Rogue Trader House Rules
| Rogue Trader: Drake Dynasty | |
|---|---|
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| GM | |
| Adam | |
| Dynastic Power | |
| Character Level: 31,250 XP / Rank 8 | |
| Profit Factor: 43𝖕 | |
| Command Crew | |
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Lord-Captain Drake Navigator Primus Mordecai Arch-Millitant Winter Astropath Solarus High Factorum August | |
| House Drake Fleet | |
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Aurea Albion Hound of Albion • Abhorrent Fortuitous Purpose • Penance of Iocanthos | |
| Drake Trade Empire | |
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Damaris • Scintilla • Kulth Svard • Dross • Aurum Sepheris Secundus • Tennenberg Killian's Rest | |
| Drake Expeditions | |
| Open Missions | |
| Grand Endevours | |
| Personnel | |
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Magistrates • Retainers Militants Svard 1st • Stormtroopers House Drake Expeditionary Army | |
| Assets | |
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Materiel Aerospace Craft • Ground Vehicles | |
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Armoury Wargear • Relics and Artifacts | |
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Other Estate Secrets and Contacts • Awards and Honors | |
| The Galaxy | |
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Locations Calixis Sector Koronus Expanse • Periphery Subsector Personalities Peers of the Imperium Rival Rogue Traders | |
| Utilities | |
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Rogue Trader Timeline House Rules Guide and Lore |
Personal Combat
Target Types
There are four types of combatants. Each one uses slightly different rules for how they fight and take damage in combat. A Fated character is any PC or equivalently important NPC. An Elite character includes individually acquired Minions, exceptional individuals, or a being too powerful or resilient to be a mook, but still having humanoid anatomies. A mook character is any of the rest of the masses of humanity and human-like Xenos across the galaxy. A beast is any being with inhuman or without discernible anatomies, such as giant insects, demons, or animated statues. Lastly, vehicles are any large mechanical system or conveyance, such as a Sentinel Walker or a ground car.
Fated
Heroic Armor: So long as they have wounds remaining, fated characters always use their highest armor value unless targeted by a called shot.
Righteous Fury: Righteous Fury on a living target will now work the same way it does on vehicles and starships, it will cause an automatic d5 critical hit, even if the target has wounds remaining. Fated characters can benefit from Righteous Fury.
Minion/Rival
No Near Misses: Mooks have no wounds, any hit that bypasses their armor and toughness automatically carries over to the standard critical hit table.
Righteous Fury: Righteous Fury on a living target will now work the same way it does on vehicles and starships, it will cause an automatic d5 critical hit, even if the target has wounds remaining. Minions/Rival characters can benefit from Righteous Fury.
Mook
Righteous Fury: Any Mook hit by a Righteous Fury attack is automatically killed or incapacitated, at the shooter's choice. Mooks cannot benefit from Righteous Fury.
No Near Misses: Mooks have no wounds, any hit that bypasses their armor and toughness automatically carries over to the abridged critical table below. Hits to the head gain a +1 to their effect on the table. Mooks with the Iron Jaw talent half damage applied to the table as normal.
| 1 | The target suffers a point of fatigue, they also suffer an additional -10 penalty with the use of the limb struck, if applicable. |
|---|---|
| 2 | The target suffers half their toughness bonus in fatigue and is stunned for 2 rounds, they also suffer an additional -20 penalty with the use of the limb struck, if applicable. |
| 3 | The target suffers their toughness bonus in fatigue, knocking them out. The limb struck, if applicable, is useless. |
| 4 | The target is completely incapacitated and suffering blood loss. The limb, if applicable, is either missing or useless. |
| 5 | The target is killed instantly. |
Mook Team Groups of Mooks may be formed into teams, squads, or similar during combat. When this occurs, the following effects are used:
- When the team attacks, make a single to-hit roll. The team gains a bonus to this roll based on the number of individuals in the team.
- The team's attacks the following qualities:
- When using single or burst fire, count the weapon's rate of fire as equal to the number of team members.
- When using autofire, count the weapon as having the Storm quality.
- The team gains a 5% bonus to hit for each member after the first.
