Warhammer 40,000—Rogue Trader RPG Hardcover (based on
1
review)
Fantasy Flight Games
List Price:
$59.95
Our
Price:
$53.96
In Rogue Trader, you take on the role of a Rogue Trader and his most trusted counsellors, empowered by an ancient warrant of trade to seek out profit and plunder amongst unexplored regions of space. Your ship will take you to new worlds and uncharted reaches of the void, where you will encounter rivals, pirates, aliens, and possibly even creatures of the warp. You will acquire and spend great wealth and riches, and fame or infamy will follow. You will discover ancient and forgotten mysteries and search out the unknown to find lost human worlds or never before seen celestial phenomena. You must survive the dangers of space, for beyond the threat of vacuum and deadly radiation lurk things Man was never meant to find.
To be part of a Rogue Trader’s crew is to stand on the threshold of nearly unlimited opportunity. Vast profits await for you and your fellow Explorers to find and claim. Fame and fortune reward the bold, but the unwary find only an anonymous death.
Fast character creation to get you into the game quickly, including a lifetime of possibilities with an expanded origin path system
Dynamic rules for all eventualities that let you handle everything from social interaction to deadly fast-paced combat, starships and psychic powers to a system of profit and influence
Comprehensive background on Rogue Traders, written by Warhammer 40,000 novelist and GW Design Studio member Andy Hoare
Build your own starship or begin play with one of the six pre-generated vessels
Begin your players’ path to wealth and glory with a complete starting adventure that puts the Explorers right into the middle of the action. The Rogue Trader core rulebook contains everything you need to start your adventure in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Pros:
The Acquisition check system is brilliant. Instead of counting thrones, you just find a reasonable market and make a roll. Modified by the quality, availability and relative quantity of what you want, this system covers everything from buying a nice pistol to buying an army of mercenaries with their CnC materials.
The setting is epic in scope. Despite the fact that the Imperium of Man is a baroque, alien and bizarre place, the writers have actually managed to make the unexplored places of the galaxy even more alien and strange. There are a lot of thinly veiled references to H.P. Lovecraft (which is the only way I can imagine to make the Imperium seem banal) and you can reasonably expect to be traveling through "cyclopean ruins" fairly early on in the game.
Cons:
I hate the character creation system. I hated the random system in Dark Heresy, and I hate the "origin path" system in this game. Designed to produce a character that has a "reasonable" background, the results are too archetypal to fit into a game moved along by exceptional and unusual people. Luckily, you can ignore this system with no penalty.
I dislike the amount of charts in the game. Some of them, especially the Perils of the Warp, or the Critical Hits, are integral to the game. This would not be so bad if they were reprinted at the back of the book, as is done with most games that rely on charts, but they aren't.
Finally, I am not pleased with the paucity of NPC's in the back of the book. The Dark Heresy rulebook had 30 pages on NPCs, covering everything from daemon hosts to arbites. Rogue Trader only has 14 pages for this material, and much of it is redundant flavor text from other chapters.
Overall:
3.5 stars (and then just slightly more 'cause I'm a fanboy). Great game. The solid mechanics and great setting will provide many hours of fun. It is a bit annoying to prepare to run, though, and one would think that the high price tag would not require more purchases to clear these annoyances.
Recent Posts
