Ok so my players are starting, fresh into the expanse, when after having a Void battle against 2 pirate raiders ships (they destroyed one, and knocked-down the engines on the other), capturing the pirate Captain (and learn where their secret space Station/depot is located) and towing the still 'afloat' raider vessel to Footfall (to make a fleet I'd reckon).

Now, they JUSt arrived into the Expanse and this will be thier first visit to Footfall; the Astropath will gets her Choir (as per chargen Aquisition), the NPCs will look for soldiers and such etc etc...Now I want them to show that they are newcommers (they even rolled in the SP/PF chart as a newly formed Dinasty) that they got a long way to go before getting respected in Footfall.

My plan is to use Jeremiah Blitz 'against' them, i.e. having Blitz a popular and well loved Rogue Trader in Footfall, all the while being the outrageous and theatrical man that he is. My plan was, while the PCs are walking down the docking area, having lots of workers walk towards them all exited...before they cut through them to check out a vessel that's arriving. Of course that would be Blitz's ship (I might upgrade it to a Frigatge rather than a cargo ship) arriving in Footfall, the man himself standing on the Emperor's statue on the prow of the ship, rocking it out wiht some sort of electric guitar, before pointing out toward the docking wing the PCs are, and teleporting himself on a crate, yelling "JEREMIAAAAAH BLIIIITZ" pointing high into the air and continuing his wicked (and dare I say-Heretical) guitar solo one handed, with lots of distortion, maybe pull a Peter Frampton and have his guitar talk.

Of course, the men will be yelling and cheering, woman would fall unconscious to his sight/yelling groupie stuff like "I want to have your child" and so on. Footfall security would appear to control the raging mass of workers. Then Blitz would complete his solo and givng the crowd a "THANK YOU FOOTFALL! EMPEROR BLESS YOU!" then letting himself drop down on the crowd, half body surf, half being carried and saying something like "TO DOCKING BAY 4 GOOD PEOPLE, I NEED STRONG ARMS TO UNLOAD MY NEWLY AQUIRED SPOILS!" and having the crowd carrying him away going "BLITZ BLITZ BLITZ!" leaving the PCs slacked-jawed and wondering who the hell that was.

Now-question is, is that too much? Or not enough to honour such a roguish Rogue Trader?

People riding in on the prow of their vessels? Rock-Guitar and Guitar-Hero-Posing? Loud-Hail Announcing a dock that goes cheers and hooray?

Sorry, but in my books you really overdoing it. If we would be talking some anime like "One piece" I would say you are right, but in the ueber-grimdark of 40K it feels just as wrong as it can get.

Like maddow with bunnies on it. Or like superiors actually starting to be nice. Or like preaches being forgiving. I will exand an some constructive suggestions later.

But let it be told that this feels Depeche-Mode-Title-Song.

Sounds like fun, but I'd tone it down. Cut the solo, but keep the adorable fans. Blitz does identify with the common man, and would not be offended by the riff-raff shouting his name. More uptight classic noble RT's would frown on things like this: "How pedestrian... Loutish", "Have my men beat this filth... etc."

But then again... Footfall isn't Scintilla. Flashy and borderline heretical is the norm, and nobles are NOT in control there. Criminals are.

Option:[Getting Dockworkers]
The pc (the RT, the Seneschall, whomever) go to the office of the local Dockmaster (who conveys dockworker crews "listed" with him/her)

As the pc arranges for loading/unloading of his ship, he gets a loosy amount of men (which means that everything will take much longer). The pc has seen dockworkers around the office tweedling their thumbs (playing cards, etc) so the pc will naturally ask for more men.

The answer is "there are no more men available at this time. All available crews are at work. You will have to wait until
one of the crew finishes its task next duty-cycle (8 hours)". As the pc points the conversation towards the men standing around the office,
the dockmaster replies that "Captain Blitz is announced to come to port this day".

