Rogue Trader - A 100-Hour CRPG

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Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader creative director Alexander Mishulin explains the scope of the game on Gamedeveloper:

Large scope "necessary" for CRPGs, says Rogue Trader creative director

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader creative director Alexander Mishulin explains how Owlcat Games adapted the tabletop experience to a 100-hour CRPG.

The Warhammer 40K franchise from Games Workshop has seen several video games that capture the grim action, expansive lore, and tactical elements of the tabletop miniature wargame experience. The universe of Warhammer 40K is a rich and intriguingly dark sci-fi setting that's a compelling fit for gaming, yet surprisingly, it has been left unexplored for role-playing video games.

That changes with Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader from Owlcat Games, the CRPG developer behind Pathfinder: Kingmaker and its sequel Wrath of the Righteous. Adapting Fantasy Flight Games' tabletop RPG of the same name, Warhammer 40K's first CRPG adapts the vast scope of the dark universe into an adventure filled with choice-driven events, with plenty of weighty consequences to your actions that games of the genre shine in.

With the massive scope of so many CRPGs, and Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 marking a significant milestone for the genre, we spoke with Rogue Trader creative director Alexander Mishulin about the current state of CRPGs as they go through change, why going big for its 100-hour adventure was vital.

The first Warhammer 40K CRPG is built off of tabletop game mechanics
The universe of Warhammer 40K is an incredibly dark and nihilistic setting - so much so that it inspired the catchall phrase "grimdark" for describing bleak fantasy settings. Setting a role-playing video game within this universe, where morality is a thing of the past and death is a regular occurrence, is a compelling hook for a CRPG.

While Space Marines, Orks, and the Necrons are among the franchise's most recognizable groups, the faction of the Rogue Traders is the focus of this new CRPG, representing a pathway to an open-ended approach to exploring this grim universe.
Inspired by the Rogue Trader tabletop role-playing game, Owlcat Games' entry focuses on the exploits of the titular Rogue Trader faction, made up of mercenaries and traders who can roam the galaxy with a level of freedom that other factions don't possess.

Players will chart a course to the Koronus Expanse, where their party will run afoul of different factions and noble houses as they cut deals to secure a foothold in this corner of the galaxy - leading to pivotal choices that will tip the balance of power within the galactic Imperium. During our interview with Mishulin, he spoke about the rapid growth that the CRPG genre has seen in recent years following the successes of their Pathfinder games, along with other noteworthy hits like Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 - which Mishulin gave credit to for expanding the genre.

When coming up with the gameplay and goals for Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, the developers at Owlcat Games took careful consideration when adapting the source material from the tabletop RPG, which uses miniature figures along with pen-and-paper character sheets to chart adventures. They also wanted to blend it with the choice-driven gameplay and sprawling scope of a CRPG like Pathfinder: Kingmaker or, most recently, Baldur's Gate 3.

"For this game, we were inspired by the Rogue Trader tabletop RPG by Fantasy Flight Games, and our core team has played it for many years while working on the Pathfinder games," said Mishulin. "We approached Games Workshop with our idea and started work after Pathfinder.

"So it's based on that 2009 tabletop game, carrying over similar skills and systems, but it's modified with our own rules that we have used for recent games. Strictly tabletop rules and progression in a 100-hour CRPG can be rather flat, so we created a modified Rogue Trader ruleset for this CRPG to show [character growth] and the different strategic abilities for your party."

According to Mushlin, Owlcat's intent was to take liberties as needed with the original ruleset to interpret them into familiar turn-based combat mechanics that players of CRPG games can immerse themselves in. The developer's end goal was to capture the tactical nature of the tabletop experience with the complex storytelling and character growth seen in CRPGs.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader will be a massive game
With Warhammer 40: Rogue Trader, Owlcat is shooting for a massive game that can take up to 50 to 100 hours to complete -- depending on the player's pace and choices. Along with the choice-driven gameplay and managing a large party of unique characters with their own ideals and needs, one of the hallmarks of a CRPG is the sprawling scope of its adventure and how much there is to see.

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Thanks Couchpotato!

More information.

 

[bjon045]

The problem is whenever Owlcat says they are making a 100 hour game it turns out to be 150-180 hours long. They tend to stretch out the content for the sake of it as well.

 

[LoneWoof]

The problem is whenever Owlcat says they are making a 100 hour game it turns out to be 150-180 hours long. They tend to stretch out the content for the sake of it as well.

Even stretched it's still incredibly enjoyable content.

I do wish there's no kingdom building mechanic this time.

 

[Couchpotato]

Even stretched it's still incredibly enjoyable content.

I do wish there's no kingdom building mechanic this time.

Bad news then as there is. It's just done differently as your building a trade empire. Most of the systems have been included in the latest beta, but more is still to be incorporated.

