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

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; and it might seem natural to create characters that'd fit the roles provided. However, by no means should Player Characters be limited only to the roles dictated by the officer ranks and professions as listed here; instead, the character concept and personality should be the cornerstone upon which the rest is built. If the character a player envisions does not fit any of the officer roles provided, the GM should not hesitate to create a custom role specifically for them.

Indeed, a Player Character need not even 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 norm 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 a simple fistbump to incredibly pompous.

A ship needs a Captain, but they needn't be a Player Character; neither needs 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. Remember that even if the Captain outranks everyone aboard his vessel, this in-character power relationship does not translate to an out-of-character one, and don't let it get in the way of your fun by being overbearing.

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, where no replacement is forthcoming. 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. As a Navigator grows older and more deformed by continuous exposure to the tainting energies of the Warp, they tend to become more and more withdrawn, only maintaining contact with whatever juniour members of their House might be on board, as well as the menials serving them. Those servants have an ill reputation among the general crew, as much for consorting with mutants as for the errands the Navigators assign them, since far go the scions of Navis Nobilite in their search for novel experiences and entertainment available in their self-imposed isolation.

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

Spacefaring. Ship designer. Space-based combat.

What's In a Ship

Their ship is a Rogue Trader's flying home among the stars, so it's important to understand what is to be found in that home. A typical Imperial vessel before sailing forth from a port, like one that a player character group possesses right out of the character creation, carries the following:

• Several thousand men and women of the crew, including everyone needed for ensuring the ship runs smoothly. The crew usually numbers about ten thousand per point of ship Size (see below). The most numerous among the crew are the ratings, who perform the myriad menial tasks needed for running the ship; but there's always also a sizable number of household troops (about a single man per a hundred of crew size, unless there's a dedicated Barracks component on the ship to provide more) used for boarding actions, repelling boarders, and ground-based operations; technomats, who operate and service most of the vessel's machinery without understanding the principles guiding its inner workings; techpriests, who perform elaborate rituals to control the most arcane technology of the ship; pilots for the vessel's small craft; and others aplenty.

• Food, water, reaction mass and other expendables in quantities sufficient to last no less than half a year of deep void travel.

• The amenities needed to ensure survival (and in rarer cases, comfort) of the crew, as the ship's Crew Quarters and Life Sustainer components (see below) allow. With these essential components alone, the necessities provided include sleeping chambers, mess halls, chapels to the God-Emperor, sick bays, officer's and captain's quarters, a brig, as well as small but well-guarded treasury and armoury.

• Crew equipment as necessary to complete Rogue Trader endeavours, including weapons, armour and tools. If ever particular equipment's availability is called into question, it can be assumed that a ship carries enough to supply every member of the crew with a single piece of any Plentiful equipment. This availability scales by ten times for every equipment Availability characteristic step: there's enough to hand anyone ten Abundant pieces or a hundred Ubiquitous; on the other hand, there's a single Common item per ten members of the crew, a single Average item per hundred, a single Scarce per thousand, and a single Rare per ten thousand. That means that pretty much any item up to the Rare availability the player characters want they can find for themselves in the ship's stores. However, this rule is better not abused, neither by trading equipment off, nor by expecting to find vast stores with each kind of the closely related items in plentiful supply (such as, say, of lasguns of every pattern mentioned in the books), nor by arguing the ship's stores should possess aplenty items not normally found aboard an Imperial vessel (such as Exotic weapons, specific drugs or equipment common on the planet producing them but unlikely to be found elsewhere, etcetera). All in all, this is just a quick guideline, and the GM remains the ultimate arbiter should details be called into question.

• The small aerospace craft needed to ensure the loading and unloading of the ship from orbit, as well as passenger transport. Unless the ship is equipped with dedicated hangar components, its small docking areas can house three aerospace craft per point of ship Size. At the beginning of the game, out of each of these three spaces one is taken up by an Aquila Lander used for passenger transport, and the other by an Arvus Lighter used for ferrying cargo.

• The ground vehicles needed for planetary exploration. These typically amount to two light vehicles per point of ship Size, such as a Chimera, a Tauros Assault Vehicle, or a Tauros Venator. At least one of these is usually a highly decorated vehicle of good quality meant to serve in diplomatic receptions. There's usually enough space available for additional vehicles; the ship can fit about eight vehicles more per point of Size without seriously affecting the cargo capacity. Smaller vehicles such as bikes can essentially take up zero space; other heavier vehicles such as tanks or ore seekers can take two slots or, in the case of super-heavies, even three.

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.

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. However, seeing a Rogue Trader vessel leaving port without one is rare indeed.

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.

Albanov Warp Engine: a warp engine optimized for safety rather than swiftness, the Albanov class only plunges a vessel into the Warp shallowly, doubling all travel times, but granting a +20 bonus on any Navigation(Warp) Tests to guide the ship through the Immaterium, as well as on any rolls on the Warp random encounter table.

Klenova Class C 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. Klenova Warp Drives take this capability one step further, Class C 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 Klenova Class C 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.

Cargo and Passenger Compartments

Improvised Cargo Compartment: strapped across the surface of the ship, the improvised cargo compartment is little more than a set of hooks, tethers, cargo nets and sacks for carrying whatever haul needed. It is, of course, non-pressurized. Any Rogue Trader vessel can when needed jury-rig a number of such cargo compartments equal to its Size. Since spaceships are normally carefully balanced, each improvised cargo compartment in use imposes a -10 penalty to the vessel's Maneuverability, as well as to its Turret Rating. If ever it becomes relevant, a single improvised cargo compartment fits around a hundred thousand metric tonnes of cargo.

