I've been playing in a rogue trader game for a long time now and the groups Rogue Trader player chose to leave the character because he felt that the rogue trader class wasn't letting him bring anything to the group (something everyone else disagreed with). It caused a few issues with decision making as he left us as a council to decide on matters... suffice to say with an even number of players and sometimes not having the time to make a vote we ran into some issues. We decided to make a regent and my character won the vote, he is the groups seneschal. For a good long time he was sorting out deadlocks and things but in character the whole party felt let down that the rogue trader had "abandoned us" to go raise his newborn child. The player chose to come in as an astropath, a tough job since the groups previous chaos worshiping one had made us wary and seemed to be enjoying himself. He then had to leave the game altogether because of moving away for a while.

Now the game has taken a long break over the last few months but we have come back to it, our characters taken two years of down time, as part of a plot hook my character won some holdings in a high stakes gambling game. The GM let us take one acquisition roll for the down time (also suggested since I was a blood relative of the rogue trader I could hire assasins to go after him and the kid but I declined...) and after mulling it over I suggested that maybe someone at the table is a low level rogue trader and I might have a chance of winning their warrant of trade... the GM seemed ok with me trying for the warrant because of the situation with very hefty penalties but now here I am with a warrant of trade, my Seneschal is now a Rogue Trader with his own small Dynasty but not ship. The current Dynasty is quite powerful at 94 profit factor compared to the new ones 34 and they have a pimped out ship. The old rogue trader player couldn't make the first game but he's still not sure which character he will come back as or if he will at all! I've warned him if he doesn't come back to the game my character might try and poach his command crew and resign. Now the game is in the final rank so we are very powerful.

So if he doesn't come back I might try and abscond with the command crew (not my idea bot you know it's still good), at worst I have an awesome reitirement plan. It's just not the same without a rogue trader to lead, and my seneschal has tried to fill in the boots as regent anyway. I have the location of a salvageable ship so I might hire the old dynasty before leaving it to help me recover this ship if the council agress, I'm thinking the three moons of rexor (five profit facto) would be suitable, any actual profit factor made would go to the new dynasty so will hopefully help reduce the hit to the already low profit factor.

My question is has anyone had a similar situation or thoughts on this matter?

Sounds like you have an interesting situation. Taking the Role of Rogue Trader is essentially nominating your self party leader. It's was a good start to allow the other players to have some say in party decisions but the Rogue Trader as Lord Captain should make the final ruling. It looks like the group is very successful but it seems to lack a stable leader. If he wants to come back he should be informed that his Rogue trader will have to Be a leader for the party and not simply let the party make all the choices.

I hope this has been some help.

It has, to be fair the game came shortly after a very brief game I ran of Ascension where the player of the inquisitor suffered from what I have termed "Inquisitor Smash" syndrome. Party members would give advice and their opinions which he promptly seemed to ignore, yes he was the Inquisitor but he drove other party members to frustration as everyone else agreed they should do x and he decided that he wanted to do y... this happened an awful lot and he was a bit derogatory to the other characters because they were his "minions", one of his oldest friends (one or two characters were remakes of characters from a Dark Heresy game I had run) planned on leaving the party once the current crissis they were undergoing was done. He didn't want the other players to feel like he wasn't listening.

Sadly he felt that he couldn't make any decisions without consulting the party as a whole... The problem was we all accepted that he was the Rogue Trader and it was his right to make decisions sometimes regardless of whether we agreed. We just wanted to have input some of the time. The council thing worked out ok but as said had issues, if he came back we'd all accept that he is in charge but there would still be some level of lingering resent from his leaving. As regent my character his vote would be the way that the party would go in a tie breaker, he also in emergencies such as combat and such could make decisive decisions without consultation of the others however this had the clause that he would be solely responsible for the results, starting an engagement that sees us getting trashed means he's in big trouble. It's not the same though, with a full character in the role of Rogue Trader the players have theoretically drastically less input but several of the other players have been enthusiastic about the idea of it!

It seems to be a bit of a balancing act between taking onboard other peoples suggestions and trying to be decisive and efficient.

