More homebrewing, before I start mucking about this too much and making a page for it and so on, I wanted to run this by the lot of you beforehand. I'm semi-working on a Stormtrooper career for Rogue Trader (regardless as to whether or not that could arguably be covered by Archmilitant already) and before really digging in, I decided that if I'm going to make a Stormtrooper career, I'm going to want to make it all proper-like. I simply do not buy the Ascension (Dark Heresy) approach of sending someone off to a 6-month (or so) extracurricular course at a Schola Progenium and badabing-badabom, you have a Stormtrooper.

So for a Stormtrooper career, I'd like to restrict it to those of the Schola Progenium and Mind-Cleansed homeworld origins.

Caveat: There are no Schola Progenium or Mind-Cleansed homeworld origins for Rogue Trader.

Cue homebrew.

Blatantly ripping off The Inquisitor's Handbook (Dark Heresy) and Rogue Traderifying it (looking primarily on Into the Storm rather than the Core Rulebook), I came up with this:

Schola Progenium

Characteristic Modifiers: +5 Willpower, +3 Intelligence, -5 Perception.

Starting Skills:

Speak Language ( Low Gothic , High Gothic ), Literacy as Trained Skills.

Schola Education:

A progeny’s mind is the product of years of careful instruction in the fundamentals of knowledge and learning.

Effect: Common Lore ( Administratum, Ecclesiarchy, Imperial Creed, Imperium, War ) as well as Common Lore ( Imperial Guard OR Imperial Navy ), and Scholastic Lore ( Bureaucracy OR Judgement OR Philosophy ) are untrained Basic Skills for you.

Tempered Will:

The harsh methods of the Schola Progenium chiefly aim to forge the most crucial weapon a servant of the Emperor has: an unbending will.

Effect: Whenever you would attempt a Willpower Test at -30 (Very Hard) or harder, you reduce the penalty by 10.

Skill at Arms:

All progena are instructed by grizzled drill abbots in the arts needed to defend the Emperor’s truth and, no matter what their calling, all are willing and able to shed blood if needed.

Effect: You begin play with your choice of a Basic Weapon Training ( Universal ), Pistol Weapon Training ( Universal ), Melee Weapon Training ( Universal ), Thrown Weapon Training ( Universal ) talent OR your choice of Common Lore ( War ) and Scholastic Lore ( Tactica Imperialis ) as a Trained Skill.

Sheltered Upbringing:

Despite their extremely well-rounded education, the progena are largely ignorant of the Imperium’s worse elements, breeding a distain they can’t ever seem to manage to hide.

Effect: You take a –10 penalty on all Barter, Blather, Charm, Deceive, Inquiry and Scrutiny Tests when dealing with the worst of examples of humanity (cultists, traitors, narco-addicts, gutter scum, mutants and the like).

Orphan:

All progena are made up of the orphans of the Imperium, with no adamant or lasting ties to their heritage. No-one with the Schola Progenium Homeworld can choose a Lineage as part of their Origin Path.

Starting Wounds: Progena characters double their starting Toughness Bonus and add 1d5 to the result to determine their starting number of Wounds.

Starting Fate Points: Roll 1d10 to determine a progena character’s starting Fate Points. On a 1–6, he begins with 3 Fate Points; on a 7–10, he begins with 4 Fate Points.

Comments? I know that it looks hefty, but apart from a few minor added options to keep it useful for all Rogue Trader careers and adjustments to keep it in-line with Rogue Trader (such as making Skill at Arms (Universal)), it's practically a direct port of the Dark Heresy version.

I would modify the preceding post and the thread title if I could, alas, the forum software is being horrible again, so.. yeah. Anyway, Mind Cleansed:

Mind Cleansed

Characteristic Modifiers: +5 Willpower, +5 Perception, -5 Intelligence, -5 Fellowship.

Starting Skills:

Deceive, Scrutiny.

Engram Implantation:

With portions of the subjects’ minds left more or less as blank slates waiting to be filled, their reprogrammers often use egramatic induction to burn a variety of useful skill patterns directly into the Acolyte’s cortex.

