No player has a real grasp on 40k lore or background, except for playing Dawn of War series games. I've decided to take advantage of their lack of knowledge and likewise make their characters have a similar problem as well. The idea has a few kinks, but i think can sneak by mostly unnoticed.

The characters start trapped in a warp-locked star system, that has acted more or less, as a dynastic tomb for the RT legacy. 500 years previous the dynasty embarked on a great endeavour to colonize a world in the Expanse, investing heavily only to have the warp seal them away. Shortly after the game begins the warp will settle and the players will be able to leave in a mostly depleted vessel back to the Calaxis (sp) sector to annouce their survival - and subseqent reconnection with the rest of their dyntasy.

The player RT will start third in command, in short order his father is murdered by the eldest sibling who has become tainted by chaos, quickly promoting the players up the chain to their proper places as leaders. On this point I'm not clear, but I would like to put the older sibling in-charge of a grand-cruiser (the specifcs aren't important), and turn him into a recuring chaos-villian and a fleet of chaos raiders. The players have to flee the system in a smaller vessel avoiding him.

That is the major plot line, not intended to be overly long, but enough to introduce some concepts.

Before the warp settles, there will be opportunity to complete endeavours related to a proper RT game (ie. valuable equipment, the colonists, the resources that have been collected, Imperium factions still represented, etc).

For extra cynicism, I've consider making the RT dynasty the Haarlocks from Dark Heresy: when the players do make it back, they discover the entire dynasty has been wiped out by itself, 200 years ago and the warrant is almost forfeit. Which will seguway (sp) into an encounter with the Inquistion that offers them the opportunity to "free up" the red-tape locking the warrant (and coincidently their ship) in legal disputes for decades, providing they complete a couple of jobs, while the Inquistor "helps" them out.

I've considered, just for fun having an Ork on the player (not a player), or a minor Ork ecosystem in some long abandoned part of the ship.

Thoughts?

Sounds like you have a nice start for an ongoing campaign.

You could consider working a bit on the siblings fall to the ruinous powers. Could it be that the farther denied the sibling a lover and in the pain the ruinous powers gained some control over the sibling. But the sibling still has some of his/hers soul left, and the player knows it. Will they eventually go for a rescue or cleansing by fire? Maybe the lover was one of the other players, that will really complicate matters!

If you are going to incorporate parts of the Haarlock trilogy it is a good idea to make the rogue trader a descendant. Otherwise I think you may be better off using a less used name as Haarlock is almost fluff by now.

Orks as castaway on the ship sounds unlikely as they will pretty certainly make a lot of noise. Heretic crew members are much more likely. Maybe even the same cult as that of the sibling. Orks do have an entertainment value no other Xenos has, so it could make for some fun.

Good luck with the game!

Good plan!

If you want to introduce a few concept to 40k :

- Dark City (the crushing feel, the alien in the dark, ships are city in sapce)

- Blade runner (literal hive world or polluted world. it's as grim dark 40k as it gets)

- Dune (navigator, the different RT house, the psykers, etc)

- Starship Trooper (the mass of human soldiers, the fact humans are a tool for a goal etc.)

The truth is somewhere in between Starship trooper and Dune with a good mixt of Saw and all those horror movie including alien, Aliens, predators, Ghost of Mars, etc.

A good discussion about possible things to include hidden in ships was on this link ( www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp ). We talked about Ork infestations and possible tyranid/Genestealer infestations as well.

But to remind... Things like Orks would be fine. They just pop up. But Genestealers could potentially take the ship out from underneath you. Definitely not something to start a player ship with.

Otherwise, sounds like a nice intro to the systems. That could also help to explain any archeotech on the ship.

Thrantor said:

A small scale non-specifc Ork infestation, more for comedy relief and a potential PC/NPC is all I would include. On a secondary note, I know I will be using the ship as dungeon for the players to explore on occasion, being forced to use melee weapons and travel through sub-decks and so forth to reach certain objectives that the rest of the crew would be unable to face.

Sounds good and I admire your resourcefulness. My players don't have any clue about the 40k universe. Remotely and it has been challenging to get them into the right mind set for such a despondent future. Kudos.