If you need an NPC to give the characters a boost every now and then, the Warrant and Ship Origin Path from Into the Storm provides some good options under the Contacts heading. These being institutions with which your dynasty is aligned, they could also be people who occassionally come forth with assistance and/or requests of the Rogue Trader.

The ship's Past History could also provide ideas for similar deus ex machina.

For instance, my Rogue Trader's dynasty is aligned with the Adeptus Mechanicus and so they occassionally come forward with "missions" for the PC's. My Rogue Trader is formerly of the Imperial Navy and so he keeps relations with them and gives them a helping hand from time to time. Lastly, there is a Seneschal NPC onboard the PC vessel who is a Quaestor with House Krin, who hold some loans that have been issued to the dynasty. House Krin also issued my Rogue Trader a Letter of Marque, so they have no problems dictating targets of opportunity for privateering operations.

All of these "complications" are set against the PC's own schemes, which are not inconsiderable. Three of our five PC's are constantly cooking up ideas for making a throne. I've found that Rogue Trader is a game that encourages PC's to essentially set the plot by the kinds of endeavors they choose. It seems to require more flexibility from the GM, who occassionally has to account for these things on the fly. Sometimes sessions are cut short when the PC's come up with a grand scheme that requires some unplanned preparation for the GM.

This happened to us recently when our group decided that we wanted to salvage and reconstitute a mining colony that had been ravaged by Chaos Reavers in decades past. We spent the rest of the session coming up with a plan and listing the things that we wished to learn about the old colony, the planet, the surrounding system and any known threats. We then adjorned for the week so that the GM could prepare the next game session based upon our input.

I don't see how a group of loyalist PCs* is all the same character.

* That's like, say... the main characters of any Star Trek series.

That's it, guys. We all know it, Traejun has declared it, let the war end between Picard and Kirk. They're all the same character. Worf, Malcolm Reynolds, Ezri Dax and Luke Skywalker are all one-dimensiona copies of eachother.

There are not enough palms for my face.

In Faith and Coin we got deeds of 4 loyal to the bone missionaries - I'd hesitate a bit before saying they're all the same, even knowing they're all examples of one carrier with relatively similar background (no mutants, no one from death world, etc), working towards one target.

I think we've to consider what makes a villian in RT game. For it isn't extarminating alien or even just heathen populasions, stealing from them also isn't something bad. What I'm trying to say: being a villian in RT isn't base on a morality but on what's written on a Warrant.

Being a RT-villian is corelated to attitude shown towards Imperium and with all that freedom possessed by RT going against Imperium is a relatively small spectrum. One can make a list of almost everything a RT should not do and this list would be a lot (a lot-lot) shorter than list of legal activities. Bearing this imho being a villian have statistically a lot bigger chances of boredom.

Well, this reminds my why I'm a huge fan of saying that "40k" in Warhammer 40k stands firstly for a number of varieties of fluff and crunch interpretations on every possible matter and this date thing is only an add-on.

To the OP I'll paraphrase a old orkish motto: I'm the pofitiest, so I'm the boss.

One can make a list of almost everything a RT should not do and this list would be a lot (a lot-lot) shorter than list of legal activities. Bearing this imho being a villian have statistically a lot bigger chances of boredom.

What a wonderful way to put it.

I don't see how a group of loyalist PCs* is all the same character.

* That's like, say... the main characters of any Star Trek series.

Clearly, the main characters of Star Wars, Star Trek, Back to the Future, Firefly, Stargate, Farscape, Babylon 5 and countless other other serieses aren't loledgy enough for Traejun. Clearly all these characters are boring copies of eachother.

That's it, guys. We all know it, Traejun has declared it, let the war end between Picard and Kirk. They're all the same character. Worf, Malcolm Reynolds, Ezri Dax and Luke Skywalker are all one-dimensiona copies of eachother.

There are not enough palms for my face.

You do understand that overstating someone else's position with examples that were not given does not make a point. You're building straw men. In fact, its generally a sign that you're out of your league, or plainly have nothing to say.

Stick to the discussion... and tell me why you think a whole ship full of loyal servants is creative? Especially so ,with how much creativity you have in Rogue Trader re character backgrounds.

Step outside the box, kids. You don't always have to be the hero.

You do understand that overstating someone else's position with examples that were not given does not make a point. You're building straw men. In fact, its generally a sign that you're out of your league, or plainly have nothing to say.

