I am currently writing and planning a DH campaign not based around the Inquisition but instead based around the shadey dealings of a famous and charismatic rouge trader on the eastern fringe.

The players are drafted from the crew of the Rouge Traders personal ship to do a job for him as all of his regular groups are recogniseably to the local authouraties. The first mission is to take part on a major trade city (it basically exist because it lies at the junction of 2 different sets of stable warp routs). The job is a simple pick up the package drop off the money deal with an unknown item (unless one of them opts to play a Tech Priest and then he gets to know).

The players have a 3 day time limit if they wish to do the mission and not just bugger off and leave the rouge trader, and make a very powerful enemy in the process which im hoping will get them through this section pretty quickly.

I also plan on setting up a side mission that they can atempt if they want to make it hard on themselves (and if they pick up on enough clues to get it in the first place) which I will award them each a fate point for. I also have a pretty good idea of what I want the city to be like so im hoping they will be able to free roam as much as thay want.

I have changed the character creation because this is not the Inquisition and these are normal people. Stats will be defined by class, I will just use the existing classes as count as classes with a couple of tweeks (starting equiptment mostly will be very different). The only class's available to the player will be Scum (representing the chatty one), Guardsman (representing the dumb muscle) and Assassin (representing the sneaky git). There is also the option for 1 player to go a Techpriest who will otherwise be an NPC but I have several character traits that are important to that character so they will be required to play within those limits (but the Techpriest gets a few bonus's to make up for that).

They start off with almost nothing but the payoff if they do things right will be huge (a cut of the expensive items which I dont want to mention in case any of them read this).

This is my first GM experience and I am a while away from starting this up but really I would like some comments and feedback on the idea (other than dont do it).

Do you think you would enjoy playing in this type of campaign.

Thanks Kaihlik.

Kaihlik said:

As a player i think i would enjoy it greatly, as a gm i would be a little bit afraid since there is not really much describing how a ROUGE trader actually works or how his staff works. I like the idea of the "career swap" seems nice. I think you should add the Adept class also "Diplomat trainee" or something.

I am quite well versed in 40K background so I think I should be able to work around problems. Rouge Traders dont have one set method of working and as such you can basically make up what you want. The idea of a rouge trader is that he makes first contact and explores but at the same time they have to make money, ships are expensive to maintain if they have one (which mine does) and rouge traders have an image to maintain. They can really be who you want them to be. Mine is a well known (in this sector) charasmatic individual who is out for himself, he uses his position for maximum profit selling on technology and using his status as a Rouge Trader to make important contacts throughout the sector. He has groups of grunts who get his jobs done without him knowing to much.

The players are the new group of grunts that were selected from the ships crew because they looked capable enough to do the task. They are unskilled for the most part so thats why I didn't allow adept. As part of some of the sidequests I plan on giving them the opportunity to pick up NPC's with useful skill sets.

At least someone thinks its a sound idea for the players. With exams and Uni this proabably wont get going till Easter at the earliest and thats only if we dont do one of the other RPG's we have on the go atm so I have lots of time to think about how I want to do this but as this is my first GMing experiance I wanted to see what people thought in advance. I am concious that I may try and railroad them so I am trying to think about what the place will be like and some totally unrealted details for places that they could go. Till they get there it is very linear but from my experience that is normal.

Anyway if anyone thinks up interesting things that I could add in let me know. I know what the main mission is going to be and I have a good idea of a sidequest that if they pull off sucessfully will be worth a Fate point each and some other things if they manage to pick them up on the way (but the very real chance of dying if they are stupid about it).

Kaihlik

what is the goal of the PCs?

At the start they are just roped into it without much other option. That is until they realise that they are getting a cut. So after the 2nd mission they make a bucketload of money (the second mission is to take the package from the first mission to where its going and exchange it for the money). I am considering making it a 5% cut of what the rouge trader makes modified up or down depending on how they do but the stuff is worth so much that 5% will still give them a huge pay. That will be their incentive for doing the rouge traders dirty work.

The side quests I put in will basically give them loot and if it is a really important one, a Fate point. I am planning on making 1 fate point available per main mission but since they will have to pick up the side quests and then follow them throught to the correct ending I dont see them getting them all. Also this will usually be thier chance to pick up an NPC to join them or maybe just help them in the main quest.

Depending on how things play out this might evolve somewhat and they may gain the trust of the Rouge Trader and be sent on more interesting missions or they could cut and run at any point but it wont take long before the Rouge Trader starts hunting them and then it may become a game of cat and mouse between the group and the Rouge Traders other operatives.

Its an adventure into the unknown for me as well as it is the first time that I have GMed and I have picked something quite ambitious. I find explaining it to other people helps cause it allows me to put down some of the ideas I have had in my head for a while but I cant exactly tell my players about it so keep asking me questions please it will help me make this whole thing work.

Kaihlik

-EDIT- If you meant final goal then I dont really have one as I dont know how this is going to play out or if its going to last more than a few sessions. Obviously if they decide to go their own way then their end goal will be drastically different from if the do the main missions well or if they do the main missions horribly (like by failing to get the money or implicating the rouge trader repeatedly in illegal activity). The first few missions will hopefully allow me to get a feeling for where this is going and then I can think up something more concrete.

I really hope you meant "rogue" and not "rouge"...

HappyDaze said:

Yes I did I just can't spell .