Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Humbaba]

Simplifying systems is standard in crpgs and goes back to BG1 if not further. I hope no pnp purist will come screeching about that. But as I've predicted before, Rogue Trader will be one of the best crpgs of the decade.

 

[Skorpion]

My guess is yes because wh40k is a skirmish table top game and not a table top rpg system. Its designed around squad or brigade systems so there is no stumbling stone of "gotta make it like how people roleplay."

This game is based off the 2009 Rogue Trader RPG ruleset from Fantasy Flight Games. Although from what I've seen so far, and the fact that they use "inspired by" instead of "same fucking ruleset," might mean that they diverge from the rulebook significantly. People who played the alpha and are familiar with the 2009 core book might know better.

Paging Parsimonious cook

It's rather confusing since the first edition of the tabletop wargame is also called Rogue Trader.

Yes, I can assure you that the game is based on the Fantasy Flight Games series of PnP games, the Rogue Trader in particular. The basic elements of the whole series are based on the Dark Heresy (first edition), though the subsequent games developed the system somewhat.

The FFG PnP games have pretty much nothing to do with the table top 40K systems (be it "standard" 40K, Epic, Necromunda or Battlefleet Gothic) in terms of mechanics (other than terminology such as Weapon Skill and such). This is only right, because as Skorpion mentioned, it doesnt translate well into actual role playing on the level that the PnP games do (however that doesnt mean that you cannot combine the systems - Rogue Trader itself has special rules for massed ground combat, but you could substitute them for a table top battle using Epic rules. I have personally seen people using the old Necromunda rules and miniatures for combat in Dark Heresy and I can imagine people bringing in BFG rules for space combat in Rogue Trader too).

As far as implementation of the PnP Rogue Trader rules in the game goes:

• the basics such as stat line for characters are taken 1:1 from the PnP system
• the character progression and psychic powers are significantly simplified, only some skills are present in the game, talents are not in the game at all, instead there is a "career paths" system that is IMO a bit too simplified (looking at it as someone who played and GMed the PnP games for years), but I can live with it

Therefore, its not like Owlcat made a new system or anything like that - they took the PnP rules and instead of making a 1:1 port, they kept the very basics and simplified the rest.

As far as the lore implementation is concerned - and here I need to stress that the FFG line of PnP games introduced tons of quality lore for the Calixis sector and Koronus Expanse (Koronus being the standard setting for the PnP Rogue Trader as well for the CRPG, Calixis sector is the gateway to Koronus and the nearest Imperial sector to it) - Owlcat did an amazing job, as I said quite a few times ITT. It is obvious that their writers familiarized themselves with the setting very well and are able to actively work with it, instead of just slavishly dropping names from the rulebooks.

As a huge fan of the PnP games and 40K in general I am really glad that the first CRPG adaptation of the setting turned out this good.

My mistake, I was only aware of the table top stuff and didnt know this started as a pnp in the way long ago. I stand corrected!

 

[Average Manatee]

HE generated a freaking HALF orc space marine :heresy

Space Marines can barely quality as human, and extreme strength is a trait, so it's arguably fitting.

 

[Storyfag]

My mistake, I was only aware of the table top stuff and didnt know this started as a pnp in the way long ago. I stand corrected!

It is the other way around. It started as a wargame and the pnp is a more recent spinoff.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

instead of just Slavishly dropping names

I see what you did there

 

[Owlcat_Eyler]

Owlcat Games
acum 12 minute
You have already uncovered some of the mysteries of the Koronus Expanse, but now it is time to turn your attention to the less explored, yet no less exciting places you may encounter on the journey through Warpspace in the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader closed alpha.

https://roguetrader.owlcat.games/news...

How did you guys like our new article?

 

[Fedora Master]

Owlcat Games
acum 12 minute
You have already uncovered some of the mysteries of the Koronus Expanse, but now it is time to turn your attention to the less explored, yet no less exciting places you may encounter on the journey through Warpspace in the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader closed alpha.

https://roguetrader.owlcat.games/news...

