[RT] The Silent Architect (OOC/Discussion)

[Mazer Rackham]

3 minutes ago, Lord_Ikka said:

Hmmm- I think a Void-master (Master of Space or Augurs) might be fun. A craggy, ex-Imperial Navy Lieutenant who demands his section follows naval discipline. Earned his way onto the ship (and out of the Navy), for his penchant for leading boarding actions that were successful but... approved after the fact. 

 

Going to decline trying out the RT himself, I'm better with a secondary character than a full leader.

 

Sounds good. Can't wait to meet him.

[A.T.]

The Astropath (an old unused pre-gen) now has their own sheet. A latent psyker who was revealed when in the midst of a daemonic breach that they may or may not have caused, their power flared up to drive the daemons back into the warp.

 

Having witnessed the true visage of the Emperor of Mankind they are now armed with unshakable faith, a laspistol, a stick, and the ever non-specific power of the Emperors Tarot.

 

-----

 

I had forgotten just how few abilities starting characters had :p  Though they are somewhat useful at bolstering the other characters and fending off daemons, and get decidedly more dangerous by rank 2.

Edited January 9 by A.T.

[Mazer Rackham]

Excellent!

 

So, our crew are nicely firming up. Another summary for ease of reference:

• Astropath - AT
• Void Mistress (Gunnery) - Tro
• Arch Militant (and Pilot) - MG
• Void Master (Helmsman) - Ikka
• (Possible) Navigator - Xin
• (Probable) Property Redistributor - Lysi

 

Available (and will be played by NPC's if no-one takes them):

• Explorator
• Missionary (Modified to be mentally flexible)
• Void Master (Augurs)
• Seneschal
• Rogue Trader

 

Edited January 10 by Mazer Rackham
Updated

[Trokair]

  

On 1/8/2024 at 1:01 PM, Mazer Rackham said:

Additional Gear:

 

All Players, when signed on as Crew of the 'Deadmeat' gain the following items:

• Retainer's Uniform (Good Quality Naval Uniform in the RT's dynastic colours)
• 1 x Flash hood (Grants Resistance (Heat), Head Location Only)
• Retainer's Credentials (ID Documents etc)
• Wardroom Steel (A small knife with the ship's crest, Good Quality)
• 100 Throne Gelt (a personal bounty for sundries).

 

So what are the Dynastic colour(s) of this RT?

[Mazer Rackham]

Not really decided yet, since the RT is still a little bit up in the air. I'm open to suggestions 

 

Dress regulations do not apply to the PC's, but when entertaining or parading, the PC's will be expected to break out their most flamboyant (and colour-coded if possible) togs. The uniforms are hence issued in case you need something in a pinch.

 

Mechanicus personnel obviously wear red robes and standard kit.

 

It is post midnight, so I'll PM the RT interested party to see if they want to continue on that road.

 

Either way, please consider the Rogue Trader Character filled.

 

Edited January 10 by Mazer Rackham

[Xin Ceithan]

I can‘t seem to find most of my RT / DH books … they are likely spread in boxes  all over the place as we began to refurbish the house … 

 

BTW Does anyone else have the problem that the linked PDFs  won’t display some of the text - especially in the inserts / boxes?

[Mazer Rackham]

1 hour ago, Xin Ceithan said:

BTW Does anyone else have the problem that the linked PDFs  won’t display some of the text - especially in the inserts / boxes?

 

Do you mean the ones in the google folder? I know I've had to download a different pdf reader (Foxit) to handle the RT books, since my adobe/webpage one keeps stopping and stuttering on page change, even though it can handle the DW books, which are bigger. 

[A.T.]

Something from my old notes with regards to choosing one of the smaller ship classes :

 

Raiders - Cheap but cramped. For players that want lots of money and a big gun.

Frigates - More space, less firepower. For players who want to start with a variety of supplemental components, but it will struggle in combat.

Light Cruisers - Varied and expensive. More firepower than a raider, more space than a frigate, not enough cash to outfit it day 1.

Cruiser and up - full warships, destitute owners.

