So, I'm still a bit new to 40k RPG; I have a lot of their books, now, but no experience playing it, and Rogue Trader has thrown me for an especially irritating loop. While I could see some interesting options for playing Empire Builder, teleporting your DW-style Hordes of troops down to worlds, to fight other hordes of things, and could easily see characters having in-depth social interactions, how much combat can these characters participate in? Armor and Toughness are nice, but the best armor actually makes you easier to hit (by upping your Size), and Humans are squishy. The most important character, the Rogue Trader (assuming he isn't benig NPC'd, for some reason), has the Warrant, so his death would be worse than "oops, your character is dead, so make a new one", and your group/his line could end, or have to go to some other guy, while your Navigator is vital for travel; unless you have several on one ship, or can fleet-jump in RT, your Navigator would be ill-advised exposed to combat. The same could be said of your Astropath. I see that they could be battle-psykers, but if they die, and you don't have a whole choir on one ship, your distance comms are down. Of the various RT character types, it seems several are good character options, but too important to risk on firefights, which are themselves often tricky to predict, so half of the characters could have to stay on the ship, and not really be playing.

How much am I overanalyzing this? How might other GMs of Rogue Trader balance character play/fun with character type/value? Thanks much.

I think you are over-analysing. Yes there the players are important characters, but that's kind of the point. It means they can and do have access to good gear (force fields help a lot in combat, as do inferno pistols), to a host of mercenaries and they are generally just more skilled then most of their opponents. And that's not even mentioning the crucial role of fate points and righteous fury.

Normally a ship would have multiple astropaths and navigators indeed, same for explorators/tech-priests. The only thing that comes as a one of a kind is the rogue trader and honestly: plenty of people can fill his role if they have command or intimidate.

As to their squishyness i find that a lot of characters are surprisingly sturdy. My genetor for example is now at level 5 and has been a tank since level 3. Regeneration & Feel no Pain help a lot, as does his TB of 80 in combination with his best Q eldar rune armour (bounty retrofit). Most opponents are hardly even a challenge, unless they are truly epic or numerous. Our navigator kills scores of enemies with the blink of his third eye and once even blew up a tank that teleported in (and stupidly left a peep-hole open) when he used his flamer power on it. Basically: we got mercs and house-troops to act as disposable fodder, we go in as elite troops.

Is it risky?

Yup.

But who in his right mind wants to roleplay a boring bureaucrat who never gets in danger (unless from infiltrators, spies, turncoats, protesters and papercuts)?

If one of us dies, well ... there's always something that can be done to cope with the loss providing GM and player are creative storytellers.

I tend to think of the 40K setting being like unto the medieval world. Leaders back then were men of action (or at least were expected to be), in the thick of things, not in a fortress somewhere miles behind the lines, ordering their troops forward via telephone. More Henry V than Douglas Haig. They get stuck in, because that is what is expected of them. Their men want to see them in the van, inspiring them with their mighty deeds, not shirking at the back cheering them on.

And as Rogue Traders are not unlike the great explorers, traders and adventurers of ages past, it wasn't unknown for them to come to a sticky end. Venturing into the blank spaces on the map is risky business. Vasco de Gama, died of Malaria in India; Bartholomew Diaz lost at sea off the Cape; Henry Hudson, set adrift by his mutinous crew and never seen again; Sir Francis Drake, dysentery while fighting the Spanish; James Cook, killed by Hawaiian natives, etc., etc. Plenty of kings killed in battle in ages past, too. That's the risk you take when you grasp at greatness, and what Fate Points are for.

You just need a different mindset. 40K is futuristic, but it harks back to a past way of doing things much more than most Sci-Fi settings. The PCs are great lords of a mighty empire and are expected to act as such. Doesn't mean you can't delegate at all, but you shouldn't do it all the time, not if you want to be respected by your subordinates and among your peers.

And from a purely gameplay point of view, I think the players having fun is more important than any concerns about losing a vital member of the team. And it isn't much fun to be told to stay on the ship every time. Just say the Navigator or Astropath or whatever is the head Navigator or Astropath or whatever on the ship. There are others who can do the job at a pinch. So he's important, but we can all still get home if he cops it. No need to get bogged down in thinking it through too much, not if it gets in the way of fun.

Yeah nobody likes a craven in 40k!

