I have an experienced group of gamers (each player over 20 years experience) - we have played a lot of DW and really enjoyed it. We also regularly play Ars Magica. The list of systems we have played over the years is pretty long. I am considering either Dark Heresy, or Rogue Trader (or perhaps a mix of the two...) as the next system I run. If its a mix.. then I will likely allow the ascension rules (although I am not familiar with them).

The only thing I can really say about our group... is they like to be led by the nose. Its not that they can't think for themselves.. its just that we are all professionals and well.. by the time we kick off at 8pm at night after a day at the office (and we all have kids) we are all pretty tired.. and just want to have a fun game and not think too much. We like to kill stuff... but there has to be a story and a reason. In other words, our group likes a well told story with a big bang ending.

DW has been great.. but as marines the plots are pretty one dimensional ( we have played all the current modules) and we are ready for a change.

I like the idea of both RT and DH - but what would you recommend and why?

I don't have time to write my own modules, so also need advice on whats the best 'lead by the nose' module out there. I need something that the players always know which way to head and aren't left trying to decide what to do.

My gut tells me DH might be a better choice than RT - perhaps with the ascension rules to make it more interesting?

Any help and recommendations are greatly appreciated.

One last thing.. I don't have a huge amount of time to prep. each session; so it needs to be a easy flow module to get us started.

Hope that all makes sense?

Um. How can I put this? You want kick in the door, but you don't want to be marines. You want to have fun in the 40k universe, but your players don't want the freedom and responsibility that comes with being Rogue Traders. You don't have time to prepare things in advance, which basically throws out Dark Heresy.

Yup - thats pretty much it...

Got a DH or RT module that fits us?

If you want your players to be "led" in an RT game, the best way to do this would be to make the actual Rogue Trader (the bearer of the Warrant of Trade) a GMPC. Your players would then be his most skilled and loyal officers. They would execute his orders but nevertheless enjoy a certain degree of freedom in doing so. Of course, the Rogue Trader should mostly stay on his ship if possible and interfere as little as possible with the player's choices. A good ingame explanation for this would be that he is somehow confined to his quarters, for example because he is hooked up on some arcane life support system due to old age or some exotic condition.

Concerning premade adventures, there exist quite a few good ones. Lure of the Expanse, the Warpstorm Trilogy or the one from Edge of the Abyss... good and interesting stories that can be quite railroad-y if you want to. Perfect material for the kind of game you want to run. The adventure from the core rulebook has some illogical situations and plot holes in it in my opinion but can be a good start (I ran it as our first adventure with my group, but made the Psycharius Worm from the free adventure Forsaken Bounty the reason why the Righteous Path vanished millennia ago... was really funny when suddenly OMG WARP ZOMBIES ^^).

You could easely adapt all the DH modules to a RT with an inquisitor flavor.

The thing is your players will be far too strong by the end of 1/2 the available maodules and you may need to spin a new Dinasty.

There are plenty of premade modules available on Dark Reign.

Playing DH in a RT game may leave you too weak at 1st and way too strong in the end alto the RT ship adds a lot of bargain power.

IMO!

The trilogies will make you players happy, while they are strait forward, most have a few twist and turns, which is what I think you want. The Warp Trilogy os nice if a bot strait forward but that may just fit your bill, Lure of the Expense, the DM Screen game, The 2 pre made adventures. RT is pretty rail raoded as far as material is concerned, so are the DH game I checked... Even Harlock Trilogy coudl be a good RT module, I believe someone played it to their players.

Judging from what you're saying I think Dark Heresy would be a better "lead by the nose" game, though not as good as Deathwatch in that vein. I agree with the above point that RT could work if you have the warrant holder by an NPC. DH from my reading is more of a GM/Story Driven Game while RT is more of a Player Driven game in terms of action. That being said I think there's a bit more buy in with RT because of the origin paths and creating a ship together.

DH has more Adventure Supplements, but Rogue Trader has it's fair share as well. I think Dark Heresy would be better for a more improv style storybased game.

Do NOT play DH if you want a pretty low prep game. DH gets better the more time you put in to it.

We play both and right now we are playing RT a lot because my DH game is loved but takes time to prep, especially at the level they are getting too. Ascension is really not that much fun to run, our primaris psyker is obscenely over powered and our temple assassin, yes, well. Just search temple assassin on the DH forums here, you will begin to understand, as in you will have an inkling.

I don't mess with him, almost never target him after he shows his insane dodge abilities off. Luckily he is played by someone who has a character, from vicious street thug all the way to true assassin as he has grown in power.

Sorry to devolve the conversation into a I hate the assassin in ascension class.

I think they are overdoing the Rogue Trader roles, I played a campaign without a Rogue Trader and it works fine. Even with it's not too much issues, especially if you use the pre made adventures.

Also depends on how much power the RT takes. In a game I play, my RT always delegates. So, it's a matter of RP stile at this point.

DH is very complexe if you want it to be, I mean you coudl as a DM make very simple plot stories but that tell a small interesting detail about every little part of the universe. As you can read, some DM/players take the 40k realm to heart, while other just like the gritty feeling the background gives.

We play same as you, very town down. Not a single players in my group as any kind of 40k background, they simply like the Ship system.

What I do is every day I pick a new part of the Lore and tell them a bit about it, make a sister come on the ship, see a space marine statue, etc.

I also offer them plenty of opportunity ( plenty being a plenty) with usually the same outcome for all, a simple little plot line. Go there get this, kill something there. Where ever there is, does not really matter in this game and it is what makes the game cool. Go there and fetch this, there may be aliens , no oxygen, plus one or two interesting things, (i.e. no gravity, super heat, etc). Use a completely alien concept in a new society, the players go make a trade pack with a planet, but they like to eat the human brains, find out human brains of psykers, find out they make ritual sacrifice of psyker to the Red God, etc, etc...

In RT, the players have a lot of choice how they do things. It truly can be a sandbox game. It is great for players who like to walk off road. It is less good for lead by the nose games. However, in a sandbox, a lot of things can happen that you did not prep for. So you must be able to improvise a lot. There are some good modules, but those moduels leave a lot of room for the GM and the players to expand on.

DH is more straightforward. In most games and modules, there is the inquisitor or one of his spokepersons who direct the players to their next task. You can make it into a dungeon bash adventure if you like or make them spend a lot of time investigating things. There are quite a few nice modules you can play off the shelf to limit preptime.