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Made in ca
Regular Dakkanaut



Canada

So I had asked some questions earlier about Rogue Trader, but I have more questions, and didn't want to enact threadomancy. With this in mind, I have some burning questions as a first-time Rogue Trader GM:

1. Are there any rules you find yourselves excluding for a party using the system for the first time, in order to keep things relatively simple? Ie, do you ever, say, hand-wave over things like crew morale, or do you think that none of the rules in the core book should be excluded?

2. Do you as the GM design the ship, or do you think it's better done as a group effort by the party?

3. I'm considering having the game run with the Rogue Trader himself as an NPC who makes final decisions, and the player party as his most senior officers. Would that work, or would it work best, ideally, if one player was the Rogue Trader?

4. Which supplements have expanded lists of psychic abilities? One of my players is seriously considering playing a Navigator, but wants to keep her options open and wants to see what potential expanded abilities she could have.

5. Above all else: what advice do you have for a GM running Rogue Trader for the first time?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/06/04 04:18:40


My battle report thread:
Ars Scripta Batreps 
   
Made in us
Loyal Necron Lychguard





Virginia

Lord of Nonsensical Crap wrote:
So I had asked some questions earlier about Rogue Trader, but I have more questions, and didn't want to enact threadomancy. With this in mind, I have some burning questions as a first-time Rogue Trader GM:

1. Are there any rules you find yourselves excluding for a party using the system for the first time, in order to keep things relatively simple? Ie, do you ever, say, hand-wave over things like crew morale, or do you think that none of the rules in the core book should be excluded?

2. Do you as the GM design the ship, or do you think it's better done as a group effort by the party?

3. I'm considering having the game run with the Rogue Trader himself as an NPC who makes final decisions, and the player party as his most senior officers. Would that work, or would it work best, ideally, if one player was the Rogue Trader?

4. Which supplements have expanded lists of psychic abilities? One of my players is seriously considering playing a Navigator, but wants to keep her options open and wants to see what potential expanded abilities she could have.

5. Above all else: what advice do you have for a GM running Rogue Trader for the first time?


1. The only thing I excluded wasn't specifically something the party worries about. A lot of other people seem to exclude it as well. Achievement Points. Ugh.

2. I feel it's more fun and meaningful if the party designs the ship themselves, since they are the ones that will be upgrading it and such.

3. It can work. The Core rulebook mentions that, specifically if no one wants to be the Rogue Trader class. But ideally one player should be the Rogue Trader.

4. I believe Into the Storm has some expanded stuff for Navigators, as well as Battlefleet Koronus (Mainly ship related stuff). Either way, Into the Storm is supremely helpful in general.

5. I would recommend one thing mainly: Decide ahead of time what kind of game you're running. Either story driven narrative, or sandbox. The players need to know what to expect, especially in this setting.

40k:
8th Edtion: 9405 pts - Varantekh Dynasty  
   
Made in de
Battlefield Tourist






Nuremberg

I ran a pretty long running Rogue Trader campaign several years ago. I might come back to this thread if I think of any extra advice.

1. Are there any rules you find yourselves excluding for a party using the system for the first time, in order to keep things relatively simple? Ie, do you ever, say, hand-wave over things like crew morale, or do you think that none of the rules in the core book should be excluded?
No, I don't think I strictly excluded things, but I probably did handwave stuff like morale and mass combat. I also adapted the space combat rules to make them more fun for me and my group. I also made levelling up a bit more free-form to allow the players more choice.

2. Do you as the GM design the ship, or do you think it's better done as a group effort by the party?
It can work either way. I would give them a basic skeleton and then a certain amount they can add to it. The ship is a pretty important part of the game and the players are going to want to invest a lot in it. I think it's better if they start with something pretty basic and upgrade it. Players tend to enjoy having some say but I'd put a framework on it so things don't get out of hand.

