GM, I am not incredibly good at using it, and my players never did seem to have that sort of drive either. It was a relatively uninspired run after another, transporting this there, salvaging those ships here, building that there. So instead I introduced a powerful plot-line, which tied in with many of the characters backstories. They fought chaos heretics, stole an artefact of great power, ran away with it, got chased by the Imperial Navy, then got betrayed and chased by the Inquisition, and set out across the stars on a merry adventure for justice, and revenge. Potential things their future may hold is rescuing an Astartest strikeforce from rampaging Tyranids, siding with a radical Inquisitor whom has his roots in the backstory of one of the players, and potentially travel to an ancient world to stop the resurrection of an evil race.

The campaign has literally turned from what begun as a pretty standard RT campaign of wealth acquisition and power building, to a storyline filled with epic adventure across the stars, tradgedy and personal loss(some characters have already died along the road, and at least another is on the path of corruption), and a quest to figure out what this mysterious artefact they have found does, and why so many people are willing to see them dead over it.

I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing, but many seem to successfully play Rogue Trader as intended, with the endeavours and all. Some others play it as me, heavily story-driven. I've mostly substituted the profit you usually gain from endeavours with small boosts as they go along. Finding salvage or treasure along their way that they can sell in ports, giving them a boost of one or two points as they go. I mostly assume the hard cash is spent on various forms of investments or valuable materials they can easily carry with them.

I'm mostly interested to see how other people have handled endeavours, if they have used them extensively or if they have thrown them out of the window like I did.

Giantmoth said:

Generally speaking, I've found that letting the players build and define the endeavours (with the GM determining the numbers that accompany it) helps matters considerably, at least once they've gotten started. The start of a Rogue Trader campaign can be difficult, as the players have essentially limitless scope in what they can attempt and where they can go, which makes it difficult to get things going (infinite choice produces indecision). A few sessions of play gives them the means to start looking at their character's ambitions and goals, which in turn produces the seeds from which Endeavours grow, and from that point, it's a simple matter of collectively figuring out what they want to achieve (the end result of the Endeavour) and what they have to do along the way (the objectives).

Essentially, an Endeavour is a brief road-map for how to achieve a particular goal - with the task split into a number of smaller objectives that must be worked towards in some way in order to achieve the broader goal.

I've only just recently started playing in my first RT campaign, but so far, I've found how my GM handles the Endeavour system to be a really interesting and fun addition to how we handle the setting and seeking of our group goals. In effect, each Endeavour is like a job. We still have our lives, relationships, goals, and motivations that guide our interactions as we undertake those jobs - the job we're on just gives us a direction to go in as we go about whatever else we're up to.

All of the kinds of things you mention with personal motivation and character background are still fully present as a part of what happens to us, and influence the course of events as we play through our Endeavour(s). The Endeavours themselves are basically just milestones and notes for tracking how well we carry out our work as we go about our 'lives'.

Also, it seems to me that all of the things your group has done 'outside' of the Endeavour system could have just as easily been Endeavours themselves. Just because the default presentation for the system is like a job contract, doesn't mean that's the only form an Endeavour can take. Take the example you present of recovering an ancient (and presumably powerful) artifact - that sounds to me like a very serious Endeavour that the crew sets out on, with a very great potential reward. Due to the nature of the reward, perhaps the net result doesn't increase profit factor, but provides the crew with access to the artifact itself - rather than gaining influence and profit for their dynasty, the crew gains direct access to the artifact in question.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that 'going off the rails' from the default goal of increasing wealth and influence doesn't necessarily mean that the Endeavour system has no place in what you're doing - it just means that the Endeavours you are getting into are probably going to net different rewards, such as favours from important figures, access to special items or acquisitions, etc.

Now, I'm not at all trying to say that you should use Endeavours in your game, if you and your players are content to not use them, and you're having fun, then you're 'doing it right'. On the other hand, if you do want to use them, I think you could easily do so without compromising what you're doing.

