Crew of the Blessed Eventide! Be off with ye!

I have me a game, and a crew with strong ties to the Imperial Navy. At this weekend's game the crew will arrive, flushed with success, at Port Wrath to carry through on a few things. In particular, the Lord Captain (a former Navy commander) is looking at the Agent of the Throne advanced package. My thought for this was to have the Navy ask him to carry out some form of task as a prelude to him taking on the role of an agent.

I'm at a loss for what that task would be. They're a couple of hundred light years away from the Expanse and the trader's fleet consists of a raider and a transport, so it's going to be neither an immediate rescue mission nor a heavy reenforcement. The other players are an Astropath transfered over from the Fleet, a Navigator who went native on Fleet duties and became unpopular with his house and a noble Seneschal who appears to be pulling double duty as the Arch-Militant.

escort another naval fleet, supply runs, anything the navy could want done that they themselves aren't 'allowed' to do, meet with, transport, or persuade some VIP…

Agent of the Throne is an inquisition connection I thought.

A raider is very suited to an emergency fast insertion or extraction of an acolyte cell…or Deathwatch Kill-Team.

Kshatriya said:

Ah I figured it was an Inquisitorial thing since ascended acolytes are called Throne Agents. =)

With the Navy? Your raider can scout for a heavier battlegroup. Your raider can hunt pirates. Your transport can run a blockade and drop IG reinforcements somewhere needed. Your raider can ferry fresh ratings and voidsmen or equipment/supplies to a couple of ships deep in the Expanse. Etc.

Darth Fanboy said:

In the campaign I run, many of the imperial elite cut deals with rogue traders because they can operate outside the system.

Ideas:

- The navy vessel employs the party's ship to obtain something it cannot because of conflicting orders from battlefleet command. Supplies? Aged amasec?

- The party's ship is employed to settle a rivalry between two naval ships as open conflict between two ships of the imperial navy over such matters is frowned upon. Maybe they have to complete an objective before the enemy ship to shame it before the battlefleet. Maybe the trader crew are employed as a hit squad and asked to take out the enemy vessel as it travels through wilderness space.

Perhaps the local Battlefleet wants to test its anti-smuggling capabilities? They could hire the Rogue Trader to attempt to sneak past the Navy in a counter smuggling exercise. This could see the players dodging patrols, bluffing their way past blockades, fasting talking boarding parties (the sort of boarding parties that check out cargo manifests etc) and in general playing cat and mouse with the over stretched Imperial Navy. They could probably manage it just with the cargo ship since most smugglers pose and merchantmen.

Anyway, it could be an alternative to guns blazing session. Although I don't see why you couldn't throw in some actually smugglers or a shoot first and ask question later Navy Captain to complicate things!

DW

They could be used for stuff that would be a crime for the Navy but okay for RTs. Liaison for alien fleets, spying on other RTs, stuff like that.

For example, bribe a small ork fleet to take out a particularly nasty chaos cruiser and make sure the greenskins don't simply vanish with their payment. Or meet up with an eldar envoy who claims to have important information.

The RT could be requested to play Pirate (possibly even promised a Letter of Marque), in order to draw out high level corruption within the Sector governorship, or gain contacts with the major crime Syndicates. This could be with an aim to destroying them, or going into business with them, depending on the nature of the Party and campaign.

A few thoughts on duties that the Navy might want a Rogue Trader to carry out for them:-

-Scout out potential military threats to the Imperium, such as the Orks of 'Undred 'Undred Teef, the Rak'Gol Marauders etc.

-Chase down legends/rumours of lost Imperial Naval vessels for salvage purposes

-Act as bait for pirate raids so the Navy can destroy particularly dangerous raiders

-Test new/recently recovered STC weapons

-Act as spies to gather information on the actions of more powerful Rogue Trader Dynasties suspected of amassing significant military forces

-Carry out any duty which the Navy themselves are obliged/inclined to do, but can't do because they're too thinly spread

-Carry out a surprise attempt to enter the Jericho Reach warp gate in order to test the Naval defences there

-Carry out a surprise mock attack on Port Wander to test the Naval defences there

-Scout out planets which could provide provisions/pressganged personnel to long-distance Naval missions

-Cartographical missions of all types, where the players are recruited to map new warp routes

-Assist in establishing a Naval Orbital facility above a world that is in some way significant or strategically important

-Conduct "deniable" operations that are for whatever reason shameful or potentially embarrassing to the Navy

-Transport high ranking Naval personnel to a specific location

-deliver extremely important messages too significant to send via astropath

-accompany a Naval taskforce in a support capacity: perhaps carrying additional fuel or supplies for the Naval ships to extend the range and duration of a patrol.

Just a few thoughts!

DarkWinds said:

Oooh I like this one!

Kshatriya said:

This.

Rogue Traders, and their crew, tend to bring a more unique skillset to the table than most ships of the navy, and you'd have a difficult time finding someone as good at running blockades and smuggling, or long range scouting, than a Rogue Trader who makes his home on a raider-class ship. And there's always the chance to play a part in an emergency, where they're calling for every ship they can get to battle some great threat. You can be a big **** hero to the Navy, like Sir Francis Drake (and a pirate to.. the Orks? >.>).

Lightbringer said:

How about the execution of some sort of black operation, that it can deny that it was involved in if it all goes wrong. The Imperial Navy has been tasked to perform some duty, which it feels it should not associated with, from a higher authority. Perhaps the insertion of a specialised operations team, and any specialised equipment/logistics tail that it might have, to be done without the target planets authorities being aware of the actions taken. Naturally the degree of success of the whole operation could come back and affect the group in the future!

Rogue Trader Vessels are semi-deniable assets.

They tend to be very powerful, skilled, and most importantly they are not part of your fleet. If their ship is lost, YOU lost nothing.

As wonderous as an Archeotech Laspistol may be, if this plus partial salvage rights will save hundreds of thousands of souls and a ship or two of the Navy? **** good move on your part.

Additionally, one thing to note is that Agent of the Throne does not necessarily denote an open agent — it could very well be a spy. There are plenty of reasons why the Navy might want a spy on a Rogue Trader vessel, what with Rogue Traders often being dangerous. Aside from a spy it might also be a plant, an agent positioned into the inner circle of a Rogue Trader's crew so as to manipulate the Lord-Captain into better serving the Imperium of Man. Such a position would be useful for the GM too, who can give secret missives, perhaps using the Cyphers skill, with the cypher being such that it disguises as ordinary astropathing messages for the agent, with the agent understanding the cypher and carrying out the order or relaying the information. In this way, it could be an excellent method of delivering plot hooks when the players are stuck or bored.