3. I'm considering having the game run with the Rogue Trader himself as an NPC who makes final decisions, and the player party as his most senior officers. Would that work, or would it work best, ideally, if one player was the Rogue Trader?
When I ran, I had one player as the RT. He was actually a sort of shy guy who liked to sit in the background, and in some ways that worked out best. But it did lead to political machinations with the other players plotting behind his back and so on and the end result was a mutiny I think.
RT as NPC can work, but I would likely do it in some way in which the players maintain a lot of agency. Like, the RT is a figurehead but is kind of useless and defers to the senior advisors in most situations, to allow for player agency. Then you can throw a curve ball every now and then if the Trader puts their foot down, giving the players something to deal with. The RT could be senile, or just really young, or sort of useless in various ways. I think an overly competent or authortative RT would make the players feel frustrated and like they had no agency. Also, check if any of the players really want to be RT. It is a big responsibility and a player with a history of being controlling or having problems with others might cause others to not have fun.

4. Which supplements have expanded lists of psychic abilities? One of my players is seriously considering playing a Navigator, but wants to keep her options open and wants to see what potential expanded abilities she could have.
Dunno about this.

5. Above all else: what advice do you have for a GM running Rogue Trader for the first time?
So, I will think and maybe come back to this, but I would say: This game is going to be big and epic in scope. If your players arrive at a world that doesn't have an orbital defense of some sort (and for the worlds on the fringes of space, this is most of them!) they can bomb from orbit really easily and absolutely dominate a planet. They will do this at some point. The ship is insanely powerful and puts them on par with a small army, and if the other army is not space capable they can obliterate them from orbit. Be ready for this. Not saying negate or block it, but don't expect stuff like that to be a challenge. Be ready for random warp weirdness to take a session or two. I had some really memorable ones with contagious mania in the crew and so on.
Make some NPC crew to represent each section of the crew and then a couple more to represent factions within that section. Make them memorable and re-use them. Put them on index cards to keep track and update the cards each session so you don't forget details.
Your players are going to want to tech up their ship and get heavier and heavier duty security. They are likely going to be rich as balls and the rules as written allow them to do stuff like that. So don't block them would be my advice - RT is a bit like the ultimate power fantasy.

On the other hand, if you mess up in a space battle the results can be incredibly costly in crew lives and damage to the ship. Win big, lose big. Don't be afraid to hit them with really challenging stuff. Hope they run when overwhelmed.

Oh, and I'd also think about what is the over arching theme of the campaign. I had an invasion of sorts and they fought it off after building an alliance, but perhaps it is literally just going to be space exploration and fun.

   
Made in fr
Inquisitorial Keeper of the Xenobanks





France

1/ as for every rpg, do not get restrained by the rules. The rules are here to bring you fun, fun is the most important thing. My usual GM often don't use all the rules, to get things smooths. I tend to use all the rules all the times, to be as fair and neutral as possible, but sometimes it doesn't work as well and smooth as his games. Do as you want if you think it is better for your players.

2/ Iwe did as Da Boss: a basic ship and some money that the players spend together to upgrade it.

3/ It would work. You can even make that the Rogue Trader isn't on the ship, maybe he has a fleet and this ship is just one among it, maybe he is far aways doing urgent stuff, etc...
If one player is the Trader, be careful: do not pick an authoritarian guy ! Just a guy who, in case when people disagree, act as a referee / arbitrator is better

4/ Sorry we didn't use supplements

5/ Prepare your campaign well.
RT is a very large and general setting, and so can be you campaign, general, without flavour, just doing space exploration It may be more difficult to give it flavour than DH for example,. Do not fall into this trap. This isn't DH but nothing stops you from a little grimdark ./ Chaosy things, or to be on a planet, boots on the grounds for a session or two.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/06/04 13:34:54


   
Made in ca
Regular Dakkanaut



Canada

krodarklorr wrote:
Lord of Nonsensical Crap wrote:
So I had asked some questions earlier about Rogue Trader, but I have more questions, and didn't want to enact threadomancy. With this in mind, I have some burning questions as a first-time Rogue Trader GM:

1. Are there any rules you find yourselves excluding for a party using the system for the first time, in order to keep things relatively simple? Ie, do you ever, say, hand-wave over things like crew morale, or do you think that none of the rules in the core book should be excluded?

