Well, with our group getting tired of my brother's d20 Modern zombie campaign, I've considered getting the others to give Rogue Trader another try. We've tried the the Forsaken Bounty adventure and a short campaign using Rogue Trader for a homebrewed setting so there's some familarity with the system but none of it's all that recent (the Forsaken Bounty session was run shortly after the adventure was published.)

There are of course problems I need to address, the majority of our group cut their teeth with D&D 4th Edition and are hack-n-slash types, I am pretty much the only RPG vet in the entire band. Case in point, when I ran my last campaign with Rogue Trader rules, half of the six players at the time created Arch-Militants (the other half was an explorator, a void-master who was more focused on killing then the Arch-Militants, and an astropath that REALLY made me wish I studied up on the Psychic Powers rules more.)

Does anyone have any suggestions for encouraging my players to assemble a more balanced party or feedback on the following campaign seed?

The Explorers are in trouble. Depending on whether or not the RT is a PC, either the Lord Captain or generic Patron X financing their expeditions has been dabbling in relic smuggling, selling xeno artifacts and stolen relics of the Ecclesiarch or even the Deathwatch Space Marines (though the defendent is undecided at this point) in Jericho Reach. The NPC is as good as dead though the players have a way out; if they successfully recover and return the relics to their proper owners AND provide material aid for the crusade in Jericho Reach (or some other long-term endeavor,) all will be forgiven...

My overall intent is for the endeavor to include a little bit of everything to give them a sample of what you can do in Rogue Trader but have a focus on ground combat since that's one of the things they know best.

To diversify the party you could either penalize them for lacking specific careers. No Seneschal good luck keeping your PF up or dealing with the mercantile aspects of the game. No Rogue Trader and they're just a bunch of pirates and so on. It is a bit on the harsh side, so I would recommend against unless they really need to be slapped down. Alternatively have a lottery to see who gets what role on the ship, or limit the number of any given career.

The seed you've got is decent, and easily has room for every aspect of the game. Stealing relics from the Astartes is probably going to be a death sentence for everyone involved, unless someone in the party can talk them out of it.

Give them a taste of everything, but I would actually suggest downplaying the violence, forcing them into situations where they aren't as comfortable will have forced to think on their feet a bit more.

Well, if hack and slash is what they want.....

I think you might struggle to get anywhere with a lot of story. Keep it nice and tactical for them. Make nice maps, get nice artwork (deviantart? ask before copying). Turn it onto a Blackwater/East India Company type organisation perhaps... mix it up with deadly corrupting Yu'vath artifacts, Dark Eldar raiders, some Deathwatch to rescue them from the Eldar?

The group could essentially be the Rouge trader house killteam, out to "correct" and "fix" problems?

I tend to put a cap on how many of each career there can be, for instance in my current campaign, at the opening sequence, i had the following:

1 Rogue Trader

1 Arch-Militant

1 Void Master

1 Seneshal (NPC until recently, -10 on all rolls until a player took over to balance thematically as she was 'distracted' in character by other issues)

0-1 Missionary

0-1 Explorator*

0-1 Navigator*

0-1 Astropath*

* marks a career that is exclusive - Choosing one of these sets the other two to a 0 cap.

No careers from Into the Storm were provided as opening options, but have opened up now that the prologue Endeavour is over on a 0-1 basis.

The restrictions on the latter three careers really narrow down the rulesets you MUST know before game kick off. I usually like players of specialist characters to atleast own the core-book as well, so that i am not constantly fumbling for page references or handing our the Core, but it isn't essential if they;re fast learners and you slow down your introductory games and make sure everyone has something to do, even on a relatively minor scale.

Concerning the metagame, however, I would strongly suggest you visit www.obsidianportal.com or a similar site to look for RPG wiki hosting. i have found it invaluable in organising my players and generally keeping everything as tidy as possible.

Best of luck with your game, and do let us know how you get on.

@Vandroly: Good idea though I'm not entirely sure I want to penalize them... unless I tell them explictly upfront that neglecting one or two of the "important" classes will make things infinitely more difficult for them then yeah, they were forewarned. Expressly limiting the number of players in a career sounds like a good idea though. As for my campaign idea, the logic, as limited as it is, was that the "defendents" know the relics were taken, they know who's responsible, but they don't know where they were taken beyond the Kronus Expanse and parts of the Calixis Sector. Rather then launch a costly search of their own for them, they'd just charge the PCs with finding them and slip a few NPC guardians to watch over their investment, ones that would either be extremely difficult to kill (Space Marines) or to find (Temple Assassins slipped in with the regular crew.)

