Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I was going to do a quick review of the Rogue Trader core rulebook from FFG, but then I decided not to bother. Partly because my little book review over in WFB Background got 0 replies, and partly because I've always found Character Generation to be fun even if I don't play the game (I'm weird that way), plus CharGen gives you a good idea of the Mechanics of a system for the percentage of you that has no familiarity with Rogue Trader or Dark Heresy, so here goes nothing.

STAGE I: Generate Characteristics
I'm doing it in strict order like the rulebook says, so it's 2d10 + 25 for each one. Let's go:

WS: 35, BS: 38, S: 39, T: 37 Ag: 33, Int: 31, Per: 33, WP: 31, Fel:32

The rules say I'm allowed to re-roll 1 characteristic, so I'm opting to re-roll the Int(elligence) score of 31, I get a revised Int of 36 (if the re-roll was lower, I'd be stuck with it)

Going by the characteristics, my Explorer (the games term for PC's) is strong, and a pretty good shot. However, he's not got a whole lot of Willpower, so I'm going to interpret that as being easily swayed or tempted. Possibly a little over eager to prove his dead eye shot nature or something along those lines. It's still a skeleton of a character. Let's begin fleshing it out.

STAGE II: Origin Path

This is a little weird to me. It's basically a flowchart. There are 6 rows on the flowchart and you start at either the top or bottom row. I've opted to start at the top row (Home World) and work my way down. I can choose any of the 6 options here. In the end I opt for Forge World, as that choice appeals to me more.

This allows me some bonuses and penalties.

First -5WS and +5 Int. Leaving me with WS 30 and Int 41. So my Explorer is now a very smart guy, but a bit crap in a melee situation.
I get the following skills:
Common Lore (Tech)
Common Lore (Machine Cult) which are Int based untrained Basic skills
I also gain the Technical Knock talent.
I'm allowed to boost any characteristic by 3. I decide to boost my BS up to 41, so I'm an even better shot.
As a citizen of a Forge World I'm more familiar with the credo of the Machine God than the Imperial Cult, so I'm penalized -10 for test involving knowledge of the Imperial Creed, and -5 for any Fellowship test for formally interacting with members of the Ecclesiarchy.

For my starting wounds my T bonus is doubled and a get a 1d5+1 bonus, so that's 11 wounds.
Rolling a d10 and consulting the book, I find I have 3 starting Fate points.


For the next row of the chart, Birthright, I'm limited to selecting the option directly below Forge World, or either option adjacent to that option.
Of the options presented, I like the sound of Stubjack, which sounds like a type of mercenary. This gives me:
Quick Draw talent
Intimidate as a trained basic skill
+5 to either WS or BS. I choose BS, boosting it up to 46
On the downside, it's -5 Fel, bringing that down to 27
I also now have 3 Insanity points
The next row is Lure of the Void, and I'm limited as the previous row was. I opt for Duty Bound as it seems to offer more more storytelling opportunities and freedom than the others. Now, I have to choose the type of Duty. I opt for Duty to my dynasty, which gives:
Rival (Rogue Trader family) talent
-3 T (To a total of 34)
+1 Profit Factor for the group

Next row is Trial and Travails which is limited as the previous rows. I opt for Calamity as my choice. This gives me:
Light Sleeper talent
Either Hardy or Nerves of Steel talent (I choose Hardy)
-1 Profit Factor for the group

Next row is Motivation, limited as before.
As my fledgling character concept seems to want to be known as the greatest shot in the galaxy, I opt for Renown
This gives me the choice of a Peer talent or Air of Authority. I opt for the former.

The final row is career path. I opt for Explorator as that seems the most likely for a a lad from the Forge Worlds to enter into.

STAGE III: Spend Experience Points.

So far, just generating the character has spent 4500 XP. The rulebook says a level 1 Rogue Trader character with 5000XP is equivalent to a level 5 Dark Heresy character with 5000XP. The upshot of this is that I have 500Xp to spend on skills, talents and characteristics. The available options are determined by the career path selected above. so let's see what skills are advances are available to an Explorator

First of all, I get the following package:
Common Lore (Machine Cult)
Common Lore (Tech) which I already had, so they're boosted a level.
Forbidden Lore (Archeotech)
Forbidden Lore (Adeptus Mechanicus)
Literacy
Logic
Speak Language (Explorator Binary)
Speak Language (Low Gothic)
Speak Language (Techna-lingua)
Tech-Use
Trade (Technomat)
All of which revolve around intelligence.

