So I wanted to post some of my plans and see what you folks thought.

First things first, I do not yet know what type of characters I will be tasked with showing the universe to, though I do know that I will have four players. We've all been gaming with each other for a few years now, and have been friends for even longer, so I know there shouldn't be any chemistry issues. I do have a feeling that one of my players will likely step up to be the RT without any hesitation, and he tends to play a bit "piratey" in games, so criminal activity will probably be frequent.

Anywho, on to the different part; under the council of on of the players, who happens to be a former GM for RT, I have decided to do something different with starting PF and SP, I'm only going to give them 20 or so of each. The reasoning being that they will not be too overpowered out of the gate (something the former GM had issues with) and give them plenty to strive for. I figured that if it was possible to start with 20 of one or the other in the random PF roll, it should be possible to do this with both. What do you think?

I've become as familiar with the system as I can from the book, and am really looking forward to running the game, I have about 6 solar systems planned out, each with hidden goodies and dangers. I've also gone through and designed a few characters and ships to test the creation process. Any other suggestions to get ready?

One last query: Which pregen adventures should I run? I have a few, but which ones do you recomend for begginers?

Thank you, and sorry for any spelling errors, this was typed on a phone.

Hooboy, I really hope you're planning things out because your players are going to be vastly underpowered at the start of the campaign. It's not as damning as people might think at first blush, but remember the cheapest ship for SP is 20, and every weapon is at least 1SP. They're going to have a Transport, and it's not going to be very nice.

On the other hand, this means they're not going to be doing much in the way of ship combat, which means they're going to have to survive by their wits alone. With a very poor Profit Factor, they're also not going to have many strong toys, weapons or units to play with so they're not going to embark on large-scale military endeavours. To that end I recommend The Glass Key available on the Rogue Trader support page . There's not a lot of intense large-endeavour combat or massive ship battles, so it fits well for a low-strength RT party. There's also not much profit factor to be had if run as written. though it encourages creativity by the players to make it profitable meaning they'll have to engage with your story.

I played using a PF/SP generated from the Warrant Path, and my players got a well-kitted out Light Cruiser and very little Profit Factor to start with. It seems to have been working pretty well from that.

I skipped the rolls and assumed they rolled max for SP, minimum for PF - I figure the ship should be as important as another character, if not more so, and I wanted to give them something that would last a while, not something they felt they needed to get rid of quickly as possible. I created a Dauntless-class Light Cruiser and filled most but not quite all of its Space/Power/SP with decent all-around stuff so the ship was fitted for my group to do a little of everything (since we're all new to the system), and gave them a little space to play around with (plus the option of downgrading some of the components, since I used the no-penalty life sustainers and crew quarters and stuff), and told them they'd probably want to consider replacing the lance battery with a plasma macrobattery after the Arch-Militant bought some BS upgrades and got Void Tactician or whatever, but I figured the lance was best while he was learning since it has a low crit rating (and hits twice at the same DoS as it crits, so even if he can't drop their shields first, he can still crit through the shield with the lance).

Starting them with a no-weapons transport and nowhere near the profit to buy a gun for it seems rather limiting to me, but if your players can make it work, then work it. I liked the minimum starting PF to give them plenty of room to grow, but gave them the max SP so they didn't have a throwaway ship they didn't care about. I assume they'll capture some raiders and possibly transports a few Endeavors in, and work their way up to eventually getting an even bigger ship - but by that point they wouldn't consider selling off their starting Dauntless to do so.

First of all, you do realize that the main book never starts you with less than 30 SP, right? See page 33. Also, your PF+SP always adds up to 90. At 20 SP you have a Jericho or Vagabond merchant ship, stripped of weapons and with lots of empty space and power. Such a ship wouldn't even normally be used INSIDE the Imperium, as it would be seen as a waste of resources and pirate bait. In the Expanse, people will assume they are suicidal lunatics. The players are going to have to run and hide from all space encounters, and won't have a ship that is well suited to either. Is this likely to be the style you want to run, and your players are going to want to play? From personal experience, I haven't had many players that want to play 'Rogue Beggar, servant of Brave Sir Robin'. I know that may sound harsh, but that is how I would feel with that sort of start to the game. At a 20 PF, their weak ship is going to almost impossible to repair properly. They will have a 1 in 10 chance of being able to repair 5 hull points, and every failure wastes another 1d5 weeks. There is actually a 16.7% chance that they would be unable to fix those 5 hull in a year of tries (same odds as rolling a 1 on a d6). Note that a 30PF drops this to 2%. With an unarmed, slow, barebones transport ship their options are very limited. Exploration becomes russian roulette, as any enemy ship will curbstomp them. They won't have any components other than their Main Cargo Hold, and there isn't a single shipping concern that would trust them with cargo.