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Sidebar: Towing vessels

A starship can tow another starship up to one Size larger than itself. That limits both vessels' maneuverability significantly, naturally, so any maneuvers require a Pilot (Space Craft) + Manoeuvrability Test with a penalty equal to -10 times the towed vessel's Size. The towing vessel can use its warp engine to drag the towed one along for a warp jump, but its Gellar Fields only protect itself. At GM's discretion, ships might tow vessels more than a single Size larger than themselves within a star system, requiring precalculated maneuvers to accelerate and decelerate their combined bulk in time.

If a gaming group finds this thematically fitting, and their techpriests are prepared to commit the sin of improvisation, the GM might allow plasma drives from the towing vessel to be strapped to the opposite side of the larger vessel being towed to ensure better maneuverability, and perhaps even let the smaller ship's warp drive to be overloaded to perform a warp jump with its haul.

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Non-pressurized Cargo Compartment: a dedicated space for bulk cargo transit, the non-pressurized compartment is optimized for ease of access and use. It fits roughly a hundred thousand metric tonnes of cargo that is exposed to space.

Pressurized Cargo Compartment: protected from the depredations of the void, - not just the lack of pressure, but also radiation, grating dust, and extreme changes of temperature, - the pressurized cargo compartment pays for that with carrying capacity reduced ten times over compared to the non-pressurized version. However, the vast majority of goods carried by Rogue Trader vessels, including organic compounds and machines of any complexity, are spoiled by void exposure, sometimes in subtle yet still significant ways.

Passenger Compartment: a basic passenger compartment is hardly more that a pressurized cargo hold with staple life support systems thrown in. It provides about five thousand passenger seats with an equivalent of Poor Crew Quarters and Poor Life Sustainers. A passenger compartment can be refit to provide better conditions: decent to a thousand passengers, good to two hundred, or luxurious to forty, enough to comfortably carry a noble with retainers and staff. Since the accommodations include not just life support but also service personnel, every step that the best occupied passenger compartment of the ship is better than the crew's own Quarters and Life Support incurs a -3 permanent penalty to its morale due to jealousy and class divisions made particularly apparent.

Shielded Compartment: a series of hidden spaces snugged in the ship's nooks and crannies, the shielded compartment hides its contents both from Active Augury in space and personal inspections in port, requiring a Hard(-20) Scrutiny+Detection or Awareness Test, respectively, to spot it is even there. It fits five times less cargo or passengers than an equivalent non-shielded cargo or passenger compartment.

Barracks: a cargo space converted to carry household troops, providing them with any necessities from decent life support to armouries, vehicle garages, gyms and firing ranges needed to keep the soldiers in top fighting condition. A single barracks fits an entire regiment of troops, - roughly two thousand men of infantry, or a thousand men mechanized, - and can be used not just for waging war dirtside, but also for boarding actions and repelling boarders, providing a +20 bonus to any Tests made for these.

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Sidebar: Converting cargo compartments

Since cargo compartments are mostly empty space, they are relatively easy to convert. A non-pressurized compartment can be made pressurized, and vice versa, in a month of dockyard time. A pressurized cargo compartment, shielded or not, can be converted by the crew into a passenger compartment with poor amenities in a week of rehauling, using the resources already available on the ship, or improved to the point of having decent amenities in a week more work time. Similarly, a pressurized cargo compartment or a passenger compartment can be converted into a barracks (and back) in a month of work in the docks.

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Supplemental Components

Automation

Imperial vessels are ponderous machines that take many thousands of crew to man. The Imperium scarcely sees this as a problem, since the means for producing more crew are much better available than the means for producing complex machines that'd lower crew requirements. It is not that Cult Mechanicus has not produced throughout the ages whole classes of vessels intended to lower the numbers of men needed to run them, however, primarily to decrease life support requirements and thus boost independent exploration or patrol times.

Basic Automation: some of the more tiring tasks aboard the vessel, be they reloading the ship's macrobatteries or calibrating plasma injection chambers, have been relegated to advanced machine spirits. This cuts the crew size roughly by 20 percent, primarily reducing the need for menials, and proportionally increasing the time that a vessel can spend in deep void, but also increases the ship's power requirements.

Advanced Automation: whole supplementary systems have been installed to reduce menial labour aboard the ship, from automatic fire extinguishers to a central vacuuming system for cleaning; other tasks have been relegated to servitors with complex programming. This cuts the crew size by half, significantly increasing the share of techpriests among it, and not only increases the amount of power needed for the ship to run, but also makes repairs more complex and costly, as advanced systems require expensive replacements and reactivation rituals. Any Tests to repair the vessel's components suffer a -10 penalty.

Full Automation: through the power of the technoarcane and liberal use of servitors a vessel can be controlled by but a handful of crew, dozens or in extreme cases single digits of men. Even repelling potential boarders is delegated to automatic defenses and roaming murder-servitors. This ensures that life support lasts essentially indefinitely, but significantly increases both power consumption and complexity of repairs, as any Tests to repair the vessel's components suffer a -20 penalty due to the need to replace and reconsecrate the byzantine machinery employed. This means that employing such fully automatic vessels is punishingly hard anywhere outside of Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleets.

Crew

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.

A typical Imperial vessels is manned by thousands of crew, essentially putting the players in charge of a large town flying among the stars. Any ship, again much like any isolated town of that size, has its own unique culture, further diversified by peculiarities of particular shipboard communities. Since a ship is a massive machine hundreds of meters long, with dozens of compartments and dozens of crew professions in each, the crewmen not even necessarily belonging to the same Imperial Adepta and potentially coming from a plethora different planets, the communities aboard a single vessel can be varied indeed.