 

And the odd one out - the Orion - transport/frigate hybrid

A full 15 SP less than a frigate but just as large, fast as a raider and even more fragile - all that excess wealth gets you a lot of best quality components while you work it down to a more reasonable starting profit factor (though no more archeotech than anyone else) and you can do things the frigates mostly cannot such as mounting torpedoes and fighter bays.

 

Edited January 10 by A.T.

[Mazer Rackham]

1 hour ago, A.T. said:

And the odd one out - the Orion - transport/frigate hybrid

 

Nice post mate.

 

I really do like the Orion - I think it's called a 'sloop'?

 

EDIT: It's a 'Star Clipper'. durp.

Edited January 10 by Mazer Rackham

[A.T.]

1 hour ago, Mazer Rackham said:

I really do like the Orion

 

It's the ship where you reach for the 'into the storm' book for the expanded warrant and ship background rules to spend the points - at a base cost of 25 (or just 20 if you are going servitors) you really have a lot of space to buy big. Overcharged castellan shields even give you a chance of surviving a hit.

 

Alternatively to buy up the most elite crew there is - it is entirely possible to run an Orion with a crew rating of 60+, but that's really for player setups that are spending all of their actions performing special actions rather than driving the ship, and we have at least three skilled pilots/gunners who will always be better than NPCs.

 

One odd side effect of ultra-high crew ratings is that the almost never run out of attack vessels - a crew rating of 60 with a pilots chamber and Imperial attack craft would lose 1d10-9 vessels if driven off/blown away during a strike. Though the Orion can only carry a handful in the first place.

 

Edited January 10 by A.T.

[Mazer Rackham]

Alright Crew.

 

I have everyone tidied up/sorted out and have no further player interest at this time, and with all the talk of ships and shipbuilding, will move to that phase. The first task is to determine Profit Factor, and bearing in mind A.T's points, I shall be restricting the roll for this to 1D8.

 

However, I did warn that since the Rogue Trader is an NPC (there was some interest, as I said, but it's complicated), there will be a reduction in the PF score of 1D5 + 5 (1 for each missing crewmember).

 

Your Rogue Trader and Captain has been generated.

 

PF Malus:

1d5 = 4 + 5 = 9

 

Any Chargen histories that provide bonuses to PF may be used cumulatively/communally to offset this difference as normal.

 

The roll will now be made by one of the Crew. Please go ahead and discuss who that will be.

[A.T.]

36 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

The first task is to determine Profit Factor, and bearing in mind A.T's points, I shall be restricting the roll for this to 1D8

 

1D8 or 1D80 ?

 

A profit factor of 8 would struggle to buy ammo for a stub gun :p

 

Normally it's 90 (correction from 100) minus the cost of the ship and all components, with the GM capping a high and low value to avoid merchant princes and destitute paupers

i.e. players with a typical frigate (50 SP) would have a remaining profit factor of 90-50 = 40

Edited January 10 by A.T.

[Mazer Rackham]

5 minutes ago, A.T. said:

 

1D8 or 1D80 ?

 

A profit factor of 8 would struggle to buy ammo for a stub gun :p

 

Normally it's 100 (or other suitable start) minus the cost of the ship and all components, with the GM capping a high and low value to avoid merchant princes and destitute paupers

i.e. players with a typical frigate (50 SP) would have a remaining profit factor of 100-50 = 50

 

Ah, I've misunderstood that then, I thought it was a d10 roll, hence the d8.

 

I was looking at p.34 RT Core?

 

Edited January 10 by Mazer Rackham

[A.T.]

15 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

Ah, I've misunderstood that then, I thought it was a d10 roll, hence the d8.

I was looking at p.34 RT Core?

 

You'll note that each line matches up to a profit factor and ship point total - two values that equal 90 when combined

 

More typically the GM would just specify the wealth of the rogue trader as a range (i.e. no more than 50, no less than 40) and the players would have to fit their ship into what is left.

 

 

Edit - looks like under the core rogue trader rules the total profit/ship value is 90 points, which rather rules out all but the tightest 60/30 light cruiser split and makes the orion somewhat more attractive.

Edited January 10 by A.T.

[Mazer Rackham]

From what I gather you can slap the unused SP value onto the PF as well, so there's an offset there too.

