Out of Character Thread:

For general out of character questions, comments, and actions EXCEPT for dice rolls.

Hello :) Looks like we are making progress.

Nice! We're up and running again!!

GM, can you create a new thread 'Character Builder Tool'? I'll then copy and paste all the information I had previously posted on FB for that 40k character builder tool.

@BigBoom are you familiar with space ship combat in rogue trader. I realised I have never run it before.

Not really. I've played in one Rogue Trader starship combat and that was a while back. Also, the situation we're currently in might be more planetary vehicle combat rather than outer space starship combat. I'm completely unfamiliar with vehicle combat...

If a thread is marked GM only please refrain from posting in it. If you want things to be emended post here and I will do it.

There is a way to make it so we can't see the GM only thread. There is a permissions setting. It is in the Administrator Control Panel in the upper right corner.

1. Click on the Adminstrator Control Panel in the upper right corner
2. Add a SubForum
3. Click on the key icon (Permission icon).
4. That will take you to the Permission Page for GM Notes. You should double check and make sure it is the right Permission Page by looking at the bottom left corner and you will see Subform>GM Notes highlighted Red
4. You will see that each player has their name listed under USER. Next to their name is the word Create.
5. Click Create
6. Click Edit
7. There will be a list of permissions. Each permission has Yes-Inherent-No. In the Read box click No.
8. Scroll down a bit and click SAVE
9. Do that for each character.

It is only I don't want you to edit them. Look at them all you want. They contain very important information.

Ahh, got it.

As a note for the two of you that played on facebook, small things may be renamed. If you liked the old name better say and I'll change it.

Sorry it's taking so long to get the character put together... I was away from computer for a while, and tonight was my first real chance to put it together... then at the end I discovered that the excel file wasn't doing the 'save character sheet' thing properly. I'll probably need t o put the character together manually... but I'll do that tomorrow. It is though all planned out!

Yup, you should be able to dodge. Each round on our turn we get to take either one full action or two half actions. In addition, we all get one reaction per round that we perform when it's not our turn - typically a dodge or parry.

As for adding the strength bonus, yes, I believe you get to do that with a whip as it applies to all melee weapons and I couldn't find any notation saying that the strength modifier is excluded from whips.

Yep I agree with Bigboom.

You also take your toughness bonus off of damage as well as armour.

So peeps after this chapter what would you like to do? What goals do you have? What mix of combat, social exploration etc would you like to have? Would you like to amass you own fleet and become the rulers of a planet? Or are you fine raining a subordinate to Artimis?

I like what Ronda is thinking!

Oh I did, Pen drops armor rating and then you take Damage - (Remaining Armor + Toughness bonus) = Wounds right?
Do: Get Revenge
Goal: Revenge
Mix: Little of everything everyone else want's to do I guess.
Currently focused on revenge so whatever means really.
What about Wrath?

I'll try and flail (already rolled) with my whip from 3m away. I'm good... everything fine... *bleeds*.

Well fraggety frag frag!!!!! What the frag is up with Kuros's piloting fragging checks? He fails every fraggin' one of them...

Aaron sighs. "Owen, do your worst." he says resignedly.

Hahaha! Nice. Kuros went from being a hot shot pilot to a constantly shot down pilot...

When I get my ship he’s not driving...

Bahahahahahaha!

I seriously laughed out loud...

Let him drive, give him wheel. Make pedal that makes Vroom vroom sound. Hire a proper pilot and let them fly. Two problems solved.

You all are mean!

The Captian you were going to be a signed was Ronda so it was a way to get you away from Artimis.

It’s clear you needed a face if that’s how you’ve been talking to planetary governors...

Yep.

Double yep

Just a bit of clarification. Technically, only Rogue Traders have a warrant, giving them the legal power to do what they do. The rest of us are mostly employed by the Rogue Trader as officers on his ship (or in his fleet if he has more than one ship). So, lore wise, Val and Kuros don't have warrants.

I think what was meant was that your activity is being transferred to my warrant...

Gotcha! Can't wait to see Rondezvue!

Speaking of which, I'll have to copy and paste my character's backstory to my Gamer's Place character sheet...

Yep that's what I ment. Sorry if I made it unclear.

Ronda can xet up the meeting how ever she wishes.

I’ll give you all a chance to finish up your other business, as it’s late at night for me and I don’t want to start writing the overly elaborate first meeting I’m sure Ron will have in stall for you. I probably won’t post until my tomorrow midday (~ 12 hours from now).

Completely random thought as it just occurred to me. For Kuros, remember that you have fate points, which can also be used to reroll a failed roll. I keep forgetting about them as well, but may have come in handy for those piloting checks...

Ahhh. Is that what those are for? I really need to read the rules thoroughly.

