Rogue Trader vs The Expanse Roleplaying Game

Compare Rogue Trader and The Expanse Roleplaying Game side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Rogue Trader	The Expanse Roleplaying Game
Genre	Scifi	Scifi
Tags	Space Opera, Grimdark, Licensed IP, Ship-Based, Career-Based, Crunchy, Exploration, Domain Management, Corruption, Fear & Stress Mechanics	Licensed IP, Space Opera, Ship-Based, Crunchy, Social Combat, Investigation, Faction Play, Social Intrigue, Strong GM Support, Tactical
Core Mechanic	Roll d100 equal to or under a characteristic or skill after a difficulty modifier between +60 and -60. Each full 10 points under the target adds a degree of success, and each full 10 points over adds a degree of failure. Fate Points let a character re-roll a failed test, add +10 before rolling, or gain a degree of success. Spent Fate Points return at the start of the next session.	Roll three six-sided dice, two matched and one differently colored Drama Die, and add an ability score plus a focus bonus of +2 if applicable. The total must equal or beat a target number set by the GM or an opponent's result. Rolling doubles generates stunt points spent on combat, exploration, or social effects. The Drama Die's value sets the degree of success.
Dice	d100	3d6
Complexity	High	High
Accessibility	High	High
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	Proprietary	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	No verified route found	No verified route found
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	$$	$$
Publisher	Fantasy Flight Games	Green Ronin Publishing
Year	2009	2019
Languages	English, French, German, Italian	English
Best For	Groups who want a long campaign as the senior crew of a starship, growing a merchant dynasty through trade, exploration, and void battles in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. It suits tables that enjoy detailed d100 rules and want business ventures to drive the adventures.	Groups who want a character-focused science fiction campaign of crew jobs, faction pressure, and danger across the Solar System. It suits tables that want structured action, investigation, and social encounters alongside ship travel.
Highlights	Profit Factor folds the dynasty's wealth, credit, and standing into one shared number that the group tests against to acquire gear, ships, and favours. Endeavours frame profit-seeking ventures as sets of objectives whose Achievement Points raise Profit Factor on completion. Starship combat divides each ship turn among the crew, with one Explorer manoeuvring, another firing, and the rest able to take actions such as emergency repairs or augury scans.	Backgrounds, professions, talents, and focuses build characters with mechanical ties to their lives before the campaign begins. Action, exploration, and social encounters each use dedicated stunts, giving different kinds of scenes procedures beyond a single skill roll. The Churn turns accumulated complications into escalating story events, giving the Game Master a structured way to introduce setbacks.
Considerations	Damage beyond a character's Wounds inflicts critical effects from tables organised by hit location and damage type, including permanent maiming and death. Insanity and Corruption Points build toward disorders and mutations, and a character who reaches 100 in either is removed from play. Gear normally comes from Acquisition tests against Profit Factor rather than tracked money, so groups that enjoy counting coins lose that layer.	Combat stunts are drawn from six separate category tables covering roughly sixty options, requiring both players and the GM to check charts mid-fight to keep pace. Ground and air vehicles receive no example statistics, leaving their combat rules almost entirely improvised. The forty-page setting guide summarizes the solar system's factions and history at a survey level, so groups wanting deeper political detail need outside reading of the novels.