I saw "The Road" yesterday and thought it was a powerful movie. Here is a warning kids, it is a brutal movie to watch and some parts are pretty wrenching, however, if you can take it, I suggest seeing it. It has lots of themes which could be applied to Rogue Trader.

The theme of the story is really one of wandering alone in the middle of nowhere, literally. There is NOTHING left after the disaster which fell upon mankind and people just survive just to get by. Add to that crazed cannibals which harvest people for food and you can imagine a pretty nightmare scenario.

It could probably work for a Rogue Trader story. What if the players get lost, really lost. What if warp storms flare up and cut off all usual routes. What if every planet you visit is a barren wasteland which had some civilization which fell to some apocalypse. The cannibals could be made into chaos reavers with very little modification. What if your ship is limping through space and you haven't had repairs in ages. What if all communication to Calixis sector has been cut off. What if something happened in Calixis sector and nothing exists there anymore?

Some of the characters in Rogue Trader seem to be geared towards survivalists. Since the theme is being away from home for a long time there would be several characters who could probably get used to a life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland scenario. Missionaries who brave heathen worlds to bring the word of the emperor. Ship crew who use every ingenious method to keep the ship running one more time. Militants who brave fighting a whole horde of Chaos Reavers (or Orks) who threaten to overwhelm ship and its crew. Mechanicus explorers who thing that the next place might have that component that the ship desperately needs.

Running this scenario would probably involve dropping the profit value and the quality of the ship by a large margin and tell the players to improvise more. Add the horror of finding dead planets one after another, enemy ships just at the edge of the Auspex. Morale dropping like crazy as crew men give up. Overall, it is a great inspiration.

It's a brilliant movie and the book is apparently spledidly understated horror story as well.

As for applying the story for the Rogue Trader setting, you'll find I cannibalized - pun intended - parts of The Road for the Fall From Grace scenario (see RT adventure contest finalists 2010). Nothing quite as large-scale as your proposal, though.

peterstepon said:

Yes! The players overcome countless struggles to preserve thier ship. Every obstacle is defeated and in the end they DIE.

Then another Rogue Trader comes along and takes the ship.

THE END

sinisalo said:

Incidentally, i'm almost done running that scenario. my modifications to your scenario started small and then went off the rails into GM improv to tie in several of my campaign plot lines. suffice to say that it's going well and next week should see them finishing up the adventure. I can write some coherent notes and post them in the GM forum later.