Stick to the discussion... and tell me why you think a whole ship full of loyal servants is creative? Especially so ,with how much creativity you have in Rogue Trader re character backgrounds.

Step outside the box, kids. You don't always have to be the hero.

I don't think I have to tell you anything. There's countless examples of creative characters throughout fiction that have been "loyalists".

I think every single character I've created have been a loyalist in one way or another, save perhaps (arguably) my good Meretrix, which I never got to play. Out of all of them, only a single one had to be canned because I did not 'feel' him - that might have had more to do with the fact that he was an Arch-Militant more than anything else, though.

If you want to have concrete examples of "loyalist" characters that aren't one-dimensional copies of each-other, I refer you to the earlier list.

You equate a loyalist crew as being "a boat full of the same character". Nobody can take you seriously after that, basically claiming that unless you're a contrarian or corrupted, you're "one-dimensional".

The concept is ridiculous, and says more about your inability to roleplay without being soedgy or lolrandum than it does about loyal characters and servants to the Imperium.

Wait wait... ITT the dude who says every character he's ever made (save one) is a loyalist, talks about creativity and questions others' ability to roleplay. Come on, man, step outside your comfort zone.

Sure, I suppose good loyalists can have some interesting tid-bits in their backstories. Sure, one guy had the boy scout military career, while another one saw some terrible things and begins play with 8 insanity. Yeah, I suppose you can have some feral worlder that found the Emperor after his planet was attacked, while another character is a hive ganger that became loyal through some terrible experience. Yeah, I guess there is some difference there, but the motivations stay roughly the same - loyal.

I get that you like loyalist characters... why else would you make EVERY ONE YOU'VE EVER PLAYED that way. Truth be told, so do I. That's why a little better than half of my RT characters can be described as loyalist But if you want to talk about roleplaying, stretch yourself a touch, son.

In RT in particular, you have the opportunity to have completely outside the box motivations. You don't have to be soedgy or lolrandom - you'll have to forgive me for not really understanding what that means, I could legally buy booze in the 90's - to be not just another run of the mill character. In this system, your desires can be diametrically opposed to certain aspects of Imperial doctrine, while still being part of the crew. Xenophiles, Archeotech-hunters that don't intend to give the stuff over to papa-mechanicus, criminals whose whole backstory is a lie to get away from someone/thing, drug-addicted navigator that wants nothing more than to get away from responsibility (not my idea, but I think its awesome). So many options of not-so-loyal characters that could feasibly be members of RT crews. Hell, much of the time, the story that the PC tells the other members of the crew is purposely devoid of some important details.

With that said, you and I seem to go at it in a lot of these threads. I invite you to join an ongoing RT campaign I am GMing. The crew needs an arch-militant, but no god-**** boyscouts this time.

Wait wait... ITT the dude who says every character he's ever made (save one) is a loyalist, talks about creativity and questions others' ability to roleplay. Come on, man, step outside your comfort zone.

If I understood him correctly, his statement was that his GM-PCs are loyalists. Not all his characters.

Wait wait... ITT the dude who says every character he's ever made (save one) is a loyalist, talks about creativity and questions others' ability to roleplay. Come on, man, step outside your comfort zone.

Creativity with a character does not lie only on his motivations & goals. How he tries to succeed, how he faces failures and predicaments, how he plans and uses thhe ressources at his dispositions, while facing the difficulties from his dogmas and ideals, the consequences of his choices & allegiances, ALL of this can be used to be creative.

And right now, you are questionning other's ability to roleplay and be creative because he did not played a character in the same range of motivation as your owns.

" Why do you call yourself an artist, son ? You keep painting on canvas, why don't you try to sculpt for once ? "

Wait wait... ITT the dude who says every character he's ever made (save one) is a loyalist, talks about creativity and questions others' ability to roleplay. Come on, man, step outside your comfort zone.

Sure, I suppose good loyalists can have some interesting tid-bits in their backstories. Sure, one guy had the boy scout military career, while another one saw some terrible things and begins play with 8 insanity. Yeah, I suppose you can have some feral worlder that found the Emperor after his planet was attacked, while another character is a hive ganger that became loyal through some terrible experience. Yeah, I guess there is some difference there, but the motivations stay roughly the same - loyal.

I get that you like loyalist characters... why else would you make EVERY ONE YOU'VE EVER PLAYED that way. Truth be told, so do I. That's why a little better than half of my RT characters can be described as loyalist But if you want to talk about roleplaying, stretch yourself a touch, son.

