Search the Community

Just a fast post everyone, the Nook has been without a Rogue Trader game for a while, and I'm considering running the RT Starter Adventure with a few tweaks. Have at it below. I'll update this when I've had sleep and firmed up some ideas. Just an FYI, I'd rather keep it contained to RT, and have fresh, basic Rank 1 characters, no imports from DH/DW/BC/OW games. It will get me used to RT. Be aware, this may be a while in delivery, so it's not around the corner.

+ The RPG Nook Presents + + A Rogue Trader RPG Campaign + + THE SILENT ARCHITECT + 'What profiteth a man who, with the world in his coffers, loseth also his soul?' - The Ancient Sages Damocles Hive Primus Noon (Zulu local) Six months after the Damocles Incident ++++++++++++ The scene is set. A private docking bay juts out over the plunging spear of Damocles Hive outer shell. The kilometres plunge away, as the figures on the landing pad, a giant oval disc, encircled with gold and landing lights in red and green receive the trio from within. They stand back, cloaks and expensive silken clothes billowing in the hot, dry wind soaring up the tower. The fug of poisoned clouds tears in the gust, revealing the miles and miles of barren desert below - pocked and dotted with the still-glowing nuclear fire of two destroyed hives and an orbital strike. Blistering radiation makes the air shimmer blue, ionising it into three strange pillars of azure light, which the locals without a bent toward literacy call 'The Pillars of Heaven'. They are not wrong in some respects, the blue cuts a pleasant, remarkably pretty relief against the unrelenting desert. A sliver of silver light descends, the sun glinting off a hull, the ship falling towards the shimmering spire thrust into the tortured skies. It closes with this comparatively tiny sliver of metal perilously clinging to the building. Jet turbines flare, powering the craft closer. It is light, agile. Unlike the bulky Guncutters used as personal craft, this is somewhat avian, and beaked with the head of a golden Imperial Aquila. This sleek bird's advanced-tech wings slope and sweep as it closes, making final approach, and the pilot, whoever they are brings it down with a flourish and flare, landing square and perfect in the centre of the pad. The ship is scored black from re-entry, obviously dropping from off-world, the rich blue, red and purple livery marred unequally. Ten minutes later, the deep chest forming the cargo bay opens, sloping down with a ramp, which gives the impression the metal bird is disgorging something stuck within it's throat. Four figures emerge, at the head a tall man, dressed in a frock coat and striped breeches, a fur pelisse flaps in the breeze as the tails of his coat snaps. Gripping his weapons, his face has the air of a man who brooks little insult, indeed his single human eye sweeps the landing platform and spots the three figures awaiting him, and his baleful, augmetic eye lances an angry pink light into this strange palette of fate. He stops at the foot of the ramp, attended by a powerful man in a masterwork of carapace and voidsuit, another who clings to a tall stave topped with the sign of the Imperial Adeptus Telepatheca, and a woman who seems like she would be at home behind a gunsight. The tall man, wearing the clasp of explorer, is then obviously a Captain of Marque. His first words upon this world, his first words of greeting fall over the landing pad as if there were not one-hundred feet between him, and his target. 'Fabian Von Cassal! You are the son of gutter-whore mother, and a beast-herding father. You the offspring of Grox and Felid-spawn, with the charms of neither! I spit on your honour, your family and piss on your grave!' Silence reigns as the first man, in his Imperial Navy uniform, of a Flag-Lieutenant no less, visibly turns purple. Without a word, he turns to his 'second', another Imperial Navy Officer, and begins doffing hat, cloak and tunic. In shirtsleeves, he marches into a large space between the doors to to hive, and the ship. He stands there, angry but shivering, as the Captain likewise hands his gaudy garments. A case is produced, and duelling pistols drawn. Then men turn and take ten steps before turning and firing the ancient laslocks. Fabian Von Cassal is shot through before he even pulls the trigger, cored right through with a heart-shot. He slowly burns from the heated beam, until his party extinguishes him. Dressing again, the Captain approaches the doors to the hive, checking a pocket-chrono. He is in the perfect spot therefore, when the lift reaches the docking bay deck, and disgorges Kerr Restal, Reynard De Carebas, and the Hospitaller Petrus Kovac. With them, is a tall, handsome woman of dark hair, draped in a simple cloak, but heavy across her shoulders with authority. 'Lady Viceroy,' the Captain bows over her proffered hand. He ignores the Inquisitorial Seal in her palm. 'Your information and assistance were impeccable. What pray, do you wish in return?' 'Lord Iago De Wiart. May I present these Holy Pilgrims, who may serve on your ship.' 'As spies, my lady?' 'As explorers, my Lord. And there is something I want. Something hidden.' 'And what is this?' 'The Silent Architect.' ++++++++++ + Chapter One: The God-breaker's Yard +

From WarCom. Also the Legiones Astartes Battle Group, MKIII Tacticals, Deredeo and SoH Weapons are up for pre-order next week too, but the thread's locked for that.