The pc might try it with some extra money, but the Dockmaster will give them a smeared smile saying "It never wise to risk relation with a long-time customer for a one-time profit"

The pc will of course be courted by the "independent" work crew. These aren´t liste with the dockmaster because the crews aren´t fast enough or goods tend to... disappear. If the pc take some independent crews they will experience some annoyance in the form of broken/lost goods or slow work (negative achievement points on what every they were doing).

This help to foster some bad feelings/rivalry between the pc & Captain Blitz while establishing that having a reputation in footfall (or at least: being a known face)is of help a lot with some of the groups in the station.

[Astropath]
You mentioned your pc try to get a choir for their Astropath. Perhaps they want to visit the Pit of Voices (and perhaps you can make use of
some of these encounters:: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=159&efcid=3&efidt=443445 )

Anyway, allow them to do their research for Astropaths and guide them to the Pit of Voices where they can haggle.. erm... discuss! with "the eldest" of the Astropaths the possibility of employing some their own.

Play out how eldest scrutinize them and point out about them being without much of a history to them. Anyway, allow your pc a "job interview"
with three Astropaths (whom would be "loaned" to them). But no contract is sealed. The Eldest will debate things over the matter among themselves and invite the pc to return tomorrow.

As the pc leave, the will meet Jeremiah Blitz and his entourage on there way out. The next day their "prime candidate" is "already loaned to another party" and there second choice refuses the offer. Even if the sum s raised, the candidate made it clear that "he is looking for an employee "with a more established reputation"

I Introduced Blitz to my group during the Fall of Grace adventure available on the website. Basically I gave him an australian accent and a very live and let live attitude about everything that masked a certain sly cunning.

Their first meeting was when he brought his cruiser to within just a couple of kilometers of their vessel, causing all kinds of alarms to go off, and challenged them to a race to see who got to Grace first. He lost and was very gracious about the whole thing, but has since gone onto take advantage of anything he can while the players run around trieing to complete their primary mission. I also had him team up with Hadarak Fel (From the core book adventure) so the PCs are kind of torn between liking blitz, despite his accent, or wanting him dead.

I think the key was his overuse of the word mate, and keeping him smiling at all times. Even when he's talking about something deadly serious.

mouahahhahaha well you know what a very ironic funny dark look at it could be good!

Have him be a slaneshee!

Very Ciaphas Cain stile, have this cover somethign completly horrible, they are going to eat him, he is a Dark Eldar, he is using the water from vaporis, etc

I don't know. TO me he seems to kind of a Han Solo or Jack Sparrow homage who's there for the player's to hate and love in equal measure. Basically he's the rogue trader they don't mind losing to, and who's a bit less tightly wound than most of their competition. So even though they're all cut throats and scoundrels, you can have some fun with him over the matter, even if it ends in macrocannons at 10VUs.

Considering he's one of the few NPCs to make it into more than one adventure I'd say the FFG team kind of feel the same way. That and he's self absorbed and is in it more for the adventure and fame then the glory and long term benefits.

Back to the original poster's idea of an odd way to introduce the man. A guitar solo kind of thing is a wee bit to silly for RT. However, having him preceded by a small parade of choir servitors and cherbus singing an epic to his many seductions of female nobility might be just as good.

A grimdark version of Ruby Rod from The Fifth Element if you will. You know, that annoying guy chris tucker played who was followed by theme music half the time?

Truth be told, I always saw Dark Heresy as being grimdark, Rogue Trader as being HIGH ADVENTURE and Deathwatch being Epic.

Kinda like:

In DH, you eat your soup; then go insane and mutates

In RT, you eat your soup, then sword fight a few mooks as you get up and get the salt.

In DW, you eat your soup, while shooting at a horde of Genestealers one handed with your plasma cannon as the the fleet in high orbit is starting it's Exterminatus.