[A.T.]

Sample orion transport added - maximizing the exotic gear from the ship warrant options to spend some extra SP.

 

At 30 base cost with plenty of unused power/space before reductions for quality it is something of a blank slate, more than capable of fitting some opportunity-creating hardware like salvage systems, cloudmining equipment, luxury quarters and stealth fields.

 

Its macrocannon armament isn't going to scare anyone but a few torpedoes might.

 

 

Edited January 10 by A.T.

[Mazer Rackham]

Nice example AT, I encourage the players to have a look over everything, and then shoot questions, suggestions, discussions and queries and we can move things along.

[Lysimachus]

I've not really had a thorough look over of the Into the Storm stuff, but it sounds pretty good to me?

 

Re: the Servitor Crew, what does that do? Do we have to take Crew Quarters at all? Or is it still a requirement, so you might as well take the worst option? (which I assume the Bilges are?) Is low Crew Morale going to cause problems?

 

Edit: also, what about the Quarters used by the RT, ship's officers and PCs? Does that mean they are likewise of low standards?

 

 

My only other thought is, if it's so much structurally weaker than other ships, is it worth spending a few SP (depending on how many we get!) and Space to strengthen the hull a bit? (I know there is Reinforced Bulkheads - although that lowers Maneuverability by a few points, so there might be better options that I haven't noticed?)

 

Edited January 10 by Lysimachus

[Xin Ceithan]

4 minutes ago, Lysimachus said:

 

 

Re: the Servitor Crew, what does that do? Do we have to take Crew Quarters at all? Or is it still a requirement, so you might as well take the worst option? (which I assume the Bilges are?) Is low Crew Morale going to cause problems?

 

I was wondering what kind of sailor would sign up on a hull named the “Deadmeat”.

Looks like we just found out …

[Mazer Rackham]

4 hours ago, A.T. said:

Edit - looks like under the core rogue trader rules the total profit/ship value is 90 points

 

I'm assuming that rolling on the Table 1-5 on p.34 RT: Core is ok, then? I'll restrict it to a D5 instead of D8, that way there's more PF to play with, given the penalties. Bear in mind we're running an intro adventure, and there's always a chance to move up in a later campaign. This is more about learning the ropes and settling in a foundation. I'd rather not get too bogged down in it.

 

If we're set, lads, go ahead and decide who makes that roll, then we can start getting into the nuts and bolts, using AT's examples in the googledrive as reference points.

[Machine God]

100 Thrones?

 

What are these for?

 

I haven't seen any Throne Costs for any equipment anywhere in the RT book, only weight and availability.

[Trokair]

26 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

If we're set, lads, go ahead and decide who makes that roll, then we can start getting into the nuts and bolts, using AT's examples in the googledrive as reference points.

 

I nominate De Carabas.

[Mazer Rackham]

@Machine God It's just a token RP item, like taking the King's Shillings kind of thing. It's just to let you have a pocket to buy RP stuff with, especially since all you lads meet up in the hive and aren't going to board HMS Deadmeat yet, so you need pie and pint vouchers. :)

Edited January 10 by Mazer Rackham

[Machine God]

5 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

@Machine God It's just a token RP item, like taking the King's Shillings kind of thing. It's just to let you have a pocket to buy RP stuff with, especially since all you lads meet up in the hive and aren't going to board HMS Deadmeat yet, so you need pie and pint vouchers. :)

@Mazer Rackham - Thank you GM for the clarification.

 

So its a question of trading in weapons and gear for more ammo and togs using the DH costs then.

 

 

[Mazer Rackham]

4 minutes ago, Machine God said:

@Mazer Rackham - Thank you GM for the clarification.

 

No worries.

 

4 minutes ago, Machine God said:

So its a question of trading in weapons and gear for more ammo and togs using the DH costs then.

 

No bud, you don't need to do that in RT. Think of it more like in Black Crusade - in RT you get a Profit Factor Acquisition Check, so you use the whole party's PF with bonuses or penalties of quality and availability to acquire the item.

 

The gifted Thrones are just window dressing for interaction to throw in a begging bowl, buy a burger etc.