Thank you so much for the in depth response to my last ask!! There was a lot of great advice there!
Do you have any advice for Rogue Trader specifically? I've been reading through the rulebook, and the mechanics seem straightforward enough, but the party's dynamics, and how they interact with the universe seem unlike many other games.
Also, how do you handle the scale? Do you have any advice for balancing intimate party interactions against interplanetary politics?
It's funny, despite the fact that our ongoing Fantasy campaign is set to be FAR longer than Rogue Trader would ever run (Enemy within is like 5 books I believe), we had the most extensive session 0 ever for Rogue Trader to try and figure out that balance specifically.
Our group was more interested in high lever interpersonal politics. We wanted to be dealing with people who could argue with the RT, not just grovel. So we went into it with another RT rival and most of our nonsense centered around getting caught up in petty struggles. Not much planetary stuff, but our group just wasn't drawn to it, and so it wasn't really dealt with.
Because, really, there are very few things in 40k that can say no to a rogue trader. The RPG base assumes you're setting your game in the Expanse, which essentially uses the diplomatic relations of the already established traders in the region to keep your power in check, but there is technically is nothing stopping you from immediately throwing diplomacy to the wind and trying to take over their territories.
In our game, literally in session one, our group was ambushed on a large outpost in an assassination attempt. The station was not equipped to actually investigate, but Herschel made an absolute stink about the threat to his illustrious person and threatened to make life quite difficult for the station's administration. He then also offered to have his own men assist the stations in an investigation, without pointing out their own inadequacies, in exchange for a better ship berth.
Begrudgingly, the Ardent Monarch was then moved to the nicest dock on the station. And we promptly completed our business, got into a barfight, and left without actually helping ✨✨
Stuff like that I think manages to thread the line, as both an overt display of just what a rogue trader is capable of doing as well as being strictly roleplay, is where it shines as a system.
Obviously, the easy way to curb power is to have someone above the rogue trader through hiring their services or having them expressly on a mission, but our group balanced it by having our glorious leader be an absolute buffoon (endearing) and it worked quite well.
For smaller-scale stuff, our DM basically gave us the list of NPCs on the ship we could interact with through our various posts, and from there the smaller relationships formed:
I did this based off of the list, but in reality, we ended up with Goradin as Zarbag -and Klaras to an extent- babysitter, Orbest Dray as scuttling + betrayal champion, Andora as the only person on the ship who could put Herschel and Zarbag in their place, and Petronius wandering the halls with an eviscerator walking stick being a kindly grandpa to everyone but our Astropath who he kept bringing tea and snacks too with threatening messages and essentially bibles with notes saying 'ur going to hell :)'.
Obviously those stories come from playing characters willing to engage with the NPCs, which you kind of have to be willing to do even in 40k. Realistically, would it happen? Maybe not. But we weren't ever setting out to play a canon adhering game and listening to Andora chastise Zarbag for getting spores in the medbay and having the Ork go all bashful and attempt, in a very orky way, to 'cleans up' was perhaps the most hilarious moment of my life.
