Talk:EotI House Rules

Design Notes: Birthright

My first attempt to replace the basic Archetypes from Genesys (or species, back when I was converting this from EotE) was the same as the Dark Heresy conversion used - homeworlds. However, looking back over my experience with my own group's characters (Forge-nobility, void-station forges), as well as the exploding number of variations on the homeworld theme made me wonder if there was a better way to capture someone's fundamental nature in the Imperium. A glance back at the Origin Chart, along with an unrelated discussion on the Feudal Japanese class system made me think that it was not so much where someone was born, but to what station they were born that would shape a citizen of the Imperium. Thus, birthright replaces archetype for this system.

Noblility

Part of the driver from Homeworld to Birthright, the Nobility choice is a particularly important one for Rogue Trader, where the likelihood of a PC being nobility is very high. This drove two particular facets of this birthright - one, in an effort to make it a little more distinct I descriptively closed up how far down the nobility this birthright is based around - tying it only the uppermost peers. Secondly, I went for traits that wouldn't be particularly adaptable in an effort to make it a little less of a default choice.

Gentry

Gentry, which I'm still not sure I'm happy with the name for, is really supposed to be kind-of the default choice - not unlike "human" in Star Wars. I went with a willpower bonus instead of a flat six-twos across the board, however, to both emphasize the faith-centered normality and force a level of specialization among the characters. Particularly because it isn't particularly expensive to bring a 1 back up to a 2 with xp if one doesn't like playing with that kind of deficit.

Savant

The Imperium is full of super-specialized people and they often make good characters, particularly in larger adventuring parties. The Savant was built with both of these in mind. Like Gentry, I expect this will be a fairly common choice for a lot of character types, particularly intelligence-based individuals.

Menial

Another birthright that started more from a story/lore perspective than a character-mechanical idea, the stories of the Imperium are full of the toiling masses. The addition of a Brawn-based Archetype is usually welcome anyway.

Stubjack

The only war nature of Warhammer is really what makes this a viable birthright. Plus, it's nice to provide an easy option for the gun-bunnies of the RPG world.

Scapegrace

Honestly, this one started because I like the name. But in the end, it was a nice way to catch all of the backgrounds that involve people who were not really part of the Imperial Machinery, particularly the ever-popular Death World survivalist. The realization that the jungle death world and underhive scavenger are essentially the same backgrounds was another thing that drove me to use birthright instead of homeworld.