Rogue Trader to Only War conversion (PEACH)

By Snap_Dragon, in Only War

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If I may give my own opinion I think you’ve done a fine job so far, it all seems more streamlined and has a fairly large number of options now.
That said for the Careers its strange that not only do some get a free special ability (which I’m guessing is the equivalent to Only Wars Comrade/Special Advances) but that they all have no choice but to have it. Considering everything else I had thought you would do some sort of baseline that they all (at least in these early stages) had the option to chose from 3 different abilities…which I would of guessed would have been around the lines of 1 Personal (effects only you), 1 Social (effects everyone but you), and 1 Miscellaneous (things like special gear, more starting Ship Points/Profit etc.)
Also not all the classes are equal in terms of abilities or choices, the Senechal seems to get the short end of options, while others have 3 or more options (I‘m really surprised the Rouge Trader only has 1).
Is there any particular reason behind that?
Oh and in a somewhat related matter just wanting a clarification do you still use the Baseline 25 for these characters or are you using the Dark Heresy/Only War Baseline 20?
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When I was working on how much XP to assign to each stage in the Origin path I factored in what I would cost to raise a DH character up 5 points. So like black crusade they use the 25 base.

The special abilities where a carry over from the Original RT and I had the idea of adding some extra ones that you could buy later (or in the case of the Arch-Militant or Void-Master buy extra categories their power applies to). The reason the others don't have as many is that the ones I though up were on reflection half-baked and I removed them. Now I am debating if I should keep the advanced powers or not, if I decide to keep them I'll probably add a few more to the other classed to balance them out.

My original goal with the special abilities was to make the careers more distinct and to give each of them something to do in each situation (combat, social, and ship) without overshadowing characters specialized in those roles.

I also realize now that I forgot to give them all wounds.

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Snap_Dragon said:

When I was working on how much XP to assign to each stage in the Origin path I factored in what I would cost to raise a DH character up 5 points. So like black crusade they use the 25 base.

The special abilities where a carry over from the Original RT and I had the idea of adding some extra ones that you could buy later (or in the case of the Arch-Militant or Void-Master buy extra categories their power applies to). The reason the others don't have as many is that the ones I though up were on reflection half-baked and I removed them. Now I am debating if I should keep the advanced powers or not, if I decide to keep them I'll probably add a few more to the other classed to balance them out.

My original goal with the special abilities was to make the careers more distinct and to give each of them something to do in each situation (combat, social, and ship) without overshadowing characters specialized in those roles.

Ahh! Somehow I had missed that section of the Career chapter, perhaps I should slow down my reading a bit and read the book front to back first before trying to make a character. In that case your decision makes sense, though if you do it would nice if could chose which one you wished to start with (for free at least)…at least for those that are not Astropaths or Navigators, since those are part of ‘what’ they are.
An idea for a Special Ability for a Rogue Trader might be one that, like the Honorable Alley trait, is based on how you treat your crew giving different bonuses based on whether they fear you or admire you (there has to be ‘some‘ Traders that are close to their crews and care about their well-being…even if its just to prevent mutiny and being thrown out of an airlock burla ).
Snap_Dragon said:
I also realize now that I forgot to give them all wounds.
Oh yes was also going to ask about that, and I’m guessing there will be no changes in equipment choices is there?
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I was actually thinking of redoing the special abilities by making them based what you said earlier. One power that effects the character only, another that helps party members, and the third miscellanious effect.

I'll probably redo some of the starting gear as well it's just low on my list.

