Got a player who's interested in being a Sanctioned Psyker under the employ of the Trader's (another PC) noble house. Aside from some drastic sheparding through both player's Origin Path, I was thinking about how to convert career paths from DH to RT for this. I plan to start the character at Psy Rating 3 and still follow the Sanctioning Chart from DH, but after that just follow the Astropath Transcendant path with some minor modifications, mostly along the lines of deleting some of the more Astropath-specific things. Aside from some rewriting of psychic powers, is there any thing I am missing? I don't want to overly hamper the career, but I also don't want to have to carry the DH book with me just for this character.

1-Take Astropath Career

2-He's no longer blind nor has soul-binding benefits

3-He can start with any Discipline rather than Telephaty

4-????

5-Profit

PS: Into the Storm has an additional Discipline that your player may find useful.

Mechanically, the biggest work is converting the Psychic Powers, but I just wanted to be sure that there isn't any major differences in how Psykers and Astropaths progress.

Why not just use the psyker from DH. A 5th rank DH pc is more or less a rank 1 RT pc.

Hunterindarkness said:

XP wise, possibly. Balance wise, no where close.

Why would he have a Sanctioned Psyker anyway? The Imperium pretty much never lets them out of their sight, they're incredibly strict with them - I'd only allow one if there were gonna be some pretty heavy 'conditions' placed on his being allowed to go with the Rogue Trader, such as pretty much entirely being at the beck and call of the Inquisition, or something like that.

I have never played or ran DH, just RT. I have got the DH books, but never looked into psykers much. Would it be closer if you upped the cost of talents to RT standard? Seems to me most of the balance issue could be adjusted if the "5th rank" is built with the same costs as RT talents and such.

Honestly, for the work you'd be doing rejiggering skill and talent costs, you'd be better off using the Astropath career path, removing the Soul-Bound trait and allowing them to buy from the appropriate DH disciplines.

Errant said:

That is a good point. You still would need to convert DH powers, but less work over all.

That looks pretty close to what we are doing. We'll be following the Astropath path, removing Astropath specific powers (Lores, Ciphers) and Astro-only talents. I'm starting him at Psy 3 to make up the balance, plus a DH pysker at this level could very easily be 3 by this point. Lorewise, we are going with the Psyker being an Acolyte of a Ardentite inquisitor (the miracle chasers) being attached to the RT crew as a kind of talent scout, looking for evidence of miracles or the Emporer's influence amongst the wilderness. The RT character is connected to the Inquisition, so it's not as big a stretch as one would think. That said, there's nothing saying there aren't other factions on board keeping an eye on things....

Hunterindarkness said:

The second you start having a more in-depth look at the various books, you'll realize that the conversion methods and supposed interchangeability between the systems is pure poppycock. Characters from the various campaigns can work together, but only in the most basic sense of the words. Two different characters from two different campaign books really shouldn't be in the same group together, without heavy modification.

I don't care what the books say.

I strongly recommend that you use RT powers and not DH ones. The psychic powers systems are completely different, sharing only elements such as Psy rating (whose mechanical uses are different). The notion of modifying the astropath class is probably the way to go if your player really wants a imperial psyker background. I would look into why this character has been assigned to a RT dynasty, or is he a rogue?

While not specifically for Rogue Trader, I've recently released an unofficial supplement for Black Crusade that includes rewrites of the Biomancy and Pyromancy disciplines. The differences between the Black Crusade and Rogue Trader psychic power systems are relatively small, so these should be usable in a Rogue Trader game with only minor adjustment.

The rules can be found in the supplement Forbidden Lore on my webpage, linked to in my signature.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Saved me a tonne of work, thanks man. Let us know when the other 2 parts to it are finished.

The simplest way to build a Psyker is allow a DH Psyker with the 5K xp that a starting Rogue Trader PC is assumed to have; as for why the Trader is allowed to have said Psyker, there are several options, ranging from having the right sort of Peer/Good Reputation talents to picking up an unsanctioned Vermin Speaker.

Objulen said:

That is a bad idea. 1, the psyker will be far more powerful than the other characters. Two, the character will run out of available ranks when the others get to Rank 4, forcing you to either make new ranks or use Ascension, which is a REALLY bad idea.

Objulen said:

But it'd also be broken as hell.

No matter what the rulebook says, a 5000xp DH character is not equivalent to a 5000xp (Rank 1) RT character. Roll some up by yourself and compare them. The differences will be staggering. Playable? Yes, because the basic ruleset is the same. But the characters themselves would hardly be comparable.

If you like the DH psyker you could go with a DH psyker, just give him half xp compared to rogue trader character as DH careers progress about twice as fast balance wise.

Or you can wait around for only war and see how they do, it is likely to be in the same style as rogue trader psy rules.

Or just, ya know, remove the blindness from Astropath, give them the sanctioning bonus from Imperial Psykers in DH and say "here ya go".

MILLANDSON said:

I'm not sure where you get that from. Sanctioned Psykers are sent on retainer to others in positions of power, such as noble houses. A RT house could easily afford the services of a few sanctioned psykers (or, optionally, hide away and support/enslave a few unsanctioned/rogue psykers), and the Adeptus Astra Telepathica would surely enjoy the profits reaped from such an arrangement.

Or you could just as easily allow a character with the witch background options from Into the Storm to represent a non-sanctioned psyker.

WhiteLycan said:

I agree. And to help everyone along, here is a file I acquired when a player asked me the same question. I have only used a couple of powers in it, but it's not to hard to follow. Plus you can disregard the "Sorcery" bit if you have the RT book that covers that "Talent."

docs.google.com/document/d/12ixZDOtzuGVd05sOgDABMlr6dWaZw5Y8Z0IW7r_V2jc/edit

I love how, sometimes, these games just won't let you play what you wanna be. You like the Soldier-turned-Psyker? Excellent. Oh, you're playing Rogue Trader? Too bad. Dark Heresy lets you play Battle Psykers, Deathwatch, too, thanks to the Librarians. Rogue Trader, though? We dropped the ball, there, after we made Psychic Radios. A more robust character, who might use guns and powers, with some armor? Nope, you CAN'T play that. Oh wait, Elite Advances can let you… What do you mean you know that's a bad idea?

Combat-oriented Psykers might be the thing I miss the most from this system. I also don't see why so many people are surprised when people want this, or ask how they got one. They got one because the Imperium really doesn't care, and answers to the almighty Throne. If the Imperium doesn't think it's a bad idea to give me a Battlecruiser, a crew to use it, and a Nova Cannon that I can use to attack THEIR ships, their planets, or what have you, if I have half a mind, what's one Psyker who isn't a hunched over, fragile blind person? What's so bad about a Psyker who can FIGHT, where some armor, maybe use a gun, and that Force Weapon they might acquire someday? Why not a bit more psychic offense, and a bit less Psychic Satellite Phone?

Kasatka said:

I would do this, then have him sanctioned in-game

Sanctioning takes years and burns out the vast majority of potentials. Many of the survivors are joined with the Astronomicon Choir.