Things not going as scripted:

Rogue Trader calls the groups Astropath and Seneschal into his wardroom:

"Gentlemen tonight I ate Live Dolorium Throat Crab. I did this to talk some heavily armed barbarians with pretensions of nobility out of basic information about the foretelling. In this box is a Deep Warp Eel, something that I did not have to eat tonight. The armsman that did try it is now dealing with a second pair of legs. Footfall stands on the gateway to the expanse. We have no spies here! So far this crew has accumulated a small squad of servitors for the bodies of local thugs that had no fear of us. Gentlemen, this ends now. I don't care if you have to haul in people and deep condition them, we will have a descent network of contacts and spies set up on this station before we leave. If we don't, one of you will get to sample the Eel."

Twenty minutes later, calls in Arch-Militant and Exporator

"In that box is a 'delicacy' made out of a warp creature. Take it over to the port Lathe battery and fire it into the sun please."

At the auction. "Five PF, never mind. We'll just ambush one of the winners later and have the Astropath pull the coordinates from their mind. Either that or a divination to find out where the winners are heading." (Brief discussion of the number and types of troops available to the players. Technically their ship is a Mechanicus vessel. Results in the players trying to disguise some of their Murder Servitors as station scum and ambushing Krawkin Feckward. There are no survivors of Feckwards party. Other dynasties will take notice. So will Footfall: +500AP's for setting up a Criminal Network and Footfall and whacking the competition. Footfall natives reaction to the players increase by one degree).

On the way out: Players encounter the Grace of Sophia being attacked by the Shard of Dawn. Charge in. Arch-Militant has 66 BS skill (61% base + one raise), +5% from the bridge, +10% from a good MIU, + 10% from the Rogue Trader (91% to hit). Rolls a 05. Gets 6 hits with a broadside + a crit with takes out the Shard's holo generators. Follow up hit from the Star-Flare Lance, generates a plasma breach vaporizing the ship.

Rogue Trader then proposes marriage to Madame Chantainbue (who's ship they just saved, on the idea that both the players and her have about half the PF they really need).

Arch militants MIU is probably going to get taken out in the first crit hit that can justify it. . . Into the storm and point buy allows for some crazy high stats.

Note: Players Ship

Dauntless Class Light Cruiser

Jovian Pattern Warcruiser Drive, Sterlov Warp Engine, Command Bridge, Gellar Field, Ghost Field, Single Void Shield Array, Ancient Life Sustainers, Pressed Crew Quarers, M201.b Auger Array, Lathe Pattern Broadside (Port and Starboard), Star-Flare Lance, Extended Supply Vaults, Warpsbane Hull, Murder Servitors, Crew Reclamation Facility.

Crew Quality: 25 Green (-5 SP cost).

Ship Qualities, Blasphemous, Xenophilous

70SPs

Note: Mechanicus ship, use crew population from a Lathe class ship. Downgrade to crew quality is from heavy use of servitors on a ship not designed for it.

Further note: With the ability to generate a ship with both Archaeotech and Xenotech components on the same ship, after Into the Storm, it might be a good idea to strictly enforce the one achaenotech component rules, even for minor items like life sustainers.

Observation: I think we might have overestimated the power level needed for survival.

****. I wish I had players like that.

Sounds like a hell of a ride.

Well, it does not went like the book...but it these are reckless plans and it recks of just kind of cuthroat-bravadore one should expect from some RT-Groups.

And you as a GM seem to role with the blow quiet good!

Suggestions: I think RT do not marry on the spot. The Lady will ask for being courted.. and half that way (during the adventure) she might want the promise of half of the Dreaded Perl... of course, she will only accept Marriage afterwards... (so if she did it without them..some kind of Red-Sonja-Thing: you need to beat me in order to be my husband).

This doesn't sound like a disruption so much as your players getting into the swing of things.

Sounds like they are having a blast. My PCs have also recently begun to recruit a spy network on Footfall as well as develop contacts across certain important places in the Calixis Sector, such as Scintilla. They have factors on Footfall, Port Wander and Scintilla to handle their business while they go off adventuring and being awesome.

On Lure of the Expanse, my players finished it a while ago and i made all kinds of detours as did my players, don't worry about it, as long as they are having fun and the plot is moving along nicely, it doesn't matter if they take detours.