In RT in particular, you have the opportunity to have completely outside the box motivations. You don't have to be soedgy or lolrandom - you'll have to forgive me for not really understanding what that means, I could legally buy booze in the 90's - to be not just another run of the mill character. In this system, your desires can be diametrically opposed to certain aspects of Imperial doctrine, while still being part of the crew. Xenophiles, Archeotech-hunters that don't intend to give the stuff over to papa-mechanicus, criminals whose whole backstory is a lie to get away from someone/thing, drug-addicted navigator that wants nothing more than to get away from responsibility (not my idea, but I think its awesome). So many options of not-so-loyal characters that could feasibly be members of RT crews. Hell, much of the time, the story that the PC tells the other members of the crew is purposely devoid of some important details.

With that said, you and I seem to go at it in a lot of these threads. I invite you to join an ongoing RT campaign I am GMing. The crew needs an arch-militant, but no god-**** boyscouts this time.

Traejun we're talking GM PC's you're saying I should actively try to screw over my PC's as well as passively?

I think the answer to that is no, and this is also going to summarize for me what I think it means to be "That Guy".

For Rogue Trader and my other RPG games, it's been rare that my party has characters who have similar backstories, motivations, or approaches to solving problems (diplomacy vs Psyker powers to throw everything into the Warp is a frequent discussion). However despite their character's difference, they all agree outside of game that as PCs, their goal is to find ways for their characters to all co-operate towards the same goals. Sometimes it's by having an irrational sense of loyalty to the vessel over everything else, sometimes it's by having their characters not be in the same room sometimes.

When doing any RPG, as a GM it's important that all of your players are on the same page with regard to how the game is being played, and what their motivations are. It's perfectly possible to have games where PCs will be in conflict with each other (I love the Paranoia RPG for this reason), but for most RPGs the assumption is for whatever reason, your players work as a team. They might try to accomplish other goals, they must want different outcomes, but they should work together. If you have a player who comes in and starts murdering other PCs because they're bored, or doing things deliberately to sabotage another PC's efforts just for fun, then they are That Guying , and that takes away from the immersion for a lot of my players.

This is also why I don't like the idea of a GM PC, because no matter how impartial you try to play it, you have knowledge that your players don't, and you don't - or at least shouldn't - have the same motivations as the rest of the party. I view GMing as a chance to come up with a story where if the players didn't show up, then characters will act a certain way, and events will speed towards a conclusion. The PCs then show up and will through their actions try to re-shape the story as best they can, and you will have other characters adapt to this new situation. The limit of what I will allow is helpful characters who will take orders and use their skills, but any idea of what to do has to come from the players.

So yes lannise, some times you should be actively trying to screw over your players as a GM, because sometimes there will be people who want to actively screw over their characters. I just think it shouldn't be done as a GM PC.

Wait wait... ITT the dude who says every character he's ever made (save one) is a loyalist, talks about creativity and questions others' ability to roleplay. Come on, man, step outside your comfort zone.

If I understood him correctly, his statement was that his GM-PCs are loyalists. Not all his characters.

Oh... if that's the case... who cares? I don't particularly like the GM-PC concept since the GM is already all the NPC's, but that's a personal preference.

If you're doing a GM-PC, then either: A) make the guy that fits in with the group; or B) make the guy that would most not fit in or screw the crew over. It's just a story element anyway.

I think the answer to that is no, and this is also going to summarize for me what I think it means to be "That Guy".

For Rogue Trader and my other RPG games, it's been rare that my party has characters who have similar backstories, motivations, or approaches to solving problems (diplomacy vs Psyker powers to throw everything into the Warp is a frequent discussion). However despite their character's difference, they all agree outside of game that as PCs, their goal is to find ways for their characters to all co-operate towards the same goals. Sometimes it's by having an irrational sense of loyalty to the vessel over everything else, sometimes it's by having their characters not be in the same room sometimes.

When doing any RPG, as a GM it's important that all of your players are on the same page with regard to how the game is being played, and what their motivations are. It's perfectly possible to have games where PCs will be in conflict with each other (I love the Paranoia RPG for this reason), but for most RPGs the assumption is for whatever reason, your players work as a team. They might try to accomplish other goals, they must want different outcomes, but they should work together. If you have a player who comes in and starts murdering other PCs because they're bored, or doing things deliberately to sabotage another PC's efforts just for fun, then they are That Guying , and that takes away from the immersion for a lot of my players.

