Naturally I got to my local gaming store as soon as they opened, and bought the first thing I laid eyes on out of politeness, and moved on to my real purpose: snagging a copy of Forsaken Bounty.

Glad I did!  Lovely full color supplement.  Very nice to have a printed copy.

There is some new art, mainly for the three characters in the package.  (Unfortunately, there are only three characters, but a web supplement has already been released that adds 2 more.)  Unlike the DH starter adventures, the character class names are given, which is nice.  Their gear and stats definitely align with the communications we've been getting that this game will be at a higher power level.

A lot of the booklet space is taken up by quick start rules.  (Which shouldn't surprise anyone, given its purpose).  They will look very familiar to DH players.  Really no surprises.  Combat Actions have been given subtypes, ostensibly to help with clarifying when you can do what. 

The adventure is pretty straight forward (again, needs to be) but definitely less random than "And suddenly a plague bearer appeared."  Some obvious integration with the Calixis Sector setting and previous DH material.  I liked seeing a reference to Halo Devices.

Also not a surprise that there were no Navigators or Astropaths, given that they probably have their own special rules.

The adventure provided some good insight into how Endeavors will work, although did not include the campign-level information I'm sure we're all interested in as to what Profit gets you.

My favorite thing about this adventure is that an enterprising GM could actually flesh it out into a standard length adventure with no other material needed.  The opening section gives information about how a normal length adventure would lead into an Endeavor, and some bullet points of how the PC's got to this point.  You could very easily take those bullet points and write a prequel.

As if anticipating my ONLY gripe with the adventure, even before it came out,  FFG has already released a web addendum with two additional characters.   I am very pleased and excited about the release of the full blown book.

The back of the booklet also proclaims "Rogue Trader will be available in August 2009."

Might as well add my own thought here, likewise I ventured off to the nearest free rpg store grabbed the last copy (yas!) and headed home via forbidden planet (by the throne I love that shop) and read Forsaken Bounty on the train.

Since it's basically Dark Heresy in a new setting with new rules and stuff it does pretty much read (as expected) like a Dark Heresy adventure on a ship. The booklet is as said gorgeous though with a nice clear layout and i'm sure a mix of new and old pictures.

I found it interesting seeing the power difference too, rank 1 characters cutting about with chainswords, bolters and carapace armour. It makes sense I guess though, as your after priceless treasures you probably already can afford the best equipment. The characters also have special abilities giving us a peek at Rogue Trader Talents like the Arch-Millitant can let party members use her Int bonus instead of your own Ag bonus for Initiative rolls.

If you were to run it as is I think it'd work out shorter than Shattered Hope but it has an openess to it that we've seen in a lot of DH adventures so you could make it huge if desired, exploring strange bits of the ship (i'm sure some ghosts chucked in wouldn't go amiss ).

The reward section at the end was interesting too as it talks about the XP as usual but also talks about a set bounty they get that's modified positivly & negativly by what the PCs do in the adventure.

Personally I can see me modifing this a bit and using it in Dark Heresy, but as it stands it's a nice intro to Rogue Trader plus it's free!

     Picked my copy up with Catacombs of Hyboria (Conan RPG) and noted the same. Im wondering what the  "Motivation" entry is for and what the game mechanic is? Im glad to see the non-ship part so compatible with RT. My group could (and might) run this adventure as a RT scenario and they are around 1200-1300 pt characters. Very excited for the crossover potential. I admit I was a little hopeful to see something else than another "alien worm" as an adventure but hey- thats my job!

     Oops- meant DH not RT in the above post- duh

 MY FLGS doesn't participate in Free RPG day, so I'm screwed. *sigh* I so didn't want to have to use the PDF, which should've been available today...*sniff*

TalkingMuffin said:

My FLGS doesn' t participate either, so I snagged a copy from www.nobleknight.com. Sure, I had to buy something of at least a $15 value to justify them putting Rogue Trader in a box, but I think it's worth it. As of 5:07 PM EST (+5 GMT), they still have some copies left.

Necronis said:

Probably just a background roleplaying sorta thing, im guessing the quote is in fact just the divination from DH. Ya never know though it could be another character enhancement.

While playing through i got to play as Nathin Tsanthos, the Seneschal class guy with the data pad.  I noticed that he does not have a GEAR box on his page or anywhere else i could see.  Is this a misprint on my copy or everyones.

cjbowser said:

You're awesome and thanks! I ordered Disciples of the Dark Gods (a book I wanted anyway) and they offered a copy of Forsaken Bounty, so I should have it next week. 

PaterSin said:

I too played last night and played as Nathin. Your not alone mine is blank wear GEAR should be.  So i pleaded with my GM to give me the micro-bead and void breather because everyone started with it, oh and 2 clips of ammo of course.

And for my thought on forsaken bounty, I enjoyed it very much. If you wernt able to pick it up def get it when its downloadable.

Any closer look at the available characters? The class names "seneschal" and "arch-militant" sound awesome, but what do they do?

Idaan said:

Arch-Militant is supposedly Rogue Trader's "Guardsman" career, the guy who you turn to when you need to make sure something is very, very dead.

Seneschal I have no idea.  Could be a scholar...

I already mentioned what the Arch-Millitant does, class wise it's pretty similar to a Guardsman i'd guess.

The Seneschal seems to be a lore-monkey. The one in the demo has a pile of lore skills plus tech-use and i'm guessing is most like an Adept. Has a special skill that allows a fate point to be used to automatically pass a lore test in the minimum time required.

As for the Rogue Trader he has the Commanding Presence ability which allows once per round a +10 to one players test (any test btw  ).

A seneshal is usually the one who takes care of the finance departement, they are also often advisors.

The stats seem to be extremely strong for a low powered rank 1 character.
I think the RT characters are just as strong as normal DH pc's from the bat but have the oppertunities to buy special backgrounds to give them some special abilities.
I mainly think the stats are high because they want to show cool things and more than, yeah, this is your starting character, you suck.

Santiago said:

Still waiting for the free download so I can't really say, thanks for the little nugget of information however.  And yes, somehow I expect that the characters created by the rules will be a bit weaker then the ones we have here which are supposed to show off how awesome the setting is.  After all, noticed how both of the two additional characters are only really competent in ONE thing such as flying or first-aid?  (technically combat doesn't count as everyone is assumed to be more competent in fighting then in the traditional D&D division of labor.)

I got mine yesterday, plan to read it. I have a few friends who want to try it.