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Looking for a male Rogue Trader that's into scoring credits and long space flights....

I have been looking around the net for a decent miniatures that fits the look:



I really like the Forge World Solar Auxilia Tactical Commander, but that's a lot of mulah for 1 miniature. Other thoughts?

I don't think you'll find a better RT mini than that guy.

The IG navy officer is good if you're looking for a cheaper mini, or the old AoBR pistol dude, but yeah, that FW guy is about the best there is, at least until you start exploring 3rd party lines.

I'm not opposed to 3rd party. I have plenty of bits to make sure the weapons are what I need them to be.

What IG Navy Officer are you talking about, by chance? GW or FW mini?

Edit: This middle one? That's nice.

Titan Forge


Brother Vinnie


Victoria miniatures


Madrobot miniatures
http://madrobotminiatures.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_29&products_id=174

 Jehan-reznor wrote:


Madrobot miniatures
http://madrobotminiatures.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_29&products_id=174

Thanks, Jehan! I can't believe I've never seen this one before.

The old Vostroyan officers make good rogue traders as well, especially the one with the large coat and bionic arm and leg.



The head is fairly easy to replace with something else. I added an empire general head with floppy hat and feather for extra flamboyance

Kronk, yeah, that's the guy I meant.

I'd also second vostroyans, forgot about those guys.

I would go for plastic multipose kits.

Take one sprue of Warlord Games English Civil War Command Sprue:



Then add IG parts.

Instant dapper chappy ready to head out beyond the bounds of the Imperium to take the light of His Divine Majesty the Emperor for plunder and profit.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I don't think you'll find a better RT mini than that guy.

Yeah. Caved and purchased from FW.

Thanks everyone for their help. Still looking at other models for the rest of the group, but I'll wait to see what people's final choices are.

I'm really a fan of Anvil Industry's "Infantry Mechanical Arm Conversion Set" added to a Skiarrii model for an Explorator, and own a FW Event Only Navigator model.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I don't think you'll find a better RT mini than that guy.

Yeah. I broke down and bought the command squad. If I'm going to do a thing, I'm going to do it right.

Forgot to mention Hasslefree's Privateer Godwin if you want a figure of Jes Goodwin himself with big coat, big shoulder braid, sword and cool shades in metal or resin.

Metal
http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=privateer-godwin~hfp018&category=fantasy-%26%0D%0Asteampunk~fantasy-pirates

I re-titled this thread as I'm starting a campaign in a month or so, and have more questions.

1. At the end of chapter 1, there is a paragraph where it mentions that each PC may make a single purchase using the group's profit factor so long as the total modifiers are +0 or better. Does that mean that they have to actually roll the PF check for it? I would assume yes, or otherwise, why mention PF at all?

2. What if there is no Void Master or other PC to pilot the Rogue Trader's ship? Just assign the duties to an NPC crew with a 30% pilot rating and assign a Player to roll for it?

3. For people that have played RT, how bored are people during starship combat if they aren't the gunner or the pilot?

1) Given that it says 'using the group's profit factor', I would say yes. The modifiers are there to stop them wangling for another ship or something equally silly at the start of the game. Rogue Trader characters come well equipped, so don't worry if they fail the test. Equally, since you only want 1 item, you'd be surprised what you can afford.

2) Indeed. I'd name and record 'key NPCs' like the Helmsman or Master Of Augury. Note that any PC could theoretically roll for it, and - unless he's busy doing something else - the Rogue Trader can provide his +10% bonus, etc, etc. Just because he's an NPC doesn't mean the explorers can't help him. Also - this is why it's often worth investing the Ship Points in a veteran crew!

3) Not too bad. The Pilot and Gunner are important, but the captain needs to come up with plans, and as long as you throw Put Your Backs Into It!, auspex tests, overrun engines, etc around, you're not doing discernably less. It's normally a bigger problem when the action moves off-ship; unlike astropath, rogue trader, exploratory or missionary, the crew characters lack the political authority and don't really have the fellowship skills.

If the rest of the party are hanging about doing noting in starship combats, that's the time to throw in some damage repair to a vital system or a boarding action.

For NPC piloting, you could keep those rolls for yourself, and use them to forward the plot as need be.

Combat/Distance questions.

1. For space combat, if I use a 1" hex grid max, s 1" = 1 VU?

2. For movement and distance on 1" grid square mats, does 1" = 2m?


How do people play that?

1. We used a square grid map ourselves, but yeah, 1 grid = 1 VU

2. 1" = 1M

This could work



https://www.games-workshop.com/en-NL/Empire-Witch-Hunter

 kronk wrote:
3. For people that have played RT, how bored are people during starship combat if they aren't the gunner or the pilot?

Everybody has something to do on the ship, whether it's motivating the crew or lending their skills to a certain action like boosting the sensors, speeding up the reloading of the torpedo tubes or the like. As long as the party is not absurdly big there shouldn't be a problem with the players having nothing to do, as anybody can contribute in some way, shape or form during an encounter.

I'd be more worried if you plan on having your players spread across several ships, that can lead to ships not performing as well as planned in some cases.

 kronk wrote:


2. What if there is no Void Master or other PC to pilot the Rogue Trader's ship? Just assign the duties to an NPC crew with a 30% pilot rating and assign a Player to roll for it?

Void masters don't have to be the gunner / pilot they just have the ability to be better at it them most other players.

