Fervian Death Cult Elite Advance Scheme

With the events of sessions #12-13 and Darien's accidental enrolement within a Death Cult, and their likely continued involvement in the campaign, I decided we'd best have an established Elite Advancement scheme for any player who wanted to join.

The cult is one of many that have originated on the isolated feudal world of Fervious (High Gothic: Vasenrule). It is connected to the Dairy farmers but is not exclusive to them, nor is it the only death cult that is connected to the Syndicate.

The cult is called "The Uniq" and, as far as most observers are aware membership is open to any who can defeat, and kill, a current member in ritual combat. The winner usurps the rank of the defeated member and thus this is also the method of promotion within the sect. It appears that there are three ranks: Chee-ken (rank & file member), Hum-phree (cell leader) and Ern-eee (high master). Darien is currently, for all intents and purposes a Hum-phree.

Restrictions: Members of existing cults or sects (priests, redemptionists, other death cultists, tech-priests etc) cannot join and a prospective member must ritually defeat an existing member in order to enter into the ranks of the cult.

Advance cost: 200xp

Effect: You gain the Secret Tongue (Death Cult) (Int) skill, Melee Weapon Training (Primitive), Thrown Weapon Training (Primitive) and access to the following Advances:

Advance	Type	Cost	Prerequisite
Chem-use(Int)	S	300
Cipher(Death Cult)(Int)	S	200
Cipher(Death Cult)(Int) +10	S	300	Cipher(Death Cult)(Int)
Forbidden Lore(Death Cult)(Int)	S	200
Forbidden Lore(Death Cult)(Int) +10	S	200	Forbidden Lore(Death Cult)(Int), Cult Rank: Hum-Phree
Forbidden Lore(Death Cult)(Int) +20	S	200	Forbidden Lore(Death Cult)(Int), Cult Rank: Ern-Eee
Intimidate(S)	S	300
Logic (Int)	S	300
Secret Tongue(Death Cult)(Int) +10	S	100
Secret Tongue(Death Cult)(Int) +20	S	100	Secret Tongue(Death Cult)(Int), Cult Rank: Hum-Phree
Blademaster	T	800	WS30, Melee Weapon Training (any). Cult Rank: Hum-Phree
Disarm	T	500
Exotic Weapon Training (Chain-sticks)	T	500
Lightning Attack	T	800	Swift Strike, Cult Rank: Ern-Eee
Quick Draw	T	300
Sure Strike	T	800	WS30. Cult Rank: Hum-Phree
Swift Strike	T	800	WS35, Cult Rank: Hum-Phree

Special: The following items of gear are of common availability to members of the cult:

Armour: Fervian Banded Armour (Body, arms & legs, Primitive, AP3)
Weapons: Long-sabre ( Melee (two handed), 1d10+2R, Pen 2, Balanced, Primitive) Chain-Sticks (Melee, 1d10+1I, Pen 0, Fast, Toxic, Primitive), Throwing Stars (Thrown, 5m, S/-/-, 1dR, Pen 0, Primitive)
Gear: Caltrops (Dark Heresy: Inquisitor's Handbook pg 102), Powder bombs (Dark Heresy: Inquisitor's Handbook pg 103),

Making memorable NPCs

Back in days of yore, when I was young and, in all likelihood, you were even younger (if you were even born...), the main RPG I ran was Marvel Superheroes Advanced by TSR (now Wizards of the Coast). At the time the company's house magazine was "Dragon" and while I wasn't a big D&D player I'd often fork out the cash to get it for ideas, especially if there was a Marvel related article.

