RT2

RT2 is a feeble attempt at bringing Rogue Trader up to date with the rest of FFG Warhammer PnP lineup mechanically. It is also meant to include a cleaned up equipment list, a homebrewed skill system, a Retinue mechanic inspired by the Comrades system as seen in Only War, and campaign-level mechanics.

Basic mechanics

Dice used, types of tests, degrees of success, etc.

Character creation

Character Roles

Archetype vs role played, the need for well-rounded characters that can shine both in exploration, ship-based and land-based adventure. Hierarchy as it applies to characters (with a link to Rogue Traders chapter).

Any Imperial vessel, no matter its traditions and order, has a complement of superiour officers, the ones in control of the most important of the vessel's functions. The vessel that the Player Characters find themselves upon is no different. However, by no means should Player Characters be limited to the roles dictated by the officer ranks and professions; indeed, a Player Character need not necessarily be an officer at all, nor every officer (including the ship's Captain) a Player Character.

For examples of Player Characters traveling by ship who are not seniour officers consider Jacques Paganel, Squire Trelawney, or any of the main characters of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea other than Captain Nemo himself.

RT2 offers a relatively freeform character creation system, much less narrowly focused or dictated by the archetype than the original Rogue Trader, so it is important for the player to consider the character's utility for the party and the parts of adventure when they will be shining. A ship-based campaign usually includes several parts that can roughly be described as follows: space exploration, where routes are chartered, alliances made or broken, and much of the planning takes place; space combat, where void ships trade blows and spacefaring skills are most useful; and land-based exploration and combat. Precise balance between these parts of adventure, naturally, differs from table to table, but a well-rounded character should ideally be able to get limelight in each one. That said, this ability is not solely dictated by the character build, but by the player's willingness to step forward and roleplay, as well: even the most anti-social Arch-Militant might have worthy advice to offer on the further course, and the other way round, even the least combat-capable Scum can become the highlight of campaign by pulling on his contacts or letting his past catch up to him.

An average Imperium-produced vessel will have in its roster most if not all of the officers listed below, although of course their particular titles and precise areas of responsibility might vary greatly, or overlap to a greater or smaller extent than suggested below.

Captain

The Captain is the Master of the ship, the highest ranking officer and usually its owner and the holder of the Warrant of Trade. It is the captain's responsibility to ensure every department of the ship performs to the requirements, and his word is law to every crewmember. However, this simple arrangement is not the only norms the vastness of the Imperium allows: on some ships, the Captain reigns but does not rule, as his orders have to be approved by a council of officers supposedly subordinate to him; on others, the title of the Acting Captain is rotated between several scions of the Rogue Trader dynasty on board, or even between the heads of the vessel's most powerful cliques, with the rituals for passing command ranging from simple to incredibly pompous.

A ship needs a Captain, but they needn't be a Player Character; neither need only a single Player Character in your campaign be the Captain. You can read on suggested ways to accommodate different modes of play in Into the Storm on page 44, and in Rogue Trader Core Book on pages 288 and 291.

The captain's direct subordinates, other than the seniour officers of the ship in their own right, are Captain's Mates. While each Mate's responsibilities are formally defined in the Imperial Navy's Fleets, on the vessels of Rogue Traders, it's mostly a question of the Captain's preference and trust who gets to be a Mate, and who gets an officer's posting. Helmsmen, Gunnery Officers, and Pursers are the most common roles for Captain's Mates to hold.

Helmsman

Imperial ships, other than the smallest of their number, are not known for their agility, yet still they need a competent helmsman to escape the many dread hazards of the void, dock where needed, or land safely on a planet's surface. While rarely a seniour officer's profession in its own right, the role is important enough to be entrusted only to the most trusted of the Captain's subordinates, often making them Captain's Mates and leaving them the officer of the deck holding the fort while the Captain is personally engaged dirtside. The bridge crew are often subordinated to the Helmsman, and on many ships, over years of working together they learn to coordinate almost like limbs of a single organism.

Navigator

As dictated by the necessities of Warp travel, Navigators aboard Imperial ships are sanctioned mutants from the ancient houses of Navis Nobilite, said to created by the Emperor himself. Their third eye allows them to peer into the warp and steer the ship through it using the psychic beacon of the Astronomicon. There is usually but a single Navigator on each Imperial ship, which makes him critically important for the vessel's continued operation. As such, any sane Rogue Trader treasures his Navigator and keeps him as far as possible from any danger, especially should they happen to be outside the borders of the Imperium. Since baseline humans have little love for mutants with their deformities, sanctioned though they may be, normally the Navigators themselves are happy enough to be left to their own devices in their own little isolated domains on the ship called Navigator Sanctums. A Navigator Sanctum can be as small as a single cabin near the bridge, or as large as a sphere of solid metal stretching across several decks, never touched by anyone but servants of Navis Nobilite. Those servants, if any, are normally the only subordinates a Navigator has, and their only point of contact with the wider world; but on many Rogue Trader ships they're presumed to be the lowest scum possible thanks to the propensity of many Navigators for drugs and other mind-benders.

Chief Astropath

Astropaths are psykers soul-bound to the Emperor, and are thanks to that capable of exchanging cryptic messages between each other over interstellar distances. Small vessels might have but a single junior Astropath, the larger ones usually house a choir of several such psykers. Since an Astropath's psychic gift isn't necessarily limited just to communication with his own kind, many Rogue Traders enjoy their company both on the battlefield and in the ballroom, as much for the creepiness and unease they produce among baseline humans as for any psychic powers they might manifest.

