DM Alexander Kilcoyne's Rogue Trader (Warpstorm Trilogy) (Inactive)

Game Master Alexander Kilcoyne

With Radavel gone - the key is replacing the Rogue Trader position... to which I'd lean towards asking Iago to step up?

Outside of that I'm happy to keep plodding along (though I'll be scarce from 14-30 Dec as I travel home for christmas).

I'm all in. I have a couple of ideas concerning the RT position "replacement", but I'm in class at the moment. I'll post again later on today with some more clarification.

But yeah, I'm still here for the long hall.

Sounds good. My pacing will pick up from next Monday as I am adding another member of staff to my one man band department :).

And I am as ever stubbornly determined to keep going.

As for the Rogue trader being gone...this is nothing, last time we had to replace him three times I seem to recall, eh AK?

So, my general ideas on how to go about replacing the RT role:

As mentioned, we can have either Navis or Iago do it. Story-wise, I like either and think there are a couple of ways this could happen. I think all we need is for the Tyr dynasty to have some reason/excuse to choose them to carry on as the holder of the Warrant. Perhaps there's no suitable heir and the dynasty has them marry into it? Or just choose them through some other means? I'm sure we could come up with something appropriate.

I don't know how we'd handle it mechanics-wise (the game doesn't have a way to switch careers), but it doesn't seem too hard. Progressing down the RT career at Rank 2 on seems like it could work. With attribute advances as per the RT career. It comes with some disadvantages (like having to buy certain things at a higher cost) and some advantages, but doesn't seem like it'd lead to anything crazy for either character.

Another option is to open recruitment to fill in the character roles we're missing. One of which could be the next heir to the Tyr dynasty. Who would be sent along when Silas sacrifices himself for the greater good of the Dynasty.

I think I'm leaning towards Iago because I think it'd be an interesting story and a good fit. I'll admit that I'm also intrigued with the idea of replacing the Voidmaster role with a hot-shot pilot recruited from the remains of a nearly destroyed squadron of local forces (or imperial navy, or mercenaries, depending on the specific character's backstory). But we'll see what we get.

In any case, I actually like the idea of replacing characters during the oncoming action. Since it binds the characters closer to the tragedy that's about to befall Damaris.

I'm actually impressed that we haven't lost *more* players in the downtime. Replacing three seems like it wouldn't be all that difficult. I'm certainly fine with Castor's character remaining while he's busy with work/school/residency. A quiet astropath isn't necessarily a bad thing. :)

Haha, I just wish I wasn't so damn greedy, because both the Tyr family members each have a very nice pistol I'd dearly love to get my hands on.
At the same time, it's better to earn my gear in other ways.
But damn, that's an Archeotech pistol she has...

Bah, personal gear in Rogue Trader is just window dressing. To be fair, an archaeotech pistol is *really* good dressing.

I'd strongly prefer that the position of Rogue Trader is fundamentally resolved and handed on before we get back and started again.

While it might be thematically more appropriate to have people die and be replaced during the conflict... we're a long way from the conflict right now. Retaining Silas until war descends means that all of the additional maneuvering and alliancing has to be done with a DMPC'd Rogue Trader... which isn't ideal in my book as they are a centrally important role.

I'm not sure that's entirely true. At least as far as this game goes. Silas is supposed to be a young, intelligent, but not that experienced RT. It wouldn't be too bad to have him DMPC'd as listening to his advisers and following their lead.

And it's a much better story that the person talking about sacrifice actually die during the battle, or a battle.

I'm open to whatever the group decides, but as far as my preference goes, it's that we don't rework things right away.

I'd disagree vehemently and overwhelmingly... and I'd hope that AK would agree with me in part.

To pass on the role of the final arbiter in decisions to AK puts a greater amount of work on his plate as well as making us more passive in responding to situataions. Rather than coming to a decision as a group and rolling with it (and truly owning both the bonus and malus related) - we'd be strapping on the railroad tracks and essentially asking AK to just tell us what we're doing.

If you need it to be story relevant... have him assassinated overnight. Or have him drink himself into oblivion high on drugs and drowning in amasec... but put the power and control back in our hands rather than the DMs.