I have a sort of related question: I imagine that often players will decide to bring a bodyguard guardsmen with them on explorations. GMs how do you mechanically handle large scale combat?

Agreed with all, it's a great big pissing contest and the Rogue Trader who gets in there and mixes it up will have more bragging rights and score more 'action' than the one who gets his troops to do all the rough stuff.

Yeah, I understand that. My problem was more one of scale; I underestimated how much redundancy a single ship might have. For your standard freighter, I sort of guessed 1 RT, 1 Navigator, maybe a small handful of Astropaths, or just 1, and such. In that case, any loses of such individuals could royally screw over the party. Certainly, the loss of the Trader is terrible, since he has the Warrant that allows the party to act, so if he/she biffs it, a new name has to get added, which might mean going back to the bureaucracy, getting a new person, and hoping that they don't suck, or fire everyone, in favor of their own loyalists. Maybe that's done some other way I am unaware of, but whatever. More perilous, though, would be to lose the 1 Navigator your ship has, who is needed to warp-fly the ship, or the Astropath who effectively serves as your CB radio to the universe outside. If a single ship holds several of each thing (minus the Trader, likely), then what I said loses a bit of something, and it's no biggie; let the players have fun. I just worried that, with the limited number of accepted psykers, and bred Navigators in the galaxy, most ships wouldn't necessarily have backups, and so their loss would be terrible to the WHOLE party, rather than just 1 person being a bit bored.

For LS combat, I suppose it matters how large scale it gets. IMO, I could easily see some Rogue Traders doing a little bit of Empire Builder, and have units of Guardsmen (using Horde rules from Deathwatch) stored aboard ship. With such forces, they can ferry Companies down to planets, to battle indigenous hordes there. Say you find a planet infested with Orks. You could troop transport your Companies down, or teleport them, if you have that ship upgrade, and let them fight nameless Ork hordes. Meanwhile, you can go planetside, too, with your companions, and pick out the key enemy units, such as the Warboss, or his Nobs, and directly attack them while your Hordes keep their Hordes at bay. For more small scale, like say your group vs some Eldar (who rarely have enough to Horde), get the stats for a handful of Guardsmen (best from DW p.375-376), maybe Storm Troopers (built with Ascension, if you are connected, or Crusaders, if you are REALLY connected), and have each character have 1-2 of them to control, in addition to their characters, or the GM does it. If you can orbital bombard Orks in advance, this might work with them, too, once their ridiculous numbers are thinned. Still, for the Horde thing, I'd suggest caution; some DW players informed me that Hordes can polish off non Space Marines pretty easily, so if one catches your core party, casulaties might stack up quick (can't Dodge their improved attacks!).

A thought of mine, while I'm typing. How good is Power Armor, to most players here? I know you get the nice strength boost (hopefully), and the best suits not held for Space Marines (the Ignatius pattern suits in Ascension) have extra stuff in them, but the +10 to getting hit by everything seems a bit steep, for 1 more point of Armor. Is the 1-2 AP worth the +10 to being hit, or do most players stop at the Storm Trooper Carapace suits? Curious, as besides Tech priests and Battle Sisters, so many characters, even well-connected ones, seem to forgo the heavier armor.

The power armour available in the Rogue Trader rulebooks is crap. The single worst problem is the lack of endurance in the power supply. (There are some armours in other 40K games that bypass this problem.) Besides, the best defence is to not get hit. The extra point or two of armour is generally not worth the to-hit penalty, and the Ironclad armour cannot dodge, which is even worse. If you are restricting yourself to only the RT books, my recommendation is good or best vac-sealed Stormtrooper Carapace.

If you have access to other 40K roleplaying books, then power armour becomes a viable choice. Aside from the Space Marines, who obviously have the best kit, the best power armour is either the Sororitas armour, Dragonscale (Tech-Priest only), or Light power armour with the good power supply. [First 2 from Dark Heresy, the last from Black Crusade.] Those three all have decent armour (7), with no penalties and no endurance limit.

If you're facing enemies who don't have high AP weapons, then maaaaaaybe get a suit of human sized Terminator armour with the good power supply. [black Crusade, again.] You can't dodge, and suffer the -10 to be hit, but the suit is AP 14. That's almost enough to bounce hellgun fire.

Cheers,

- V.