I understand your reasoning behind forcing them out of their comfort zone and it's something I've been considering, though it will require some thought on my part.

@ Johan B: I'm somewhat more with Vandroly in forcing them out of their comfort zone though I agree with the tactical element. One of the first endeavors in the campaign I plan on throwing at them involves a space hulk. I intend to map out the ship somewhat as they make their way to an Imperium freighter lost in the mess and retrive the artifact kept within (in addition to some phat Profit Factor boosting loot scattered around the hulk.)

@Soka: Good idea with the career cap system, not sure I have a "need" for RPG wiki hosting. The group is meeting face to face, not in cyberspace, and I already am in the habit of keeping notes. Thanks all the same and I certainly will.

Vandroiy said:

Given the obvious predilection for combat-heavy character types, bringing in the wronged Astartes with a "give us back our stuff or die!" attitude will almost certainly result in the PCs opening fire (probably to their own demise, but overwhelming odds have never been a deterrent to hack and slash players in my experience.) I agree it's an understandable position for them to take, but it might be wise to have an NPC talk them down from outright bloodshed before the PCs get involved. Otherwise this could be a very short game

You could always point out to them what the awesome powers of the missionary are regarding to faith.

Next you can do the same for the navigator which is in my opinion of the three toughest characters you can make if you play your cards right (if they're hack'n slash they'll likely also powergame at least a bit) and he can do a helluvalot of damage (with a very cool catchphrase of "look at me" or "behold the truth of the emperor").

Last but not least: explorators are hellishly tough guys. Create them right and you can start with unnatural toughness at 60 that'll increase to 90 over time. Combine that with numerous servo skulls, a MUI and the added powers they get from their bionics and it's a veritable hack'n slash fest they got going on. (though to many of those'll make combat very drawn out if they each bring 10 servo-skulls with guns). Something to keep in mind: explorators also are the healers of the party (along with missionaries).

I wouldn't lexture them on this, i'd simply confront them with examples of just how tough these three classes can be. Nothing breeds respect more then nearly losing everyone in the party to a couple of dangerous foes ... only to find out that you could play one of those badass mofo's!

Have your players elect or draw a RT, a navigator and an Explorer. those a the 3 classes the rest is up for grabs.

There should not be more the one of each of those 3 either.

Thank you for the continued advice. Our RT is already more or less decided on though I haven't gone around and sent IMs to the rest of my group yet to try and get the character generation started. I think I will take the suggestion a few of you have already put forward and keep a limited number of each career open. Though I will have to double check how many players I have. I should have four, I might have five. If I have four, well then it might be easier then I thought according to what the "essential" careers are. If five, I'll figure something out based off of Soka's suggestion.

Two other side questions though, where exactly is the Kronus end of the Kronus/Jericho warpgate located and what kind of ship would serve this group/meta-endeavor best? The last time we played, i just gave them the stock Sabre from the core rule book and left it at that. Would it be better for me to handle ship creation or make it a group effort? And if I do take control of the ship specs, would it be better for me to give them a combat focused vessel or make them think outside the box with a more Trade or Exploration geared ship?

I've found that the light cruiser or frigate is (my personal) favourite; you'll need a decent roll to get one to begin, and in the end, I went for a frigate (it's an AdMech exploration vehicle, so, I wanted extra space/SP for improved augurs, Librariums, etc.). On the best roll, you could get a moderately decked out light cruiser.

As for whether they want more exploration or combat - ask them. Even if they're not, you'd be a fool to explore the Expanse without a Sunsear battery or two on your dorsal... ;D There is only war, after all.

Make the ship building a collaborative effort, that way if the ship is handicapped in someway the have no one to blame but themselves, just keep an eye out for archeotech or xenotech abuse.

Thanks for the feedback, perhaps I will have everyone pitch in to design a ship this time. Though if I may expand the question, what sort of ship do you recommend for a GM that plans on throwing everything at his players yet is walking them through ship design for the first time (and the second time any of us have really played the game)? As for archeo- and xenotech... I may potentially downplay those sections.