I don't want to get too argumentative here, but I disagree...also quite strongly. The Rogue Trader is *not* that important a position. Especially now that we're in the planning stage of the War. And we really shouldn't treat it like it's that important. (Not that it isn't important at all, just that it shouldn't be thought of as the end all be all of the decisions the *group* has to make.)

We have a golden opportunity here to carry on in a way that's both thematically appropriate and one that makes for a good story. Ret-conning causes more problems than it solves more often than not, and here it would cause quite a few more given how influential Silas was in our current situation (both good and bad).

I'm not sure how close the battle is to actually arriving, but I'm guessing our planning isn't supposed to be *that* long and involved. Also, we all have separate roles at the moment that will have little involvement from Silas. Beside being the final decision for what we do about the General, there wasn't much else we were going to let Silas decide. And even that wasn't really up to him. I'm not sure what other alliances/maneuvers we had to handle, but I'm pretty sure we've covered all the major ones. Anything else we have to do can be handled by giving it into the hands of the characters that are still around. (As an example, if we have to get the aid of Count so-and-so and Navis turns out to be the best person to do that, he'd have free reign to do it as he sees fit. Silas, after all, is going to be too busy doing whatever other organizing he needs to do to micromanage the planning we'll be doing.)

The bottom line is that the group already has control. Frankly, we have even more control now than we did before. I trust AK to be able to handle Silas until we can get rid of the character in an appropriate way. Again, if this is what the rest of the group wants, I'll go with it. But my vote is that we continue on until an appropriate time to kill the character off.

I'd personally back out of the game rather than continue without a Rogue Trader firmly in place... but again, that's just me.

Appreciate the input guys. I am inclined to not DMPC Silas, will think on solution today and chew it over.

Just posting to note a few things:

One, I'm still here and alive. :)

Two, I trust that AK will come up with a good solution and will hopefully be agreeable for everyone.

And three, I hope everyone is going to have happy holidays ahead!

New IT staff member is here and being trained up! Going to be making a very large post before or on this weekend and it should be plain sailing (at a relaxed Christmas pace) from here on out :)

My medical residency's board certification exam is over (I passed, in case you were wondering) so I will be returning to active duty soon enough. As soon as I have rested and cleared my head and also caught up with what has happened in the game so far. Thank you for your patience and understanding. :-)

Outstanding!

Sorry all. Spilt tea in my laptop and I can no longer update from it. New one is ordered, with me in January (posting from work right now).

That sounds horrible! I hope the rest of your holidays go better!

Just checking in to say that I hope everyone had a good holiday!

Same. New laptop is up, moving my Maptools and other vital info across and aiming to start making daily updates again this week.

Hi all. Started the update routine on Friday but then spent the weekend getting my gf back here with me. Should be posting tomorrow, if work isn't too brutal. Sorry for the delay.

No worries. It's tough to get the momentum up again when looking at a pbp game. Take your time. We've waited this long. :)

Shall we do a quick headcount and see if we are all still here?

That's an "Aye" for me.

Nope - not here, never was.

Back from the dead as well, if you'll have me.

I'm going to be on leave for the next two weeks, so will probably be going out of my mind with free time. In any case, if we do start up again soon, be prepared for me to be really excited.

With that said, it looks like we're still missing a Missionary and the Rogue Trader. And we *may* be missing an Astropath and Navigator?

I think both are accounted for (Navigator is a friend of mine).

Just trying to work out a decent medium to put the map of the city on, want it to be interactive so you can place armies in locations!

Still around, yes. Kind of lost touch with the whole premise due to being a while since last we played, but I am confident I will get back into it once we get going again.

Waiting patiently in the wings.

I have had best luck putting the map up via google documents, and then being able to add multiple layers of images so we can move around markers.

I think both are accounted for (Navigator is a friend of mine).

Just trying to work out a decent medium to put the map of the city on, want it to be interactive so you can place armies in locations!

That's great! That means we're only down two. A good sign, I think.

Welcome back all. I'm sure it'll take us all a little bit to get back into the right mindset for these characters since we've had a long break, but I'm very excited.

As for Acquisitions, if anyone has any suggestions as to what would be useful for personal acquisitions at this point, throw them out there. Given our PF of 19, I'm a little hesitant to go after anything even common. Though I guess Iago could use a Chrono. ;)

On acquisitions - remember we've sunk PF into the venture, so we're struggling a bit for cash right now.

