Req: Any DM looking to run a Rogue Trader / Warhammer 40k Game?

Hi there, I'm looking for a DM who might be interested in running/planning a rogue trader game... perhaps with limited access to stuff taken the other warhammer 40k rpg books? There is a dearth of play by post games for this system... Thanks!

I am still looking for this, thanks!

Still looking for an active game, or a GM to run one, thanks!

Posting a reply here to say that the current GM has been kind of flaking on us, and I am looking for someone who could be...

1.) Co-GM
2.) Backup GM
or
3.) Replacement GM

as the case may be (not entirely sure which would be the case yet!)

Thanks!

I'm thinking about starting my own game of Rogue Trader. If that interests you, let me know please.

@AM: What can you tell me about the overarching plot/theme/story of this game? My idea is very very much a theme game... and yours will be MW play by post, 100% sure (hence you putting the message here, right)?

Defs gonna be plenty of naval engagements. I would prefer if the group takes a powerful ship and low Profit Factor, to emphasize the exploration, danger, and isolation themes that are inherent to Rogue Trader; those themes will feature prominently in any case, but choice of ship and components isn't mine.

As with all 40k games, I would like to play up the elements of duty, faith, and triumph through adversity. Ruins, ancient guardian machines and traps, natural hazards, and Warp threats will be more prominent than xenos.

In brief, I'm thinking of taking elements from Master and Commander and Indiana Jones, if that helps it all make sense.

What theme did you have in mind?

The theme? There are a few ways to describe it. One way is, 'choose a goal or three for how to affect some sort of drastic change of the setting. Do your level best to make that change. Good luck!'

A longer description could be 'take a setting that is very much designed to be stagnant (or at least very, very, very stable), and see if it is possible to actually affect positive change on it -- especially if that change was intended to brighten some of the darkness (!). Or, the group could fail miserably... but trying would be fun.'

Yet another way of saying this is that the characters are okay with committing large heresies and crimes out in the Koronus Expanse, with the ultimate goals of each character wanting to change something big about the big, stagnant/stable/decaying Imperium, and everyone is working together to achieve the groups' mutual goals.. Maybe a group similar to Logicians (the people who follow 'make a new golden age of technology at any cost'!), but with many more scruples in where and how they do their research, and smaller overall goals than the Logicians. Of course, every player has some idea of where they want to go; after all, it shouldn't just be ONE player's (or their character's) goals! But the idea is to make it quite 'make new tech' and quite character driven.

Consider, the largest change I can think about is probably when Magos Arkhan Land found the designs for his Crawler. Not the Speeder or the Raider, the Crawler. You know, that tractor is used all over just about every agri world in the Imperium, and dramatically increased the quality of life of a lot of people. Now consider a Rogue Trader who wants to 'find' (whether they find it or, uh, 'make' it from reverse engineering archeotech and xenotech or engaging in [gasp] iterative research! Something you could only safely do in the Expanse, with a Warrant so people don't ask questions...) the Next Big STC Design, and get in on the ground floor on manufacturing / distribution / trading / licensing of it... and make a whole TON of money, and bring a few points of light into the Imperium (and Humanity)! That could be one of the goals regarding 'changing the Imperium', but other ones could work too.

The story that I came up with was the Rogue Trader / Nobleman is an idealist who has specifically looked for like minded, technically heretical idealists, who have various ideas and goals which are relevant to his interests, which mostly involve finding ways of leveraging his family's traditional duty: going out into unexplored areas and finding tech and artifacts to bring back. The basic idea is to figure out ways of understanding these artifacts, and maybe not immediately handing ALL of them off to the Ad Mech for the bounty his family gets for doing that (as they have been doing the past few centuries), and adding a few more 'steps' to the process, such that the family can make a more lasting profit. And also, perhaps bring some hope and dynamism to some people that he believes it is important to help; after all, he views the Imperium as stagnant and in need of an injection of mobility/hope/dynamism, and he primarily sees _actually understanding technology and iterating and such_ as a way to do that. He has some links to some very minor Ad Mech mini-cults that have similar ideas, but are mostly keeping their heads down so that they don't get purged with fire.

So basically 'a Rogue Trader goes out into the expanse, finds archeotech, finds xenotech, engages in iterative research, comes up with plans for 'stuff', tries to con the Ad Mech into believing that the designs are STC based, and thereby able to be fast-tracked to broader use, and get in on the ground floor for making money spreading this life-and-society-changing tech around the Imperium.'

I certainly understand the desire to make meaningful change to the setting. When I'm a player, it's usually one of my primary motivations for caring about the game. Of course, I've never actually gotten to do that, but that's another story. Or seventy.

I will say, on the other hand, that what you have in mind might not work very well as it stands, largely because I understand the setting differently than you seem to, though it's certainly possible that you're just expressing your character's point of view, which is a whole nuther layer of awesome.

Specifically, other than a few cardinal sins that only the highest Magi are allowed to attempt to research, the Adeptus Mechanicus makes extensive use of the scientific method, and new inventions are fairly common. The barriers to implementation of new ideas really have nothing to do with the Mechanicum directly; the 'problem,' so to speak, is significantly more complicated than simple oppression. The most basic impediment is that "big discoveries" are harder to make when the body of human knowledge is greater, but there are a lot of other things in the way of adapting new, better technology, most prominent among them a highly regressive and suspicious body politic and lack of infrastructure necessary to mass produce and maintain the technology in question.

None of this is to say that your idea is bad or to reject it, but rather instead to tell you, ahead of time, that the obstacles and enemies you see as being "in the way" of your character's goal do not mesh with the obstacles and enemies I see as being "in the way." I don't want to create false expectations, you see.

Indeed, on the contrary, I very much like the idea of the group exploring the galaxy for ancient tech-relics (or xenos-tech, you heretic =D) and attempting to, rather than simply sell those relics, somehow copy or reproduce them, in order to improve quality of life and the Imperium in general from the bottom up. It's a goal that appeals to me on several personal levels.

Basically what I'm saying is that the Adeptus Mechanicum would be less of an antagonist than I read you as making it out to be. Luddite repression of ideas and technology comes much more from secular government on Imperial worlds and from the basic ignorance of the population at large.

Do you have other players already on deck, so to speak?

I may be interested in this game, as would another gentlemen of which I am acquainted. That campaign idea is right up his alley.