Developers of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the first CRPG based on the wildly popular Games Workshop franchise, has been digging through the back catalog for inspiration. In an interview with Polygon, Ovalcat Games creative director Alexander Gusev says that his team was heavily inspired by the now-out-of-print tabletop RPG called sly businessmanOriginally published by Fantasy Flight Games.
released in 2008, sly businessman Allowed players to create their own flamboyant merchants and place them in 40K galaxy skies. This included rules for small unit ground combat as well as space warfare, both of which would serve as a touchstone for the development team, according to Gusev. The point Owlcat will make its departure point, however, is in expanding the universe’s potential for exploration.
“Every planet in Warhammer is basically a graveyard of civilizations,” Gusev said. “In Warhammer, if you find a planet that’s supposed to be cursed, it might actually be cursed. And so on. It makes this exploration more interesting, in my opinion, and it gives you a lot more Gives something that can be – and that will be.”
Concept art showing the footfall spaceport. Image: owl game
Another big selling point for fans of the grim, dark setting will be the ability to create a party of characters drawn from the entire Warhammer 40,000 canon. Players will be able to party with Space Wolves’ Space Marines, Sister of Battle and Elder Ranger. But, for those who have played the original sly businessmanThere will also be some cameos. These include rival Rogue Trader Caligos Winterscale and Vladem Tokara, which lies the interstellar port of Footfall.
The challenge so far, Gusev said, has been to make the turn-based game’s mechanics more accessible to newcomers. Owl’s previous CRPGs, based on the Pathfinder RPG, were on the crunchy side.
“We really want to preserve the freedom of choice, basically, sly businessman,” said Gusev, “no more complications.”
The Warhammer 40,000 tabletop role-playing license is no longer held by Fantasy Flight Games. Cubicle 7 currently publishes content under that license, and has a vast library of new game content available. Fans looking to start TTRPG set in the 41st millennium can start with Wrath and Glory: Basic Rules,
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader It is being built for PC and currently has no release date. Pre-orders are available now and will provide access to the game’s early builds at a later time.