This is also why I don't like the idea of a GM PC, because no matter how impartial you try to play it, you have knowledge that your players don't, and you don't - or at least shouldn't - have the same motivations as the rest of the party. I view GMing as a chance to come up with a story where if the players didn't show up, then characters will act a certain way, and events will speed towards a conclusion. The PCs then show up and will through their actions try to re-shape the story as best they can, and you will have other characters adapt to this new situation. The limit of what I will allow is helpful characters who will take orders and use their skills, but any idea of what to do has to come from the players.

So yes lannise, some times you should be actively trying to screw over your players as a GM, because sometimes there will be people who want to actively screw over their characters. I just think it shouldn't be done as a GM PC.

i was asking if he wanted me to screw over my players as a GM AND another player

By the way i'm strongly leaning towards a magnes does anyone have tip's for some mad scientist missines especially involving Tau?

(...)

In RT in particular, you have the opportunity to have completely outside the box motivations. You don't have to be soedgy or lolrandom - you'll have to forgive me for not really understanding what that means, I could legally buy booze in the 90's - to be not just another run of the mill character. In this system, your desires can be diametrically opposed to certain aspects of Imperial doctrine, while still being part of the crew. Xenophiles, Archeotech-hunters that don't intend to give the stuff over to papa-mechanicus, criminals whose whole backstory is a lie to get away from someone/thing, drug-addicted navigator that wants nothing more than to get away from responsibility (not my idea, but I think its awesome). So many options of not-so-loyal characters that could feasibly be members of RT crews. Hell, much of the time, the story that the PC tells the other members of the crew is purposely devoid of some important details.

(...)

Sorry to interrupt, but I guess we've got something here - definition of loyalty. For example I don't see anything unloyal it characters Traejun brought up here. Archeotech-hunter with no love for AdMech? - Hell every single Magos tries to keep really cool stuff for himself. Criminals escaping from someone/thing? - the best seneshals ever. Drug-addicted (...) - and who's not? Every single of those profiles can be loyal to one or more of fallowing: Emperor, Imperium, humanity, his/her dynasty, his/her ship and list go on and on.

I don't know - maybe something is skipping my english skills, but I thought we're taking of loyal vs villian and what Traejun proposed as a examples of bad guys are just imho normal (it there's such a thing in that case) RT crew.

Traejun is absolutly right that RT encourages playing outside the box - but what's that box? You can play as true emperor-loving, mega-loyal, cherished by crowds son-of-a-b*tch who'd get sentenced to death in friggin Switzerland (disclaimer: nothing personal towards Switzerland), who does genocide on billions and steals/destroys works of art from whole star clusters for breakfast. I'd say it's a **** big spectrum of possibilities to play and still be loyal.

And in that case playing un-loyal for sake of being un-loyalish to everything/one is beyond my scope to comperhand I'm afraid.

And I can buy booze in the 90' to but I'm from Poland so I think it doesn't count .

Lord Inquisitor Lannise - where will your game take place? In Koronus? Koronus is a bit low on Tau, so if so I suggest going to Tau by Kroot presence there, i.e. scientist invistigating advanced Kroot weaponry and finding out it's makers. It'd give you fluff hooks and few more possibilities.

(...)

In RT in particular, you have the opportunity to have completely outside the box motivations. You don't have to be soedgy or lolrandom - you'll have to forgive me for not really understanding what that means, I could legally buy booze in the 90's - to be not just another run of the mill character. In this system, your desires can be diametrically opposed to certain aspects of Imperial doctrine, while still being part of the crew. Xenophiles, Archeotech-hunters that don't intend to give the stuff over to papa-mechanicus, criminals whose whole backstory is a lie to get away from someone/thing, drug-addicted navigator that wants nothing more than to get away from responsibility (not my idea, but I think its awesome). So many options of not-so-loyal characters that could feasibly be members of RT crews. Hell, much of the time, the story that the PC tells the other members of the crew is purposely devoid of some important details.

(...)

Sorry to interrupt, but I guess we've got something here - definition of loyalty. For example I don't see anything unloyal it characters Traejun brought up here. Archeotech-hunter with no love for AdMech? - Hell every single Magos tries to keep really cool stuff for himself. Criminals escaping from someone/thing? - the best seneshals ever. Drug-addicted (...) - and who's not? Every single of those profiles can be loyal to one or more of fallowing: Emperor, Imperium, humanity, his/her dynasty, his/her ship and list go on and on.