One particular article, which I cut out and kept* to this day was all about making memorable NPCs.  The arguement was simple - the players could potentially meet hundreds of concerned citizens, scientific experts, pushy cops etc all of which could be cookie cutter stereotypes and easily forgotten but a simple way to lift your game above the usual is it make those pieces of mobile scenery or plot vehicles memorable.  I took this to heart and personally I use the following as simple benchmarks:

1. Use memorable names - Stan Lee used alliteration when he named characters simply to help him remember his own creations names, if that works for you, great! Personally I tend to use plays on words (often I'm the only one who gets the joke...) or a reference to the role the character plays or some other aspect of the character. e.g the Chief Vox Officer aboard the Majestic Labour is Chief Piel, named in honour of one of the most memorable DJs in British Pop history, John Peel, likewise the ship's Confessor is quite "alternative" and progressive in his beliefs so I named him Brother Namahs (Shaman backwards).
2. Give each NPC a memorable trait - it doesn't have to be much, it doesn't have to be earth shattering but just something "different" - The dock hand who constantly has a lit lho stick in hand, the servitor with the brass arm, when the rest of his bionics are steel, the Kasaballica boss who always bows in the presence of a lady.  Don't overdo it though - just a single element can give a distinction to set the person out from the crowd but load them up with attributes and they become a parody which will detract from the overall story and flow of the game
3. Act it - I'm a GM who tends to try to give his all; I tend to run games standing up, I move about, strike poses, rub my hands together gleefully as a stryxis dealer, always hold a cup or glass in my hand when I'm slurring out the Lord-Captain's commands.  My players know me for my "memorable" character voices (when one of our guys first watched "The Phantom Menace" he was alledgedly herad to say "That's a Ben voice!" when Watto first spoke) I'm not good at impressions (my John Peel is abysmal) but they are memorable.  Voice conveys alot of character - it's a great shorthand for helping players get a gauge for what are otherwise just numbers and words rather than living people - the same with actions and body language. It doesn't need to be an oscar winning performnce just something that teh players will remember for the next time they meet the character, or simply when they are relating teh stories about the game to friends.  Now I know that there may be some reading this who will find this the hardest advice to take on board and implement but believe me once you start the easier it becomes and the more involved you will find the players becoming.

An immediate question might be why bother?  These are after all the supporting cast, not the heroes of our tales.  I'd suggest the reasons are threefold:

1. It helps the players - Bless 'em, there's a lot going on in plots and games - especially when you are sat on the player side and haven't got the advantage of seeing the "big picture" plot.  You'll probably have heard of the phrase "Putting a face to the name" - this is a way of doing that in game without having a cast of hundreds sat in your living room.  Having these memorable "tags" that the players can use to associate with NPCs will help them order the flow of events in their minds and keep abrest of what's going on, to who, where and when.
2. It helps you - Memorable traits are as much a shorthand and aid memoir for a GM as for players.  You have a whole universe to run! If knowing that the arms dealer they last spoke in Port Wander had a peg leg and clockwork parrot it's a mnemonic that will help trigger a whole bunch of other recollections about the character and what happened last time they met.
3. It makes it a little more real - We know this is all a game. This is a fantasy setting where mulit-kilometre long spaceships filled with tens of thousands of crew are sailed through an ocean of black by a motley assortment of cyborgs, mutants, psychics and ne'er do wells...this is by no means real.  However, in my personal experience rpgs are at their best when the players and GM have some sort of emotional investment in the game, something which is very hard to create when it is "only a game".  Having memorable NPCs can help to do that; you are adding a touch of uniqueness to these faceless characters just a small touch of individuality.  It will add a hint of realism to the campaign and it does pay off.

To be completely honest I think that trying to apply these techniques has been the source some of  the surrent success of my own game.  In fact when at the end of our second story arc it looked likely that the players would be leaving the Majestic Labour one took me to one side and begged assurance that we'd return soon simply because he wanted to spend more time meeting the NPC crew as they'd had such an impact on his play experience.  That's the sort of response that makes the effort worthwhile.

*Yes kids, there was a time before scanning and digital media...

