Well Amazon finally delivered my copy of Rogue Trader. I was able to flip through it a little bit and here is what has jumped out at me so far -
There is a much larger starting power level than in Dark Heresy. This is evident in many places but the first one that I noticed was in fate points. The range for starting fate points for pretty much every character class is 2-4. This is a subtle but significant shift from 1-3.
Another place where the starting power level is increased is in your starting stats. It looks like every stat is 2d10 + 25 instead of 2d10 + 20. A subtle change, but still a boost.
Something else that differs greatly from Dark Heresy is character background. There are several stages of generating your background that have pretty big in-game effects instead of the one from Dark Heresy. You still pick where you were born and it has a big effect, but you also pick several other things as well - like status in society and other things that I don't remember very well right now. But all of these things effect your stats and skills. - I am a bit rusty on this section right now but it looked really neat. I will have to re-read it and post a follow up on it.
Now here is where the big bump in power comes from - starting equipment and skills. All of the classes can start with some pretty hefty equipment - a power sword, carapace armour, mono weapons, bolt pistols, and the list goes on. This is a HUGE boost from Dark Heresy where you pretty much start with a t-shirt and blunt stick. I said the skills were also boosted and here is where it really drove it home for me - Psykers start with a Psy rating of 2. Bam! At career start!
Madness!
After I soaked all this in I wanted to get a look at what else they changed - so I took a look at equipment. It looks like it is pretty much the same but with some of the equipment fromt he supplemental books added in. Nothing glared out at me. Something did seem a bit odd though and I quite couldn't put my finger on it. Then it hit me.
There are no prices.
What? Oh crap, they left out the prices? Holy crap, is there another chart or what? Is this a mis-print?
Turns out it is all a-ok. It took me a bit to figure it out but I finally saw where it said to look in the back under game play to see how you acquire goods.
I was almost giddy when I read how they handle buying stuff. Rogue Traders are above having to coin their coins and worry about making their next meal. They have a host of people that worry about how much money they have. All you have to do is find it, and you can afford it - but there is a twist.
At character creation your group starts with a ship and a wealth rating. In order to buy something you roll d100 - adjust for quality, rarity, etc - and see if you rolled under your wealth rating. If you do, you have found the item. If not, you can try again later. This mechanic really reminded me of the way White Wolf games handle this.
I skimmed through looking at a few places to see if they tidied the rules up any. Multiple attacks and dual-wielders have been straightened out so that gives me hope for the rest of the muddy rules from Dark Heresy. I didn't have time to look at too much else but that did make me happy.
The only place that was a bit disappointing was in the bestiary. There just weren't that many entries. This is ok by me since I have a host of Dark Heresy books full of fun gribblies. What did light my fire in the bestiary is that there is a Kroot.
Well, that is all I have on this for now. I am sure I will find tons of other stuff to be excited about as I dig deeper into this book. I havent even looked at the ship part of the book yet and I have a feeling that it plays a BIG role in everything.
Until next time - Viva la Kroot!