In Only War an Unnatural Strength, etc. gives a flat bonus of +2, +3 etc. to the characteristic bonus. It does not affect your chance of success in any way with tests. Since we are now starting up a Rogue Trader campaign again, I am considering, what is the pitfalls and advantages of simply straight up adopting the system of this trait from Only War? I assume DH 2nd ed will use it, and when there is a RT 2nd ed I assume that will use this system too. As such I want to use a balanced approach since Unnatural XXXX trait tends to make things very unbalanced (think Orc with unnatural strength and power claw for example)..

I'm not sure why anyone ever thought that flat multipliers would make for a good RPG mechanic - they make for increasingly wide gaps with simple characteristic advances, and some of the affiliated bonuses are already wonky once you get past a certain threshold before you add in Unnaturals.

So, if your GM is allowing houserule modifications, then this might be an easy-to-do improvement.

A possible pitfall might be that some weapons and/or NPCs/enemies from the books could have been designed for use with standard Unnaturals. I would hazard a guess that this isn't actually the case, but the possibility remains.

Just let the corruption flow through you and use Only War's mechanics wholesale. It's a lot more recent than Rogue Trader, and it shows in a myriad ways.

As for RT 2nd Ed, I wouldn't be surprised if they never made one. There are so many things missing from the original system that should have been there, it's not even funny.

I am the GM of our group, so I have to decide on this or not. Just looking for second opinions.

I am considering the fact that Unnatural trait in Only War does not add any bonus to test based on that characteristic. This seems to defeat the major purpose of the trait. +10 to tests are not unreasonable, or what do you say?

I am curious, what is missing from RT? There are wonkiness in the system, that is true.But I see nothing that would not be possible to fix in a second edition. At some point, they either have to do a reprint, a new edition, or cancel the game.

Some ppl are just naturally negative. Don't be run off from this game. Everyone has their own opinion on stuff. Like for me, time can fix anything. So, given enough time, FFG can correct whatever errors are found in DH.

I think you can house-rule in whatever you want, but sadly for the most part I tried making a house-rule or two and it has resulted in one of my Astropath now being a little overpowered compared to the rest of the party. It's fixable, but in general be careful.

Only War's character creation is great, and I wish we could have used that for RT's, but I don't hate the character system as is - just be willing to open up Elite Advances. Ultimately if you're trying to play a game that's really rules-focused and structured then Only War is great, but in terms of setting and roleplaying I think that Rogue Trader is still my favourite setting.

I am considering the fact that Unnatural trait in Only War does not add any bonus to test based on that characteristic. This seems to defeat the major purpose of the trait. +10 to tests are not unreasonable, or what do you say?

Now that you mention it, I recall having had similar thoughts when I read about it back then - I recall thinking that at this point, they could just do away with Unnaturals completely and simply add a flat +X to the Characteristic.

It really depends on the Characteristic itself, however: I believe the major purpose of Unnaturals was to give specific creatures an edge in a specific area without actually making it too easy for them to succeed in the associated Tests - in other words, the +10 to Tests is not the real purpose but just a sort of apologetic acknowledgement that the owner of this Trait should actually be better when someone was afraid he'd get too good and break the limits of the d100 range.

Mostly, Unnatural Traits are used for Strength and Toughness, so their actual purpose there is to grant bonus damage in melee combat, and greater resilience against injuries - not actually making them more likely to succeed in Tests. Which I always found a little odd, for either someone truly is that much stronger and tougher, or they are not.

It seems like a bit of a house-made problem that comes with too great a willingness to settle characters and creatures high in the d100 range of success and/or not make extensive use of modifiers to curb their efficiency. Personally, if I were to rewrite the system, I'd just do away with Unnaturals entirely and lower the gaps between advances, so as to "make room" towards the upper limit.

This is a topic where you're bound to get a a hundred different answers from asking fifty different people, though.

I am curious, what is missing from RT?

Play the game for any amount of time and try to perform actions you might actually want to perform in the course of space exploration and empire building and see how many there are rules for versus how many you just have to make something up for on the spot to resolve.