Here is the current Acquisitions calculator:

Navis Commerce: 58 = Success, with bonus degree from Seeker of Lore
Base Profit Factor: 34-15 = 19

Modified PF Table:
TAM = Total Acquisition Modifier
TAM : Merchant Commerce : Deg of Fail / Success : PF Adjustment : Final PF
+110 to +81 : 15 : F with 3 : +10 : 29
+80 to +41 : 20 : F with 3 : +10 : 29
+40 to +11 : 25 : F with 2 : +8 : 27
+10 to -19 : 30 : F with 2 : +8 : 27
-20 to -39 : 35 : F with 1 : +6 : 25
-40 to -59 : 40 : F with 1 : +6 : 25
-60 to -79 : 45 : F : +4 : 23
-80 to -99 : 50 : S : +2 : 21
-100 to 109 : 55 : S : +2 : 21
-110 to 130 : 60 : S with 1 : 19

Minimum TAM for auto success is +71
Maximum TAM before auto failure is -25

Example Acquisition Layout:
Acquisition X/Y:
Five Common Inferno Grenades (ItS p116)
TAM = Trivial (+20) Common (0) Rare (-10) = +10
Modified PF 42 +10 = 52: 1d100 ⇒ 21

Further on Acquisitions - as we've got a starting PF of 19, we can't go for anything too cool here. I'd suggest going for some low hanging fruit and aiming for a TAM of around +31 or better (making the acquisition at least a 50/50)

Frag grenades are Common - giving a Blast (4) 2d10 X attack
Exterminator Cartridges (one shot flamer from ItS) are Common and could be useful
Det-cord is Common
Promethium (ItS) is Abundant... and could be used for fortifications

Even buying up a big stock of rations could be used at some point as well.

AK - what does the 'personal' only acquisitions entail? - are we limited to quantities that we can get?

I'm not sure I follow your Example Acquisition Layout, so I have a few questions that I hope might clear it up.

Acquisition X/Y:
Is this to denote how many Acquisitions that a particular character has made in a session? So as to know when the -10 to subsequent acquisitions takes place? For example, the first acquisitions would be labeled: Acquisition 1/2:, and the second Acquisition: 2/2:, with the second taking a -10 penalty?

Five Common Inferno Grenades (ItS p116)
I assume this means Five "supplies" of Inferno Grenades? When buying Ammo, Grenades, or other expendables you buy a supply of it. (pg. 273) When leaving the ship you can take as much as would be reasonable. (Usually "three", to go along with the Rule of Three, but more or less sometimes makes sense. You may not want to carry around 3 Inferno Grenades along with all your other gear, for example.) So this would be to supply a squad sized unit with Inferno Grenades?

TAM = Trivial (+20) Common (0) Rare (-10) = +10
Modified PF 42 +10 = 52:
And last, you're using a sample PF here, correct? If we were using our own PF for this, it would be a Modified PF of 27 (Because the TAM is +10), and then +10 (TAM) for a total of 37? Is that correct? Or am I reading your table incorrectly?

---
So, for examples, if Iago wanted an Exterminator Cartridge and a Best-Quality Chrono his layout would be as follows:

Acquisition 1/2
Exterminator Cartridge (ItS pg 127)
TAM = Negligible Scale (+30), Common Craftsmanship (+0), Common Availability (+20) = +50
Modified PF 29+50(TAM) = 79

Acquisition 2/2
Best-Quality Chrono
TAM = Negligible Scale (+30), Best Craftsmanship (-30), Abundant Availability (+50) = +50
Modified PF 29-10(second acquisition)+50(TAM) = 69

---

I think I'm sold on the Exterminator Cartidge. My only question is, would it be treated like an expendable resource? That is, will it be a personal supply of them, or just one. I think Iago will go for them either way, though if it's a supply, and we're allowed, I'd actually like to outfit a small "personal guard" (or security detail) for the officer crew with them. If not, a personal supply, or just one, is fine.

I expect that even with a supply, in the upcoming war, it won't be used more than once. Unless, of course, the Orks stop fighting us long enough that Iago would be able to go back to his ship, fix his bolt pistol up a little bit, and have more then ten seconds of not doing something else to attach another one. A scenario I like to call "wishful thinking."

