Rogue Trader - Darkest Space Hulk

Large Westmarches (I.e lots of exploration, medium-high lethality, minimal "party centric" plot.) Rogue Trader game in which they various PC's are exploring a gigantic space hulk and trying to uncover the anomalies within.

What major sections of the space hulk should there be and what monstrosities should lie within them?

Tyranids and Orks will be the easiest answer.
Will give the players a good chance to:
>Get in
>Find STC/relic
>Find cutey Mechanicus-engineer/sister-of-battle
>Get in
>Pull out before anyone changes their mind

Of course, if we want to make it a real hard, you gotta put Nurgle in the mix, make them rely on equipment to survive the miasma in those crevices.

Of course we can also make it a full on demonic possession, with the objective being turning on the ship's void generator.

What kind of bosses would be good against a Rogue Trader party? Putting them up against Deathwatch scale beasties is going to get them smeared against the spires quickly.

Fuck that noise

They the corridors of the space hulk are many and varied, if they can't outgun something they better learn to outmaneuver it!

They need to learn to flee or fight using means other than direct force. One of the central points of Hex Crawl/Westmarches is that threats aren't tailored to the party's level, they exist in the area because that's where they are.

And a Hulk is designed for long-term, long-range travel yes? So let's start with all the thing necessary for a normal space ship and then add facilities like cryobanks, arboretums and TEMPLES TO THE EMPEROR.

Go for less Master-level yuuuje enemies (Hive Tyrant, Warboss etc) and more group enemies with varied foes that they can choose to take out based on their strengths, f.x.

Instead of Warboss, you've got the Triorkvirate, three orks who rule da masses together because they're all evenly matched. Maybe one is a Weirdboy, another is a Big Mek, and the third is a good ol' Nob.

If the party is defensively strong, they might choose to have someone tank the Nob and parry him about while the other two get dealt with. If they have anti-psyker capability like a Blank or perhaps a strong Telepath, they might burst down the Weirdboy and then divide against the other two. If they have interesting and estoteric tech like Haywire gear or melta weapons, bursting down the big mek is a viable option.

Alternatively, don't have a boss fight at all - have a scenario. Think that one Ciaphas Cain book, where he and Jurgen are wandering through a Space Hulk and accidentally stumble across a metric fucktonne of orks. Maybe they have to figure out how to defuse that situation, leading the orks into a trap, sabotaging their part of the hulk so they all die of exposure, or simply splitting them up and leading them into firefights against each other.

There are a myriad of more interesting options than Ghazghkull da Mightiest Ork on da Block.

>What major sections of the space hulk should there be

Nobody answered this part, but I think, that you can base it on the ship sections in RT rulebook.

>Enginarium
Gigantic maze of corridors, shafts, elevators and stairs growing like cancer around massive engines, generator and fusion plants. Leaking pipes, dripping fluids and whispering echoing through ventilation.

Loot rating: Rare
Loot volume: Small
Environmental dangers: High

Enemies are mainly: Rogue/corrupted servitors, mutants and small pocket of Heretek cults.

>Ship's storage
Vast halls filled with thousand of shells, containers or tanks with everything you will ever need, if you can find it hidden in layers of decay. Thread carefully, as there is always something lurking in shadows.

Loot rating: Common
Loot volume: Large
Environmental dangers: Low

Enemies are mainly: Mutants, degenerated crew/slaves.

>Gun deck
Long halls, filled with stale air and smell of death. Uncountable bays housing mightiest weapons forged on Mars, now left for decay, revered by those living here as holy totems of power their once wielded.

Loot rating: Uncommon
Loot volume: Normal
Environmental dangers: Normal

Enemies are mainly: Rogue/corrupted servitors, mutants and degenerated weapon crews.

>Bridge
Ivory towers and golden amphitheaters, nobility of those sailing waves of immaterium resides here. But beware of corruption hidden under flamboyant garbs.

Loot rating: Rare
Loot volume: Small
Environmental dangers: Low

Enemies are mainly: Degenerated crew/slaves, rogue/corrupted servitors, psykers.

>Rogue Trader - Darkest Space Hulk
You mean Deep Sky Derelicts?

Not trying to derail, but if you like Space Hulk/Rogue Trader, and like Darkest Dungeons, check it out.

Definitely worth looking into Black Crusade's "Broken Chains" intro campaign. It takes place on a long lost ship/hulk.

Huh. Shit. Clowny contributes. Thanks.

What's this exactly? First I have heard of it.

Space hulks are not designed. They are an amalgamation of multiple ships/ asteroids/ space junk fused together and corrupted by the warp.

It's a sort of "intro" module to black crusade. Little more barebones on the rules and designed to be a rules-lite romp to get players and GM's into the themes of black crusade. Actually a solid module if run well. Definitely recommended.

