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i remember when i started doing rouge trader before i made/found a group it was just me and a few forms and i had a hard time learning how to do everything, so hoping that some people would join the band wagon and if people care enough to tell us to do them. but hopefully people will help me do short intros or tutorials that know much more then i do of these role playing game. because i don't want to end up giving wrong information

OK, since no one wants to help or start this, i will

lets just go the things you need to start a rogue trader team

before that, you might be wondering " gee sal, what is rogue trader " well im glad you asked nameless hobo, rogue trader is where you and your team ( if you have friends ) explore the regions outside of known space for humans, ( there are special cases but i wont talk about theme here ). but you can also be a looting band of pirates, mercenarys, treasure hunters, or just the trump card for a war your helping.

its essentially what ever the captain wants to do, and the poor sad souls fallowing him do.

what you will need is: the rogue trader book itself ( depending on the place you buy it at, it is usually $55 ), at least 3+ friends including yourself where at least 1 of them knows the background of warhammer 40k very very very well ( unless you are just derping around and doing this while drunk, like i do half the time ), several printable character sheets and pencil to keep track of this stuff http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/rogue-trader/support/PDF/Rogue%20Trader%20Character%20Sheet%20(web%20quality).pdf <- printable sheet to use or just use paper, several 10 sided dice or as we say d10, and A LOT of time because you can soak in hours and not even know it.

once you have all of those things then you can start with who does what

if you have say 5 people playing, 1 of them will be the gm, or game master ( talk about what that is in a tic ), the captain ( pray he isn't slowed ) and the rest can be what ever class they choose

once you have that set up you can start generating characters and the world your playing in for your personal abuse

the gm is the person who is MAKING the world you are derping in, hopefully he is a kind soul and wont kill you for doing the stupidest thing, also the gm should know the fluff ( or story setting ) in the 40k universe or fallow the gm rules in the book, ( it helps to know the lore in 40k )

now that everything is out of the way you can create your character. " but saaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllll there are so many to choose from... what does whaaaat " stop whining and ill tell you, but first you have to make your stats

your stats are your skills in life ( not actual skills ) and the higher the number the better, the stats are : weapon skill ( ws ) , ballistic skill ( bs ) , strength ( s ) , toughness ( t ) , agility ( a ) , intelligence ( i ) , perception ( p ) , willpower ( wp ) , fellowship ( f )

to generate your stats you need 2 of the previously mentioned d10 dice. for a human character on all of your stats its 2 d10 + 25, an example is say you are rolling for your S stat ( strength ) you roll your d10s and you get a 5 and a 9 simple math tells you when you add them together you get 14, so 14 + 25 = 39 , so your S is 39

the next thing im going to tell you is the origin chart, aka your life so far until this point.

on the rogue trader book ( page 16 ) there is a chart that states your home-world, your birthright, your lure of the void, your trails and travails , your motivation, and lastly your career

confused? well don't be, imagine there are invisible lines on the charge that connect to each box near it ( except the ones to each side of it ) http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/rogue-trader/Images/Sarvus_Line5(1).jpg another image example

note you cannot have all of the stats taken, you can only have 1 home-world 1 birthright 1 lure of the void 1 est est est you get it. so you cannot have all of the home-worlds that would just be stupid.

you start at either home-world, or career and go up the path, or down the path, what each path does to your character, im not telling you, go look it up your self.

hopefully this cleared up how to start rogue trader, next ill make a sample character of career or home-world starting point of your choosing and we will go on with that

any questions about above ask and i will answer to the best of my ability or someone with better knowledge then i do can help

any one want to give me an idea of what character you want me to make, this will just give me a guideline on what to make, say a body guard for a captain, or a bounty hunter, or say the captain himself, or maybe even an ork

Personally, i don't use the connected points part of the origin path, because it makes for weird combinations and gimps creativity. For example, on the chart a rogue trader can ONLY be motivated by prestige, and astropaths only by endurance, which is silly. Of course, I do place some restrictions for the sake of common sense. Noble born characters can't be scavengers, and void born characters can't be press-ganged.

 loota boy wrote:
Personally, i don't use the connected points part of the origin path, because it makes for weird combinations and gimps creativity. For example, on the chart a rogue trader can ONLY be motivated by prestige, and astropaths only by endurance, which is silly. Of course, I do place some restrictions for the sake of common sense. Noble born characters can't be scavengers, and void born characters can't be press-ganged.

im just telling it like i see it

Well, you may just want to present that option simply to open up more background choices for those interested.

 loota boy wrote:
Well, you may just want to present that option simply to open up more background choices for those interested.

so what do you purpose i do

Just post an aside that the origin path is optional and you can choose to choose whatever paths you want to the extent of good sense.

 loota boy wrote:
Just post an aside that the origin path is optional and you can choose to choose whatever paths you want to the extent of good sense.

well the whole thing im doing is just to show new people how to make a character and start up their career as a rogue trader, and just to answer questions they have

Doesn't the book walk them through this, step by step, including a part in the beginning that tells them what a role-playing game is, in general, and Rogue Trader, specifically?

 Psienesis wrote:
Doesn't the book walk them through this, step by step, including a part in the beginning that tells them what a role-playing game is, in general, and Rogue Trader, specifically?

As someone that has never played in a 40k RPG, and has started building a character for a Deathwatch game, the book lists everything out in a step by step process..

again plan was to explain it to people who are confused so im just covering all grounds. or for people who are to lazy to read

problem is im to lazy to getting around and continuing this

Me and some friends are looking to start a game of Deathwatch. Any of you guys have any experience with that particular book? It seems pretty similar, i think the mechanics are identical but I'm not sure...

What questions do you have?