Not counting ship battles and you upgrade your ship as you play.

 

[Drithius]

Even stretched it's still incredibly enjoyable content.

Yup, whatever the length of an Owlcat game, I'll be enjoying it for its entire duration. It's one of the things that struck me about my first 200+ hour Kingmaker run.

 

[LoneWoof]

Bad news then as there is.

 

[Carnifex]

That's my kind of value in a game.

 

[Farflame]

It's just done differently as your building a trade empire.

Do you know how it works? You dont have a base, only your ship this time. So trade empire could mean something like "make a deal with planet XY and build there factory to produce goods for planet XZ" ?

 

[Vaelith]

Really looking forward to this one too. What a great year for RPGs. (assuming it releases this year).

 

[Farflame]

Really looking forward to this one too. What a great year for RPGs. (assuming it releases this year).

2024 more likely.

 

[Couchpotato]

Do you know how it works? You dont have a base, only your ship this time. So trade empire could mean something like "make a deal with planet XY and build there factory to produce goods for planet XZ" ?

You set up colony's on planets you explore, and exploit their resources for trade. If you want a more detailed explanation ask @purpleblob. She's the expert on this site.

All I know is Owlcat is being tight lipped about the full building system.

Your ship is your home-base though, and yes you can upgrade and customize it as well. Anyone not exspecting any type of base building will be dissapointed.

 

[purpleblob]

You set up colony's on planets you explore, and exploit their resources for trade. If you want a more detailed explanation ask @purpleblob. She's the expert on this site.

All I know is Owlcat is being tight lipped about the full building system.

Your ship is your home-base though, and yes you can upgrade and customize it as well. Anyone not exspecting any type of base building will be dissapointed.

I wouldn't say I'm an expert - I only played through RT beta for 70 hours (1 run) vs. 450 hours of WotR beta (3 runs).

But anyway, what I've seen in beta:

You need to turn some of the planets as your colony to progress story. Each of those colonised planet can be developed via finishing projects but you don't need to be in the planet to do so. You do need to come back and visit your colonies now and then to resolve some issues and collect rewards.

Your ship is your primary base of a sort but you also have a primary planet base where you get a formal ceremony to be recognised as RT, deal with political affairs etc

As couch said, there is a space combat component too. If anything, I feel that the management portion has increased in RT compared to previous 2 games.

 

[JDR13]

If anything, I feel that the management portion has increased in RT compared to previous 2 games.

Ugh....

 

[Silver]

What Owlcat should do for the trade aspect is have a recruitable Trade NPC running it and have them be inclined this way or another way so its more roleplaying than strategy game. Then it could be that doing things for the Trade manager or whatever helps improve the Trade empire efficiency or whatever.

 

[bjon045]

Even stretched it's still incredibly enjoyable content.

I do wish there's no kingdom building mechanic this time.

I don't think most people would agree with you. The house at the end of time in Kingmaker was pretty much universally hated. I also fail to see how anyone could enjoy playing the EXACT same map four times i.e. there was one map in Kingmaker that was actually re-used 4 times.

The game would have been better if they had of just removed the filler/repeated content.

 

[Telstar]

I have enjoyed the beta/EA (except most of act3) and the game will be long. Story-wise, it's better than both pathfinders.

 

[Telstar]

As couch said, there is a space combat component too. If anything, I feel that the management portion has increased in RT compared to previous 2 games.

I dont feel that way, it's better integrated in the story and i liked it very much.

 

[LoneWoof]

I don't think most people would agree with you. The house at the end of time in Kingmaker was pretty much universally hated. I also fail to see how anyone could enjoy playing the EXACT same map four times i.e. there was one map in Kingmaker that was actually re-used 4 times.

The game would have been better if they had of just removed the filler/repeated content.

Really? I liked it.
Mostly because it was the culmination of the Nyrissa romance, and it followed to the True Ending of sticking it to the Lantern King, but I didn't find it frustrating.
I played on Normal though, so maybe it was different on higher difficulties.

 

[Vaelith]

As long as the content is meaningful, it should be good.

The problem with the Pathfinder games is that towards the end, you had to fight too many "trash packs" of beefy enemies for no reason other than slowing you down. There were too many meaningless tough fights just for the sake of it, probably to make up for the reduced "scripted content" in those same sections of the games, but honestly, I was loving the games, so I just pushed through it.

It's something I'd love if they tuned down for Rogue Trader, however. If they run out of steam to make a last half of the game that's event-heavy, they shouldn't compensate by adding tons of pointless trash fights.

 

[LoneWoof]

There's a chance it will be.
Kingmaker was RTwP; WoTR was also RTwP, it just shipped with a Turn Based mode.
Rogue Trader is built as a Turn Based game from the start, so I'm expecting more meaningful encounters.