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Santtu wrote:
WD 144

That does indeed seem to be the case, then. Thank you. That'd be in 91 then, two years before 2nd edition was released. I guess referring to an issue of a magazine printed two years ago and for the previous edition was just how they rolled back then.

While the rules in WD were indeed for Rogue Trader, they're written in such a way as to be compatible with 2nd ed.

I never saw anyone use them, though... we all just treated sonic blasters as storm bolters (as per the Black Codex) until the Chaos codex was released.

It is worth keeping in mind that Rogue Trader at the end was pretty far from Rogue Trader at the beginning.

Which for me is part of the appeal of reading through its various collected volumes in order. To be able to map the evolution and refinement, without jumps between editions is really interesting, especially as a fair few of the articles offer a designer’s commentary as to why the changes were being introduced.

For instance, Marines received changes to make them feel more elite. Tougher, stronger, better armour.

Now having a physical collection like wot I gathered back in…2020, I think, is expensive, and only getting more so as Oldhammer comes ever more in vogue, But if you can find PDF versions it’s all definitely worth a read. Even the First Book Of The Astronomicon, which is well messy!

To me, the biggest appeal of Rogue Trader is its open-endedness. You can basically create rules for anything for it. Now, this does also unfortunately mean that a GM of sorts is mandatory for playing it, but it has potential like no other 40K ruleset since.

As I have dug more deeply into oldhammer resources and lore, it is becoming clear to me that the older editions differed from the new ones in one very fundamental way: All the rules, missions and other resources were chaotically scattered across the main rulebook, campaign books, and WD, and I doubt many people had access to everythning from those 3 food groups. Therefore, peoples impressions on the games differ wildly, often no doubt reflected by the amount of resources they themselves played/had access to. Would be very interesting to see all the material for any given edition of the game compiled into a single, 100% comprehensive resource, including all the commentary and extras that were ever published for em.

The problem lies in the fact that only GW themselves could pull off such a thing long-term, as including everything an edition included would also require access to all the IP protected assets, such as artwork etc.. I mean, take a look at something like the Space Hulk bible.. it looks hideous and is a pain to read

 tauist wrote:
To me, the biggest appeal of Rogue Trader is its open-endedness. You can basically create rules for anything for it. Now, this does also unfortunately mean that a GM of sorts is mandatory for playing it, but it has potential like no other 40K ruleset since.

As I have dug more deeply into oldhammer resources and lore, it is becoming clear to me that the older editions differed from the new ones in one very fundamental way: All the rules, missions and other resources were chaotically scattered across the main rulebook, campaign books, and WD, and I doubt many people had access to everythning from those 3 food groups. Therefore, peoples impressions on the games differ wildly, often no doubt reflected by the amount of resources they themselves played/had access to. Would be very interesting to see all the material for any given edition of the game compiled into a single, 100% comprehensive resource, including all the commentary and extras that were ever published for em.

The problem lies in the fact that only GW themselves could pull off such a thing long-term, as including everything an edition included would also require access to all the IP protected assets, such as artwork etc.. I mean, take a look at something like the Space Hulk bible.. it looks hideous and is a pain to read

Some editions would be a particular nightmare for this- 3rd and 7th come to mind due to the sheer number of publications.

Plus, a lot was published on GWs old websites, and only a fraction of this has been saved on internet archives. Many of those rules are simply not available to the general public anymore.

As an example: the 3rd edition rules for Ork teleporta mobz appeared on the website for the Armageddon global campaign. These were not printed anywhere else to my knowledge.

 tauist wrote:
To me, the biggest appeal of Rogue Trader is its open-endedness. You can basically create rules for anything for it. Now, this does also unfortunately mean that a GM of sorts is mandatory for playing it, but it has potential like no other 40K ruleset since.

As I have dug more deeply into oldhammer resources and lore, it is becoming clear to me that the older editions differed from the new ones in one very fundamental way: All the rules, missions and other resources were chaotically scattered across the main rulebook, campaign books, and WD, and I doubt many people had access to everythning from those 3 food groups. Therefore, peoples impressions on the games differ wildly, often no doubt reflected by the amount of resources they themselves played/had access to. Would be very interesting to see all the material for any given edition of the game compiled into a single, 100% comprehensive resource, including all the commentary and extras that were ever published for em.

The problem lies in the fact that only GW themselves could pull off such a thing long-term, as including everything an edition included would also require access to all the IP protected assets, such as artwork etc.. I mean, take a look at something like the Space Hulk bible.. it looks hideous and is a pain to read

This is why my Oldhammer dream-of-dreams isn't a reprinting of any specific model or material but a computer game that compiles RT, WHFB 3rd ed and the various additional rules(Siege, Realm of Chaos, army lists etc) into one neat package sold on Steam and using their servers for multiplayer. With, of course, a solid mission generator and editor. Pick an appropriately low-fi aesthetic for the graphics, make sure it runs smooth as butter and off you go. Day 1 purchase. I'd buy it for my friends online too.

 Haighus wrote:

 tauist wrote:
To me, the biggest appeal of Rogue Trader is its open-endedness. You can basically create rules for anything for it. Now, this does also unfortunately mean that a GM of sorts is mandatory for playing it, but it has potential like no other 40K ruleset since.

As I have dug more deeply into oldhammer resources and lore, it is becoming clear to me that the older editions differed from the new ones in one very fundamental way: All the rules, missions and other resources were chaotically scattered across the main rulebook, campaign books, and WD, and I doubt many people had access to everythning from those 3 food groups. Therefore, peoples impressions on the games differ wildly, often no doubt reflected by the amount of resources they themselves played/had access to. Would be very interesting to see all the material for any given edition of the game compiled into a single, 100% comprehensive resource, including all the commentary and extras that were ever published for em.

The problem lies in the fact that only GW themselves could pull off such a thing long-term, as including everything an edition included would also require access to all the IP protected assets, such as artwork etc.. I mean, take a look at something like the Space Hulk bible.. it looks hideous and is a pain to read

Some editions would be a particular nightmare for this- 3rd and 7th come to mind due to the sheer number of publications.

Plus, a lot was published on GWs old websites, and only a fraction of this has been saved on internet archives. Many of those rules are simply not available to the general public anymore.

As an example: the 3rd edition rules for Ork teleporta mobz appeared on the website for the Armageddon global campaign. These were not printed anywhere else to my knowledge.

Tell me about it. I'm still trying to find the comp packes from GW sanctioned events that were used to score army comp in Fantasy and 40K...

Did some guard on guard action at 2K points. 5 objectives.

My opponent was having a bad dice day. by the end of turn 3 he had managed to immobilize a chimer and blow the autocannons off the the other 2. in return he lost a centaur, an elite tank and his bane blade. i ended up never getting any of my infantry out of the transports before he called it.

We did the rematch game of the previous. this time around my dice were not as happy with me. we again had 5 objectives on a space marine outpost table. he managed to kill all of my basic guardsman save 3 and all my chimeras, i still managed to give him a good fight taking out his centaur, command squad and storm troopers scoring 1 objective to his 2.