I purchased the Original Rogue trader back in the mid-eighties.  I wonder if the Eldar will be playable as pirates?  That would be sweet!

I'm included to doubt it, since GW is increasing taking the view alien=evil and backing away from the idea that Eldar are ultimately on the side "good."

That said, naturally I have no idea and I know a number of folks who would love to play Eldar pirates. Actually played in a GURPS campaign once where we were the crew of an Eldar corsair.

My guess is not at release.

You'll start with humans, well as human as any Navigator really is.  Then they'll do a splatbook (or multiple splatbooks) detailing various commonly encounted Xenos species, each with a chapter on how to make them playable characters. 

On a more doctrinal level, Rogue Traders are still servants of the Empire, some are much more conservative and have missionaries aboard, some are much more liberal and don't care.  You make at the core classes that each and every Rogue Trader would have in or around his fleet, then later make classes that are optional and which only liberal Traders would allow.  Plus you make more money this way.  Kind of like the Radical Inquisitors Handbook coming out.

Xathess Wolfe said:

Perhaps abhumans will be in there?

i dont think eldar or dark eldar pirates can be play in the core book but maybie in a aliens threats sourcebook

and yes xeno are evil but i can be funny to play someone in the others sides of the imperium a true evil (imperium vision of xeno or an  heretech captain )

RT is certainly espected but i dont thing my group are going to play it alone but use it more as a add on to DH. space travel and space combat are certainly something we wait for i certainly purchase RT when is become dispo

same concerning ship and ship creation. that can give lot of new opportunity to each DH group. ship cargo control, alien xeno artefact contrbands, space race to capture an criminals who escaped via a unscrupulous captain ad so on. RT can grant us the necesssary information and rules to expends the missions of accolytes to a far greater dimension.

i just hope FFG stop doing to put npc whit greats backgrounds but whitout stats and gears (finish the jobs please and stop that non-sense), if you put a perso in a book give us there stats skill talents powers and gears,  not only is story. you put 9 criminals in the inquisition book whit a greats story about them but nothing else, are they strong, weak? no info, are they ressourcefull? we dont have any stat to evaluate that, how they are equiped? no infos, the spyker is pyro alright but what is is power, is spy rank? nothing is write about that to. at this point spare 9 pages and less us create the npc anyway whit just a backgroup we need to doing all of this on your own (make a full npc with all the info we need  or just dont do it)

Many xenos are not evil but are SEEN as evil by Imperial dogma ....

I consider at least possible that one of the unrevealed careers of RT is going to be a Xeno, likely a (craftworld/corsair) Eldar.

It's also possible that instead of or in addition to "homeworld" choices there might be things like Abhuman types.  I think actual Xenos will come in a supplement, like an "Inquisitor's Handbook" for Rogue Trader featuring Xenos backgrounds and their unique careers.

Pneumonica said:

I hope so.  Personally i'm not that fussed about Xenos PCs (for various reasons), but if they are coming i think they need to be done well, and deserve their own book rather than being tacked on as another 'career option'...

Luddite said:

I'm going to have to agree with that last.  I would rather see no alien PCs if we get no substantial supporting material other than, essentially, "Go and read the Eldar Codex" (which is obviously not sufficient, or at least is not sufficient in my mind).

Kage

Kage2020 said:

Completely agree.  You should not have to go buy and Warhammer 40k Tabletop stuff to play the RPG, and vice versa.  Which means that if you're going to publish Alien PC rules, you need to have enough fluff with said rules so that people who are 40k ignorant can pick them up and play them properly, and not play Eldar like  space elves.

While dealing with xenos is frowned upon, Rogue Traders are one of the few things within the Imperium that can, and do, interact with them. Its not unheard of for them to deal with Tau, Elder, or even sometimes Orks (Bloodaxes mainly). Im also pretty sure they are in the Dark Heresy: Creatures Anaethma have eldar in it, so I don't think it would be very hard to make eldritch raiders up.

Kaiohx said:

Corsair Raiders appear in Purge the Unclean!

I currently use some of the ideas from Mongoose RuneQuest's Pirates supplements for the pirates in my DH game, and use Sartossa from WFRP Companion as the "Asteroid cluster" they hang out at.

It would certainly be interesteing to see how pirates in the 40k universe work, or are at least justified given some of the other themes with regards to travel, etc.  

Kage

While I too believe that we won't see Xenos characters out of the chute with Rogue Trader, I think we will see the option in a future supplement.

Also keep in mind that the term "Eldar Pirate" as laid out in the old '87 TT game is vague and reletively out of date due to newer publications.

From what is established, those that are "Eldar Pirates" are Dark Eldar. However more notorious Cosair and Merc Captains of Old Eldar Culture/Craftworld/Exodite origins with their forces/fleets can be pirates as well. However these individuals blur the line in their actions/loyalties and may or may not be "bad" or "evil" per sei unlike their evil kin which nobody particularly likes.

To most in the Imperium, and to the better majority of Rogue Traders, any Eldar of any origin is more than likely a pirate and regularly engages in piracy. Even if they are from a Craftworld, Merc band, or a (il)legitimate Corsair (which actually, oddly enough is the Eldar equivilant of a Rogue Trader), there is little or no real disticntion. Except for those who are really nasty bastards with the blades,  barbs, monsters, and murder-death-kill-enslave attitude being the worst examples that you just don't want to deal with at all.