My crew seem along the same lines. It's hard to throw any form of combat or large scale engagements without the captain saying "can't i just blast them from orbit" meaning i usually have to make up piss poor excuses as to why that can't be done. The last time it was a series of chaos alters shielding the 3 mines the cultists had fortified, before that it was the cannons could be out by up to ten miles. I still have the "we have an army, just send them down." I mean even my tech priest wants to go down and lead from the front. The captain is the main hassle as if he had it his way thy would literally live aboard that ship and not do anything. Or when they all want "better gear" and i try explaining even though it says melta guns or what ever can be aquired because of the tables, im not gonna give you them till your higher ranked.

Aside from that, my only real problem is my arch militant. I was toying with some of the demons, testing them, the blood letters 1d10+1 or whatever it was almost had me in tears. It could do 1 damage to the arch militant.....which meant he slaughtered a group of them with ease. So im gonna have to scale up some of their damage/attributes to make them any form of a challenge which is a bit much considering my void master lost an arm trying to help in the fight with the blood letters.

And low and behold now their asking

rogue trader: "can i become a sister of battle?"

arch militant : "can i become a marine of some kind"

i'd appreciate some advice please. I only ran world of darkness before this. My game has been going for maybe 2 months now?

1. I use these rules for orbital bombardments: http://darkreign40k.com/drjoomla/index.php/new-rules/house-rules/1232-orbital-bombardment- The way I figure it, if they're able to maintain orbital superiority, their target's out in the open and there's nothing worth anything (That's the important kicker. Most of the time there should be something in the area to give them pause: be it civilians in the area that could be profitably taxed, information held by only a single individual, the need to recover an item undamaged ...), well. If your captain's trigger-happy allow her to indulge herself every now and then. Go all out with the descriptions.

2. Toxic damage on a Warp Weapon will ruin most people's days. Black Crusade has a good way of handling this sort of thing: namely that most enemies will prioritise the most dangerous target first. Add enemies appropriate to challenge him, and have them focus on him. Is he striding around in power armour like an iron god? Cultists with hotshot rifles try to pin him down from a hidden vantage point while berserk flagellants charge in to combat the rest of the group. The AM himself can easily take care of these puny threats, but that divides his attention and forces him to keep dancing from cover to cover to avoid having his head melted by a high-powered lasburst until his companions can take them down. Master sniper, able to pick the wings off a fly from a thousand yards away? Reverse it! Axolotl mercenaries clamber up the walls in search of his firing position, relying on their camouflage and quick movements to protect them while a heavy weapons team keeps the others pinned!

3. "Most Adepta Sororitas are raised to their role from a very young age, it's comparatively rare for unordained adults to be accepted into their orders. That said, a pilgrimage never goes astray..." Use the things that the players want to do as plot hooks. The MAJOR point about Rogue Trader is that the players are very capable of just picking up sticks and flying off to do whatever, so use that. Find the things they want, and make them happen. Don't necessarily make it easy, or fulfill every wish-list item they have, but it's quite an effective way to help them have fun with it.

4. Gland Warrior, Into The Storm. Aside from that, same answer as above. The cutoff for becoming an Astartes is something like twelve in most Chapters, though some retain initiation rituals that can swing that out a bit further. There's always the possibility that he could find a heretek willing to transplant the organs of an astartes, given enough motivation to do so!

Thanks for the tips!

My AM doesn't even have power armor, he has got the armor carapace implant, plus his 6 toughness and his armor which i think is 3 (don't have the sheets handy), so i generally find it a bit tough to hurt him. I'd toy with the idea of introducing him to the astrates simply on the basis of his past exploits, single handedly cutting through enemies be it with his trusty las pistol or the unique spear he aquired (plot hook to introduce those Thule techpriest guys). The sister of battle on the other hand im more apprehensive about mainly because i don't know much about them and from what he tells me their "faith" seems pretty broke haha Also the fact her "fanatical faith" that he attempts to display is really just murdering innocent people with no connection to the warp, so i'll have remind him that it'll bring corruption, also the fact he had dealings with an eldar, allowing him aboard the ship and aiding in the rescue of his men, means the inquisition aren't too pleased (i love the malignances table). My captain seems to neglect the managing of her trade routes and her black market contacts, so i'll have to step up the assassination attempts from her rival to keep her on her toes.

Those orbital bombardment rules seem pretty fair, i'll introduce them on the next game. My players really dislike space combat but if i have to throw more of it in, to prevent glassing entire planets i will =p

I like the idea of splitting my group, keeping the heavy hitter occupied so the others can struggle a little against the grunt waves. I'll be working on that.

I never had this problem in WoD as everyone is relatively squishy to an extent, so fights usually boiled down to 1v1 or maybe 2v3 with each side fairly equal. While i've played the fantasy warhammer, running 40k on such a grand scale is taking me time to get used too.