Chief Enginseer

A ship's Chief Enginseer, also known simply as the Chief, is the Techpriest of Mars responsible for keeping the many ancient and arcane machines of the vessel running. As the seniour Priest of Omnissiah on board, all other Techpriests answer to the Chief; his direct subordinates are usually the Second, responsible for the plasma drives, the Third, responsible for the warp engines, and others yet who ensure everything from the vessel's most destructive weapons to its last air-scrubber perform to specification. The Priesthood of Mars is insular from the Imperium at large, and so are usually a vessel's Techpriests, keeping their own company and that of their servitors; only rarely do they resort to recruiting technomats from among the laymen. As such, the Chief is often the only point of contact between the scions of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the crew at large, which affords them even more power than their formidable knowledge, position, and most intricate implants would already grant.

Quartermaster

Just as often as facing the mysterious threats of the Void and the Warp, an Imperial vessel's crew might have to engage the more mundane threats in face to face combat. It is the Quartermaster who leads the crew's combat groups in situations like these, be it repelling borders, launching a raid of their own, or mounting a daring rescue operation for crewmembers kept by hostiles dirtside. Most Quartermasters are themselves as much powerful combatants and skillful pilots as cunning tacticians, since a Quartermaster leads from the front. This is why frequently Quartermasters are elected by the crew's combat teams themselves, and as such serve as the voice of the crew (or at least the most combat-capable part of it) before the Captain and other seniour officers. In their own turn, Quartermasters have juniour officers as their subordinates, both marines and enforcers who keep order among the toiling masses of the crew.

Gunnery Officer

The Imperium is a militarized society, and as such even its transport ships usually carry an array of weaponry. It falls to the Gunnery Officer to ensure these weapons are all well-maintained, operational, and stocked with ammunition. They are also usually the one to aim the guns when the time comes to bring them to bear, be it in space combat or in support of a ground operation. On larger ships Gunnery Officers employ numerous juniour aides, each one normally assigned to oversee particular weaponry operation: one to control the fighter bays, the other torpedo tubes, others yet lances or macro batteries.

Purser

While many Rogue Traders are as much warlords as they are traders, still their primary occupation, trade, is apparent even from the name. The ship's Purser is the one to aid the Captain in all their peaceful pursuits, be it resupplying at port with volatile plasma or establishing infrastructure for a new pilgrimage road across the sector. A Purser needs to be as much a people's person as they are a cunning mercantile mind, as little can be done in the feudal order of the Imperium without expert use of personal connections, bribery, and past obligations brought to bear. It also often falls to the Purser to control the majority of the ratings, from clerks, cooks, and stewards to cargo shuttle pilots, porters, and stevedores.

Chaplain

Void travel is incredibly dangerous in the Imperium, and as such, the crew's morale and religious well-being often stand to be boosted by a formal representative of the Ecclesiarchy. The Adeptus Ministorum gladly sends its priests to serve on Rogue Trader vessels, as it not only ensures the crews' devotion to the orthodoxal version of Church doctrine, but also gives the more charismatic shepherds a chance to increase the flock of the faithful as new worlds are settled or contact with lost colonies is restored. Furthermore, the Chaplain often tries to act as the Captain's spiritual advisor, promoting the best interests of Humanity, the Imperium, and, of course, the Ecclesiarchy itself; as well as counterbalancing the influence of the sanctioned but still borderline heathen Cult of the Machine. Every preacher in every shrine of the vessel answers to the ship's Chaplain; and feats of bravery and faith are all but expected from a good Chaplain in any combat situation to encourage the believers.

Chief Chirurgeon

Often subordinated to the ship's Purser or one of the Captain's Mates, the Chief Chirurgeon is still sometimes counted among the vessel's seniour officers, especially those of older or ailing Rogue Traders. As the foremost authority on Medicae, the Chief Chirurgeon not only commands the ship's doctors and medics and ensures the hospitals are staffed, equipped and running smoothly, but also makes sure the crew receives adequate, non-spoiled food that is not carrying any contagion; combats any epidemics that might affect the crew in its Warp travels or dockings in the Void; and ofttimes personally provides medical care to the ship's seniour officers.

Since Chirurgeons are often knowledgeable in drugs, poisons and other Chymistry, their use for the more delicate matters has become so common among certain bloody-minded Rogue Traders that the term "Chief Chirurgeon" has grown to frequently include other masters of subtle crafts, even if their familiarity with blades and needles is altogether different from a doctor's.

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Sidebar: the Question of Adepta

The Imperium of Man is a feudal society, with the lowest common authority over its many different Adepta being the Senatorum Imperialis on faraway Terra. As such, the interactions between Imperial agencies are governed by a web of more or less formal treaties, contracts, obligations and IOUs. As a Rogue Trader ship is a microcosm of the wider society, so is this situation reflected in the ranks of the vessel's crew and officers. The seniour officers needed to navigate a vessel over the interstellar void include representatives of no less than four semi-independent Imperial agencies: Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Ministorum, and Navis Nobilite. More often than not, other seniour officers also have ties to Adepta, such as the Purser to Adeptus Administratum, the Chief Chirurgeon to the Ecclesiarhy's Orders Hospitaller or Administratum's Officio Medicae, or the Quartermaster to any of the militant Adepta. Furthermore, their loyalties may lie with any of the smaller Imperial organizations, from mercantile concerns even to pirate outfits; or with the more secretive institutions like the Ordos of the Inquisition or Officio Assassinorum. Needless to say, the interests of all the entities listed do not often align.

