All PCs are Created Equal...

...but what if some are more equal than others?

Now, this isn't a dicussion of stat-based balance, but 'in character' power balance. In continuing with my discussion of my upcoming Rogue Trader game I'm going to talk about the obvious potential imbalance in the setting, and how it can mess with inter-party and inter-player relationships.

Pictured here we have a typical Rogue Trader crew, and there is one very important thing here - only one of them is the Rogue Trader. It's patently obvious and you're all probably wondering what the big deal is, but grok this: the Rogue Trader PC is in charge all the time and basically owns the other PCs.
It's perfectly in line with the background and dynamics of how a Rogue Trader would work, so where's the problem?

Well, simply put, are the other PCs going to be happy being ordered around all the time?

Consider your 'typical' adventuring party:

 Art by Andrew Bosley

None of them is particularly in charge. Sure, one person might be 'the face' and do the talking for the group, while another might be the one who comes up with the plans - but none of them have the ability to simply go "to bad, I'm in charge so we're doing my thing regardless of everyone else complaining".

Having one PC as the group's boss can work, but it can also sideline the rest of the party very easily and even accidentily. It needn't even be a conventional command structure, but having one PC be the chosen one, bearing a sacred artifact or whatnot can guide the rest of the group at that player's whims.

A personal example would be a game I played in where one PC was the last of his temple, and was on a quest to find out why the rest of his order was exterminated. This obviously meant that the rest of the PCs were following his story, and had little input if the 'main' PC was going against their wishes.
This wasn't done with malice or greed by the destined PC, but it was quite difficult when character's goals and outlooks started clashing - if you didn't want to follow the chosen PC you were effectively out of the game.

The simpler, and hopefully less common, version is that the leader PC simply becomes a colossal jackass and pushes the other PCs (and by extention players) around. This is sure to unleash the drama llama upon the group, and it is a strange and terrible beast.


"So, how do I avoid this?" I hear you ask.


Easy - make them all suffer together be part of the big thing.



To continue with the Rogue Trader theme I simply made them all Rogue Traders. No, I don't mean everyone's class is Rogue Trader, but that they're all the children of a Rogue Trader, who has just died and passed Warrant of Claim on to them equally. They mostly grew up with their other parent, an Imperial functionary, who passed away some time ago, so they were scattered into various parts of the Imperium.
One character was sent to train as an officer in the Navy - he'll be 'the Rogue Trader', commanding the ship.
Another was discovered to be psychic and trained as a sanctioned psyker for the guard.
The third was sent to the Schola Progenum and became a Sister Hospitaller.
Lastly, one was inducted into the mysteries of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

One character will be in charge of the ship, but they all have equal say over their dynasty and how it is to be commanded. The captain may well want to set sail for Burnscour, but if the other three want to solve the mystery of forbidden Orn - to Orn they will go!

PC lead groups can work, but the leader PC and GM both need to have a very concrete idea of what's going to be happening, as do the other players. It can be quite disheartening as a player to have your GM never plan anything for your character to do as it doesn't serve to advance the chosen PC's plot.
As GM for this game I've been rather pushy in regards to making sure the PCs are all of different classes, so each would have a very different area in which to shine and be relied upon by the rest of the party.


To me, it is the GM's job to present an equally enjoyable experience for all players. Now, all the players don't have to be having 100% fun 100% of the time, but no one should ever leave a session feeling that they didn't need to have been there at all.

Not all NPCs are Created Equal

Following on from my previous post on populating a world with a group of constant NPCs, I’m going to talk at length about the different ‘levels’ of NPCs.

What I mean are that there are NPCs who are important but not plot critical – recurring bit players and the like, plot critical characters, people who exist solely to advance the story in some manner and those who are there to serve a specific purpose in an adventure or the campaign. There are also a great many permutations and even overlaps of these types, but they serve as a general umbrella to put them under.

To run with the Rogue Trader example, the bridge/lead crew of their ship has 36 named NPCs plus a variety of nameless extras – 30 odd on the bridge at any one time (serving to be slain by exploding control panels, shout out random cries of terror and such). Even though these crewmembers are named they’re not all going to be important or be terribly fleshed out beyond the most superficial. For instance there are three helmsmen (San Martel, Makeda Nuessen and Idriss Iseri) for the three watches.

As it’s possible one of the players will take over as the ‘primary’ helmsman these guys don’t need much beyond the basic background at first. They exist solely to fulfil a necessary role and have names to give the ship a more solid feel for the players. As the game progresses, depending on how involved the players get in ship-board life, I could start making noticeable differences between the three shifts – one is getting sloppy, rivalries and the like.