 AtariAssasin wrote:
Me and some friends are looking to start a game of Deathwatch. Any of you guys have any experience with that particular book? It seems pretty similar, i think the mechanics are identical but I'm not sure...

They're fairly similar. There are a few changes here and there, so make sure to read over the combat chapter carefully. And make sure you're using the errata weapon stats, otherwise the game is no challenge and whoever has a Heavy Bolter will dominate everything.

My concern is with the combat and skill checks. I'm fairly competent with D&D, but i am confused by this system. If I take one turn to aim and shoot my bolter, i roll two d10 to get lower than my BS, and then if i hit i score a wound? And a hive tyrant has 120 wounds so now it has 119?

And for skill checks, i take my modifiers and then try to roll under whatever the check is?

Each weapon has a damage rating. For example, a bolter is 1d10+9. That means after you hit (the 1d100 roll you mentioned), you then roll to see how much damage you scored. Say you rolled a 5, that would be a total damage of 14.

Next you look at the Hive Tyrant's Toughness Bonus (the first digit of his Toughness, or sometimes a higher number in the case of creatures with Unnatural Toughness, something the Hive Tyrant should have), and you subtract that number from the total damage. Say for sake of argument the Hive Tyrants Toughness Bonus is 5. That brings you damage from 14 down to 9.

Next you look at the Hive Tyrants armour (assuming he has any) and compare it to the weapons Armour Penetration. Say the Hive Tyrant has Armour 6, and the Bolter has Penetration 4. You subtract 4 from 6, giving the Hive Tyrant 2 remaining armour for that show (ie. the bolter's penetration manages to negate some but not all of the penetration), and then because of that subtract 2 from the damge. So that 9 becomes 7.

So your total damage is 7, meaning the Hive Tyrant reduces his wound count by 7.

There are other rules that pile onto that, such as Bolters having Tearing, which means you roll 2d10 for damage and pick the higher of the two, and Righeous Fury which means if the damage dice comes up as natural 10 you have a chance for more damage.



For skills yes, it's about rolling under. Basically any time a Test would come up the GM sets the difficulty (anywhere from -60 to +60), and then you check what modifiers you might have (eg. Aiming as a Half-Action gives +10 BS to the next BS Test), and then you add or subtract the modifiers to get a final Target Number. You then have to roll equal to or under that Target Number.

For example, I want to do a backflip off the top of a Razorback. The GM wants me to make an Acrobatics Test to do this. I have Acrobatics +10, but the GM says that the Razorback is moving so it will be a Hard Test (-20). My Agility is 55, so 55 + 10 (for my Skill Level) - 20 (for the base difficulty of the test) = Target Number of 45. I now need to roll a 45 or under to pass the test. I manage to get lucky and roll a 25, meaning that I pass the test and also have 2 Degrees of Success (1 for every 10's after the first). Degrees of Success and Degrees of Failure might not be important on every Test, that's up to the Test itself as well as the GM, but it's always good to note them as the GM might go "Oh, you got 3 Degrees of Success? Well in that case it takes you half the time to research the ancient tome as I said it did. Well done.".

This seems incredibly complicated...
d20 seems much simpler, but oh well.

So since we're all starting, i look for the weapon profile and once i hit apply the damage. Aren't the degrees of success/failure another facet to that? And do you guys use all those additional rules? I feel like i'm studying for a calc test or something...

It really isn't. It's a percentile system. A roll out of 100.


Degrees of Success are a nifty little thing for attacks because you can essentially replace the value rolled on one d10 with however many DOS you got. It means you can avoid the situation where you rolled really well to hit, but then rolled crap damage. For example, if you got a good hit and managed to get 7 Degrees of Success, and then went on to roll a 1 for damage, you could replace that 1 with a 7. It means that a good hit is actually a good hit.

Ah okay, that makes sense. Thanks.
I think now I just have to learn what other rules apply on top I the basic attack roll and damage roll. Ill have to take another at all the modifiers that apply.

There is a sample setting in the back of the book, but not a sample combat which is upsetting. At least, not one that I've found yet.

Well the combat chapter should have little boxes with examples in it. Most of them do.

Look over the weapon qualities to see what changes you make to damage. For the most part things don't affect damage, they affect other rules. Like Concussive means it can knock you out, but it doesn't add damage. Maximal is for Plasma Weapons (usually) and adds extra Damage and Penetration at the expense of additional ammunition and potential overheating. Accurate weapons can get extra damage if you get a really good hit. Storm Weapons get two hits per hit.

Not too many +X damage though.

H.B.M.C., do you have any experience playing with the EotE system (I believe it came from the WH Fantasy system as well) and if so, which do you prefer?

I'm new to RPG's in general, and the first one I've played is the beta for EotE, but I'm very interested in the 40K RPGs. I'm mainly interested in how complex the system is for new players/new GMs.

 Blacksails wrote:
H.B.M.C., do you have any experience playing with the EotE system (I believe it came from the WH Fantasy system as well) and if so, which do you prefer?

I'm new to RPG's in general, and the first one I've played is the beta for EotE, but I'm very interested in the 40K RPGs. I'm mainly interested in how complex the system is for new players/new GMs.

I don't have a great deal of experience with the EotD or WFRP 3rd Ed system. Numerous people here disagree with me, but I find it's multi-special dice system to be nothing but busywork, whereas a simple percentile system with Degrees of Success achieves the same result with less need to bugger about with special dice.

I've used Rogue Trader and Only War, and I really love the d100 system. It's very straightforward and easily explained. Only complication I've had is the difference in calculating DOS in RT vs Only War.

As for the origin path? I let my PCs have one free "jump." That is, once per path they can ignore the adjacent requirement. I've found that's enough to free players from the retriction of the origin path, while also following the spirit of the system. I haven't had any complaints.