How did you guys like our new article?

Don't ask questions you wouldn't like the answer to.

 

[The_Mask]

How did you guys like our new article?

I'll be completely honest: I didn't read it. Which is one of the reasons why I didn't post it in its entirety here. (which is why Infinitron's chiding flew above my head, too) It's because I know nothing of Warhammer. I've never had to deal with any sort of Warhammer-related things so far in my life, and I want to find about all the things depicted there from the game, when I play it.

I would find it ideal if the game did the talking. Show, don't tell. As they say in film.

But... I enjoyed the pretty pictures. And, much like all your work so far, I hope it garners success, with the least amount of bugs attached.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Owlcat Games
acum 12 minute
You have already uncovered some of the mysteries of the Koronus Expanse, but now it is time to turn your attention to the less explored, yet no less exciting places you may encounter on the journey through Warpspace in the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader closed alpha.

https://roguetrader.owlcat.games/news...

How did you guys like our new article?

No hablar High Gothic

 

[SpaceWizardz]

How did you guys like our new article?

People's eyes are probably going to glaze over on anything about setting/locational details, piecing these things together as you play is part of the fun.

 

[Peachcurl]

How did you guys like our new article?

I liked it. But something I wondered about was this part:

Kiava Gamma has not been visited by the Rogue Trader for many years. During this time, the planet’s vox-array ceased communicating, and the governor – a member of one of Dargonus’s most noble families – stopped responding to vox-transmissions.

This implies that other factions / stations / planets in the same system are still in communication with the RT (since vox is only intended for in-system communication). But who is still communicating with the RT? Or else, it should be the astropathic choir not the vox-array ceasing communication.

 

[ItsChon]

Owlcat Games
acum 12 minute
You have already uncovered some of the mysteries of the Koronus Expanse, but now it is time to turn your attention to the less explored, yet no less exciting places you may encounter on the journey through Warpspace in the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader closed alpha.

https://roguetrader.owlcat.games/news...

How did you guys like our new article?

Article was quite nice, the world building that we've seen outside of the game has been good and hopefully the game itself will have the same quality. I just hope that each of these locations is fully fleshed out enough to actually feel interesting and immersive, versus just a few background swaps and hardly any content. Not to accuse your or Owlcat, it's just that it's not uncommon for games that feature a lot of locations to run out of time/money to properly develop them.

 

[Owlcat_Eyler]

Owlcat Games
acum 12 minute
You have already uncovered some of the mysteries of the Koronus Expanse, but now it is time to turn your attention to the less explored, yet no less exciting places you may encounter on the journey through Warpspace in the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader closed alpha.

https://roguetrader.owlcat.games/news...

How did you guys like our new article?

Article was quite nice, the world building that we've seen outside of the game has been good and hopefully the game itself will have the same quality. I just hope that each of these locations is fully fleshed out enough to actually feel interesting and immersive, versus just a few background swaps and hardly any content. Not to accuse your or Owlcat, it's just that it's not uncommon for games that feature a lot of locations to run out of time/money to properly develop them.

Got it, thanks for your feedback!

 

[Storyfag]

Got it, thanks for your feedback!

But you haven't gotten Peachcurl's excellent feedback regarding the differences between vox arrays and astropathic choirs? Poor form, Owlcat_Eyler, poor form

 

[ItsChon]

Owlcat Games
acum 12 minute
You have already uncovered some of the mysteries of the Koronus Expanse, but now it is time to turn your attention to the less explored, yet no less exciting places you may encounter on the journey through Warpspace in the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader closed alpha.

https://roguetrader.owlcat.games/news...

How did you guys like our new article?

Article was quite nice, the world building that we've seen outside of the game has been good and hopefully the game itself will have the same quality. I just hope that each of these locations is fully fleshed out enough to actually feel interesting and immersive, versus just a few background swaps and hardly any content. Not to accuse your or Owlcat, it's just that it's not uncommon for games that feature a lot of locations to run out of time/money to properly develop them.

Got it, thanks for your feedback!

