Hi. I've been running a rogue trader game for some time now, and I'm quite new to RT myself. I'm enjoying GM'ing, except for one little issue I'm having, and it's nothing to do with the campaign.

Among the few players I have, there is one that is proving to be difficult. He's playing a female rogue trader who is ultra-paranoid and xeno-phobic. I've nothing against his character having these traits and at first, I found these traits to be an interesting addition to spice up the campaign. But, lately, I find that he's using the paranoia issue to try to do what can be called dumb acts.

Before anyone should accuse me of being 'picky' and Ihat 'I should let him do whatever he wants with his character', let me point out some of the stuff he's done in character:

(1) Installing spy-cams on all issued armor (except her own), including on the PC arch-militant's. Is it really possible to install them on armor?

(2) Have complete scans on everything, including whole scans of planets, people who come on board her (he's playing a female character) ship. I'm actually quite okay with this as it fits in with his character but I want to know how much is too much, in terms of game rules regarding scanning.

(3) Almost destroying a planet over-run with xenos, and probably would have if not for the inquisitor she had on board telling her that it's not up to her to do so - there's protocol to be followed.

(4) The latest (and most prossibly his dumbest idea yet): After one of the PC's (the navigator) had been possessed by a powerful but unknown entity - he tried to open his warp eye on all in the room at the time, including the rogue trader, but failed. Her attempts in killing off the navigator failed, Her final attempt was to issue a command to caused everything on the ship to malfunction and then, explode, causing everyone to die on the ship. But, I just couldn't let her go through with what I believe is an inane plan.

Normally, I don't approve of rail-roading, and try not do do it myself as I am usually patient with my players and let them do (mostly) whatever they want, within reason, of course. But, lately, I find that my patience is wearing thin with regards to my RT game and this player. I'm also running two other games, a DnD one & a DH one, and I don't have any of the same issue I'm experiencing here, in either of the other games.

Also, I also found out that he has cheated on his dice rolls from an ex-player (from the previous campaign) and I'm worried of how much he cheats in this one. His brother is also playing and he's nothing like him.

Any advice or suggestions, or thoughts? I feel sometimes that I'm losing control of the campaign (and the game), and that I have the urge to 'rail-road' (a little) in order to regain control.

1 - Did you have him roleplay how all these cameras were acquired ?

Does the RT know enough about technology to install them and the systems required to monitor them ?

What do the ships Techpriests think about this ?

If this was done without asking them, you could be looking at tech-heresy simply because that isn't an approved modification to the scared designs of the armour. Good luck repairing damage if the ad-mech refuse to help, assuming that they don't just kill the RT.

2 - Are the scanners aboard the ship that detailed ?

3 - Was it an Imperium world or not ?

If it was, then trying to destroy it without an order from the Inquisition would be a bad idea. By bad idea you are looking at being marked as a traitor to the imperium, meaning that it could cause the entire dynasty to be purged (at the very least the RT's life is forfeit). Though the Inquisitor may decide to keep this secret until there is a reason to use blackmail.

If it wasn't, then the RT is free to do whatever they like. Have a read through chapter XII of the core rulebook. Basically when they are outside the Imperiums borders, unless they move against the Imperium or break a condition of the warrant of trade, they are only outranked by The Emperor himself. Just remember that this is the official stance, the reality is a lot more complex.

4 - Assaulting a navigator like that has major complications:

- The Inquisition, if they hear about it, will want to know why she tried to aid that unknown entity by trying to kill everyone except the navigator.

- By going for the navigators eye, she risks making the navigator unable to navigate the warp. Good luck getting anywhere.

- The navigators house might not stand for that kind of mistreatment. Since they would supply all the navigators to the dynasty, and navigators are essential for warp travel, having them refuse to supply navigators be very bad.

As for the command to kill everyone on the ship, there is no way that the ships techpriests would allow that to be installed.

As for cheating on dice rolls, make all your players roll their dice in clear view of everyone.

(1) Installing spy-cams on all issued armor (except her own), including on the PC arch-militant's. Is it really possible to install them on armor?