---
So, I guess my first question is the same as Navis' as far as what "personal" means in this context.

My second question would be, beside grenades (which I do think may be useful), are "personal" amounts of high explosives going to be necessary or useful for our overall strategy planning? I do believe that our Arch-Militant has observed that there may be places we'll want to collapse to cut off avenues of attack. but will we need personal amounts of explosives to do that, or more to the point, will personal amounts actually make a difference in the grand scheme? If yes, I'll be happy to get some. I can still see personal use of it being something someone might want, just not Iago. ;) Grenades still remain a good purchase though, no matter what.

Final question (for now!): What about Screamers? If I acquire one at a Trivial level, will it be a single Screamer, or a set good to set up a small area with them? Thy aren't "expendable" in the sense that they aren't like the ammunition or grenades. I still think picking up one might come in handy. So this may be my second purchase (even if it is just one.)

And that is the end of my wall of text for today. Hopefully.

Not got enough time to clarify the acquisition modifiers so hope Yosarni can.

The reason i'm only allowing you "personal" acquisitions (single item or single supply- such as ammunition, if you acquire a personal supply we assume you generally have an in-flow of it sufficient to keep you equipped provided its just you that its equipping) is because acquisitions of a greater nature than that, are actively taking away from the war effort, which isn't really possible right now with the Orks looming.

That works for me.

The only other question I had was whether Exterminator Cartridges and/or Screamers fall under the "expendable" rule for having access to a supply of them, or if they are single discrete item acquisitions. In either case, I think Iago is going to go with those as his Acquisition. I'll hold off making it official for a bit until I see some other ideas. If someone comes up with something better I'll gladly steal their idea!

Acquisition X/Y: X is the increment, Y is the total. So here we're given two acquisitions, so the first would be 1/2 and the second 2/2
Five Common Inferno Grenades (ItS p116) Scale Craftsmanship Item (Source) - nothing more complicated than that.
TAM = Trivial (+20) Common (0) Rare (-10) = +10
Modified PF 42 +10 = 52: 1d100 ⇒ 21 This was a copy paste from when I first made the table - but the modified PF refers to the PF after the automated Commerce rolls. Or refer to the table above for the TAM, and copy the number on the right (after the extra PF from Commerce).

Not sure where you got the -10 for the second acquisition from - the text in the core rulebook doesn't have that.

Navis Yosarni Acquisitions:
Acquisition 1/2:
One Common Strait-cape (ItS p138)
TAM = Negligible (+30) Common (+0) Scarce (+0) = +30
Modified PF: 27 + 30 = 57: 1d100 ⇒ 33 - Success!

Acquisition 2/2:
One Common Exterminator Cartridge (ItS p127)
TAM = Negligible (+30) Common (+0) Common (+20) = +50
Modified PF: 29 + 50 = 79: 1d100 ⇒ 25 - Success!

Acquisition X/Y: X is the increment, Y is the total. So here we're given two acquisitions, so the first would be 1/2 and the second 2/2

Alright, so as I suspected. So far, so good.

Five Common Inferno Grenades (ItS p116) Scale Craftsmanship Item (Source) - nothing more complicated than that.

As I noted, my confusion was with saying "Five" it seems like you're getting five discrete items. I'd suggest using the Scale in terms of actual Acquisition scales. Here, being Trivial. This only causes confusion with expendable items, so I suppose we can just live with it and make sure everyone knows what's considered expendable or not.

TAM = Trivial (+20) Common (0) Rare (-10) = +10

Modified PF 42 +10 = 52: 1d100 ⇒ 21 This was a copy paste from when I first made the table - but the modified PF refers to the PF after the automated Commerce rolls. Or refer to the table above for the TAM, and copy the number on the right (after the extra PF from Commerce).

Got it. So my above examples were correct? In which case, I'm good to go.

Not sure where you got the -10 for the second acquisition from - the text in the core rulebook doesn't have that.

This is from ItS pg. 221, under Making Multiple Acquisitions. I wasn't sure if we were using these rules or not.

Secondary arms, grenades, a melee weapon if you do not have one. These are the kinds of things that will likely be useful.

