History TabletopGame / RogueTrader

** The power board from ''Into the Storm'' is a [[Film/BackToTheFuture hoverboard]]. Its description inverts the "hoverboards are real tech" hoax by stating "Many still refuse to believe these featureless flat planks exist."

-> Ambition knows no bounds.

* MilitaryScienceFiction: Averted, unsurprisingly if your familiar with concept of a Rogue Trader, not unsurprisingly if your only familiar with the parent franchise.

* ScoringPoints: The Endeavor system in the rules is structured this way. Essentially for any given business venture to be considered successful for a Rogue Trader, they need to score beyond a certain threshold of Achievement Points. Achievement Points can be earned for actions that help make the venture successful, such as setting up future trading agreements, acquiring new treasure, or simply building up their reputation for future leverage. Conversely, Achievement Points can be deducted for things which will hurt the venture, like making enemies out of potential long-term trading partners, spending excessive amounts of their own resources, or suffering a humiliating defeat. If, by the end of the Endeavor, the Explorers have enough Achievement Points, they gain the Profit Factor from the Endeavor with bonuses for exceeding the threshold by various amounts.

** [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace The Processional of the Damned, in the Accursed Demesne]]. A dark star sits at the center of the system and has an unknown pull into the warp as well as on the material plane, drawing ancient ships, space hulks, and even planets to it from the warp, each joining a long ring of matter slowly orbiting around it. The flow of time is somehow distorted here, with ships closer in to the dark star more ancient those those further out, even if they are of newer manufacture. Those who have visited it report the echos of voices on vox transmission given out long ago, that seem to reach out and cut off unexpectedly, and visitors report a sense of [[EldritchLocation a dreadful intelligence watching them]]. Deeper in the Processional are what are called the Hollow Men, voidsuit wearers who emerge to break down ships that get near. No one knows where they come from or why they do what they do, and all the voidsuits they were seem to be [[AnimatedArmor empty]]...

* MerchantPrince: Any sufficiently influential Rogue Trader is basically this.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Averted by plasma weapons, which now work a lot better than they did in ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy''.
** Played completely straight with [[PoweredArmor Power Armour]]. It provides the best protection available, but makes you easier to hit and the power cells only last 1d5 hours, so it's use is situational at best.

* {{Recycled IN SPACE}}: Nearly all the game mechanics are recycled from Dark Heresy. If you doubt this, compare the charts for critical hits or the names and descriptions of most of the talents. (Of course, since the games were designed to be compatible with and supplementary to each other from the get-go, this is hardly surprising.)

* ScoringPoints: The Endeavor system in the rules is structured this way. Essentially for any given business venture to be considered successful for a Rogue Trader, they need to score beyond a certain threshold of Achievement Points. Achievement Points can be granted for actions which will help make the venture successful, such as setting up future trading agreements, acquiring new treasure, or simply building up their reputation for future leverage. Conversely, Achievement Points can be deducted for things which will hurt the venture, like making enemies out of potential long-term trading partners, spending excessive amounts of their own resources, or suffering a humiliating defeat. If by the end of the Endeavor the Explorers have gotten enough Achievement Points, they gain the Profit Factor from the Endeavor with bonuses for exceeding the threshold by various amounts.
* [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Screw The Rules, I Have A Warrant of Trade!]]: Rogue Traders are expected to operate outside the Imperium's borders where the Lex Imperialis does not apply and are thus exempt from prosecution for anything they do out there. However, they do come under Imperial authority while back in the Imperium (where they often must go to sell exotic goods or negotiate trades on that end) and can be prosecuted for anything they do there. However even then, their warrant of trade will excuse them a lot, as someone who has such a warrant must have strong connections with authorities in the Administratum or Imperial Navy and local authorities will find it difficult to prosecute them or make such a prosecution stick.

** The root of it is actually more "Screw the rules, I have Navigators". The caste with exclusive access to the limited gene-lines that are the only people that can drive FTL ships (without going homicidally insane) pretty much makes them the one subset of humanity that the emperor's men CAN'T touch. Lose the navigators, or even get a significant number of them killed fighting for control, and the whole empire goes down in months.

** In the crunch, your starting character is either going to start with lots of money or a frakking big ship. So either this or [[AppealToForce Appeal To A Kilometres Long Starfaring Battle Cathedral]].