Characters such as the 1st Officer, Enginseer Prime and other high ranking roles will require more personality, despite being just as expendable in game terms. Now I don’t mean I’ll just kill them off for a cheap shock (more on that later) but that if they die it’s not going to screw up any of the plot. To this end I can just make them and let them loose in the gameworld, with no more too it.

Some characters, however, will have plot hooks built in even if it is not readily apparent. Extra care needs to be taken with them depending on the nature of the hook. If it’s simply an optional ‘side quest’ such as an old debt that catches them up or some similar personal event there are two ways to go about it. Firstly, if it’s something that will simply spring up don’t worry about it, but think of another character the hook could be transferred to in case of NPC demise. If it won’t fit with anyone, well, file it away for next campaign.


Secondly, if there will be foreshadowing of this side quest and you aren’t prepared to have the NPC cark it and lose all that work, you’ll need to work out why and how they’re invincible. This will depend on the type of game, both in style and system. If you’re running a game where everybody has stats and damage is always rolled for, it can be a lot trickier to do and keep your players from sussing out that they’re invincible. Hidden rolling can help, but there are some times it just won’t happen.
Similarly if the style of the game allows a more cinematic approach where any named NPC is invincible save for dramatic moments, things can be fudged more easily.


Examples I’ve got are one of the Vox operators, Thuy Pribenno, owes the Kasballica Mission for them getting his family out of a contract with some nasty types, and one day he doesn’t come back from shore leave…
This is a very easy backstory to transfer to another NPC should Mr Pribenno meet a sticky end somehow as it’s got a “wouldn’t talk about it” clause practically built into it.

One the more foreshadowing side either the Steward or Carto-Artifex had an affair with the player’s Rogue Trader parental (and possibly be one of the PC’s other parent). This is tied in with the backstory I’ve come up with where all the players, regardless of class, have an equal share in the Warrant of Trade – but that’s a story for another time. The plan to avoid them getting killed in the first place is that they won’t be on the bridge during combat (most of the time), so will be off screen, and thus completely immune to the effects of the ship getting trashed.

Now obviously the PCs are clever folk, so could wind up getting them killed anyway. Hopefully it won’t happen early enough that there’s no foreshadowing whatsoever – but if they know some and have questions it would be easy enough to have another NPC do some Obi-Wan exposition in their place.


The next group are those who may not even have a name but exist only for a brief moment (at least at first). These are the bartenders and shopkeeps who supply tidbits of information that send the player’s bouncing around the game. Now, they do sometimes need to be expanded upon on the fly when the players get fixated on them for some obscure reason (which I covered last time).


Now, sometimes NPCs are created with a specific purpose in mind – they’ll get slain by the bad guy to show how bad and tough he is, they’ll betray the characters when they get to point X, they’ll act as a contemporary whose fortunes will highlight the player’s own successes or failures. Others could serve as antagonists, or allies. This is similar to making an NPC with a plot hook, but as part of the plot rather than kicking it off.

In some ways these are the easiest NPCs to make – they have clear goals that will intersect with the PCs, and the adventure is likely mapped out to some extent. On the other hand they can be the hardest, needing to account for all the crazy things the PCs could do at any given time in the heat of the moment.
Some examples, using the eight rival Rogue Traders from the Fantasy Flight module Lure of the Expanse, which I’ll be running as the third or so adventure. These characters all have a purpose, and specific ways they’ll interact with the players.

Abel Gerrit will prove a potential ally. They won’t know him until the adventure, but he’ll be positively disposed to working with the players and, being the honourable sort, will even help them if they get stuck. As the campaign goes on he’ll be on a steady upwards trajectory, and will occasionally re-appear to work with the players or say hello in port (assuming they get on well and he doesn’t die), serving as a yardstick the players can measure themselves against.


Hadarak Fel will appear as a rival from day 1. He’ll be out to vex the players at every opportunity, but is more a dark grey character than darkest evil. He’s out to do the Imperium’s work, but is also out for himself and his House. He won’t kill the PCs unless absolutely necessary, and could even ally with them under the right circumstances. Fitting in with the tropes of the genre if seen to die he’ll likely come back at some later point with a new scar on his face.
He’ll be a smart, cunning and ruthless nemesis who should be really aggravating to the players.