2. Do you as the GM design the ship, or do you think it's better done as a group effort by the party?

3. I'm considering having the game run with the Rogue Trader himself as an NPC who makes final decisions, and the player party as his most senior officers. Would that work, or would it work best, ideally, if one player was the Rogue Trader?

4. Which supplements have expanded lists of psychic abilities? One of my players is seriously considering playing a Navigator, but wants to keep her options open and wants to see what potential expanded abilities she could have.

5. Above all else: what advice do you have for a GM running Rogue Trader for the first time?



1. The only thing I excluded wasn't specifically something the party worries about. A lot of other people seem to exclude it as well. Achievement Points. Ugh.

2. I feel it's more fun and meaningful if the party designs the ship themselves, since they are the ones that will be upgrading it and such.

3. It can work. The Core rulebook mentions that, specifically if no one wants to be the Rogue Trader class. But ideally one player should be the Rogue Trader.

4. I believe Into the Storm has some expanded stuff for Navigators, as well as Battlefleet Koronus (Mainly ship related stuff). Either way, Into the Storm is supremely helpful in general.

5. I would recommend one thing mainly: Decide ahead of time what kind of game you're running. Either story driven narrative, or sandbox. The players need to know what to expect, especially in this setting.


1. I haven't even read about Achievement points yet, but...yeah, they sound complicated.

2. The more I think of it, the more I realize that yes, I should at least give them some feedback in the ship design, since their decisions will impact things like upgrades, profit, etc.

3. Fantastic. I think building the NPC Rogue Trader will be great practice to help me understand character creation and run through it with my party.

4. Yes, I found a Docs file with the expanded Origin lists from ItS, and they are extremely helpful. I'll see about looking for the actual book as soon as I can.

5. My party has a marked preference for narrative style games, so I guess that answers my question.

Da Boss wrote:I ran a pretty long running Rogue Trader campaign several years ago. I might come back to this thread if I think of any extra advice.

1. Are there any rules you find yourselves excluding for a party using the system for the first time, in order to keep things relatively simple? Ie, do you ever, say, hand-wave over things like crew morale, or do you think that none of the rules in the core book should be excluded?
No, I don't think I strictly excluded things, but I probably did handwave stuff like morale and mass combat. I also adapted the space combat rules to make them more fun for me and my group. I also made levelling up a bit more free-form to allow the players more choice.

2. Do you as the GM design the ship, or do you think it's better done as a group effort by the party?
It can work either way. I would give them a basic skeleton and then a certain amount they can add to it. The ship is a pretty important part of the game and the players are going to want to invest a lot in it. I think it's better if they start with something pretty basic and upgrade it. Players tend to enjoy having some say but I'd put a framework on it so things don't get out of hand.

3. I'm considering having the game run with the Rogue Trader himself as an NPC who makes final decisions, and the player party as his most senior officers. Would that work, or would it work best, ideally, if one player was the Rogue Trader?
When I ran, I had one player as the RT. He was actually a sort of shy guy who liked to sit in the background, and in some ways that worked out best. But it did lead to political machinations with the other players plotting behind his back and so on and the end result was a mutiny I think.
RT as NPC can work, but I would likely do it in some way in which the players maintain a lot of agency. Like, the RT is a figurehead but is kind of useless and defers to the senior advisors in most situations, to allow for player agency. Then you can throw a curve ball every now and then if the Trader puts their foot down, giving the players something to deal with. The RT could be senile, or just really young, or sort of useless in various ways. I think an overly competent or authortative RT would make the players feel frustrated and like they had no agency. Also, check if any of the players really want to be RT. It is a big responsibility and a player with a history of being controlling or having problems with others might cause others to not have fun.

