RT companion wealth...

By MisAnThropic2, in Rogue Trader

Im popping topics like crazy. Hope you excuse me :)

This one is about wealth.

I get that Rouge Traders are insanely rich, and that they can buy whatever they want.
(though I Think it should be somewhat moved by buying lots of stuff or a new starship where the ratio SP to PF is 1:1, but the ratio PF to SP is a simple aquisition roll)

I get that Navigators are wealthy beyond measure (if from a powerful noble house).

But the rest?
Where do they get Money to spend? Do they beg the RT to buy them stuff? They dont have any kind of wealth... do they make aquisition-tests like RT´s? And in that case why? Its not their Money...

How do you guys solve this?

They are trusted members of the Dynasty with a company expense account. They have a Velvet Black Card and no one questions it. Even if the Dynasty's accountant doesn't like the expenditures, it's an already done deal. "Pay up and shut up, ya bean counter."

I assume they wouldn't have signed on without this stipulation in their contract. They get the Dynasty's PF, same as the RT. That's just the rules of the game.

Edited by Errant Knight

They're part of the Rogue Trader's personal retinue and/or high-ranking ship's officers, usually a combination of both.

By supporting their expenses, the Dynasty gains a better servant, and doesn't have to deal with the embarrassment of an under-equipped retainer in the Rogue Trader's personal retinue/entourage.

You don't stint on supporting the people who are going to be at your back in combat.

So they have no wealth of their own, they can use what they want from "daddys" account? :P

thanks

Well, they may well have wealth of their own, potentially enough to make sure they could retire to their own private floating continent, but unless the Dynasty is in seriously dire straits, they're probably not going to touch that wealth (even assuming they have access to it- not everybody's cash or portfolio is portable on interstellar terms, particularly once you leave the Imperium*).

And it's probably the wrong way of thinking of things to compare it to borrowing daddy's card, or using a company expense account (although it is always possible that's accurate. It depends on the corporate dynamic around the dynasty, they may well be set up like that): the most common set-up/interpretation is that a Rogue Trader's companions are his feudal retainers. He is responsible for their upkeep, equipment and maintenance. For that matter, particularly if he has empowered them to speak in his name, they can even be viewed as legally extensions of his person (at least while on business), with the rights, protections and access to funds that implies.

*Yeah, it does kinda depend on how the GM visualises banking and high finance in his campaigns. In mine, financial transactions can be conducted astropathically, and there are many bonded to the great Banking Houses of the Imperium, many of whom maintain or affiliate with offices on major Imperial worlds (with the Navigator Houses being prominent among them, because I like the allusion to Dune). Binding transactions using off-world funding cannot be completed until confirmed by bonded astropath at one of the offices of an interstellar banking house. Transactions conducted elsewhere tend to be done in either negotiable currency or fungible asset (gold, for example), or by Letters of Right and Credit (cheques/bearer bonds essentially), which must be physically couriered to such an office to be "cashed".
If both parties have an account with one of the banking houses, then things get simpler, and it can all be done with face to face negotiation, and the use of a mutually trusted astropath to pass credit instructions.

And, of course, the banking charges for interstellar transactions are literally astronomical. No, I am not ashamed of that pun.

Edited by Alasseo

Indeed, they might even be representatives of the wealth behind the Dynasty. In fact, they might also be Dynasty members.

Thanks Alasseo, that gave me some ideas too :)

Edited by Misanthropic