I also get to start with a Mechanicus implant. I opt for a Respirator.
Basic Weapon Training (Universal) Talent
Melee Weapon Training (Universal) Talent
Logis Implant Talent

Also have some equipment:
best-Craftsmanship lasgun, good-Craftsmanship power axe, Enforcer light carapace, multikey, void suit, injector, sacred unguents, micro-bead, combi-tool, dataslate, Servo-Skull familiar

As an Explorator, I have the option of starting with up to two bionic implants. I decide to only take one, a Memorance Implant, but I do spend 200 of my 500xp upgrading it to good-Craftsmanship. This leaves me with 300Xp to spend on advances. I use them to purchase

Awareness
Drive (Ground Vehicle) and
Secret Tongue (Rogue Trader) skills.

STAGE IV: Giving Characters life.

This is mostly the non-mechanical aspects of fleshing out the character, and as such are much more subjective then the earlier stages. This is usually done more free-form and spit-balling with a GM, but here I'm just going to answer the questions posed and roll on tables presented. So it's a mechanistic approach to a non-mechanistic section.

Name: I decide to use the naming tables, and opt for a Low Gothic first name paired with an archaic last name.
This leaves me with the moniker of: Harmon Siegmund which sounds appropriately 40K enough for me.

Nature:
I tend to develop this during play, but for the purposes of this character, I'm going to go through and answer the questions presented.

What is your demeanor? Some of this I'd already decided upon. Harmon is going to be rather boastful, and prideful. So he has a big ego. However, that's a front as he's really rather shy, and is very quick to go along with other people's suggestions.

Why are you a leader aboard a Rogue Trader vessel? this one is tricky. I decide that Harmon came with the ship, as it were as his ties to the Adeptus Mechanicus strike the Lord-Captain as very useful aboard such a complex machine with such intractable spirit. He's also on board to explore...

Why does the Koronus Expanse call to you? Simple. Harmon seeks knowledge and lore that would be useful to the cult of the Omnissiah. His personal quest is for unusual and exotic weaponry, particularly ballistic weaponry.

What will you sacrifice? Every scrap of my humanity to become the cold perfection of the machine. I'm willing to traffic with Xenos and psykers in my quest for knowledge. However, I will not deal with those in the thrall of the ruinous powers. If Harmon suspects a hint of heresy of that nature, he will cease negotiations and begin targeting.

What is your ambition? It's been covered above, but to be a legendary weapon wielder whose very name is spoken of throughout the imperium in hushed tones of awe.

What are your hatreds? I distrust those who don't hold the Omnissiah in the highest of regards. This has come to manifest itself as a hatred of Ecclesiarchs and other visible exponents of the Cult of the Emperor. As alluded to above, I also have a vast hatred for those who have traded knowledge of technology and ancient lore for knowledge and whispered promises from other, darker powers.

STAGE V: Ship Points and Profit Factor
Rolling on the table, the group (in this case just Harmon as there is no group) have a beginning Profit Factor of 60 and 30 Ship Points. Any Ship Points that aren't spent on the initial ship are added to the Profit Factor, so let's begin by constructing a ship and seeing what's left, shall we?

Selecting a Transport hull, specifically a Vagabond-class merchant trader costs 20 ship points, leaving 10 for other components. Next it's rolling for omplications. It turns out this particular ship has an Ancient & Wise machine spirit. (-4 Hull integrity +10 to Maneuver Actions) and is a Wolf in Sheep's clothing (-2 power, 3 components that either don't register on scans or show as a different type)

For a plasma drive, I opt for the slightly bulkier and more powerful Lathe-pattern Class 1 drive, which costs me another Ship Point.
Warp Engines are the standard Strelov I, coupled with the normal Geller field.
Also opt for a single Void Shield array, and a Commerce bridge
Go for the Vitae pattern life sustainers, to avoid the worst smells on board. (Not an issue for Harmon and his respirator, but others in the group might be appreiative)
Voidsman Quarters are less cramped, so I pick those, and go with the Standard Mark-100 Auger Array for sensors.

That's the required ship components built at a cost of 21 ship points. Leaving me 9 ship points, 11 space and 11 power for supplemental components (aside from a main cargo hold which was already included with the base hull.

This ship needs some weaponry, so another ship point is spent to install some dorsal-mounted Mars pattern Macrocannons. Another 2 ship points are spent on reinforced interior bulkheads, increasing hull integrity by 3.
Also aboard are Librarium Vaults and Extended Supply Vaults at a cost of 3 more ship points.
The ship will be named later, perhaps.

That leaves 3 Ship points to increase the starting Profit Factor all the way up to 63.

