Brave New World
As I read Rogue Trader and set up adventures, I can't help but contrast the over the top creepiness of the fictionalized religion of Rogue Trader and the reality of my own faith. Every ugly turn that misuse of religion has taken over the last few thousand years seems to be represented in Rogue Trader. The masterful worlds-building and storytelling that goes with the terrible cruelty, near hopelessness, and general weirdness make it all gel together, but you would be hard-pressed to read Rogue Trader and not trip over something that at least slightly disturbs you (like actually having the option to spend XP on the chem geld talent for example).
I couldn't dive into a new series about Rogue Trader with its fictionalized, dark and terrible, and twisted version of faith and belief, without first acknowledging my own real world belief especially as I look forward to celebrating Easter. I am an enthusiastic follower of Jesus Christ. I am proud and happy that I belong to my God and His Son, Jesus.
Rogue Trader, on the other hand, presents a hellish, violent, and unnatural religion that is horrifying and filled with despair. Even though it is (very good!) fiction, perhaps it is still an odd game for a Christian GM to pick to run.
Sometimes, however, the juxtaposition of the good life many of us enjoy in our current time and place with the fictional horrors our created characters endure in our campaign of choice creates a stark, compelling contrast. This dichotomy creates dramatic tension which, if properly managed, leads to opportunities for heroic storytelling and shared worlds-building in our hobby of RPG gaming. I believe this will be the case as I run Rogue Trader and the shared story my group and I create together starts to unfold. Along the way, we may find that we enjoy our own freedom and well-being in the real world just a bit more as well.
Why Rogue Trader
I have been playing mostly D20 games since August of 2000 with one short break to play NWoD Hunter and a PBP Mongoose RuneQuest game. I very much want to run a successful non-fantasy non-D20 game campaign.Discussing options as a gaming group, we reached a consensus. We should play something the GM (that would be me) knows very well and that is not Pathfinder or 4E and preferably not fantasy.
I have run a lot of Warhammer FRP 1E and a few adventures of Rogue Trader. Rogue Trader fit all of our requirements: not D20 fantasy and I know the system fairly well. In addition, for the time-strapped GM, it is a dream system.
The Rogue Trader rulebook has an adventure in it. Four adventure books have been published for the game and another is on the way. Edge of the Abyss, a worlds book, has an adventure in it. The Game Master's kit has an adventure outline included with the screen. The web site has two free mini-adventures and a free additional chapter for one of the published adventures. It also has three free non-official fan-created adventures.
On top of all that, the system also has the rest of Edge of the Abyss, the book of worlds, as well as a bestiary releasing soon. There are descriptions of classes of worlds and vehicles as well as rules for building starships and villains. I could hardly ask for a more complete setting and toolkit combined.
Rogue Trader is try before you buy. Before I bought the main rulebook, I downloaded and ran:
- Forsaken Bounty
- with extra characters
- and a follow up adventure called Dark Frontier.
The basics for Rogue Trader (rules, bestiary, adventure, worlds book) cost retail $179.80 at your LFGS. About the same cost as getting into Pathfinder using print books and online freebies ($159.96 with the core rulebook, bestiary 1, campaign setting, one 96-page adventure path book, and plenty of online freebies to get you started). And like Pathfinder, the editing and art are top notch.
Having already enjoyed WFRP as well as being a fan of sci-fantasy and Lovecraft, I found that Rogue Trader hit everything I was looking for. I also prefer books over digital format, so the hardcover art-heavy books actually weighed in heavily as additional incentive to buy into the system. The PDFs aren't as inexpensive as Pathfinder, but are around half the price of the hardcover books.
Adventure Building in Rogue Trader
Adventures are broken down into Endeavours. Endeavours are major undertakings by the PCs (called Explorers), involving such tasks as settling worlds, mining star systems, and charting warp routes. Each Endeavour is broken down into objectives that must be accomplished which net achievement points. If the group earns enough achievement points, they complete the Endeavour and the power of their dynasty increases (called profit factor). Profit factor buys guns, killer cyborgs, starships, and other stuff.Two additional rules create a lot of flexibility for Explorers working toward finishing an Endeavour. First, extra achievements can be offered during the adventure. Accomplishing these extras means that even if some other minor objectives are missed, the Endeavour can still be completed. And, if all the achievements are met, the reward is higher (a bigger increase to profit factor) if extra achievements are completed.
Second, the PCs can run Endeavours in the foreground as a full-blown adventure or in the background as part of the workings of their Explorers' dynasty with NPCs doing most of the work. Of course, NPCs aren't nearly as skilled as Explorers, so more risk is involved. For the GM, this means most Endeavours and achievements aren't going to be wasted, as canny Explorers will pursue nearly anything that will increase profit factor.
In addition, the Explorers don't have to complete Endeavours in order. The longer they delay, however, the greater a chance a misfortune befalls their dynasty (which can reduce profit factor). Risk-taking Explorers can run multiple Endeavours looking for the big score but also facing greater risk.
And the players are control of all the decisions. The GM just offers the Endeavours, the PCs decide whether to bite or not.
Brave New Worlds Adventure Path
I decided I didn't want to start out writing adventures for Rogue Trader. I struggled to run Carrion Crown for Pathfinder because I got a few adventures into the adventure path and felt very confined in the story. I likely would have done better trying to run Kingmaker.With Rogue Trader, I decided to lay out all my modules and see how they interconnect. I can interconnect the various Endeavours based on the planets the Explorers visit. If they decide not to take on an Endeavour they risk losing the chance for profit. However, if they take on too many Endeavours and don't deliver, they suffer misfortune. The power and fate of an entire Rogue Trader dynasty will be in their hands. Sounds pretty exciting!
I start with Into the Maw, Forsaken Bounty, Lure of the Expanse, and Dark Frontier. I set aside the Gamemaster Kit adventure outline for now, since I don't want to work on adventures of my own just yet and it requires a GM to flesh out the included Endeavours.
I see three Endeavours, each more involved, and all roughly following each other in a path of star systems. The Endeavours are:
- Salvage the Emperor's Bounty (500 AP) from Forsaken Bounty.
- Plunder the Righteous Path (1500 AP) from Into the Maw.
- Find the Dread Pearl (3000 AP) from Lure of the Expanse.
I also saw an opportunity to replace an NPC that opens the adventure with a PC Explorer instead. I think this will have a greater impact on the developing story and give more "plot-power" to the players.