- If one or more squad members carry non-standard gear, it generates a hit at 1 degree of success and every 2 degrees thereafter (replacing a standard hit, up to weapons RoF).
- Any team member who suffers a critical hit of any kind is considered out of action. (Though they may recover normally.)
- Targeting a unique team member is a called shot.
Beasts
Is it dead yet? Beasts have wounds (usually lots) but have no critical hits table. They die when they reach 0 wounds.
Righteous Fury Righteous Fury attacks against beasts ignore the damage reduction from the beast's toughness bonus.
Vehicles
Vehicles use the rules as presented in Into the Storm.
Weapon Changes
Melta
All Melta weapons now have both increased base damage and the Melta special quality. Although starting extremely high, damage from these weapons dissipates quickly, making them very range-dependent. They suffer from -1d10 damage at normal range, -2d10 damage at long range, and -3d10 damage at extreme range. If this would render the d10s negative, the roll is subtracted from the bonus damage, rather than added. Melta weapons also ignore the Reinforced Armor rule on vehicles.
Plasma
Fully Charging a Plasma weapon now increases its damage by 1d10 and its penetration by 2. It still gains the Recharge Quality and consumes 3 ammunition per shot.
Clarification: All plasma weapons start with the Unreliable trait (jams on 91-00), it is part of the Over Heats trait. Therefore good-quality Plasma uses the normal 96-00, and best-quality Plasma ignores overheating on a d10 roll of 1-9.
Felling Trait
Weapons with more Felling (x) than the target's toughness bonus bypass the target's toughness-based soak entirely.
Mass Combat
Mass combat is fundamentally based on the Battlefleet Koronus rules and unit rules from Only War. Changes are as follows:
- There are three "phases" to a strategic phase: the Maneuvers Phase, the Flashpoint Phase, and the Engagement Phase.
- During the Maneuvers Phase, Units are combined or divided, Orders are issued, engagement levels are set, and units move between engagement zones.
- During the Flashpoint Phase, each active unit may make a "Battlefield Awareness Check" to discover a Flashpoint. The subsequent flashpoint may be activated with a successful "Battlefield Maneuvers Check" or by a relevant successful check by a PC (if reasonable). A PC may only direct one Flashpoint per round.
- During the Engagement Phase, all units within striking distance deal damage and suffer casualties.
- Rather than a fixed attack value, all units are issued engagement orders on a scale of 0-3 during the Maneuvers phase. The number of dice rolled for attacks is equal to the sum of the engagement order between the two forces.
- "Faint", "Flank" and "Charge" maneuvers are now Flashpoints. Attack is no longer a distinct order. This leaves "Advance (Regular, Cautious, Force March), Push Through, Dig In, Combat Air Patrol, Disengage, and Fall Back" as the list of available maneuvers.
- Additional Flashpoint types may be created as the situation warrants (such as seize the comm tower or slay the warlord. These are typically undertaken with PCs.
- At the end of each strategic round, each unit that had at least one engagement must make a Morale (-10) check. This check is modified by +10% for each degree of engagement (0-3) during the maneuvers phase. Additionally, this check is taken at +20 if the unit is on Push Through or Dig In orders, or at -20% if on Disengage or Fall Back. If the test is failed, the unit has been forced back out of the engagement zone. (Note, this can leave an engagement zone unoccupied if all units fail.)
Character Development
Elite Advances
When spending experience, players may choose to select a skill or talent that is not located on their career path rank chart. The prices for these are generally as follows:
- 200 xp for a rare/minimal use skill rank (GM's Description)
- 300 xp (+50%) for a skill upgrade that appears on a lower-rank list.
- 400 xp (+100%) for a skill otherwise.
- 750 xp (+50%) for a talent that appears on a lower-rank list.
- 1000 xp (+100%) for a talent otherwise.
Alternate Career Ranks
Characters who are at least one rank above the minimum rank requirement for an Alternate Career may ignore the career requirement.
