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It was kinda like this

I see a lot of folks have already posted plenty of details covering the specifics but I think it’s important to understand that RT was very similar to Inquisitor as opposed to the current edition of 40k. The game wasn’t about tight and balanced rules. It was about imagination and creative gameplay. If you’re a competitive or tournament gamer, RT is a train wreck of oddly fitting rules. If you’re a lover of scenarios, stories and themed armies, it was a wealth of information.

I still have my copies of Rogue Trader, Book of the Astronomicon, Slaves to Darkness and the Lost and the Damned sitting on my bookshelf right now. I still read through them from time to time for scenario ideas, paint schemes and back ground stories. That’s what made RT great, the dizzying amount of background info. So much so, that not all of its ideas have even been used by GW so far.

Here’s just a tinyl sample of the treasure trove of fluff in these books:

*Around 30 different mission scenarios with back stories.

*Over 60 different alien races, with stats and unique abilities. For example, Enslavers were aliens that could control ALL enemy model with 24” if they failed a LD check.

*Gobs of weapons including Psycannon, conversion beamer, gravity gun, webber and dozens of grenades. Stuff like Anti-plant grenades that destroyed forest terrain on the board.

*A complete 3 dimensional cutaway picture of the Space Wolf Fortress Monestary. Fully labeled and with legend key.

* A detailed map of the ranks and departments of the Imperium’s bureaucracy. Including the individuals who sit on the ruling council that ‘interpret’ the Emperor’s will.

*A listing of nearly 1000 chaos mutations. Yes, I said 1000. All with there own rules.

*The complete alphabet of the dark speech of Chaos. You didn’t know demons, beastmen and cultists had their own language? They do and those squiggles on my CSM armor actually mean something.

Not to mention some of the most awesome Grimdark short stories ever written sprinkled within the rules. Prose that puts Gav, Dan and the current line up of Black Library writers to shame.

I played chaos warbands in RT days, it took I kid you not, 4-6 hours to generate an army list. I say generate because you dont get to pick you just roll things off...

I saw a pterra squirrel army once....with ambuls!

the last chaos warband I had was led by a tyranid warrior of khorne.....no joke was in the rules.

They also had slaaneshi eldar.

Blister packs were put out by citadel and marauder, neither of which was owned by GW early on, often your blister would contain an extra mini on accident and would have like 3-6 guys in it depending on size.

GW used to publish coupons in their WD mag for free blister packs if you bought 2 and things like that.

I love RT for it's rich fluff.