Hello all,

I have returned once more from relative inactivity to check out the FFG RT forums and generally chat about this fantastic game. Having just finished our Prelude game, Maritime Games is stepping up it's current RT game (The Bonds of Dynasty) and as it;s Gm i would be very appreciative of some feedback concerning our obsidian Portal site.

The updates are pretty slow right now, but I am finding that this tools is pretty useful for documenting adventures such as RT, though I do not really find much difference between a paid and unpaid account with regards to extra functionality. my first question, however, is thus: How do you document your games to prevent mind-blowing levels of burn out? I am finding the Portal site is really helping, but diversity is the key to sucess, and would love to add some more bookmarks or methods to my library.

Secondly, I have just pre-generated two-pc's to allow some experienced 40k players to step in should my core group go missing in action IRL, and would like some feedback on the history and dynamic I have created for them.

I would be very grateful for any GM insights into dealing with pre-gens, kroot merc characters and interpersonal sotires aboard a starship - I am really hoping to have an equal measure of Profit, Personal and Historical (old enemies/one's past catching up etc) story lines occuring as the Explorer's sail into the void beyond the Maw.

Links below are:

The Main Site Blog

Yolande Janelle (Seneshal)

Akbol 'Far-Thinker' (Kroot Mercenary)

We use a thread on a forum we created for our gaming group.

In my experience, pregens are nice, but there are two things to keep in mind:

1. always have several more then you'll need, players need choice (else they're left stuck with what the other guy didn't take).

2. for most players, especially experienced ones, they're mainly for a one-shot. Not for the long haul.

the link to the seneschal character sheet doesn't work

Working on it, kinda left in a hurry yesterday so the dropbox link is incorrect. Ty for your current feedback though .

These pregens are meant for players that have voiced the kind of characters they are interested in, but have been tied up with a dnd game for the last few months. I am discussing ways of maybe having a Deathwatch style 'die and reroll at same level' for the pregens only (whichIi dislike as it encourages horseplay and suicidal tendencies in character) OR a complete background retcon within 2 sessions of starting (so people realise the character class is going to stay, but the exp distribution can be fluid until that trial period is over and thep layer makes it their character).

Thanks agagin and I hope to hear more critique soon!

I like that idea of the background retcon after 2 sessions. Should give them a good idea of how to tailer the characters to what they want.

As for interpersonal stories aboard a starship... i find it takes experienced RPing to pull it off. Our group mainly does this via the forum where we can roleplay - via posts and personal journals and such more - the bits that are in between the ones we play out in sessions. After all: warp travel tends to be long and not always filled with things to do in-session. Players can take cues of each other and determine for example that after the next warp jump character A can be pissed of at B. We can then roleplay it on the forum afterwards what exactly the reason was. We're only just touching the fringes though as we mostly have been playing short adventures with different characters to get a good feel for the setting/mechanics/classes/... . We're soon to embark on a great campaign so that's when it'll really get fun in this respect

If you want to do it all in-session then i hope you have players that are up for it, in our group this is certainly not the case. Sessions are where a lot of action takes place, in-between is where most of the serious roleplay takes part.

Hope that helps a bit and i hope others react as well!

PS: love the writing in the campaign journal!

Sokahrthumaniel said:

Looks decent, I do not play RT, I use the books for referrance for my DH/DW campaigns(one day if I have the time to put into the massive scale that is RT I might attempt it). My players use Google wave to log our sessions. It is a decent program, I have also done some play by post with it.

Kinda on-topic, but divergent addition to the above: Player Character Homeworld Art!!!

Started with our Arch-Militant's desert death-world, specifically capturing a scene during her trials as an adult, mere months before her 'press ganging' into the service of a sector crime syndicate as an enforcer/bodyguard.

In the vein of Edge of the Abyss (specifically Lucin's Breath) I provide a basic breakdown of culture and environmental hazards:

Calorangelus - Calixis Sector - PC Homeworld

- The human settlements of the planet are surprisingly well armed and adept at weapon craft (up to a modern projectile weapon standard). This is mainly due to the need to fight over scant pockets of permafrost locked beneath the reflective, glossy sands of the deepest deserts. As this perma-forst is temporary, due to evaporation soon after exposure by mining, nomadic warrior-tribes must rove across the surface, finding their own water or forcing other tribes off of any sources they have found.

- Men and women both have trials by desert before being considered adults. Males must prove their bravery in battle, bringing back either a carapace-shield made of sand-scorpion hide, or a gourd of water laced with the blood of an opponent killed in honourable battle. Females must trek the deep deserts, surviving for a month on only the water that they can draw from the earth through dowsing and the use of a hand pick. These trials are seen as an induction into the solar-faith of thep lanet, which makes mention of the Blood Angel's Primarch (for undocumented reasons) and the Emperor - both personified by the two suns.

- Due to the half-day glare of the near-by white star, individuals without eye protection or augmetics must test toughness after 4 hours, and every 4 hours thereafter. A failed test results in temporary sand-blindness (GM discretion on effects). A failed test, assuming the character refuses to cover his now temporarily blind eyes, can lead to permament blindness if the next 4 hourly test is failed (unless a fate-point is burned to prevent said blindness assuming all else fails). For ease of assimilation into stories, assume the world has a 24 hour day.

- The potent rays of the distant red-giant cause the glossy red sands of the world to smoulder during the day. Those without adequate foot protection will suffer d10 energy damage to the leg locations ignoring toughness for every 30 mins they spend walking during high-sun (about 8 hours of the day). Thick leather soles, or the native sand-scorpion carapace sandals are considered adequate protection.

- GMs should think of ways to inflict other problems on players due to the sheer heat. We are talking severe, life destroying heat (to the point where only the human populace, a few hardy beasts of burden equipped or domesticated to find water and the predatory sand-arachnid breeds survive). Humans only survive due to their few technological remnants - reflective tee-pees and howdahs, reflective-fibre robes and a religious reverence for water and the scant vegetation that spring up upon the founding of a new well.

I hope that provides some basic grounding for using this world. It is not an Expanse planet as such, but is based on the outer edges of the Calixis sector bordering with the Koronus Expanse.