Profit and Assets
Profit Factor
Profit Types
While the Dynasty's profit factor is distributed among dozens of different holdings, they can be broadly categorized into a few categories: Secure, Yealding, Items, Obscured, Reputation, and Leverage. These categories govern how the various profit types react to changing conditions (Misfortunes & Opportunities) as well as how they interact when looking to be transferred or used for trade. For more details, see Drake Trade Empire.
Upkeep
While the normal Acquisition rules assume that maintenance, parts, and the ability to continue using newly acquired goods are part of the roll, some assets require such a significant, continuous outlay of resources that even the wealthiest of Rogue Traders cannot simply run them as unbudgeted expenses. Instead, a notable amount of the Dynasty's profit must be directly dedicated to the upkeep of the asset. Typical upkeep costs are listed below:
- Voidships & Voidstations: Half (rounded up) of the vessel's value in Ship Points
- Colonies: Half (rounded up) of the colony's starting cost, plus one per 4 infrastructure upgrades
- Offices and Estates: Base 1 for a simple office or manor house in a civilized world. This may be increased for complexity, land value, or luxury.
- Courtiers: Base 1 to maintain the lifestyle of an individual non-productive noble.
- Milliary Units: Base 1 to maintain a regiment-equivalent force at "ready" status. +1 profit for active warzone deployment.
Leveraging Assets
Assets of extraordinary value may be used to increase a dynasty's profit factor by borrowing or gathering favors against them. Typical values are listed below:
- Voidships & Voidstations: one quarter (rounded up) of the vessel's value in Ship Points
- Colonies: Half (rounded up) of the Colonies' size.
Trade & Liquidation
Each point of profit factor represents a staggering income even to the professional class of the Imperium, and thus their transfer or liquidation can generate an incredible amount of capital if put into the right hands. The profit factor may be liquidated to provide a bonus to acquisition rolls, with a value between +50% and +150% depending on the type and it's applicability to the buyer.
Colonies
There are a few changes to Colonies, Growth, and Profit.
- Growth and change are evaluated on an annual basis, not a quarterly basis.
- Colonies have a 10% chance of Misfortune and a 10% chance of Boon per cycle.
- Colonies have a 1-year "tolerance" on infrastructure demands. If this is exceeded, there is a 50% chance of population loss and a 50% chance the infrastructure counts as having been "lost".
- Colonies provide a consistent profit factor, not a cumulative profit factor.
Minions and Pets
Minions
Minions are a special kind of Acquisition representing an additional, lesser character who accompanies the player's main character on adventures. Unlike friendly NPCs, who's loyalty may be fleeting and their lives tied up in their occupations, Minions represent individuals who are under the Player's direct control, and although they may not follow every order perfectly, they are willing to serve, fight or even die for their leader. Minions can represent anything from servitors and pets to skilled assassins and bodyguards. Each Player may have a number of minions equal to their fellowship bonus.
Abilities:
All stats start at 20, and you have 135 points to distribute among the nine basic stats. (P.S. That's 15 each if you spread evenly) No stat can go above 45 at this stage. In addition to the standard Abilities, each Minion starts with a Loyalty score equal to its leader's fellowship score.
Skills/Talents
All Minions start with the following Skill/Talents:
Basic:
Awareness, Barter, Carouse, Charm, Climb, Command, Concealment, Contortionist, Deceive, Disguise, Dodge, Evaluate, Gamble, Inquiry, Intimidate, Logic, Scrutiny, Search, Silent Move, Swim
Trained:
Lore: Common (Imperium), Speak Language (Low Gothic), Trade (Pick One)
Talents
Weapon Proficiency (Pick 3 individual non-heavy/non-exotic)
Experience
Minions gain an amount of XP to spend based on their hiring price. This is spent on the minion's table below. The amount of experience a minion has is dependent of their Availability. Likewise, the maximum Tier the minion can buy from is based on their quality.