How much of that diversity a particular group wants to simulate is, of course, up to personal preferences. In an adventure centered around high-paced chases, space combat, and player characters exploring deadly xenos ruins in search of fabulous treasure, the most basic tracking of crew morals, much like that employed in Rogue Trader Core, can be called for. In a game centered rather around character development, more detailed interaction with the crew, be they fellow officers or the player characters' own underlings, may be suitable. Do not hesitate to try the detailed method, and if the bookkeeping involved becomes a chore, it's always possible to switch to the basic crew tracking variation.

Basic Mechanics

Crew Population represents able-bodied voidsmen aboard the vessel. A ship possesses a Crew Capacity of 100 per point of Size, modified by its Automation supplementary component (see above) or other sources, and starts at full complement. Each point of Crew Population represents roughly a hundred crewmen.

Crew Morale represents the general crew loyalty, on a scale of 0 to 100, starting at a 100. Certain components can increase or reduce maximum possible Crew Morale.

Any circumstances that see the crew dead or rendered permanently unfit for duty, be they combat damage, prolonged exposure to deep void, epidemics, starvation, warp madness, hazards of astronavigation, or whatever else, reduce Crew Population. Particularly, any reduction of the vessel's Hull Integrity reduces Crew Population by the same number. Replenishing Crew Population can only be done when a source of manpower is available, such as in orbit of a human-settled world, when meeting a friendly vessel with extra warm bodies available, or perhaps by recapturing slaves from the vile forces of Chaos or treacherous xenos. Crew Population cannot be brought above 1.1 of its Crew Capacity. This needs mechanics depending on the acquisition mechanic; press-gang option, and emptying prisons option.

Anything adversely affecting crew loyalty for their masters reduces Crew Morale. Sources of morale damage include bad food, uncommonly harsh treatment, and Crew Population losses. Mark down the vessel's current Crew Capacity divided by 100 - that's Morale Divisor. Whenever Crew Population reduces, reduce Crew Morale by the Crew Population reduction divided by the Morale Divisor (note the fractions). Crew Morale is replenished by letting the men rest. As long as shipboard supplies last, a week of respite without hard work restores 1d5 Crew Morale. If the ship is orbiting a habitable planet without a local human population where a secure base camp can be established, Crew Morale is restored by 2d5 per week. In both aforementioned cases, further weeks of rest after the fourth provide no benefit. If docked to a friendly human space station, however, Crew Morale can be restored to maximum in two weeks of debauchery, or one week if the Captain is willing to splurge for whatever damages and fines the resting crewmen incur. This needs mechanics depending on the acquisition mechanic.

Changes to Crew Population and Crew Morale affect the operations of the ship, as per the tables below.

Crew Population Effects

Threshold	Effect
80% Crew Capacity	All boarding actions and attempts to repel boarders suffer a -10 penalty.
60% Crew Capacity	All Tests to repair ship components outside of a dockyard or perform other Emergency Repairs suffer a -10 penalty.
40% Crew Capacity	All Pilot(Space Craft) Tests to control the vessel suffer a -10 penalty. All Tests to fight fires suffer a -10 penalty. All Tests to repair ship components outside of a dockyard or perform other Emergency Repairs suffer a further -10 penalty for a total of -20.
20% Crew Capacity	Ship Maneuverability, Detection and Turret Rating suffer a -10 penalty. All boarding actions and attempts to repel boarders suffer a further -20 penalty for a total of -30.
2% Crew Capacity	With not even a skeleton crew to control it, the ship turns into an aimlessly drifting tomb for whatever survivors still huddle within.

Crew Morale Effects

Threshold	Effect
120	All Tests to fire the vessel's weapons or perform carrier operations enjoy a +10 bonus.
110	All Command actions aboard the ship are performed at a +10 bonus.
80	All Command actions aboard the ship are performed at a -10 penalty.
60	Ship Maneuverability, Detection and Turret Rating suffer a -5 penalty.
40	Ship Maneuverability, Detection and Turret Rating suffer a further -10 penalty for a total of -15. All Tests to fire the vessel's weapons or perform carrier operations suffer a -10 penalty.
20	All Command actions aboard the ship suffer a further -10 penalty for a total of -20. The crew looks darkly brooding as preparations for a Mutiny are started. The ship may no longer perform boarding actions as the crew cannot be trusted with weapons. Repelling boarders might bring a Mutiny this much closer. Whenever the vessel boards at a friendly port, it loses 1d5 Crew Population to desertion.
0	The entirety of the crew is in to a Mutiny brewing with renewed vigour. Unless urgent measures are taken, it will rise as one to overthrow the current officers!

If Crew Morale plunges to 20 or below, the crew is taken by despair and starts preparing a Mutiny. The preparations generally take about a month. Unless the vessel is brought into a friendly port in that time, they act openly against the player characters. Each 5 full points that Crew Morale is below 40 requires a successful Test from one of the player characters to quell the rebellion. The Tests rolled might include Charm to placate a part of the mutineers, weapon skills to engage in direct hostilities, Security or Investigation to track ringleaders, Intimidation to hold hostages and threaten to vent rebellious compartments, Command (unmodified by Crew Morale penalties) to organize loyal crewmen and suppress the rebellion, Psyniscience to sense traitorous thoughts, or any others player characters see thematically fit. Each time such a Test is attempted, it incurs a random cost, such as 2d10 damage of random type to a random location of the character performing the Test, or 1d5 Critical Damage to a random Ship Component, or 2d5 Crew Population Damage, or a player character's precious item stolen or destroyed, or part of the cargo vented into space.