Referring back to conversations when we were first creating characters, I believe it was established that we would have a reasonable supply of ammunition for any weapons/grenades we already possessed. Given that we will likely be separated from our ship once the engagement begins, shall we set a quantity that we have stocked up on before this point?

It's been quite a while, so if I get this wrong, you can toss my attempt out the window amd correct it.

Varius Kavro Acquisitions

1/2: Armageddon Autogun w/ Manstopper Rounds
TAM: trivial (+30), common (-), scarce [rounds] (-), combined (-5): +25
Modified PF: 27 + 25 = 52: 1d100 ⇒ 35 Success!
gun is average, ammo is scarce; use lower rating, with additional item penalty

2/2: Photo-Visors
TAM: trivial (+30), common (-), scarce (-): +30
Modified PF: 27 + 25 = 52: 1d100 ⇒ 28 Success!

Okay, so I completely misread AK's post and thought that Navis would be making all the rolls for us after we decided what we wanted. My first thought was to grab a best-quality chrono, because I really don't have a second thing that Iago *really* wants. However, on reflection, I figured I should try to go big and try for a low chance item. The Rule of Cool won out, and given Iago is filling in for a Rogue Trader, he might as well get used to it.

Iago Elias McKie Tyr's Acquisitions:
Acquisition 1/2
One Common Exterminator Cartridge (ItS pg 127)
TAM = Negligible Scale (+30), Common Craftsmanship (+0), Common Availability (+20) = +50
Modified PF 29+50(TAM) = 79 1d100 ⇒ 30 Success!

Acquisition 2/2
One Common Storm Trooper Carapace Armor (RTCR pg 139)
TAM = Negligible Scale (+30), Common Craftsmanship (+0), Very Rare Availability (-20) = +10
Modified PF 27+10(TAM) = 37 1d100 ⇒ 4 Success!

Edit: What this tells me is that I should have gone for Power Armor.

If you would bear with me for a little guys. My mother is in the hospital (broken hip, nothing too serious) and between my going back and forth between home and hospital until she gets released in a few days and the fact that this is a pretty new rules system to me, I find my time and energy and focus are a little limited.

No worries. First, sorry to hear about your Mother. I hope she recovers and gets well. Second, I expect that it'll take some time to get momentum going again through the whole group. It was a long time off and it's not a game/setting that everyone is as familiar with as Pathfinder.

Again, I hope everything goes well!

@Castor, good luck on your mother's swift recovery.

@Iago, seriously I wish I had put in for some power armor, or perhaps a plasma weapon instead of Photo Visors. The dice are smiling on us now, but we will see what happens when we get to the war.

Remember to mark all acquisitions on your character sheets in a separate section.

Could someone recreate the profile of the Aeternus in a new profile they control and provide me with a link?

Well, the odds are not that good, but I guess better weapons would be the thing to get.
Might be lucky, SOMEONE got himself a Stormtrooper carapace after all.

Acquisition 1/2
Common Mezoa Meltagun
TAM = Negligible Scale (+30), Common Craftsmanship (+0), Rare Availability (-10) = +20
Modified PF 27+20(TAM) = 47 1d100 ⇒ 76

Acquisition 2/2
Common quality Hecate Chainsword
TAM = Negligible Scale (+30), Common Craftsmanship (+0), Average Availability (+10) = +40
Modified PF 27+40(TAM) = 67 1d100 ⇒ 50

Remember to mark all acquisitions on your character sheets in a separate section.

Could someone recreate the profile of the Aeternus in a new profile they control and provide me with a link?

Created.

Linked to campaign, cheers.

Character sheet also updated.

Guys, I am really sorry to do this, but I must withdraw. I find myself putting off writing up a post again and again due to having lost touch with the character and the campaign theme on one hand and to the -at least in my eyes- sheer complexity of a rules system I know very little about. I have tried to delve into the various books, but I find I have not either the energy or the focus necessary at this point in time. And it is not fair to the rest of you to have a player that not only lacks the necessary drive you, the players and GM both, deserve, but also will be causing it to lag and slow down.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I must bid you adieu and leave you with a wish to have great fun with what I am certain will be a great game. After all, it does possess some great players and an equally great GM.

Again, I am sorry for any problems my departure may cause. :-(