Well that depends on the intended use; militaries nowadays have been known to use cameras built into combat armour for use in a tactical net or as an effective black box. The only real issue with this should be a) whether the so-armored crewmembers know about it and b) whether the arch-militant keeps his armour on at all times. The latter's something I have to growl at my players a bit, they have this expectation that they're all constantly wearing full combat gear in all situations, ranging from formal dinners to being awoken in the middle of then night. Who does she get to go through the logs, anyway? Two can keep a secret if one's dead, and any crewmembers are likely to talk behind closed doors about the trader who's so paranoid she spies on her own crew. Morale should accordingly.

(2) Have complete scans on everything, including whole scans of planets, people who come on board her (he's playing a female character) ship. I'm actually quite okay with this as it fits in with his character but I want to know how much is too much, in terms of game rules regarding scanning.

Active Auguries are quite noticeable. It would be considered impolite to scan a vessel belonging to someone of similar status without being invited, ie. another Rogue Trader. Fully scanning a planet for everything takes YEARS. A simple scan of a smallish planet should take at least a day and only expose particularly interesting things (That is to say, whatever you want them to find there) like transmission sources, hotspots of radiation, crashed ships, et cetera. If she wants to wait around and play surveyor, that's her prerogative.

(3) Almost destroying a planet over-run with xenos, and probably would have if not for the inquisitor she had on board telling her that it's not up to her to do so - there's protocol to be followed.

That depends on the planet's resources. If the natural resources exceeded the risk it would take to purge the planet of xenos, then yes, she was out of line. But otherwise she has carte blanche to act as she feels is best for the Imperium.

(4) The latest (and most prossibly his dumbest idea yet): After one of the PC's (the navigator) had been possessed by a powerful but unknown entity - he tried to open his warp eye on all in the room at the time, including the rogue trader, but failed. Her attempts in killing off the navigator failed, Her final attempt was to issue a command to caused everything on the ship to malfunction and then, explode, causing everyone to die on the ship. But, I just couldn't let her go through with what I believe is an inane plan.

The destruction of the vessel was excessive, yes. But I'd have run with it, myself. The crew thinks of her as a shipkiller, hotheads start saying it's only a matter of time before she murders their home to protect her own hide. Mutinies, assassination attempts, sabotage of her landing craft... And that's all before they return to port and the tale of her actions spread further!

Also, I also found out that he has cheated on his dice rolls from an ex-player (from the previous campaign) and I'm worried of how much he cheats in this one.

Keep track of his successes and failures. If there's a higher balance of successes than failures, make a dice tower or request that he be a bit more open about his rolls. No need to accuse him of cheating; that just causes more drama.

Errant said:

Only if telepaths or people who talk to the dead are kept away. 40k has telepaths and the dead don't always stay quiet

Well, the gentleman before me have given excellent advice on most of the issues, advices I approve of so I won't dwell there.

The last issue was about the Navigator. As RT you are bound to make sure that your ship is safe. Especially from wicked things like those that posses a Navigator. Executing the Navigator/Psyker etc is the time honored fashion to make sure that the whole ship is not sucked into the warp. There is but a few snags here.

Biggest snag is that you need a Navigator to get to places. Without one of those you are stuck in 1 system and to get to another will take years of travel. If you manage to get into port again you will have to negotiate with the Navigator houses and give them splendid incentive to place a new one aboard. Of course you can go for an Outcast Navigator with all the risks.

For tryint to kill of the whole ship? Well, time for a mutiny and a short walk to the airlock for mr RT. Roll up a new character, one with less destructive insanities please.

Solution?
Talk to the player, explaining that the character is becoming unplayable and that it is time to create a new one.

- He / she is a RT and yes as the power to do the planet killing thing even for fun (her crew may not agree if they are not as Xenophobe, but many Imperial Fanatics will be "in" with her).

- The arch-Militant is a master of arms and armor and should be able to spot any unordinary addition to his crew or is own equipment. Depending on is loyalty to the RT he may be offended. Paranoia can be used against the RT.

