Let's Make A Rogue Trader House (using the lifepath from Into The Storm)

[Uzumaki]

Did a mock up of a ship within your budget, let me know what you think (or ask me to explain what you don't recognize). I was able to perfectly balance the SP/Space/Power. (Can you tell I'm bored at my parent's place?) It is dripping with wealth but the rank-and-file crew get only the bare minimum accommodations. It'd have sub-optimal morale if the ship itself wasn't so impressive to work on. The Best Craftsmanship arboretum probably contains a chunk of land lifted directly from Holy Terra itself and transplanted into the ship so that the Lord-Captain can have fresh peaches while in Warp transit. In terms of combat it's slightly above average for a raider.

<Ship Name Not Found> (I've come up with/cribbed from Ian M Banks: Insurmountable Ambition, Gilded Ambition, Gloriae Cupidus (latin for Desirous of Glory), The Glorious Blessing Of The God Emperor On Holy Terra And The Blazing Light Of His Judgement, Wealth of the Stars, Youthful Indiscretion, Within Reason, Germane Riposte, Trustworthy)

Hull: Meritech Shrike-class Raider
Background: Thulian Explorator Vessel

Speed: 9
Maneuver: +20
Detection: +30
Hull Integrity: 30
Armour: 16
Turret Rating: 2

Morale 108/108 (-2 Pressed Quarters, +10 Component Craftsmanship Pride, -3 Luxury Quarters Envy)
Crew 102/102 (+2 Arboretum) (Note: Crew is a percentage just like morale, not a measure of total crew members)
Crew Rating: Competent (30)

Ship Points: 55/55
Space: 35/35
Power: 45/45

Dorsal: Good Craftsmanship Mars-pattern Macrobattery P4/S1 (SP+2)
Prow: Good Craftsmanship Titanforge Lance P9/S3 (SP+3)

Essential Components

Jovian Pattern Class 2 Drive PG 45/S10
Best Craftmanship Strelov 1 Warp Engine P9/S9
Geller Field P1/S1
Single Void Shield Array P5/S1
Good Craftmanship Command Bridge P1/S1 (SP+2)
Vitae Pattern Life Sustainers P4/S2
Pressed Crew Quarters P1/S2
Auto-stabilised Logis-targeter P5/S0 (SP+2) (Archeotech)

Supplimental Components

Crew Reclaimation Facility P1/S1 (SP+1)
Murder-Servitors P1/S1 (SP+2)
Best Craftsmanship Arboretum P1/S1 (SP+3)
Good Craftsmanship Luxury Passenger Quarters P1/S1 (SP+2)
Trophy Room P1/S1 (SP+1)
Librarium Vault P1/S1 (SP+1)

Bonuses

+5 to Command Tests from bridge
+10 to tests to fire ship's weapons
+10 to Investigation tests in Librarium

+100 Achievement Points to Exploration Objectives
+150 Achievement Points to Trade Objectives
+150 Achievement Points to Criminal Objectives
+100 Acheivement Points to Creed Objectives

Double time ship may remain at void without suffering Crew Population of Morale loss.

Maybe we weren't the governor, but the crew of workers hired by the governor to move the asteroid in. We knew that he (and large part of the planet) were influenced by a Chaos cult, but hey, we're cheap laborers, and it's a job. We aren't going to look too closely at the guy cutting us a paycheck.

(SNIP)

I like all this, but I still think you should be the governors in the story. Maybe the mining crew dies in the process and can't take the blame. I like the element of being seen as especially pious for accidentally destroying your own fief. But the governor could still be corrupted by a chaos cult, that just means the ancestors of the House were cultists. Maybe they still are. The Heroes of the Imperium dabble in chaos worship. Anything for a leg up on the competition.

 

[Burned Man]

The Heroes of the Imperium dabble in chaos worship. Anything for a leg up on the competition.