Guess i'll just have to post more to pick up more tips. =]

If your AM only has 6 toughness, then I'm not sure how he managed to stymie your bloodletters. They're Fear 3, so he needs to swallow a -20 WP test to not piss himself and whimper (assuming you're not as horribly cruel as I am, and increase the penalty to as much as -40 to reflect the fact that there are almost a dozen, rather then just one), followed by them hitting him with two attacks that go through all of his armour like butter. Not to mention the ones in Dark heresy messed up, and actually have great axes dealing 2d10+1 (adjusted for an actual great weapon rather then whatever laaammmee weapon they were initially statted with dealing 1d10-4...), he should be sufficiently screwed when they close into melee and start rolling out their hefty damage...

On the topic of becoming an Astartes: No. The reason they stop recruiting around 12, with very special cases going up to 15, is not that they want to get them young for training, it's that the procedures must be performed young in order for the body to make the necessary changes and adapt to the massive augmentation it undergoes. An adult body can't handle the strain, nor be able to adapt well enough to accept the influx of all the organs. So becoming a Marine is completely out.

The Adepta Sororitas are a different story with a similar end result. They are special not because of fancy augmentations and genetic boosts, or even because of those nifty suits of power armour. The Sisters of Battle are unique for their single-minded devotion to the God Emperor in every single aspect of their lives for no other reason then blind, unfailing and unflinching faith that nothing they can ever do will ever be enough. To become a Sister Of Battle, one must sacrifice everything they have, anything they may have loved or cherished, and any possibility that their life may ever improve. They prove that they truly, in the depths of their soul, want nothing more then to give everything that they are, were, and ever will be to the Emperor, and know that even this is not even close to as much as He deserves or expects. Could an adult, in theory, join one of the Orders Militant? Sure, I suppose so. Could a Rogue Trader and still remain a Rogue Trader? No, and not just because of the complications involved in actually becoming one.

A Rogue Trader has an army. The Adepta Sororitas are a branch of the Ecclesiarchy. The Decree Passive states that the Ecclesiarhy may have no Men under Arms. Should the Rogue Trader be a member of the Ecclesiarchy, she could inadvertently cause a sectoral-incident between the powers of the Imperium that would undoubtedly result in the utter destruction of the dynasty.

If her idea of faith in the Grim Dark Future of the 41st Millenium is the burning of those who fail to display the appropriate faith in the God Emperor of Man in His holy name, then she's got it about right. The official agents of the Throne, for example the Witch Hunters, subscribe to such philosophies as:

*Actual exerpt from Ye Book Of Trials, provided by Blood of Martyrs*

"2496: Place ye suspect in an airlock and remove all atmosphere for no less then one standard Terran hour. If ye suspect survives, he is a witch and shall be placed in ye vessel's plasma core until reduced to ash.

2497: Chain ye suspect and bury him up to his neck in a desert up to his neck. Fill his mouth with salt and sew it shut. Observe ye suspect for one week. If ye suspect survives, then he is a Witch and shall be rendered into four parts, burned, and his ashes scattered to ye winds..."

Rewarding what are, unfortunately for the innocents in question, valid displays of Faith with corruption would be needlessly cruel to your player who is only playing the setting. Now, the maelstrom of death and cruelty that she orders dealt upon the heathens might scar even the hardest heart, so unless she has Jaded Insanity points may be in order. Or perhaps simply have the villagers form up into a torch wielding mob, fed up with having their men and women burned for perceived slights when they were Emperor loving true believers all along, or even complain to their local Deacon, resulting in a conflict between your faithful captain and those who represent the faith she thinks she upholds!

Trust a complicated job to minions? Maybe not the best idea. See, depending on the character and his background, he might want in on the mission whether or not the RT would want him there. Not just the Navigator and Astropath, either. The Missionary might want to be on the ground and evaluate heathen populations in order to determine if they can be converted, or if they are too corrupted to be saved. He won't trust that job to a choir boy. He'll want to put his own intuition and experience into it. The Explorator, on the other hand, is most likely the foremost expert on the ship on everything technical and scientific. Once the mission runs into something odd--and it will--the Explorator will simply have to be there. Not only that, but the Adeptus Mechanicus will probably want him putting feet on the ground in any case to make sure the Rogue Trader doesn't try to hide any juicy new technology and artifacts from them. Lastly, even the other classes, like the Void Master, Seneschal, and Arch-Militant, may have their own reasons for wanting to join the mission, be it personal or professional.

Lastly, might I suggest, GreyHunter88, that your players are thinking about this too hard? The question is not, "Why should I endanger my life by going down there?" but rather "Why not?" This is a universe where people drive their tanks into the enemy so that they can hit them with their swords and your PC's are wondering why they should bother with away missions? Come on! Get into the spirit!

This may be one of the oldest problems with this game. If you go back to the first threads you will find this same question asked, and many of the same answers given. I think its pretty hard to get players not used to this "master-and-commander" model of roleplay into the swing of things, and more importantly it is difficult for new RT GMs to provide the challenges that RT requires to keep the game entertaining.