Even if the Mutiny is quelled, Crew Morale does not rise because of that. Once it drops to 0, another rebellion is prepared, and if in a month's time it's not brought above 0, the entire crew rises against the player characters. Their only chance then is to fight their way to the escape pods and evacuate before they're slaughtered, betting on a mad hope they can survive the void until their salvation prayer vox transmissions are heard.

Expanded Mechanics

Rather than using a single unified Crew Population, like when using the basic mechanics, instead divide the ship's crew into several Strata. Each Stratum represents a particular community with its own interests, background, and culture, and has its own Crew Population and Crew Morale. Four most commonly mentioned Strata are Menials, originally numbering 80% of Crew Capacity; Technomats, numbering around 15%; Techpriests, making up some 4%; and Household Troops, counting about 1% of Crew Capacity; but generally you can track as many Strata as you feel appropriate for your game. It might be fitting to have at least a Stratum per player character, representing the interest group they're most closely associating with; or you may feel each of the Imperial Adepta on board must be represented. Religious cults certainly make fine Strata, as do the crewmen doing particularly dangerous or prestigious jobs, such as the bridge crew or the aerospace craft pilots.

The Strata makeup certainly depends on the sociology of your ship's society: on one vessel, gun crews might be menial ratings like any other, perhaps not even specifically assigned to man the guns; while on the other, they may be an arcane order holding the secrets of rapid reload close to the chest and very sensitive about their privileges; meanwhile, on yet another vessel the gunners of the left and the right broadside batteries might have been recruited from warring Underhive gangs, still fighting a more or less hidden vendetta between themselves.

It might be a good idea to write down at least one NPC per Stratum, representing their leader, whether formal or informal; or perhaps simply their member most noticeable to the crew, such as, for instance, the pilot of the player characters' personal shuttle. Such NPCs should receive at least a name and a line of description. Example names can be found in Rogue Trader Core on page 31, and a demeanor list is on page 32. If a Stratum proves to be important, and the player characters find themselves engaged in its politics and inner workings, it might be prudent to flesh out additional named NPC members for it.

The simplest way to track Crew Population for a Stratum might be equally assigning Crew Population losses suffered, and similarly equally dividing new recruits among the Strata. If you prefer more control, however, you might want to assign each Stratum particular Ship Components it is most likely to be found in - such as the Bridge for Adeptus Astra Telepatum Astropaths, or the Landing Bays for aerospace pilots, - and prioritize them for Crew Population losses according to the component suffering Critical Hits or other mishaps. In a similar vein, new recruits might be better assigned to a new Stratum, coming as they are from a strange planet, unaccustomed yet to the way things work on the player characters' vessel.

Normal sources of Crew Morale change, such as Crew Population losses and effects of Ship Components, affect all Strata normally; but the GM should feel free to regularly offer the players a chance to affect particular Stratum's Crew Morale by their actions. After all, the Captain is not just the Master of the ship, he is also the final judge in any conflicts between Strata, the highest criminal court authority aboard, and the main conductor of many a ritual.

A Stratum with high Crew Morale will perform its duties with more gusto, giving the player characters bonuses to related tests; while a Stratum that bears a grudge will become progressively harder to Command, shirk their duties, and perhaps even start plotting against the seniour officers.

The kind of decisions that affect a Stratum's Crew Morale, as well as the impact of the judgments made, are dependent on the Stratum's Traits as listed below, and remain entirely up to the GM; but it's uncommon for any single decision to change Morale more than 5 points one way or the other. A Stratum might have multiple Traits, as well as lose or gain new ones, as appropriate.