I don't know - maybe something is skipping my english skills, but I thought we're taking of loyal vs villian and what Traejun proposed as a examples of bad guys are just imho normal (it there's such a thing in that case) RT crew.

Traejun is absolutly right that RT encourages playing outside the box - but what's that box? You can play as true emperor-loving, mega-loyal, cherished by crowds son-of-a-b*tch who'd get sentenced to death in friggin Switzerland (disclaimer: nothing personal towards Switzerland), who does genocide on billions and steals/destroys works of art from whole star clusters for breakfast. I'd say it's a **** big spectrum of possibilities to play and still be loyal.

And in that case playing un-loyal for sake of being un-loyalish to everything/one is beyond my scope to comperhand I'm afraid.

And I can buy booze in the 90' to but I'm from Poland so I think it doesn't count .

Lord Inquisitor Lannise - where will your game take place? In Koronus? Koronus is a bit low on Tau, so if so I suggest going to Tau by Kroot presence there, i.e. scientist invistigating advanced Kroot weaponry and finding out it's makers. It'd give you fluff hooks and few more possibilities.

well i haven't got the book yet (Christmas) I know the Koronus Expanses is were the game takes place but not were it is?

well i haven't got the book yet (Christmas) I know the Koronus Expanses is were the game takes place but not were it is?

The Koronus Expanse is located next to the Calixis Sector, where the DArk Heresy setting takes place. It is further towards the galactic rim, on the very edge of our galaxy. IT is termed an "Expanse" because it is not an official Imperial sector. Until about a millennia ago, the region was thought sealed by two seemingly impenetrable Warp Storms, until one Rogue TRader managed to successfully chart their way through.

There is only the one known entrance to the Expanse. On the Imperial side there is a massive space station called Port Wander that interdicts traffic in and out, and is supposed to control smuggling. It does not do this very well. On the Expanse side is Footfall, a collection of asteroids joined together through gravitational manipulation and iron chains, and is a lawless region where Psykers and criminals mingle freely and all sorts of goods are bartered at arcane prices.

The Expanse itself has very few civilized or settled regions, although there are a few (and with the publishing of Faith and Coin, apparently a lot more). The Imperium is not widely respected, and since it's one of the few non-Imperial regions in the Galaxy, it has a high concentration of criminals and Rogue Traders, and a thriving cold trade. To what Wincent was mentioning, there is a noticeable Kroot population in the Expanse, including a few of their Warspheres. It's noteworthy because the Kroot homeworld is on the opposite end of the galaxy from the Koronus Expanse, and the Kroot are recalcitrant to explain how they got there. There is also more Tau weaponry than you would expect a previously sealed region of space to have, and rumours that there are Dark Eldar slavers that have captured some odd, blue-skinned Xenos, but no clear indication of Tau. Yet.

Out of backstory setting, the probable reason for the lack of Tau was so they could be enemies in Deathwatch. Still, they are very portable into Rogue Trader.

well i haven't got the book yet (Christmas) I know the Koronus Expanses is were the game takes place but not were it is?

The Koronus Expanse is located next to the Calixis Sector, where the DArk Heresy setting takes place. It is further towards the galactic rim, on the very edge of our galaxy. IT is termed an "Expanse" because it is not an official Imperial sector. Until about a millennia ago, the region was thought sealed by two seemingly impenetrable Warp Storms, until one Rogue TRader managed to successfully chart their way through.

There is only the one known entrance to the Expanse. On the Imperial side there is a massive space station called Port Wander that interdicts traffic in and out, and is supposed to control smuggling. It does not do this very well. On the Expanse side is Footfall, a collection of asteroids joined together through gravitational manipulation and iron chains, and is a lawless region where Psykers and criminals mingle freely and all sorts of goods are bartered at arcane prices.

The Expanse itself has very few civilized or settled regions, although there are a few (and with the publishing of Faith and Coin, apparently a lot more). The Imperium is not widely respected, and since it's one of the few non-Imperial regions in the Galaxy, it has a high concentration of criminals and Rogue Traders, and a thriving cold trade. To what Wincent was mentioning, there is a noticeable Kroot population in the Expanse, including a few of their Warspheres. It's noteworthy because the Kroot homeworld is on the opposite end of the galaxy from the Koronus Expanse, and the Kroot are recalcitrant to explain how they got there. There is also more Tau weaponry than you would expect a previously sealed region of space to have, and rumours that there are Dark Eldar slavers that have captured some odd, blue-skinned Xenos, but no clear indication of Tau. Yet.

