Hey there,

I've finally run my first table top for Rogue Trader and it was pretty swell. I did end up with two questions though and was hoping I could get some assistance.

Firstly, when in ship to ship combat how do you know you've scored a critical? I'm looking between torpedoes with a Crit Rating 9 and macrobatteries with a lower Crit Rating. Does it really mean that if you get Crit Rating amount of degrees of success you hit? This seems backwards as I'd expect a torpedo to be more likely to crit and do massive damage then a macro attack, wouldn't it? I know some of the torpedoes do additional things, but how do I know when a regular ship critical happens other then when hitting a crippled ship.

Secondly, what's a rogue trader crew to do with a completely defeated Kroozer? They just obliterated their first ship to ship combat with a few volleys of torpedos. Their last action before callling it a night was sending a salvo of meltas at the fore of the kroozer. All six hit. The kroozer now has a Crew Population of 3% after accounting for all of the fires and damage. The hull is still 73/90, but that ship emptied fast. I'm assuming the Kaptain will want to vent the air out of the critically important locations to save them from blowing up. I haven't checked the impact that such a loss would have on the crew rating, but is there anyway the orks can even stop these fires now?

I could see the Explorers trying to salvage the ship, which'll have its own issues as they may need to try and undo some of the damage they caused to save it. I suppose th emain question here is, if they manage to save it, what does a crew do with a kroozer? I don't think humans can figure out how to fly the piles of scrap an ork vessel is made out of; so do they just tear a chunk out of whatever seems handy and give them a profit or two? Any ideas would be most welcome.

Torpedoes work differently than other weapons; a torpedo scores a Critical Hit if it does more Damage than its' Crit Rating.

Salvaging a Kroozer is basically impossible, save for looting the treasure-holds.

Ooh, okay, that really clears up a lot. Thanks!

Wow, that means that kroozer suffered not only 6 fires but also 6 criticals as long as it did more then 9 damage in total on each one? Poor Kaptain.

Thanks again!

Uh, you'd better check the rules again, mate. Rules as written, macrobatteries and torpedoes do score critical hits differently.

Macrobatteries: if the number of degrees of success on the to-hit roll equals or beats the weapon's critical number, then you score a critical hit. However, you can only score one crit per volley.

Torpedoes: if at least one of the dice values equals or exceeds the crit rating, then that torpedo scores a critical hit. So, for standard plasma torpedoes, one die needs to show a 9 or 0 for you to crit. You can only score one critical hit per torpedo.

Clear? As mud?

- V.

Ah, gotcha!

So a plasma requires a 10 on one of the dice and a melta requires a 9 or a 10. So if you're firing 6 torpedoes in a salvo, each one has the potential to critical.

Whereas a macrobattery depends on the number of degrees of success and can only ever score one.

Yes, you got it.

Also, note that lances act just like macrobatteries as far as crits are concerned. And the limit on criticals from shooting is one critical per volley, no matter how many weapons contribute to that volley.

Cheers,

- V.

Okay, I think I got it. So if the torpedo launcher shoots out 6 torpedos, you have six chances but can only ever score one actual critical.

I had one more question that I hoped you guys could weigh in on.

While I'll do the critical result when the group gets in for the 9+ critical, the melta shots each start a fire. I had the group roll for a random number which I associated with a component to see which components got lit up. Everyone was a little unsure of which actions to take and with only three players no one was really prepared to properly scan.

(Side question - I don't remember reading it anywhere, but do you guys allow a smaller party to have the crew do extended actions, if so, how many? Can they say "You there, do an active scan. And you do something else useful!" If they are low on actual player numbers?)

Well, one of the components that got set on fire is the Warp Engine. While in a worst case scenario the ship could always vent the area to stop the fire immediatly. However, all of the fire and torpedo damage has left the ship with 3% or so of population. The ship is now effectively crippled and can't do anything, right? So next turn this component is going to become damaged. Damaged doesn't do anything terribly bad from the looks of it. But with no way of stopping the fire, how long would you guys rule that the it takes for the component to be actually destroyed. Eventually that fire is just going to take these components completely out. Or would you say that the fire stops at damage (as the rules appear to say) and it cannot make the component any worse. The latter option doesn't seem to make too much sense since the fire would likely keep going, right?