Mademoiselle Charlabelle will appear early on, having offices near the player and start well-disposed to them thanks to a history of friendship between both Houses. Her purpose is to be unlucky. Her House is on the rocks and whenever the players run into her some seeming disaster will have befallen her. This will prove two opportunities: the PCs to absorb her holdings (especially if a PC romances her) to increase their power base, and for a rather sharp hook when a forbidden Ministorum sect leads a mutiny on her ship…
 She’ll be there to test the PC’s morals and honour – do they pounce on their family’s long standing ally it its weakest, or help them out at the potential cost of their own fortune and reputation?

Using a plot device of 'beloved NPC is killed/kidnapped/whatever' can be very cheap. Cheap, but effective. RPGs by their very nature are full of this sort of thing, so as long as it fits with the existing gameworld and isn't done too much or too blatantly. One should also be mindful of how the players will react if it is done too often. Like anything in the GM's bag of tricks, it should be used sparingly and with great consideration.


Jeremiah Blitzis a neutral character. He’ll try and screw the PCs if he can get away with it, but will generally keep his word. Thanks to his roguish personality he can be whoever I need him to be. When they first meet him he’ll be on the rise and at full swagger. Later he’ll have been taken down a notch or two by reality. The next time he’ll either be still down, or have bounced back.


In some ways he’ll be the closest thing to a mirror for the players – brash, risk taking and cocksure. He’ll be serving to highlight the potential risks and rewards of what they’re doing. Anytime the players are being too conservative he’ll do something insane and become unfeasibly wealthy to provide some motivation.

Admiral Bastille and Lady Sun Lee are tied together as a joined plot device. The players will have little opportunity to interact with them and they will serve as a method to show how far the PCs have to go in this early stage to reach the heights of power. While the PCs race against them for the prize, the two will be fighting a bitter war that will end with Bastille’s death (spoilers!) by way of his flagship crashing into a planet as it is swallowed by a warp-storm – while the players are nearby! A suitably apocalyptic climax methinks.

But this leads to a great opportunity as the Bastille dynasty is now no more, and its holdings up for grabs! The first three adventures will be fairly tightly scripted to help give the players a handle on the setting and their own characters, and Bastille’s death will give them the first opportunity to go for it sandbox style – all his ships are looking for new masters, his worlds could be re-claimed and his treasures looted. Hooks, hooks, hooks!

They’ll be vying with some of these Rogue Traders and others if they do, and will hopefully be wise after seeing what a powerful House can bring to bear. These two don’t need to be fleshed out as they will never directly speak to the players – their minions will simply refuse an audience, which really gives all the character one could need right there.


Djenko Scourge has one purpose – to be killed by the PCs. A brutish thug, he’ll appear early on, act like a jerk and refuse to talk to the players. Later he’ll attack the PCs on the ground, and not give up until he is dead. Simple, but it’ll give the players a bit of a morale boost to see him wiped from existence, and set up a rivalry with his house for later…


Krawkin Feckward is the last, and most odious of the NPC Rogue Traders. The PCs will have heard of him beforehand via the Koronus Gazetter – a slaver and borderline pirate. While Fel is a ruthless businessman, Feckward is an outright murderer and criminal. If the PCs are foolish enough to make a deal with him he’ll betray them and try to kill them, and will try to kill or cripple them at any other time.
If they don’t do it they’ll see him drowned under a ravenous swarm of ex-slaves… but he’ll be back and will be plaguing the PCs for some time, perhaps right until the end…



So that’s it, how NPCs, despite having superficially similar qualities, can vary greatly. Of course one must be careful when creating plot essential NPCs that the players aren’t railroaded by what ‘should’ happen. Keeping things loose and having a general idea of what will happen is my preferred method.

It also helps to talk out of the game to your players – find out what NPCs they like, ask them what they think is going on, who’s hiding secrets or is about to betray them… don’t change everything based on their answers obviously, but it can be a good tool to quietly do some behind the scenes restructuring and put more work into favourite NPCs who were just one line wonders.

Review: Imperial Armour 11, the Doom of Mymeara

Imperial Armour Volume 11: The Doom of Mymeara is the latest addition to the IA series of books. It is the story of the invasion of the frozen Imperial world of Betalis III by a combined force of Craftworld Eldar and their Corsair brethren.

