Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Interview

Earlier this month, Owlcat Games announced their next big project - Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. And now, we get this here Rock Paper Shotgun interview with the game's creative director Alexander Gusev where he talks about its somewhat unique take on Warhammer 40,000, its party and turn-based combat, roleplaying systems, overall tone, and more.

Here's a couple of sample paragraphs:

But what of combat? Perhaps fittingly for a setting filled with galaxy-spanning conflicts, Owlcat have decided to embroil themselves in the most fraught brouhaha of our age: RTWP vs TBT. Rogue Trader will be focusing entirely on the turn-based side of things. “A goal with TBT is to showcase characters more,” says Gusev. “In the chaos of real time you often don’t notice what they’re doing, and it’s harder to showcase their differences.” Gusev explains this also allows them to showcase enemy factions with more depth. “Factions are a big part of 40k. Also, it allows us to show more, well, more bloody deaths, and lets us do more with enemy behaviour, to make abilities you need to react to.”

You’ll be causing and suffering these bloody deaths, as with Owlcat’s Pathfinder games, as a party of six. Characters fulfil somewhat familiar RPG roles, but with a 40k twist. Among the available party members are psykers, effectively casters, or pure melee characters, like the Space Wolf already shown off in the game’s key art - although Gusev says that’s not the only path you can go with him, and you might prefer to go ranged or ranged with melee. There will also be tanks and support, with what sounds like many options to create hybrid roles. And, because it’s 40k, ranged weapons will play a big role. Gusev lists them off: “AOE weapons. Snipers. Auto weapons for crowd control and great damage on single targets.”