I understand your point for the players to have a strong say in party actions. However i've been in groups with no party leader and those sessions quickly collapsed. what the group has to do is act like a Proper RT party, The group is supposed to represent the Rogue Trader and his advisers. The group should have the ability not only to suggests actions, but use their unique abilities and skills to add weight that the RT can Evaluate. It does seem that there is a lot of resentment in this group due to past calls with out their approval. If practical, start a new endeavor add run it in the format of a team building exercise with some profit factor involved for incentive. Try to set up a series of challenges that will require the rogue trader not only to take charge, but to support the others characters in there actions. I have a feeling that i'm not making much sense. But at the moment i'm trying to get my group of advisers to speak up more both in game and in the forums. I'm still kind of new to role playing, but i'm improving. Just kind of try to get the group to hug and make up, possibly start fresh.

As a fellow player in the same campaign as Gaius, I'll chime in. My magos militant (technically explorator) tolerated the rogue traders absence but the lack of firm leadership made him partial to installing a regent, Gaius' character one of the forerunners. My PC didn't want the role for himself as he knew others were more deft at handling the "river of commerce" and it would distract him from his pursuits of union of the archaeotech laden ship, forging of arms and massacring xeno filth. He isn't as pushed about *who* is in charge so long as they are suitable leadership material (though he has taken note of the perceived competencies of his colleagues). With his increasingly "quirky" personality and mental traumas (mostly suffered at the hands of witches), he has become more reclusive in the in-game time gap. [OOC note: he got to 40 insanity points in the last session before the hiatus and after burning a fate point was down to 13 Fellowship]

With the campaign resumed, I have a new PC who is relatively new to the dynasty with my old one as a NPC. An astropath fond of annihilating daemons and witches, but barely trusted thanks to the aforementioned chaos tainted astropath who was on board. He's from the battlefleet and used to a chain of command and is a bit wary of the current circumstances. Without as much history in the dynasty as the other characters, I can't see him being overly upset by a change at the top.

Out of character, not having a rogue trader with the group hasn't been crippling but has caused us problems in the past. If the rogue trader character returns, he's going to have to play catch-up to a certain degree as we've been forced to get used to dealing without him. As for the player, I'm not particularly upset out of character but would prefer to see a rogue trader (not necessarily the class) in the group to make our character's lives that much easier.

Let me see if I understand. Your Rogue Trader gave up their authority and left their retinue in control of his dynasty's fleet and holdings to raise a child.

No one in your group felt comfortable leading and not actually being a rogue trader?

Is that the situation?

Was the rogue trader character the last of his dynasty?

If so I would say if its really an issue which it appears to be let one of the group who feels comfortable leading do so. If they want to actually reroll their character as a rogue trader having taken up the mantle let 'em. If they simply want to continue as their previous character in command let 'em.

If he wasn't the last of his dynasty then over those two years of down time have a relative of the rogue trader come in and assume command. This option is essentially the same as the above except it gives someone a new character. If they wish to delegate most of the decisions so be it just have him sit on the throne issuing commands. Then the rogue trader can take a hands off approach and lay down the law when he feels it's necessary.

You could even make the new guy a gm run npc that essentially does nothing but sit on the ship doing his thing and throws about his bonuses when needed.

Though I would say there is little stopping you from continuing on and maintaining the status quo unless you really just want revenge for him leaving.

Hell, if you really want to get back at your original rogue trader abduct him and have him implanted with false memories then drop his kid off at the local orphanage. The rogue trader becomes a token npc as above and the crew is all back together. Sides abandoning his duty as Lord Captain shouldn't have been as easy as that and surely his dynasty wouldn't have agreed with such actions without appointing a replacement.

If nothing else and you just really want to abandon the current warrant and ship good luck but I would totally start by stripping his holdings. He left your council in charge anyway just seize his ship and holdings for your new dynasty. It's not like he is around to stop you and the people on board are probably more loyal to you then some figure head that abandoned them all. At least you have have protected them.

On the leadership issue there is a fair bit of role playing but a good leader listens and takes advice of his retinue. If the rogue trader is a tyrannical ass nothing stopping him from getting popped by a gm assassin to settle him down. Rogue trader 2.0 is either going to be a bit more open to discussion or a hell of a lot more careful about things.