Story and Background

Like all Forge World books it is lavishly illustrated, opening with a six page full colour spread. The internal pictures are all beautifully done, and I’d say it is the best looking IA yet. The story telling is the standard after action report style of the series, and begins with the initial Corsair raids and the cat-and-mouse game between the Eldar and Imperial Guard forces as the raiders prodded and probed the seemingly random outposts before disappearing.
It soon comes to heated battle, and an Inquisitor arrives and sends a distress call to the nearby group of Space Wolves – Bran Redmaw’s great company. They arrive as the Eldar forces are on the verge of overwhelming the Imperials, and turn the tide, driving off the Xenos. But did they stop the aliens achieving their true goal..?

The story is well plotted and has plenty of twists and turns, with the Imperials giving a good showing even as they’re getting overwhelmed by the superior Eldar forces. There has been some mention of the Phantom Titans seeming underpowered against the Imperials, but to my reading is fine. The Phantom and its two Revenants are wailing on a Reaver and two Warhounds. They are driven off after the rest of the War Griffons show up – that would be five more titans of indeterminate classes, but either way I think it’s reasonable for the Phantom to retreat in the face of that.


This links in with the book’s worst aspect – it is edited terribly. I don’t mean Forge World’s usual brain-fart typos and messing up the rules, but it’s like in the rush to get it out for Christmas they didn’t have time to proof-read. For example:

“As the Nightwings, Phoenix and Vampires soared down, they were met with a tremendous firestorm of las shot and artillery shell. What heavy armour his command staff could muster, but he had not sent the young colonel into battle empty handed.”

What?

It’s like they just cut out the beginning of the sentence, or part of the paragraph. There are a couple of other instances of this sort of thing, as well as glaring typos. Some include:

- Units being Jet Pack Infantry as their base type, but you have to pay to buy them jet packs

- Duplicating a piece of wargear in a units listing

- A superfluous mention of 0-1 and 0-2 restictions

- Webway portal wargear rules included… but nobody in the Corsair list can take it…

Etc, etc…

Now, Talima Fox’s prose is fine, but very uneven – the second paragraph of the book contains a 42 word run on sentence, and the focus on the macro and micro changes often. By this I mean that we’ll be essentially hearing a character’s life story, and then the exact details of how a battle was fought, then back to century spanning events in the next line.
The aforementioned editing issues don’t help at all either (I’m pretty sure I saw an ‘utterly decimated’ in there, but I can’t find it again). One particular example that stuck out was hearing how the Eldar were mowing through the IG forces defending a mining facility, “but it was at the entrance to the mines that the worst atrocities were committed by the Eldar.” We then read about how the mining vehicles (and militia behind them) blocking the entrance were destroyed by Fire Dragons… and that’s it. No massacre of cowering civilians, no revelling in the destruction, nothing particularly worse than what had just been described really.

Ms Fox seems to have a thing for Fire Dragons, and I can't blame her.

Compared to other IA stories, Mymeara feels short. The shortness isn’t a bad thing, the story gets to the point and never drags on or re-hashes the same type of battle over and over. Each piece of combat is different to the last, or a continuation that adds to the story rather than repeats it. In tone, aside from a few story callout boxes, it is very much a historical account. There are no real ‘character moments’ in the story. Generals command and soldiers fight, but aside from a few moments with particular notable officers or commanders (such as Bran Redmaw himself) most characters go unnamed. Whether or not this is a bad thing would be up to personal taste.

My gut instinct is that for whatever reason they cut sections out of the prose at the last minute, and didn’t have time to do a final edit before rushing off to print. I mean Forge World is renowned for its lax editing standards, but this is bad. Now you’re probably thinking it’s a terrible book – but the truth is far from it if you’re able to look past the superficial errors and enjoy the story. The ending section, written as the aforementioned Inquisitors account of a battle, is especially well done and I found neither the Eldar nor Imperials to be portrayed as weaker or too out of character.

One thing that is done very well is scale. It is an unfortunate thing that Sci-Fi writers have no sense of scale, but Talima Fox avoids this pitfall. The crapsack mining world of Betallis III still has a population of over six million, and the combats include large volumes of superheavies and huge numbers of regular vehicles. One example is that over a hundred War Walkers and five Cobras were recovered by the Imperials after the fighting – that’s just the salvage, not units engaged.

Coming back to that macro/micro thing, the Eldar section isn’t as fleshed out as I’d like – for the first real information on Corsairs in a 40k book there wasn’t much to go on about how they do things. We probably could have done without 14 pages of pictures of Space Wolf troopers and vehicles and had a couple more pages on Corsair society in my opinion. Fortunately the various Rogue Trader books have good source material on the various Corsair groups found in the Expanse, but it is a lost opportunity.