Gregorious' ideas are nice as well; just seems,to me, to lack panache: sure you could dock at Footfall and let the rumour mill spread your arrival, or you could simply MAKE your arrival known to all. To me, a Rogue Trader must have that bravado, that panache, that puts him a few notches above the common masses of generic people; you're working on a Dynasty here, people will remember a well-loved Rogue Trader...but they'll talk about a Rogue Trader who makes his arrival a spectacle for all to enjoy far longer, up to being the stuff of legends.

George Labour: Nice image of a future Ruby Rod. Hmm..so many possibilities..

Gregorius21778 said:

I pity your players that they will never experience something as awesome as this

Fortinbras said:

Commissar Fucklaw: Patron Saint of JEREMIAAAAAAAAHHHH BLIIIIIIIIITZZZZ

Also, I don't know about you, but I have an Endeavor specifically dedicated to protecting a punk rock band from the depths of Necromunda so that they can play a sold-out concert on the edge of the Calixis Sector. Only problem is that they want to get paid in illegal xeno-drugs, and they owe a lot of money (specifically a PF rating of 5-10) to several cartels.

Braddoc said:

Your description reminded me of this:

Check 00:34

L

Fortinbras said:

Hehe... and you could totally work that in as a 40k version of today's christian hard rock. Songs worshiping the God Emperor and the various imperial saints defended by the angels of death that descend from on high to smite the heretics and purge the unclean.

While the ministorum would probably be confused but they'd certainly run with it.

LETE said:

Best

3 seconds

EVER

Now I'm reminded of the guitar duel in that one episode of Reboot.

I like the idea, go for it!

This is RT and it could be a great start for a nice competition of who is the coolest RT in town. In my campaign, we pay people to arrange our RT to such a warm welcome

Actually the more I think about it, I could see an entire endeavour built around who's not only the most flamboyant, but also the most musically inclined RT.

Imagine a lost human (or perhaps Xenos) colony with a system ripe with resources. Problem is, the local culture has this near psychotic obsession with apperance and artistic skill, thus the most influential people are those who not only set trends and dress excessively, but can do something like play a guitar so fast the strings catch on fire.

So the explorers arrive, and find they have competition. Now they have to show to the natives that they're not only the best dressed, most cultured, and intelligent, but they also have to compete in some kind of battle of the bands style tournament to win the writ of claim.

Add in some orks who have come to show the 'umies some good orky goff rock, and you have a few sessions of amusement. Especially if the orks win.

I had that kind of rock-off between characters once, but it was between different ad-mech representatives. See, the highest Ad mech representative in Fottfall in my campaign is a she, and was looking for a suitable mago to fournish genetic materials to conceive a suitable heir; According to her calculations, the most suitable candidate among the potential fathers gathered then -among them one of my player's Explorator - will be revealed after a musical battle.
the mago competed after transforming the Player Ship in a gigantic organ, using the light cruiser as a musical instrument, with thousand of servitors reprogrammed to play like this :

Mostly I'm just looking for an excuse now to include ork goff rokkers' in my game now. Considering one of the PCs is an ork and he keeps trieing to 'recruit' more there's a good chance there's some already on our ship. I wonder if they could count as broadband hymn casters for ork vessels.

I do want o run the Frozen Reaches eevnetually (The ship and crews seems more included for military endeavour anyway) and with typical player gile, no doutb they will somehow try to convince JEREMIAAAAHHH BLIIIIIITZ to get soem Ork ship's attention with soem good ol' fashioned rockin', if only to get the Ork's attention away from shootin' and into rockin'

A bit over the top for "canon" 40k games but hey, this is Footfall and its your game. So if you want to run with it go ahead. Gives the players a perfect excuse to use those Perform skills.

Hell, Ciaphas Cain has a pict series about him. I vaguely imagine it's like one of those 90s cartoons where the hero fights the same opponents every week, defeating them by learning a lesson about himself and his regiment. With a bitchin' themesong written by Bolt Thrower.