Hail Comrades-

So I'm really bad at searching forums, so it's possible all you need to do is redirect me. My other fault is that I read into things too much, on occasion. With both of those self-criticisms I was wondering:

Do characters going from Dark Heresy to Rogue Trader start out with the Rogue Trader career equipment? I know that DH charcters are around 4,500 XP plus the 500 that they spend in their new career. That part makes sense. Along with that I wonder if DH characters get the starting skills for their new career as well? I can see both sides of the issue so feel free to argue it but what I'd really like is something more concrete...like from the core book. Much obliged

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but to my knowledge there is not official DH to RT transition package.

Which is to say offically your DH character never becomes a RT. It can play in the RT universe using RT rules and a DH career advancement table that is the long and the short of it from FFG to my knowledge.

I have put a post in the house rules forum you can reference for ideas and what we are currently doing in our Rogue Trader game.

In short if you are rolling a new character or have one that is at 5000xp, the equivalant of a fresh RT Rank 1 character, I suggest you do the following to transition into a RT Career:

• Select an appropriate RT career that meshes with your DH career
• Keep whatever gear you obtained from your DH career
• Add all the starter gear you get from being a RT
• reconcile starting skills alents with those your character already has (consult with your GM to avoid stacking skills and talents that are common to both)
• After you have transitioned into a RT career you can no longer purchase advances from your previous DH career; you have abandoned it in favor of becoming a Rogue Trader

Good luck it is a topic many people take issue with.

Guess you're technically right, though on page 34 it does give the guidelines for DH to join RT...so that was the direction of my inquiry

Sorry I guess I didn't totally read your reply, therein lies the trouble with the internet...always skimming and not actually reading. I have read your topic under house rules...I just think that what it does is give too many advantages to DH characters compared to RT characters. Maybe that is the real issue...we have characters that are DH converting to RT and some just creating RT characters. RT's will have significantly less skills and talents...with no benefit for not having been a DH. Or I suppose that new characters could simply advance through a DH career and then convert to RT, as if they had played DH from the start. Well we're gaming tonight so we'll see how things work out. Much obliged for the help.

Good luck.

Let us know how it turns out, and you're right without stepping new rogue traders through a DH precursor career the DH characters will be at an advantage.

While more complicated, if it helps, the precursor career gives the player a chance to actually flesh out that background more; always a welcomed addition in any role playing game.

So, after everything I've decided this cannot be done. It is feasible to do a conversion of sorts but the characters being converted wouldn't be able to really have gotten far in Dark Heresy. After reading the RT sections on DH characters I've had a little insight, as RT assumes that the characters in RT are starting with the 4500xp. This number is a vague calculation of starting homeworld and career( so it is the skllls, talents, attributes, and equipment associated with these that adds up to the 4500. If you were converting a DH character you would have to buy each talent and skill if you didn't have it. Also you'd have to purchase a simple advance in every attribute to get your stats to where they should be. And in terms of equipment I'd say that I have no idea where to start there. So in so many words, I'd say make characters for RT or DH. Don't mix them, if you do I'd say keep them strictly as RT or DH characters that are created and advance based on their core mechanics. Can't say this is much of a solution. After using the conversion techniques I've found on the forums I'd say that DH converts are way more powerful than they should be, I had several that would have had to roll under a 70 based on the advances.

Yeah, pretty much. Best way I found to handle it was to double experience costs for every DH advance after the first, up to 500, and match the career progression costs to the RT characters. It's still not ideal, but it works.

Something we did for a rejected Sororitas (from the IH) recruit going Arch-Militant:

Start with RT characteristics (25 base).
Do not choose an origin path.
Advance the Sororitas from Rank 1 to Rank 3. Do not take any +10 or higher skill advancements. We also ignored Good Constitution, though thats arguable.
At R3 (2000XP), buy all arch-militant starting skills and talents (including weapon proficiencies) you do not already have. In our case, this added up to 2600 XP, for a total of 4600 XP.
Spend remaining XP as normal.

The end result was an arch-militant with a nice diversity of various skills and talents, but lacking the - sometimes very significant - characteristic advancements you can get from the origin path, or bionics, mutations... etc.

Combat-wise, she's less effective than an optimized arch militant. Skills-wise, she's a bit more rounded, and that advantage will diminish later on in the game.

From the character history, Rank 3 (Constantia) would also be the maximum Sororitas level for a "rejected recruit", which is where we got the idea from.

Feasibility of that approach might vary though, depending on career. Especially if said careers get stuff like swift attack or similar from the start, but then again, given time, it won't be an issue.