A dozen pages of this is certainly better than information about the Corsairs!

The same can be said of the Eldar special characters – namely that in a society with no gender divisions (and canon 50/50 chance of a warrior being female) it is a bit of a disappointment that neither the new Phoenix Lord, nor any of their new troopers, are female – especially from a boutique company like Forge World (and it’s not an easy prospect to convert the Shadow Spectres either). Another oddity is that none of the photos showcase the Corsair kits – they appear in the background of one or two photos, but as the new shiny toys they don’t get much play.



Army Lists and Units

First up are the Cadian regiments and a description of their notable actions. They are led by General Myndoras Odon, supreme commander of the Guard defenders. He has his own description and comes with a command squad and rules wise is Creed lite, including a special ability “Careful Planner”.
Next up is a brief discussion of the Cadian forces. It’s a generic description of Cadian forces, which seems superfluous given most people buying an Imperial Armour book would be familiar with the regiments already.
After this comes rules for the Malcador Infernus, Praetor Assault Launcher and Crassus Transport. Rules are the same as in IA: Apocalypse 2.

The Elysians get a brief write up, explaining they were hitching a ride with the Legio Gryphonicus detachment so were diverted by circumstances rather than choice. Legio Gryphonicus have a short bit of blurb, noting that one of the Reaver’s machine spirits was especially skilled at fighting the Eldar, having fought them before.

The Imperials continue with Bran Redmaw’s Great Company coming next. One point of contention I’ve noticed is that the Space Wolves are noted as a 2nd founding Chapter. It reads to me that this is meant to mean that as a Chapter they came from the 2nd founding, the Space Wolves Legion being noted as their predecessor. Regardless, it’s still a weird way of writing it.

He even gets a model before the Farseer.

The Great Company gets a lengthy write up, and the aforementioned 14 pages of pictorials.
Game play wise they aren’t any different from the regular Space Wolves, but their master certainly is. Skarvald the Troll-faced did a great write up on his rules for those interested. Story wise he’s constantly struggling against the Curse of the Wolfen, but no insight into the curse is given – it just is.


The Eldar section begins with Craftworld Mymeara, telling of their struggle to survive and the intercession of Phoenix Lord Irillyth that saved them. One interesting tidbit is that each craftword came from a single Eldar planet, so they already had separate identities from one another before the fall, explaining the different ‘personalities’ of the factions. There’s more to the Mymeara Craftworld, but that would be spoiling the story.

Alaitoc is also present, an ally of Mymeara, and has their own background section. It is odd, as half of it is dedicated to an account of defeating a Hivefleet Behemoth splinter (that macro/micro thing again), which felt too much like copying Iyandens shtick.


The Shadow Spectres and their Phoenix Lord come first unit-wise, and have undergone a few revisions since the beta rules. They’ve got an invulnerable save that varies dependant on enemy range and the Prism Rifle rules have been tweaked a little. That said the Exarch lost his ability to fire separately from the Ghostlight, so taking a Haywire Launcher does… something to the shot (rules for the Prism Blaster are included).

The combined range, rather than being 12”+12” per extra model firing is now 18”+6” per two firing models (rounding odd numbers down) in the squad. That seems overly complicated to me, as you need two to shoot 24” (as in the beta), but four to shoot 30” where four would fire 48” in the beta.
One big improvement is moving them from the clogged Heavy Support section to the Fast Attack slot. Phoenix Lord Irillyth is what you’d expect – standard statline and beefed up version of his aspect’s gear.

The second special character is Farseer Bel-Annath, supreme seer of Mymeara. He’s a combat focussed Farseer, having previously served as an Autarch after a life on the path of the warrior after a stint as an outcast. He confers Stubborn to nearby units and can optionally modify his army’s FOC, dropping two Troops in exchange for a fourth Heavy Support.

Background wise he and Irillyth have a really weird timeline. Bel-Annath was born “long after the fall”, and was a young seer when Irillyth was last seen on Mymeara. He didn’t become a seer until the second half of his life. Yet the Shadow Spectre aspect is said to have fallen into memory for all save Mymeara due to Irillyth’s disappearance. But if Irillyth was last seen by a living Eldar not noted to be especially long lived, how did everyone forget the Aspect?