Ubiquitous (0 xp)
Abundant (500 xp)
Plentiful (1000 xp)
Common (1500 xp)
Average (2000 xp)
Scarce (3000 xp)
Rare (4000 xp)
Very Rare (5000 xp)
Extremely Rare (6000 xp)
Near Unique (7000 xp)
Unique (8000 xp)
Poor (Tier 1)
Common (Tier 2)
Good (Tier 3)
Best (Tier 3)
Starting Items
Minions start with 4 items, of the same quality as they were bought at, and a maximum rarity two levels more common than the minion was purchased at. In addition, the highest tier a minion can buy from is based on their Quality. Due to the costs of upkeep, minions are always bought individually and gain no bonus for this.
Spending Experience
Characteristic Increases: (including loyalty)
Simple (+5): 250 xp
Intermediate (+5): 500 xp
Skills:
| Tier | Basic | Trained | Expert (+10) |
| Tier 1 | 50 xp | 100 xp | 150 xp |
| Tier 2 | 100 xp | 150 xp | 250 xp |
| Tier 3 | 150 xp | 250 xp | 350 xp |
Tier 1 Skills:
Acrobatics, Awareness, Blather, Carouse, Charm, Climb, Common Lore (Administratum, Ecclesiarchy, Imperial Creed, Imperial Guard, Imperial Navy, Imperium, Koronus Expanse, War), Deceive, Drive (Ground, Walker), Evaluate, Inquiry, Intimidate, Performer, Search, Swim, Speak Language (High Gothic, Techna-Lingua, Trader's Cant), Trade (Archeologist, Remembrancer, Scrimshawer, Soothsayer, Voidfarer), Wrangling.
Tier 2 Skills:
Barter, Commerce, Common Lore (Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Astra Telepathicus, Adeptus Mechanicus, Navis Nobilite, Rogue Traders, Technology), Concealment, Contortionist, Disguise, Dodge, Forbidden Lore** (Archeotech, Heresy, Mutants, Pirates, Psychers, Xenos), Gamble, Literacy, Navigation (Surface), Scholastic Lore: (Astromancy, Beasts, Bureaucracy, Heraldry, Imperial Creed, Legend, Numerology, Philosophy, Tactica Imperialus. Secret Language (Military, Rogue Trader (Drake), Technology, Under-deck), Scrutiny, Security, Shadowing, Slight of Hand, Silent Move, Speak Language (Eldar, Explorator Binary, Kroot), Survival, Trade (Astrographer, Armourer, Chemyst, Cryptographer, Shipwright, Technomat)
Tier 3 Skills:
Chem-Use, Ciphers (Rogue Trader, Mercenary, Nobilite Encoding, Astropath, Underworld), Command, Demolition, Drive (Skimmer), Forbidden Lore (Adeptus Mechanicus, Demonology, Inquisition, Navigators, The Warp), Interrogation, Invocation*, Lip Reading, Logic, Medicate, Navigate (Warp, Steller), Pilot (All), Psyniscience, Scholastic Lore (Archaic, Chymistry, Cryptology, Imperial Warrants, Judgment, Navis Nobilitie, Occult), Secret Tongue (Administratum, Ecclesiarchy, Navigator), Tech-Use, Tracking.
Dangerous to Know: Any Minion who takes the Forbidden Lore skill also gains 1d5 insanity, and must make a willpower check (+0) or suffer a Mental Disorder.