** The Hostile Acquisitions sourcebook brings us the "Reaver" career option, raiders who have lived too long on the edge of space and now live only for pillage and slaughter. The accompanying illustration includes a rather familiar [[Series/{{Firefly}} brown duster]]. This may be the only thing ever to become LighterAndSofter when translated into the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

* SimpleYetAwesome: Bolter weapons, which are the standard armament at most levels, but are also ''rocket propelled missiles at semi and fully automatic rates''.
* SpaceIsCold and LiterallyShatteredLives: A major danger of void exposure is your corpse freezing solid and becoming fragile within a minute of death. Inherited from ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'', though given the activities of ''Rogue Trader'' characters it's a more common danger for them.
* SpacePirates: A common threat to Rogue Traders and Imperial shipping in general. Come in human, Eldar, and Ork flavours.
** There are two types of human flavour: Regular Joes who are in it for the money, and [[TheCorruption Chaos]] pirates who are in it ForTheEvulz. At best. Oh, and some Rogue Traders do this, too.
*** The ''Into The Storm'' expansion turns the Ork Freebooter into a playable character class (they're in it [[BloodKnight cus Orks are made for fightin' and winnin'!]]).
** The Hostile Acquisitions [[{{Splat}} sourcebook]] is a handy resource for players who prefer to play on the wrong side of the law.

* {{Unobtainium}}: Nephium, the only source of which is the bubbling sinkhole pits in the middle of ancient, abandoned xenos cities made of ice on the frozen planet of Lucin's Breath. When a small amount is added to crude promethium, it drastically improves the refinement process and leaves a much more efficiently burning fuel than otherwise. The environment it is extracted from is extremely hostile to human life and the ruins that surround each sinkhole are said to be haunted, yet it is so valuable that the houses of Chorda and Winterscale and a dozen smaller operations come to literal war over stakes claimed to prime extraction sites.
* WarForFunAndProfit: Literally in the case of war-related Endeavours. A Rogue Trader can act as a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenary force broker]], lending services to one side or another whether that be navel protection, private army deployment, supply transport, scouting, or just plain {{privateer}}ing. Heck, just arranging arms deals is often quite profitable in itself. The ''Battlefleet Kronus'' sourcebook expands a great deal on this aspect of the game.

* WretchedHive: Footfall, a collection of hollowed-out asteroids, repurposed derelict ships, and other such liveable space detritus loosely held together with tethers and docking bridges, located on the far side of the Koronus Passage. It is here that various factions vie for control of various territories, any number of goods both conventional and illicit can be bought and sold, and a variety of powers keep agents stationed there to guard their interests and monitor those of others. A place where assassins, diplomats, priests, criminals, and even xenos can rub elbows with each other. The fact that not all of them shoot each other on sight says much about how little Imperial law means on Footfall.

* {{Fiction 500}}: With the power of an interplanetary trade dynasty at their back, Rogue Traders can ''routinely'' purchase things like centuries-old PoweredArmor, [[PrivateMilitaryContractors private mercenary armies]], and [[CoolStarship starships that cost more than a small planet]]. At ''first level''. Some of the expanded rules given in ''Into The Storm'', which introduce consequences for making Acquisition rolls, are specifically designed to stop the Explorers from solving every problem by throwing money at it.

* CitadelCity: Citadel ''Station'', in the form of Port Wander. Carved from a large asteroid and built out, it serves as the primary naval base in the region though it also has a sizable civil population. Well defended by void shields and macro-cannons, the patrol hub for numerous Imperial Navy squadrons, it is the last bastion of Imperial might at the frontier-edge of the Calixis Sector and the last port of call before passing through the Kronus Maw.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: While several of established antagonists options are present, groups such as Chaos Reavers, Eldar, and even Orks, while usually hostile to humanity's interests, can at least occasionally be reasoned with and dissuaded by means other than violence. The Rak'gol, on the other hand, never show any interest in dealing with anyone of any other species by means other than aggressively attacking them, their only culture (in as much as can be determined) seems only centered around killing things. ''Lure of the Expanse'' details that they can never be negotiated with because they show absolutely zero interest in such, and their almost-bestial hostility and "alienness" are great for game masters who want to put a "SurvivalHorror" element into their campaigns.

* ArbitraryMinimumRange: The game has minimum range for [[{{WaveMotionGun}} Nova Cannons]], as they cannot safely be used too close to the ship, having splash damage and a chance to explode closer to the firer than intented (technically they can still hit the firer if you fire at the absolute minimum range and roll very badly). This is a holdover from their rules in ''TabletopGame/BattlefleetGothic'', as RT space combat rules are heavily based on that game.
* ArmorIsUseless: Averted like the plague. Try walking around without armor - unless you're a particularly feared psyker, you'll find something sticking out of your flesh soon.
** There are actually some results on the Critical Damage tables that only occur if the character is not wearing armor, or that have a worse effect if the character is not wearing armor.
** Armor is a mixed blessing for Kroot characters. They have trouble finding armor that fits them in any case, but if they wear anything more than the slightest of physical protections then they cannot benefit from several of their racial advantages, like SuperSenses and SuperReflexes. Normally they count on those to DodgeTheBullet and [[DefendCommand Parry The Sword]] more than they do armor to shield them.