Fuck man, why didn't i think of that. A west marches style Spacehulk is an amazing idea.

Wulfen in stasis.

Don't forget that a space hulk is not *a* ship. It is a giant clusterfuck of dozens of ships smushed together by the sheer force of FUCK REALITY found in the warp. Absolutely anything and everything can be in, on, or part of a Space Hulk, from a long lost personal shuttle of the Emperor to a Garbage Skow.

That's kind of why I'm asking for inspiration on "areas" kind of like how DD has Cove, Warrens, shit like that. What kind of ships ended up crushed into one another? And how'd they interact? What "themes" should each of the areas have and how to make them interesting.

explorator ship that is now overrun with self replicating murder servitors, an abominable intelligence with a robot host made of fuck yous and a treasure trove of archeotech.

the dark labyrinths, hallways, gangplanks, corridors and tunnels all mashed together and bent out of shape. here the gravity fluctuates and is nearly impossible to navigate through with any degree of certainty.

the cathedral, the only safe area on the hulk, is protected by the still lingering faith of a forgotten imperial saint whos undisturbed corpse is the only thing keeping evil forces away.

ork gangland, two or three ork waarghs fighting brutal battles against eachother and whatever happens to be in their general direction, depending on the waargh you can expect to see either some weirdboys, mekboys or tons of gretchins.

acid pocket, an open space crisscrossed everywhere by girders, bridges, cables and similar structures, all hanging above a giant lake of acid.
spiderlike tyranids hide in the walls and hang from the ceiling and their webs can be dangerously difficult to spot.

forest of tumors, a section taken over by nurgle and his followers, here the walls gradually becomes fleshy and pusfilled the deeper you go.
What little air there is, is a poisonous fume, plants made of bone, skin and cartilage bleed infected globs resin, and nurglings tend their disgusting forest by shitting everywhere and dragging living inside to rip open their stomachs and fertilize the gardens with their insides.

are these the kinda suggestions you were looking for?

How the hell did this slip under my notice?

Fucking beautiful, each and every one. That's amazing, cheers dude. Any ideas for bosses of each one that have a little more story behind them than "Big ass murder servitor." Or "Big Ass tyranid"

sure

one of the waarghs is led by a huge mekboss that has huge speakers built into his armor, they blare out threats and orders to the other greenskins. often takes out frustrations on his boys and is sure to remind them as often as he can that hes da biggest.
the reason for this is that he is actually a gretchin inside a complex killa kan with a napoleon complex.
he has a very weird relationship to his waargh compared to other bosses, as he is big enough to follow, but also too cowardly to fight.

in the acid pocket, virtually all the spiders are male. there is only one queen, and she is rarely seen despite her easily being several times bigger than the males.
she is so huge, that before they venture out on their own, as many as fifty or sixty adolescent spiders cling on top of her huge body.
but she is not exactly a caring mother, and uses her children as living projectile weapons to hurl at her prey.
the orkz knows her as shelob, because she lobs spiders at them.

the AI wants to leave this shit awful place but needs to both repair several key components of the ship and dig it out of the hulk. a herculean task to say the least and the inadquate "staff" has cause it enough frustration that it has gone virtually mad.
it has become quite desperate to find servitor compatible bodies, as the orkz or tyranids simply arent compatible with its designs, and humans are a rare sight on a hulk.

stalking everywhere in the hulk is the ghostly apparition of the dreadful necron space pirate captain rustbeard, named so after the patch of rust on his chin.
he can be heard screaming his insane ramblings of finding booty or some kind of big pale xeno.

some distance away from the forest of tumors is an unpowered but functional ventilation system.
a daemon from the forest has made it its goal to reach, and use it to spread the love of his papa.
but he is too fat for the cramped corridors and is forced to either slowly squeeze through them and having a myriad of his pimples and boils popped, or chew his way through with teeth and acid.

in the center of the dark labyrinth is the ancient device causing all the gravitationel fluctuations. it is powered by some kind of weapon that glows orange.
if taken, the gravity in the labyrinth will normalize and a poweful will be secured.
ofcourse near the center, gravity can very suddenly and very violently shift, slamming you into bulk heads from across the room, crush you or send you flying several mph down a hallway, caution is advised, as well as magboots

thats all i got for now.

No, it won't unless they are stupid and let the nasties get into melee. A dedicated RT group can pop anything a DW kill-team can pop, they are just worse at surviving the counterattack. But since 80% of the Deathwatch bosses have shit or nonexistent melee, it shouldn't matter if they have half a brain.

Have you checked out Ark of Lost Souls?

Sure, it's designed for Deathwatch, but many of the horrors therein could still be used, and the Space Hulk mission generator could be helpful.

Don't forget the random automated defense turret emplacements that still work after all these years.