3. For people that have played RT, how bored are people during starship combat if they aren't the gunner or the pilot?

Ship combat can be fun* but players can only interact in it if they have the correct skills / abilities.
I would highly recommend to build the player characters as a team with the Ship combat action sheet in mind so that all players do have role in ship combat.
Ship combat is really boring for players who can't do anything good in it.
There are some additional rules for extra psykers and navigators ship combat actions. (In one of the later books). But I would exclude those unless you really want to give them some options, since psykers and navigators are already really powerful in all other aspects of the game.

*!WARNING! Don't read the following spoiler as a player ! IT IS A SPOILER !

Thank you Brook and zoggy!

That helps a lot


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BrookM wrote:
1. We used a square grid map ourselves, but yeah, 1 grid = 1 VU

2. 1" = 1M

On 2, 1m seems tight as I am used to 1" = 5'.

 kronk wrote:
On 2, 1m seems tight as I am used to 1" = 5'.

And here I had high hopes for you using the metric system like a real pro for a change.

Metric was great in college when you're a Chemical Engineer. When you hit the real world US manufacturing and everything is lbs per ft-acre...

I'll give 1" = 2m a whirl the first game or two and then try 1" = 1m.

Another question, yay!

1. Is there such a thing as a trade ship for carrying cargo from A to B, other than Transports. I'm not talking about a ship with a couple of prow guns and manned by 10,000 people. Just a small freighter, no guns, minimal crew (teamsters, obviously!) with warp capability? Once the Rogue Traders establish a trade route after making contact with planets A and B, for example, so that my Rogue Trader campaign doesn't become a Postal Service: The RPG.

2. How often of an opportunity to acquire new ships should there be? For those of you with long-running campaigns, have your players captured or salvaged an armada of 10+ ships? I can easily see scenarios where a ship could be captured or salvaged.

1. That is what frigates are built for. I think they have a model class (the Jericho?) in the core RT book, but don't have it immediately on hand to verify.

2. Depends on how much money the RT has, how many times he gets into ship-to-ship combat, and how shoddy he is willing to go, breaker-yards are a prime place to get hulls and parts to build-your-own-voidship.

1. Running unarmed ships? Oh my, you do like to live dangerously now do you?

2. As mentioned above, wealth certainly has to do with it, as buying a ship is a massive investment to say the least. I ran the campaigns from the books myself and at several key junctions offered the players an extra vessel (an older girl they had refitted after a few decades of hanging in the docks) as a reward for doing a damned good job.

1. The players wouldn't be in them. It's just to transit gak from A to B. Background gak, you know?

 kronk wrote:

1. At the end of chapter 1, there is a paragraph where it mentions that each PC may make a single purchase using the group's profit factor so long as the total modifiers are +0 or better. Does that mean that they have to actually roll the PF check for it? I would assume yes, or otherwise, why mention PF at all?

2. What if there is no Void Master or other PC to pilot the Rogue Trader's ship? Just assign the duties to an NPC crew with a 30% pilot rating and assign a Player to roll for it?

3. For people that have played RT, how bored are people during starship combat if they aren't the gunner or the pilot?

1. You are a rogue trader/his close retinue. You can afford to buy starships but you can't buy a bolt pistol? Personally I would argue that any kit with a scarcity of rare or less (or whose craftsmanship makes it rare etc) and can be plausibly obtained by the character is fair game. RT isn't really about uber loot (aside from UBER uber loot and that stuff is all hard to find). That's obviously GM dependent though.

By RaW though you would need to roll for it, that's the only way to 'purchase' anything in the game.

2. Its probably best if the GM 'narratively' rolled for it rather than assigning something so important to a NPC. Another option is to have one of the players roll up a secondary Voidmaster who will never leave the ship, just takes pilot/gunnery skill checks and levels up at the same pace as the main characters.

3. Very; woo a skill check for a +5% bonus to the ship's ballistic skill! I iz helping! Although every player without a clear roll could also roll up a secondary character who is in charge of, for example, the dorsal lance battery in the same manner as above.

 kronk wrote:
1. The players wouldn't be in them. It's just to transit gak from A to B. Background gak, you know?

That's easily done. There are freighter hulls in the game; just acquire one via an endeavor /piratical boarding action, crew it via another endeavour and have it do all the drudgery for you while occasionally creating plot hooks.

Acquiring new ships should be a mini campaign in itself and be the main focus of at least one play session and as a 'side quest' in a couple more, IMO at least.

There are also rules for 'off-screen' endeavours in Stars of Iniquity and - I think - Into The Storm.

Essentially, it lets them 'set up and run' a trade route in the background - they don't get to find out if it's made or lost them money until they come back to check, of course.

I agree that 'buying' a voidship should be a fairly major activity. Building one takes decades, so you can't have one "made to order", meaning you essentially have to locate one that will fill your needs and....persuade.....the current owners to let you have it. This may involve money but more likely involves shooting.

In my experience with ship-based combat, giving out cards for various aspects of the crew, especially with some that can add bonuses to this *or* that roll (being two other cards, in the hands of two other players) works out very well.

This allows the players to decide, collectively, who is going to "buff" who with the bonus, who is going to do what, and allows for them to try to use creative means to make use of various systems in the vessel. Maybe the person playing the Comms decides to attempt to blackout the comms of the enemy vessel, so imposes a comms blackout on their own ship while they turn everything towards jamming (or hiding their own auspex signature). Maybe the player running the Auspex team is more interested in figuring out where the weak points are, so does more focused scans, rather than helping aim the guns (this turn). So on and so forth.