Radical Inquisitors do it so why can't we. The Governor was desperate for wealth, he wasn't to far from their being a radical regime change and needed money to stay in power, so he took to mining the small asteroids in near orbit . It was going fine but they didn't nearly have minerals needed to sustain his opulent lifestyle so when prospectors reported valuable ore veins in one of the larger asteroids the Governor took note. Unfortunately the planet didn't have the means to mine the asteroid and harvest its vast wealth. So then he came up with a radical idea to smash the asteroid into one of the sparsely populated regions of the planet and mining the impact site. He decided to watch the event from space on his magnificent yacht and made an event of it and took many of his loyalist dignitaries with him. His plan wasn't precisely calculated and the asteroid had hit the planet with more force that anticipated causing the crust to break away and magma to flood the entire shattered surface. The Governor safe on his yacht had just committed horrible genocide. He immediately had his guards dispose of most of the witnesses only a very few survived these people would become his staff in his rogue trader days. Now planetless he needed a new means to sustain himself, so he came up with a story about how chaos had taken root on the planet and he fought a valiant defense against the heretics naturally making sure he sounded like a heroic leader. But even with his brilliant leadership the planet fell and with a tear in his eye he denied the arch enemy his planet killing them before they could open a new eye of terror. He told the story to authorities and most were dubious of his claims but he struck a particular cord with the Ecclesiarch who loved his story about sacrifice to destroy the heretics. So they gave him a warrant to reclaim his lost life of wealth in the hopes he would destroy more heretics to do it.

If you want to throw him as a chaos worshipper you could add that chaos was a fun pastime of the nobility and elite of the back water planet. It wasn't outright chaos just a fun secret used at orgies, banquets, and secret death sports.

 

[exball]

secret death sports.

40k Blood Bowl plz.

 

[Uzumaki]

Okay, yeah, let's definitely go with Burned Man's version that was awesome.

40k Blood Bowl plz.

Oh. Hell. Yes. That could even be the "chaos taint" since it involved semi-peacefully interacting with xenos and thus suffering them to live (at least for the duration of the match). I don't know the fluff for Blood Bowl super well but didn't it all start when they unearthed some shrine to the god of football? Maybe in 40k that happened on the planet in question. Destroying it could be what the House took credit for.

So the House was originally the planetary nobility of an unassuming Imperial World out near the edge of Imperial territory. The family eventually grew hedonistic and decadent, and when a shrine to some dark xenos god was unearthed and sparked a revival of the sport of blood bowl they secretly allowed xenos to come and go from the world in peace in order to participate because it was so new and interesting. This starting to sew discontent among the more loyal administrators of the planet and the family was going to need a great deal of money in order to bribe their way out of this problem. Therefore they engaged in operation Profit Fall which (to quickly summarize burned man's excellent write up) eventually involved dropping an asteroid onto a sparsely inhabited section of the planet so they could mine the crater. Since this would prove to be a worthwhile fireworks display most of the family members decided to observe from space. The asteroid cracks through the crust and depopulates the world.

The family eventually insist that they did this on purpose to cleanse the world of chaos taint, and evidence of a truly heretical blood sport is found. While most people don't believe them, zealots within the Ecclesiarchy love the story and see to it that the family patriarch is granted a warrant of trade so that they may rebuild their fortunes such that they may again sacrifice them in the God-Emperor's name.

...and from there it follows the original summary.

That pretty much fills in the last gap. I love how this is a combination of everyone's ideas building off one another. This is all great stuff, it would be a shame to waste it. Since my CoC game seems to be going nowhere (sorry Randal and Surtur but I can't do what I had planned with two people) would any of you be interested in playing Rogue Trader using this dynasty? The character creation process is similar to the dynasty creation process and is a lot of fun. I know a few other gamers on here that I may be able to scam into playing but even if just the four of us were game that's a solid RT group.

 

[exball]

I'd totally play a RT game. I haven't played one in quite a while.

 

[Randall Fragg]

I've never played RT before, but this sounds awesome!

 

[Uzumaki]

I'd want to run the game play-by-post (i.e. on the forum rather than via skype or chat) because I find that more convenient with my weird schedule. I do it a lot though and it works very well, especially for a game like Rogue Trader.

Okay, so, for those interested I need you to pick your homeworld and a color (I'm going to track everything on the same sheet for ease of reference, so I need to be able to tell you apart. Hence, the color). It works sort of the same way as the ship, except you make all your own choices and any square where two players both have their dot is a point at which the character's lives intersected. So, for example, if two characters were both Void Born then they would have been born on the same ship. If two characters worked as bounty hunters then they were partners, or rivals, or somehow involved. That sort of thing. It's up to the players to work that out but I'm always happy to offer suggestions.

Unlike the warrant path you get one "free" jump, that is to say one time you can choose a box that isn't directly adjacent to your previous choice. It's often a good idea to save that for your career to make sure you can take the one you want. On that note, for those less familiar with the game the careers (classes) are:

Rogue Trader: The actual warrant holder, the Lord-Captain of the ship, the head of the dynasty, and the source from which all the PCs authority springs. Good at leadership and swordplay. This career can also be used for other members of the dynasty who aren't (currently) the warrant holder but who are in similar leadership roles, especially designated successors.