A cunning Rogue Trader knows to navigate this web of loyalties aptly, and use the connections these ties of their officers provide to their own benefit and that of their dynasty and crew. On the other hand, other characters might find their motivations conflicted as they weigh the loyalty to their organization against the loyalty to their captain and comrades.

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Archetypes

And their skill aptitudes

Ships

What's on a typical ship, as far as equipment is concerned? Ship crews: demographics, sociology, hierarchy, qualities for different social stratas depending on recruitment areas and established order on the ship. Crews as sources of Retinue. The captain and his role in criminal justice, weddings, burials and other rituals. Spacefaring. Ship designer. Space-based combat.

Ship Size

The Imperium produces and employs a vast array of ships of all shapes, sizes, and purposes. For the purposes of RT2, they can all be divided into four categories by size:

Ship sizes

Size	Ship classes
1	Corvettes, Raiders, Frigates, Fast Transports, Blockade Runners
2	Destroyers, Light Cruisers, Transports
3	Cruisers, Battle Cruisers, Heavy Transports
4	Grand Cruisers, Battleships, Battle Barges, Bulk Transports, Space Factories

There are space-capable vessels both larger and smaller than listed in this table: attack craft and aerospace-capable aircraft are smaller than Size 1, while space stations are easily larger than Size 4. Many Space requirements for ship Components (see below) scale with ship Size.

Ship Components

Ships in RT2 are built out of components. Each component represents a particular set of machinery, not necessarily placed in a single place of a ship, but perhaps dispersed through its entirety, that performs a particular function, takes up valuable space under the thin skin protecting the insides of the vessel against the void, and consumes energy produced by the ship's generators. Essential components provide vital functions that no Imperial ship can go without; while supplemental components are not required for one to function.

Essential Components

Bridge

The bridge is the control centre for the entire vessel; if the ship is likened to an animal, the bridge is its brain - yet unlike the brain in animals of Holy Terra, a bridge needn't be alone on a ship. A bridge normally is a large compartment with windows opening onto the ship's prow, with dozens of stations staffed by watchstanders and servitors, as needed, including the helmsman station, from which the vessel is steered, the augur array divination stations, the weapon control stations, and the captain's throne, the master control that can override all the rest if needed. Unless the Navigator has his own control chamber deep in the Navigator Sanctum, his station is also usually at the back of the bridge.

The most seniour officer standing watch at the bridge (sometimes called the officer of the deck) is in charge of the ship as the representative of the captain. Changing the officer standing this most important watch is an elaborate ritual on many rogue trader and Fleet vessels, with salutes exchanged and control rods changing hands.

Bridges of rogue trader vessels are as varied as the ships themselves, but several general classes can be identified.

Armoured Bridge: a modification available for any other kind of a bridge, the armoured bridge moves the control compartment deep into the bowels of the vessel, under the protection of its armour, and often in an additional shell of armaplas and adamantium. Large windows so typical of a bridge are replaced by camera feeds projected on the screens that cover the walls to maintain the clarity of vision a normal bridge provides; and power feeds for the bridge's cogitators, screens and control stations are shielded to protect against any disruptions. An armoured bridge takes slightly more place and requires slightly more power than a non-protected version.

Battle Bridge: packing complex hololithic projectors for control of battlespace, ancient patterns of tactical cogitators, and specialized servitors for calculating precise firing solutions, the battle bridge is geared for the single task of winning fleet battles. In space combat, it provides a +10 bonus to all Tests to fire the vessel's weapons, maneuver the vessel itself, control the vessel's combat craft, or command other ships in the fleet.

Basic Bridge: the very basic variation of the component, this bridge class only features the essential components, takes up minimal space, and is most often encountered on large vessels as a backup for a more advanced and specialized primary bridge.

Exploration Bridge: intended to support deep void exploration runs, the exploration bridge features both advanced auger divination cogitator banks and redundant strain and wear sensors scattered throughout the vessel, their feeds analyzed by servitors of arcane patterns uncommon outside of the employ of the servants of the Machine God. The exploration bridge provides +10 to all Tests with the ship's augur arrays and all Tests to repair ship components or prevent their malfunction other than from direct combat damage.

Commerce Bridge: equipped with a myriad cogitators, displays and advanced communication devices needed to track the trade flows of an entire sector, a commerce bridge simplifies controlling a rogue trader dynasty's holdings. With task tracker servitors and optimized flight control routines, it also helps account for all the multitude of factors involved in building large-scale enterprises and bulk goods movement. The commerce bridge provides +10 bonus to all Tests to control the rogue trader's secondary ships and other sources of Profit Factor, to construct space stations, settlements and other sources of profit, and to move goods with civilian craft based on the ship.

Invasion Bridge: fitted with a large surface map display and multiple logistics cogitators, the invasion bridge eases not just landing an invasion force, but also coordinating its further actions, supplying it with necessary materiel, aerospace support, and direct space-to-surface strikes. When controlling a planetary invasion or other such large-scale operation, the invasion bridge provides +10 bonus to all Tests to command the remote forces, supply them, or provide them with aerospace and ground strike support.

