Ever found yourself wishing your Rogue Trader 40k RPG players would explore more for exploration’s sake? Perhaps you don’t have the time to hand-craft a dozen encounters for every planet they might land on? Wracking your brain on how to make their latest discovery perilous yet irresistable?
Wrack no further, for all you need is a deck of playing cards and the tables below to generate an enticing game of risk versus reward for any kind of discovery your players might make.
Every player around the table gets to make decisions, roll some dice, and contribute to the narrative. The GM doesn’t need to prep anything (apart from maybe having Stars of Inequity ready to generate some sweet loot) and the characters and ship will face perils without the hassle of setting up a combat encounter.
Into the unknown
This minigame is designed to deliver fast, compelling stories about the strange things our crews will discover along their journey. It’s not designed to take centre stage over written encounters or story missions, but rather as a tool to spice up an existing adventure, long haul flight, or an accidental drop from warp in the middle of nowhere.
Once your players have sampled it you could even offer rumoured discovery site locations from inebriated lips at a noble gala, or from questionable treasure maps at the next port. No two discoveries will be the same!
The premise is simple – a deck of cards is shuffled and a few are laid face down on the table. The players then use skill checks (balanced with the amount of time they want to spend doing so) to reveal what some of the cards might be – black cards do good things, red ones do bad things.
When the skill checks are over, the players will have a rough idea of what cards are left in the pool – the potential threats and potential rewards. The remaining cards get shuffled together and one is drawn randomly. If it’s a black card, hooray! You’ve discovered the secret of the site and walk away with all your limbs intact. If it’s a red card, apply whatever the penalty is and you have a decision: you can keep drawing cards until you find a black card, or walk away. How many reds are left in the pool? Was the black we revealed worth it? Can we afford to draw the red that reduces our crew population?
Obviously keeping your players clued in on what each card does is vital to keeping the tension – it’s hard to balance risk and reward if you don’t know what any of the cards do!
Most importantly – have fun. These tools are here to put some structure around a core tenet of the game that (in my opinion) often gets overlooked because of the burden it puts on the GM – exploration and discovery. This is a way to share that burden around the table and create a sense of wonder at what could be at the next discovery site. Encourage players to name their discoveries or describe the environments they’ve generated. Make sure they hear other NPCs talking about their expeditions when they get back to port.
Go forth and plunder!
Site Difficulty
All discovery sites will have a Difficulty Level assigned to them, usually by the GM based on the significance of the discovery. The higher the number the greater the reward, but the more dangerous the setbacks become.
Any references to ‘-Difficulty’ mean an additional test penalty, and DB means Difficulty Bonus.
For example if you’re exploring a Difficulty Level 3 discovery site, a Tech Use -Difficulty becomes a Tech Use -30 test on top of any other modifiers. Likewise, if you lost D5+DB Crew Morale at the same site, you’d lose D5+3 Crew Morale.
| Difficulty Level | Test penalty | Difficulty Bonus (DB) |
| 1 | -10 | 1 |
| 2 | -20 | 2 |
| 3 | -30 | 3 |
| 4 | -40 | 4 |
Sidebar: Exploration skills
Some skills have the ‘Exploration’ tag as described on page 75 of the core rulebook. When something calls for an Exploration test, it’s a test using any of the following skills (and any others the GM deems appropriate):
Awareness, Navigation, Search, Security, Survival, Tech-Use, Tracking, Trade (as appropriate).
How it works
- Deal your cards: Shuffle all the cards and deal them face down in the centre of the table so everyone can reach them, equal to the number of players +1.
- Scan it from orbit: Make an initial Detection +Scrutiny -Difficulty test to survey the site. Reveal 1 card +1 per 2 Degrees of Success. (If the ship is not available, its augurs broken, or otherwise can’t use them from local interference, you don’t get the Detection bonus to this roll.)
- Assemble your team: The Exploration Team is selected. Any number of players can choose to go. Anyone not present is not affected by outcomes, positive or negative, and cannot contribute to any further steps.
- Get detailed analysis: The Captain nominates one member of the Exploration Team to make an Exploration -Difficulty test, which takes DB hours in game. Success means you can either reveal or remove one one of the cards on the table. The other members of the Exploration Team may make one test each, but it takes a whole day for test made.
- Kick down the door: At any time, the Captain may decide to unveil the discovery. Perhaps they’ve exhausted their analysis options, or you’re running out of time to rendezvous with another engagement. Shuffle the remaining cards together face down and the Captain nominates one of the Exploration Team to draw a card. This takes no in-game time.
If the card is black: Success! This is a good outcome. Look up the card value on the Discovery Site outcome table below and apply the effects. The discovery site is now exhausted.
If the card is red: Danger Will Robinson! This is a bad outcome. Look up the card value on the Discovery Site outcome table below and apply the effects. The cards may be reshuffled and start again from Step 1 until a Black is drawn.
Permanent effects
Any local phenomena or environmental effects you generate permanently apply to the Discovery site. This includes any colony, excavation, or similar endeavours you might want to attempt in the area in future.
Insight cards
Some outcomes award a Insight Card. Your Exploration Team learns something of the universe and their place in it, and they can apply that wisdom to a future adventure. These work a bit like free Fate Points that can be used in specific circumstances.
Permanently remove that card from the deck and keep it with your character sheet, making a note of the Site Difficulty. When you spend your insight card, you automatically pass a relevant test with the DB as your degrees of success.
Adjacent players
Some outcomes refer to adjacent players. You’re free to describe exactly who is adjacent before doing a card draw, but for brevity it’s assumed the two players sat next to them at the table. If an adjacent player isn’t on the Exploration Team, it skips over them to the next player who is part of the team.