Anyways, I kind of like the craziness of Kuros's ineptitude.

Does Val have any skills relating to Xenos knowledge? And/or the ability to bone shape?

Nope. Val has common lore tech and forbidden lore archeotech. But nothing related to xeno knowledge or xeno tech and nothing related to bone shaping.

We will start the meeting at Chapter 5.

We can perform any last actions in chapter 4 then I will do a short wrap up and we can go straight to chapter 5.

So we will wrap up chapter 5. You all gain 500xp including Ronda (I want to keep everyone at the same level).
Val gains 1 rank in Forbidden Lore: Dark Eldar Craft.
Kuros gains +10 to pilot checks to avoid crashing.
Nas gains +10 to toughness when resisting dark eldar poisons.

Alrighty, I've updated Val's character sheet. I've decided not to spend the 500xp yet as the next couple expenditures I'm considering require more than that.

Cool.

Aaron, do you need any help with Kuros' sheet or you all good?

Let me see if I can figure it out. Thanks

I'll go with simple upgrade purchase of WS and Toughness

Two upgrades into WS and Pilot, cause I might have to take the wheel...

Just waiting on you for chapter 5 to start.

Just checking...

This Eldar ship is a small spacecraft incapable of traveling through the Warp and limited to travel within a single solar system, right? If I remember correctly, it's a bomber where the crew complement would be something like a pilot, an engineer and several gunners? As opposed to a typical Rogue Trader starship, which is a huge capital ship with warp engines capable of interstellar travel through the Warp and crewed by tens of thousands?

Is the intent to have an unconventional campaign where we operate out of a short-ranged spacecraft initially? Or is the Eldar ship intended as just a transport to Rondez's actual starship?

Just want to make sure I understand the context before Val replies to Rondez.

I could have miss-read what was going on but it sounded like we were just getting this ship, unless you guys have another ship we can use...

Typically a Rogue Trader game starts out where the Rogue Trader already has a capital ship, which we the players build from scratch - same as building our own individual characters from scratch. But when this campaign started, we had no PC Rogue Trader and instead a NPC Rogue Trader so we never really bothered with the details of the NPC Rogue Trader's ship.

Also, typically, the non-Rogue Trader characters will be the Rogue Trader's "bridge crew," such as first officer, chief engineer, etc. Val and Kuros weren't quite up there in rank on the NPC Rogue Trader's ship... We were more like second or third string peons (but we've got potential!) who were sent on some missions of secondary importance to the NPC Rogue Trader.

I apologize if anything I'm stating above is stuff everyone already knows...

But now that we have Rondez and Nas, we've got a real PC Rogue Trader and enough people for a proper Rogue Trader campaign where we're looking to cheat, steal, barter, colonize, explore, and/or pirate our way into untold riches in the Koronus expanse!

And I imagine that with Kuros and Val reporting to Rondez, we're no longer third string peons, but rather we've been promoted to being a Rogue Trader's actual bridge crew. So everything that happened to Kuros and Val before now was kind of like a 'prequel' where Kuros and Val were naive and inexperienced but now, as the close associates of an actual Rogue Trader, the adventure truly begins!

Anyways, this is just what I was thinking. Overratedplayer, what's your guidance on how we should proceed - particularly with Rondez's ship?

Have you guys generated ship points and profit points yet? Cause from what I can tell that’s rather important...

Nope, we haven't generated a ship because we were just peons on the NPC Rogue Trader's ship. We did roll for the NPC Rogue Trader's profit factor just to allow some basis for us making some acquisitions.

But I would guess Rondez will have her own resources (ship points and profit factor) that is independent of Artemis Ragnarok? But I suppose that will depend on Rondez's backstory?

Yes Ronda will need to generate her profit factor and capital ship. The bomber is incapable of conventional warp travel but can use the Webway to simulate warp travel. I don't have the book with me currently so give me a little bit then I triple check everything.

Right I’ll roll it up...

So that’s 40 Base profit factor and 50 ship points

I’ll take a firestorm class frigate from into the storm. I’ll need to generate to ships complications...

