So feeling a bit bored yesterday I decided to start a game of Rogue Trader on the spur of the moment. I've run a few campaigns of it before and played in two campaigns myself but usually I have some work done before I start the game. Character creation took a little while as even though I only had two players one of these has never played Rogue Trader (he has played Dark Heresy a good bit though).

I've run a few games in the Calixis Sector in both Dark Heresy and the Koronus Expanse and continued the game off with the area changing and evolving as time went by so my players feel very attached to the setting. The biggest changes are probably Footfall and the Malfi Subsector.

The Malfi Subsector War started after the events known as the Red Wake spiralled out of control engulfing the entire Malfi Subsector slowly with no less than five companies of Astrates being called in. I made rolls for Hax and I don't think he reacts well to HIS sector going to hell. Malfi has fallen in prominence since though as Hax moved the Subsector Capital to the hive world of Zweihan's World to become known as the Zweihan Subsector. The Makkens who "won" the war are not pleased with this even a little.

Footfall has been destroyed by the Saynay Clan or so the rumours say... none got out alive! It had been badly damaged after Tyrel "Destroyer" Cathek (a rogue trader revived from the original rogue trader TT background)launched atomics at it as he left in the race for the Dread Pearl. At this point I was running a game with the Infamous Kryton Dynasty who were issued a new warrant to get them out of the sector when the Malfi Subsector war started dieing down as they had done their not entirely sanctioned jobs of privateers a little too well but being heroes of the war weren't easily disposable so the ship filled with mutants and pirates was sent off with it's secretly unsanctioned Pysker Rogue Trader.

So thats a little background on how the sector is most changed over the course of my campaigns... the fact that both Landunder and Malfi are down a hive each don't necessarily relate to this campaign yet. I have two characters in the party (refreshing compared to my usual games of six players), one a noble born rogue trader Sibean Montique and his "younger" brother Remirez a deathworld arch militant. Sibean was at court when a few years ago news came that his fathers vessel had disappeared in the Koronus Expanse with his brother Remirez prompted the heir apparent Remirez to seek funding to refit a Sword Class Frigate known as "Serenity" that had been mothballed as the families finances were not enough to fully repair this ancient ship but aid came from the personal coffers of Cardinal Fortis, Shepherd of Pilgrims. The ancient vessel refitted the family heirloom that had not entered the void since the meritech wars once more served it's masters. Of his father he found no sign but he did find his brother Remirez alive on the surface of the death world the ship (a grand cruiser!) had crashed on after being attacked by elements of the Saynay clan. With the amount of time spent searching for his brother and the vagaries of the warp his "younger" brother was now older than him after spending seven long years living from the carcass of "Black Staff" the ancient ship still sheltering this scion of the house where all others died. Fighting for his life he had only his families heirloom laspistol to fend off the wild beasts. The characters have allies in the Adeptus Mechanicus also and defend their interests as privateers.

The game started with the players ship coming into dock in Port Wander and meeting Gorgus Vrent a seneschal and scholar who served their father for many years but was now blinded by cateracts almost as much by senile rages (he tends to hit people with his cane except Rogue Traders, Navis Nobilite and Tech Priests). He informed them that years ago their father had asked him to uncover the location of a treasure. He hired a scholar as even back in those days his eyes weren't what they used to be had him translate the mystery and carve it into a brick and then had the scholar killed... you never know who you can trust! He had the brick placed in a certain wall in the hermitage incase he should die... he waited many years for his lord to return but now his heirs have. I plan on having the brick have a simple map engraved into it that leads the players to the Witch Cursed Worlds but haven't quite decided what they should find their. I'm trying to avoid daemons as the players will encounter enough of these later in their crusade against the Saynay Clan. I'm also considering having another rogue trader or organisation been keeping watch at the hermitage for the last few years unsure where Gorgus hid it and content to wait and try and wrest it from their hands.

So I'd like suggestions for both the great treasure and potential (non daemonic adversaries) if anyone has any ideas.

Gaius said:

Dear god what

Errant said:

What he said.

At the start of the Lure of the Expanse adventure one of the Rogue Traders I added Tyrel Cathek, the man who destroyed a thousand worlds as none has been found fit in to serve the Emperor... He has lots of prejudices and phobias but in the original rogue trader he also had a full company of Space Marines of the Stone Lions (?) company under his command. I reasoned that this gentlemen although clearly a little more than eccentric even by Imperial Rogue Trader Standards was obviously well liked by someone. 100 Space Marines would be too much for the Scenario so I decided that at this stage only one had survived through his adventures but his ship was still very militarily geared as destruction appears to be his mindset. At the party he sneered at the other Rogue Traders. My players actually compared the Scourge to him (destroyer of twelve worlds I believe) and "chump" I believe was the word used however they were suitable horrified with Rogue Trader Cathek. I decided he had a small number of atomics. When all the rogue traders clamoured to leave port he loaded one into his macrocannons, fired off a few normal rounds to take out the void shield and let it fly. Footfall is filled with heresy (for once not just imagined), the xenosium, narco addicts, cold trade, unsanctioned psykers and other elements convinced him it needed a good old fashioned purging! However he didn't want to lose out on the prize so he settled for launching an atomic at a section... intending to return to finish the job later. The players did not see this coming.