Strata Traits

Should be a table when the list is finished

• Addiction: not all members of the Stratum are addicted to a certain substance, but a large enough share for it to make a significant difference are. Perhaps it is a part of their rites, if they're Cultists, or needed for maintenance, if Augmented.
• Aggressive: whether a product of a Death World, an Underhive perpetual gang war, or combat augmentation, members of this Stratum are simply aggressive, unlikely to let any slight, real or perceived, slide. They're grating to be around, engaged in constant conflict both within the Stratum and without, and lower Crew Morale for other Strata by 1. However, they're also great at repelling boarders, providing one fourth of their Crew Population as a bonus to any related Tests.
• Animal Empathy: it's common for members of this Strata to be good with animals, whether riding them or ensuring they're docile in a spacefaring vessel's cargo holds. Such Strata are usually recruited from Primitive or Feudal Worlds.
• Augmented: members of the Statum have been significantly cybernetically augmented. They feel at home in environments others might find lethal, and their Crew Population losses due to exposure to vacuum are reduced by 1 to the minimum of 0. Mechanicus Techpriests and many forgeworlders are Augmented.
• Beautiful: whether a product of purposeful genetic optimization or simply breeding and good food, members of this Stratum are simply naturally stately and beautiful. This can make them a target of jealousy, bride kidnappings, or worse. This Trait is most commonly encountered among crew members from Imperial or Paradise Worlds.
• Black Marketeers: cunning with their tools and social connections, the members of this Stratum always know where to find a weapon, a glass of moonshine, a hit of their drug of choice, or an illegal power line tap.
• Clannish: wary of outsiders, members of this Stratum like to keep things in the family and never air their dirty linen. They also trust judgments of their own elders over those of their formal commanders.
• Communal: even by Imperial measures, members of this Stratum stand out in putting the lives of others of their number above their own. They excel at providing both first aid and long term care, would never willingly abandon one of their own or let anyone starve until every last one of them is near starvation. That lowers any Crew Population losses among them by 1 (to the minimum of 0), but the effects or whatever player character decisions they consider unjust towards them are multiplied, potentially affecting their Crew Morale by up to 20 points at once.
• Cowardly: perhaps brought up in safety among the datastacks of an Administratum archive-world, in idle luxury of a Paradise planet, or as a part of a dangerous pacifist subcult of the Imperial Creed, members of this Stratum are unused to the violence of the cruel Galaxy. Whenever they're involved in direct conflict - be it as a Stratum, or under the player characters' immediate command, such as when repelling boarders - all Tests are rolled at a -20 penalty, and any Crew Morale losses (including those from Crew Population losses in combat) are increased by 1. They're much less likely to conflict with other Strata, though, particularly ones obviously more powerful than themselves.
• Cultists: this Stratum harbours - or is! - a religious cult. Particular details of the cult and its impact can vary widely, the most common radical cults found in the Imperium being Redemptionists, Penitents, and Cults of Death. Cultists are particularly common among crewmen from Hive Worlds.
• Customary Irregularities: it's a point of pride for members of this Stratum to have a component of their uniform worn not in the regulation manner. Elitist Strata often have such customs, but so do ones recruited from long-established Fortress Worlds.
• Dialect: this Stratum's mother tongue has significantly diverged from the Imperial standard Low Gothic, making it almost incomprehensible to anyone other than native speakers. If they're Newcomers, they might have problems understanding commands at all! Otherwise, they always have a way to talk that very few others aboard the ship and especially outside it understand.
• Disfigured: while not quite Mutated, the members of this Stratum are weird and creepy to look upon, with proportions of body parts or joints aligning all wrong, or perhaps simply visually different from the human norm as accepted in the Imperium - such as possessing radically blue skin, or tiny ears, or a split tip of the tongue. Many Voidborn crewmen are Disfigured.
• Disturbed: perhaps due to their homeworld's particular environment or society, many members of this Stratum suffer from a particular psychiatric condition, be it schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, paranoia, psychotic obsession, phobia, or samesuch.
• Elitist: whether Highborn or simply performing jobs requiring high individual skill, members of this Stratum strongly feel holier-than-thou. They are often Legalist and believe in Omens and Rituals. They also provide +5 to any Tests player characters make in the Stratum's area of responsibility.
• Fearless: believing their fate preordained by the Emperor or perhaps inured to the worst horrors of violence by living on a Death World, members of this Stratum have little to fear. They lose 1 Crew Morale less, to the minimum of 0, whenever they'd stand to lose it because of Crew Population reduction or some fear-inducing event. This also increases their chances to come into conflict with other Strata, particularly much more powerful ones.
• Fragile: malnourished, grown up in a highly inhospitable environment, or simply subtly mutated, members of this Stratum are easier both to maim and to kill. Any Crew Population losses they suffer from direct violence are increased by 1. Mundane causes for this Trait, such as improper diet, can be cured in time with good Life Sustainers and a competent Chief Chirurgeon!
• Gregarious: accustomed to crowded living on a Hive World or belonging to a subcult of the Emperor that empathizes generosity and joy, members of this Stratum are simply pleasant to be around. They tend to be great dancers, cooks, musicians, courtesans, story-tellers, soothsayers, or painters, easy with giving the fruits of their labour. Other Strata who are not Sulking or Xenophobic towards them gain +2 maximum Crew Morale from such neighbors permanently.
• Gunslingers: no one belonging to this Stratum would be caught without their firearm, even on their deathbed. Attempts to openly disarm them immediately drop maximum morale by 60 and lead to mass attempts to produce custom firearms or acquire them by any means necessary, be those the ship's black market or ambushing the Rogue Trader's household troopers. They're also great at repelling boarders, providing one fourth of their Crew Population as a bonus to any related Tests. Deathworlders and Hive World gangers are the one to most frequently possess this Trait.
• Jury Riggers: members of this Stratum are great with their hands and can often improvise a solution to any problem with extremely limited resources. They're great at ensuring the ship's internal economy has goods for any taste, permanently increasing maximum Crew Morale of most other Strata by 1 - unless their Stratum works with machines, in which case they provide +10 to any relevant repair Tests, but permanently lower Crew Morale for any orthodox Adeptus Mechanicus Strata by 5.