If you feel that you are going to have a problem with too high a PF or too powerful a ship, then lower the total PF+SP (Even 70 is very limiting). In the two campaigns I have run, a decent frigate or outfitted Orion was enough that the players felt effective without being excessive. They were able to handle ork raiders or a single Rak'Gol ship while still being worried. Once they got their PF up, they upgraded their orignial ship but weren't interested in trading it for any hull less than a cruiser or grand cruiser (which is a long term goal). That kept the power level down to a level that I thought I could threaten the players without being affraid of their ship snapping under a single barrage. You might also want to look at reducing the ammount of PF given per endeavor, or perhaps trading the bonus PF from extra Achievement Points for something else (special items or other bonuses). Keeping PF low, but allowing them to pick up prestige and toys. Don't forget that both ship components and NU/U items do not use quantity modifiers. That keeps those high tickets items out of reach of groups without either high PF, or willing to burn PF for them.

I appologize if I offend, but I am hoping that you don't hamstring your game so much that the players (and you) find it too frustrating to have fun with. A 30 SP and 30 PF game would probably give you that 'hanging on by the fingernails' without crippling the players excessively, and would probably be a lot more fun.

First off to clarify; what I had planned was to supply them with minimum starting SP and PF (so 30 and 20 respectfully)

Okay, so on to the first night. So for characters we ended up with: first is an Explorator who is already mutated (bloated and an extra appendage) who rolled max wounds and is planning on being a Genetor because the character believes that his mutations are making him more perfect, good stuff.

Second Is the Arch Militant who wanted to be a fast talking swordsman, so I switched the progression tracks for BS and WS (anyone tried this before? does it work?) On-board she wants to lead boarding parties and hit em' where it hurts.

Third is the Deathworld Voidmaster (I got a kick out of that) who's tough as nails and great with a ship. He will be firing the main guns upon the vessel.

Fourth is the Seneschal who can get what you want, no matter what it is; information being his specialty of course (I think he'll be going Acquisitionist) and will be quite handy with the Auspex

And last but not least is the Debauched Nobleman Rogue Trader, who is more future pirate lord than bringer of the emperors light. Talking people into seeing his point of view is definitely his speciality, and his power sword is his backup plan.

The ship they built was a Jericho class Transport, bristling with Mars Pattern Macrocannons, has an observation dome, and a Main Cargo hold, as well as a couple upgraded essential components. They rolled “A Nose for Trouble” and “Finances in Arrears” which fit remarkably with the type of campaign they would like to run (once one of them threw out “Hey, it's like we're 40k Firefly” it was all signed and sealed)

As far as adventures go, "The Glass Key" looks great (reading it now) any other suggestions? They are mostly new players, so they will be learning as we go.

I'm not affraid to give them a new ship after a little while, as long as they find something to do with the first that keeps it busy and out of the game (background endevours or permanent trade routes or whatever). I know some of you folks had issues with the underpowered ship. I'm thinking of putting in a nice Raider as a prize after they get a handfull of adventures under thier belts. (Thoughts?)

And lastly, I do appreciate the comments and suggestion.

There were some excellent rules for the Melee Militant in this Rogue Trader campaign that would fit the bill in this case I think.

If you want another adventure to think about the Dark Frontier also on the Rogue Trader Support Page . It's another not-very-ship heavy combat, although there's at least one scene that calls for some daredevil flying. There's some good opportunities for roleplaying, and some potentially lethal combat later on in the adventure. It does requires a plot trinket from the previous Forsaken Bounty, but you can either have that be something found in The Glass Key, or delivered by mysterious MacGuffin. Or omitted altogether. I don't actually recommend running Forsaken Bounty with your campaign though, as it's pretty simple, as written gives you a huge boost to Profit Factor, and any Rogue Trader group when confronted with a derelict vessel does not immediately make plans to salvage and/or trade up with it is probably playing the wrong game.

Maybe Vaults of the Forgotten. little ship combat. easily pushed into the endeavor by means of payment onto whoever is owed, and simple enough to complete without any real assets needed