Firestorm class Frigate
Dimensions: 1.8 km long, .3 km abeam at fins Mass: 6 megatonnes approx
Crew: 25000 crew, approx.
Accel: 4.4 gravities max. sustainable

Essential Components
Engine: Lathe-pattern Class 2b "Escort" Drive
Warp Engine: Miloslav G-616.b Warp engine
Gellar Field: Belecane-pattern 90.r gellar Field
Void Shields: Repulsor Shield
Bridge: Command bridge
Life Support: Vitae Pattern Life Sustainer
Crew Quarters: Voidsmen Quarters
Auger Array: R–50 Auspex Multi-band

Supplemental Components:
Cargo hold and Lighter bay
Murder-Servitors


Speed: 8
Manoeuvrability: +30
Detection: +13
Space: 40/40
Power: 33/47
Void Shields: 1
Armour: 18
Hull Integrity: 34
Weapon Capacity: Dorsal 1 (Mars Pattern Macrocannons) , Prow 1 (Titanforge Lance Weapon)
Turret Rating: 1
SP: 50

Weapon Stats
Mars Pattern Macrocannons:
Strength 3, Damage 1d10+2, Crit Rating 5, Range 6
Titanforge Lance Weapon
Strength 1, Damage 1d10+4, Crit Rating 3, Range 6

Special Rules:
Haste of the Damned: Reduce the duration of all warp passages by half. However, roll on the Warp Travel Encounters table every three days rather than every five days.
Tainted Field: Any Navigation Tests to pilot the ship through the warp gain a +10 bonus. However, subtract -20 from the result of any rolls made on the Warp Travel Encounters table to reflect the increased risk of warp incident using this type of Gellar field.
Charged particle repulsion effect: The ship does not suffer penalties to Manoeuvre Actions when travelling through nebulas, ice rings, plasma clouds or other celestial phenomena consisting primarily of small particles.
Enhanced Cogitator Relays: As long as the bridge remains undamaged, all Command Tests made by the captain gain +5 and all Ballistic Skill Tests to fire shipboard weapons gain +5. If this Component ever suffers a Critical Hit, it becomes unpowered on a 1d10 roll of 3 or higher.
Stellar Detection: Mapping protocols provide a +5 bonus to Manoeuvre Tests to avoid celestial phenomena.
Long Distance Scan: When working toward an Exploration objective, the players earn an additional 50 Achievement Points toward completing that objective.
Hidden Spaces: When working toward a Trade or Criminal objective, the players earn an additional 50 Achievement Points toward completing that objective.
Death-dealers: When used to conduct a Hit and Run Action, this enhancement provides a +20 bonus to the opposed Command Test.
Precise: When determining the Critical Hit inflicted by a Hit and Run Action they participated in, the character conducting the raid may select any result between 1 and 6, rather than rolling.

Ship generated, may I suggest moving that somewhere easier to find...

Also does anyone grant a bonus to our Profit Factor? Otherwise set it to 41.

The ships history is that it was paid for using borrowed money, I think it makes sense to make Artemis the benefactor...

Very nice! She sounds like a high speed, high risk warp travelling ship! As for where to keep the ship's stats, I'd suggest either with your Gamer's Plane character sheet where it would be visible to all. Or Overratedplayer can create a new thread to track the stats of your ships, vehicles (including the Eldar bomber), and other assets (such as troops, colonists, cargo, etc).

The Vault can be used for material goods and you have my permission to post the ships stats in there. For Human resources I'll make a new thread. Or you can create a new character sheet or both.

Question to those that understand the rules... why do the ship weapons have such low damage values? I would think weapons on a ship would do 20d6 damage or something instead they do less damage than my pistol.

Mars Pattern Macrocannons:
Strength 3, Damage 1d10+2, Crit Rating 5, Range 6

Infernal Pistol Damage 2d10+8 Pen -13

So Thomas, I am spending 250 Xp to upgrade Agi to Intermediate (+10)

I want to get +10 to dodge is that another 250? Is this correct?

The ships have their own scales. Personal weapons can’t even dent them. Take our ship for example it can only take 34 ship damage before we’re in trouble. And though it has a void shield (ignore the first hit) and 18 armour that macro battery can cause us some real problems. Then there are lances which just ignor armour all together...

As for your dodge question, you can buy dodge+10 for 200 xp after you reach rank 2 (7000 xp)

Aaron, the intermediate agility adds +5 to your agility score so all skills based on agility gets a boost, including your dodge skill.

As for spending XP on the dodge skill, look at page 69 (lucky you!) in the CRB. We're all still rank 1 characters, not rank 2. So at rank 1, you can spend 100 XP to become 'trained' at the dodge skill. Later, when we are rank 2,you can spend 200 XP to boost your dodge skill by +10.

And to recap how your Dodge skill value is calculated: Dodge is based on agility. Your agility is 43. However, you're currently not trained in Dodge, therefore, your dodge skill is set to half your agility, which is 21.

Now if you spend 250 XP on intermediate agility, that sets your agility to 48. Therefore, your dodge is recalculated to half your agility, which is 24.

As a voidmaster at rank 1, the dodge skill will cost you 100 XP. If you spend that, you are then 'trained' in dodge so you can use your full agility score for the dodge skill. This means your dodge skill is now set to 48.

Later, when we reach rank 2, you can spend 200 XP on dodge +10. This will boost your dodge from 48 to 58.