Out of backstory setting, the probable reason for the lack of Tau was so they could be enemies in Deathwatch. Still, they are very portable into Rogue Trader.

well that sounds good i'm thinking elder webway conspiracy

Wow, there's a whole second page between what was said and me. Oops.

After a long 3 day session of dungeon fights where most of the party is critically wounded, a friend of the GM wanted to join at the end, and is allowed. Upon gathering the treasure and dividing it up, he takes the magical sword the fighter in the group wanted. After arguing for about 15 mins on why the fighter is a p****, he challenges him to a fair duel. Fair duel to him is using the magical sword to kill the fighter. That same session, my character is flying over head of the group to scout for trouble. New guy takes out a bow, and shoots my PC in the wing, causing him to plummet and fall to his death. When asked why he did this, he replied that he was bored. Last two party members then killed the guy in his sleep, which almost turned into a physical fight real world because he became angry due to them killing his new PC. New guy showed up at next weeks session, and everyone left. And so began my illustrious career as a GM there on after. No more pcs with wings for me.

It's a real-world rule that some people are d-bags, and while I don't want to excuse them, or give them an out, sometimes they just can't help it. You got one of those.

A boring side story anecdote: In my first game of D&D 3.0 Epic, a game already guaranteed to be full of sillyness, shenanigans, power-gaming, and ll that, we had a guy who was, in real life, a ******, and he played it in his character. He was a Wizard 15/Rogue 11 (I don't know) Kobold Lich, and he didn't want to be group-leader, but he did want to act like it. The player was prior military, and at least claimed some Special Forces-like training, so he thought he was the only smart, tactically-savvy person, and the rest of us were idiots. He second-guessed every plan, after refusing to come up with one, and insulted every player at least twice. He was our GM's roomie, though, so kicking him out was a bit tricky. Here's where it gets more boring/detailed to read. So we're playing Epic-version Temple of Elemental Evil, and are running through the Fire Tower. We just spent 35 minutes killing a single Fighter 24 Half-Fire Elemental Troll, wearing good plate and an Amulet of Acid Immunity, thus making it immune to the two things trolls usually hate. Its regen made up most of the damage we could do to it, and we finally killed it. So, Alan decides to use some cheesy power to scout ahead, and sees that between us and the Fire Altar we need to break is a room with seven more of these. Not wanting to fight them, he plans to soul-move from his kobold body into a Stone Giant corpse we had handy, keep his phylactery (he didn't trust us with it), and walk right into the altar room with two Staves of Power, then snap them both, destroying the altar. As a backup plan, he'd Mordenkainen's disjunction it.

So, as I look at his plan, I say I have a problem (several, really), and he smarts off that it's just that it's too good for me to understand. I ask "won't the Staff's retributions ALSO destroy your phylactery?" He stops to wonder, and I add "and won't Mord's disjunction just destroy it, and the magic holding you to that giant, destroying YOU?" He scowls at me, asks the GM if "this idiot has any idea what he's talking about?" and Adam bursts out laughing and says "of course he's right. I just wish he hadn't said anything." Alan was much quieter the rest of that session, and distance ended that game, after that.

***END ANECDOTE***

Dealing with d-bags is inevitable, and if they are willing to get physical about it, or complain that you aced them after they've already done similar, it's best to hurry and get rid of them; they can only hurt the game.

As to 1-dim loyalists, I personally dislike most of my friends in gaming, as they often flock to the equally 1-dimensional "let's see what i can get away with today" villain characters. I also have a friend who is terrible at immersion; he can't act serious in games because HE isn't in danger, so his characters are always cocky mouth-offs, incapable of demonstrating fear or anger toward NPC's. His Jedi Knight did stand before the Emperor, and just laugh at him, and his threats; it really was frustrating. Due to this, I often have little faith in their ability to play "real" characters. Loyalists would still be better, though. Think of all the Emperor-fearing people on theat ship, and all the other E-F people they have to meet, in addition to all the heathens and jerks? How much cocking off and jerkish behavior do you think your Snidley Whiplash should get away with before he's reminded that the Imperium didn't just give you power, a ship, and thousands of souls, just to watch you fly away, and be a jackass, and yet players are still surprised when the Navy shows up to bust them, or mercs come for the bounty (I'm still holding my Callidus plan on a back burner, just in case I ever GM this game for the above friends.) Also, you have to be given a Warrant much of the time. What did you do to earn one, showing you were worthy and loyal, just to then become a pirate, or Chaos flunky?