Footfall limped along from this injury for a few years never really recovering, the players returning to port a few times but it was a suprise when they came back to find it destroyed. Puritanical types had been trying in mostly individual efforts to clean in up by flagellating themselves in the streets and denouncing heretics, you know the usual. The Saynay Clan of Chaos pirates are rumoured to be the source of this attack, the fleet coming in crippling or destroying the ships that stood and fought and letting those who chose to flee run before making a bloody sacrifice of Footfall to their dark patron. Footfall actually seems to have very poor defences, void shields for each section and short ranged weapons. If you have a Grand Cruiser (an ex Haarlock vessel I believe fled from his purges?) attacking and taking it's time destroying each section in a ritualised pre ordained order that stays out of weapons range I think it could do it with only a few days in system, which with warp travel time dilation isn't that long. Ships that jumped in solitarily would be in a lot of danger from the large number of raiders and grand cruiser if the ship was on the bigger side. During the time that Footfall is being destroyed the raiders spent their time either on picket duty watching for newcomers or boarding the crippled vessels for loot and slaves.

The loss of Footfall is regretable but I have a lot of plot hooks floating around the world moves on if the players follow one over another. It's not all a bad thing even though it requires players to make a longer trek to get back to civilisation. It leaves opportunities for players, serious money could be made in putting even a small space station where footfall used to be, the location is well known after all. Other locations have risen in importance since then such as Haarlock's Hold (near Chrace) that some of my players cleansed from Chaos Pirates in a previous game setting it up under new management. My players actions (and inactions) have an impact on how the campaign world evolves as they go. I've had players condemn the actions of their previous characters in different games as their new ones only find out the end result even while the ones who had been in those previous games looked at each other across the table out of character with little out of character grins. Fifty years is a long time in game world and since a certain Haarlocks Legacy has been completed the Calixis sector seems to be in slow decline! That will still take many decades even if it happens, which players taken into account might never happen.

There is a STATUE the size of a grand cruiser in Footfall and you had it destroyed by a single atomic after taking down 'a few void shields' and then having a rabble of butchers destroy the whole thing.

Egh. It's gone because you wanted it gone, it's hardly like it has any effect on my games.

Errant said:

Perhaps it was a Nova Cannon shot rather than an atomic? If it hits dead center, it would cause some massive damage.

A Nova Cannon shot isn't anywhere near as damaging as an atomic though, going by the rules for both in Battlefleet Koronus (for Nova Cannons) and atomics (Into The Storm). One of neither would destroy it. Footfall is bigger than Port Wander, and Port Wander survived for years under siege by Orks constantly bombarding it. A single atomic or nova cannon shell would barely scratch it.

Errant said:

Not exactly an atomic taking down the statue, the single atomic was targetted after a few macro cannon rounds on "The Cell" and this area is "run down and crumbling, in such a state of disrepair that the stonework is decayed and the gravity prone to wild fluctuations".

Comparing the sizes of other space stations isn't a guaranteed upscaling to military prowess. Port Wander is an Imperial space station and equiped as such. Footfall is neither a standard design nor necessarily a good one for it's size as it comes off fairly ramshackle. It wasn't something that was likely done with a single shot or a single day... Also I can't give all the details here as I know one or two players read the forums and if they don't investigate in world well then any other possible reasons for how this happened will remain a mystery.

Regardless thats not what I started the thread about it was just to give an idea of how the setting has changed a bit, it's gotten better in other ways too but those things aren't in the immediate surrounding areas, a destabilised Malfi Subsector and a destroyed Footfall are kind of important changes. The Witch Cursed World and any ideas of who/what wait their and what kind of treasure might lie there. I've had a few ideas myself Adranti Ruins for example.

It could easily be Insolitus-Diligo pattern "Doomsday" atomic. You can survive this nuclear blast only in deepest asteroid mineshafts.

Or in a refrigerator.

An STC refrigerator of course?

Nah, the only STC frigidarium is in the hands of the Adeptus Custodes. They us it to keep their groxmilk cool.

Errant said:

I don't think it works without the customary hat & whip

Errant said:

So shut up then, jesus. I'm all for constructive criticism, but going into the GM subforumbitching about how people run their games/custom content they come up with is a really bad hobby.