Rogue Trader

Rogue Trader is a standalone follow-up to the excellent but ‘rules heavy’ tabletop RPG Dark Heresy. This time round players are invited to take the part of interstellar traders, though not in the manner of a ‘rules light’ space adventure system like Traveller.

There’s no scraping together the money for a crumbling rust bucket that’s barely large enough to accommodate the players’ characters.  A Rogue Trader’s starship is a much grander affair, with crews of thousands running a commercial star cruiser designed to trade and exploit on a planetary scale.

Rogue Trader RPG: Core Rulebook (Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay)

Running and/ or working out of city-sized starships won’t appeal to everyone but is consistent with the ‘disfigured’ future and ‘over the top’ setting offered by Dark Heresy. Players can never feel entirely safe or secure in such a setting and this is where Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader excel. Players are dropped straight into the systems’ ‘lack of a comfort zone’ and can remain there throughout play.

There are a few concerns which confirm Rogue Trader as a system for experienced tabletop players. For example, while ‘the basics’ for making and running characters are very similar to those in Dark Heresy, there are also several clear differences players need to take into account.

In addition, some of the space jump and combat rules seem either unwieldy or unnecessarily risky. For instance, the auto-fire option definitely needs a quick hack. Adjustments like that are not going to concern a Dark Heresy player but they do make the series less accessible.

Buyers have also noticed that the amount of material copied over from Dark Heresy, (along with notable omissions such as a sufficient range of ships and ships’ armaments), could see players who follow the series paying several times over for much the same material. This does place a question mark over the series, as even the most committed players will begin to have doubts about buying reprinted material only to have to buy further expansion packs later on.

The shared system mechanics were always going to cause a few grumbles, with some players wanting as much compatibility as possible and others seeing that as an excuse for reprinting. To be fair Rogue Trader does a reasonable job of striking the right balance but it’s going to be interesting to see where the balance lies once the third title is released.

Rogue Trader: The Game Master’s Kit

Until then Rogue Trader can be seen as an enjoyable system for players with the time, money and enthusiasm to immerse themselves in a complex but manageable tabletop RPG. There are rough edges and Traveller could be used to arrive at much the same style of play. However, a GM would have to spend a lot of time working up a Traveller setting to match the ‘look and feel’ of Rogue Trader.

So, if you’ve played AD&D to death and want a glossy ‘off the shelf’ system Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader are unlikely to disappoint. You’ll need to pay for the privilege but that kind of comes with the territory if players want 400 page plus hardback titles with colour images.