Crew Quarters

While most Components help vessels navigate the Void and the Warp, fight back threats or generate profits, Crew Quarters provide the people manning these ships with the physical and mental comforts needed.

Poor Quarters: the interior of the ship is incredibly cramped. Ratings don't have any sort of personal spaces and sleep at their stations, either on the floor or at best in hammocks hanging in the corridors of their assigned compartment. Petty officers have to share bunks with each other (three men per bunk is the usual norm, but four is not unthinkable, either), and even senior officers have to share a common room where their bunks are located. The Captain might be the only person on the vessel with a personal room. Food is consumed at the stations, same as medical attention, which is at best provided by a buddy system. With no designated places for prayer the crew has to make do with pectoral icons or Imperial and Cult Mechanicus symbols applied to the machines they service to serve as their focus for devotions.

Decent Quarters: the standard for Imperial Navy ships, decent crew quarters still include a hot bunking system for ratings, but even petty officers have their own bunks in a shared cabin, while a senior officer might count on a tiny room (with perhaps a bed and a table) all to themselves, as well as a personal place at the wardroom. The rest of the crew gets to share designated eating areas, first aid stations, and small shrines in the rooms of whatever compartment they're assigned to.

Rich Quarters: most commonly seen on Rogue Trader ships and Imperial Navy flagships, rich quarters dedicate a noticeable part of the ship to crew comforts. Ratings get personal bunks in common rooms, while even petty officers sleep in personal cabins. A senior officer's quarters are large enough to walk around in, or perform morning exercise without getting extremities caught in a fan or some other machine, and sometimes include a personal bathroom - maybe even with unrationed running water! The Captain's quarters are large enough to include several rooms and present a splendidly opulent sight. Common spaces for the crew usually include small dedicated mess halls, suitably adorned chapels to Emperor and Omnissiah, dedicated sick rooms, and perhaps even a promenade deck.

Luxury Quarters: representing the height of opulence, luxury quarters are only seen in the fleets of the more extravagant Rogue Traders, on diplomatic vessels, and personal vessels of the Peers of the Imperium. Even the lowly ratings have personal cabins, while each petty officer enjoys a personal quarters large enough to pace in. Senior officers have opulent quarters of perhaps several rooms, while the Captain might have a whole deck all to themselves, decorated to the most exacting standards. The crew dines in a grand mess hall, or in several smaller ones located across the ship. Its spiritual needs are provided for in richly decorated rooms large enough to be churches in their own right, or perhaps in a single grand compartment fit to be a small cathedral. Meanwhile, their physical well-being is ensured in well-equipped sick bays, where any crewman ill or wounded can be delivered in short order. The luxury of common spaces might include a winter garden, an observation deck with panoramic views of the void around (shuttered safely during warp jumps), or even more ostentatious displays like swimming pools or exotic aquariums running the length of the ship.

Still, even with Luxury Quarters, the shipboard hospitals included in these are large enough to address every ailment of the crew, but not those of even a small human planetary colony. Similarly, the praying spaces provided by this component are enough to ensure the spiritual well-being of the crew members, but not nearly magnificent or grandiose enough to impress a visiting heathen governor and ensure conversion to mainstream Ecclesiarchy doctrine.

Generally, the amenities provided by the Living Quarters component are enough to serve the vessel's crew, but will struggle to satisfy the needs of significantly larger numbers of people, so they cannot replace a dedicated component where one would be called for.

Life Sustainers

Life sustainers are an essential component that provides the crew with breathable air, drinkable water, and edible food.

Poor Sustainers: optimized to take up as little space as possible, poor sustainers provide the bare minimum creature comforts to keep the crew going. The air is barely breathable even near the scrubbers, with coolant or sewage gases frequently mixed in, and many areas such as the engine and waste recycling compartments downright deadly without a breathing mask. The water is rusty and strictly rationed even for the officers, and rations are limited to what the algae tanks can produce. Corpse starch rations and edible prayer leaflets are handed out on holidays.

Decent Sustainers: the standard across Imperial fleets, decent sustainers aren't anything to write home about, but they do their job. The air is reasonably clean outside of particularly waste-generating compartments, there's a solid supply of drinkable water, and even ratings get a communal bath at least once in a while, as the officers get enough water allotment to shower regularly. The rank-and-file voidsmen still eat the products of algae tanks and corpse starch recyclers, while the officers supplement their diets with more nutritious frozen foodstuffs while those last.

Good Sustainers: a step above decent, good sustainers provide sweet air for the entire crew, clean drinking water to the point of it being pleasant to drink, and enough technical water for even the ratings to be clean at all times. The ordinary crewmen see their rations bettered with taste and vitamin additives, while officers eat food from the freezers or nutrition synthesizer machines. The wardroom even sees carcass meat and fresh produce grown in dedicated compartments of the ship.

Luxury Sustainers: with a significant part of the ship dedicated solely to maintaining the quality of life support, luxury sustainers deny nothing. The water is as sweet and unrationed as the air, and whole sections of the ship are dedicated to satisfying the gastronomic demands of the crew. Even ordinary crewmen might receive fresh meat and produce from time to time, while seniour officers have a diet befitting of Peers of the Imperium, fresh crustaceans and other exotic delicacies grown, cooked and served by a dedicated cadre of servants.