4. Which supplements have expanded lists of psychic abilities? One of my players is seriously considering playing a Navigator, but wants to keep her options open and wants to see what potential expanded abilities she could have.
Dunno about this.

5. Above all else: what advice do you have for a GM running Rogue Trader for the first time?
So, I will think and maybe come back to this, but I would say: This game is going to be big and epic in scope. If your players arrive at a world that doesn't have an orbital defense of some sort (and for the worlds on the fringes of space, this is most of them!) they can bomb from orbit really easily and absolutely dominate a planet. They will do this at some point. The ship is insanely powerful and puts them on par with a small army, and if the other army is not space capable they can obliterate them from orbit. Be ready for this. Not saying negate or block it, but don't expect stuff like that to be a challenge. Be ready for random warp weirdness to take a session or two. I had some really memorable ones with contagious mania in the crew and so on.
Make some NPC crew to represent each section of the crew and then a couple more to represent factions within that section. Make them memorable and re-use them. Put them on index cards to keep track and update the cards each session so you don't forget details.
Your players are going to want to tech up their ship and get heavier and heavier duty security. They are likely going to be rich as balls and the rules as written allow them to do stuff like that. So don't block them would be my advice - RT is a bit like the ultimate power fantasy.

On the other hand, if you mess up in a space battle the results can be incredibly costly in crew lives and damage to the ship. Win big, lose big. Don't be afraid to hit them with really challenging stuff. Hope they run when overwhelmed.

Oh, and I'd also think about what is the over arching theme of the campaign. I had an invasion of sorts and they fought it off after building an alliance, but perhaps it is literally just going to be space exploration and fun.


The overarching theme, so far, is a treasure hunt in a region of space that was newly unveiled by a warp storm. There are rumours of Eldar ruins in that region, though it is also fairly close to the Tau border, which makes it all fairly risky. Also, there may or may not be a marauding band of Dark Eldar out to get the Rogue Traders.

1. I am very curious to hear about how you modified space combat, since it does seem like it will take some learning.

3. Yes, what I'm thinking is that the players will make decisions by committee, and then the Rogue Trader will pass them or not. Essentially, a lot of strategizing will essentially boil down to "convince the Captain this is a good idea."

5. Really? Even something like, say, a frigate hull is as powerful as you're describing? This makes this interesting. I was thinking of planetary explorations as Star-Trek style away teams, not full fledged ground forces.

godardc wrote:1/ as for every rpg, do not get restrained by the rules. The rules are here to bring you fun, fun is the most important thing. My usual GM often don't use all the rules, to get things smooths. I tend to use all the rules all the times, to be as fair and neutral as possible, but sometimes it doesn't work as well and smooth as his games. Do as you want if you think it is better for your players.

2/ Iwe did as Da Boss: a basic ship and some money that the players spend together to upgrade it.

3/ It would work. You can even make that the Rogue Trader isn't on the ship, maybe he has a fleet and this ship is just one among it, maybe he is far aways doing urgent stuff, etc...
If one player is the Trader, be careful: do not pick an authoritarian guy ! Just a guy who, in case when people disagree, act as a referee / arbitrator is better

4/ Sorry we didn't use supplements

5/ Prepare your campaign well.
RT is a very large and general setting, and so can be you campaign, general, without flavour, just doing space exploration It may be more difficult to give it flavour than DH for example,. Do not fall into this trap. This isn't DH but nothing stops you from a little grimdark ./ Chaosy things, or to be on a planet, boots on the grounds for a session or two.



3. My thoughts exactly.

5. Yeah, organization has always been a thing I've been hard at doing as a GM. Maybe this will be what I need to fix that.