I was more so musing aloud. Actual feedback would be that it is literally better to have one location that is very fleshed out versus three locations that aren't properly fleshed out, even if the total amount of content (quests, encounters, etc) is the same (even if the content is the same it would actually still mean the three locations is more content due to the art required for the backgrounds and the music and other things, etc, etc, you get my point though).

Don't get me wrong, having not enough content isn't a good thing, but the reaction of people who play the game will be

"wow that area was amazing. I wish the game had more areas for me to enjoy! Kind of sucks that it's "short" but I look forward to seeing more"

versus having a lot of areas with not really a lot of content/fleshing out, which will elicit a reaction of

"wow this game was filled with areas that were rather uninteresting and boring. I don't feel immersed and the devs obviously don't know how to do proper world building and area design."

And forgive me the overly wordy explanations. I don't know how educated you are about RPGs and the differences between good and bad design decisions, so I make sure to explain things as simple as possible so that you can understand them, while if I was talking to another Codexer I'd assume they'd understand the obvious truth behind my words.

But yeah, we expect that the game will not only have a lot of areas but said areas will be fleshed out, but as a general rule of thumb, it's better to five "quests" over ten areas than it is to have an area with only five "quests".

Also, another bit of feedback would be to not underestimate the value of noncombat related content. I love combat as much as the next guy (I've put over a thousand hours into Underrail at this point, an RPG filled to the brim with combat) but games that only feature combat get exhausting, and it takes away from the awesomeness that is combat. Ofc, said noncombat content needs to be interesting, but to describe it would actually require a lot of effort so I'm hoping this is something that the developers already know. But yes, noncombat content is great, and don't necessarily shy away from areas that might have content that is primarily noncombat. When done well, this really enhances the quality of a game while also having the added benefit of appealing to a wider audience.

Got it, thanks for your feedback!

But you haven't gotten Peachcurl's excellent feedback regarding the differences between vox arrays and astropathic choirs? Poor form, Owlcat_Eyler, poor form

Oh and Storyfag is right. Stuff like what Peachcurl mentioned might be minor and autistic, but I am not exaggerating, that shit actually matters and if enough stuff like that is added to the game, it really enhances it overall and it's the kind of thing that YouTubers and people on forums will praise and use to hype the game up. It literally takes an intern five minutes to make such a correction, so if after fact checking, it turns out to be correct, it would behoove you to make such a correction.

There are countless examples of people actually caring about shit like this if you don't want to take my word for it.

EDIT: Oh, and there is also such a thing as an area being oversaturated with content (see BG2 as an example of this). When this is the case, than yes, it is better to add a new area with said content than to add the content to a preexisting area. There is a line here, but it is usually pretty easy to tell when it's being crossed. Again, only mentioning this because you might misconstrue/misunderstand what I'm saying.

 

[Owlcat_Eyler]

How did you guys like our new article?

I liked it. But something I wondered about was this part:

Kiava Gamma has not been visited by the Rogue Trader for many years. During this time, the planet’s vox-array ceased communicating, and the governor – a member of one of Dargonus’s most noble families – stopped responding to vox-transmissions.

This implies that other factions / stations / planets in the same system are still in communication with the RT (since vox is only intended for in-system communication). But who is still communicating with the RT? Or else, it should be the astropathic choir not the vox-array ceasing communication.

Sorry, I forgot to reply to you.
Due to Warp storms, all astropathic communications with Rogue Trader in the Koronus Expanse were disrupted, so any contact with the planets under control was lost. I believe the same could be said for vox arrays.

 

[Owlcat_Eyler]

Owlcat Games
acum 12 minute
You have already uncovered some of the mysteries of the Koronus Expanse, but now it is time to turn your attention to the less explored, yet no less exciting places you may encounter on the journey through Warpspace in the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader closed alpha.

https://roguetrader.owlcat.games/news...

How did you guys like our new article?