• Lazy: this Stratum's culture considers hard workers stupid and unable to realize what's good for them. A Lazy Stratum can of course be made to work with threats of violence, or violence itself, but that lowers its maximum Crew Morale by 10 permanently, and they still will do the minimum needed and attempt to shirk even that, giving a -10 penalty to any Tests related to their work. Primitive Strata and Scum are most often this way.
• Legalist: members of this Stratum love nothing more than proper procedure. A form signed in triplicate, it seems, they need for as much as eating their dinner; and they greatly enjoy proper public court process with oratory, a jury, and an executioner, too.
• Mercantile: whether a product of merchant league upbringing or particular planetary culture, members of this stratum have a reputation or greed, usury, nepotism and craftiness.
• Might Makes Right: members of this Stratum recognize little authority and consider public duels to be the best way to settle arguments and criminal cases - whether lethal or not, depends on particular Stratum. Many Scum and Primitive Strata share this Trait.
• Mutated: disfigured by the corruption of the Warp or simply chemical leaks, the members of this Stratum are harshly shunned by the wider Imperial society as inherently unclean.
• Newcomers: this Strata is new to the ship and hasn't yet figured out the way things work, much less established itself in the vessel's hierarchy.
• Omens and Rituals: members of this Stratum have a lengthy list of omens, both good and bad, defining their life in small ways or large. Similarly, they believe certain events call for lengthy and complex rituals, often ones involving expensive equipment or seniour officers. Primitive Strata are this way, but so are often Elitist Strata working with dangerous equipment, such as combat pilots.
• Orderly: brought up in a strictly regulated society, members of this Stratum hate irregularities. Their salutes are crisp, their uniforms blameless, and they cannot imagine justice other than what's written in military regulations. Crew members from Fortress Worlds or Battlefleets are normally Orderly.
• Primitive: members of this Stratum come from a technologically backwards world, perhaps believing that Skyfather Emperor has taken them alive into His abode beyond the stars, or simply taking their caves of stone being replaced for caves of steel for granted. Crew members recruited from Feudal, Primitive, or Death Worlds are often Primitive.
• Privileged: this Stratum possesses privileges over the unwashed masses of the crew, whether formal or informal, significant or minuscule, and holds on to them dearly. Techpriests, bridge crews and fighter pilots are all typically Privileged.
• Psychic: psykers are disturbingly commonly revealed among this Stratum. This is dangerous in itself, produces unexplainable accidents, and draws the kind of attention of the Imperial Organizations no sane Rogue Trader wants to attract.
• Religious: while not a members of a weird subsect like Cultists, members of this Stratum possess unusual fervour in their devotion to the Emperor, placing extreme value both in their daily rites and the words of their shepherds. Crew members from Temple and Imperial Worlds are most likely to have this Trait.
• Scum: raised on a Penal World, in a Hive's underbelly, or simply press-ganged from a prison, members of this Stratum have little regard for authority, honest work, or anything else in the world, really. They often have Sticky Fingers, believe that Might Makes Right, and are Black Marketeers.
• Slave Mentality: brought up from birth to be nothing but talking tools or mindcleansed by their cruel Imperial masters, members of this Stratum lack any initiative whatsoever, even if capable of performing the tasks assigned to them. They might be smart enough to manipulate arcane machinery, but, for example, leaving their assigned posts to put out a fire in their compartment without a direct order from their superiour is utterly behind their mental facilities. It might take months of coordinated Chaplain and Chief Chirurgeon work should the player characters try to return them to a semblance of normalcy.
• Sticky Fingers: it is common to hear entirely unfair accusations that members of this Stratum are brazen-faced thieves. In fact they might have a different concept of ownership, or perhaps just an overly gregarious manner that demands sharing the others' possessions.
• Stubborn: the members of this Stratum only listen to their own council, and once something has been decided among them, they're almost impossible to dissuade. Stubborn Strata take 2 Crew Morale damage less from any source while acting towards their set goal (to the minimum of 0); they take double Crew Morale damage from any player character decisions that run contrary to their opinions, though, potentially taking up to 10 Crew Morale penalty at a time.
• Sulking: perhaps coming from a world where the star never shines, repenting for a grave sin committed by their ancestors, or constantly wracked with pain due to a sanctioned mutation, members of this Stratum never smile or act glad, as if they're incapable of feeling joy at all. They also have regular depressive episodes. That makes them oppressive to be around, lowering the Crew Morale maximum for other Strata by 1.
• Uncommon Senses: due to a subtle mutation, members of this Stratum have slightly sharper senses than baseline humans: perhaps a wider hearing or visual range, or particular sensitivity to vibrations. This Trait is especially common among the Disfigured and downright Mutants, of course.
• Variant Diet: due to conditions of their home world or prolonged exposure to the void, members of this Stratum have uncommon dietary habits. Perhaps they eat significantly more or less, or refuse to consume some of the food available on the ship, or require rare or expensive staple foods such as meat or fish.
• Veterans: this Stratum has been on the ship forever, perhaps even from the times it was first launched, never losing large parts of its Crew Population or culture.
• Voidfarers: members of this Stratum are married to the void, taking the usual challenges such as loss of gravity, weirdly directed g-forces, or spacewalks in stride. Voidborn crewmen and Veteran Strata often possess this Trait.
• Xenophilic: likely a product of an upbringing outside of the safe confines of the Imperium, members of this Stratum are strangers to the noble hatred the Humanity has developed towards anything different from the sacred human form. They're not affected by Disfigured or Mutated crew Strata, and might even be partial to parlaying with xenos.
• Xenophobic: most of Humanity distrusts strangers, but members of this Stratum take it to the extreme, treating anyone outside of the long-serving crew of their vessel like dirt. Clannish and Veteran Strata are most likely to have this Trait.
• Xenos: the Stratum is simply not human, made up entirely of representatives of a xeno species. Whether grots used as menials, Tau Earth Caste supplementing Techpriests, or supple Eldar maidens in the Captain's personal harem, there is heresy of the highest caliber going on on the ship.