Welcome, and an explaination

Well here we go...
This is a little blog I've decided to keep to document the goings on in my, now regular, Rogue Trader Roleplaying Game campaign.
If you want to know more about Rogue Trader itself check out here for the official Fantasy Flight Games site.
So the campaign has been running now for twenty sessions, with the player characters just into Rank 2, or thereabouts.  So why start the blog now?  Why not at the beginning of the game?
Well for a start I never expected the game to go on this long or do so well! Back in the autumn of '11 I was contemplating running a new game.  Our group at the time were playing Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Saga RPG and it was going well but I'd pretty much told the stories I wanted to tell at the time. I started to ponder what to run next and had a hankering to return to the setting of Warhammer 40,000.
I've been a player of "WartyK" since the beginning, some twenty five years ago, and of Laserburn before that and have followed the development of the universe and setting over that time.  I read the novels, paint the miniatures and it feels like "home". I'd run the first official roleplaying game set in the universe, Dark Heresy, until the group we were playing in at the time went it's seperate ways. It was a good game but I always felt that that I was never able to get the pay off for the plot threads I was weaving.
Therefore I immediately looked to Dark Heresy as the replacement for Star Wars...but something didn't quite fit.  To try to identify the problem I did a little brainstorm to try to identify the themes or concepts that I liked to use in a game....the idea being that I'd then try to match a game with the themes.  What I came up with was:

• Sorcery & magical items
• Wonderous technology
• Amazing powers
• Fantastic creatures
• Unbelievable locations

Pretty generic fantasy stuff really....but it got me thinking about Rogue Trader.  The mix of magic and arcient technology certainly fit, and exploration amongst the stars would give opportunities for the creatures and locations.  Powers could come in the form of psychic gifts, Untouchables, Faith powers, sorcery or even mutations...it seemed a good fit.  However....
I'd bought the rulebook and some of the supplments to use alongside Dark Heresy but it had never seemed *right* to me - I couldn't get a grip on the setting.  I knew the concept of Rogue Traders from back in the days of the original Warhammer 40,000 tabletop rules, in fact my first army was themed around a Rogue Trader and his entourage; "The Black Widow".... Anyhow, exploring space?  Finding lost civilisations and negotiating with alien races, that smacked more of Star Trek than teh grim future of Warhammer...I just couldn't get a mental "hook" on the game.
So I went back to planning for Dark Heresy.
But still Rogue Trader niggled at me. I decided that while writing for Dark Heresy (what turned out to be a cross over Deathwatch meets Ascended Dark Heresy campaign idea that lasted a whole one session...) I'd set myself the challenge of coming up with an idea that would work for me, the way (as I understand it) some professional writers will approach a commission they are not entirely keen on: "How can I make this idea work for ME").
So I started to toy with ideas.  What could appeal to me about Rogur Trader?  Well I had my list of themes, all of which fit.  So what was the missing ingredient?  I think the key was the set up - the situation.  I just couldn't see myself running a game where the players were the top dogs - it didn't fit our playing group or playing style.  There needed to be an authority figure, but one that would allow for the flexibility that wouldn't inhibit the player characters "power".
The authority in the setting rests with the holder of the Warrant of Trade so I'd make that person an non-player character - someone I could control to influence the direction of the game but I'd have o ensure that they didn't completely undermine or emasculate the players.  How to do that?  The first thought was to have them an absentee - left back at port whilst the heroes go off on their behalf.  That was no good - how could they offer direction if they are lightyears away?  No, they had to be closer to home, aboard the ship the players were on.
How could the Warrant Holder be prevented from emasculating the players?  The simple idea was - emasculate him - make him so flawed that the he was essentially useless, causing more harm than good - not enough that they'd want to remove him, but enough to get them into trouble, provoke adventures and stimulate roelplay.  Added to that was the protection that the Warrant granted - he was the legal holder - the players wouldn't just be able to remove him without serious consequences. Slowly an image began to form in my mind, a flambouyant, larger than life character who had fallen into the Warrant through mysterious circumstance (the tale would change with each telling) and who would be almost constantly drunk.  His drunkedness could both be a source of plot lines (deals made in haste etc) and also a way to remove him to allow the players to step to the fore (simply too drunk to command...).  I remembered a pantomime that I'd been to some years ago where the great actor Brian Blessed was Captain Hook - and there in my head was the image of our Lord-Captain, black bearded and rosy cheeked, wearing a gold brocaded red jacket and white stockings...Lord Captain Brion Baccahrus was born - and I had my hook.