Brave New Worlds, a months long Rogue Trader adventure path, uses three Rogue Trader books and three free downloads (links listed in last month's column). The core idea is to take fully fleshed out adventures and find an order to the various locations the Explorers may visit. Then the Endeavours are extracted and put into one possible logical sequence to present to the Explorers (or to be uncovered by the Explorers).

This month, I'm going to take the first locations and discuss turning them into the first adventure in the adventure path. But first up, I want to share what I've learned from actually playing the game with an ork freebooter Explorer in the group and briefly touch on Talents.

Live Play Feedback: Ork Freebooter

I have learned some things about ork freebooters in play, as Bruce is playing one. One, they are violently suited to melee combat and are hard to challenge. Too many foes big enough to take on an ork and the rest of the Explorers will end up dead. So now I usually use mooks, a boss, and sometimes one big bad to challenge the ork.

Two, xenos are heretics and need to die. That is how the Empire of Man feels. The player of an ork freebooter and his fellow Explorers will not fully enjoy the game if the Imperial Navy and surly dockworkers don't cause grief for a xeno.

If you have a player playing an elder, kroot, or ork you need to make their lives difficult in Imperial space. At the minimum, the player of the xeno should be highly encouraged to take Sanctioned Xeno (Into the Storm page 107) and even then roleplaying challenges abound. A xeno may be sanctioned to walk around an Imperial station or city, but that right does not address the deep-seated loathing and hatred most human citizens have of the alien. Don't get the xeno Explorer killed but get him or her (and fellow Explorers) in trouble at every opportunity.

To balance that out, make sure their special abilities and uniqueness come into play. For example, when Bruce's ork and his fellow Explorers ran into some other orks, Bruce had his ork bluster and bully his way into negotiations. Orks are deadly dangerous in a fight, so getting to talk a way out of combat with them was a great roleplaying reward. The orks even named a ship Facebeater after Bruce's freebooter.

Live Play Feedback: Talents

The Talents your Explorers have will greatly change how your game goes, especially the following: Enemy, Hatred, Peer, and Rival. Keep these connections to NPCs in mind as your unique campaign plays out.

Part One: Port Wander

"A stinking, painted harlot who would see your blood flowing for a few coins, that she may be, but who cannot say that they love the light that is known waiting for the traveller returned from the void."
—Rogue Trader Cortin Blaine, captain of the Astra Veritas

The adventure path begins at Port Wander, just outside the Maw that leads to the Koronus Expanse. If you have a xeno Explorer in the group, that alien should catch some hell at Port Wander from the Imperial Navy.

The Explorers receive two Endeavours they may choose to pursue. One is salvaging the Forsaken Bounty and beyond introducing the option to pursue the Endeavour, nothing else happens at Port Wander of real significance for that option.

The other Endeavour, find and plunder the Righteous Path, is much more involved, as described in the Rogue Trader core rulebook pages 381-385. I gave some ideas on introducing both of these Endeavours last month.

Once Port Wander is played through, the Explorers will need to decide if they want to pursue either or both of the Endeavours. Make sure they understand that if they pursue both, they will likely have to roll for Misfortune.

Part Two: The Battleground

My suggestion for the Battleground is to run the encounter in the core rulebook on page 386 first and then the rest of Forsaken Bounty. My group was not able to finish Forsaken Bounty at this point, so when the next game started I rolled for Misfortune.

Misfortune. If the Explorers have both Endeavours running (Plunder the Righteous Path and Salvage the Emperor's Bounty), Misfortunes may befall them at the start of any new game session (after fours of gaming). A table for Misfortunes is found on page 284 of the core rulebook. Misfortunes rolled raw require some impromptu troublemaking on the GM's part. If you don't like winging it, I suggest you roll up a couple of Misfortunes ahead of time and have them ready to go as needed with any additional detail you feel you need to comfortably run one.

Finishing Forsaken Bounty and Achievement Points

Forsaken Bounty can be finished after the Battleground is explored. The listed rewards are off, however. For Forsaken Bounty, I took rewards and multiplied it by 25 to determine Achievement Points. I also reversed penalties, changing them to gains.

Salvaging the Emperor's Bounty: 500 Achievement Points for a +1 Profit.

• If they successfully scanned the debris field: 50 AP
• Avoiding damage to the gun-cutter was damaged: 25 AP
• If they managed to move the vessel outside the cloud making the salvage easier: 125 AP
• If the Bounty does not suffer serious damage, from ship to ship weapons or the like: 75 AP
• If the PCs decided to enlist the help of the survivors in the salvage: 50 AP
• If they don't take their own vessel into the cloud: 200 AP.

Remember, AP can be used while an Endeavour is being run to replenish Morale (page 226 of the core rules). An any AP over the amount needed to complete an Endeavour converts to Profit (every 100 AP over converts to +1 Profit, page 279 of the core rules).

Finishing Into the Maw

After the Battleground, Into the Maw can be finished as written. The Explorers may briefly stop at Footfall to complete the Objective: A Questionable Cargo. This Objective can be finished up just before running the rest of the adventure from page 387 forward.

Xeno Explorers experience much less official grief at Footfall than at Port Wander. If the Explorers dock at Footfall, two possible encounters could occur. One, Longshore Bullies on page 14 of Lure of the Expanse (LotE) is a good intro to the station. If the Explorers take the time to travel to the Liege's Court (page 9 of LotE) they will get a proper welcome especially by Tocara (page 12 of LotE). The Explorers in my game skipped the Liege's Court the first time they landed at Footfall, however, as they were in a real hurry to catch Hadarak Fel, the main adversary in Into the Maw.

If Hadarak Fel survives, he will return to bedevil the Explorers again in Lure of the Expanse.

Cliffhanger Introduction to Dark Frontier

I wrapped up Into the Maw and had the astropath receive a message that information about the Dread Pearl might be found at Footfall. However, when the Explorers charted a course, I ended by reading the description on page 4 of Dark Frontier. The ship was in dire trouble and we wrapped on that cliffhanger. If you are able to work out the time to do it, the cliffhanger works great.

Next Month

The Explorer's Log is a synopsis of the past adventure that I put together to track how the campaign is going. After that I will discuss getting the Dark Frontier pdf ready for use in the adventure path. Following that will be a write-up on the Penance of Icocanthos, a ship the Explorers will have a chance to add to their dynasty if they seize the opportunity.

Safe Journey,
Charlie