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, find a particularly well-hidden station, or supply a particularly hardy outpost of miners producing particularly rare resources.

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.

Space Hulks

Space hulks are drifting conglomerations of derelict ships, stations, and other stellar debris - usually leftovers from some ancient and faraway battle. Space hulks are known to drift not just through realspace, but also through the Immaterium, sucked into it perhaps by the pernicious nature of warp storms, perhaps by flickers of life in the machine spirits of the warp drives of the ships embedded in the hulk. As such, space hulks are just as random in the time and place of their appearance as they are in composition, shape and form. Indeed, some seem to be harbingers of doom, appearing before Chaos invasions and major rebellions, others seem to chase a particular cursed bloodline across the Galaxy, or appear after certain sinister omens.

Space hulks are notoriously dangerous havens of xenos filth, from Tyranid vanguard organisms to Ork brutes. Due to their ability to drift through the Warp, randomly, they have been used as assault bases both by these enemies without and the more sinister forces from beyond, such as Traitor Astartes and Daemons. Xenos, daemons and heretics aren't the only dangers found within space hulks, however, since the ancient machines of the derelict vessels themselves still guard their secrets with everything from gun emplacements to murder servitors. Horror stories about the Iron Men driven by the technoheretical Abominable Intelligence also resurface again and again. Finally, severely damaged ships from the forgotten past are by themselves full of unsafe and downright deadly environments, even before they reemerge from the hellish madness of the Warp that's liable to realign the very laws of physical reality inside the hulk.

Still yet, space hulks, when a well-prepared expedition can be organized, are one of the most valued prizes an enterprising Rogue Trader might dream off, since their riches truly match the dangers found within. The most valuable of these for any spacefarer, of course, are the ancient vessels forming the hulk themselves. If any of them can be pinpointed as salvageable, pulled free from the floating behemoth, cleared of xenos and daemonic filth, and repaired, they can become priceless boons indeed with their archeotech components. Reactivating such a primordial vessel can pay for thousands of lives spent to recover it, and still leave the new owner with a massive profit.

The vessels themselves aren't the only prize available in a space hulk, though, even if the most valuable. Archeotech machines, equipment and schematics that can potentially be found within are no less priceless, and if well-known vessels from Imperium's glorious past can be found among the wrecks of a space hulk, they might contain relics valuable for their history rather than their immediate qualities.

All this combined makes plundering a space hulk such a lucrative possibility in many a Rogue Trader's eyes that it's not uncommon for multiple Rogue Traders to race each other to the hulk in the limited time it reappears in the real-space, and then to encounter each other's looting party within the twisting corridors of the drifting monstrosity itself. Many such a hostile encounter between rival Rogue Traders has sparked a blood feud between their dynasties, yet just as many are examples of a helping hand extended against the enemies of Humanity at the crucial moment that ended an animosity which had lingered for generations.

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.

Much has been written about Rogue Traders and their role, not least of all in Rogue Trader Corebook, p. 320. Here it suffices to say that Rogue Traders are agents of the Imperium issued with a Warrant of Trade and sent forth beyond it borders to mind its interests as best they can.

Warrant of Trade

The Warrant of Trade is the most important document a Rogue Trader dynasty possesses, one that makes it what it is. In essence, it is a foundational document that establishes the Rogue Trader's relationships with multiple Imperial agencies, not much different from a Foundation Charter of a Space Marine Chapter or a Founding Writ of an Imperial colony. Warrants of Trade are given under entirely different circumstances and with entirely different goals in mind, so no two Warrants are entirely alike, yet they all share certain common points.

• The right to own a fleet of starfaring vessels, with all their machines, equipment, and crew, as well as household troops with any required armament.

• The right to venture outside the borders of the Imperium, and the entitlement to any unclaimed wealth found therein.

• The right to wage war upon the enemies of humanity.

• The right to speak with the authority of the Senatorum Imperialis outside the borders of the Imperium.

• The right to reestablish contact with human colonies outside the Imperial space and to see them achieve Imperial Compliance.

• The right to trade with any Imperial powers, or humans outside the fringes of the Imperium.

• The right to establish trade enterprises, and the entitlement to their profits.

• The right to found new colonies and reestablish lost ones, and the entitlement to their governance and their profits, as long as their Imperial tithe is paid in full.

• The right to see their vessels repaired and serviced at any available Fleet, Techpriest, or Mercantile Cartel wharf, for a fair compensation.

• The right to see their vessels staffed with qualified specialists of Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Ministorum, and Navis Nobilite, for a fair compensation.

• The right to recruit crew members and officers from among the civilian Imperial population and among the Adepta, for a fair compensation.

• The right to request assistance for the greater glory of the Imperium from any able Imperial institutions, be they Imperial Commanders, Imperial Navy, Imperial Guard, Adeptus Astartes, or any other.

• The right to engage in diplomacy with xenos outside the borders of the Imperium for its greater glory, as long as the xenos in question have not been declared Xenos Terribilus.

• The duty to respond to distress calls from Imperial vessels, stations, and colonies, in a timely and appropriate manner.

• The duty to aid Adeptus Arbites in maintaining order and chasing Imperial fugitives, as present means allow.

• The duty to aid Adeptus Astra Telepathica in running the Black Ship fleet, including the duty to hand over any psykers found among the crew for sanctioning.

• The duty to aid Adeptus Mechanicus in the Quest for Knowledge, as present means allow.

• The duty to aid Adeptus Ministorum in bringing the light of the one true faith beyond the borders of Imperium, as present means allow.

• The duty to aid the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition by all means at disposal.

Warrant Traits

There are many ways Warrants of Trade differ from each other, and this section aims to provide options for describing the difference. These traits are to be used as plot hooks and sources of amusing complications, never to rob the player characters of their achievements.

Warrant Age

• Ancient Warrant: some Warrants of Trade are precious relics, thousands of years old - as a matter of fact, scions of the longer-lived Rogue Trader dynasties like to claim theirs were signed by the Emperor himself. While such ancient Warrants are rarely taken out of stasis field storage, so these claims remain unverifiable, there are many in the Imperium who afford such well-established lineage their respect. Few ancient Warrants come with extensive holdings, other than perhaps outside the borders of the Empire, in the regions long made inaccessible by a Warp storm or military catastrophe, as such personal mini-empires attract too much dangerous attention to last their owners long, but all come with a claim to greatness, family legends, and long-entrenched alliances in the particular sector's power groups.