This is an evil concern because the Kroozer's next turn will have it slam into the player's light-cruiser; even with no actions available its going to keep moving straight atleast half its movement and its only 1 VU away. It also happens to be 2 VU away from the ship they were salvaging; which contains a full salvage crew and 1 out of 3 companies of armsmen. So if this Warp Engine blows, its going to blow hard.

Does it blow? Does it just stay damaged while the rest of the ship continues to burn? Can 3% of the crew, we'll assume the kaptain is alive, vent the warp engine to keep from blowing up his ship; or with his crew dead and the humans obviously going to defeat him, would he let that sucker blow and take whatever he could with him!

Heeelp!

Goodwin said:

A crew can perform a number of actions equal to the 10-digit of their competency. So a a crack crew (skills 40) can perform up to 4 action per round. (Page 214)

Goodwin said:

Bloody hell, 3%? That's nearly a ghost ship with bodies everywhere.
So here's what that does:

• No Board Action
• No Hit and Run
• Fighting fire, fighting off boarders, fighting off hit and run attacks and emergency repairs are at -20
• Ship is crippeled (if already crippeled from damage it may only act on every other turn)
• -10 Manoeuvrability
• Loses all Achievement Points from Components
• Increase all travel time by 1d5 days.

Goodwin said:

I'd say it works like this:

1. A Component catches on fire
2. 1d5 crew damage, 1d10 moral damage
3. One round passes since the component has caught fire and nobody has brought it under control by either venting or fire fighting.
4. The component is now damaged and the fire spreads. The original component is "consumed" by fire. Now what exactly that means is up to the GM I'd say. Either the component is still burning or the fire has "moved on" by buring up all the flameable material in the component.

Goodwin said:

I'd argue that even a single officer can vent a component by pressing a button, pulling a lever or similar. I'd assume that even an unpowered component still has emergency energy to operate very basic lights and void shutters.

Consumed, yeeees.

I can't decide if I should make that mean destroyed. It could be funny to have the first ship battle end in an unscheduled trip through the warp; with the windows still rolled down.

They are new to the setting though, so I'm not sure if I want to take their green characters through hell and back (if they survive).

I hate making decisions!

Sorry to double post but I realized I had another pretty huge question that's more along the lines of the galaxy itself.

Does each sector have its own sun? I'm trying to wrap my head around the geography of these bodies but maybe I'm space-illiterate. Further, when people are sending their characters to unexplored regions, are these regions outside of the map in the book, or are these new systems they are finding within the outlined sectors in the book?

I apologize if this is an awful question, but I think once I understand this I won't be so afraid of running. >.>

Goodwin said:

Oi… You are new; well, everyone has to start sometime.

The short answers: Each sector has hundreds, and more likely thousands, of stars in it. The default unexplored region, the Koronus Expanse, is the map in the Rogue Trader book.

The long answers: Okay, class, astrography 101 is now in session. Let's start with a few basic definitions:

Star (Sun). A huge ball of naturally occurring plasma, big and hot enough to sustain nuclear fusion. For example, Holy Terra is the third planet in orbit around a G2 class star named Blessed Sol, or informally, "the sun". (If you want to really nit-pick, there's only one sun, Earth's. However, the terms sun and star are synonymous, and the locals will likely refer to whatever star their planet orbits as the sun, or their sun. For purposes of this discussion, Holy Terra's star will be referred to as the sun, and all others will be called stars.) The star can range anywhere from a small, dim, red dwarf to a massive, blazing blue supergiant. As a general rule, the bigger the star, the hotter it is, and the shorter its lifespan. Smaller stars are much more common than big ones.

