Hello, first time poster, I'm seeking advice. The navigator aboard my ship is played by a good friend of mine, he's a fairly experienced rp-er, however he plays the character like he's an NPC. Very bland, never speaks unless spoken to. Creates no plot around himself. I've personally seen him get behind roles in a much bigger way. I understand the position of a navigator CAN be a sort of one note job, but I've tried everything I can think of to liven it up. I was looking for suggestions for anything I could do in-game to get him involved, or perhaps participating more. Please help!

have you asked if he does not like playing that character yet? Maybe have him come up with another character might work?

Greetings, current GM of Thorns of indignity and long time Game master. My advice would be first talk to your friend and ask him what he thinks the role of a navigator is in the game. Then ask him what he thinks the role of a house navigator is and what it means to him. If you friend can answer those two questions then you can get a better idea on how to promote scene design for his character were he plays the prime role.

Some suggestions I can think from the top of my head is engage him from a political stand point when he is not helping the ship get from point A to point B. Look at the Navis Primer supplement book for ideas on how to make navigators more involved. You have more complex rules on navigation that can me used in a more RP role.

One other thing about being a navigator is that you hold a lot of power and if your friend is playing it as an NPC that is fine I had a similar problem were the navigator acted like TomTom GPS and my astropath acted like a radio. I fixed this by creating plots around trying to find out the background of the characters. I involved the other players becoming interested on why the other players characters were so distant yet were a close advisor to the Rogue Trader. Hope this helps you out.

Agreed. A navigator can be a one-dimensional character at first glance, but it really depends on how he's played.

The big thing to remember is that he's trying to make money/influence out of this little jaunt into the darkness, just as the rogue trader is.

The thing is that a Navigator represents a Navis Nobilite House - one of the few entities in the Imperium who can buy lesser Rogue Trader dynasties out of pocket change. He's going to have contacts in other branches of his family - or other families - which means that in many ways he's the most 'plugged in' about who's been going where in the expanse, and rumours about new threats, discoveries and opportunities. Equally, the chance to pay off the houses' debts - or to put another family in his house's debt - should never be overlooked, nor should the opportunity to get one over on a rival house (and, by extension, any rogue trader dynasty stupid enough to employ said house).

As far as this sort of thing is concerned, the ideal mission is one where his contacts point you at a rival rogue trader's latest haul, which the Explorers are then able to sneak up on the enemy (using some fiendish tricks to drop out of warp without them noticing you coming and then use clever in-system navigation to evade detection), commence [insert generic Rogue Trader Shennanigans], steal lots of shiny things, and in the process pin the blame for their success cleanly on the rival's navigator (preferably assassinating him in the process), leading to a vacancy where the rival will be too furious to seek a replacement from the previous house, allowing the Explorer's navigator to get an allied house's latest protege installed and putting the house generally in his house's debt and the new kid personally in his.

Essentially, the navigator should excell at playing politics, arguably more so than the rogue trader. Plus, as noted, Navis Primer includes a lot of new tricks you can do with the lidless stare to get a navigator more involved in ground and/or fleet combat.

Other good mission idea; the bane of any navigator house is uncontrolled mutation. Equally, their continuous geneology programmes are intended to preserve and improve the navigator gene. I could see the navigator being very interested in those individuals in the reach with a gift for biotechnology; not just odd mechanicus research facilities, but - for the truly desperate or ambitious houses - the Haemonculus of the Dark Eldar, or the cloning tech of the Stryxis.

Magnus Grendel has the same opinion as me. The Navigator represents a group of people who have an actual partnership with the Rogue Trader rather than the master-servant relationship defining most of the crew (Astropaths are also kind of special, but they seem more expendable).

My group doesn't have a Missionary, so our Navigator turned himself into the spiritual center of the crew. He started leading mass before every warp jump, and was constantly quoting the Imperial Scripture at people to play up the idea of his faith sustaining him through the Warp, and is now piety and doctrine in the face of the rest of the crew's rampant heresy.

Magisterial Navis Nobilite House has a profit factor of about 120-140. Allow navigator to get some free goodies from Novator.

How about investing into colonies, splitting profits with RT? What about secret tasks from Paternova no one should know about? Hmm...arranging a marriage between your RT and one of your relatives, that didn't inherit the mutation, how challenging is that?

Playing a rich spoiled noble ****** Navigator myself, my only problem is that we don't have Charm. But it's ok, I still love my Deceive +20 and Intimidate(Wp) +20 (+talented). And I haven't even scratched alternate careers yet.

Well my GM made my brothers chracter involed by useing the body gaurds along with the desire for freedom from his room realy got him involed as navgator esplicely when the body gaurds failed their medicae roll the was good.

Heya,

I play a Navigator myself, and while I do the stellar/warp tests to get us from point A to point B in one piece, and not just landed in a moon, I have to have other functions outside of that, because I leave the ship and play the game with the other characters wherever we go.

I put effort into Navigator powers like Void Watcher, Gaze into the Abyss. Very fun investigative skills that you can use.

Put effort into Psyniscience and it's upper ranks/talents associated, again, for investigative fun.

I put more effort into Intimidate and it's following ranks/talents, and I use Willpower instead of Strength. Remember, Navigators are super mutants and noble. For my situations where I use Intimidate, it's socially, using Willpower instead of Strength, because it's his heritage and position that he's using to Intimidate the social situation (not just brute force, threatening bodily harm, etc). Think threatening with your third eye, so to speak.

And of course, put some effort into combat related things. Ballistic options are good on the Navigator. He can deliver nasty shooting while also being the pilot essentially, as well as a very good investigator of the stars and people.

Very best,

Second what's said above. Void Watcher is a very useful ability if you have the perception to support it. Yes, it's not as good as the ship's sensors, but it's something you can do whilst the ship is on silent running - which makes it priceless in the right circumstances....

Wouldn't getting the passive scanners from Hostile Acquistions do the same thing, tho?

sure, but getting to try twice is sometimes worth the price.

Equally, it allows you to try from any ship, whether it has passive augery systems or not. Being able to track the movement of ships in a system whilst flying toawrds a dockyard on a powered down ballistic course in an assault boat or gun-cutter can be useful for purely legitimate reasons .

Also it allows you to not get absolutely CRIPPLED in Space Combat when your Augur Array gets damaged. You just plug your Navigator in!