Alaitoc only contacted Mymeara after Irillyth departed, and the Phoenix Lord came to the Craftworld in what seems not especially long after the fall. So either Irillyth spent nearly 10,000 years chilling on Mymeara (no wonder his shrines were abandoned…), or the timeline is seriously messed up here. Editing, people, editing…


The Corsair background is, as mentioned previously, sadly brief. The entire section for a previously unseen but oft-mentioned faction is shorter than the Space Wolve’s pictorial section (can you tell I think it was too long?). The text is only a little over a page long once you take out the pictures. Nothing about how the bands are organised, where they are supplied from, what they do with their fallen or how they prevent falling to evil. Only a brief mention of Craftworlders occasionally taking on Corsair groups they feel are too close to their dark kin.


Corsair Army List

The army list itself is very good, once you get past all the bone-headed errors plaguing it (see earlier list). You can even take a Gyrinx! The basic Corsair weapon is either the Lasblaster or Shuriken Pistol and CC weapon.


HQ

Corsair Prince (or Princess) - a cross between an Autarch and a Archon, they can be well kitted out for combat (ranged or close) and allow non-deep-striking units to do so anyway. They also get a free orbital bombardment type weapon, with three variants to choose from.
The Prince (or Princess) can take a retinue of Bladesworn Corsairs. They come equipped for close combat, but can be given more ranged/special weapons.

Void Dreamer – the Warlock equivalent. They come with three psychic powers by default, a reasonable shooting attack, a defensive power against psykers or daemons, and a morale re-roll ability. They’re nice and cheap.


Elites

Voidstorm Squad – Elite Corsairs, they come with jet packs as default, and can take more special weapons.

Harlequins – as per Codex: Coneheads, may take a Corsair Venom transport.

Craftworld Outcasts – One Codex Eldar fast attack or Elites choice. I think this is meant to be 0-1 but, despite the preamble on the subject, such a clear note is missing.

Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors – from Codex Dark Eldar.


Troops

Corsair Squad – BS 4 Guardians, they can take Shuriken Catapults if you don’t like shooting things, or Shuriken Pistols is you like dying in close combat. They can also take Jet Packs, and min-max horribly: Five guys with Jet Packs, an Eldar Missile Launcher and Fusion Gun runs you 100 points. The Jet Packs come at a flat rate, so it is more pricey to do it this way.
They also have grenades and can take a squad leader upgrade, who can be given a fusion pistol and power weapon.
Jet Packless squads can take a Corsair Venom if they number five or less, or a Falcon if they number six or less… despite a Corsiar Falcon carrying ten. Dammit Forge World!

Wasp War Walkers – Changing slightly from their beta rules, they’ve gone up 10 points but can move as Jet Pack infantry normally now. Additionally after using their special Jump Jet move (now 12”, done in lieu of shooting after normal movement) they may no longer assault or make their Jet Pack move. You can’t have more Wasp Squadrons than Corsair Squads.
Overall I think they are great units, and the Jet Pack movement more than makes up for the lack of 24” jump.

Corsair Jetbikes – BS 4 Craftworld Jetbikes, whose unit leader can be given a fusion pistol and power weapon.


Dedicated Transports

Corsair Falcon – BS 4 Falcon, transport capacity ten.


Corsair Venom – Much like the Dark Eldar version, but with Craftworld guns.


Fast Attack

Hornet Squadron – as per IA:A2

Nightwing – a fast skimmer/flyer, it is not much changed from previous version, but gains “zAerial Assault” [sic]. Dammit Forge World!

Night Spinner – same as in White dwarf



Heavy Support

Phoenix Bomber – yes, you read that right. It’s hella expensive (just under a base Land Raider), but can rain unholy destruction upon your foes. It’s only AV10 though, so you’ve got to hope those holo-fields hold up.

Warp Hunter – as per IA:A2

Fire Storm – A pretty good ranged platform with the Fire Storm Scatter Laser’s 60” range (And twin-linking).


Overall I think it’s a great, characterful list hampered by stupid errors (such as the falcon issue and lack of webway buying ability.


The Eldar Engines of Destruction section details all the Eldar vehicles, Codex and Forge World, though does not contain rules for a couple of them (Wave Serpent, regular War Walker and Wraithlord). Everything else is detailed here, including the Wraithseer and Lynx. The Phantom gains the close combat weapon option, and Warlock Titans are mentioned.


Lastly comes the obligatory missions and Apocalypse Formations. These are all standard fare, with the missions as characterful as usual, and the formations taking advantage of the latest Forge World releases save the Space Wolves, which requires 2-4 Land Raiders.