I remember the first time our group started playing vampire RPGs, and the problem was essentially the same: How do you make an interesting story when the players are immune to most forms of damage, can treat run-of-the-mill people the way we do a buffet-table, and essentially live forever?

The solutions I've found are the same for these, or what you would do in a traditional fantasy RPG when a group has advanced to a point where mowing down hordes with thier +infinity-swords-of-whatever no longer thrills. If an aspect of the game is not challenging, the GM should not focus on that aspect of the game, or more to the point, should be spending their time setting up varied and not-contrived scenarios in which those aspects of the game are challenging once more.

Star Trek has been mentioned; how many episodes of Star Trek were resolved by a bunch of red-shirts beaming down, phasers set to "kill," or with planetary bombardments? Spock went down because he was the smartes guy on the ship and there was a mystery to solve. Kirk went down because he was an adventurer and the unknown beckoned (or there were green chicks to hump). Bones went down because he didn't trust anyone else to look after his friends (and complained about it the whole way). From there, the story lines developed in a way that didn't allow for a "red-shirt-bailout," usually something wrong with the ship that only thier ace-in-the-hole engineering genius could fix (could you ever imagine Scotty letting some ensign fondle his dilithium crystals!?) just in time for the big conclusion. By this point the main characters were already in the thick of it and if there was some phasing-set-to-kill to be done, you knew it'd be Kirk on the trigger.

The solution is good story .

I know that RT is not Star Trek,or vampires, or high-level fantasy (That's why we play RT instead!) but the solution is the same. When you sell players on RT, you are asking them to "step-up" their role-playing chops to a different level. But remember that you are also being asked to step-up your chops as a story teller. All of the advice on this thread is good. I'd only add that you are not going to find a rule or chart that will serve as a silver bullet for this problem. Good story, based on an understanding of what motivates the characters, will challenge those motivations and keep your players pushing and shoving to be first in line for the away-team.

In the Golden Age of Sail (which RT draws upon), officer volunteered for dangerous missions because it was the way to get noticed and promoted, this included the vessels captain if he ever wanted to get another ship again. Historically exceptions were those who had so much much pull politically they didn't need to bother and even then they faced an enourmous amount of peer pressure (which could be fatal with dueling). Officers who later aquired political connections (which is most if they wanted to keep advancing) still had the history of daring-do that got them noticed in the first place.

Enjoyable read - thanks everyone. Most of what I wanted to say, has already been said, excepting one point about Navigators.

I am not intimately familiar with the canon of the 40K universe. I've read some of the novels and used to play the war game (space marines, imperial guard and genestealer cult armies) and Space Hulk. However, reading the RT core book left me a strong impression of the Navigators. IMHO, there should be a difference between a Navigator from a Noble or a Renegade house.

The Noble House Navigator would likely come with one or two "under studies". Junior Navigators, possibly from other Noble Houses, serving as such, picking up tips from the PC and preparing for their final exams and the like. How much the PC decided to trust these Navigators, would be up to the player, and one imagines the NPC's skills and track record. Their presence would be reinforcing the ties between the Houses, possibly fulfilling generations old agreements. They would also serve as insurance for the Rogue Trader and their agreement with the Noble House.

"See! We trusted you with three Navigators!"

For the PC, their level of participation would be scrutinized by these Juniors. How much should they get involved? How does their House do things? As such, the PC would not want to look either lazy, or too eager. Maximum noblesse oblige . Cowering on the ship, not impressing everyone with the powers of their Warp Eye would look bad and most likely start all sorts of scandalous rumours that could embarrass the PC Navigator and, potentially, their whole House.

Things are different for a Navigator from one of the Renegade Houses. Their House most likely cannot afford to send any additional Navigators of any level. Which means the Navigator is on their own. And their House lacks the power to bail them/help them out. As such, their survival, and wealth, depends on making themselves as useful as possible. A Navigator from a Renegade House should be charging into battle at their Captain's side. Prove their value on the battlefield, as well as at fancy parties, when investigating the Warp, etc. By making themselves indispensable, they assure their position.

Obviously, one only engages in such activities when properly attired.

As well as improving their personal standing, by doing so, they are also improving the standing of their House. This is very important for a Renegade House. The Paternova of a Renegade House would want to have very stern words with any Navigator who wasn't pulling their weight and was making the House look like it was full of lazy, inbred, etc. etc.

In this instance a lazy PC could have their reputation cost the House another contract. The House would be fully within their rights to insist that the Navigator pay for this out of their own pocket.

Which leads us nicely to the point that the Rogue Trader should be offering "danger money" and financial incentives to doing the dirty leg work. Nameless NPCs should be rewarded for their bravery by honouring them with promotions and perhaps even the chance to carry the Captain's personal banner. Navigators should be offered their pick of the Captain's personal bar.

Finally - it is always worth having your most ballsy player taking on the role of Rogue Trader. If nothing else, they will at least start ordering all the reluctant players to follow them!

Game on!