I had a little downtime on a flight last week, and was rereading some of the “Vornheiming Middenheim” posts I’d shoved into Evernote before taking off and started thinking about what I could steal modify from them in anticipation of the Rogue Trader game I’m (finally) kicking off later this week.
(Speaking of which: I’m not sure I’ve done a clear job of mentioning that I’ve been planning to, and am finally kicking off a Rogue Trader game. I’ve put up an Appendix N for it here.)
The first thing I pulled together was an adaptation of Jeff Russell’s Middenheim NPC Generator. 40K being, in many way ways (some of which are about as literal as they come) basically Warhammer in Spaaaaace, this should look remarkably like the Middenheim one… just a little more 40Kish.
I started with the d4-d20 spread, but the d4 “Race” chart didn’t provide value and was quickly replaced with a “Department” chart that couldn’t be contained by less than a d20. So, instead, it’s a d6, d8, d10, d12, 2d20 jam. Also, this is really a first-pass. I don’t doubt that there’s room for revision here.
| d6 – Age/Gender | d8 – Demeanor | d10 – Appearance | d12 – Motivation | |
| 1 | Old Man | Aggressively | Bored | Comfort |
| 2 | Man | Cravenly | Corpulent | Curiosity |
| 3 | Young Man | Drunkenly | Drenched in Fluids | Decency |
| 4 | Old Woman | Earnestly | Exhausted | Faith |
| 5 | Woman | Eloquently | Fastidious | Gelt |
| 6 | Young Woman | Haughtily | Over-stimmed | Hatred (good kind) |
| 7 | Rudely | Proper | Hatred (bad kind) | |
| 8 | Sarcastically | Shabby | Power | |
| 9 | Spacesick | Rank | ||
| 10 | Starving | Safety | ||
| 11 | Shit-stirring | |||
| 12 | Viciousness |
Can I just point out that I’m extremely satisfied with myself over having separate “Hatred (good kind)” and “Hatred (bad kind)” entries? I mean: “Hate! Hate! Hate! / An emotion as pure as it is deep! / Hate! Hate! Hate! / Let it flow, let it run free!” – Inspirational Verse, Imperial Hymnal Vol. IV
I gave the departments 40Kish (ie: gutteral pseudo-Latin) names where an established 40K term didn’t already exist. I’ll likely scan back through them to see if Greek doesn’t offer up more interesting bullshit nonsense names.
And, really, I strongly suspect that only 20 entries isn’t enough. This ship has a facility for maintaining its servitors… but doesn’t have a Medicae, for example. (Though I suppose that says a lot about how well it values its crew…)
| d20 – Quirk | d20 – Department | |
| 1 | Augmetics | Anima Facilitatus (Life Support) |
| 2 | Believes a trivial heresy | Augury |
| 3 | Chem-junkie | Cogitator Maintenance |
| 4 | Corrupted by Chaos | Constructorum Team |
| 5 | Deserter | Cubiculum (Cargo Hold) |
| 6 | Dutiful | Gellar Fields |
| 7 | Failed Mechanicus initiate | Janitosi (Custodial) |
| 8 | Family has worked this duty for generations | Macro-Saggitarium (Gunnery) |
| 9 | Involved in Black Market | Munitorium |
| 10 | Normal… too normal | Naviculus (Small Craft) Maintenance |
| 11 | No teeth | Naviculus (Small Craft) Pilot |
| 12 | Only speaks in High Gothic (poorly) | Plasma Organus (Engines) |
| 13 | Overly religious | Praestes (Ship’s Security) |
| 14 | Reports everything to commissars | Servicius (Ship’s Service) |
| 15 | Secret mutation | Servitor Maintenance |
| 16 | Terrified of everything | Shrine |
| 17 | Unaware psyker | Teleportarium |
| 18 | Void-born features | Void Shields |
| 19 | Wanted in-system | Vox |
| 20 | Xenos-pervert | Warp Engines |
And, because such is prudent, a few sample rolls:
- [5, 3, 4, 10, 12, 10] – [5] Woman, [3] Drunkenly, [4] Exhausted, [10] Safety, [12] Only speaks High Gothic (poorly), [10] Munitorium
- [3, 5, 2, 11, 19, 14] – [3] Young Man, [5] Eloquently, [2] Corpulent, [11] Shit-stirring, [19] wanted in-system, [14] Servicius (Ship’s service)
- [2, 8, 10, 7, 18, 20] – [2] Man, [8] Sarcastically, [10] Starving, [7] Hatred (bad), [18] Void-born features, [20] Warp Engines
- [6, 7, 1, 10, 14, 8] – [6] Young Woman, [7] Rudely, [1] Bored, [10] Safety, [14] Reports everything to commissars, [8] Macro-Saggitarium (Gunnery)
- [4, 5, 8, 2, 7, 15] – [4] Old Woman, [5] Eloquently, [8] Shabby, [2] Curiosity, [7] Dutiful, [15] Servitor Maintenance
That’ll do okay.