- Blowing up the ship. I fthe crew (including direct staff) saw that the RT tried to blow up the ship for no good reason, they are probably in their right to execute and call him an heretic for destroying a temple to the Emperor of Mankind for no good reason (ships are very very important for the empire so are RT), especially if this meant making them all stranded (the ad-Mech will probably be very pissed off)...

Mutiny!

as for cheating... make a point about how this is a game to have fun together, there is nothing to win and cheating only means he is robbing to game of it's fun, it's challenges. Since a char can be rerolled any time.

If you catch him, I would expel him, I work my head off to make a campaign not to have one ruin it all for the group.

(1) Who is doing this installation? The ad-mech would never change approved designs for a mere Rogue Trader, and may declare him HeriTech! Though cameras often do come on voidsuits.

(2) Scanning does not work how you think it does. This is not Star Trek. Keep it mostly realistic. You have reflective active scans (radar), spectrometer scans (surface level mineral detection), density scans (x-ray), and energy scans. From a distance you can see what is there and a general shape, though probably not "life signs". Detailed scans can only scan a few square kilometres at a time, and still aren't giving "star trek" levels of information. And everyone always knows where they are due to their active scanning, though those being targetted may be able to hade from the if they can find an area with significant levels of background noise (nebula, asteroid field, etc), giving them a real advantage.

As for scanning people who board their ship...well that is probably OK, unless they are people of influence, in which case it may hurt the RTs reputation (i.e. profit factor)

(3) You are playing rogue trader, is is par for course, and often the wisest course of action.

(4) The crew really should be reacting realistically to the actions of their captain.

MOST IMPORTANT POINT:

Not everyone is suitable to play a "Team Leader". We had to sack our first Rogue Trader because it wasn't working out. Sad but true, and one of those tough decisions a GM has to make on occasion.

Bilateralrope said:

I would personnally just say:

1 - this and that don't work. I am removing those because they make the game boring for X, Y , Z reason.

There is no discussion about it.

2 - Then add those things need to be discussed about (say things you haren't sure you want your players to have ) and then deal with them on the how to and what for.

3 - This and that attitude don't work because X, Y, Z. If you don't change A, B, C will happen. If they still push then A,B,C happens twice.

4 - What they want and make it happen (within the limit of what you have just defined)

Simply put you did not know so it's okay, 40k is a weird universe, the system way from perfect. It hard to balance things out at 1st and it looks like players scruwed you over being to "nice". Everything is an aquisition roll and you get to say +60 or - 60 difficulty... a ship wide stealth would be +60 on the roll super hard to find in even the most busy forge world. the time statis ship wide are you kidding me?

You need a reset or a readjustment. Instead of removing everything, they should get something not to far yet no over kill, Tenbro Maze archotech , Xeno Mimi Engine (no shield can be combine with it), etc. All of those are still nice modules.

Then after a game or two, I would kill the RT and the navigator, get one of the more moderate players to play the RT and generally switch some responsability around. When player push the envelop way to deep, then tend to die of a very deep paper cut...

SC_Andy said:

Stealth Fields are Eldar technology, but don't really work in that way. They're almost impossible to get hold of, and the slightest rumour that your ship has one would have both the Ordo Xenos and Adeptus Mechanicus gunning for his head. Stasis Fields exist as well, but are not ship-wide, mostly archeotech. The thing to remember here is that you're the GM. Don't let him just roll for Acquisitions and then tell you what he wanted. If he asks for something outside the rules, tell him you'll have to consider it.

Stasis fields are a rare but known and available tech in the Imperium - though they usually only cover a limited area - the very upper limit on a starship would be an house-sized vault. They're very convenient to keep fragile or dangerous items safe. How else could a captain get his freshly pressed rare and exotic fruit juice glass every day during his breakfast

But usinf it to trap an inquisitor falls straight into the 'very dumb' idea - even more so if the inquisition is aware he was on board and they keep him 'on hold' for a long time. Trapping him for a few hours to quietly dispose of embarassing stuff though the airlock may slip unnoticed, but pulling that crap for a long period won't. And the inquisitor will definitevely want to poke his nose into the PC"s affair to determine what they were trying to hide from him.