I'd certainly recommend ship building as a collaborative effort. I didn't, because my game was originally a one off, and the players have been very focussed on modifying it to suit their tastes ever since. I selected a Cruiser for them, again as a one off I wasn't thinking about long term factors, but you should always give them somewhere to improve to with their ship.

Your plot ideas sound good, although I'd avoid setting your PCs up against Space Marines if you want them to not focus on combat abilities so much. Space Marines are truly fearsome in Rogue Trader. That said, I've not felt the need to worry about personal PC power levels when they have thousands of troops at their disposal. Where pre-written scenarios have the Explorers ambushed by a group of thugs or hired guns, I've thrown out all those encounters; they simply don't wander around as a group without an honour guard. That's not what I want my game to be about anyway, so it's all good. The key is to work out what you want to do, and how your players go about things, and write games that will suit both, without preconceived ideas about how Rogue Traders should do things.

Frigates or Light Cruisers do the best as all around ships. Frigates are a bit easier to handle with regards to space combat, they also have less space and power, so it will keep them from getting bogged down with too many options. The Sabre in the core book is a decent example of one such ship. Let them make most of the design choices for their ship, encourage them to build an all purpose ship. Remind them that they do need things like cargo holds.

For my intro adventures I usually try to use a formula like this: Short into -> Combat Sequence -> 1-3 Non-combat Objectives -> Combat -> Non-Combat Objective -> Action Finale.

At least one combat should be Ship to Ship combat, and of course you can mix it up a bit, maybe break up the non-combat sections with a bit of violence to keep the tension high.

Well we had our first game with me at the helm in awhile and it went... better then I expected. We are an easily distracted group and I have a problem with speaking in front of a group so... yeah.

First we handled the matter of character generation which went over better then I expected, I instituted the ruling some of you suggested and it went by with less fuss then I imagined. Having only one copy of the book (mine) did slow down character generation a bit... though I think three players might have accidently missed a few steps (selection of homeworld, motivation, and lifepath.) I will have to correct that next session but thankfully it didn't cause any problems this session. Overall, we have a Rogue Trader, Arch-Militant, Sensechal, Voidmaster, and Explorator.

Ship design looks like it will largely be my job though the party's general opinion suggested that the Sabre may have been a good fit. We did manage to decide on a hull, class, and name, the Sword Frigate Albuquerque (the Leory Jenkins and Chozo were close seconds)

Surprisingly though, we managed to get enough done that we could start the game without too many problems...

Meta-Endeavor: The Lost Relics

Captain O'Maily and his valiant Explorers of the Albuquerque arrive in Imperium-controlled space of the Jehrico Reach on summons from their patron Lord Augustus Fairweather of the Fairweather mercantile dynasty (the name was made up on the spot.) With the Fairweather family quite influential in the procurement of O'Maily's Warrent of Trade, he wasn't in much position to ignore a summons to the Reach no matter how vague the message may be. Upon arriving at the station, O'Maily and his retinue are greeted by representatives of Deathwatch, who naturally cause quite a stir, and are politely escorted to a meeting between their patron and several high-ranking Imperial officials (it's worth noting I'm really the only one in the group particularly familiar with 40k lore, part of the reason this part went so smoothly was that it didn't quite sink in just how big of a deal it was for four Astartes to play police escort for a Rogue Trader.) Arriving in the middle of a tribunal held by members of the Inquisition, Augustus greets O'Maily by way of attempting to shift the blame for his crimes onto the oblivious Rogue Trader. Stripped of their weapons, O'Maily had no recourse beyond arguing against Fairweather's accusations...

This was a short endeavor (lesser with a probably inflated 900 points) where not a lot happened and most of it was automatic. The players received their quest (help recover stolen relics and potentially investigate a xeno artifact smuggling ring in exchange for clemancy) and had a few situations where they made some practice rolls to get more familiar with the game mechanics where they searched their patron's estates on the station for his hidden library, search through said library for maps, star charts, and manifests recording just what was stolen and where it was last located, then provision themselves for the voyage ahead. Overall it went well, our Seneschal had a bad night with dice rolls but our Explorator made up for it and nearly everyone had something to do. Only the Arch-Militant was left to clean his guns and that will change next session.