Supplemental Components

Warp Engines

Warp engines are the only means of faster than light travel available in the Imperium, and as such, an extremely important tool for keeping the Empire together. At the same time, system defense cutters, intrasystem transports, Chartist vessels playing the void on sublight speeds by the routes decided millennia ago, and other non-warp-capable vessels far outnumber the ships equipped with warp drives and led through the Warp by scions of the Navis Nobilite.

It is the warp drive that tears the very fabric of reality into the Warp and maintains the rift as the vessel it is mounted upon transitions through it into the hellish dimension. Producing a stable conduit is impossible next to significant gravity wells, which means that Imperial vessels must enter and exit the Warp at the edge of solar systems, the nearest available point where the gravity is weak enough called the Mandeville Point. Enabling the warp drive inside a system is inviting doom for the vessel, and trying to turn it on when on the surface of a planet is all but inviting the Humanity's friends on the other side by throwing the doors wide open.

Strelov Warp Engine: the mainstay of the fleet, the Strelov Warp Drive is a thousands-year-old design fit for any kind of warp jump. Its size and power requirements grow directly proportionally to the size of the vessel it is to transition to and from the warp.

Markov Warp Engine: an overcharged modification of the Strelov engine, the Markov Warp Drive trades space and power efficiency for increased speed of passage through the Warp. How it achieves that effect given that vessels travel through the Warp using their sublight engines not even most Adeptus Mechanicus Magi could explain (were they willing to try). The fact remains that it reduces the travel time through the Immaterium by 1d5 weeks.

Reshetnikov Warp Engine: all kinds of Imperial warp drives have a limited capability to track the flows and currents of the Warp to make a short-range jump without a Navigator's aid. This kind of jump is known as "calculated" or "blind" to the Imperial crews. Reshetnikov Warp Drive takes this capability one step further, adding a vast array of technoarcane instruments to measure the torrents of the Immaterium and no less complex stacks of cogitators to plot its course through it. It thus doubles the maximal range for a blind jump of any other drive, bringing it to eight light years. However, the cost of a Reshetnikov Engine is more than just higher complexity and power draw: using it inevitably draws the ire of the Navis Nobilite, one of the most powerful Imperial institutions, as it has no tolerance for any technology that would undermine its monopoly on controlled Warp travel.

RT2 Campaigns

Profit Factor mechanic (and Thrones as its less abstract representation, awarded monthly, spent on ship, crew and Retinue upkeep).

The Galaxy in the 41st Millenium

Objects in space

Nebulae

Nebulae are vast clouds of gas, dust or small debris drifting in space.

They present a navigational hazard: flying through a dense ("dark") nebula requires a Difficult (–10) Navigation (Stellar)+Detection Test to stay on a proper course. For every degree of failure, the ship must spend an extra day getting to its destination. Any Tests using a ship’s auger arrays within a nebula are made more difficult: apply -10 for ordinary nebulae, -20 for dense nebulae, and -30 for nebulae that hold a significant static charge. A ship making a Silent Running Manoeuvre gains +10 to its Manoeuvre Tests. In combat, the maximum weapon range for ships in a nebula is limited by the nebula’s density (roll 3d10 at the start of battle, this is the furthest that all ship’s sensors and weapons will operate).

Most nebulae contain nothing valuable, only silicate dust or hydrogen. However, there are more precious, if less frequently encountered, nebulae. Some clouds, particularly ones produced by a nova explosion, might contain nitrogen, oxygen or water, which in a pinch can be used for life support, if the rogue trader's ship possesses the scoops to gather the material and clear it of accompanying impurities like ammonia and formaldehyde. Other nebulae, especially ones produced by a supernova, might contain heavier elements; in exceedingly rare cases going even to transuranics, which so many powers of the Galaxy from rebellious-minded governors to Adeptus Mechanicus lust for. Harvesting such clouds can be perilous, however, because of radiation belts and high-powered cosmic rays encountered in such star remnants. Exceedingly rare nebulae might contain even more exotic materials, such as remains of a space battle from the aeons past, or star-produced ethanol that can potentially be gathered, purified and served to the crew; or distilled and traded as an exotic luxury item.

Asteroid Fields

Asteroid fields are cosmic fields of drifting rocks, sized from as small as a fist to as large as a small moon.

Asteroid fields are not solid by far, with individual rocks floating thousands of kilometres from each other - yet with the speeds involved in void travel, navigating even through a sparse field like that takes a Routine (+10) Pilot (Space Craft)+Manoeuvrability Test to avoid collisions. For every degree of failure errant chunks of space rock strike the ship, doing 1d5+1 damage, ignoring the void shields. Any Tests using a ship’s auger arrays within an asteroid field are made one step more difficult, as are tests to detect a ship flying through an asteroid field.

The abundance of objects of varied composition, shape, and size found in asteroid fields makes them an attractive option for placing space installations meant to remain hidden, from system defense platforms and observation hubs to research stations, Scholastia Psykana cloister-repeaters, Adeptus Astartes zero-g training priories, or Inquisition black sites.