As an aside, the player party, thus far, consists of:

-The Rogue Trader (NPC)
-An ex-Imperial Governor on the run from the law; will be our Seneschal
-An ex-Guardsman from the Mordian Iron Guard, will be an Arch-Militant
-A girl who was abducted at an early age by Eldar Corsairs and kept/raised as a pet psyker on their ship, before being forced to reintegrate with humankind after the Eldar ship was destroyed. Why the Eldar spared her, and even semi-raised her, even she does not understand. Regardless, despite the fact that the Eldar treated her crappily, she still insistently thinks of herself as Eldar and hides her humanity as much as possible. Will be the party's Astropath or Navigator, and acts as a soothsayer to the Captain due to her precognitive abilities.
-A Tau Pathfinder from the Farsight Enclaves who spoke out against Farsight, and, as punishment, was put into cryo-stasis until the Enclaves could figure out what to do with her. She managed to escape a few centuries later, and is trying to find a way to get back home to the Empire without getting shot at.
-A Techpriest or an Administratum scribe, the player hasn't decided which yet (new addition to the party)

I realize, of course, that the party will have issues with the Tau and "Eldar" characters, especially when visiting Imperial worlds, but this is all part of the challenge that I am hoping my players will think their way around.

My battle report thread:
Ars Scripta Batreps 
   
Made in de
Battlefield Tourist






Nuremberg

WRT space combat, my memory is foggy but I think I essentially streamlined it a lot based on what was there. I think what is important is to give each crew member a job that feels important AND a decision that is meaningful each turn, and then handwave/streamline the rest so it does not get bogged down.

As to the power of space ships - if the civilisation has no orbital capability, or even if the orbital stuff will take a long time to get into position, having a space ship with guns on it is tremendously powerful in my opinion. If of course they do have orbital or space defenses, the utility of the ship is drastically reduced. So just be aware and ready for your players to really take advantage whenever there is no impediment. That can be a lot of fun for them, and I see no harm in it, but they will do it. I think my group also dropped the ship into the atmosphere at one point to crush a demon prince they accidentally freed with the gellar field. Did a lot of damage to the ship, but I think it was a pretty novel way to carry out a banishment!

   
Made in ch
Yellin' Yoof on a Scooter





1. There are a few that I personally don't care for. Crew Morale is one, at the point where it starts mattering the ship is usually in a condition where it doesnt matter anymore, or will stop mattering in short order. My group also handles aquisitions a litte differently, since to me the rules and the explanation behind them never quite made a lot of sense.

2. My current group designed their two ships they own at the moment themselves. The one before did not care for it too much. This depend on your players. When in doubt, have them assemble their first one together and then ask wether or not they liked doing it.

3. This might be a matter of opinion, but I think the RT should be a player, ideally one that has good knowledge of the setting. Having an NPC be the Captain takes away from player-freedom, and in a setting like RT that's a shame if you ask me.

4. Into the Storm has some stuff, me thinks. But Navigator's that want to go deep into psyking it up might require some homebrewing, if you're comfortable with it.

5. Here's the ones I can think of:

- Be VERY careful what kind of equipment your group might loot. Double check that you dont accidentally supply them vastly superior gear via Encounters. Particularly early on, powerlevel is mostly dictated by what boomsticks/plates your folks carry. Be particularly mindful of quality.

- Unless your group is already entrenched in the ruleset, explain Fate Points. A couple times ideally. They are, as far as I can tell, a fairly unique concept and can be very important. And players may need a few pointers so they can take advantage of them. In particular, the whole "They reset per-session so use them!"-thing might need some getting used to.
Also, you might wanna adjust the ruling here depending on session length. If you play for roundabout 2-5 hours the vanilla ruling is fine. If your group plays a lot longer than that, you might want to add a ruling that they are reset during "Long breaks" or some such as well.

- While supplements might seem overwhelming at a glance, but many actually don't add that many rules, and instead just provide extra gear, vehicles or tables for general play. Into the Storm, Hostile Aquisitions and the Koronus Bestiary are the ones I can think of as very useful off the top of my head. You might wanna skim most of them at some point either way.

