I bought Owlcat Games' Warhammer 40k CRPG shortly after it came out in 2023. I'm a big player of 40k and Kill Team, so it seemed like a great way to further explore the grim darkness of the far future. I played it for a few hours after it released, but due to a confluence of different factors, I ended up shelving the game until very recently. I have quite a few thoughts on the game so far, and my talkthrough of the Outer Wilds proved to be a fun way to sort them out, so I've decided to do the same for my playthrough of Rogue Trader. Be forewarned- these posts will be unabashedly spoilerific, and represent a largely unfiltered stream of consciousness moreso than a commentary or critique. With that said, here's what's happened since I started playing:
Like most RPGs, I was prompted to create my own character. I set myself up as an Intelligence-based Crime Lord named Dominic Lorenzo- a cunning rogue with an eye for politics and a distrust for authority. I like playing savvy characters in games like this, and I liked the contrast between the self-made Made Man and the inherited nobility of the Rogue Trader Dynasty.
The first act of the story sees your character summoned as a pool of candidates with a distant relation to Theodora Von Valancius, the current head of the local Rogue Trader dysnasty. Shortly thereafter, her ship is attacked by Chaos cultists, Theodora is betrayed by her heir and then assassinated, and you are appointed the head of the dynasty by right of "Last Man Standing". This tutorial quest introduces the first half of our party and also the game's moral choice system, with characters having three moral axes: Dogmatic, Iconoclast, and Heretical. Dogmatic characters adhere to the faith and systems of the Imperium of Man, Iconoclast characters believe in the value of human life and freedom over rigid class structures, and Heretical characters believe in the ultimate power of Chaos and seek to expand their own power by whatever means necessary. It isn't quite "Good vs Evil", but it frames the clear morally "Good" option as being in stark opposition to the tyrannical Imperium of Man and its dogmatic theo-fascist regime, warning you that being a bleeding heart can have dire consequences. I'm interested to see how these systems play out over the course of the game.
As for party members, we meet three during this section- Our Seneschal Abelard, a Sister of Battle named Argenta, and a Psyker (read: Wizard) named Idiira. Abelard is a career military man and Theodora's loyal right-hand man- he believes in authority and the chain of command, and while he'll never outright countermand you, you can *hear* the guy's teeth grind whenever you start letting the rabble forget their place. Still, I like the guy- he's a beast in melee combat and halfway bulletproof, and his advice is typically levelheaded and pragmatic. I feel like Dominic values that sort of thing, and would be amused watching such a respectable man trip over himself to pay respect to a criminal.
Argenta acts as the voice of the Imperial faith and dogma on the team, giving sincere insight into what someone who believes wholeheartedly in this hellish regime would look like. It's admittedly hard to like someone who's just, WAY too fucking Catholic, but her perspective is unique. She's this strange juxtaposition of a fiery heroic martyr and a hateful zealot, as likely to fight for the innocent masses as she is to condemn them for complaining. Mechanically, she has a bunch of options to charge and then magdump a bolter or a flamethrower, so she's become my go-to specialist in crowd control and minion removal. I don't dislike her, but I need to see what they do with her before I can say I like her.
Lastly, Idiira was Theodora's pet Psyker and Diviner. Psykers are inherently dangerous in 40k, since their powers draw from the unstable Immaterium, and that connection is a two-way street. Idiira is an unsanctioned Psyker- one without any formal control or training- making her both exceptionally dangerous and, by Imperial Law, a living crime punishable by death. Idiira herself feels like a modern-day witch from Louisiana. Being a Psyker, she's a pariah, and she reacts to that hatred and fear with just as much scorn. She's paranoid, constantly hearing whispers from the Warp and seeing hazy visions of the future. She's often giving voice to the ways somebody might be trying to fuck you over or how we can skirt the system to gain an advantage. I'll admit, I'm not the fondest of Idiira thus far, she feels... twitchy and unstable to me. It doesn't help that she shares a class with my player character, so her mechanics are slightly redundant to me. Still, she wouldn't be here if Theodora didn't see her value.
Anyway, this is getting long enough that I'm having trouble posting it, so I'm going to have to split this in two. Until later, Tumblrites!
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