Article was quite nice, the world building that we've seen outside of the game has been good and hopefully the game itself will have the same quality. I just hope that each of these locations is fully fleshed out enough to actually feel interesting and immersive, versus just a few background swaps and hardly any content. Not to accuse your or Owlcat, it's just that it's not uncommon for games that feature a lot of locations to run out of time/money to properly develop them.

Got it, thanks for your feedback!

I was more so musing aloud. Actual feedback would be that it is literally better to have one location that is very fleshed out versus three locations that aren't properly fleshed out, even if the total amount of content (quests, encounters, etc) is the same (even if the content is the same it would actually still mean the three locations is more content due to the art required for the backgrounds and the music and other things, etc, etc, you get my point though).

Don't get me wrong, having not enough content isn't a good thing, but the reaction of people who play the game will be

"wow that area was amazing. I wish the game had more areas for me to enjoy! Kind of sucks that it's "short" but I look forward to seeing more"

versus having a lot of areas with not really a lot of content/fleshing out, which will elicit a reaction of

"wow this game was filled with areas that were rather uninteresting and boring. I don't feel immersed and the devs obviously don't know how to do proper world building and area design."

And forgive me the overly wordy explanations. I don't know how educated you are about RPGs and the differences between good and bad design decisions, so I make sure to explain things as simple as possible so that you can understand them, while if I was talking to another Codexer I'd assume they'd understand the obvious truth behind my words.

But yeah, we expect that the game will not only have a lot of areas but said areas will be fleshed out, but as a general rule of thumb, it's better to five "quests" over ten areas than it is to have an area with only five "quests".

Also, another bit of feedback would be to not underestimate the value of noncombat related content. I love combat as much as the next guy (I've put over a thousand hours into Underrail at this point, an RPG filled to the brim with combat) but games that only feature combat get exhausting, and it takes away from the awesomeness that is combat. Ofc, said noncombat content needs to be interesting, but to describe it would actually require a lot of effort so I'm hoping this is something that the developers already know. But yes, noncombat content is great, and don't necessarily shy away from areas that might have content that is primarily noncombat. When done well, this really enhances the quality of a game while also having the added benefit of appealing to a wider audience.

Got it, thanks for your feedback!

But you haven't gotten Peachcurl's excellent feedback regarding the differences between vox arrays and astropathic choirs? Poor form, Owlcat_Eyler, poor form

Oh and Storyfag is right. Stuff like what Peachcurl mentioned might be minor and autistic, but I am not exaggerating, that shit actually matters and if enough stuff like that is added to the game, it really enhances it overall and it's the kind of thing that YouTubers and people on forums will praise and use to hype the game up. It literally takes an intern five minutes to make such a correction, so if after fact checking, it turns out to be correct, it would behoove you to make such a correction.

There are countless examples of people actually caring about shit like this if you don't want to take my word for it.

EDIT: Oh, and there is also such a thing as an area being oversaturated with content (see BG2 as an example of this). When this is the case, than yes, it is better to add a new area with said content than to add the content to a preexisting area. There is a line here, but it is usually pretty easy to tell when it's being crossed. Again, only mentioning this because you might misconstrue/misunderstand what I'm saying.

Thank you as well, I comprehend what you're talking about

 

[Peachcurl]

How did you guys like our new article?

I liked it. But something I wondered about was this part:

Kiava Gamma has not been visited by the Rogue Trader for many years. During this time, the planet’s vox-array ceased communicating, and the governor – a member of one of Dargonus’s most noble families – stopped responding to vox-transmissions.

This implies that other factions / stations / planets in the same system are still in communication with the RT (since vox is only intended for in-system communication). But who is still communicating with the RT? Or else, it should be the astropathic choir not the vox-array ceasing communication.

Sorry, I forgot to reply to you.
Due to Warp storms, all astropathic communications with Rogue Trader in the Koronus Expanse were disrupted, so any contact with the planets under control was lost. I believe the same could be said for vox arrays.

Okay, so I guess that paragraph describes the in-system situation, while the RT knows even less about the situation. Fair enough, thanks.

 

[Humbaba]

Just make the game good.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Just make the game good.

