Hi

-First I should warn that I will refer to the soul reaver quite a bit since the group just finished that aventure, if you wish to avoid spoilers you should stay away from my thread.-

So the players just got through the Soul Reaver adventure, all the normal important leaders died which would normally leave the players as the sole rulers of the Nexus but the Tau slaves played an important role in my campaign (the groups now dead kroot of course valued them as allies and got them to help, they got their pulse weapons out of the armoury and they made an effective fighting force in the battle. After the battle the Tau slaves made (without the knowledge of their empire) the offer that the explorers could become vassal rulers of the nexus under the Tau empire if they brought them back to their empire, they also offered other help for co-operating with the Tau and working for the Greater Good. Surprisingly the explorers accepted and are now about to smuggle them through the Jericho Reach. When they actually reach the Tau I will have the Tau try to make the Nexus a more regular world under their rule and try to gain as many advantadgeous deals out of the explorers as possible.

On the way there I plan on having them meet some Imperial Navy ships asking for help, being suspiscious and doing the normal navy stuff. But I would also like some other fun ideas for on-the way encounters (it is not a quiet place of space to travel through after all) as well as a good non-lethal deathwatch encounter, sending the deathwatch on them is too mean but they should still feel that the deathwatch presence is relatively high in this region. I am also quite confident that they will bring up some interesting in-group discussion, their last meeting with a marine did.

Ideas for the Tau interaction is also good, I have more confidence in this part but hearing other ideas is never bad.

I'm not quite sure if selling Nexus to Tau is doable. Firstly some Tau have to be able to go throught the Jericho-Koronus Gateway, which both ends are heavly guarded by the Imperium. I don't think imperials will be happy with Tau flying here and there. Whatsmore Tau Dominion is still a threat to Imperium, a smaller one maybe, yet still. Letting Tau access to the Obscura Segmentum is indeed an act of extra heresy/treachery and one way ticket to the Calixis Conclave hospitality.

I can't think of a price for a (ihmo) 99% chances of becaming a prey for the Inquistion and Navy.

My suggestion - Go big: Tau are naive, sell them 100 planets in Koronus for a really fat profit;).

Sell them heavily defended planets in the Calixis sector.

Find out their route timetable.

Sell the information to the Imperial Navy.

Hire your services to the Imperial navy.

Smash the Tau fleet for huge profit.

Wincent said:

Obviously the Tau will ask the explorers for further help in transporting tau troops and workers to the Nexus.

It is extremely treacherous and heretical but I'm fairly certain the explorers won't tell people, Tau ships would be destroyed travelling through the gate but the Gilded Barbossa won't, though suspiscions are bound to arise if they start to frequent those routes.

Also note that the players accepted the deal and probably do wish to follow through with it, while tricking them at the benefit of the Imperial Navy would work and I would allow them to try such an action if they wished I don't think they want to take that route.

One thing I may hate more than most about the 40k RPG is the lack of maps. What i mean to say is, if I type into Google "map of the 40k galaxy", none of them will show me the Jericho Reach, the Koronus Expanse, the Calixus Sector, or such. They say in the books about where some things are located, but a big picture with everything on it would help.

I was going to comment that the Tau Empire might be a closer target than the Tau embroiled in the Reach, but thought that, with the Tau's limited Warp-traverse technology, they'd be hard pressed to get to the Reach if it weren't rather close to their own territory, making said comment sort of dumb . Either way, they'd be hard-pressed to get to Nexus (the Tau), and do much with it, and all assumes the party knows about the J-M Gateway, a rather well-kept secret, if there is one. If I were playing Rogue Trader, there's a good chance my RT would know nothing about it. Calligos Winterscale might know nothing about it. If they went to Jericho, hoping to hit it rich, it would likely be a one-way trip, meaning you might get to become the Winterscale of Jericho, but you'd be there for a very long time, at least until the conflict is over.

Also, I would impart to the players the severity of their deed. The Imperium doesn't take such things likely, and I believe the AdMech long ago lost the knowledge on the manufacture of kid's gloves. It would not stretch the beliefs of me, at least, that there could easily be covert operatives aboard the ship, or even just Emperor-fearing people who catch wind of the Captain's dealings, and rat him out to the authorities. I have a plan, if ever it is needed, where if the party goes Secessionist really bad, there is a person aboard the ship who serves an Inquisitor (you can't imagine an Inquisitor let such a powerful person just run around, breaking the rules, beyond the Imperium, can you?), and if it becomes important, they can ontact their Master. Then, at some stop, the ship will gain a new crew member. Eventually, the Captain will be alone, wiith one or two trusted confidants, who will be payed still by their PCs, and then i will "assume direct control!" revelaing the one character as a Callidus Assassin, a threat the PCs are likely not nearly badass enough to deal with, but one I will have lightly informed them of, way at the beginning of the campaign, to warn them how ass the Imperium can be. A ******-move, perhaps, but the Imperium does that, and so would I, if the players don't cover their tracks well, or decide being d-bags is the only way to have fun. This is only one of numerous covert or open retalliations the Imperium might use, if you try to betray them to Xenos/Heretics. Remind your players to remember that, perhaps.

venkelos said:

There would only be a galaxy map including sectors and sub-sectors from all the FFG books if FFG published one - GW licensed out the IP but don't include the FFG settings in their core products, so no maps from them.

venkelos said:

Have played one session in the mission yet, they have suceeded to enter the Jericho Reach and are now trying to get a map over it so that they could find the Tau they are smuggling. They lost their navigator due to internal conflict and have become stranded by Khazant were they are helping the Imperium in hope of being able to get help to replace the navigator when reinforcements arrive. An Inquisitorial servant is present at the ship, a tech-priest who was investigating the former seneschals cold-trades before he reached 100cp and escaped with a the Shadow Reaver and his Halo artifact cackling madly. She will not attempt any actions herself but will report them at safe port if deals are made with the Tau (she does not know about the current deals) so the Inquisistions involvement is ready and waiting. I will involve the Inquisistion when she becomes able to do so but the Koronous is large and the navy can't handle the pirates as it is. When the players lose the Imperiums love they will still have Inequity and the Nexus as good ports in the Expanse.

One of the elite assassins will not be sent early however, I want to make it hard for players but not impossible.

Leogun_91 said:

Yeah sorry; I wasn't trying to suggest TPK-ing the group. I just find that Rogue Trader seems to have a bit more penchant for letting"silly" players make their reflecting characters do some stupid things, and believe there will be no consequences, that RT can let the party's power go to their head, and was just suggesting a way to remind them that the Imperium that spent oodles of resources to give them a ship, a start, and access to all the galaxy has to lose track of isn't nearly so dense as to then immediately write all that off, and stop watching. Not to imply that your group has this issue; it's merely a scenario I can often see occuring in the game, due to the open-endedness of it, and the free reigns that make RT what it is.

As for the Navigator, did the ship only have one? You might have a player being one, but there could be/should be several other NPC Navigators aboard. If it helps the story, ignore this, but most ships have several, in case of mishaps, or exceedingly long voyages, much like several Astropaths, Armsmen, and Tech-Priests.

venkelos said:

Currently they are in the warp on their way to the Tau empire (making a warp jump towards a star in the region and hoping to get close enough to get contact as they lack real maps) and underway a mutiny with internal group conflict (fueled by warp whispers) so their choices of what deals to make could very well change depending on the outcome of said struggle. It is also possible the explorers would act in another way if they knew where the Tau lived and the problems the Imperium have had with them, but they haven't found that information and are good enough players not to play on their own knowledge but that of their characters.