Love the idea of the marriage proposal. My group formed alliances with two NPC rogue traders they already knew as well as Madame Charlabelle and Sun Lee. A fleet battle against Bastilles forces, near total annihiliation of human life on Vaporius, They fired upon the remains of Umboldts men in the Processional while refusing their hails, totally skipping that whole segment. They took time out to annihilate an old foe, made friends with a space marine and recovered an STC template from the Pearl. Detours are fun!

I'm jesous. I just can't get my players to think outside the box like that most of the time.

Just last night I gave them one time access to a near omnipotent Eldar artifact that could answer ONE question, about anything, and would answer eanestly and truthfully (no lawyer, genie, monkey paw tomfoolery). They were stranded on a planet, but had a ship coming to pick them up in a month or two, and hadn't run into anything dangerous. I was pretty much planning on glossing over their stay. I was very curious as to what kind of question they would come up with. I had several fun ideas myself: location of a retrievable STC, the sectors greatest treasure, what to do to become to most powerful/famous trader in the expanse, how to wake up the emperor, how to aquire a fleet, etc. etc.

What do they ask?

"what is the best way to survive on this world"

umm...

go fishing every day in the lake five miles to the east...don't go underground...stay inside at night.

Great use of your oracle guys.

Yeah, it sounds like your game is going okay provided you're comfortable with what they're getting up to. With regard to the PCs wooing another Rogue Trader, I think it's a great plot thread and definitely something to flesh out - it's something I planned to thorw in myself when I run Lure of the Expanse shortly. Something I considered which you might not have however, is that I couldn't see two Rogue Traders getting married for practical purposes - their heirs would become the same, and what would happen to their second Warrant of Trade. I believe it would become redundant. Charlabelle may well need someone to create an heir to her Warrant with, to make sure her House and line continues. But if she marries a Rogue Trader, her line and House will merge into his, and be lost. Better she marries another Explorer, someone who will allow her House to continue - my Rogue Traders brother, a Seneschal, for example. How much more tragic would it be if the Rogue Trader and/or her had genuine feelings for each other, but could not be married as it would doom her House....

That's certainly not the only way to interpret the 'legal' practicalities of the situation, but that's the way I see it for my game, and if my players show interest in that kind of alliance building that's the way I'll run it. Not that you can ever tell what the players will want to do....

Of course, Charlabelle could just marry the guy, wait a few months, have her husband & his command staff discreetly assassinated, and then rule the combined dynasty with an iron fist, ensuring that her warrant is the one that continues...

As for getting derailed, yes, my players did that to me too. They went off the rails at Vaporious, where they actually found the flippin' Temple of the First Men, and again at the Processional, where they landed on Oblivion. I made them regret that latter act, though.

My group's run through Lure of the Expanse has been a real meat grinder. The following Rogue Traders have been "killed", meaning they burned a Fate Point: Lady Sun Lee, Baron Djanko Scourge, Abel Gerrit. But, Admiral Bastille the 7th and Krawkin Feckward have been killed off for real, meaning they burned all their Fate Points and then met a gruesome demise. Incidentally, the PC's were responsible for Scourge, Feckward, and Bastille losing fate points, so I see enemies in their future.

Cheers,

- V.

Your players (especially the rogue trader) are doing great things from the sounds of it. I don't know if you've GMed Rogue Trader before, but the power level is really high and takes some getting used to. Powerful characters that do awesome deeds are par for the course. Hence no need for a deliberate campaign to burn out an MIU or the like. Remember, their enemies include Eldar and other RT dynasties who have their own fun toys and abilities...

Yeah, I had some issues with my Lure of the Expanse game getting derailed, my players had traded their "Pleasure/secret Assassin" archeotech android found on a previous adventure for the bidding for the foretelling. Well the Player Captain wasn't leaving without his toy so before he sent it to the witches, the party placed a tracking bug on the droid, and than sent the former Assassin Arch Militant to track it down later and retrieve it, (meanwhile the competition were all leaving in search of the dread pearl)

The droid was basically in the hands of the Rogue Trader Scion in control of the Port, the player had to don a void suit and make his way outside of the station to an airlock near the quarters of the scion. He was wearing a stealth suit under his void suit and proceeded to track down the droid. Needless to say the player snuck into the lavish quarters and had the droid quietly assassinate the Scion with her retractable poison filled needlers in her hands and he retrieved the Captains favorite toy, making their way back to the air lock into a waiting shuttle.

my players are ruthless.

riplikash said:

mouahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahhahahahha....

I coffeed my self again!

Well that a mighty quest rap up moment. When something similar happens to me, they miss this super one time event, I usually tell them afterward... You should see their face.