Man it has been a very very very incredibly extremely long time since I have updated this blog! So, first things first, some updates!
1) As anyone who has been near me for five seconds can attest, I have a kickstarter now! If you use this, you can get my book and sweet merch!
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/candlemarkandgleam/print-release-of-debris-dreams
2) I have been working on my various books. This is all going great, better than I have any right to expect.
But now, on to the exciting part, the adventurous part. For the past three weeks, I have had the chance to run my all time favorite roleplaying game: Rogue Trader. Rogue Trader is a game wherein you - the players - take the part of a star-faring merchant princes who captain titanic, kilometer long starships in a dark, gothic future where humanity is beset on all sides by horrific aliens, demonic entities, and foul mutants.
As Rogue Traders, the player characters (PCs) are expected to explore the dark corners of the map, fight evil creatures, land on distant planets, and make HUGE, TITANIC PILES OF MONEY!
And so, I decided to begin leaving a record of these stalwart heroes.
Let us begin...with a DRAMATIS PERSONAE!
Our dashing and brave Lord-Captain, Ansin, is the Rogue Trader. He holds the group's sacred warrant of trade and is a charismatic man who has an exceptional skill with leadership. He is able to boost the abilities of the other characters and generally gives the orders.
Under Ansin is his First Officer, York. York is a Void-Master: A pilot without compare, York is a former naval officer with a burning hatred for Space Orks (which are like regular Orks, but in space!)
But even the best Void-Master can't take a ship through the nightmarish hellscape of the Warp, an alternate universe which allows humans to travel faster than light. Only those blessed with the Navigator Gene can guide a ship through the warp, and for this vessel and crew, the Navigator is Julia Benetec. A proud and noble woman, Julia and her third eye will see the crew to any destination they set their mind too.
Still, a ship is a fantastically complex technological construct. In the grim darkness of the distant future, technology is stagnant and moribund. Science has become, literally, a religion. And so, the next member of the bridge crew is the Enginseer Regina. Enginseers are experienced Tech-Priests, able to maintain the ancient technology of the Imperium, while also finding "new" technology amidst the ruins of the ancient past.
But a ship is more than machinery. It has a crew as well, and that crew needs their souls tended by the fiery sermons of a Missionary: In our case, we have Lady Cenna, a noble born Missionary who seeks to bring the light of the God-Emperor into the benighted regions of space.
And, at last, there are the needs of the Trader Dynasty beyond the vessel itself. Ansin is the latest in a long, proud lineage. He has thousands on thousands of serfs and servants, spread across the galaxy at large. There needs to be someone to organize and handle these vast, spread out fortunes. That responsibility falls on Ansin's Seneschall, Sem. Sem is a logical super-genius with an eternal eye for profit.
Now that we know the names and places of our characters, there is only a single thing left to introduce: The Fortuna!
The Fortuna is our crew's starship: A five kilometer long Dauntless-class light cruiser, designed for long distance exploration and combat. It has been equipped with macrocannon broadsides and lance turrets, weaponry that could shatter a continent if unloaded on a planet. It has a barracks, containing thousands of loyal marines who can board enemy ships and capture them. It has a cargo bay, to carry home the lucre earned in distant planets. It is a stolid ship, and despite it's use in exploration and combat, it has a somewhat plodding, lazy character.
Next week, tune in for the first voyage of the Fortuna into the untamed Koronus Expanse: Ancient alien enemies, piratical miscreants and treachery most foul await!
