I did run a DnD campaign for three years with the same people. Last week we had a session sheduled and i just could not get my mind focused.

I asked if they would be interested to put it on a hold and try something new i wanted to run for a long time and showed them my collectors edition of RT. I didnt have the time to give more than a short summary of the setting before they forced me to print character sheets.

The best part for me was as i was asked if this Imperium does have something like Star Treks Prime Directive..., couldn't stop laughing. And had to explain that most Imperial Ships would shoot first and ask questions later when xenos are invoved.

The exact words I used were:

"If Firefly went mad from seeing Great Cthulhu and ran head first into 40k."

Geisti said:

Yes. That is the Prime directive.

Suffer not the Xenos to live.

Burn the heretic.

(well those need attention too)

As my friend said (as I got him hooked on RT, enough for him to get the core book and actually run a campaign), it's a large as Star Trek, as Epic as Star Wars, minus the prime directive/Jedis getting involved every 2 seconds.

My players and I were playing Dark Heresy. They were getting kind of bummed with always being almost killed all the time.... I basically said that this was the same universe without being killed all the time. Although this may not work for some players, you can just explain that you get to be space pirates (some that have psychic powers)..... If that doesn't get your group to join up and run an adventure, give up and find some more people.

Our group was playing DH when we decided to jump ship onto Rogue Trader. We did use the Star Trek metaphore, but it is also nice to be far enough out from under the God Emperors thumb that you can decide to **** and pillage a bit if need be. Plus with Rogue Trader my current favorite quote is

"When starting a character in Dark Heresy there are bits of equipment and talents that you are dreaming about having 8 sessions from now. When rolling up a Rogue Trader character you all ready have all that equipment and most of the talents."

Me: "So in summary, imagine a cross between Star Trek and Event Horizon. With space pirates."

Them: WE ARE IN!

"Giant gothic cathedral gunships in space, grimdark steampunk, interstellar travel through hell, Pirates, aliens, and profit. All because of Psycho-zombie Jesus. Unless you're the Explorator, in which case: all because of Robot-zombie Jesus."

Kinda wishing deathwatch was as easy to sell.

One of the other GMs was running DH, and couldn't afford to buy Into the Storm for the Ork content. I volunteered to pay for it, murmured that I'd been planning to run something like RT, and the players and various bystanders jumped at the chance to participate.

Of course, I have ulterior motives... and one day, my purpose shall be revealed. MWAHAHAHAHA *cue thunder and lightning*

For me it was kind off begging. But it ended in a ultimatum form: 'Either RT or another WFRP or DnD'

Quite few malcontents but now we are playing every sunday for 2 months.

Each of the players in our group comes at role playing from different angles, with different beloved-genres in their background. We're a bunch of game-freaks at heart, however, so we're pretty much down for anything at least once to see if we like it. After much trial and error, it seemed the only game we could all get into enough to warrant a campaign was DnD (Eberron), or at least a variant of that sort of high fantasy with a steampunk twist. When that started to get kind of stale (not bad, mind you, just sort of "been there, done that") I expressed an interest in running something different.

We spent an evening sitting around and talking about games and genres we liked and didn't, and why. (You really have to understand that when I say we're "game-freaks," I mean we're the kind of sad souls who enjoy sitting around talking about games almost as much as we love playing them. Don't act like you don't know the type!) Someone brought up "space opera," and though if you knew our group you'd be suprised, everyone had some interest.

What follows is a quick rundown of everyone in our group and their favorite games, what they liked about the genre, what they wanted that they hadn't seen before, and the character they ended up playing...

Goth "Cyberpunk 2020"/ "Shadowrun" - Space opera addresses politics on an unprecidented scale. The benifits and banes of an interplanetary government. Really likes "Dune." - Sceneschal

English lit major "Call of Chuthulu"/ "Rifts" - Exploration of the unknown. Wanted the unknown to be really unknown, not at all like what the scientists today believe. -Astropath

Comic book collector "DnD"- The opportunity to command a ship and have the autonomy to go anywhere. Wanted challenges to be less resolved by science and more by character. Didn't want to be "controlled" by any kind of "star fleet." -Rogue Trader

USAF Reserve Officer "Tactical board-gamer" (with a bookshelf of box-sets and trunk-loads of miniatures too numerous to catalog, but I will say that they included WH40K and ultimately this was his idea...) Really wanted ship-to-ship combat as an integral part of the campaign -Void Engineer (ship's captain)

IT tech- "Anything D20"/ "Castle Falkenstein" Wanted a gritty, "martial" flavor... less "prime directive" and more "gunboat diplomacy." -Arch Militant

So, when you put all of that together, Rogue Trader kind of flies off of the shelf at you. Spent a month putting something together, and so far all seems well, with 6 eight-hour sessions that everyone wishes were longer, lots of post-session recap and discussion about what's next (always a good sign).

I basically just called up my buddies who I'd played DH and 4E with, and said "I'd like to get another game going, it's been a little while, who'd be up for some Rogue Trader - and did I mention the filthy stinkin LOOT?!"

And that was that. The only trick we had was arranging for everyone to meet at one location, which was awkward once I realized how far spread out we've become as a group. So we're trying something different - a Virtual Tabletop program called TTopRPG and Skype. Works like a charm.