Okay, first: not so much "ran" as "running" - we're doin' it in skype, and as usual kinda slow-y, so we're at about half of the first story using this system(second one at all).
next, about Emperor and the entities of the warp. In my game this was kinda important that He by default gave you absolutely NO insight. He's harsh, He's brutal and grimdark - you go there do that, scum, and that's how you serve Him. No saying you'll live, no saying you'll be praised - you'll do his mission and fairly probably die in His service.
But of course He gives you power to go through in form of +1-forward(or ongoing)
Warp is kinder. He answers you. He helps you go through. Just ask. Just ask for our help, first taste's always free...
(And that's no joke - other custom move I added says "after you roll X, if you REALLY want to hit Y, just ask - and you roll Y. at the end of session, roll +(Y-X) to see what you actually got yourself into" - and this move was used at least by one character. He's kinda khorny now)Interesting example from my game: on the very start of the game missioner(having +2 beyond) was rolling to help Rogue Trader and before that wanted to get Emperor's guidance. He rolled 8 and got, well, sorta Mission from Him directly. To find and help >this man<, who's in capture. No info who he is, where he is, what the hell...you get the picture.
to get answers, to get leads - he had to ask warp. Which was no easy since, you know, warp
lies. Not always directly, but ultimately anyway. And pursues its own agenda.
And missioner, being who he is was a sweet piece for it to try, so it was nice and hilarious both.
So while I'll definitely will be keepin' this one, I also suggest you to think about it - as an interesting thing with w40k taste.
about power armor. I like the idea that power armor is almost always special, individual in it is whole other class. See, for me in AW there was always important, what you can do automatically, and what you can't do at all, boundaries between which PCs go. So say Power Armor give character whole different statline(like before, but not "add", just "use") - and while statline itself can be worse, that user had already, it exists on a totally different scale then user was. maybe even some separate moves.
Other variant is to treat it like druid's "change shape" move (you roll armor's +venerable and get hold, which you spend to do awesome space-marine-like things)
Yes, travelling the Warp with a PC Navigator is very safe (comparibly). My idea is that there will be a separate ship move for navigating through the warp when there's not a PC navigator on board - more similar to the warp move in the old version, where a 10+ just gets you there safely and a 7-9 gets you there with serious complications. In addition, if there's some kind of warp-storm or Tyranid shadow, I'd advise writing a custom move to deal with the situation.
well, I suppose it's just that different people treat WH40k's warp differently, like we say in our group - "each GM has his own WH40k universe". It's just that probably the only thing I liked in original RT(d100 one) was the warp journey roll, and especially because having NOTHING happened was kinda uncommon. It's you and your crew moving through the immaterium, weeks go, sometimes months - and having nothing happening for me is strange already. I think of it as kinda adventure in itself. Maybe something emerges inside the ship(great moment for a GM move "use their ship as a threat"), maybe crew have mutiny or demands or there's unsanctioned psyker who involuntary attunes to the things outside...
So that's just adventuring. more tame with PC nav, less tame without, but no safety, gods.
When you're going without Nav at all... for me it's kinda VERY short of just having warp breach. much more nasty stuff. it can be done, even by NPC ships, but expect it to be very risky even for one jump and progress more as you go further. There is a REASON navigators are widely accepted mutants.
Which, by the way, is a reason for me to think that only a crazy RT will let his Nav out of the ship or anywhere near danger. Because without him whole ship is screwed. even more than without Astropath.
About the class itself - I'll give it another look later, maybe.
couple of things I did with Void-Master:
MOVES
You get Ace Pilot or One with the Ship, your choice, plus one other void-master move.
Ace Pilot: when in your flyer’s seat:
-You add your flyer’s power to your Defy Danger, Brandish Threats, Seize by Force and Help/Hinder rolls
-You add your flyer’s looks to your Seduce/Manipulate rolls when it’s applicable
-Anyone trying to Hinder you mid-flight adds your flyer’s weakness to their roll
One with the Ship:
You add +1 to the ship’s special move.
Daredevil: if you go straight into danger without hedging your bets, you get +1armor. If you happen to be leading a squad or party, it gets +1armor too.
Narrow Passages:
Whenever you fight in a tight space(hive corridors/tunnels/spaceship passages)
-you have at least one hold in Seize, even on fail
-you can use ship’s corridors as harm-2 ap hand weapon without major problems later, or harm-3 ap messy hand with a necessity of repairs later
. Additionally, when you fight on your own ship and, roll +Bold instead of +Adroit for read situation
It’s been a long time...