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[Hordes]
I’ve read Deathwatch (after a fellow friend trolled me by pointing out the Tau ‘had’ actually been stated) and it seems to be okay for the abstract bigger-than-big armies, so I don’t see any problems there.
Although just asking, but in the Damaging the Horde section do you lessen magnitude by 1 point per 15 damage dealt or is it 1 magnitude only, regardless of by how much?
[Henchmen]
I don’t have much knowledge on this since its in a book of Chaos, for which I’m about as likely to buy as to kneel before our “Spiritual Liege” apesta …
Now here’s a mixed bag, on one hand it can make a nice sidekick or two to hang with you, but its also mostly useless and redundant. To explain entirely would take far too long, and would require a wordfu that I do not think I possess, so I’ll try summarize.
Henchmen of Complete and High Abstraction are pointless because, as Rogue Traders (and their chief assistants) have tens-to-hundreds of thousands of them already, so they are a waste of points and time.
Elites are overpriced and inefficient for their cost possessing maximum Attributes that are FAR too low for someone that should be on par with the PC’s, or the average NPC version of themselves for that matter.
It would honestly be much easier to simply use the base (listed in Core Rulebook) NPC stats and increase or decrease their attributes, traits, skills, talents, etc. based on your Crews level of ability. Like no change for “Competent Crew”; A -5 key attributes, key skills down by one step, and -1 talent for “Incompetent Crews”…and so forth.
I’m really quite conflicted with Henchmen, on one hand I like the idea on the other I don’t know if it would really work in a Rogue Trader game due to their almost-Inquisitor level resources. You can already use Profit Factor to hirer elite-level people or masses of mooks so I just cant be sure…
[Crossovers]
I really like these honestly, but I do notice a few things.
For starts you can only have a crossover if at least two Players have a Intersection in common but in some groups no one may have any Intersection points (each character being wholly unique) and it would be a shame to limit it so. For the most part the PC’s are not new to each other (even without Intersections) its assumed that they may have been working to together for an undisclosed amount of time, considering that most of the Crossovers could also be applied to these previous adventures and mishaps, could it simply be applied as a sort of “Previously on Rogue Trader” sort of thing.
Like a Rogue Trader and the Arch-militant go out for a stroll but are captured are sent a secret prison facility for 5 years (Captives) while the rest of the crew struggle to find them and break them free by discovering a Traitor amongst the planets elite (Heresy Exposed), ending with a them fleeing before an swarm of genestealers (Hopeless Battle: All Flee)…that sort of thing…
But regardless moving on, there are some ‘real’-er issues to take note of.
Because the first one’s free there is a bit of an obvious choice to take the 200exp ones first to save the 100exp that can be spent elsewhere (such as more Crossovers) this can be remedied in a few ways.
1) Get ride of the Free one. In this case it solves the problem of always taking the more expensive one to eek out a better buy. Problems of course are that people may not wish to spend their limited starting experience on it and would rather spend it on things they are guaranteed to want. And this would make this completely optional, and I’m guessing you want it to be more accessible than that.
2)Increase the cost of all Crossovers to 200exp. In this case you can keep the free one and remove the disparity of costs making them all equal, and to be truthful its still a good buy regardless (at the least 200exp for 300+ skills/talents is always as save). Though in this case the greater expense will limit the number crossovers to be taken from 6 (1 free and 5 100exp) to 3 (1 free and 2 200exp).
3)Decrease the cost of the 200exp ones to 100exp. Just like above this removes the differences in cost and makes them all equal, and cheap no less, and the cheaper price can be explained as to being only purchasable at character creation. This would allow groups to take the maximum number of Crossovers available (6) but the downside to this is that as said above 200exp is good buy already this is like a major discount that can lead to some possible ‘cheese’…but that may be just a Y.M.M.V.
{Tests of Faith}
This one caught my attention right from the get go as there are several errors to and one personal opion.
The errors include:
1. Ecclesiarchy is Common Lore not Forbidden Lore, its Forbidden counterpart would be Heresy (though perhaps this is the case in Black Crusade book but these are Chaos, and anything that would be considered Forbidden information on the Ecclesiarchy would be considered Heresy *BLAM*).
2. I’m too sure you can take Resistance to a skill but even if you can Logic is a internal/personal skill not an interaction skill so it would have no effect anyways.
…and so far that’s it…
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What happened to Homeworlds? It isn't allowing permission...

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Necroed this thread to shamelessly promote an update of RT!