Most asteroid fields do not contain any useful materials, yet fields containing metals are frequently enough encountered to make mining stations a common sight in Imperial systems. Asteroids containing water are also common, and might be sought as a source of water by hive and forge worlds. Much rarer are fields with significant content of precious or rare earth metals, usually dispersed over multiple veins in the drifting rock (even if tales abound of asteroids made of solid gold, caesium or rhodium) - there are always eager takers for such materials, from Adeptus Ministorum cathedral builders to Adeptus Administratum mints, and from Adeptus Mechanicum forge worlds to Adeptus Astartes hexagrammic ward smiths. Asteroid fields that formed from shattered planets might have other materials, including transuranic elements and gems; but the most precious by far are unique finds of exotic matter such as spin ice, supersolids or time crystals that are rumoured to happen in the asteroid fields resulting from some stellar-level catastrophe, or that orbit the more exotic star-class objects.

Gravity Tides

In the emptiness of the void, the gravity is not at all the familiar constant it is for the dirt-dwellers. While its changes are entirely predictable in relatively simple systems, it becomes downright fickle in the more complex ones, particularly those with more than one star or massive gas giants with large moon and ring systems. The most dangerous gravitational phenomenon are the so called gravity rip-tides, fully capable of ripping a badly piloted ship apart.

It takes a Hard (–20) Scrutiny+Detection Test to spot a gravitational rip-tide on the ship's auger arrays, and a wise pilot knows to avoid it with a Challenging (+0) Pilot(Space Craft) + Manoeuvrability Test. A helmsman with more daring than good sense can instead try to use the rip-tide to his advantage with a Hard (–20) Pilot(Space Craft) + Manoeuvrability Test. If this Test succeeds, he "shoots the rapids", cutting a day from the travel time to his destination for every degree of success.

Failing that Test, however, same as failing to notice or avoid the rip-tide, strands the vessel in a gravitational crusher. The ship takes 1d5 damage to its Hull Integrity ignoring armour or void shields, and must make a Hard (–20) Pilot(Space Craft) + Manoeuvrability Test to break free. On a further failure it takes another 1d5 damage and must make the Test again. This continues until the ship escapes, is destroyed, or the gravity rip-tide dissipates.

Radiation Belts and Cosmic Rays

Radiation and other cosmic rays are the silent invisible killers always just a step away from any Imperial voidsman. While, of course, stellar objects such as pulsars or giant stars easily fire off bursts fully capable of boiling the contents of any vessel in their path alive, their relatively tame main sequence dwarf cousins can sometimes produce solar flares of destructive potency, as well. Worse, even gas giants or particularly turbulent nebulae can surprise an unwary captain with a sudden charge to disrupt their ship's machine spirits and send it drifting to its death.

Cosmic rays differ in Intensity. While a nebula is unlikely to hold enough charge to produce anything more than Intensity 1, a dwarf star solar flare can reach up to Intensity 3, and more powerful sources can produce rays of Intensity 5 or even more. Luckily, the more powerful a source of radiation, the easier it is to detect with a ship's auger arrays: doing so takes a Difficult (–10) Scrutiny+Detection Test, modified to be one step easier for each point of Intensity that source has. Avoiding it is normally a Challenging (+0) Pilot (Space Craft)+Manoeuvrability Test; but the difficulty of the test can be modified by the particular circumstances causing the irradiation. The particular kind of consequences of failing to avoid the source of radiation can be determined by the GM based on the type of radiation involved; alternatively, roll on the table below to determine the outcome.

Radiation burst consequences

Roll	Consequences
1-25	Sensors damaged: The ship’s auspex arrays have been shorted out by the blast, leaving the vessel blind. Until the damage is repaired, all shooting tests suffer a –30 to hit, and all sensory tests to detect anything beyond the ship’s immediate engagement range automatically fail. Additionally, as the arrays are located outside the hull, any repairs must be attempted in the void.
26-50	Engines stalled: a ray of exotic particles enters the combustion chambers of the plasma drives, triggering an emergency shutdown. Reduce the ship’s Speed to 1 until proper rituals to reignite the plasma fires can be performed, which takes an Extended Difficult (–10) Tech-Use Test, with the number of successful tests needed equal to the degree of failure on the Pilot Test to avoid the radiation burst. Each attempt takes a Strategic Turn, and each Strategic Turn spent without a running engine lowers the crew Morale by 1, as lights go out, non-essential machinery starts falling silent, and frost creeps up surfaces.
51-75	Crew irradiated: radiation washes over the vessel's decks, leaving crewmembers dead or dying with radiation sickness. For each degree of failure on the Pilot Test to avoid the radiation burst, roll a d5 and add the results together. This is the number of Crew Population suffering from radiation sickness. Roll a Difficult (–10) Medicae Test to treat the sick, reducing their number by 1 for every degree of success. The rest expire over the course of the next few days. Reduce Morale by 1 for every point of Crew Population lost this way.
76-87	Surly techsprites: the shock from the radiation burst awakens the anger of the ship's machine spirits, and cascading electric surges knock out machinery across the ship. Roll a d10 for each of the ship's Components and add the degree of failure on the Pilot Test to avoid the radiation burst to the roll. If the total is equal or more than 4, the Component is unpowered. In the total is equal or more than 8, the Component is also damaged. Each Component must be repaired individually before it is fully functional again. Morale takes 1d5 damage from the spooky atmosphere.
88-100	Control hiccup: a burst of radiation shorts out the arcane machinery of the vessel's bridge, making it cough up suffocating smoke and spew sparks from the control stations. The ship cannot be controlled until the bridge's machine spirits are placated with proper care and litany, which takes an Extended Difficult (–10) Tech-Use Test, with the number of successful tests needed equal to the degree of failure on the Pilot Test to avoid the radiation burst. Each attempt takes a Strategic Turn.