Talents:
Known
Tier 1 250 xp
Tier 2 500 xp
Tier 3 750 xp
Tier 1 Talents
Ambidextrous, Basic Weapon Training (Any 1), Berserk Charge, Cat Fall, Chem Geld, Concealed Cavity, Decadence, Double Team, Hatred (Any 1), Leap Up, Light Sleeper, Melee Weapon Training (Any 1), Quick Draw, Thrown Weapon Training,
Tier 2 Talents
Assassin Strike, Basic Weapon Training (Universal), Blind Fighting, Cleanse and Purify, Combat Sense, Crushing Blow, Deadeye Shot, Disarm, Flame Weapon Training (Universal), Frenzy, Guardian, Heavy Weapon Training (Any 1), Heightened Senses, Melee Weapon Training (Universal), Mighty Shot, Paranoia, Peer, Sprint, Unarmed Warrior, Unremarkable, Unshakeable Faith,
Teir 3 Talents
Autosanguine, Blade Master, Bulging Biceps, Duty unto Death, Exotic Weapon, Foresight, Training (Any 1), Good Reputation, Hard Target, Heavy Weapon Training (Universal), Jaded, Litany of Hate, Marksmen, Mechadendrite Use*, Mimic, Polyglot, Psychic Technique*, Pure Faith, Resistance, Flesh is Weak (1), Total Recall, True Grit, Two Weapon Wielder (Ballistic, Melee)
Existing Minions
- Catyaina Curiatia, Remembrancer, Minion of Lord-Captain Drake
- Haddon Ben'yam, Bodyguard-Assassin of Navigator Mordecai
- Anastasia Ben'yam, House Ben'yam Negotiator, Attendant to Navigator Mordecai
- "Bunny", Beckie Danver De Banzi, Adjutant to Master-at-Arms Winter
Retired Minions
- Aoife Bodyguard, Minion of Lord Tacticus
- Inessa Gault, Apprentice, Minion of Magos LaForge
- Dariel Cain, Star Knight Aspirant, Minion of Brother Winter
Pets
Pets are similar to minions, except that they are not at all human, and so have a much wider range of traits and abilities, though in general, are not as powerful as minions. The total number of pets and minions an explorer may have is equal to their fellowship bonus.
Pets do not use the normal Acquisition table, the final Acquisition modifier for pets is instead based on two factors, the commonality of their skills and their overall ability. Ability is listed into three broad categories; Lesser Pets (+30), Pets (+0), and Greater Pets (-30). This governs the overall attributes and the number of skills and talents a minion can have. Commonality of Skills covers a wider range and determines the maximum rarity of skill or talent they can possess.
| Acrobatics: Plentiful Awareness: Abundant |
Dodge: Common Drive: Average to Plentiful to Scarce |
Psyniscience: Rare Scholastic Lore: Average to Extremely Rare |
(Talents to be compiled on request.)
Characteristics
A Pet has a fixed number of points to distribute between all of their base characteristics. They must have at least 01 except in weapon skill, ballistics skill, or fellowship. Their maximum is determined by their Ability.
Lesser Pet: 160 Points, Max 30
Pet: 250 Points, Max 35
Greater Pet: 315 Points, Max 40
Pets are the "Beast" subtype. Speed is calculated as normal, and Wounds are calculated by tripling the pet's toughness bonus. A Pet's loyalty characteristic is equal to its leader's Fellowship score.
Skills
Pets have access to a variety of skills at various levels of ability based on their maximum skill rarity. The number and maximum level of the skills are based on their ability. In addition, all minions start with a single Speak Language skill that allows them to communicate. Note that making an untrained skill a basic skill counts as half a rank.
Lesser Pet: Three ranks of skills at Trained
Pet: Six ranks of Skills, no more than +10%
Greater Pet: Nine ranks of Skills, no more than +20%
Talents
Pets also have access to a variety of talents to use to enhance their ability to aid their leader. Any talent may be sacrificed to become trained in an additional skill. The 'Talented' talent may not be chosen. (Subject to GM approval)
Lesser Pet: Five Talents
Pet: Seven Talents
Greater Pet: Eleven Talents
Traits
More than anything else, Traits determine the true nature of the pet. Each pet can take traits depending on its level. Some traits may be taken multiple times, as indicated by a (x) after the name. The only exception is the Unnatural Ability trait, whose cost is equal to half the number of bonus points it provides. Traits are subject to GM approval. Unused Traits may be sacrificed for additional Talents.
Lesser Pet: Three Traits
Pet: Five Traits
Greater Pet: Seven Traits
Starting Equipment
Every Pet comes with at least some of the tools necessary to do their job. Anything beyond that must be provided by their leader through the course of normal Acquisition tests.
Lesser Pet: 2 items with a modifier of +30 or greater
Pet: 3 items with a modifier of +20 or greater, alternately, they may take 2 items of +10 or greater
Greater Pet: 3 items with a modifier of +10 or greater, or they make take 2 items of +0 or greater
Existing Pets
Retired Pets
- Krosp ServoSkull, Lesser Pet of Explorator LaForge