As for damage, yah, what Genisisect said. Starship hull poins and our character's 'wounds' are on a different scale...

I'm not sure what scale 'vehicle' weapons operate on though - weapons such as on our Eldar bomber, or on a tank, or a planetary jet fighter, or a space-worthy fighter. I'd have to check the rules for this one.

Thanks for the help all! I will definitely go to intermediate Agility and train in dodge. I guess I will be trained in Acrobatics then.

OK so ships are at a different scale. That makes total sense, kind of like the old Palladium Rifts with mega damage. But then my question is how much damage do they do to things like xenos and small vehicles? It should be auto kill or something?

I am thinking less about our frigate weapons than our eldar bomber. If that thing goes planet side can we use the weapons to target people and vehicles?

My old ship, "The Poet" was pretty shit when I was shooting at the reavers enslaved by the eldar. So I am trying to understand why. So with this new mission I can make decisions that make sense in context of both story and game mechanics. Thanks!!!!!

Checking the rules for fighter craft... fighters can’t really do anything except lock down other fighters and turrets, bombers can deal 1d10+4 damage per hit but it must breach armour (it does ignore void shields though...). Using knowledge from the tabletop game implies that ground vehicles have similar levels of ordinance to fighters so the probably can’t effect capital ships either, unless it’s one of the really big titans which they don’t put stat blocks out for anymore.

I just read your follow up question, and while I’m not the gm, if the bomber can do damage to a capital ship, it should essentially be able to (perhaps literally) nuke ground troops. It would be more of a question of accuracy though, it is a bomber after all, its good for hitting city blocks not indevidual troops. It might have some ship to ship weapons as well which might be better for that, but I don’t have any of those rules handy

Back in the old days when I played the 40K mini game the vehicles had heavy weapons. A heavy plasma cannon did more than a plasma pistol (or whatever it was called),and a heavy bolter did more than a bolter etc. So I am wondering why the Poet's weapons weapons weren't more like that? Looking at the heavy weapons in the armoury section I am guessing that the Poet probably was using the super mega frigate level weapons. And my guess is Owen (the GM) just let me use them for story but in reality The Poet's weapons would have been too deadly for planet use. Is that sort of correct Owen? Also Owen can you help clarify what small ships we have and what weapons are available? Perhaps we can just give the Bomber 2 heavy shuriken cannon that do 2d10 +10 damage (making this up) with Pen 10 or something?

I like your idea of accuracy. I would totally agree that a bomber is not going to help out in a battle. But even in the just ended Hive World chapter the Eldar ship had weapons but could we have used them? I would think in all honesty it would have made more sense to have stayed in the ship and just shot things... which is why Kuros got back in the ship and then crashed it.

One other question for overratedplayer: will we have a chance to attempt another acquisition before the start of our next mission?

Good question, I skipped reading that section since I figure I was just coming in as a contractor.

Val what's the total amount of XP you have so far?

Also what space points were spent on the ship when making it? Would just like to see where they were spent?

I didn’t record the space points on each individual component on the sheet, but the ship starts with 40 and when I was building it I kept a running tally. I could go through and add them all up if you want.

nah don't worry about it. As long as you used ship points then it's fine.

I'm going to be in the hospital for the next day and a bit so I won't be able to respond.

No worries! Hope it's not serious... Take care!

I'm in Normandy from tomorrow morning until Saturday on a battlefield tour, so I shan't be able to post. Alessander's going to follow on passively for now, or at least until I'm back and posting again.

As well as the introduction post in the main thread can you list the following things for me:
What job do you have on the ship and why?
What connection to Ronda do you have?
A list of friends and enemies.

Hey guys, I’m really sorry to say this but I think it’s probably for the best if I pull out of the game. I’ve been pretty much overwhelmed by exam work, and it’s sucking the enjoyment out of posting anything really, so rather than hold things up it’s probably for the best if I just drop out. Enjoy the game, it’s a solid concept and I think you’ll all enjoy it.

Thanks for letting us know. Take care.

yeah it got slow...

Still around...

I’m about

Thomas and i know Owen through FB maybe we can ask what's up?

*New Monthly scan for life?*

I'm still here

Still around

Mostly alive

Sorry guys I have been swamped with work and have had zero motivation to run any games. I have finished up my work and am now on holidays for the next little while, and if you guys still want, I am ready and committed to running again.

Let's do it!

Does anyone know who to delete a game on the forum? Or know who I can contact to get that done?

PM Keleth, if it's an old game there's a retire button off the game details section for GMs I believe.

Yeah on the game page there should be a button to retire a game, this effectively deletes it as it kills all the links to the sub forum. (I think it still persists for a while though, as Kaleth seems to be able to recover lost threads.)