Astropath Transcendant: The Choirmaster/mistress of the astropathic choir. Astropaths are special sanctioned psychics who are bound to the God-Emperor, protecting them somewhat from the Warp. They use telepathy to facilitate faster-than-light communication and they also have other psychic powers.

Arch-Militant: Da shootiest wun. Dakka dakka dakka. The resident combat badass. If the House has an army they probably lead it. May or may not fire the ship's weapons depending on the rest of the crew. Think Worf.

Void Master/Mistress: Someone really good at some aspect of running the ship. They could be the helmsman, master of etherics, the gunner, or even a fighter pilot (if you ship has fighters). A Void Master can take basically any role on the ship and specialize in it.

Explorator: A tech-priest from the Adeptus Mechanicus tasked with exploration. The Explorator on a Rogue Trader vessel is usually also in charge of all the other tech priests aboard and runs the engine room. Tech-priest pretty much covers it, since this is the only mechanicus career available to Rogue Trader characters. Slightly more likely to be a tad heretical than your average magos and very capable of holding their own in a fight.

Missionary: A member of the Missionaria Galaxia, the Missionary is tasked with bringing the light and glory of complete subjugation to the God Emperor to those not yet blessed with it's touch. They are usually the most murderously psychopathic member of the crew and tend to like fire. They do a lot more killing heretics than winning converts and play a similar role to the Paladin in most groups (i.e. the moral foil), only evil. You can also get some minor divine powers because the Emperor loves his little psychopaths.

Seneschal: Sort of a cross between an accountant, a spy, and a crime lord, the Seneschal is the Jeeves to the Rogue Trader's Wooster. Generally they manage the House finances, make contacts in the underworld, have inconvenient people disappeared, spin webs of intrigue and get their hands dirty so that the warrant holder doesn't have to. They sometimes work in secret to keep the more incompetent Rogue Traders from failing too hard without wounding their pride, other times they're the dynast's right hand man (or woman).

Navigator: A stable, sanctioned, mutant offshoot of humanity able to use their literal third eye to navigate the Warp. Without one it is ridiculously dangerous and ill-advised to traverse the Warp (which is basically Hell when you get right down to it). They're organized into Navigator Houses because 40k is based on Dune (plus Foundation and Lord of the Rings by way of Michael Moorcock). They have psychic powers, many of which affect voidship combat. Very commonly an NPC who is almost never seen (since most Navigators just live in their spire), a PC Navigator gives a non-trivial edge in space battles and travel times.

There's no sanctioned psyker career, so if you want to be one you either have to choose one of the more specific psyker careers (astropath or navigator), or gain psychic powers from your Origin Path. You can do this pretty easily with your Lineage pick.

Someone should probably be a Rogue Trader, since having the Captain be an NPC is kind of lame, but otherwise they're all fun classes.

As for the homeworlds, they're standard 40k world types so you can google most of them. The unique ones are Footfallen (you were born on footfall station, which is a space station just outside of Imperial space in the Koronus Expanse. The Koronus Expanse is a region of space outside of Imperial control that is favored by Rogue Traders because it's full of secrets and opportunities. Footfall is sort of like Mos Eisley.) Noble Born (you were born to nobility, which gives you a different sort of life no matter what planet you were born on) Child of the Dynasty (You were born and groomed to serve the Rogue Trader House, either as the warrant holder or an important retainer. This is the pick that gives you extra ship points.) Also Penal World assumes your parents were the criminals and you were born there, North Korea style.

There are two different options in most boxes, and you pick one of them.

 

[Randall Fragg]

As for races, is it just human, or is it possible to play an Ork?

 

[Uzumaki]

As for races, is it just human, or is it possible to play an Ork?

You can, but I sincerely would not recommend it for a first time player. It limits what you can do (since almost all humans will want to kill you on sight) so you really need to know what you're doing to play one. You also don't get to use the Origin path (being a xenos replaces this) and the origin path is fun as fuck and really helps cement your character in the setting and with the rest of the crew.

There are rules for playing both Orks and Kroot, though, so if you have your heart set on this we can make it happen. We'd have to come up with a story for how you became involved with the dynasty, however.

