We’ve all been there – you’ve been playing the 40k Rogue Trader RPG and your crew is getting semi-decent at warp jumps and dealing with the harsh penalties the wild expanse throws at them. Either a jump goes off without a hitch, or you’ve played out the scant few encounters in the core rulebook so many times that translating into hell and madness becomes routine, and you’re often so busy juggling the rest of the game that improvising another new warp encounter is off the cards. Time to change that!
Below is an expanded table of 20 different warp encounters, appropriately balanced to the vagaries of the warp and definitely deadly if the dice gods are not smiling favourably that day. It will help keep your players on their toes whenever they’re traversing the Sea of Souls, and make them think twice about saying the fateful words “Oh that’s fine, it’s only one warp jump away.”
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| D100 Roll | Warp Travel Encounters |
| 01-04 | Incursion: D5 Ebon Geists (p378 core rule book) materialise within the ship, intent on preying upon the vulnerable crew. Each Daemon immediately begins slaughtering the crew, preferring to ambush vulnerable voidsmen instead of attacking large groups. The vessel loses 1 Population and 1 Morale per day per Daemon, so long as the invaders are not expunged by exorcism or the blade of the righteous. |
| 05-08 | Plague of Madness: An ethereal madness has infected the crew and bedlam ensues. It has targeted the weakest of will first and is spreading by contact. Roll a D10 (and every subsequent day): 6-10 no effect that day, 1-5 reduce population and morale by that much. Disease needs researching, then a successful Medicae -40 test, which cannot be attempted more than once a day. |
| 09-12 | Swarming Malice: The ship is plagued by a swarm of vicious Warp manifestations that wreak havoc on the structure of the ship, hurling objects to and fro, but scuttling into the shadows when confronted. The GM chooses D5 components to infest. This component is rendered inoperable until the presence is eliminated, by faith or by fire. The ship’s Morale decreases by 5, and by a further 5 for each infested component until the crew or Players banish the vile manifestations. |
| 13-16 | Famine: A phantom blight sweeps the ship’s food stores, rendering nearly everything edible as piles of loathsome rot. The ship’s Morale is immediately decreased by 2D5. The supplies are reduced to D5 weeks (at regular rations), after which they will begin to suffer from starvation: -1 population and -2 Morale every day until food is found. |
| 17-20 | Lost Time: Time contracts and expands during the voyage, and though it might take but a few days, the crew will feel as if months or more has passed, fraying their sanity. Each player gains D10 insanity points and the ship becomes stuck in a warp rift, adding D5 days to the journey |
| 21-24 | Ferric entropy: Roll a D10 to randomly determine a weapon (if a 10 is rolled, pick the 10th and roll again…). The warp has selected that weapon to corrode and rust, its ammunition supplies turning to dust and its cabling rotting away in the locker. It is considered unusable as if it had failed an Upkeep test, and must be replaced or repaired when next in suitable harbour. |
| 25-28 | Ghost Ships: The ship’s augurs scream in protest at phantom readings that appear and vanish randomly. The petty officers claim it is a ghost ship, but wise captains ignore such things. If they are real though, a vessel lost in the warp could still hold valuable cargo or grateful crew. Each player must take a Willpower test or gain D5 insanity and corruption points from the sighting, and the crew loses D5 Morale. |
| 29-32 | Shoals and Reefs: The vessel runs afoul of a warp shoal or reef that threatens to break it open on a jagged fragment of false reality. A Pilot+Man test and a Navigate (Warp) test are required to pass unscathed, otherwise the vessel’s hull screeches against reef in the Sea of Souls and takes 1D10+2 Damage ignoring armour and void shields. |
| 33-36 | Portents of Doom: Spilt fluids pool into imagery of skulls and death, dice games end in fist fights as they only roll snake eyes, and the ship’s mystics have burned all their tarot cards and proclaiming one inscrutable truth: the voyage is doomed. Each player loses 1 Fate point for the remainder of the session. |
| 37-40 | Warp Storm: A terrible warp storm coalesces from nowhere and strikes the vessel. You must pass a Pilot+Manoeuvrability-20 test and a Navigate (Warp)-20 test or roll a D10 on the Ship Critical Effects table for each failed test as the boiling tides of the warp storm try to tear the vessel apart. |
| 41-44 | Gellar Field Fluctuations: The Gellar Field that keeps back the baleful energies of the warp begins to fluctuate alarmingly. Roll initiative, the ‘Fluctuations’ roll D10+5. Take it in turns to attempt to fix the Gellar Field as though it were Strategic Combat. The Gellar Field requires a Tech Use-50 test to fix. For every Fluctuations turn that passes with the Gellar Field unfixed, roll again on this table and immediately apply the result. |
| 45-48 | Technical Difficulties: Wicked tech-sprites have infected the ship’s systems, damaging and disrupting the natural harmony of the machine spirits within. This affront to the Machine God can be avoided with a Tech-Use-10 test for each component. Roll a D10 for each: 1-4 Unpowered, 5-8 Depressurised, 9-10 Fire! If the Tech Use test is failed by 4+ Degrees of Failure, the component is Damaged in addition to rolling for further effects. |
| 49-52 | The Terror: A pinhole-sized weakness from a previous battle had gone undetected in pre-warp checks, and pure unadulterated warpstuff pours through the hairline fracture before your tech adepts can seal up the weakness. The Crew suffers D5 Morale and Population damage from the momentary insanity, and every character must make a Fear 4 test against the visions of madness in their heads. |
| 53-56 | Chaos reigns: Roll on the Psychic Phenomena table (p160 core rulebook) and apply the result to the whole ship. Any references to ‘The Psyker’ affect all Astropaths and Navigators on board, including NPC choirs and junior Navigators. |
| 57-60 | Weakened Veil: Although the Gellar Field holds firm, those touched by the warp on board the ship cannot deny that the veil between the material and the immaterial is stretched dangerously thin here. All psychic powers on board will trigger phenomena, regardless of power level. |
| 61-64 | Warp Anaemia: The medicae orderlies are having a hard time treating the injured during the journey, as wounds will not close and blood will not clot. You must pass a Medicae test to staunch any bleeding crew (or suffer 1 crew pop loss per DoF) and characters cannot heal (naturally or otherwise) during the voyage. |
| 65-68 | Visitations: Your officers report the crew have become unsettled, and during your rest periods you find yourselves visited by shades of lost comrades and family. These have a Fear 2 rating, but if you pass you may ask a single question of the shades about your future. |
| 69-72 | Soul sickness: Despite even the most feverish prayers or exercise regimen, you cannot shake a crushing, exhausting malaise that has plagued everyone on board since the journey began. Everyone gains 1 Fatigue while the ship remains in warp (which cannot be removed) and for 2d5 days after translating back into realspace. |
| 73-76 | Whispers and dreams: Everyone on board suffers from strange dreams and even hears hushed whispers when awake. You manage to drown out the worst of the whispers with toil and prayer, but there is a distracting sliver of truth to them that you simply cannot shake. +1 insanity point. |
| 77-100 | All’s well: A safe journey that wise captains will savour. Double rum rations for all! |