When you encounter stranger from Navy, roll +Charm.
On a hit: You’ve seen this one in battle, either on your side, or on the other. On 10+ you also take +1 forward for dealing with him.
On a miss: He’ve seen you also, and he’d like to repay the debts, not in a pleasant manner.
a) Did you use the social / political / influence moves to any great extent? Did you find them compelling drivers of fiction, or were they awkward in play?
Well, I did use influence, sure, though for my players there was a bit of underperformance, I think - but definitely not worse then what was in d100 system. Anyway, currently my RT player is pulling a lot of favors from Navy betting it all on one sure thing, and if it backfires(which it quite probably will) I'd probably have to make a custom move to see how he goes through =)
b) Did you use ship playbooks and combat rules? Did you find them compelling? What about balanced?
well, no, in fact, which worries me somewhat since we're about to move into ship-to-ship battles soon. one of the reasons I did not use yours is that my RT's ship is a raider - we generated it in original RT, and didn't want to just toss all the story aside. I'd have to get them something better at a certain point, I'm afraid(not 'cause I don't like nice ships in PC hands, but because this one already has quite a history, and... well, I don't think Mal Raynolds would abandon Serenity just to have something bigger and more powerful).
I had some thoughts about ship battles and made aforementioned Voidmaster move. To be short, we have basic moves for ships, we have their statlines and then each class of ship has Special Move - not AW kind of special %) but more of a traditional meaning.
Cruiser will ponder with broadside, frigate will hit-and-strafe, utilizing both maneuverability and firepower, carrier will engulf with bombers, raider will zip around and strike into a weak point. Only with a good voidmaster. By default of course raider still have speed and all, but it needs a good helmsman to utilize it.
[Transport, by the way, was supposed to be less "battle" and more "utility", as its cargo-holds are so big there can be virtually anything found]
but I see you're going to rewrite this anyway, so I'm waiting to see what you'd do about it.
c) What playbooks saw use in your game? How did the fiction evolve? Did you use the MC playsheet I posted, or did you work by your own code?
playbooks are
-RT
[by the way, I see you same as me added to RT playbook +1Bold move. Though I named it a bit differently, "Elusive as void itself" - I'll ask my RT player does he like your more, as mine is quite uncharacterful for him. Which I think is totally good and fine, move names SHOULD matter fictionally]
-Missioner
[by the way, I think I'll be reworking his divine minstration(as well as maybe some other Emperor'callin' moves) to work more like cleric in DW - right now divine healing became too common, and a bit unlike traditional wh40k verse-ish]
-Voidmaster [Kevin "Ram It!" Hasselhoff, who quite likes going in without hedging bets]
-Arch-Militant(fairly overpowered class for my taste - though fictional implications of "Stone-cold killer" move are catching up with our militant, and he's already paranoidal. I think later I'd give him an option to buy it out, loosing a bit of martial prowess but saving sanity)
-Explorator(again I already wrote my own Playbook, though I think I'll ask my player if he wants to switch.
Here is my version, not fully done, just what is in use currently. Call of Metall was custom move my player wanted to have, so I used a bit of MoW)
-There's also Senechal - and I like your book there a lot - but he's not much involved as of now
-as well as Secutor squad, based mechanically on Arch-militant playbook and fictionally being sort of SW clone commandos in wh40k.
Fiction evolved mainly from
a) missionary's prayer I already mentioned which sprung Holy Mission storyline
b) RT's endeavor roll at the very start, which gave us an obvious enemy, pirate "fleet" which proved to be much more then anybody thought.
c) player actions, like attempt to repair Voidmaster's cyber-parrot resulted in
-~20+ gangers dead in underdecks
-suitcase full of thrones(in the end given to the contact below)
-suitcase full of illegal drugs(in the end given to the INQ as our RT is still on the legal side...for now)
-new underworld contact(who in fact was the purpose of the aforementioned gundown, who almost got 2 PCs killed and who got aforementioned suitcase full of money(his own money, to be fair) for the troubles. good thing RT didn't have much profit at the moment, I say, or it could go there, too)
-2 mildly pissed RTs
-one illegal basilisk-like psyker bird.
3) MC sheet wasn't used that much, as I'm in fact not this experienced in fronts writing; I'm doing it only now, in fact, as now most of the threats are formed and easier to see. My bad of course, improv without thinking and structuring can get you only this far
--Guns
P.S. feel free to ask questions =)