I will eventually run a RT campaign and plan to use mainly published material that I will tweak a bit. I want to show the players what makes RT different from every other RPG out there.

So which ones capture the feel of RT the best?

Sadly you have mutually exclusive goals. As much as I love all of the other Rogue Trader material, the published adventures are so railroady you'd think they were published in the 90s. Unless you want your players to think of Rogue Trader as "that game where players can't make meaningful choices" I'd make my own adventures up, or heavily modify the published ones.

That said, Lure of the Expanse is the best one from every angle. It's the closest to playable as you'll get from any of the RT Modules, and it comes with a lot of bonus material that you can probably use even if you can't use the adventure (I love the Appendix of Rogue Trader vessels, and the planets described are always useful in some way). Still, it's not great. A sizable chunk of it is one long video-game style meaningless fetch quest with only a tenuous connection to the rest of the adventure that acts as an anti-immersion seeking tactical nuclear warhead.

Still, it's easily the best one. If you're willing to modify the everliving **** out of it, on the fly no less, then I can see it being enjoyable. The amount of work you'd have to put into any of those modules to make them playable, however, would be less than the work it would take to design your own, better adventure. If I were you I'd pick up Lure of the Expanse, pick one of the planetary profiles therein, and make up my own adventure. Or, better get, grab Edge of the Abyss and expand on one of the hooks in that book.

I also have to admit as is they are abit weak but just don't follow the railroading...

I liked the 2 free ones enough they are vague and let you modify them easy. The Worm can be used anywhere.

I also like the one inside the Dm's guide. The whisperer makes a nice encounter you can reuse. The Whisperer may have been a bigger form of the wasp or something similar. Hence whenever there are wasp, after so many are killed or the big security is activated a whisperer comes out.

Also the whole system belonging to your ancestor, etc. sounds nice. I used it with a new Warrant of trade (upgrade from a trader cpitain, those tied to a given route, unable to discover), they where like "What that is impossible!"... but there, it still was, with the proper dated document and all...

That lead to a new adventure about the Secret Inquisitor Warrant and the many different secret of the many planets.

neuromonster said:

Is it not in Lure of the Expense where the player find a drifting Batleship and their are supposed to let it go to oblivion? That was the funniest part I ever read. I mean come on as a DM I was tryign to find loop hole as I strated reading that section on how In the Emperor name's I coudl try to prevent them from claiming it... I mean come on it would be so simple...

Thinking about it, that quest end is pretty lame all together, the players loose everything in the end again as the world is swollen away in the warp...

Rather than giving the published adventures the ribbing they so rightly deserve, why don't we try to work as a community to create an online "module" that accomplishes what the OP wants: Introduce a group of players to what makes RT awesome and different from other RPGs, but one built without tracks.

I guess the first step would be figuring out what is especially fun about Rogue Trader, and what separates it from other games.

Obviously there's the increased personal power of the PCs. One thing that bothers me about the published adventures, and something that would be nice to see addressed, is the idea of a personal army. Most Rogue Traders float around with enough soldiers to occupy a small moon, yet the big fights/other violent situations almost always assume that the PC side of the conflict will consist solely of the PCs. Any really good, demonstrative Rogue Trader adventure would need to make allowances for, but not require, having a small army at your command.

Moral choices, where the immoral option brings with it much in the way of personal gain. Being heroic is more meaningful when you sacrifice something in order to do it, and being the bad guy is more fun when you win. Most Rogue Trader crews either fancy themselves heroes, or act like the cast of Blackadder (or both). Giving them a chance to demonstrate these attributes is fun and flavorful.

The ability to significantly influence what is going on is also important. A rogue trader with their ship and crew is a serious force to be reckoned with, and the ability for such a group to cause significant change to at least small areas of space should not be underestimated. A really good Rogue Trader Module would have copious notes on how the events alter if the PCs begin bending individuals and organizations to their will, either by diplomacy or force.

What else? What other things are emblematic of what makes Rogue Trader awesome?

crisaron said:

I said it was the best one, not that it was good. It's the least smelly fart, it's the prettiest pug dog, it's the best episode of The Steve Wilkos Show. It's like standing in a voting booth staring at a ballot where the choices are "Carrot Top or Hitler". You vote for Carrot Top, but you don't feel proud.

neuromonster said:

Not a jab at you mostly wanted to point out the worsth of that quest for the OP, also quest idea :

www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/08/26/science-diamond-planet.html

neuromonster said:

I have started a word document that contains anything I think I can use for the upcoming campaign I plan to run. There are alot of adventure ideas but mainly I wanted to get a feel for the game. Any posts I saw that talked about how the game should "feel" were copied and saved for later. I'll put a few brief sentences of the examples below (I didn't write down who said these things so I can't give credit for them)-

• I guess it all comes down to style. How do you want your game to be?
• Would you rather your players crush cities than fight groups of mercenaries? Do you want them to face off against entire WAAGHS! or just ambushes in the jungle?
• Do you want their enemies to have thousands of troops and fleets at their disposal?
• For me the answer to these questions is always "yes, bigger and meaner!" That is why I am running a RT campaign instead of a DH one. Scale!
• Plan encounters and scenarios, not adventures: Your players are too powerful and have too many resources for you to be able to sufficiently plan EVERYTHING. You just never know when you are going to solve a big session you have planned with a lance strike or 100 troops. Conversely, often they will decide something you considered minor requires lots of personal attention. Between their ships, guncutters, crew, political connections, and massively powerful weaponry, planning out a traditional module becomes a daunting problem. Instead just plan out encounters and let them figure out how to overcome them. Never plan out solutions
• Make combat cinematic, not crunchy: again, too much to track, as you have noticed. You can treat most troops and groups as ‘blobs’, or even just environmental effects. For really big battles you can just have your players roll a few command tests and have that determine what the battlefield “feels” like. Troops can also have a ‘story level’ effect, capturing things ‘off-screen’, bringing down shields or defenses, etc.
• Embrace the scale: understand that RT takes place at a much grander scale than anything else you have run, and adjust to it. Opponents aren’t bandits, but planetary empires. Battles take place not at the unit level, but the company or army level. Items are no longer a significant motivator, power is. Players are no longer snubbed or praised by barkeeps and peasants, but by planetary governors, and even they rightly fear and respect the players.

I'll also include an example of a typical encounter in almost any other RPG and how you can scale it up to a RT level-

You decide that you want to PCs to go into a shady bar and negotiate with an underworld crime boss. While there, a rival gang attacks and the PCs side with the crime boss, earning his trust if they can fight off the attackers with minimal loss to the bar and staff.

A typical RPG situation. But it just doesn't work with Rogue Trader. So we scale it up to:-

The PCs need the help of a notorious Pirate Lord. They have the location of the ramshackle station he operates out of, which have a couple of Raider class ships in dock and some defenses. They get permission to dock and begin diplomatic overtures, but in the middle of this some unknown ships appear at the edge of Auspex range and fighting erupts all over the station. A rival group is attempting to seize the station, aided by some of the Pirate Lord's own people inside the station. The PCs are caught in the middle. The Pirate Lord's palace gets stormed, meaning the PCs must engage in personal combat in the throne room. Then they have to fight their way out to their own ship and launch it. Then they have to fight off the enemy ships while at the same time helping put down the revolt inside the station.

Sorry, I listed a little more than a few. Doesn't the game described above sound awesome? It sure does to me which is why I've been wanting to run it for my group. I seem to remember hearing some good things about the RT adventures on these boards but maybe I'm mistaken. I like the statement above that says to "plan encounters and scenarios, not adventures" and the advice to let the players solve their own problems.

I have read the adventure in the GM's kit but I don't recall it being that bad. I also have LotE but I haven't read too much of it yet. I have a while to prepare (at least 6 months) so I am not in a hurry. If anyone else has any input I'd be glad to hear it (and add it to my files!)

Theronin, I don't think you'll have any issues running anything honestly. The way you're approaching running RT is IMO the best way to do it. Adapting the adventures is not very difficult if you're thinking in those scales. To use the Battleship example, if the PCs work out a way to save the ship, shackle them with it and have THEM figure out how to get it back to imperial space safely, but remember there's a nasty Eldar raider out there not only shadowing the PCs, but actively interfering. 1 or 2 pathfinders inserted onto the ship and salvage operations could be considered at a standstill.

Explorers don't have plans, they have goals, they have dreams and desires rather than requirements and restrictions. LotE showcases this in the scope of the adventure. There's only one timeframe given and that's the initial warp jump and it's measured in months. Doing the entire thing will more than likely involve years of ingame time, and you can even delay the final adventure indefinitely only to spring it on your PCs when it's least welcome. I don't consider LotE railroady in the slightest. Yes, there are written adventures that assume the PCs take the easy and obvious way out, but then there are all the other RTs to consider and their own methods which the PCs could decide to start with, or even emulate after a while. The adventure as written is more of a guideline of obvious steps and any even slightly prepared GM should be ready to go their own way with it.

Oh, and could I join your game? Sounds like it's going to be an amazing ride! ;-)