- Don't be afraid to do some houserulings. RT will come off as a horrendously unbalanced experience occasionally. Which can be fun. On the other hand, some things might start to seriously bother you after a few sessions. And you should not be afraid to tinker with stuff.
   
Made in us
Loyal Necron Lychguard





Virginia

Lord of Nonsensical Crap wrote:

1. I haven't even read about Achievement points yet, but...yeah, they sound complicated.

2. The more I think of it, the more I realize that yes, I should at least give them some feedback in the ship design, since their decisions will impact things like upgrades, profit, etc.

3. Fantastic. I think building the NPC Rogue Trader will be great practice to help me understand character creation and run through it with my party.

4. Yes, I found a Docs file with the expanded Origin lists from ItS, and they are extremely helpful. I'll see about looking for the actual book as soon as I can.

5. My party has a marked preference for narrative style games, so I guess that answers my question.


Word of caution, Into the Storm is the most sought after book. It is only ever available online for $300-$700, unless you get really lucky.

40k:
8th Edtion: 9405 pts - Varantekh Dynasty  
   
Made in sg
Humorless Arbite





Hull

Okay, I'm going to do two things -- firstly, respond to your questions (immediately below) and then post my standard response for GMs asking about tips for RT (might overlap a little with your questions but it's hopefully helpful nevertheless and it has become my standard response ).

1. Achievement Points and the endeavour system. They add very little value and feel completely arbitrary and clunky. You and your players should be able to work out a list of things that need to be accomplished to succeed with anything they want to do and use common sense. I also import rules/mechanics from other FFG systems that I love; at this stage my campaigns are a blend of rule selections from all the 40k RPGs by FFG, much to my players' chagrin .

2. If you mean design as in, outfit/equip the ship.. no I let my players do that, it immerses them more in the world and gives them a sense of attachment to the vessel itself. Even if it's in a 'family flashback' to the dawn of the Imperium and the Rogue Trader's Great x1000 Grandfather equipping the ship. However, I do design a very general overview (physical layout) of the entire ship, and then critical components, always the Bridge - others if I believe they'll be important. Here is an example from a recent one (players had Tenebro Maze, so I asked them to choose where components had been relocated (that's why it's weird)) -
Spoiler:


The Bridge was designed for Rogue Trader Twins, hence the double RT thrones.



3. I have considered that and have only done it in a one-shot where I needed to keep a hold on the reins. It is doable, however I would be careful with using that to rail-road. I would recommend you keep him as a recluse/drunk/hedonist who does what he likes and doesn't care about the running/ management of the ship as long as he keeps getting his needs looked after (keeping him as an emergency control system if your players try to break the campaign and a source of missions/ directives/ plot hooks as necessary).

4. The answer is the Navis Primer for Navigators primarily + Psychic powers (even though there are expanded lists in other books). It has an entirely expanded set of rules for warp travel too (much better than the core rules, however they will still need to be house ruled for brevity).

5. As to advice, my copied post below

-------------------------------------------------------------

If there's only one thing you take away from my following wall of text it is this point; Rogue Trader's greatest strength and greatest flaw are the same thing,the fact that it is a sandbox. You have to be able to utilize it as a strength and minimize it as a weakness. Players will drift, spin, sink, collapse without motivation if you leave them to their own devices -- people don't work well in a total sandbox (it's weird but true). SO you have to work with them from the start. Either implement an over-arching motivation/ driving force OR focus them in the effort of achieving a common goal.

A couple examples from my past campaigns -

Have their Dynasty sanctioned by the Inquisition, assets confiscated and debts accrued so that the players have to perform missions for the Inquisition in order to pay off their debts/ earn their assets back.

Have 'succession trials', where the player RT is an heir to the warrant but has to earn it by beating the other heirs at making money or killing them off subtly.