EDIT:

N0-1_H3r3 has it nailed. The Road map analogy is perfect, especially if you consider that sometimes you can find alternate routes mid-journey, which works with the system perfectly if the goals as initially written are left broad enough to accommodate different methods of achieving them, or if you're willing to re-write some bits as you go when events warrant it. In your example of recovering an artifact then running away with it, perhaps you would change 'return object A to person Y' to 'find a way to get person Y off our case'.

I've found the Endeavour system to be very useful. Not just as the GM, but because it actually helps the players set goals and focus on achieving those goals. they sit down, come up with a detailed plan for what they want to achieve, and then I can add or subtract things as necessary. it gives the players the feeling that they're really part of the game and it helps narrow down the focus of the game for what I have to detail out and run as part of my game.

Personally I run a VERY story driven campaign, but still love the endevors system. I keep most of it in the background, but I find it to be a very useful system for framing adventures in such a way that the players can solve an encounter however they want.

The endevor lets me plan how "hard" something should be, e.g. how much effort it should take to accomplish. It makes their choices in equipment and skills have real consequences. Challenges are scenario driven instead of GM driven, which I prefer. Some endevors are very easy (appropriately so) due to their component choices. Others are very hard.

This doesn't mean there aren't ancient artifacts, ferocious foes, and dasterdly developments. The endevor system is just an impartial way for me to frame their adventures, and exists largely in the background. I don't think it has to have as big an effect on the players perceptions and goals as you imply.

I have found the endeavour system to be a great way to set up a game outline.

I've not got my players using endeavours themselves yet, to be honest i hadn't even considered it, not sure whether they'd go for it or not. At the moment i use them for two things, firstly, i use them as plans of roughly what i expect the plot to do. A rough plan essentially, that details a few stages of the plot, lists the type of objectives (very important for the bonuses the ships give) and so on. The other use is post session. If the PCs went well off the script, or just didn't something unexpected and i pretty much had to wing the session, i'll do an endeavour for whatever happened, typically my players never finish anything in a single night so this becomes the plan for the next session as well as totalling up the achievement points they've already got.

I don't use the points to determine when they end of the endeavour is reached, typically i let the plot determine that and the achievement point system only gives bonuses to PF at the end of the endeavour.

I've now got the nasty situation where my PCs have been fleet building. They now have 4 space worthy vessels and another 3 under repairs (which might take years). If they take their whole fleet on an endeavour, they can rack up some insane achievement point bonuses. I'll have to keep an eye on whether this gets unbalanced.

Maybe a few misfortunes now that they are becoming big players in the expanse.

Now, this is not a critic of your GMing style, just an explanation of how mine has evolved, and the results of it.

While there is nothing wrong with it, these days I try to avoid allowing things to be achieved "according to story", which to me is another way of saying GM fiat. In my games I have always found that I get more cinematic and exciting moments by creating encounters in a fair and realistic way, sticking to my guns, and letting my players handle them as they will.

The endevor system helps me do that. I don't want to arbitrarily decide when they have succeeded at something. I want to be able to decide in advance how much effort something takes and let the players handle it as they will.

Again, I still end up with a very story-driven campaign with lots of epic moments, climactic fights in interesting locals, and sweeping drama, and whats more, I find that if I just let it happen and don't force it.

The thing about running it in a story focused way is there is always the feeling that the universe has been tailored to the players needs. There are no TRUE sacrifices because they were all engineered decisions, and they are never really overcoming insurmountable odds because they are really just the odds the GM thought they could handle. The characters aren't really growing in power, because the universe scales in accordance to their abilities. Certainly a good GM can hide a lot of this, but not all of it.

But when you focus on realistic encounters instead of 'story' the sacrifices, daring doo, epic risks, successes and failures are all the players own, and are all the more satisfying because of it.

For me the endevor system is a useful, impartial tool to help me frame things. I know how much they need to accomplish, I don't have to rely on GM fiat. And for me that is a good thing.

Your mileage may vary.