On the same token a rogue trader who isn't doing a good job leading and is constantly letting his retinue run the show effectively has no power. This too should be an issue for the gm to rectify. Oh look PF went down looks like your being too lenient people are stealing from you. Time to set an example.

Presumably all this should have been sorted out before you guys reached such high levels. For the rogue trader though he can't be everywhere at once and he needs a group of people who's council he can trust (the retinue). While he has the final say it shouldn't always be suicidal, or erring on the side of caution either. Sometimes he has to make the unfavorable decisions and know that they were the best he could make at the time with the information provided (blame the retinue for not making a better case).

I also think anyone in your group who feels comfortable doing this will have the full support of the others from what I gather about the situation being what it is. Though it does sound like previous experience has colored a few his actions, and the role of a rogue trader just wasn't for him.

I am curious about the statement where he felt he just wasn't bringing anything to the table. How did he perform outside of a leadership role if at all?

My thoughts.

It's not quite the case that the Rogue Trader always has the final say on his ship. The other PC's are often not simply crewmates; they are representatives of their respective organizations. That means if the Rogue Trader continually disregards their input and just goes ahead and does whatever he wants, he could land himself in a crapload of trouble with some very powerful people. Ignored your Explorator when he told you not to use that forbidden xeno-tech? Kiss your access to Forge Worlds goodbye. Told your Missionary to screw himself when he warned you not to traffic with those Chaos worshipping witches? Hope you like being branded a heretic.

So, as you can see, much like the Imperium itself, a Rogue Trader's immense power is tempered by the various factions which, if the RT wants their continued support, must be appeased from time to time. Your player shouldn't have worried about bossing the other players around as an RT. If the other players keep in mind their own authority they can boss him around, too.

Hi Gaius

Quite a predicament with a couple of solutions solution. Having been part the command chain on ships for several years, take it from me that command of a ship cannot be a democracy. There must be a captain. A Seneschal understands repsonsibility and your situation appears to be a clear case of the XO (Seneschal) needing to step up where the CO (RT) is in obvious dereliction of their duties. As your PC (XO) is a blood relative of the Rogue Trader you should step up and take the warrant one way or another. Sounds like your group would back you up on this.

See the thread in the main RT forum called "For Profit and Plunder, a PC's Tale" where another group dealt with the situation of no RT where the Arch Militant has assumed the role of Regent and has begun to gather allies to ensure he can hold on to it. And he's a Squat!

A possible 'least offence/harm' solution could be that you simply swap warrants with the RT. The RT gets the warrant you won which is a bit more laid back and conducive to raising children, and your group gets to carry on their way without too much disruption to the campaign (and a juicy promotion for you).

But if that doesn't work, given that the RTs player still can't make the simple decision which character they want after some time and much opportunity to do so, the fact is that this indecisiveness is impacting on the groups fun . Someone needs to show some OOC and IC leadership and I strongly suggest that either the RT player get over it and make a decision, or you should make it for him/her. Your GM seems seems like a rather 'practical' individual, either swap warrants, or take the GM's offer and send in the Assassins (then you get both warrants).

NGL said:

He felt that everyone else was a specialist class in one respect or another and that the rogue trader class was a bit of a jack of all trades and didn't like it's special ability even though the GM let the +10 be given to most checks outside of combat (not lores and some other skills), round about when he left everyone elses character was getting really good at what they do, the navigator is ludicrously good at well navigating, my seneschal made the GM grumble a lot as I almost always brought home the bacon, the two arch militants were incredibly good at killing and Decessors Explorator was a good (not great) at tech but was only second to the arch militants in combat skills since he was going for a Magos Militant type character.

His role that he seemed to forget was leadership and decisiveness but he didn't seem to really take that to heart. Also he was really good at doing boarding actions which with the Teleportarium and Murder Servitors meant that he really upped our combat effectiveness in space. I began settling in as an ok pilot for space combat since we had no void master. When he left the noble born arch militant and then later my seneschal took over doing boarding actions. I invested large sums of xp to get command skills earlier so that we could avail of our ships components faster. Being really good at command isn't a bad specialisation, yes it's a bit focused but is it any more so than being really good at killing things as an arch militant, I mean thats their super power.

