Rogue Trader

Chances are many of you have heard of, if not played, one of Fantasy Flight Games Warhammer 40,000 RPGs, whether Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch or Black Crusade.

I'll avoid general introductions in that case and start by saying over the last week or so I've been delving through an array of Rogue Trader books preparing for a campaign.

In the past I have only ever ran a single Dark Heresy game and never actually played in any of the games. In truth my opinion at the time wasn't high.
Partly I simply wanted to get away from Dungeons and Dragons and found to rules too similar for my liking (I'm fairly sure this is intentional and a benefit to most players), partly I simply missed the excitement and wonderful atmosphere of combat in the old Inquisitor system and partly because, while Fantasy Flight Games are fantastic at background, settings and 40k accuracy they seem to lack something in rule writing..

Don't get me wrong, the games are good, fun to play and well worth writing!
Thing is, I'm most certainly above average when it comes to analysing system rules. I've organised and ran countless RPG campaigns as Games Masters, Arbitrators and whatever other titles systems give and have thus been heavily involved in figuring the workings of the rules. Moreso since unlike some DM's I tend to heavily plan scenarios and prepare for all possible outcomes, so that my notes end up being overly extreme and detailed. On top of that I write and design rules for a Live Action Roleplay system and have been doing so for years.
My point is, I know what to look for and have a good eye for detail, not to mention too much spare time to spend going through books figuring things out.

Now I'm returning to try Rogue Trader and while I've picked up a few peculiar factors in the books which I plan to house-rule my way around things look to be good.
Most of the group haven't done a forum based game before, so progress'll be slow but hopefully fun. Luckily as a forum based game, I can sort most of the rule parts myself sorting out ways around small rule bits, although I do plan to hold true to the main rules heavily as much as possible.

The main hiccup was sorting a way to run a group without a Rogue Trader, Navigator or Astropath without such NPC's taking power away from the players. It took a bit of time but we're there and ready to start!

Wish us luck and feel free to give us any advice on the game, or comment on my words here as always.



P.s. I know its been a week since I claimed to have returned, let us add 'major computer issues' near of my list as to why I way away and follow that with my buying an entirely new PC very recently.