Sometimes none of your players want to be the Rogue Trader with the responsibility and hassles that entails. You can embrace that and that gives you an easy way to move the story forward (back to my original point re: motivation), your NPC RT says 'I want to set up a Gold Throne minting facility hidden in an Asteroid belt. Make it so.' and you leave your players to deal with it (the Seneschal or next highest ranking player would in effect be the de facto leader of the party).

If you do have players who want to be a Rogue Trader, that's also good but you'll need to talk with him/her in order to establish a cooperative environment; a Player Rogue Trader can either be a boon to your entire campaign or the largest roadblock. For example you've spent hours (or more) developing a Space Hulk filled with treasure, plot hooks, stories and interesting characters. Your Rogue Trader could embrace it and create this story with you OR he could blow the Space Hulk to hell because he doesn't like the idea of it. You'll need to work with a player RT more than most players in campaigns because of how much power he/she wields in the system.

Now onto crunch.

Navigation/ Warp Travel. I've had good campaigns with warp travel that felt scary, immersive and entertaining..... and I've had gakky ones where warp travel felt like a repetitive chore and was an exercise in sufferance. I'm still not sure whether it's better to simply gloss over Warp Travel and have an NPC Navigator or to embrace player Navigation. This'll have to be up to you and whether or not you get along with the system (you should be house ruling stuff anyway to speed it up and to reduce the amount of dice rolling).

Ship combat. Unlike some GMs, I quite like ship combat rules but I augment them with Narrative otherwise you may have players doing nothing in ship combat or rolling the same dice every turn for 'reasons'. Each ship combat 'Strategic Turn' is 30 minutes! Play those 30 minutes, don't waste them. For example, my best moment was when there were two simultaneous boarding actions being played out via narrative and/or normal combat (my players boarded a Light Cruiser via Teleportarium and the Light Cruiser boarded the player ship via boarding torpedoes) all whilst the ship combat was going on.

We have men for that. Embrace this. Your players usually have thousands of Armsmen (even on the smallest warp capable ship they'll have 750 Armsmen) and they will want to use them AND THEY SHOULD. This is where cooperation comes in again between GM and RT to prevent the men becoming a crutch or the only solution players use (players should not be staying on the ship and simply throwing their men at the problem). There should be a balance. My best moment with this was when my players went into an old abandoned hive looking for loot - they took 300 men with them, with supplies and equipment to defend against Mutant gangs and other creatures. It worked well because they trusted the men to deal with perimeter/low level problems and mobs which allowed the players to focus on the bigger picture, the bosses, the puzzles etc.

Profit Factor. I'm not a fan of the profit factor system and since my first campaign I've house-ruled differences (the one I'm currently planning for next year does away with it entirely, replacing it with cold hard currency but I digress). For a simple difference which I believe enhance the system; large/expensive purchases reduce the PF (Buying a lasgun? Totally fine and doesn't use any of your money. Buying a ship component? That's expensive, 2 PF if you find it available.) That way your players don't snowball to ridiculous PF too easily and it naturally limits large/ expensive purchases. Connected to this, I would recommend throwing the entire endeavour system out the window. It detracts from the game and is boring for players and you. Instead you work with the players and apply common sense when it comes to making money (or losing it). Play around with the system and find what you like as a GM.

Final thoughts:

Players love a little book-keeping and going into detail regarding your ship and crew helps immersion; your players are the high officers of a ship after all and that doesn't just entail gallivanting around getting drunk and bedding wenches. I use a Google Sheet to hold everything and make it accessible to my players (I shall include a link to the one from my best campaign so you can see what I'm talking about).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xu1BGb35CrSzZroJVPdcoOQyq6X-8MsNcuW-ewbTDd8/edit?usp=sharing

If you want to have a gander, here's my blog-post about that Campaign. Might give you some ideas and is a little shameless egotistical self-aggrandizement xD

https://40kprideandprofit.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/saint-dora-the-explorer/

This message was edited 9 times. Last update was at 2018/06/14 14:36:51


   
 
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