Come to think of it I think one of the things that got him a bit annoyed was when we were doing Lure of the Expanse he got a bit heavy handed with some low tech tribal type humans and he kept going at them the wrong way until he felt like they needed to be shown our scary power, demanded that the Explorator teleport him back up to the ship and then down onto the beach further down in a few minutes. Well the Explorator rolled 100 and wasn't there for the session, this combined with the GM clearly not taking kindly to such frivolous use of the teleportarium had our dearest captain dissappear for twelve hours in game. When he didn't come back I approached the locals and just avoided the topics of conversation that they got upset at so by the time the captain arrived I was having dinner with them and the rest of the command crew over dinner and hanmmering out trade agreements.

My Seneschal being a Noble born man of arrogance and a big fan of the Class system looked on his long lost cousin the rogue trader who grew up on a hive world without knowing his noble heritage felt that he needed his aid in learning how to be a proper noble. He had the blood in his veins to lead but sometimes wasn't doing it the "right" way in Gaius' mind. He was and is very loyal however and even when he went about things in a round about way not the way the rogue trader would want it was always to his benefit. This led to some odd bits of contention and Gaius' always felt that Kaiphus the Rogue Trader should have an heir, settle down and get married... preferably to someone really rich and of good stock but after a while anyone who could bear him a child... actually forget settle down a child was enough. Gaius' back up plan was to woo and court Lady Chanabel and her ailing dynasty but Kaiphus got competitive and before you know it he could sit back and try and trick himself into thinking it was the way he planned things to work out.

@Zakalwe

Although I do like the idea of us having a rogue trader again and my Seneschal is the only blood relative PC left in action- one of the arch militants was too but had to leave the game- and it has been suggested that he hire assasins and such Gaius' has always been loyal, though someone did point out if he left and took the command crew he would be showing Kaiphus the same level of loyalty he was shown. Assasination unless things changed wouldn't be in character for him... and I do not see the old rogue trader's player taking it well.

Kaiphus wouldn't be willing to trade for that warrant of that I am sure, we conquered an Eldar maiden world... no way will he give that up plus all the other shiny toys we gathered either. I have no issue with if he doesn't come back going to the other warrant and less money, our character's gears are pretty pimped out to one degree or another and as Decessor will no doubt expect Gaius has a plan... crazy yes, dangerous oh yes but profitable? Oh his plans are always profitable!

@NGL

When the rogue trader player left the character he had the out of character reason of wanting to try something else saying he might go back to the old one later and in character wanted to spend some time with his newly born child. I don't think the GM loved the idea of the party not having a rogue trader but it was probably just a short term thing. At the same time the way things are in the game it's not as simple as going oh you're running the Dynasty now. If the GM wants to have someone have another look at the family tree and go hey Gaius' is actually closer in line than that guy great. The Dynasty's line of succession at the start of the game had been in contention and he was dubbed to be the rightful heir (getting him out of a court case and all!).

One or two people seem to be confused, I'm not the GM in this particular rogue trader game just a player with a character climbing his way up the social hierarchy of the Imperium. From the beginings of a noble born scion working in the departmento munitorum doing his bit for the Emperor's armies far from the front lines sipping wine and writting in ledgers to journeying the void and reaching the exalted status of Rogue Trader like a shark he is always moving forward along the great river of commerce.

Gee Gaius, you're making this hard, I'll just have to switch to complete bastard mode, hang on...

.. there we go. Perhaps talk to the GM about another long lost cousin (or whoever) who sends assassins after BOTH of you (either together or separately). Only you get to role play it out and have the other PCs help you to foil the attack, and the RT just gets wasted. You then get both warrants, stay loyal and in character and also have a plot hook to go after whoever sent in the assassins (to grab whatever neat stuff they have).

Sniff, Sniff, hmmm, smells like PROFIT to me.

Or OOC get the Arch Militant to hire the assassins or put a bomb in the RT's shuttle or something because IC they are sick of the situation and are loyal to you and not the RT, and they want you in charge (both warrants for you yet again!!!)