Errant said:

Let the player go through with his idea and destroy the ship. If he actually has the power to do so as the RT and the other players don't prevent it. Then start a new game without him. You could allow the other players to escape and survive with a fate point less.

My question is, have you been giving this PC Insanity Points for this? By my calculations what you’ve described should have earned her about 25 at least. If you have been giving them IP and the character has a bunch then you Player is playing an insane character very well and shouldn’t be “punished.” Though actions do need to have results. If not, then you need to put a stopper on it, have the ship go in the Warp and come across a lost ship. As they scan it they fond out its their ship! When they board the ship they found your Rouge Trader sitting alone on the bridge (this should cause the Rouge Trader PC to get 1d100+20 IP, that‘s right 1d100). If this doesn’t driver her fully mad then have the story be that she killed the Navigator and the rest of the crew and got trapped in the warp some years from now. This will put the crew on edge knowing she will kill them and the Navigator will for sure be putt off by that he’s just heard. Let the situation resolve itself. Does the crew try to kill her before she can kill them? Does the Navigator try to kill her first; while still in the warp? Have it end that either she dies (after all, the whole ship thing could have been a massive Warp mirage meant to drive the crew insane), or the crew dies and she goes fully mad, which removes her from play and since the others are dead you have to start a new crew. Or something along those lines.

The biggest problem I see here is the cheating issue. I have a player who the others have accused of cheating as well. It's a problem, because he's one of our room mates, and I don't want to just boot him from the game, because we don't really have any other place to play, and he'd just sit around and sulk. Or get angry. I'm still working on a delicate way of explaining to him that he'll probably have more fun if he doesn't cheat. Brilliant successes are only fun when there is actually a chance of failure, and besides, he's throwing off my attempts to create balanced encounters.

Everything else you mentioned can be handled by creative GMing, with in-game consequences. If the player doesn't take a hint that his actions are getting his character in trouble, kill his characterafter a certain number of strikes, of course. The cheating on rolls, however.... man, that's so tough. It's an ugly situation.

With regard to the cheating issue, one way of dealing with it is to announce a hardline cheating policy. You don't have to raise your suspicions of any one player, but simply say that concerns have been raised and so from now on, anyone caught cheating will have to face [penalty] and leave it at that.

One old group I played in at uni stated up front that whenever someone was caught cheating, their character would be fined 10(n!) xp, where n was the number of times they got caught.
This, of course, meant that their character would only lose 10xp for the first offence, but the second would cost them 30xp, the third 60xp, the fourth 100xp, etc.
Depending on the system, you could either take it from a character's total xp (even when that would mean the character loses a level/bought advances) or strip accumulated unspent xp and then allow them to build up an xp debt (ie, they will get less/no xp when it's handed out to the group until the debt is paid off).

Another (more hardcore) group declared the first time someone was caught cheating, their character would be set on fire, the second time their character sheet would be set on fire, and the third time they would be set on fire.

Make the cheater read the thread!

On the other hand nothing prevents a DM from cheating too. Voiding a few of is very lucky rolls!

Ah my creature dodge your attack and it too had 54 success!

I must add, as a DM i often cheat to make thingss a bit more challenging to my players (ssshhhhhhh).

I do one thing all the time, NEVER EVER tell the number of required success before a roll, EVER. Then ask the amount per player, for something very hard, I make a eye balled average. then sometimes I flip a mental coin.

The other one is make them do a roll. Tell hem it's critical roll, then when you have the roll number, tell them it's the opponents BS roll on the heavy bolter full auto. Next one it's is normal roll but then let them roll empty rolls, he won't ever be sure which is theirs or the enemy.

Your main players will enjoy and get along if they understand the point. The cheaters will go crazy!

Alasseo said:

Sir, this may be the single greatest houserule I have ever seen in my life. I bow to this group and to yourself, for bringing it to my attention.