Discovery site outcomes
| Card | Name | Good outcome (Black) | Bad outcome (Red) |
| 2 | Fate | You and adjacent players gain DB temporary fate points. | You and adjacent players lose DB fate points. |
| 3 | Pitfall | You and adjacent players get to train Climb, Swim or Survival for free. If all are trained, you may train one to +10 and so on. | Describe the pitfall, you and adjacent players must make a test or take DBd10 damage. |
| 4 | Distress call | Gain D5+DB Crew Population. | Lose D5+DB Crew Population. |
| 5 | Cosmic salvage | Gain DB hull repair parts* | Lose DB hull. |
| 6 | Supply cache | Gain D5+DB Crew Morale. | Lose D5+DB Crew Morale. |
| 7 | Celestial phenomena | Insight card: spend to instantly pass one Navigate (Stellar) or Trade (Astrographer) test with DB degrees of success. | Roll on celestial phenomena table. |
| 8 | Local phenomena | Insight card: spend to instantly pass one Navigate (Surface) or Trade (Explorator) test with DB degrees of success | Roll on local phenomena table. |
| 9 | Strange illness | Insight card: spend to instantly pass a Medicae check to identify or diagnose a medical problem. | Lose DBxd5 crew pop. |
| 10 | Forbidden Lore | Insight card: spend to instantly pass one Forbidden Lore check with DB degrees of success. | Gain DB Corruption Points. You and adjacent players must pass a Willpower -Difficulty test or gain D5 additional Corruption Points. |
| Jack | Jackpot! | You find goods worth DB PF. Immediately add to your PF (assumed to sell when next in port) | A complication occurs, permanently costing you DB PF. |
| Queen | Firepower | Generate a weapon from the generator. Add DB to the d10 roll for determining Craftsmanship. | DB random weapons you and adjacent players are broken, and requires a Tech Use -Difficulty test to repair. |
| King | Armour | Generate a piece of armour from the generator. Add DB to the d10 roll for determining Craftsmanship. | You permanently lose DB armour from DB random locations. |
| Ace | Ship component | Generate a ship component from the generator. Add DB to the d10 roll for determining Craftsmanship. | DB installed ship components become Damaged. |
*hull repair parts: supplies, raw materials, components or rare metals required to repair a voidship. Each repair part can be used to restore one hull point at port or via extended repairs (p228 core rulebook) without the use of an Acquisition Test.
Local phenomena table
| D5 result | Description |
| 1. Temperature extremes | Freezing or blistering temperatures define this environment, making it inhospitable at best, and extremely dangerous to unprepared Explorers at worst with a penalty equal to the Difficulty. |
| 2. Rage of storms | Perpetual tempests wrack this environment, slashing the sky above with blasts of lightning and driving all aerial transport to the ground with howling winds and curtains of rain. Explorers suffer a Difficulty penalty to all Pilot, Drive and Exploration skill tests while in this environment and aerial extraction might be unavailable |
| 3. Atmospheric rot | Something in the region’s atmosphere attacks the synthetic materials carried by the explorers, but has no effect on organic matter. For every day you spend in this environment, reduce the armour points of any inorganic armour you wear by DB on each location. After a day of exposure, all complex technology begins to shut down intermittently and all weapons drop one level of Reliability. |
| 4. Corruptive rain | The rainfall in this area carries with it a strange poison and the tang of mutation. Each day (and each time they are caught out in the open during one of the frequent rainstorms), you must make a Toughness –Difficulty test or gain 1 Corruption Point. |
| 5. Chemical rivers and lakes | The air, water or other primary liquid in this area contains a chemical or biological composition that is anathema to the physiology to most species. Toughness –Difficulty test or suffer DBd10 Agility Damage that does not begin to heal until you exit the environment |
Celestial phenomena table
| D5 Result | Description |
| 1. Strange gravity | Some environments are subject to strange gravities caused by celestial forces, arcane xenos devices or even interference from the immaterium. This environment, regardless of what the world around is like, is subject to conditions of Low Gravity, High Gravity or Zero Gravity. (p269 core rulebook) |
| 2. Baleful stars | Some stars are ill-omened, their mere presence enough to unnerve those who must pass beneath their evil gaze. The sight of such a stellar omen, like the dark red eye of a vengeful god, always puts the crew on edge, reducing Crew Morale by DBxD5 and inflicting –Difficulty on all command tests to control the crew so long as the vessel sits under its dread gaze. Explorers in this location suffer -Difficulty to all Willpower based tests |
| 3. Irradiated | This place is scarred by raw starlight that bears down from the heavens, searing and twisting what little life can survive it. At the end of each day in this environment, each player makes a Toughness -Difficulty test or gain 1 level of Fatigue that cannot be removed until they leave the irradiated environment. If someone passes out due to fatigue accrued in this way, they succumb to radiation poisoning and perish. |
| 4. Endless night or enduring day | Tide-locked worlds, worlds at extreme axial tilt, those shielded by other moons or planets or those exposed to binary or trinary star clusters can all experience endless days or nights. Fatigue gain is twice as much and fatigue recovery takes twice as long. Being in perpetual darkness for more than a week imposes a Difficulty penalty to Willpower and Fellowship tests. |
| 5. Warp touched | A place which exists too close to a warp rift, or one where the fabric of the materium and immaterium is thin, can become saturated in warp energy. Though the world might have no outward signs of warp taint, you might feel uneasy without knowing why. Psykers can sense this phenomenon without a test, adding DB to their Psy Rating but adding +Difficulty to any rolls Phenomena or Perils rolls they make. |
