I realise in the 41st millenium life is cheap and sometimes an imperial citizen's duty is to die for his lord's cause. However in the few 40k rpg games I've played in it seems groups tend to end 3/4 of conversations with a killing blow and a laugh from all the players at the table. It just seems so wasteful.

I was wondering if anyone else's group seems to be too quick to deal out death to their subordinates or fairly harmless npcs as well as what their thoughts were on the subject. Also, if anyone has a funny story about the unnessisary death of an npc feel free to share!

I've noticed that this tends to happen in the games I've been in too. Especially when the PCs are on a ship of 25,000 crew, some of them seem particularly dismissive about losing a few of them 'here and there' without any real reason. As for opposing groups, my players tend to go totally ******* insane and treat insults like they're deadly attacks and then escalate from there. Recurring opposition only happens on the rare occasion that the PCs don't turn their response dial straight to 'genocide'. And these same players don't tend to do this in other games I've been in, so perhaps it is something about the setting that's doing it to them.

The party I GM for seem to've gone in the opposite direction; in other space opera games they're usually quick to roll out the big guns whenever possible, but in RT they're positively timid. I think this might be a mix of game mechanics - they worry too much about breaking their own ship to really bring the hammer down, but also my portrayl of their crew. Since they were granted the Warrant primarily to lead a mini-crusade into the Expanse, and the crew is mostly made up of their followers, any crew member they happen to interact with responds with total adoration. They simply don't seem able to bring themselves to kick the poor puppies. Though again, this might simply be a fear of breaking something terribly expensive to replace.

Best NPC "death" to date had to be the unfortunate Lady Ash - the rogue psyker from the start scenario; her first power attempt resulted in her being swallowed whole by the Warp. The whole party now live in constant abject fear of all things Warp and psykery. As they should.

If the players kill their crew (and particularly the officers) over nothing, that should at least cause a morale hit. Nobody wants to serve under a crazy captain.

My players have little mercy for the people beneath their station, but they don't go out of their way to kill them. They do their best to keep everyone alive, but they won't shed a tear if an officer on the bridge is brutally slaughtered.

As for opposing groups, the behavior described in the first post should make others be very careful about dealing with the players. Nobody really wants to trade with a known psychopath, which makes it hard to be a rogue trader. Trade partners would start showing up with superior force every single time, just to be safe. Enemies would shoot first and ask questions later since they know the players are going to betray them over some imagined slight anyway.

The kind of power the players get in Rogue Trader is significant, and not all groups manage to deal with that kind of thing properly. Remind them that they aren't playing psychopaths (unless they actually are, in which cas they should carry on).

My group is pretty ruthless, the RT being fairly puritanical and all. The best was the group shooting and killing one of the Kroot at the beginning of Lure Of The Expanse as they were eating the downed longshoremen. My group seems to have a knack for going off script, which is stretching my first-time-GM skills a bit.

My group tends towards a more moderate approach when dealing with Humans, often willing to be tolerant of insults and poor behavior. Not to say that they will let themselves be walked over, but they do not pull out guns over every insult. With their crew they are firm but fair, often rewarding good work with extra rations and other luxuries and never executing someone without good reason. When dealing with Xenos, they base their actions on the known behavior of the xenos. Dark Eldar (They are well aware of the difference) or Rak'Gol get full macrocannon and torpedo barrages, or meltaguns and plasma flamers in personal combat. Kroot or Eldar often get a bit of negotiation and a general willingness to live and let live. Heretics and Chaos forces get complete obliteration by the most severe methods they can imagine. They encountered a shrine to Slaanesh on a world they were considering colonizing. After fighting their way free they proceeded to incinerate the area around the shrine for a distance of several hundred kilometers. They then spent weeks verifying that the warp taint had indeed been burned clean. The Explorator of the party is presently trying to reverse engineer (he's a bit of a Heretek like that) the Rak'Gol rad grenades they recently recovered from a boarding party. He wants to build large scale ones that can be sent via teleportarium onto Chaos Reaver ships to maximize 'cleansing'.

Heh. My last two groups were very much into profit and trade. Death without profit was a waste.. And the first group tested their crew like family. While the second operated more military/pirate style. The even invented a servitor that would administer lashings. Their reasoning was since the servitor was an automation it would always administer each lashing with the same amount of force. Without any personal issues coloring the punishment.