Overall the book is a rough, or perhaps cracked diamond – it had great potential, but several missteps (poor editing, uneven flow of narrative, overdosing on Space Marines against the Eldar) keep it from achieving its full potential.

It may seem I’m harping on against the Space Wolves here, but given they only play a very small part in the story and we’ve just had two volumes of All Marines – All The Time (and this is the first appearance of the Eldar) it was a great disappointment that it was so Imperial-centric. Yes, it’s called Imperial Armour, but there are players who don’t play Imperial forces, or who would like to know more about the various Xenos races.

This is a very similar complaint to my thoughts on IA:8, Armour of Gork (or possibly Mork). The Space Marines could have been easily excised from the story and replaced with Karskin, Valhallans, or anyone really and it wouldn’t have altered the story too much.

Story and Background – 8/10 for concept, 6/10 for execution. Now, I’m not slamming Talima Fox here as much as it might seem. Most of the issues should have been picked up before going to print as they’re silly, avoidable errors for the most part. Her writing and concepts were good, with the only eyebrow raising moment being a bit involving a group of Wraithguard and Space Wolves which, given GW’s propensity to have one side dominate, was a welcome change.

I’d happily read another book by her, but I’d be crossing my fingers that she’d be getting more (or better) editorial guidance. For the record I’m of the opinion that writers usually make terrible self-editors, especially if they don’t have a good long break between draft and review. I know if I don’t leave something a while I’ll miss glaring mistakes in my own writing.


Layout / Graphics – 9/10. A very pretty book, it only lost a point for lack of art of the Corsairs. The only Eldar character page is for a Dire Avenger. It would have been good to see more of these forces as they play a large role in the story and haven’t been featured before.


Army Lists and Units - 7/10, would have been higher if not for stupid mistakes. The Corsairs list would be great, save the errors riddling it. As it stands it’s still a good list, and would work well in low points games nicely.


Extras – 7/10, good, but nothing exciting.


Overall – 7.5 / 10

I’m only giving it slightly higher than IA8 as I enjoyed the story more, even if the better plot was let down by worse editing. And, honestly, if I wasn’t a huge IA/FW fanboy and this was my first IA book, I’d be at least calling them up asking WTF (which I might do anyway)?

This all makes me feel that the book was rushed to make Christmas – there are too many obvious mistakes and Forge World’s constant “it’ll be out soon” message just makes me think they hit a deadline and either were forced to put the book out or decided ‘sod it’, and went to print regardless. Neither option is particularly good.

Still, the book, like IA8 for Orks, is a great resource for Eldar players and definitely worth a look if possible.

What to do when the PCs *aren't* murderous, sociopathic hobos

Take a typical adventurer – they carry around three or four military grade weapons, wear armour 24/7, rent rooms by the night (uless they camp out in the woods), and kill whoever they’re paid to. I think that fits the description.

I'll only be staying the one night.

Seriously, they're basically this guy with the ability to not need to shower.

But what about when they’re not murderous hobos, and they have a home and a family (who aren't evil and they don't hate)?

You need to flesh out these characters, obviously, and this is how I do it.




Step 1) What / Where / Who

What is there home and where is it? For my upcoming Rogue Trader game it’ll be their ship, the Starrunner, and it will be moving around the Expanse stopping occasionally at various ports and planets. The ship needs a population in the region of 2,000 souls, but I’m not naming them all. Instead I need to figure out who the primary NPCs the players will be interacting with are, and work them out.
To do that I make a list of the bridge crew (Navigator, 1st Officer, Helmsman, Comms Tech etc) and decide who will be an ‘important’ NPC and who won’t. This isn’t an exact science and is based around both gut feeling on character creation and what roles aboard ship the players will be filling – for instance if one player decides to be the helmsman, I’ll simply have some named Redshirts to take the helm when he’s not doing it. On the flip side if nobody takes the helm I’ll need to flesh out the Chief Helmsman NPC as they have a fairly significant role.

Other roles include crew chiefs, medics, yeomen and land based minions of various types. I make a list in Word using a table so I can list out all the major positions and fill information as necessary. Information I include is a brief description (age, appearance, manner) and history, as well as a general personality note. The Captain’s Yeoman, Mister Cider, has the following notes:

“Young (mid-late teens), slightly built and nervously eager. Loves his mam, joined the crew after getting in trouble on home of Port Wander for drinking. Crush on junior bridge crewmember (Milly), female PC? Guided by Captain into adulthood. See also: Mrs Cider, Vds Takker.”