How much can my scanners tell me about a planet, for example? And if it's in Stars of Inequity, don't bother telling me. I don't want to wait three years for a book telling me how to resolve something I wanted to do during the first session of the game I ever played. Heck, it's a whole book full of rules for stuff I already had to make house rules for back in 2009. I'm not gonna change all that around *now*.

It's pretty amazing that Rogue Trader is still my favourite role playing game ever.

I am settling for this; Unnatural Trait (x N) gives +N on the Bonus, but to reflect that a character is better, even when dealing with stats and circumstances that does not rely on pure bonus values, it grants +10 to tests based on that characteristic (about the same as having the right tool for the job etc grants you).

My own homebrew for this involved the creation of two separate Traits:

Inhuman Characteristics and Unnatural Characteristics:

Inhuman Characteristic (X):

One or more of the creature's Characteristics is of inhuman or superhuman levels. This is indicated by a number that is then added directly to the relevant Characteristic Bonus. For example, a creature with a Strength of 41 normally has a Strength Bonus of 4; if the creature had Inhuman Characteristic (3) then it's Strength Bonus increases to 7 (4+3).

A creature may have this Trait more than once. Each time, it's applied to a new Characteristic or added to the modifier of a pre-existing Inhuman Characteristic.

In addition, whenever someone with an Inhuman Characteristic succeeds on a Test utilising that Characteristic, they gain a number of bonus Degrees of Success equal to half their Inhuman Characteristics modifier (rounded down).

During Opposed Characteristics Tests that end in a tie, the one with the higher Inhuman Characteristic modifier wins, unless either creature has the Unnatural Characteristic trait, in which case it takes precedence.

Inhuman Characteristics is added after any other modifier to a Characteristics Bonus, such as Unnatural Characteristic (X).

Unnatural Characteristic (X):

One or more of the creature's Characteristics have been modified through supernatural or unnatural means. Each time this trait is gained, select a Characteristic, and double it's Characteristic Bonus. For example, a creature with a Strength of 41 normally has a Strength Bonus of 4; if the creature had Unnatural Strength (3), then it's Strength Bonus increases to 12 (4*3).

A creature may have this Trait more than once. Each time, it's applied to a new Characteristic or added to the modifier of a pre-existing Unnatural Characteristic.

In addition, whenever someone with an Unnatural Characteristic succeeds on an Opposed Test utilising that Characteristic, they gain a number of bonus Degrees of Success equal to their Unnatural Characteristics modifier. During Opposed Characteristics Tests that end in a tie, the one with the higher Unnatural Characteristic modifier always wins.

When taking a Skill Test based upon a Characteristic with the Unnatural Characteristic Trait, the base Difficulty of the Test is staged downwards one level for each modifier past 1, to a maximum of -30. For example, a creature with Unnatural Intelligence (3) attempting a Very Hard (-30) Medicae Skill Test would attempt the action at Difficult (-10) instead.

Unnatural Characteristic is added before any other modifier to a Characteristic Bonus, such as Inhuman Characteristic.

This allows to keep the functionality of both kinds of the trait, allowing for a wider range of item, character and creature interaction and interpretations, without breaking cross-functionality, and makes for easier scaling and backwards compatibility between the campaign settings.

You've already made a call on how to handle it, but I thought I'd pitch in on the topic regardless. Then, using these two different Traits, use whichever feels appropriate whenever the the issue pops up. Daemons could have Unnatural Characteristics, while most bionics and abhumans and such would have Inhuman Characteristics.

It's a bit less of a blanco rule-change, and a bit messier since you'll have to make a call every time, but I think it would work out well.

I am settling for this; Unnatural Trait (x N) gives +N on the Bonus, but to reflect that a character is better, even when dealing with stats and circumstances that does not rely on pure bonus values, it grants +10 to tests based on that characteristic (about the same as having the right tool for the job etc grants you).

Problem with this is that the effect will be much less than the original. An Ork with Unnatural Toughness x2 can expect a bonus of 4-6 to his SB, which is much more than just +2.

I seem to recall from discussions about conversions to Black Crusade that a flat bonus of 3-5 (per level) was more appropriate, but no hard rulings were made.