There is one small hole I dug myself into. A five man killteam lead by Tech-Marine Martellus (yes, of the Blood Ravens. Sadly I was the only one in the group who got the reference) is going to be travelling with O'Maily and his team to ensure the relics are found and that the Rogue Trader maintains his obligations. Unfortunately the group's voidmaster made an observation that the RT's player jested about that I will have to keep in mind, coming up with reasons why the Space Marines won't be doing most of the heavy lifting behind recovering the relics.

In my opinion it's relatively easy : the PCs have to redeem themselves - which means risking their neck, for death in His service is the only sure redemption. It wouldn't be fit for the Marines to interfere with that redemption...

On a more practical angle, the Astartes are the tip of the Imperium's spear, their job is to strike at critical points to disrupt the ennemy and leave him open for the other imperial force's attack or to restore deeply compromised situation. Whcih means they'll only take part when the PCs and their crew can't cope or if there's something nasty and important to kill. And they won't have any qualm at using the PCs as a bait to lure said nasty and important nuisance in the open...

So they're definitvely not there to carry the mission on their shoulders, they're both a prod to keep the PCs honest and active and a hammer to smash flat what they draw out of the bushes.

Well, we had our second session today and managed to get about halfway through the Endeavor for the Hammer of Retribution. Thank you very much for the suggestion Manunancy. The players seemed to find it an acceptable excuse for why the Marines aren't doing all the work.

This session probably could have gone better, we got a lot done compared to our usual progress but I admittedly slacked in my preparedness. Though while this was supposed to be a combat encounter, the players actually went through most of the space hulk avoiding combat or exploring any side corridors. Part of it was my fault, part of it was cleverness on the players part; voting to rapple down a broken lift shaft (note to self: next time do not throw the dungeon together an hour or two before the meeting) to avoid fighting a small hormagaunt horde. That took them to the cargo holds of the Swift Bounty, an Orion Star Clipper that had been lost to the Warp while unknowingly smuggling the artifact into the Calixus sector.

Though I think I might have another problem, getting the players to think on the scale of real Rogue Traders. Granted, they haven't completed the endeavor yet and were trying to come with ideas for freeing the other cargo the Swift Bounty was carrying (a mix of common goods and rare minerals) though... how smart of an idea is it to have their ship fire on the hulk with the intent of breaking open the hold to scoop up cargo that has been sucked out to vaccuum. On a related note... has any GM had their players come up with the idea of venting a hulk's atmosphere into the void? What was your ruling on that?

How would you go about venting the atmosphere of a derelict, kilometers long hulk? The group would have to travel the entire hulk, repairing damaged and destroyed systems, over-riding airlock safeties and opening hundreds of internal blast doors, many of which may need to be repaired from a completely non-functioning status. By the time they've managed their task, several years later, they would already have explored and pacified the entire craft.

I would rule that even a fully functional ship couldn't be completely opened to space from a single location, and require manual activation of numerous systems scattered throughout the vessel.

As to firing on the hold to open it up to vacuum they will be firing macrocannon batteries (ie, a massive volley of ordnance/plasma/laser blasts) or lances (ie, huge, powerful, deeply penetrating energy beams), not wielding scalpels. I'm sure they would find something salvagable, but a large proportion of the contents would be destroyed, and they'd still have to enter the hold to gather most of it up (dragging it out from the smashed and twisted wreckage). It's not just going to float in an orderly procession out the side of the ship. And the stuff that does vent into space is still going to need to be sorted from the assorted debris, checked for salvagability and manually loaded.

Thank you Sable, I knew there was something wrong with their ideas but I wasn't sure what. Yeah, even if the lifesupport systems were accessible from a central location that's FOUR locations the players have to find (the hulk is made of four seperate ships fused together, two Imperium, an Eldar, and a Tau ship I threw in even though I figure it's probably near impossible for a Tau ship to get fused in a hulk, they don't interact with the Warp that way, but wanted the players to see something Tau without having to get shot at just yet.)

Firing on the ship I sort of figured was a dumb idea, which is why I planned on having them dig a little deeper and discovering the Swift Bounty's cargo handling system. Granted for it to work properly it requires the Explorers to bring a full salvage team over which would not be cost effective as long as the tyranids are running loose. And with the hammer safely in their possession (I already ruled to them that they can't use it, at least not effectively, since it was forged for an eight foot tall giant wearing strength-enhancing armor,) I can convince them to search the hulks for other treasures.

Psion said:

Eh. Space Hulk pops into a system containing wrecked Tau vessels, moves past them, drags the a ship into its wake before warping out again.