The Campaign Builder's Guild

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I received quite the amusing response when I brought this up after the CE game earlier today, so I thought I may as well make an attempt to gauge the general interest around here.

This is my rather feeble attempt to see whom out there would be interested in playing in a Rogue Trader game run by me.

For those unfamiliar, Rogue Trader is a game set in the Warhammer 40K universe, the specifics of which are best detailed here. Specifically, a Rogue Trader is a human captain of a space-faring vessel who, generally, has free reign over where, when, and how they wish to do business in the universe, oftentimes proceeding beyond the control of the Imperium, and thus both its laws and protection. They may be great Crusaders, their guns singing freedom from the Xenos and blessed enlightenment to the unbelievers; they may be merchants of great renown, or corsairs and pirates of villainous deed. The game is mostly about the players setting goals for themselves, and the GM providing them the means to achieve that end, rather than the GM serving a great epic narrative for them to pursue-- though that is hardly out of the question. The ships themselves are often characters in their own right, and everything from Light Raiders to Battle-cruisers are open to the players. On top of this, the PCs are often remarkable individuals among a crew of countless thousands (~15,000 on a Destroyer right on up to ~90,000 on Cruisers), responsible for any number of duties both on-board and while planet or station-side. Consider yourselves "The Away Team" in most regards. Also, this form of play also makes solo or small sessions very, very easy.

As far as the details and logistics of running the game, I have not decided on the specifics yet. Mostly, I am curious to see how many people wish to play before I go through the effort of planning out the matters, since that could possibly change things greatly. I do already have some small things in mind already.

Particularly, I would prefer a PC be the Rogue Trader, that way it is easier for me to simply let the party choose where to go and what to do. I am not partial to space combat online, given the heavy reliance on maps and tactical positioning, so I will most likely attempt to avoid it, barring specific situations. Should there a great desire for Space Combat, then I may resort to MapTools, unless someone is knowledgeable about another online utility that allows the same functionality. Or I devise some ingenious method to handle grid-based combat without a grid.

The above are the only real considerations I have in mind-- based on the Rogue Trader comment, I intend to take the route of the indirect GM. This isn't about me providing you with a story to follow, but about me giving you the means to secure your own legacy, so you will generally have the freedom to do what you wish (assuming the Captain is fine with it :P ).

If there is at least some interest, I can begin to work on a starting frame-work for the game, as well as the horrid, horrid logistics of trying to plan what is most likely to be wildly divergent timezones.

Oh, and please note, I do not require any familiarity for the game, system, or setting for anyone who wants to play. I can help out with any questions or concerns, and the system is quite simple once you get out of Character Generation, which has numerous steps to it, so is only difficult without the book in front of you.

I might be interested in this. However, I already play in 3 IRC games, so I'll have to think about it.

I'm guessing this would be an IRC game? If it were in a time frame I could do, I could possibly be interested. I do like the setting. If you're suggesting play by post, you bet your sweet #$=!*& I'd be interested. (I work when most people sleep and sleep when most people work.

As the source of aforesaid amusing response, I'd definitely be up for this, either as Rogue Trader or some other individual.

I also have a currently non-member friend that might even consider it.

I don't think I have the time for this even though the 40k RPGs have always intrigued me. But I need to know what that amusing response was! Do tell.

Something along the lines of "HELL YES I'D PLAY IN ROGUE TRADER!"

What Crow said. I love the 40k universe and it would be cool but don't want to over-commit to games - CE and Ninja D's GURPS PbP should keep me busy enough. Would be cool if you posted logs, though, like Steerpike does with CE, so I can enjoy vicariously :P

Well, this seems to be a pretty good amount of interest in only 12 hours...

@Everyone: My original intention was for this to be an IRC game. I doubt I would be able to keep up consistently with a PbP game. I play in a number of different games elsewhere, and they eat up enough time daily that I am not eager in adding another to the list. However, having a set time to have prepared for on IRC is something that I have the time to do and to get things done effectively.

@NinjaD: I'm an insomniac. I've started games in the early AM (EST) before, so it may not be as hard as you think-- though I guess I ought to ask just what timezone you are in before I make claims like that, huh? Oh, and your friend would be more than welcome to join in.

@CC: Yeah, it was pretty much Steerpike Caps-spamming an affirmative answer. May not be as amusing to you guys, but I found it quite the entertaining response at the time.

@Kind: Yeah, I noticed a lot of other games starting up within the past few months, so I was a little concerned that people may already be full up on games, hence one of the reasons I decided to check with this post first. And yes, if it does get run on IRC, I may try to do the same kinds of logs as we have with CE.

In general, as long as there are, oh, at least two people wanting to play and capable of being on at the same time, I have no qualms about running the game-- especially if others may want to join in at a later date. Smaller groups means less work for me, so it's easier to run. ^^

The setting seems cool, but I'd like to see the schedule before. I've got some free time.

So, I could play as a sort of Ian Solo?

Quote from: Magnus PymThe setting seems cool, but I'd like to see the schedule before. I've got some free time.

So, I could play as a sort of Ian Solo?

Wow. Is Han Solo really named Ian in French?

That's so lame.

@Pym. Yup, pretty much. It's not hard to manage, though you are going to be surrounded by countless NPC crew, but if you want to be a good smuggler, you could definitely do it well in this system.

@TMG. I won't lie, until you pointed out that bit about the French name for Han, I was just a bit confused.

Schedule. This is mostly to figure out how to manage things, since, from what I can tell, a lot of people are not on the US Eastern coast. (So yes, I am EST.)

Right now, my weekdays are a bit cluttered. Mondays are most likely right out, since that's when I play in Steer's CE game. Tuesday nights, up until 9:30PM I am busy with martial arts classes.

Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are pretty universally open in the evenings after ~7:00PM (This is me getting time to get in, become presentable, and get some food in me). Wednesdays are more likely earlier, where I can start around 5:30PM. Probably earlier, since I can most likely schedule those lessons earlier in the day.

Weekends? Those are open. Completely.

I expect every game to run a few hours, hopefully between 2-3 hours to start with, though it can be longer depending on player input.

Now, extreme time differences, like Europe/Asia/Otherside-of-the-planet I may have trouble with, if only because I'm more active at night instead of the morning, but if you can give me times that you are willing to play, I can see if I can shift my schedule around to accommodate for that. I'm nothing if not adaptable, especially when good gaming is at stake!

I'm in the US central time zone and I work 10pm to 6am, five days out of a seven day period. I don't have regular days, though, and that means I sometimes work 10 in a row. It also leaves me open for early morning or early evening gaming any day of the week, though Monday and Thursday are kind of spoken for already.

Hey, Ninja, would sometime in the afternoon on Wednesdays work for you?

I figure maybe something starting ~3-4 EST, which, if my math is right, should also be reasonable for anyone across the pond, too.

Is that time-frame right out for anyone (US or otherwise)?

That would probably be really early for me. For some reason I have trouble sleeping in more that hour to hour-and-a-half spurts much before that. I could try it for a week or two, maybe, if a group starts then. It probably wouldn't last, though.

Which is fine. If it isn't a good time for me, I don't need to play.

Also, it seems that it's now Monday and Tuesday that are spoken for, instead of Monday and Thursday. Eventually at least one day for my band is going to have to be worked back in, too.