Fact is it sounds like you are faced with a very difficult OOC situation, so don't worry if you have to find a solution that requires 'bending' your IC situation a little. Your character sounds likes scheming bastard with a nose for profit, and the RT did abandon him, not the other way around. Heck, at this stage I would even suggest the GM to Deus Ex Machina and just have the RT killed in an accident (both warrants for you, again, YAY!). The fun must go on after all.

Go on, send in the assassins... (please?)

Assasins... that reminds me I should go kill some Makens at some stage... they're my Noble Born enemy, they sent a high level assasin after me twice so far. First time he had a needle sniper rifle on port wander and hired some goons with long las', his cousin the noble born arch militant used guardian and went lightly into crits... and he was wearing power armour. The assasin got away that time, his goons didn't.

Next time he came back he brought a missile launcher but Pip our new voidmaster whipped out the Eldar Long Las we had loaned him and started counter sniping, actually hitting the git in the face and putting him into crits. Once more he tried to run but Helix (our resident power armoured mutant non noble arch militant who insisted no walking around footfall in his full combat gear including luckily for us his jump pack) ran him down like a dog using tracking. All the shiny stuff he had including a refractor shield really helped gear out Pip.

Gaius usually takes Assasination attempts in his stride since they are par for the course if you are a Nobleman, "If someone isn't trying to kill you, you aren't doing it right". After the last assasination attempt he sent a message to them slighting them by making it clear he wouldn't be countering either assasination attempt anytime soon since he held them in such little regard.

I'll be honest part of him would like to own all that stuff we worked for and put out necks on the line for. I had considered it would be kind of cool to make sure everyone in the party got a moon or planet as a their own. As in not administrated by them but owned by them since everyone has put in a lot of effort towards the Dynasty.

Sound effect and scene setting: A tense breeze whistles through deserted corridors in an underused part of the ship. The Seneschal ponders the star vista beyond through an observation blister. He caresses the pommel of his sword thoughfully as he weighs the biggest decision of his life: the breeze toussles his hair and licks at his greatcoat....

As if the words were upon the breeze itself, Zakalwe leans close and in a whispered voice dripping with temptation says:

"Just do it, you know you want to".

Having read through all of this stuff, it sounds like golden! A RT dynasty with no RT! My Navigator could only HOPE to be so lucky.

If the Great and Mighty Captain Konrad Icarus St-Clair were to step down, I would be free to pursue my own agendas, to destroy my enemies on the ship and... oh wait. It would also mean that my enemies OUTSIDE the ship - the Arbites hound Benix Otello would no longer feel the need to tread lightly around us... I want my captain back!

Serious ly though, it does sound like an OOC issue primarily. Easiest way might just be to figure out how to meet that player's need. If it means going at it without a Rogue Trader - so be it! Besides, it's hard to argue with someone with a startship at his command. And if the crew if loyal to the Seneschal, then that makes him the captain of that ship...

(Now the position of Sceneshal.. . THAT"S the job for this Navigator... )

The next game is Monday night it looks. To be honest the amount of times I'll have to hear about this if I do anything will probablly make doing anything not worth it. Idealy I'd like the rogue trader character to come back while my one prepares to move off to do his own adventures later as he builds up a ship and things. What'd be better still would be if we could tackle the end game stuff with both dynasty's working together but npc navigators can't even follow our PC one even at an alright speed.

The Rogue Trader player says that if he brings back the rogue trader he'll be politely getting Gaius off the ship, buying him a frigate or something as he sees him as a threat now, especially since his cousin is now running our chief holding (the arch militants player had to leave the game since he moved away). He's kind of right as Gaius' is getting a bit more resentful of him now that he's putting his life on the line to further the Solo Dynasty when Kaiphus Solo is off playing house, so the thought of does it have to be like this is crossing his mind. I understand how this is a sensible cautious move except if he wanted to take over the dynasty he's had two years to do so. I've played this character since session one and not missed a single session that actually went ahead (couldn't make one night but it ended up being cancelled due to only a small number of players being available).

He could just leave to start setting up his dynasty properly but this is only a little better than what the rogue trader did, of course if he offers others positions in his dynasty which he likely would he'd be splitting the party.

He could through a variety of means (including the unlikely assasination method) try to take over the current dynasty but this will cause out of character bitterness. Though he said he'd be bitter if Gaius tried to steal his command crew.