As far as the examples you cited, only the last one about trying to destroy the whole ship would've been a problem for me, personally. If the player wants to be paranoid, I think that fits pretty well into the setting of the 40k universe, and it sounds like he was doing a bang up job of role-playing it.

Installing cameras on everyone's armor? Sure. Installed. Ignored unless the player brings them up, and then he gets to sit in a room somewhere on the ship for a few hours scrolling through footage with no real important bits. Meanwhile I'd move the focus of the game over to the rest of the players. I mean, unless the other players are constantly doing things this player doesn't like I don't see what the problem is. Maybe once in a while I'd rule a camera got broken in combat, so the footage he's watching cuts off shortly before something I don't want him to see. If I had a really good reason not to let him learn stuff from the cameras, that is. If he got lippy about that being done "on purpose" then I'd start rolling a die to see if the camera breaks every time the character wearing it got hit.

Sounds like you handled the whole blowing up the planet thing just fine.

After the ship incident, I'd probably take the player aside after game and ask him what he's hoping to accomplish by blowing up the ship. I'd remind him that this is a game and the purpose of a game is for everyone to have fun. Roleplaying your paranoid RT is all well and good, but destroying the ship with everyone on it is not fun for the others, and he should be more considerate.

Railroading is all well and good when you can keep a handle on it, but some players will just push back until everything spirals out of control. In those cases, you need to recognize that railroading won't help (ideally before anyone loses their temper) and have words about it outside the game.

As far as the cheating thing goes, how reliable is this "ex-player" of yours? Does he have a grudge with the accused? I wouldn't worry too much about such accusations unless you have some evidence of your own to support it. Maybe he used to cheat in the past, but he's now outgrown it. Clamping down on him is only going to risk losing another player (which you may or may not be okay with.) Watch his rolls, check his character sheet after game - easier to do if you keep them all between sessions. But don't act on this cheating thing unless you have a legitimate reason to suspect he's doing it in your game.

Also, on a personal note, I tend to discourage cross-gendered player/character situations. Not that I'm judging or anything, but in my own experience the people who role-play members of the opposite sex are usually the ones who go a little overboard with just about everything in game. It also gets difficult for everyone to maintain proper gender pronouns, which can foul up role-playing scenes. Keep in mind that I say this as someone who used to do exactly the same thing, once upon a time. I outgrew it though. For this game it's a little too late, but the next time you start something, you might try instituting a "same gender characters only" policy and see if that changes anything for you.

The player has admitted to cheating in the previous campaign and says he's stopped in this campaign. The ex-player only came for one session, didn't like what he saw and just didn't turn up anymore. But, I have no reason to doubt his credability. In any case, I've already canned the RT campaign as I felt it wasn't leading anywhere and it was getting ridiculous on the amount of 'railroading' I had to do just to bring them back to the campaign and I have a feeling the other players didn't like it, too - I'm starting a new DH campaign.

As for the 'cross-gender' issue, this player has been playing female characters since the first DH campaign - he was a female psyker in that one. Just don't ask me why he plays female characters cuz I don't know. For this new campaign, which should start this week, he's playing an Adepta Sororita. As for discouraging cheating, I might ask all players to roll their dice towards to the middle of the table.

There is another player, the annoying kid, that is being a little difficult in terms of rolling dice. He has a 'tens' (percentile dice) and a 'units' (d10) dice and insists that the 'tens' die is his 'units' die, and vice-versa. Should I tell him that what ever he rolls is what he got, or just ignore it and let him keep this order? I'm actually fine with this, it's just that this player has a history of changing which die is his 'tens' and which is his 'units' after he makes his rolls.

SC_Andy said:

Get him to pick one way or the other then write it down (to prevent arguments later) and take the piece of paper for yourself. Make sure he sticks to what was written down.

The biggest problem was the whole Navigator thing. The rest is within his power as the rogue trader but killing the navigator gets you stranded. If he continues that though just let him do it. He'll kill all of his crew members and your other players will then start to back you up because he ruined the game for them.