Just wanted to say that I really like what you have done so far. Looks great!

Any news on this? I'm really looking forward to seeing more. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RAkOmYM4w7MXtihTUBPdnA3uKOsgtmnZMrJ0mfPIJIY/edit

First draft of Lure of the Void is up, I'll proabably give it another pass over later, but right now here's a check list of what's left to do:

• Trials and Trivails:  I'm hoping to make these a little less flexable than Lure's of the void, and these represent tramatics incidents in the character's pasts. 
• Motivations:  Motivations will have a smaller effect on the character than other options when it comes to statistics.  I'm debating using a system similar to demeanors in Deathwatch to envoke a statistical bonus through roleplaying, and have a negative effect as you gain insanity. 
• Careers: I've already been thinking how to define careers in a way where they all have their unique areas of expertise.  I'm hoping to create a few unique powers which can be purchaced after character creation to round out their abilities.  
• Transitions: I'm going to create transitions which will increase flexability on the origin path, however my goal is that its easier to fall in Imperial sociaty than it is to rise.  
• Crossovers: I want to provide a statistical bonus to sharing an background option with another player, so I'm going to write unique bonuses for crossovers.  You only get one for free however so you're incentivized have a group backstory then go your separate ways. 
• Starting Gear: I want each step in the origin path to add some flavor gear to the character's starting equipment, these could be things like a set of medals from time of the Imperial Guard (charm), or a duling pistol used in the fight between you and a noble rival.   
• Liniages: I'm not sure if I want to re-write these but they provide another chance to inject more backstory into character creation by having a character define his family or associations. 
• Alternate Career ranks: I've been toying around with how to update these to the new rule set, there are a lot of very flavor heavy options provided in RT I would hate to loose but I am not sure if they are relivent under current rules.  I might need to take a look through black crusade or wait for new Only War suppliments to see if they are going to tackle this.  
• Henchmen:  A Rogue Trader has a vast number of disposable underlings at his disposal but no good mechanics to make them easy to handle like companions in Only War or minions in Black Crusade.  I also want to adapt Horde rules to abstract a gun-cutter full of redshirts into an easy to handle group that does not overshadow the party.   

Just to clarify, a question about when you write in the Balance and Rational document that you balance around the assumption that starting RT chars are equivalent to 5000xp DH chars. Do you mean equivalent to DH characters that have gotten 5000xp through the course of play, or equivalent to DH characters with Skills, Talents and Traits with a total worth of 5000xp?

That you account for the xp worth of the DH homeworld choice indicates the former, they way you formulate RT characters being roughly equal to 5000xp acolytes indicates the latter.

Out of curiosity, you don't seem to have earmarked any xp for the Careers themselves. What are your plans for them?

The characters are supposed to be roughly equivilent to a DH character with 5000 XP gained through play,  and to simulate this through there are various flaws gained through the origin path to reflect this.  
 

When designing the homeworld I realized that the DH characters got a bunch of homeworld stuff for free, but because I didn't want to give Basic skills (basically half skills) I tried my best to come up with a compromise between the OW homeworlds and the DH homeworlds which I then added a bit of extra XP to flesh them out.  I'll probably use a OW or DH Career as a base and add a few extra skills or traits to them to flesh them out (around 500 XP worth).

Thanks. I hadn't looked at DH for so long I only noticed a  short while that DH characters actually start with talents, skills, traits, and wounds that are worth a non-trivial amount. I was curious how you interpreted that statement about RT characters being equal to 5k xp DH chars in light of that.

I started working on a conversion for my own RT group a few days ago, though with a different focus than you. We are reviving our old round, with the old characters, which we just need to transfer to OW rules. So I don't need to worry about keeping the characters balanced with DH or OW characters at specific amounts of xp, only with each other. So I can keep lots of the Origin Path as is (making a pdf with all of them adapted to the OW rules for the new player right now).

As all but one character are already beyond char creation, I just loaded all Aptitudes into the Career Paths, going for 8 per career (based on that many OW specialists will start with that number, thanks to training doctrines and RT chars were always assumed to be a bit exceptional). Which had the downside that the Aptitudes were clearly created with the archetypes of soldiers and their support personnel in mind, they don't really mesh as well with Rogue Trader archetypes as I'd like. So I gave all Careers each one Favoured skill, which they may buy as if they had both aptitudes for it.

The only change that will need some careful balancing is that I want to make starting wounds in RT independent from the TB. I'll probably take a page from OW and make the career dependant, with a modifier based on homeworld.

I have to disagree with you that Aptitudes are soldier based rather than general, with the exception of Fieldcraft.  The name implies a military setting but after I started reffering to it as Exploration rather than Fieldcraft I found that most of my objections to it dissapeared. 

I finally had the time to sit down and finish Trials and Travails:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YixWae3kdDuMyWeK-vmOXTAve5oPnxRjTaI1LZQxHUg/edit?usp=sharing

This is the one I am most worried about balance on as it has a lot of things balanced off by flaws.  My goal here was to create characters who come through character creation with one or two defining character traits they have a mechanical benifit to playing towards.  Eager to hear back from people.

Snap_Dragon said:

Most FBI/CIA spy stories also refer to Field Agents as those who are not stuck behind a desk but running around doing interesting Action-y stuff. So "Field" need not refer to a field of battle, but just the out-of-office practical application og skills :)

I finished motivations, now onto careers. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zVlHM-nvB7icm1VVC1xj_n636HJ_J0Km2mmY6zdb1CI/edit?usp=sharing

Careers are tentatively done, I'll probably do Transitions and Crossovers next.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A96unmEl3oJ5qDGBQQ9qOUaH89ThJ9ZXKyXY_QR2onk/edit?usp=sharing

When I was working on how much XP to assign to each stage in the Origin path I factored in what I would cost to raise a DH character up 5 points.  So like black crusade they use the 25 base.

The special abilities where a carry over from the Original RT and I had the idea of adding some extra ones that you could buy later (or in the case of the Arch-Militant or Void-Master buy extra categories their power applies to).  The reason the others don't have as many is that the ones I though up were on reflection half-baked and I removed them.  Now I am debating if I should keep the advanced powers or not, if I decide to keep them I'll probably add a few more to the other classed to balance them out.

My original goal with the special abilities was to make the careers more distinct and to give each of them something to do in each situation (combat, social, and ship) without overshadowing characters specialized in those roles.

I also realize now that I forgot to give them all wounds.

Snap_Dragon said:

An idea for a Special Ability for a Rogue Trader might be one that, like the Honorable Alley trait, is based on how you treat your crew giving different bonuses based on whether they fear you or admire you (there has to be ‘some‘ Traders that are close to their crews and care about their well-being…even if its just to prevent mutiny and being thrown out of an airlock).

I was actually thinking of redoing the special abilities by making them based what you said earlier.  One power that effects the character only, another that helps party members, and the third miscellanious effect.

I'll probably redo some of the starting gear as well it's just low on my list.