 

[Burned Man]

I'm up for a game of Rogue Trader. I don't have time to create a character until tonight. But as for our Navigator, perhaps that can be the Jace NPC that always wears sunglasses on his forehead.

As for races, is it just human, or is it possible to play an Ork?

I think it would be interesting to have an Ork arch-militant, you did give it an orky description. He could be the old captain and sole survivor of our death sport team. He would just need a disguise when we take him planet side but surely a rogue trader can afford the means.

 

[Randall Fragg]

I'm up for a game of Rogue Trader. I don't have time to create a character until tonight. But as for our Navigator, perhaps that can be the Jace NPC that always wears sunglasses on his forehead.

I think it would be interesting to have an Ork arch-militant, you did give it an orky description. He could be the old captain and sole survivor of our death sport team. He would just need a disguise when we take him planet side but surely a rogue trader can afford the means.

I'm imagining a really cheap "armor, hood, and hockey mask" disguise. Maybe covered with religious symbols because "surely a xenos could not stand the holy presence of the emperor!"
Right now I'm torn between "loose cannon space redneck" and "Ork".

 

[exball]

I'm imagining a really cheap "armor, hood, and hockey mask" disguise.

You literally just described Deffwotch. A Rouge Trader game from /tg/ where the whole party was Orks who had really cheap disguises posed as a Death Watch kill team.

 

[Uzumaki]

Right now I'm torn between "loose cannon space redneck" and "Ork".

You could play a space redneck from a world overrun by Orks who "went native" to an extent and had some Ork culture rub off on him. Have your cake and defeat GlaDOS too.

Edit: Trial and Travails pick: Darkness (Forbidden Knowledge). Have said forbidden knowledge be Ork culture, after having run with some Ork Mercs for a few years.

Edit Edit: The relevant section of the Ork rules relating to humans hating you:

 

[exball]

I almost want to play an Ork, but I basically always play a xeno so I might mix it up a little.

 

[Uzumaki]

I almost want to play an Ork, but I basically always play a xeno so I might mix it up a little.

In any case, we're going to need to limit ourselves to one xeno. The group isn't big enough for a whole gaggle of aliens. You might have to fight each other to the death for the privilege of being an Ork.

 

[The Knife's Husbando]

I'm in. I love the WH40K universe, I've honestly read about all the online Wiki for it.

I kinda want to play a Xeno too, not sure what kind.

 

[Uzumaki]

I'm in. I love the WH40K universe, I've honestly read about all the online Wiki for it.

I kinda want to play a Xeno too, not sure what kind.

We're happy to have you, but everyone who wants to play a xeno I think is going to have to roll a d100 and the person with the highest roll gets right of first refusal. Online dice roller.

 

[Randall Fragg]

I'm going to go with Darrel Verngaust as my character.
My color for character creation will be red, and I'll start with Deathworld for a home planet.
Edit: Deathworld, Fringe Survivor (With Survivalist), Hunter, Darkness, Fortune, Arch-Militant, and A Proud Tradition. I don't really know how complete that is.

 

[exball]

Since I pretty much always play a Xeno or a combat based character, I'd like to mix it up and play a smug as fuck Rogue trader heir. I guess I'll use purple as my color.

Spoiler

My path will be, Child of the Dynasty with Vaunted as my birthright. (Goes well with secret chaos taint) My lure is Chosen by Destiny with Xenophile as my effect. I'd like to use my jump to take Product of upbringing with the effect as Decadent. I think I'll choose Prestige as my motivation and take the Talented talent as my effect. My Career is naturally Rogue Trader with Long and Glorious history as my lineage, the effect I choose for that is, My Great-Grandfather built this colony.

If you want me to change anything that's cool.

 

[Uzumaki]

I'm going to go with Darrel Verngaust as my character.
My color for character creation will be red, and I'll start with Deathworld for a home planet.

Cool. Picks connected to Deathworld are:

Scavenger (you lived in poverty picking through refuse)

Fringe Survivor (which has the sub choices of)
*Survivalist (Nomads born to hostile environments)
*Heretek (Your family was involved in tech-heresy)

Scapegrace (You lived on the fringes of imperial society, among the criminals, gangster, entertainers and outcasts)

Unnatural Origin (which has the sub choices of)
*Contaminated Environs (you grew up in pollution central and mutated)
*False Man (you're a manufactured human, not born from a mother. It's weird.)
*Tainted by the Warp (exactly what it sounds like)

Edit: looks like with exball that leaves the xeno option to @The Knife's Husbando.