That little snapshot shows how he’ll interact with the PCs to start with (slightly awed), and how he’ll develop. One possible minor adventure hook is him getting into trouble with having a few too many drinks and winding up in trouble with the Arbites on Port Wander. Keen eyed readers may note young Johnny from the new series of Upstairs, Downstairs – don’t just look to action / adventure series when fleshing out the PC’s ‘home’ life, it’ll come across flat if everyone is a cynical, wisecracking hardass with a secret heart of gold.

Yes, she only costs 25 gold a day to hire, but what does she think about the geopolitical rammifications of the Orc/Elf war?

Mapping out the relationships between the NPCs is also important, especially if the PCs are in a command role. Does the senior Navigator get on with the senior Astropath? If not, why not? Does one of the junior Navigators, eager to advance his position within his house, try to leverage the situation for his own benefit?
Imagine the chaos caused by the Astropath and junior Navigator deliberately messing with a communique containing co-ordinates to discredit the senior Navigator. When it all goes horribly wrong, what do the PCs do? Both are highly valuable (and connected) individuals, but they did almost kill everyone…. plot hooks abound if you take the time to sharpen them!

The players will also need hangouts at the major ports to meet contacts, relax, tell tall tales and get well and truly hammered after a rip-roaring adventure. There’s this handy Random Tavern Generator for other occasion, but these home-away-from-homes need some prep-work. It’s essentially the same process, coming up with the proprietor, his family and regulars.
Having these solid points really filled out and detailed, even if some of it never comes up, will make it feel much more real. I’ve always found that a very detailed and well thought out world encourages better role-play rather than a totally on the fly world, which is more prone to random acts of stupidity.

 Where everybody knows your name.

One resource, which should be mandatory for any PCs, is to put major NPCs through the 100 Questions to Ask About Your Role Playing Character quiz. Plot hooks abound, and it’ll even lead to the creation of minor NPCs and little background details you can use to make people feel more real.


Step 2) The Rest

Obviously it would be prohibitive to write up an entire Imperial starship and several space stations. My method to cheat this is simple, I have three lists:

Jobs, as worked out in Step 1. This is the ‘primary’ list.

Names, randomly generated. Some sample name resources include 20000 Names (can search via meaning or geographical location), Random Name Generator (derived from US census data) and Behind the Name (can filter via location/gender).

Descriptions. These are like the ones for major NPCs, but shorter, perhaps more exaggerated.

So when a new character is introduced I select a random name and description. This is now who he or she is.
Example: The PCs decide to go down to the cargo hold to check on something. They talk to the Loadmaster. As this is a recurring role I’ll take my ‘Jobs’ list and then select a random name – ‘Lovetta Schoenhard’, via the Random Name Generator on 70 – and a (semi) random description: “Calm, verging on icy, with well-kept clothes and hair. Muscular build, with an augmetic leg.”

So, using that I’ll play her as a straight to the point, minimal conversation type. It provides an easy base to work from using some Abductive Reasoning to flesh out the character if they become more important. One thing to be prepared for is the PCs taking an often bizarre shine to those characters who were to have one or two lines then disappear down a plot hole never to be seen again.

Players are weird like that.

This methodology can be applied to almost any ‘home’ situation, such as a small village or a bustling city. Regardless of the size there will always be a core cast of characters the players interact with, but it doesn’t mean the background should be left bare. Giving the PCs their very own below decks episode could be rather fun – I’m immediately thinking the PCs having to hide out in their own ship at some point in disguise and live the life of a menial aboard it for a while.

Another idea I’m toying with is a ‘meanwhile…’ type thing. It’s a little difficult to explain, but it would be a form of cutscene for the players. The best example I can think of is in a videogame we’ll sometimes see a cutscene showing what some NPCs are up to, to give the game more background texture and context. Similar to that I was thinking of having a short story series linked to the player’s exploits, showing how they have an effect on their crew – a story following the life of one of the gun crews or some such. Someone they’ll likely never meet, but whose life they basically control through their actions.

Koronus Gazetter Issue #1

This is a handout I'm producing for the players of my upcoming Rogue Trader RPG game to give them plot hooks, rumours and background texture. It's designed to be printed double sided and folded in half, so "Rogue Tradin'" is on the back.

Click to embiggen:

I think you can guess what the first adventure will be about ;) But there are seeds for future endevours and encounters layed down here. It'll be fun seeing the player's actions move from the back pages to bigger and bigger stories. Or seeing their screw-ups on the front page for all to see, ha ha!

Higher quality PDF available here.