Lastly he could sit down and shut up and continue going through the paces as this big plot unfolds making profit for a man who ultimately at this stage doesn't seem all that grateful since he rather abruptly left and hasn't bothered checking back in with us (from an occ point of view I get this and temper the in character point of view since he wasn't able to play for ages, would have been nice if he had sent an email to the GM or something and asked that he I don't know got each of us a BQ power sword with our names carved into the blade and the dynasty emblem on the hilt).

Ultimately Rogue Trader doesn't seem that much fun working for some guy who really is just a distant NPC at this stage. Trying to change this matter will lead to OOC grumpyness since I'd be screwing over "his" character. Problem is he has screwed over all of our characters and doesn't seem to get it, everyone complained to him when he left his rogue trader, if he had said he'd never play him again then the GM could have had another person with the warrant show up or have it assigned to another one of the blood relation pcs (mine or the arch militant most likely).

There is still a bit of a difference in my head of him rejoining the game as another character or not rejoining. Not rejoining makes me kind of think well if he's not going to be there for the end and hasn't been there for ages why should we not take some kind of action since he'll never play the rogue trader again or even be at the sessions. The stakes are getting higher and we are dealing with some really really big stuff now, and as much as we've tip toed around it we can't avoid the end game anymore. But if we are playing the high stakes game with the big victory and big profit on the line it'd feel better if someone on the bridge of the ship staring down the big bad guys was the one who'd be there at the board meeting the next week and not some other guy who wasn't there and goes "You did what?" and fires the lot of us, with out a rogue trader we're just a bunch of high level guys working for some guy over there. At this level we shouldn't have to feel like that, we should feel like masters of our own destiny, hell even in Dark Heresy with the amount of game time we'd have put in someone would be an Inquisitor by now, it's almost reversed. Even though no one will tell us to do this mission or not do that at the back of our characters heads there is someone and it's not currently a player character.

In a word it's frustrating.

It sounds to me like you're as itching for a regime change OOC as you are IC, and every other PC feels the same. In this instance, the best bet would be for you to talk to the GM. If he agrees with you (and I feel as though, provided you've not just been presenting one side of the story, any reasonable person would) then just go for it. Right now, you've got every player and a GM all feeling grumpy and dissatisfied, while if you were to overthrow the RT only one player would be unhappy. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I understand it's sh*tty starting RL trouble over IC stuff, since it's just a game, right? But the thing of it is, it's no use playing a game that isn't fun and fufilling to everybody playing. Your RT isn't playing, he's just leaving his option to come back open, and it's ruining everyone elses fun. Cut the cord, and if he can deal with it and roll up a new character when/if he can commit to a steady role or play a role that doesn't require constant attention (perhaps a Seneschal to support yours and take over the role you'll leave empty if you take captaincy?) then great. If not, well you guys gave him 2 years to come back as a captain, and he didn't.

The 40k Universe is the grim dark future: Love it, or get the f*** out.

Frak it, I was going to ask for a thousand thrones, but now I'll do it for free. .Dirty deeds done dirt cheap.

Seriously though your situation is poison and seems worse that it first appeared. Just having his character killed is obviously not really an option it would seem. This needs to be discussed amongst the entire group, and the GM has to make a decision.

You say the RT is kicking your character out? I can understand the in character motivation, but the playter isn't even playing. Who does this player think he is? He doesn't turn up, and can't even decide what fraking character he wants to play, and presumes to decide who gets to keep their character. Get the other players (and characters) to make it clear that even though they serve the RT, you're their 'team' leader and if you go they follow. This kind of thing happens in the real world,and if the RT wants to go there then he needs to be prepared for the consequences. Does this guy have something over the gm in real life or what.

In my mind if both the player and character are absent then they're just not part of the game. Everyone gets to miss a session here and there, but if you're not in it then you're not in it.

We had two guys who played a couple of sessions ( I play DH just to be clear)and haven't 'been able to make it' since. We were kind of proceding on the assumption that they would be back but last sesssion I told the GM that I was proceding as if they weren't. This also allowed a friend who really wanted to play to join the group and we are now well set.

