I'm nearing the end of my freshman year of college, and I have a bunch of friends convinced to play a game of Rogue Trader I'll be GMing next school year. I've never GMed a game before, but I have a good feel of the rules, know a lot about 40k (in my opinion, at least), and had a friend playtest combat with me so I could get an idea of balance.

My main problem is that I cannot figure out psykers. Can someone give me the basic rundown of the steps of using a power? Does rolling doubles mean rolling an 11, 22, 33, etc? I assume people push their power to get a better effect out of the power itself, does it also help them succeed? Each point of PR gives them +5 to the number they need to roll under, right?

I need help.

Copper8642 said:

I've got a flowchart somewhere, but the general gist is

1. Make a Focus Power Test. This varies based on the power used. Psyniscience or Willpower for the most part. You can Push to increase your effective Psy rating, making the test easier to achieve. If you're concerned about Phenomena you can cast it at Fettered strength, but get only half of your Psy Rating as a bonus. Naturally, you cannot Push and Fetter at the same time.

2. If the test was successful, compare your roll to Table 6-1 on page 157. If you rolled the same digit on two dice, you may have provoked phenomena.

3. Make head explode now!

what about getting new tecniques!? how to I pay for the new ones and do I need to have the talent bought again?!

Okay, acquiring new Psychic Techniques: The Astropath-Transcendant's advances will list Psychic Techniques you can attain at that rank, and a multiplier indicating how many times you can purchase them. Rank 1 has Psychic Techniques (x2) at a cost of 100xp each, for example. That xp cost is important, because it shows what techniques you can purchase. If you look at the Psychic Powers, they have an xp cost. You pay for the Technique then pick the Power that matches that xp cost . At Rank 1 you could buy Delude and Short-range telepathy, while Rank 2's 200xp costs would allow you to take Beastmaster or Compel. Worth pointing out that unless you're allowed Elite Advances for Techniques, you won't be able to get most of the cool ones until after Rank 5. Personally I'm not terribly happy about the Astropath being the only psyker career in RT, but that's a complaint for another thread.

basically in the rulebook it says that the techniques are x2 for 200xp's,... does that mean that I can buy 2 techs for 200 each or 2 for 100 each...for the tech u told me costs 200 each!

(maybe due to the new errata)

2 Techniques for 200xp each, but in my games I allow splitting up that XP cost to get two 100xp talents or what have you.

so can someone get 1 tech with 400 instead of 2*200?!

No. They could purchase 4 100xp powers, but they don't get to combine them. Again this is just my houserule, RAW is that you can only purchase abilities with the XP cost you pay.

Errant said:

What? Playing a blind, frail, old guy that doesn't have any reason for having access to two of the game's available disciplines doesn't appeal to you? (Because, really, why would and Astropath need access to divination or, worse yet, telekinesis?)

Heh. I admit, I'm more used to playing DH psykers. You know, running into a room packed with the enemy, screaming 'WITNESS YOUR DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!' and then proceeding to roll daemonic possession on the Phenomena table and having a bloodletter erupt from my chest. Didn't help that I read the Shira Calpurnia books before playing Rogue Trader, one of which is filled to the brim with astropaths done right .

Nerdynick said:

Except that astropaths using such powers have been covered in the fluff previously (Eisenhorn for one)...