Solar system (single): One star, usually with planets, asteroids, and comets in orbit around it. Most stars have a family of planets, though this depends on exactly how the star system formed.. The bigger the star, the bigger its gravity well, and the more planets can fit around it. However, the really big stars put out so much radiation that planet formation is disrupted. So, a giant star typically won't have planets. Holy Terra's solar system is quite average: One medium size star, four planets, a rocky asteroid belt, four more planets, and then an Oort cloud of icy bodies including several dwarf planets. (Pluto was considered a planet until recently.)

Solar system (binary): Binaries have two stars. Approximately 1/3 of all star systems are binaries. These are either close binaries, or distant binaries. A close binary has two stars orbiting each other very closely, and any planets, asteroids, etc. are shared and orbit their common center of mass. A distant binary is where the stars are a considerable distance apart and each star has its own family of planets. In either case, planets are less likely, and they are much less likely to be habitable. The shifting gravity wells from the two stars will pull planets into eccentric orbits, and the solar heating varies tremendously as the binary stars orbit each other. Systems with more than two stars are possible, but quite rare. These are typically a close binary, with a third star as a distant companion.

Light year (LY): The distance light travels in a year, approximately ten trillion kilometers. Blessed Sol's nearest neighbour, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.3 LY away. The Milky Way galaxy itself is a barred spiral about 100,000 LY across and 1000 LY thick, and contains 200 to 400 billion stars.

Okay, now, let's talk about the Imperium of Man. The Imperium of Man spans most of the galaxy, and contains about a million worlds. This is obviously a small fraction of the total. Worlds owing fealty to the Imperium are not uniformly distributed, instead they tend to come in clumps of inhabited systems. Imperial Sectors are typically cubes about 200 light years on a side. That's enough space to hold thousands of solar systems, though an average sector only has a few hundred inhabited star systems. There are usually gaps, sometimes quite large, between sectors. These areas are called wilderness space, and are often unexplored, the sites of alien empires, or worse.

The default setting for Rogue Trader is the Koronus Expanse. It is adjacent to the Calixis Sector (the setting for Dark Heresy). Calixis has about 200 - 300 inhabited star systems (no, I don't feel like counting them all). The Koronus Expanse is at least that big if not bigger, and very poorly explored. So, the Expanse is a 'sandbox' setting with literally thousands of star systems… many of them a blank slate. Have fun exploring, and do try to make a few Thrones while you're at it.

Cheers,

- V.

Oh man, thanks for the lesson. I'm terrible with this. :/

Most of that makes sense except I have two more big questions to astronomy of 40k!

Using the Unbeholden Reaches as an example. Is there one star in there and the planets on the map are orbiting it? Or are there many solar systems in there and those planets are just some that stand out. Or somewhere in between?

So if I'm making a new solar system for the ship to explore, do I make it somewhere in one of those sections on the map, like Winterscale's Realm or Unbeholden Reaches. Or is it a whole new section, like, say 'south' of the Unbeholden Reaches on the map. Does that make sense?

First thing to remember: space is big. Really, REALLY big. As far as the Unbeholden Reaches are concerned, there are many solar systems in there. Each planet marked is orbiting a different star, and for each one that's marked, there are many, many others unmarked. The exact size of the Unbeholden Reaches isn't specified. However, we can compare it to the Ragged Worlds, which is. Edge of the Abyss, p. 35, describes the Ragged Worlds as one of the smallest clusters, just "a few hundred stars".

As for making a new star system, do as you like. You can certainly put it in one of the sections on the map, or you can put it between them. The Koronus Expanse is huge - many thousands of star systems each with their own family of planets. You can find room where it pleases you.

Cheers,

- V.

Items on the map are typically points of interest in a solar system.

Oh! Now I get it! For some reason I thought those planets shown on the map were the only planets in those subsectors.

So really, there can be many many many planets in any of those subsectors shown (Winterscale's Realm, Unbeholden Reaches, and such). That solves a lot of confusion.

Thanks guys!