Interesting to see some groups practice restraint.

So far my explorers are doing it right! They aren't dispensing the uneccessary deaths themselves, but are in fact ordering their flunkies and lickspittles to do it!

Cheddah said:

Hehehehe..

Warmaster Picklehauber said:

Your so right. That is the proper way to do it… Why get your hands dirty when that's what you got peeple for.

DigitalRedneck said:

I'd say getting anyone's hands dirty is bad for business, and rogue traders are all about business. The thing about warfare and violent conflict is that it always has a cost, so most people would try to avoid it. A rogue trader who uses every opportunity to act like a total psycho and kills those he has even mild disagreements with, needs to learn the meaning of "there's always a bigger fish". That's the way I would handle it as a GM anyway. Let the rogue trader try and act all high and mighty when Winterscale and Chorda call a truce and decide to bring in the rogue trader before he becomes a real problem.

TiLT said:

It's just like organized crime. To paraphrase the (excellent) gangster movie Miller's Crossing , "You're exactly as big as I letcha be and no bigger!", They are going to get a visit from the Winterscales and Chorda eventually, whether it's for being too psycho or too profitable.

After all, the worst thing for busines is competition.

TiLT said:

Our crazy-ass Missionary did it again. This time he unleashed assault flamer and chainsword on some uppity colonists that had overpowered four of the groups's armsmen and taken them hostage. The colonists rleased one of the armsmen unharmed to show that they were willing to negotiate, but he didn't care and just burned them all - colonists and hostages alike. Morale among the armsmen is dropping fast with some of them considering a bit of 'friendly fire' on the Missionary and the Archmilitant that commands the armsmen is furious with the Missionary. The RT hasn't heard about this event yet.

My groups don't tend to deal unneccesary death to their crew or to people planetside, it sometimes (rarely though) happend but there is usually some easy to follow reasoning behind it (that may or may not be good). An exception is my current groups Kroot Shaper who wants to feed his kindred well and often asks the Seneschal if he can take a foe/crewmember/civillian for them to eat.

Well, my players just shrug and have a good laugh when their little expeditions into ancient ruins produce another hundred casualties among the armsmen that escort them planetside.

Hi!

When I read some of the replies, I have to say that the game has already slipped all reigns there. Even the most militant RT is out there for adventure and business. In a very dark unknown, where you need at least half-way trusted crew! And pardon me, an RT with ultra-puritan or monodominant crew has earned a cruesome death. Even among the Sororitas or SMs you find some less triggerhappy examples, which are the ones travelling with the RTs.

A group which does not care for any losses has to feel the hammer of the GM sooner than later. Psychpaths among the RTs have a well-earned reputation of being "removed" for the well-being of all out there in the endless Dark.

Extreme examples of RT behavior abound. A casual disregard for the wellbeing of the common crewmembers may offend our modern sensibilities, but it would not have been totally out of place during the age of sail and its totally fitting in wh40k. That doesn't mean it doesn't have consequences, but there are ways of dealing with morale loss in the game - some of which actually involve killing off more crew…

Hi!

I do not argue from a "modern" standpoint. You have to be eccentric to become part of RT expeditions. But what some players/GMs post here, is neither eccentricity nor (needed) expediency. It is simple bloodlust and a vacuum in the head of the chars, hell sometimes the Orks have a better reason!

The successful RTs have to make some hard decisions and take acceptable losses as well, but sound reasoning adds to their legend. Butchering your way along the stars might be successful in the short term, but sooner than later others will take action against such loose cannons.

Have you read about Chorda's special ability, for instance? 'Acceptable Losses' ? Or her M.O. in general?

Most of the successful Rogue Traders in the expanse are ruthless madmen, separated from pirate kings and marauding warlords only by a Warrant of Trade. They use and in some cases abuse people, placating only the key personnel they need to keep control.

A missionary barbequeing hostages with the kidnappers is more than fitting - even RL governments have that "do not negotiate" rule; its not farfetched to assume that the Imperium or a Rogue Trader is not even going to make the attempt of a farce, unless the hostages are important. Same goes for most examples listed here, especially the ones involving Xenos.