A cunning or crafty rogue trader might find a source of income even in a dread hazard such as radiation bursts.

Exposing the contents of their cargo holds to a powerful blast of radiation can produce results as banal as cleansing them of any bacterial or viral taint or as subtle as changing the colour of gems and glassware, which can be rather useful as a tool for forgery, presenting the items as much older than they really are, or, if their age is genuine, much rarer, or fitting the description of a particular relic. The Ecclesiarchy is a particularly notable target for forgeries like that, but many others can just as easily fall pray to such a scheme, particularly natives of the less developed worlds.

If a source of regularly frequent and powerful radiation bursts can be located, it can be used not as a one-time boon, but on industrial scale. Many polymers, especially ones used in mesh armour production, can be improved under electron beams, increasing their thermal, mechanical and chemical resistance; and certain complex alloys can be tempered in the glow of radiation. Numerous less straightforward uses for stellar radiation have also been recorded in the Imperial annals, from subtle irradiated poisons rumoured to be used by the Venenum Temple of Officio Assassinorum to the obscure Twelve Dozen Suns liquor claimed to be aged in the cargo holds of agile trading vessels that ferry it across the Priam Sector just in time to absorb the fires from the Clockwork Flare Stars of its Blue Mane star cluster.

Voids

Space voids are vast expanses of empty space between cosmic objects, such as between the arms of the Galaxy. Clear voids, ones devoid of nebulae, clouds of debris or powerful cosmic rays, are sometimes sought for by sentient races not despite their emptiness and remoteness, but because of them.

Techpriests of Mars stage delicate experiments in such voids, while other powers such as the Inquisition value cosmic voids for the secrecy and natural containment they provide. Most often, such secret installations aren't revealed by Imperial organizations to outsiders, yet sometimes circumstances dictate the need for competent aid, be they unexpected blasts of space radiation or warp disturbances cutting supply lines, conflicts between factions of the same organization flaring up and calling for plausible deniability for a hit-and-run attack, or simply the need to have a cosmic horror contained safely away from any matter usable before it hatches.

Precise navigation in cosmic voids is complicated by the lack of gravity wells for a Navigator to use as reference points. That makes the Perception Test to determine the accuracy of locating the exit point from the Warp two steps harder when journeying to an installation in deep void.

Exotic Star-Class Objects

Outside of the narrow class of stellar objects where items of interest can frequently be encountered, the Galaxy is teeming with stars and star-class objects, such as hot giant stars, neutron stars (including pulsars and magnetars), black holes, quark stars (and other exotic stars) or black dwarves. Planets are rare around them, and those few that can be found tend to be lethally inhospitable, so there is precious little to do around such objects, other than perhaps deploy an Adeptus Mechanicus probe or find a particularly well-hidden station. There was a voidborn tale recorded telling of a rogue trader plundering the remains of a whole xenos civilization drifting rapidly into a black hole, but Imperial scholars believe it to have been made up to cover real sources for cold trade, since it's common knowledge that warp drives cannot safely operate within a powerful gravity well such as a black hole produces. The one reliable use for exotic star-class objects comes from pulsars, their precise periodic bursts used for timekeeping and realspace stellar navigation. However, intensification of warp storms makes such sources less reliable and necessitates expeditions to check on pulsars and determine their new exact parameters.

Pre-sapient Voidborne Xenos

Voidborne animals have long been the staple of spacer high tales, but a few of them have seen passing mentions in obscure Imperial records.

The most popular space-faring monsters, of course, are void krakens or void serpents, large enough to disguise themselves as asteroids and powerful enough to crash vessels in their grasp. No reliable accounts of encounters with such monsters exist, but the more flamboyant rogue traders like to claim they own daggers made of void kraken teeth, or armour of void serpent scales; the insult of doubting such tales is an oft-used pretext for a duel challenge.

Less captivating, but perhaps far more interesting for an enterprising captain are stories of so called space cows (also named Emperor's sheep, void behemoths, and other). These are supposedly docile vessel-sized spacefaring animals that have metabolisms with products that can be directly beneficial to humanity, although accounts differ on precisely how. Some say space cows consume asteroid fields or nebulae and excrete metals that are valuable for humans but poisonous for their own metabolisms; others claim fleecing parties can be landed on such critters to shear thread of otherwordly beauty, or butchers sent to cut off membranes to be used as readily-made exotic fabric, or perhaps to carve blocks of flesh and feed the starving; others besides insist some of the more enigmatic drugs and toxins are metabolic products of such creatures, milked from them through arcane rites by Magi Biologis fallen dangerously close to the heresy of flesh worship. If such rumours were to hold a grain of truth, and were such creatures to actually be discovered and become an object of greed of a mercantile-minded void-farer, to be ranched and farmed, that void-farer would do well to keep their sources secret, even if that requires constructing a secret station in the regions of space shrouded from the wider Imperium, for doing otherwise would sure attract unwelcome attention from mercantile cartels, Mechanicus Genetors, or even the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition itself.