As an example of just how vastly, mind-bogglingly huge space is - the dots representing a star system on the map? I get the feeling that the dot is three or four times the size of the entire star system it's marking. If you printed that map out on an A4 sheet of paper, a planet the size of Jupiter (which is several hundred times the size of Earth) would be a microscopic dot. It's the thing you need to remember with games that actually get the scale of space right. Take a single space combat in RT - each turn represents an entire half-hour of action and even if there's only one VU between your group's ship and an NPC vessel, neither ship can see the other with the naked eye because they're both tens of thousands of miles away from each other.

In the immortal words of Douglas Adams: "Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

EDIT: In-short - if you want to add a new star system to the map, it can go anywhere on that map you want, there's plenty of room.

ShadowFighter88 said:

And it's three dimensional - so whole subsectors of the expanse can lie 'above' or 'below' the ones on the map.

Phew, that's awesome. That puts it into a better perspective for me. They should send a book on tape for astronomy when you get the game, at the very least when you get the collector's edition!

Maybe I'll go take that exploring the planets course as an elective. >.>

Thanks a ton guys!

Speaking of applied astronomy, this might (probably won't) help your understanding of the geography of the Expanse:

http://www.nbos.com/products/astro/astro.htm

http://www.cold-moon.com/40k/40kRP/DHCampaign/KoronusExpanseSphereV5.sector

It's a nifty 3d map of the Expanse, with known warp routes between locations plotted out and such.

Errant said:

Really nice find. You need the astro viewer from nbos to open it, right ?

Yup. It's not much practical use, but I find it helpful in planning and for atmosphere.

Errant said:

Sod. I WOULD have removed Astrosynthesis from the comp this very week, wouldn't have I?

Somewhat relevant:

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-05-27

The thing to remember with star systems is that only a small proportion of stars are stable or un-harsh enough to allow planets in their system to support life and only tiny portion of those can support human life. While the Imperium in the 41st Millenium has vague terraforming technology, they rely more on sealed hab blocks and hive cities to sustain life in hostile conditions.

As such you will usually see only 1 or 2 named planets per system or even sub-sector that are of any importance and as planets within a system are usually named after the star and just have a suffix (unless very important), it means that you'll see something like Ticonderoga I, II, III IV etc. The first planet in a system is likely to be too close to the star to be of any use, but the 2nd through 5th are often useful, and then further out again become less useful.

That said, it's sci-fi and GM word is law, so if you want a paradise planet to be the only planet in a system and be on a figure-8 orbit of a binary star, then do it! science be damned!

Just skimming over this thread, but it has raised an interesting point concerning hostile planets and their uses. Orbitals and shielded space elevators come to mind for use in excessively hostile conditions, allowing even Hot Jupiters and Venus style worlds, especially with the vast resources of slave labor and the inhumane actions of most settlements, Imperial, renegade and Xenos.

Even with this taken into account, the majority of systems will be overlooked without at least one relatively easily colonised world (dead terrestrials will do, it is about stability more than habitability, with economic factors taken into account - without the viable support of agriworlds and initial investment a harsh colony will not survive). When designing a region for your characters to play within, it is always a good idea to have some links, tenuous though they may be, with surrounding systems. The governors of most worlds will have a working relationship with either Rogue Traders, Chartist Captains (rare in the expanse) or other warp capable systems with goods or luxuries they desire. Building up this co-dependancy can be clearly done with a visit to an extreme world such as those listed above.

Considering there are bits of fiction that mention void-shielded huge mining instruments, imagine the backdrop an elevator-scoop facility would provide to trade negotiations or an on-going investigation of future prospects. Such mining facilities could even be skimming rare earth metals out of the atmosphere of a close-to-sun Jupiter sized world, as the conditions could feasibly create clouds of Iron molecules and seas of heavier metals. The conditions would be terrifying, but assuming heavy mechanicus involvement, this could add to the mystique of such facilities.

The main things to think about when considering the maps, are that they only show charted worlds, and these worlds are charted for a reason. Keep it believable by providing reasons for why apparently deadly worlds would be colonized.