With the release of the beakie kit, I decided to indulge in my 3rd edition roots and a heavy dose of RT inspiration and make a small Crimson Fists army. The spark for this was a Captain I'd built and painted for the Nova Open Charitable Foundations winter raffle, which I loved painting and ignited this whole project. I'll be recreating this model soon. Probably the best thing I painted last year, honestly. I miss you, RT Captain. As for what I do have, I've got four squads built so far, with a Dreadnought in the works. First up are the Tactical Squad and Sternguard Veterans. The Tacticals were built using the HH beakie kit, as I wanted to invoke the classic RT vibe, aka MARK 6. It's my favourite mark, it's a nice kit, and I can finally live my dream of a beakie army. I think I want to add a back banner to the Sgt, but I'm a little hesitant, I don't know if there's a limit to them before I won't like it. The Sternguard come from the Leviathan set with some minor changes. You'll notice one of them is already finished, as he was the model of the month for October and I had already decided this would be a new year project. More beakies, of course, this time sourced from the Ravenwing kit. They still need a bit of work, but I'll have them ready for priming soon. Not that the weather will allow for it right now, but when it does, I hope to have the whole project ready to go. I have two squads of Terminators built, plus a Terminator Captain, I'll get photos of them soon. I've also got a Dreadnought in the works, which is taking much longer to convert than I thought, but it's finally coming together. I want to like the Redemptor style but It just doesn't work for me, so I've been converting one until I like it/it more closely resembles the box-naught I love. More on that soon too.

The recent Deathwatch Recruitment Thread has shown there is an acute interest in taking part in play-by-post games here on the Bolter and Chainsword. That's intensely gratifying - and to me, I think it demonstrates that we can sustain multiple games here. This thread is intended to serve as a resource both for players looking to join a game, as well as GMs looking to recruit. This is not really designed for conversations - if you find enough players looking for a specific game, start a new thread and PM them to join. Name: Interested in Playing: Dark Heresy 1st Edition / Dark Heresy 2nd Edition / Rogue Trader / Deathwatch / Only War / Black Crusade / Wrath & Glory / Other Knowledge/Experience of Rules: Have you played in campaigns before? Do you own the rules? Are you familiar with the rules? Other Pertinent Information: You might consider here notes on your availability; on your 40k interest, armies and hobbies; or anything else you'd like other forum members to know. You might consider thinking about , as this might help you think about the style of game you'd like to participate in.

Back in 1st edition 40k, when we still called it Rogue Trader, the Chief Librarian of the Ultramarines was a half-Eldar (who also was a Dark Angel at some point...we were still figuring stuff out back then). Don't take it too seriously, this was heresy that has since been retconned out a bit. In that spirit, he just showed up in one of those Warhammer Community strips: Just so people know, he or actually an Aeldari of the same known does show up in the last of the Dark Imperium trilogy, Godblight, but to his credit Guy Haley cleverly made him an Aeldari diplomat in the court of Roboute Guilliman. That explains that lore discrepancy a bit, like he's never really an Ultramarine, but is associated with them. That said...man, when we get those new plastic Mark VI Beakie Armour models, I do kinda want to do some sort of weird Narrative Play Crusade Patrol with him as my HQ. Not everyone plays this Crusade mode, but if you played the experience leveling stuff, you know how it's pretty easy to make a really powerful Psyker in particular? Anyway, just pointing this out because actually a new player in our local Warhammer Store pointed that guy out to me and I was like, "Actually, Brother...this guy was real." I thought it was pretty funny.

After a year and a bit of painting Guardsmen and starting not Squats (Wargames Atlantics Einherjar) for games of 1st ed I thought Id return to my one true love Chaos (not Kebabs, but they are a close second). After a bit of head scratching on what to do and all the retro feels bouncing about currently due to the 35 years of 40k I started thinking back to the glory days of my younger years and my first proper Chaos army (not including the mish mash of stuff I had from RoC). The army in question was inspired by this John Blanche army in the 2nd ed codex, but back then my idea of painting was literally throw paint at the mini and hope it looks ok, so it looked nothing like what I was trynna achieve. Now at least I understand shading and blending (even though I still throw paint at the minis) so I thought Id have another pop at trying to replicate (shamelessly copy) this army. I have even picked up a Mephiston and Vet Sgt Centurius for this project, and Im currently eyeing some Asmodais on ebay for the Icon Bearer (still trynna find the old Verminlord for the right price though). There are some other influences Ill be 'borrowing' ideas from, some are other Blanche minis shown in WD 150 and Fred Marcarini's minis (painted by some chap called Lorenzo) in WD199. Blanches stuff. Freds. As they are all Khorne marines I think that has dictated what God Ill be following this time around, but I dont want to be locked into World Eaters, so I have decided to combine them with younger me's other interest of Occultism, Demonology and the Esoteric (I used to play Dark Angels and the fact they named the characters after Demons amused me, clearly Traitors). So it looks like Khornate Word Bearers or a renegade chapter that used to have worryingly close ties to the Ecclesiarchy before they fell. I dont really have much in the way of 'lore' for these yet, and I dont remember what I wrote all those years ago other than they were super edgy and called themselves 'The Damned' (I went through a bit of a dodgy Goth phase before I discovered Black Metal) so I get the fun part of starting from scratch (name will be changed as well) so I guess its time for me to dig out all my old books that would have gotten my door kicked in my Matthew Hopkins back in the day and start bashing ideas together into some form of background.