So i'm looking through the book, which admittedly I haven't read so maybe there's more hidden elsewhere, but i can find nothing for npc's/antagonists beyond other humans. There's one npc Eldar Corsair, one Ork Freeboter, one Kroot Mercenary, and a random Warp Daemon. Is this a joke? I though the Koronus Expanse was meant to be dangerous; looks like the Explorers are going to have the easiest time of it at all!

I personally wasn't very satisfied with the Expanse as presented in the book - too many dead worlds, too many undiscovered civilisations. So I made some shit up.

Creatures Anathema from Dark Heresy is a big help here, though bear in mind that RT PCs are a bit more powerful than DH ones so I suggest not holding back on the more powerful creatures in there. I've not seen Ascension yet but I suspect many of the things in that would translate quite well to a Rogue Trader game.

As far as enemy ships go, I've been meaning to work on comparing the provided ship stats to the equivalent stats in Battlefleet Gothic (the space combat system is quite similar to BG, after all), to see if I can't work out some rough conversions for enemy ships.

That said, I've managed to get some quite interesting stuff going pitching the PCs against other Rogue Traders (and against their own horrible corruption...).

I don't have DH, I think i'd like to get it, so I don't know what's cross compatible between the lines. I don't know what's in the DH books. However, I'm also looking through the starshps section and all I'm seeing (apart from an ork ship, a generic pirate raider and a space station) is Imperiuim ships/stuff for the players to build their ship with.

I didn't really expect much from the default setting; I imagine most GM's take it as a broad canvas and just put in their own stuff - and who isn't going to want the players to unwittingly chance upon a Necron tomb in place of actual treasure, or go toe to toe with Dark Eldar reavers? Perhaps I'm missing somethign, but I'm not entirely sure where that leaves prospective gm's like me and their players. Is all this being held back for a subsequent sourcebook? I see no mention of what's coming out, and Lure is just a trilogy of adventures.

DH characters are about 1500 xp behind rogue trader characters Creature Anethema is a good resource for DH or RT you either just pick tougher creatures, more of them or boost the weaker creatures as you see fit.  DH Ascension characters start around 15,000xp and are way - way more powerful then RT starting characters and the opponents in Ascension or generally not of the - you turn the corner and bump into a.....

Quote from: Warthur;373519As far as enemy ships go, I've been meaning to work on comparing the provided ship stats to the equivalent stats in Battlefleet Gothic (the space combat system is quite similar to BG, after all), to see if I can't work out some rough conversions for enemy ships.

You haven't had a look at DarkReign? Just saying... take a look at their "Ships of..." files here and you'll see that someone has been doing that work already.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;373524I don't have DH, I think i'd like to get it, so I don't know what's cross compatible between the lines.

So far as I can tell, monster stats are entirely cross-compatible.

QuoteI don't know what's in the DH books. However, I'm also looking through the starshps section and all I'm seeing (apart from an ork ship, a generic pirate raider and a space station) is Imperiuim ships/stuff for the players to build their ship with.

That does bug me; I suspect they wanted to put more extensive starship stuff in a supplement.

Quote from: kryyst;373536DH characters are about 1500 xp behind rogue trader characters Creature Anethema is a good resource for DH or RT you either just pick tougher creatures, more of them or boost the weaker creatures as you see fit.  DH Ascension characters start around 15,000xp and are way - way more powerful then RT starting characters and the opponents in Ascension or generally not of the - you turn the corner and bump into a.....

Yeah, I was thinking about using those as the villains. That said, characters in RT can go up to 34999XP, so they should be able to take on Ascension-level adversaries once they hit mid-level.

Quote from: Windjammer;373542You haven't had a look at DarkReign? Just saying... take a look at their "Ships of..." files here and you'll see that someone has been doing that work already.

Oh, awesome! My players won't know what hit 'em.

Quote from: Windjammer;373542You haven't had a look at DarkReign? Just saying... take a look at their "Ships of..." files here and you'll see that someone has been doing that work already.

All in good time.

But it's something of an oversight to not include stuff like this in the actual book surely. I can't help thinking i'm missing something, but surely FFG didn't intend people to either wait for the offical antagonist book for RT, or never have the explorers fight anything but other humans.

Are these conversions based on actual principles? IE is there a method for translating from GW stuff (battefleet gothic) to RT?

Quote from: Warthur;373550So far as I can tell, monster stats are entirely cross-compatible.

That does bug me; I suspect they wanted to put more extensive starship stuff in a supplement.

Ok but if the Creatures Anathema antagonists (anywhere I can find out what's actually in it; whether its more than just daemons) are scaled to DH then won't they be no match for Rogue Trader level dudes?

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;373561All in good time.

But it's something of an oversight to not include stuff like this in the actual book surely. I can't help thinking i'm missing something, but surely FFG didn't intend people to either wait for the offical antagonist book for RT, or never have the explorers fight anything but other humans.

Totally agree. It's a classic case of fans supplying material to make the official material into a complete game. Like so much by FFG else these days, they offer teasers and intro games, not full games. That's what they excel at. Even the most vocal fans of Warhammer 3rd complain about how it's the first time a Warhammer RPG core book (boxed set, whatever) can't really cater to campaign-length play.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;373561Are these conversions based on actual principles? IE is there a method for translating from GW stuff (battefleet gothic) to RT?

Very good question. I'm afraid I can't answer it. I discovered these files when some of them first went live in autumn, but I've not had a chance to really playtest them to have even a rough evaluation at hand. Hey, I guess you'd be well served by asking the author or the forum the files come from. Myself, I'm not registered at Dark Reign.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;373564Ok but if the Creatures Anathema antagonists (anywhere I can find out what's actually in it; whether its more than just daemons) are scaled to DH then won't they be no match for Rogue Trader level dudes?

The creature anathema is filled with far more then deamons.  There are alien animal style creatures some more human level types of creatures, eldar/orks, genesteelers and deamon/hybrids as well.   It's a good source of enemies especially if you want to flush out random planet A's inhabitants.

Or just have those fooken worm aliens have entire star empires out in the Expanse.  

Just one of those buggers is bad ass enough to take on an entire party (sans Laz cannon)... now you can throw armies of them.

WTH kind of complaint is this?  DH and RT characters are both pretty squishy. Its not individual power you need its numbers. RT is more a logistics and strategy sort of game.

Quote from: kryyst;373567The creature anathema is filled with far more then deamons.  There are alien animal style creatures some more human level types of creatures, eldar/orks, genesteelers and deamon/hybrids as well.   It's a good source of enemies especially if you want to flush out random planet A's inhabitants.

Is there any advice on customising your own monsters/daemons etc?

What other DH books are useful for RT, if any?

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;373564Ok but if the Creatures Anathema antagonists (anywhere I can find out what's actually in it; whether its more than just daemons) are scaled to DH then won't they be no match for Rogue Trader level dudes?

Absolutely not. Rank 1-4 Rogue Trader characters are more or less equivalent to Rank 5-8 Dark Heresy characters, so the tougher beasties in Creatures Anathema should be plenty challenging for them.

Creatures Anathema has:

- Mutant abominations.
- Products of forbidden technology.
- Predators from death worlds.
- Vermin and parasites.
- Multiple varieties of Eldar and Orks.
- Some minor alien races.
- Genestealers!
- And about 25 pages or so of chaos demons towards the end.

So it's way more than just demons. (Remember, Dark Heresy characters are just as likely to be alien-hunters as demon-slayers.)