PDA

View Full Version : Rogue Trader - campaign ideas



Dvil
2010-01-01, 07:09 PM
Okay, so I'm starting up a Rogue Trader campaign with a few friends, and I wanted to know about this for plot. You don't have to know the RT rules, but if you do, more the better!
EDIT: It's also worth noting that although I don't play DnD, I do read a few webcomics based around similar RPGs (including OOTS, obviously), and apart from using D100s, RT seems similar to what I gather DnD is, at the core of its ruleset.

This is what I like to call Chapter One, and I don't have any more, other than malformed ideas.

So, they find themselves being press-ganged/hired into service aboard a ship, as lowly workers (combat-patrols, I think, working to halt mutinies, boarding parties, that sort of thing). They find out that the ship's crew are fairly demoralised by poor working/living conditions.
They find themselves in combat with an Imperial Navy ship, and the party is asked to repel a boarding party before taking a shuttle to the enemy ship and fighting toward the ship. The encounters should be easy, but there's a chance to avoid two of them if they can spot/unlock a service passageway on the other ship. Once on the bridge, they can either threaten, charm or kill the crew, but their objective is to lower the shields, hang about until the generators are destroyed by lance fire, and then return to their own bridge. There's one more group between them and the shuttle, and one of those enemies drops a heavy weapon (undecided which), if they want one.
Upon returning to the ship, they are met by one of the crew NPC they met earlier. He tells them that they've mutinied in secret, and claimed as much of the ship as they dare without risking discovery. He walks with them to the bridge, informing them that they have a choice. They can either warn the captain of the mutiny, and probably die with her, or they can kill the captain and her bodyguards and take control of the ship quickly. He also mentions that none of the mutineers have the specialist knowledge required to run a ship, so it would be effectively theirs if they kill the captain. If they kill the captain quickly (only a few combat rounds), and they spared the other captain, then I'll give them an opportunity to negotiate for the other ship's survival, to possibly help them gain some Navy allies for the campaign.


As I say, this is all so far, other than basic ideas with no real structure. Thoughts?

Ranos
2010-01-01, 09:16 PM
My first thought is that you may be planning ahead too much. Never underestimate the unpredictability of players.

My second thought is that mutineers in the 40th century would not have it easy. They wouldn't be welcomed back into the imperium with open arms, far from it. Now, the Imperium probably wouldn't send vessels against one traitor ship, although navigating in Imperium-controlled space would be close to suicide.

But you don't get to be captain of that kind of ship for no reason. The guy probably had plenty of allies, people who would die for him, or die to avenge him. Those will chase after the traitors.

So yeah, if all goes like you expect it will, I'm thinking the rest of the campaign would be the players going into unknown territory to escape justice, exploring strange and foreign planets, scraping by, trying to find food and resources far from civilization, fighting off the Xenos, the Imperium and the resistance from inside their ships (bombings and other terrorist attacks from loyalist cells all over the ship.).

That kind of game would scrap a few parts of the system, namely profit factor and acquisitions, but it might work. It'd be more of a battlestar galactica sort of thing. Again, your players might surprise you, and the game might turn out to be completely different.

Dvil
2010-01-02, 06:27 AM
Hmm, maybe I underestimated the backlash somewhat. They're already kind of on the fringe of Imperial space, and the ship they've taken over has attacked at least one Navy ship before the mutiny, so maybe they'll get off lightly (as it were)? I dunno, it's certainly a useful plot point of the Captain's associates investigating, and I may do something similar involving the Imperium itself if they choose not to spare the Navy ship. I may do it so that they end up just sort of skimming under the radar, in terms of the mutiny, at least until the late captain doesn't turn up to a meeting or whatever, and questions get asked.

bosssmiley
2010-01-02, 11:54 AM
Grab a copy of the original Rogue Trader. That had an entire chapter of wacky campaign ideas, including the infamous Pudding Crusade.


As I say, this is all so far, other than basic ideas with no real structure. Thoughts?

That is all you need. Make sure that the PCs run into more trouble whenever they run, keep the 40K flavour rich, and you're good to go.

Matthew
2010-01-05, 04:06 PM
I think probably one of the more attractive elements of Rogue Trader is all the weird alien stuff that happens on the fringes. Playing it as a straight hard science fiction game is not really appropriate. Put them on a ship, have it orbit an unexplored planet and unleash the weird. No need for the players to take control of the ship by mutiny, not when they are just trying to avoid having their minds hollowed out by plane shifting brain leeches or whatever.

As Bosssmiley says, though, if you can get hold of the original Rogue Trader book it would probably be well worth it.

Simpatiya
2013-11-16, 12:57 PM
Nice posts. Keep posting such needed information. Thank's!