• Recent Warrant: there are Warrants of Trade issued very recently, within a generation's memory. Some of those are handed out as a form of military decoration, others out of political expediency, or simply to remove a rival or send off a junior son. Regardless of the reasons, there are many in the Imperium who afford such boundless personal ambition their respect. Many recent Warrants come with their one-time obligations (see below) not yet fulfilled, and many still come with strings attached or scores to settle.

• Fake Warrant: since a Warrant of Trade is a document so vastly important that it is rarely taken out of the owning dynasty's safest vaults, daring con artists have been known to try and impersonate a Rogue Trader without one. Inside the borders of the Imperium such a ruse might take all their cunning to maintain even for months or weeks, but outside it, a functional crewed vessel is proof enough of the right to own one. A party with a fake Warrant would need a good explanation on how it came to travel together, much less to possess their ship, but such a complication might produce ample opportunities for good roleplay, particularly for the fans of heist movies.

One-Time Obligations

When the Warrant of Trade is handed to a Rogue Trader, they are often assigned an immediate task to see through. Examples of such tasks are listed below.

• Exploration Obligation: the Rogue Trader is obliged to contact a particular human colony that has not seen Imperial communications for some time, or explore a particular region of space and provide the maps and survey results to the clerks of Adeptus Administratum. With luck and perseverance, such newly explored regions can be turned into a domain under the Rogue Trader's dynasty's rule.

• War Obligation: the Rogue Trader is to see a war campaign through, eradicating a particular menace to the Imperial interests or fighting back a particular threat. Certain campaigns can last for generations and take hundreds of space and surface battles, especially if the task is clearing out a subsector of a pirate or xeno threat.

• Endeavour Obligation: the Rogue Trader is bound to complete a particular trade achievement, such as secure a steady supply of a rare raw material for a given forge world, or establish a stable colony on an especially inhospitable planet given only the limited resources at hand.

Permanent Obligations

Most Warrants of Trade are not given to solve a short-term task, and as such, they come with permanent obligations. As time and generations go by, some of these tasks can get meaningless or downright ridiculous, such as supplying a world that used to be a long-sizzling warzone but is now firmly within the Imperial grasp with a given number of reinforcements every Terran year, but failing to uphold the terms of the Warrant can be grounds for its termination.

• Trade Obligation: the Rogue Trader is expected to regularly complete a certain kind of endeavour, such as regularly shipping the tithe from a particular world to the sector's capital, or gathering a fighter squadron across the sector's forges and presenting it yearly to the sector Fleet command.

• Aid Obligation: the Rogue Trader is obliged to provide military aid to the full extent of his abilities in a certain region of space, or to a particular Imperial world, or perhaps even in support in a particular Crusade or Space Marine Chapter.

• Adeptus Obligation: the Rogue Trader is bound to aid a particular Imperial organization. This obligation is typically wide-reaching, such as aiding Adeptus Arbites with their every demand, or ensuring every newly contacted world is converted to the Imperial Faith, or offering every archeotech or xenotech artifact discovered to Adeptus Mechanicus first.

Additional Rights

Not all terms found on the Warrants of Trade are necessarily duties and obligations; some Warrants provide wondrous boons and privileges.

• Free Trade: the Rogue Trader is exempt from taxes on trade. Usually this right is limited to particular subsector or trade good, but sometimes this exemption can be universal.

• Trade Exclusivity: the Rogue Trader is granted the exclusive right to certain kinds of trade, such as trade in a particular luxury good, or trade with particular worlds (ofttimes with the worlds rediscovered or colonized by the Rogue Trader himself). On smaller scale, this privilege may provide particularly beneficial trade terms on certain kinds of deals, or perhaps first choice from every batch of goods offered for sale.

• Trade Rules Exemption: certain rules or prohibitions on Imperial trade do not apply to the holder of the Warrant. This clause is most commonly granted when a certain xeno species' artifacts are judged too useful not to be put to use for the Imperial cause.

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Sidebar: Rogue Trader Heraldry

Rogue Trader vessels differ in appearance as much as their owners differ in temperament, but heraldry remains one of the more prominent displays encountered. While some Rogue Traders prefer austere decorations, and only show their crest on personal equipment, others have their banners flying over their ships, kilometers-long, or incorporate their coat of arms into each rating's uniform.

Each Rogue Trader dynasty, as befits Peers of the Imperium, receives its own flag together with the Warrant of Trade. While most original flags are stored in the same ultrasecure stasis vaults as the original parchments of the Warrants of Trade, their copies are often proudly displayed, customized with slogans, helmets, coronets, supporter creatures and mottoes as their owners see fit. Other than aforementioned Rogue Trader's personal equipment and the crew's uniforms, the vessel's prow or superstructure is frequently emblazoned with the owner's coat of arms.

Other than the Rogue Trader's heraldry, however, that of other seniour officers' is also often displayed, particularly as banners on the bridge and signets at their dedicated compartments. The Navigator Sanctum is thus marked with the Navis Nobilite three-eyed skull and the coat of arms belonging to the Navigator's clan, the Astropathic Choir with Adeptus Astra Telepathica's eye-bearing I, and the engine compartment with Cog Mechanicum and the signets of the chief techpriest's home Forge World, Order, or congregation.

Common Imperial heraldry is also universally displayed, especially in omnipresent Imperial Acquilas and statues of Imperial Saints, particularly common as vessel's figureheads.

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