I'm sorry to have to say this next bit, but remember it is just a game. As much as I like a bit of skullduggery and support doing in the RT by assassination, it's not worth the anxiety if you can't resolve this as a group. I've been in campaigns that went toxic before (Vampire the Masquerade) and it wasn't worth what it did amongst the friends. Remember, anxiety has a very real impact on your health, so if you can't resolve this as a group tomorrow, consider that it may be best to call it a day.

And everything that BangBang sid too.

Discuss it as a group. GM needs to act. All the best for the game.

Hey Gaius, I'm really interested to hear how the session went. Let us know aye.

Just a few hours off but the Rogue Trader character will be returning it seems! Huzzah! But maybe not able to meet tonights session. Also our good mister Barbosa might be coming back, he's the noble born arch militant that is the rogue trader's other cousin. The bands getting back together! Xenos killing time! Purge and steal the shiny things! Oh such stealing... We found one race of xenos so far aside from the Kroot and Stryxis we could deal with peacefully... and they're slowly blotting out the astronomicon! And you know that aint going to fly... also the eldar gave them some STC patterns! Heresy most foul I'd say. Last time we met them at their homeworld about three years back in game we blew up their shipyard. Maybe it's time to put an end to them... risky though!

The return of Magos Militant Marcellus Lucian is now set (with the finding of the lost character sheet). His intolerance of psyker filth and living xenos will make its mark once more. No fate points isn't deterring me from getting him back into the fray. Just in time for the return of Gaius' relatives it seems!

Our rogue trader did not return that session so I carried out my own plans to increase my own small dynasty. We went off beyond the rifts of Hecaton to recover a grand cruiser and some other ships that were with it. I got this location as payment for keeping my yap shut about some demi god level xenos' secrets. Long story short the options were memory scrub, getting a device that forced me to shut up or fight... since they had just encased our frigate in yellow crystal and frozen the whole crew I surmised they were hard and took the second option as did almost everyone else. The other PCs went for things like unnatural traits and things. We recovered an archeotech grand cruiser, light cruiser and raider after some stiff fighting from the denizens beyond the rifts... tyranids and necrons... I don't like it out their one bit.

When we came back we got news that our rogue trader had died over a year ago and the Adeptus Terra was deciding who should get the warrant of trade now. Gaius and his cousin Tybalt Barbosa (the arch militant) had the best claims and if I could get him to back me I'd get the warrant of trade, so I might have hinted that I'm a bit more politically astute and promised him my lesser warrant of trade if I got it... he could always of course shoot me to gain the warrant... but thankfully he didn't. He got a warrant of trade and the grand cruiser "The Guardian Angel", which he dearly loves. Lord Captain and Rogue Trader Gaius Orellius Maximus commands an archeotech grand cruiser the "TARDIS", the archeotech frigate "The Weeping Angel" (which we started on), the orion class transport "Hammer of Thor" and an archeotech light cruiser and archeotech raider which have yet to be named. For a long while we haven't bothered amassing a fleet since with our first few additional ships we encountered the problem that is although tracking in the stars meant they could follow us they couldn't keep up with our insanely good navigator... waiting months for them wasn't going to happen. The GM has come up with a house rule allowing our PC navigator to kind of guide or shepherd the other ships navigators in the warp, in essence she can give up degrees of sucess to give bonuses to the npc navigators.

Our original rogue trader is dead but adventure awaits and we have to pay a visit to admiral bastille as he is stirring up a hornets nest in the rifts the imperium can ill afford to rouse... unless he can give us a good reason. Never the less if we have to take him on we'll fabricate some evidence that he attacked and killed Kaiphus Solo before attacking his holdings in reprisals.

Sounds like the GM made an overdue decision which has resulted in everyone getting on with some quality adventuring.

Good for you.

Fabian Grax said:

^This.

Secondly, allow me to be blunt... your RT player (yes, the actual person) sounds like he was being a whiny little $#(%. The Rogue Trader is NOT necessarily the most important character, but when in character, he *is* the leader. From what I've seen on these forums there seem to be some players who fail to understand this. The GM needs to emphasize this from the very beginning, and make DARN sure that the player is willing to accept that role and make the committment to the campaign... because as party leader, if the RT's player leaves or just turns out to be a stinker, the impact is much greater than for any other character.