Effect: You begin play with either Intimidate OR Charm as a Trained Skill. You treat Common Lore (Tech) and Survival as untrained Basic Skills. You also begin with the Jaded talent and your choice of the Frenzy OR Light Sleeper talents.

Failsafe Control:

All Mind Cleansed agents, active or retired, had a failsafe command trigger implanted in their minds to prevent them from turning on their masters. Only a relevant character (Inquisitor or similarly appropriate commander involved in the act of mind-cleansing), should ever have access to this trigger, which usually must be delivered telepathically or by a specific sonic cadence (a simple code phrase is usually judged too risky).

Effect: The trigger works just like the use of the Dominate Psychic Power. If the trigger is successful, you may be given an order or set of instructions you must carry out to the best of your abilities. However, if the command is antithetical or directly harmful to you, you may receive an appropriate bonus to resist the control.

Imperial Conditioning:

Inquisition mind-scrubs are usually carried out to destroy selective memories but leave useful skills intact. Likewise the mind is often implanted with psychic barriers to prevent tampering, increase mental resilience and ensure loyalty.

Effect: You gain a +10 bonus on Willpower Tests made to resist Fear or Insanity or attempts to control or possess your mind (psychically, chemically or otherwise).

Through A Mirror Darkly:

The mind cleansing process has numerous side effects, including an eroding effect on the subject’s sanity and unique dangers of its own for the character.

Effect: You start play with 1d5+2 Insanity Points. At the GMs discretion, certain rare events, individuals and even things like phrases, sights, and smells may trigger “repressed” memories. When this occurs you must pass a Willpower Test or roll on the Shock Table (Core Rulebook pg. 294). Note that your conditioning and any Talents that resist Fear or Insanity don’t help with this.

Starting Wounds: Cleansed characters double their starting Toughness Bonus and add 1d5 to the result to determine their starting number of Wounds.

Starting Fate Points: Roll 1d10 to determine a cleansed character’s starting Fate Points. On a 1–3, he begins with 2 Fate Points; on a 4–10, he begins with 3 Fate Points.

Firstly, Cheers to the Commisar Cain saying, made me laugh again

Next. I think these homebrewed homeworlds work fine, my only question is this: Where to they fit in on the origin talbe, Which of the homeworlds do they replace? this is important as it changes which of the next origin traits you can take…

Finally: Why shouldn't a Schola Progenium be able to take on Lineage, I understand he was an orphan whose parents are unkonwn, but the schola progenium is known to take care of it's own, and in some cases who raised you can be just as powerful as any noble family, after all many Schola are trained by great heroes of the realms….I also feel like it could be a potential connection for your character to his dead family, a last will kind of a deal…

still, very well done, seems fairly balanced, and true to the source material. nice job

You should probably have Starting Wounds and Fate Points for these new Homeworld Options as well as deciding where they enter the Origin Path.

Also, I don't think that the Schola should grant Speak Language (Low Gothic) - this skill is found in Careers in RT, not from Homeworlds (even when it makes sense in homeworlds). Of course, if you want them to all start with it at +10, then leave it as it is.

You should probably have Starting Wounds and Fate Points for these new Homeworld Options as well as deciding where they enter the Origin Path.

Also, I don't think that the Schola should grant Speak Language (Low Gothic) - this skill is found in Careers in RT, not from Homeworlds (even when it makes sense in homeworlds). Of course, if you want them to all start with it at +10, then leave it as it is.

The end result of +10 to Low Gothic is entirely on purpose. Language skills almost never come into play, but it makes sense that no matter where a Progena ends up in life, he'd learn Low Gothic as part of his early studies, even if I'd expect the chief language to be spoken there to be High Gothic.

So it's a nice thing to give the the Schola Progenium that isn't overpowered in the slightest and makes complete sense. The option is to just flat-out remove the skill and since it's such a low-key thing, I opted to keep it.

As for Fate and Starting Wounds, you're right, I completely forgot that, because both of them are supposed to have basic starting wounds: Double TB+1d5. I'll update the OP with the info.

Since it's completely Homebrew, it is entirely up to the GM that uses it where the Homeworlds are on the Origin Path, if it's even relevant - most GM:s I have played with don't adhere to the Origin Path at all, as long as the options chosen makes sense to the character.