Make the game great and full of 2SLGBTQIA+ representation and it'll be a Codexian classic. People around here love that, it's why they never stop talking about it in the Pathfinder games.

 

[Tyranicon]

Commorragh confirmed as a visit able location.

Hope we get a chance to virus bomb the edgy space elves.

 

[The_Mask]

Owlcat Games
acum 9 ore
"Everything has a price in Footfall, but if you have to ask you probably can't afford it." — Wesla Graves, Curiosopher and Merchanteer.

 

[BrotherFrank]

As for psyker vs weapons(pyromancy vs flamethrower for eg), unless you are using orc weaponry, guns are much safer but an psyker never ran out of ammo.

As for Prosperites, now in the planet of sorcerers(Sortiarius), they suffer way more from mutations and the population of the planet is almost 100% composed by slaves, used for bizarre mutation experiments and hard manual labor and even if a slave manages to flee, he will probably become food of some bizarre mutant creature,

Talking about bizarre mutant creatures, can a syster of silence undo some mutation made using psyker powers?

And what type of planet we will gonna to see in this game set in koronus expanse?

And how the imperium deal with heresy with planets outside of the imperium by their ignorance? Eg - Lets suppose that the imperium finds an planet hwich uses "abominable intelligence", that tolerate the existence of mutants worships another deity which isn't the big E or anything like that? Will they go full "burn the heretic" or try to persuade them and if fail, go full exterminatus?

Other question. Since mutilations will be part of the game, mechanical limbs will be too?

Late answer but I'm quite willing to take a shot at your queries, especially as some of them do lead to fun answers imo.

can a syster of silence undo some mutation made using psyker powers

Not by a sisters of silence but there has been in setting examples of living saints cleansing the forces of chaos or eldar curing a thousand sons rubric marine.

And how the imperium deal with heresy with planets outside of the imperium by their ignorance? Eg - Lets suppose that the imperium finds an planet hwich uses "abominable intelligence", that tolerate the existence of mutants worships another deity which isn't the big E or anything like that? Will they go full "burn the heretic" or try to persuade them and if fail, go full exterminatus?

Persuade and if that fails, invasion or purge. The kind of scenario you describe happens often enough to the point the sisters have an order specialising in first contacts and converting the existing religion a planet might already have, usually by replacing the leading figure of their beliefs into the emperor. It's a shame 1d4 chan is down because i remember there was a fun story depicting exactly this, sisters of battle from the ordo dialogus being dispatched to a planet of medieval tier humans the imperium hadn't visited since the horus heresy and making sure the people there are still loyal imperial subjects. TLDR: they were but over 10k years their version of the imperial faith has degraded over generations of oral story telling and the space wolves who found them had given them a very biased depiction of certain events leading to some cute misunderstandings.

Anyways the approach to converting a planet with an existing heretical religion varies but assuming the planet's people are receptive to the imperium and not hostile then usually the process goes like this:
-RT discovers a lost human world and makes contact with it then reports it to the admistratum
-Administratum dispatches emmisaries and officials to ensure a smooth transition from whatever existing social order and hierarchy the planet already has. Ultimately the imperium doesn't care if the world is ruled by a king, a tribal council, a democracy or goddamned anarchy as long as you pay your tithes and ain't heretics which leads to...
-The ecclesiarch and the sisters of battle dispatching missionaries or ordo dialogus as needed if they are dealing with non hostile heathens. As already mentioned they usually use the planet's existing religion and make edits to it over time as the people become more accepting to the emperors light thanks to the tireless efforts of missionaries.
-AI is special case that might just warrant a more extreme reaction though.

But yeah the imperium has the art of converting the populace of a new planet down to a T at this point.

 

[Technomancer]

Hope we get a chance to virus bomb the edgy space elves.

Like GW would allow anything of scale to happen.

 

[Trithne]

Also Commoragh isn't just a single place. It's a labyrinth of portals and gateways. Two places may seem adjacent in Commoragh, but in actual fact are light years apart, and can be separated and reattached to the rest of the Dark City at will.