GM PCs...bad idea...period. Populate the ship with tons of interesting NPCs, but never call one of them "your" character.

I'd love to play a game one day. So far, I've only run games. We have a tight group that gels well and that never gets boring. If I were playing a RT and even suspected another PC was disloyal or acting contrary to the best interests of the Dynasty, I'd surround them with a bodyguard of undefeatable proportions and have them escorted to the nearest airlock.

I recently went through Into the Storm and at the very least, took the list of ship roles from the back and did a quick random name and gender roll for them. I can flesh them out as needed, but this way I have a name and at least something for anyone even mildly important for my PC's to talk to or receive info from. I don't really have a DMPC, so to speak, but the Seneshal is the closest thing, if only to have someone to remind the captain, "Hey, that Rak'Gol ship we just wrecked, don't be a moron and leave it there. Someone will buy it." He needs that nudge from time to time, as the last thing he said to me was "Stealing from another Rogue Trader? That would probably be in bad taste."

GM PCs...bad idea...period. Populate the ship with tons of interesting NPCs, but never call one of them "your" character.

I fundamentally agree with Errant here, but I would like to expand- feel free to create shipboard NPCs who are used for various tasks. Feel free to build them identically to the PCs and have them advance like PCs. As a rule, have them be characters who usually operate entirely in the background. Examples that I have used:

The data-hound/info-vore/spymaster Seneschal. Operates in the background and provides information as required.

The Master Enginseer. An Explorator who maintains the ship and rarely, if ever, leaves it. May also operate Manufactora, Crew Reclamation Facilities, Small Craft Repair Decks, and similar support spaces.

The Chaplain. A Missionary who maintains crew morale and faith. Rarely, if ever, leaves the ship. Usually I run him as a noncombative cleric, as he is too busy seeing to souls to go burn things down.

The Master of Small Craft. If you don't have a Voidmaster with the right skills, this is the guy who pilots the guncutter or other launch. He may be a great pilot, but he isn't a marine and generally only provides support from his craft.

The Master of Ordnance. If you don't have a Voidmaster &c., this is the guy who actually commands the ship's gun crews. This is who your players call when they're on-world and want a macrocannon bombardment on such-and-such location.

The Rogue Trader. Whether drooling idiot or just a guy who doesn't want to leave the comfort of his ship, running the holder of the Warrant as an NPC means that A) you can issue orders when the players are having trouble figuring out what to do and B) you take the absolute rulership out of the hands of whomever is the Rogue Trader, so that you don't have to wait for that one player to make the decisions. Someone can still play a Rogue Trader, but they may be a junior scion or even just a ship's officer who grew up in service to the Dynasty, and has been trained in command; in any event, with this NPC none of your players will be the Rogue Trader.

I'm currently handling the astropath and the navigator for my campaign as they are critical to the ship's well being. My navigator comes from a line that values physical prowess so he kinda serves as an ace in the hole in case things are going too bad in combat as well as being the expert on all things warp related. He is kind of insane and his mutations make him hard to be around so players don't rely on him too much. I use to throw a curve here and there so the pcs understand that the gm and the npcs are not the same people.

My astropath is a devoted servant to the dynasty who grew up in the expanse so he serves as a good reference and has some handy contacts in the pit of voices. The rogue trader bought him out of a shaddy prison world so he's pretty much willing to die for him. His interactions with the other players have been really interesting so far and everyone seems to undersand that he can't do much in a fight except provide a mental link.

I think it's important to flesh out the senior crew members and have them be as much a part of the story as they are a part of the ship.

Exactly that. I wouldn't do the badass navigator, as I shy away from Deus Ex Machina- I give the players the tools they need to handle things, then let them dig their own graves.

My plan for getting my RT to go where I want is pretty simple: Quests

My players are free to go/do what/where they want. But for the really big prizes, they need to follow the plot hooks.
This gives them the freedom to go off the main story every now and then and explore an ancient battlefield for salvageables while ensuring that if they really want a fresh batch of plasma torpedoes, then they need to Magos Xenier to the last known location of the Obelisk Class explorer ship as a sign of good faith to the Guild, where upon they find shocking revelations about the strange cyborg race they keep running into.