Hi all, first off I have to say I'm extremely jealous o fall you lucky buggers that already have your hands on a copy of the book.. Congratulations

and it's to you "book owners" that I target this question.

I have a player in my gaming group who has been looking forward to playing an actual Inquisitor for a long time. Now I know the Ascension book comes out soon and that will "open the door" so to speak on the official side of that aim but we are likely going to be playing Rogue Trader by that time. So the question is this..

Is their anything to stop having an Inquisitor as part of the Rogue Trader group?

Would the Rogue Traders authority on ship get all contested by having an Inquisitor on board?

Or is it just the case of coming up with an idea that will work?

Obviously certain of the Ordos wouldn;t have any reason to spend extended periods of time beyond the rim... but I can just see an Extremist of the Ordo Xenos jumping at the chance to spend time "gathering Intelligence" steeped in the filth of the Xeno's themselves....

Any answers or comments?

The book certainly addresses Inquisitors being with a Rogue Trader. Can't remember right off hand the details as my books at home and I'm not. The Rogue Trader is still captain of his boat, and unless he's doing something heritical, theirs nothing Inquisitor can do once the ship's beyond Imperial boundaries, because for all intents and purposes, the Rogue Trader is the Imperium once he's traveled beyond the borders. Now that doesn't mean the Inquisitor can't suggest that the Rogue Trader take certain ports of call or anything.

Thanks for the reply.

Anyone else, who "has" got the book to hand, got anything else to add?

Like which of the Ordos, if any, are more likely to travel with a Rogue Trader in an extended fashion?

This is a very interesting question, because when you really think about it, if you refuse to help an Inquisitor, his only recourse is to turn to other Imperial groups to kill you. Only the most depraved radical will ever reach heights of personal might a Rogue Trader cannot reach himself. What this all boils down to is simple. When an Inquisitor leaves the Imperium, if he does not do so in the company of someone who will obey him, he is powerless.

This can lead to some very interesting party dynamics, but would need to be played very carefully.

Oh, and one of the most interesting things from the book to consider in all this? Outside the Imperium, a Rogue Trader speaks with the voice of the Emperor. If taken literally, which some Imperials do, that means he outranks the entire Inquisition .

My Dark Heresy players actually ran into this problem when they snuck aboard a starship disguised as paying passengers. When they uncovered Heresy going through all ranks of the crew, they resorted to their usual tactics of brandishing the Rosette and demanding compliance.

The Camptain essentially just said "No" and ordered them captured.

A starship is like any other isolated outpost of the Imperium- if the locals don't play ball then the Inquisition depends on whatever forces it's brought along with it. Rogue Traders are going to be the most extreme example, as the rest of the Imperium will be further away than in any other situation.

The Rogue Traders are, to my mind, in a similar situation to the Space Marine chapters. They might, in theory, be subject to the authority of the Inquisition. But if, when confronted with the authority of the Inquisition they just tell the Inquisitor where to shove it, what, exactly, is the Inquisitor going to do? In both cases, pretty much their only recourse is to convince some of their peers that they're Heretics and enlist their aid in hunting them down.

So, in theory an Inquisitor can order a Rogue Trader about. But in practice, the Inquisitor had best think carefully about what he's going to order the Rogue Trader to do. Because if the RT says "No", then there's nothing the Inquisitor can do about it until they get back to the Imperium. And knowing this, the RT who says "No" will doubtless very quickly follow that up by putting the Inquisitor and retinue out of the nearest airlock.

Indeed. While in an ideal situation the Inquisition has absolute power, such as to command entire armies, fleets and even the Astartes, in practice it is not always so simple. While an Inquisitor could certainly commader a Rogue Trader and their ship and essentually order them around, this really only works out in a practical sense when the Rogue Trader themself is willing to go along with the Inquisitor.

A Rogue Trader who turns on an Inquisitor better be darn sure about the loyalties of their command staff and crew though, lest they turn on them instead of just blindly following orders.

While some Inquisitors may have their own ships (or otherwise make use of some other Imperial vessel) there are plenty of examples of Inquisitors making use of Rogue Traders in the 40k novels at least. In these examples the Rogue Trader is usually compensated in some way (such as financially) for their service to the Inquisition. Sure the Inquisitor could just order them around like any other Imperial citizen, but there also can be a benefit in securing them as a more willing assistants to their endeavors.

I must admit, this very topic proved to be one of the main selling points for some of my (potential) players. Some of them had played Dark Heresy and enjoyed the mileau, but really wanted to get into the high-end political power games between the Inquisition and the Rogue Traders.

Well there is nothing in the book that addresses this point in particular.

The book does talk about DH characteres joining a RT ship, primarily for information, hiding, etc. But I haven't read anything about having an actual Inquistor onboard.

Depending on what Order the Inquistor hails from and how pure his soul is, you'd have some very interesting party dymanics (as already mentioned above). However, if you have a Malleus Inquisitor and your Rogue Trader is interseted in exploring Xenos planets for money/trade/conversion- you'd probably have an easir alliance. However, if your RT wants to obtain Malleus artifacts to sell in the black market, somebody will be rerolling a character before the end of the session.

Its an interesting question/dynamic for the group. Unless the group is very experienced with GW/DH, then I'd probably put it in the 'bad idea' category.

It is addressed in the book and as already pointed out, it is right there in the wording of the modern Warrant of Trade: Rogue Trader has absolute power outside the Imperium, the Inquisitor had better ask nicely and be prepared to make it worthwhile or else he'd better be able to breathe in vacuum and have a backup plan for forcing compliance / taking revenge.

That said, you'd have to be a pretty stupid Inquisitor to try and throw your weight around with someone considered a Peer of the Imperium, who also has at least a vessel and some significant assets behind them, just as it'd take a fairly stupid Rogue Trader to simply tell an Inquisitor to shove off or worse still try and kill them, out of hand.

It should be noted that any Inquisitor effectively speaks with the voice of Emperor as well. So it's more both being equals. Of course the RT does have the ship and it's men. Still it's a stupid RT who pissed off the Inquisition as they can simply execute him when he returns to the Imperium. Even if he never returns they can still send other RTs, and assasins. Of course a wise Inquisitor makes sure the RT has a profit motive to work with the Inquisition.