A friend of mine will soon (I hope) GM a game of Rogue Trader. Currently I am devising a character and some background of sorts, but that's beside the point. A question was raised by my friend who played couple of sessions of RT and didn't like it. And while I cannot say that I share his fears and problems with the game itself, he did raise some good points. Mainly: How do you, the PCs, no matter what career you are playing go about certain things.One good example would be; why should Astropath, Navigator and Rogue Trader go on an away mission together while on a ship with 15k+ crewman? I mean, it doesn't make any sense, as their demise would cripple the ship and everyone on it beyond belief. Simple solution is to sent some lackeys to do the recon and then maybe go yourself down there.

So, how do things function with your playing group, concerning mundane as well as some major objectives in a mission? I can certainly understand that while there is a ship to ship action or some kind of boarding, people would have something to do. What do players do in between missions or during some down time as most of them aren't on the same spot most of the time?

Thanks for any replies.

the easiest way is to treat it as a genre conceit. Why does the away team consist of the captain, the first officer, the chief medic and ensign ricky? The main characters are Great Men And Women, who do Noble Deeds in the name of Profit and the Immortal God-Emperor. They do things with Important Capital Letters. They do not shirk when Duty is to be Done. This is inherent in their status as player characters.

Also, most of the ship's crew are qualified only for their appointed task, and if you start sending down key crewmen who aren't multitasked in Great Deeds down to the surface they'll die without accomplishing anything and leave you with a crippled ship anyway.

Though I would suggest that it be made clear that the only Navigator isn't going down, the chief Navigator is. Likewise Astropaths. There's likely to be a handful of each at best, but a Rogue Trader ship heading into the unknown will have more than one of each unless something's gone wrong.

Yup, it's a case of the Star Trek syndrome. For some reason, the officers always put themselves in danger first. It requires some suspension of disbelief, but then again . . it's 40K. A man with psychic powers on life support for ten thousand years, demons, and the primarch of the Iron Hands being named Ferrus Manus is all totally realistic.

I think as long as the GM lets the players know up front that they are supposed to constantly be putting themselves in harm's way, everything should be good. Oh, it is fun to sometimes send some red shirts down, and for the GM to kill them off in spectacular ways to alert the players to danger. I think as long as the GM isn't constantly trying to kill the players off at every opportunity (in Star Trek there is sometimes diplomacy), players will be more likely to want to go planetside just to see what situation the GM will put them into, and how they can get out of it.

After all, the point of the game is to have fun, as well as to be challenged in interesting ways.

Unfortunately, this question pops up so many times, I'm thinking its starting to deserve its own personal sticky. Here's a thread with some good reading and solutions to the problem. In the end however, if your player don't want to leave the boat, you should not be playing Rogue Trader.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=159&efcid=3&efidt=576874&efpag=0