** Played completely straight with [[PoweredArmor Power Armor]]. It provides the best protection available, but makes you easier to hit and the power cells only last 1d5 hours, so it's use is situational at best.

* {{BFG}}: Your ship has guns that take a good seventy men to operate, fired in salvos of hundreds. The big guns need over a thousand hands.

* BiggerIsBetter: A literal case with Ork equipment. As the quality of the craftsmenship goes up, so does the size and mass of the piece of equipment. With human manufactured items, the opposite tends to be true.
* BlindSeer: Astropaths, as per usual, went under necessary MindRape on Terra to protect their already strong minds from the Warp, the physical damage of which always includes their eyes, causing them to either [[EyeScream turn to vapor]] or [[ProphetEyes develop severe cataracts]]. It also hones their psychic senses so they can "see" perfectly well. Astropaths Transcendent, the ones you play as, are even better at it than most-not only can they leave the Light of the Astronomicon for long periods, they can keep it together so well they ''lead'' others who can leave.

* LargeAndInCharge: Ork Warbosses, particularly the aforementioned Morgash Kulgraz. Also Calligos Winterscale, propably the most powerful Rogue Trader in Koronus Expanse at moment.

** The ''Battlefleet Koronus'' supplement includes expanded rules for starship combat and rules for large-scale ground warfare, allowing the game as a whole to take on more of this flavor.
* {{Mordor}}: The planet Inequity, home to [[BigBad Chaos Lord Karrad Vall the Faceless Lord]]. It is located in a star system where a red giant dances with a black hole, and the whips of plasma siphoned off it lash the planets around it creating detritus and dangerously unpredictable gravity shoals. Navigation to the planet is only safely possible by a damned warp beacon [[PoweredByAForsakenChild powered by hundreds of sorceress sacrifices]]. Its surface is covered in caustic atmosphere and acidic rain drawn from boiling seas. Quakes are frequent and eruptions are a constant danger. Slaves toil to their deaths in the mines and manufactora. Daemons stalk the surface drawn from warp rifts deep in the planet's crust exposed when the original settlers DugTooDeep. It is a haven for Chaos reaver SpacePirates, and all of its cities are {{Wretched Hive}}s that makes life in an Imperial underhive [[UpToEleven look pleasant by comparison]]. Above it all Vall rules this domain from his infamous [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Citadel Of Skulls]], a combination fortress, armory, manufacturing center, treasure vault, palace, and debased temple to Chaos.

** Theoretically, at least. However, in practice, using Dark Hersey characters in Rogue Trader is a bit unbalanced. Well-built DH characters [[MagikarpPower quickly out-scale RT characters]] because of cheaper advances (usually 100 to 300 xp vs. 200 to 500 for skills, and 100 to 300 vs. 500 or 1000 for talents), a larger variety of options, and the fact that while RT characters start with 5 more points in all their characteristics, they only have 4 characteristic advances, whereas DH characters have 6 total (with Ascension).
*** Which does make a kind of sense. High level ascension characters are the most loyal, singularly powerful servants of the imperium short of the [[SuperSoldier Astartes]], and have been through constant high intensity missions whereas a strong rogue trader is a civilian that does not generally need to adapt to anywhere near that level of stress.

** In the crunch, your starting character is either going to start with lots of money or a frakking big ship. So either this or [[AppealToForce Appeal To A Kilometers Long Starfaring Battle Cathedral]].

* SpacePirates: A common threat to Rogue Traders and Imperial shipping in general. Come in human, Eldar, and Ork flavors.
** There are two types of human flavour: Regular Joes gone on the accoun, (they're in it for the money), [[TheCorruption Chaos]] pirates (they're in it ForTheEvulz. At best.). Oh, and some Rogue Traders do this, too.

* WarForFunAndProfit: Literally in the case of war-related Endeavors. A Rogue Trader can act as a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenary force broker]], lending services to one side or another whether that be navel protection, private army deployment, supply transport, scouting, or just plain {{privateer}}ing. Heck, just arranging arms deals is often quite profitable in itself. The ''Battlefleet Kronus'' sourcebook expands a great deal on this aspect of the game.

* WretchedHive: Footfall, a collection of hollowed-out asteroids, repurposed derelict ships, and other such livable space detritus loosely held together with tethers and docking bridges, located on the far side of the Koronus Passage. It is here that various factions vie for control of various territories, any number of goods both conventional and illicit can be bought and sold, and a variety of powers keep agents stationed there to guard their interests and monitor those of others. A place where assassins, diplomats, priests, criminals, and even xenos can rub elbows with each other. The fact that not all of them shoot each other on sight says much about how little Imperial law means on Footfall.