A spicier void-born tale relays the story of solar orcas - animals made entirely of plasma, who spend their lives floating above their unstable star's photosphere, in the stellar corona, feeding on magnetic loops and solar flares. Reports of solar orca sightings are usually dismissed as sensor machine spirits acting up in the aggressive environment around dangerous stars, but the noble House of Flastor from Sector Narasima, famed for hunting the most dangerous pray the Galaxy has to offered, is said to have posted an exorbitant bounty to be paid to anyone who organizes one of its members a successful solar orca trophy hunt.

Tavern anecdotes of encountering space-based lifeforms aren't limited to apparent animals, of course. In Port Hangover, a weird man claiming to be the famed rogue trader Kim Harrier tells stories of crystal trees floating in the void full of wonderful life, bird and monkeys the colour of emerald, ruby and gold, forming orbital gardens around the quarantined dead world of Revas. The Carcharodons Space Marine chapter records mention a void bloom encountered off the plane of the Galaxy, billions of tiny organisms forming into clouds and changing their colours in unison to form hypnotizing patters, prompting the recording battle barge to burn them all. Adeptus Mechanicus Cryptomancer Station PRC-18-162 submitted a report that a star from the nearby Gorgona Cluster is using rapid radiobursts to communicate with it in exquisite code, and was quarantined and later dismantled by a rapid response force of no less than one Mechanicus Forge World and three Inquisitor Lords. The Galaxy still holds many mysteries.

Planets

Rogue Planets

Rogue planets do not orbit a star or any other star-class object, drifting instead through the void, propelled perhaps by some ancient stellar catastrophe, arcane techno-manipulations, or predations of the Warp. Unwarmed by a sun, rogue planets are dark and, unless just recently ripped from its vicinity, frozen to the core.

Rogue planets are hard to locate and harder yet to get to, - the Tests to chart a course to one and locate the exit point from the Warp in its immediate vicinity are both done at -10, - but this is precisely what makes them valuable.

Some rogue planets still hold ruins of civilizations from untold millions of years past, others might have exotic matter created by the cataclysmic event that sent them wandering through the void; others yet serve as anchor points for hidden installations by the races of the Galaxy, much like cosmic voids, with the exception of much more building material available for whatever sinister purpose such installations might have. There's precious little that cannot be hidden under the frozen surface of a rogue planet, be it a cache of treasure from a lifetime of piracy, an enclave of survivors from the catastrophe that ripped the planet from its star, chthonic horrors of locally-evolved life, a dangerous weapon from the Dark Age of Technology, or a colony of subjects of cruel and secret genetic experiments - perhaps even a surviving Abominable Intelligence.

Gas Giants

Gas giants are huge planets mostly made up of light gases. Their powerful gravitation wells ensure the frequency of them possessing complex systems of moons, moonlets and rings, and these, in turn, make navigating the space around gas giants challenging, as they combine the hazards of nebulae, asteroid rings, and, often enough, gravity tides.

The cover afforded by a gas giant's rings and the danger of navigating them for an unfamiliar pilot make gas giants the favourite harbour for pirates; and nowhere are these lowlifes more commonly encountered, except perhaps for systems' Mandeville Points in which voidcraft transition to and from the Warp. Their cunningly concealed bases can be both on the moons or on the stations, in the vicinity of a gas giant or in the trojan asteroids trailing and preceding it in orbit.

Much as the rings around gas giants offer the same possibilities and hazards as asteroid rings around stars, the moons orbiting gas giants are ofttimes large enough to rival terrestrial planets, and can be used for much the same. Indeed, many settled worlds of the Imperium are moons orbiting gas giants, as exemplified by the Grey Knights fortress-monastery of Titan.

Gas giants themselves do not offer as ample an array of possibilities as their immediate stellar vicinity. Most of them are made of light gases such as hydrogen and helium, which means a ship equipped with scoops can harvest these gases from the outer reaches of their atmospheres; this is most commonly done to replenish reaction mass for plasma drives. Meanwhile, the deeper reaches of gas giants can conceal all sorts of alluring booty, hidden by ever-shifting cover of storm clouds. Sturdy items such as starships or smaller habitats can particularly benefit from such concealment, since it disguises much better than anything else in space that does not require massive construction effort. However, powerful gravity wells that gas giants possess make pulling the more precious relic out of the confines of their atmospheres a lengthy and often risky endeavour in itself.

Unsettled Planets

Xenos ruins etc

Types of Settled Planets

As backgrounds, as trading destinations, and as sources of plot hooks

Organizations

Imperial agencies (including Adeptus Administratum, Arbites, Ministorum (and Sisters of Battle), Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Imperial Fleet, Mechanicus, Inquisition, Adeptus Astra Telepathica, the Navigator Houses, with mentions of Senate and Officio Assassinorum), sector-level powers (sector governors, trading cartels, noble houses (including Knight households), large criminal and smuggling cartels), planet-level powers (governors, PDF, enforcers, local cults and gangs, including psykers and xenos), different types of xenos

Altogether focused in their potential role in a RT2 campaign, with plot hooks, if at all possible.

Rogue Traders

The role of Rogue Traders. Types of Warrants (with game-related effects). Dynasties, sources of income, and petty empires. Power dynamics in a dynasty, in a fleet, on a particular ship: absolute authority vs collective decision-making.