STAGE VI: Select Equipment
As most of my equipment was included in the career path earlier, this is a short step. I'm allowed to roll acquire a single item of equipment without testing, assuming that it's Acquisition Modifier is 0 or better. I decide that Harmon wants a side arm, which as a single man scale item is a +30, I want it to be of good craftmanship (-10) which means that I can choose one item that's availability is no worse than Very Rare. Looking at the Armory, and deciding that it needs to be some form of projectile weapon as a variety for his energy-based lasgun.

After some contemplation, Harmon Siegmund adds a Ceres pattern Bolt Pistol to his inventory.

All done. So we have a rough outline of a character and a ship for them to be the crew of.

Interesting to no one but me, I'm sure.

Have the book and have rolled up a couple charaters, can't wait to actually start gaming.

I don't 'get' RT in the slightest - I haven't figured out how to play it yet. However, the character creation system with the Origin Path is just awesome. I love that system.

Ozymandias wrote:Have the book and have rolled up a couple charaters, can't wait to actually start gaming.

What type of characters? Thinking about running a campaign and always looking for ways to steal NPC's

H.B.M.C. wrote:I don't 'get' RT in the slightest - I haven't figured out how to play it yet. However, the character creation system with the Origin Path is just awesome. I love that system.

What don't you get? I assume you're very familiar with the 40K universe. And I know you play Dark Heresy, so the mechanics would be identical. Rogue Trader just happens to start out with higher powered characters and a freaking star ship.

Yeah, it's the Star Ship and being the one's in charge bit I don't get.

I mean... if the Rogue Trader is a character... how can he be told what to do by the GM. I mean, the GM can go "There's a hidden mining treasure-trove on Planet XYZ" and the Rogue Trader can go "Sure, but I'm happy with my lot".

I guess that is the issue of the Rogue Trader's power. But I would have thought there were subtle ways to railroad a Rogue Trader into going somewhere you want (An obvious one is having him declared a wanted smuggler, so various raiders and other pirates are trying to bring him in for a bounty. That might necessitate hiding the ship, or falsifying info and perhaps going undercover, say in the mines of planet XYZ.

You just have to come up with different plot hooks than the Inquisitor giving assignments.

That's the weird thing. I've thought of dozens of good DH plotlines, ranging from Genestealer Cults, ancient machinery that needs to be activated, storylines involving Fall Dark Angels, Eldar raiders and so on.

Just can't think of anything for RT... but a friend of mine (the buy playing Roth in my DH campaign) wants to GM an RT campaign, so I'll just play rather than GM.

I've spent literally 2 hours with the book, and 95+ minutes of that was generating Harmon Siegmund up there, but hooks seem like they'd be easy enough, and some of yours could easily cross-blend into Rogue Trader. My character would be VERY interested in ancient machinery for example.

And what's with the stowaway with the heavy cloak covering his 'arms' at all times?

Those are just throwaway thoughts after 30 seconds of reading your post.

Thinking of intrigue aboard the ship is easy enough. Thinking of intrigue involving the ship... eh... not so much.

@Chaplaingrabthar: Just some test Rogue Traders and other characters to play around with the character creation system. Didn't save any of them actually. My group is wrapping up their Dark Heresy game for now and someone else is going to run Rogue Trader. So I'm in a similar state as HBMC, getting to actually run a character finally!

Actually, we're going to have everyone roll up a character and then pass around GM'ing duties. When one person is running the game, his character is unavailable for "away missions" or anything else going on at the time.

hey can you make a psyker for me i want to be a pyromancy psyker that at least has a (stolen) grey knight weapon ( if possible if not just a force weapon ) a metla pistol ( or flame pistol ) and some life stealing capability with power armor is any of this possible?

Sure, but they have to be called Mary Sue.

No exceptions.

Melissia wrote:Sure, but they have to be called Mary Sue.

No exceptions.

LIES! THERE WILL BE NO MARY/GARY/BERRY/TERY/LARY/ARY SUE!!

also i am new to rouge trader and i just need help to understand what the hell im supposed to do

But are you new to Rogue Trader?


At any rate, the two psyker classes in Rogue Trader are Astropath and Navigator. Neither of them have access to Pyromancy-- Astropath has access to Telepathy, Divination, and Telekinesis, while Navigators have access to only Navigator Powers. If you want to play a pyromancer, you'd probably want to play a character from Dark Heresy or Only War.

@HBMC: Once you start to imagine the RT as more of a Jack Sparrow type, it gets much easier to think of plot hooks.

ok then a telekinesis psyker