So two of my three players have said they want to play Explorators, one a Genetor and the other a standard Explorator. The third player is undecided about his decision however will likely play an Archmilitant. I had several ideas planned around a standard Rogue Trader party however now I’m looking for some Mechanicus based plot ideas. The ideas I have as follows are…

-They’ll assist a Rogue Trader and her crew, including the PC Archmilitant, in exploring a Tyranid infested Space Hulk to retrieve an unsigned Warrant of Trade. This title was promised however never bestowed as her and military unit were captured by pirates.

-After some light politicking the newly minted Rogue Trader will allow the Mechanicus crew full access to the Idolator Class Raider she is piloting. This ship was stolen when her and prisoners loyal to her overthrew the pirates who had originally captured them. This will lead them to discover a partial STC printout showing the Heretech/Xenos components on the ship that aid in weapons fire are based, at least partially, off of ancient human designs. What they do with this knowledge will be up to them.

-The Rogue Trader will be tasked with exploring Installation 2819-Rho, which could lead to any number of offshoot endeavors.

-At some point they will explore a crashed Xenos ship to gather organic Xenos ship components for the Genetor to study.

Out of curiosity, is there a reason that your PCs decided to tag along with a Rogue Trader (aside from having a high fellowship command character around)? Looking at the rules, I think it would be really interesting to have an Explorator crew that has been granted a Warrant of their own from the Adeptus Mechanicus to explore the expanse for archeotech.

They'd have a ship of their own, a crew of their own, and a mission that could coincide with a RT's efforts, but wouldn't have to. They could even found colonies in the name of the Omnissiah and the construction of a Forge World if they got really ambitious.

Otherwise I like the idea, as long as they keep a decent spread of skills around the group.

As the Captain said, you don't have to have an RT to have a RT game. . The Archmilitant can be one, the Missionary, the Void-master, and even the Explorator (or two). So far in my games, I have given everybody equal sway, power, influence, footing, etc to make the game smoother. This may not work for all groups, but its worked for me so far. Back on topic though. Love the ideas. Great starting endeavors that you can build off of if you or the pcs wanted to.

Examples

On the space hulk are other void shuttles that came from other ships. Maybe some of the crew survived, and maybe the reason they went to the hulk was because they scuttled their ship. All they know is the general location of it. But why did they scuttled it??.....

The STC printout has the world designated code it came from, but when the Mechanicus looks up the code, it shows a feral/hostile/dead world that has no listed human civilization. To explore or not to explore, that is the question.

I will third the point that Rogue Trader doesn't need a character being an RT, but it actually can grant quite a lot of freedom to your players if you have someone else be the captain deciding on the missions for your vessel, and then your players just explore the bizarre situations your out-of-touch captain keeps throwing them into. Alternatively you could really reinforce the idea that a Rogue Trader can be continuously outfoxed by your crew, and you have a session where the players must enact elaborate deceptions to prevent the Rogue Trader from learning what they're really up to.

My own contributions for a possible quest

Your ship discovers a planet inhabited by a lost colony of humans. They have greatly advanced production facilities, including a way of producing las-weapons with more than twice the effective range of the standard Imperial models. Initial negotiations go well, and the planetary ruler seems open to trade. Tragically during your Explorator's inspections of the manufacturing district, relations sour between the governor and the Rogue Trader and your Explorers must escape back to their ship before their ground forces at the starport are overrun, but is there enough time to infiltrate and steal the planet's manufacturing secrets?

Any number of rogue trader dynasties' flagships incorporate xenotech and archeotech. Now...how can you legally get your mittens on it (bearing in mind that since you aren't bearers of a warrant of trade, "smash and grab" isn't a legal option!).

Out of curiosity, is there a reason that your PCs decided to tag along with a Rogue Trader (aside from having a high fellowship command character around)?

As the Captain said, you don't have to have an RT to have a RT game.

I will third the point that Rogue Trader doesn't need a character being an RT, but it actually can grant quite a lot of freedom to your players if you have someone else be the captain deciding on the missions for your vessel, and then your players just explore the bizarre situations your out-of-touch captain keeps throwing them into.

I haven’t received full backstories from them yet so this is really just pre-preliminary planning. I have kicked around the idea of alternate classes obtaining a warrant of trade but I figured if none of the players wanted to shoulder the responsibility of being captain I’d just introduce an NPC Rogue Trader on a separate ship which would help solidify their independence while still allowing them the freedom to utilize or ignore the Rogue Trader as they see fit.

I also had some ideas from an old game I was planning that I never got to use, the hunt for an unsigned Warrant being one of them, that I would still love to use if the group is willing. This is all in addition to simply adding someone with a Fellowship worth a darn to their band of adventurers.

I know that tech-heresy is largely in the eye of the beholder however how far does the condemnation of progress extend in personal research? Obtaining plans for upgraded las guns and ship components is all well and good however where does the line get drawn between studying the new discovery and incinerating it in the ship’s plasma wake.

From my understanding, any piece of legitimate human archeotech/STC fragments are desired by every forge world in the Imperium. After it ends up in their hands though, there can be centuries of debate before any agreement that its worth producing.

In personal research, I would think that properly citing sources would be vital, but there are stories of particularly talented AdMech Magi who are able to 'fill in' missing parts of an STC template. So, I'd expect that as long as you can show the human origins of everything, or have a very powerful organization to back your research into Xenos tech, you'd be able to find backers if someone came after you as a heretek.

So the player who will be playing a Genetor has made mention of experimenting in Transgenic Grafting. Mind you he knows very little of the 40K universe and simply mentioned attaching alien bits to crew members. I gently explained to him that that is a burn at the stake type of crime for him and likely the entire crew if anyone of importance, including possibly his fellow shipmates, ever found out. He seemed unfazed.

I’ll have to see how this plays out however it may dovetail nicely into my plans to have the Rogue Trader, assuming I introduce her, secretly researching Sorcery. I planned to make her an incredibly pious servant of the Emperor who, due to her previous battle experience and unwilling incarceration aboard a pirate ship, has developed an ends justifies the means type of personality. She is convinced she is of strong enough constitution and will to forestall any negative effects the study may have on her. Her burgeoning power has only fueled her need for more study material as she plans to fight fire with fire the next time she crosses paths with any agents of Chaos.

If you can talk your Arch-Militant into being Forge World, I'd just up and give him the AdMech advances and take a look at the Crimson Guard in Dark Heresy - The Lathe Worlds .

As for plot ideas; all of the players are just AdMech aboard a Rogue Trader's ship. They have little to no influence over where he goes and what he does, they are just there and along for the ride, with their loyalty to the AdMech population on the ship, fixing broken plasma reactors, clearing ork-infested air ducts, and evaluating underdeck contagions.

Sometimes, they'll receive special orders from real Magi or Factors of the Lathes, or get called upon to accompany the Rogue Trader and his entourage to perform various functions, or end up with missions on their own during shore-leave or when looking into matters that turns out to involve the Lords Dragon.