Generally, I'm fairly knowledgable about the 40k universe, and I like Dark Heresy a lot, and I'm just now jumping into Rogue Trader. I've got a couple ideas for some adventures, but my players asked me some questions that, frankly, I didn't know the answers to.

1) It is written in several places that Rogue Traders often command multiple vessels. Do the PCs start out with just one ship, or the one ship accompanied by several lighter vessels?

2) If a Rogue Trader has multiple ships that are his (or his Dynasty's, at least), do they all accompany him, or can he send out Transports on routine cargo runs on the trade routes he has established? And if the latter is the case, wouldn't they be relatively unprotected if they go at it alone?

3) If a Rogue Trader has multiple ships, are all the captains effectively Traders too, but without the Warrant of Trade? Do they all have to be PCs?

4) The crew of the ship they made is more than 25,000. That's a lot of mouths to feed. I don't know if overhead is an issue to be handled in the game, but how is a crew sustained during a voyage? Are there massive gardens or Soylent Green factories aboard?

5) The Captain's Cabin. My Rogue Trader Player wants to know generally how big a cabin he gets. I thought, given the size of their ship, a mini-mansion might not be out of the question. What is a common expected accommodation for the captain?

6) What about the other PCs? What kind of accommodations might the trusted retinue of the Rogue Captain expect? Given each individual career, I'm sure maybe the Navigator and Astropath Transcendant might have very different accommodations than the Arch-Militant.

7) How is a ship's crew comprised? With 25,000 or so, some are going to be in Engineering, some are Security, some are Gunners, Cooks, Medical, Chaplain support. Are there other departments?

8) With all these crewmembers, it seems as though the PCs will want to try to solve every hostile action or potential hostile action that isn't in space by sending down large detachments of "troops." What I'm asking is how do I get my PCs involved in something without it always being a surprise attack by some bold Orks that they would rather handle themselves without pulling a Zapp Brannigan and sending wave after wave of men at the problem?

9) One of my PCs wants to be a Sister of Battle. What role might she play on the ship? One thing to note is that there is no Arch-Militant, so my first thought was that she might take up that role, but I can't help but think that's not going to be a permanent position if the Adeptus Sororitas has anything to say about it.

10) Small craft? How many smaller craft might a Rogue Trader's ship have?

11) Going back to my Rogue Trader player, he wants his own harem. Would that cause him any problems with the Imperium in any way?

12) The subject of harems brought up the topic of women. What might life be like for women aboard the ship? My Sister of Battle player, a woman herself, offered up something interesting: that they see it as their duty to procreate for the ship (her words not mine). Is that plausible?

Just a few things to help flesh out my adventures. Thanks!

I'll try and answer these to the best of my knowledge as my first post after being a lone time lurker here.

1. They start off with a single, warp enabled ship. While, if they have enough starting ship points it is feasible that they could command maybe 2, it is counter productive to do so as they would have to be two very poorly equipped, badly manned warp enabled ships. The jury is out over how many smaller ships they will have- in theory they probably have access to a couple of shuttles and maybe a few fighters if they are on a frigate for example. Even if the Rogue Trader is part of a large dynasty, they act fairly autonomously- its not like the Mafia i.e. you mess with one of us you mess with all of us

2. Its up to the RT and his group. Setting up trade runs is profitable, but i'd imagine not sending or arranging any kind of military escort would require fairly frequent upkeep rolls- as profit factor will suffer due to piracy and losing trade.

3. No, this would not make the other ships RT's, they would be under his jurisdiction. These warrants are rare.

4. RT is a game of huge scale and scope. Assume that this is dealt with in some manner, be it huge reserves of food or some way to make their own. Handle this abstractly via an upkeep roll if you must, but don't get bogged down in details.

5. Depends on the ship. For a frigate I'd think Commander Adama sized room in Battlestar Galactica. Certainly a cut above the rest, but not a mansion unless the ship is REALLY big (Cruiser etc.)

6. You have to bear in mind that on most of these ships there will be more than one of each kind of role- there won't just be one Astropath, Navigator, or Pilot. Its likely the Navigators are kept mostly seperate from the crew, as well as the Astropath's. In my mind the Arch-Militant is the 'common crewmans man' and sleeps in fairly basic quarters, the Seneschal/Senechal's have their own area with scribes, abacuses, and nice offices/beds, the Explorator probably has a small shrine or works/lives with other Explorator's, and the pilot's probably have a section to themselves (pilots are a cut above common crew member).

7. Many will be in Engineering, Systems Control, Maintenance, Cooks, Scribes, Servants... The list is potentially endless but assume that for even the most mundane roles thare are a few dozen people tasked to it.

8. On most ships they won't HAVE wave after wave of men- unless they have bought lots of barracks components i'd assume that less than 1% of the crew is actually a trained fighter. If they want to send wave after wave of poorly trained men in to a situation let them- i'd love to see how their morale and crew population end up- mutiny anyone? Add to that upkeep rolls to replace so many dead crew...

9. Thats more of a role-play element I can't help much with that one. Don't know enough about the sisters of battle but they would fit arch-militant yes. Perhaps they have a small chapel in the ship?

10. See other topics on the forum concerning this. The common answer is 'not many, a shuttle or 3 maybe'

11. Not really. Rogue Trader's are generally left to their own devices unless the Inquisition or Navy takes an interest in them.

12. I think that makes it sound a bit like they will never get off the ship- which is feasible I suppose but unlikely. Its a crew, not a nursery- and do the women on the ship really feel its an appropiate place to raise a child- with encounters with Xenos, and exploring unknown space/travelling through a daemon infested warp to travel faster? Up to you but I would bet most children aren't planned.

I'd personally abandon all thought of comparisons with Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars or Star Trek (as much as we may love/hate them).

Think much more great age of sail, but magnified several thousand times.

So i'd see it more as

1. What alexkilcoyne said, completely agree

2. What alexkilcoyne said, completely agree, but it could also be a good way to have a higher profit factor reward from an endeavour. If you set up a trade route maybe +2 profit, if you then stick your freighter to run it on a yearly basis, maybe +3 or +4 profit.

3. What alexkilcoyne said, completely agree

4. All of the above. Corpse reclaimation, onboard hydroponics, huge, huge food reserves. Note that food for the vast majority of crew is going to be really basic, i envision either a nutrituous but otherwise tasteless gruel or some kind of pasty energy bar packed with nutrients. Not appetiseing but keeps the crew alive and hale.

5. I'd say that a captains quarters would be huge and luxurious, on even smaller ships like frigates. Crew may sleep hundreds to a room on three man high bunk beds, or even just wrapped in blankets in their work areas, but officers get vastly better digs. Junior officers might have a room that they share with a single roomate, senior officers have apartments, captains, navigators and such like get really luxurious rooms. Remember those towers near the back of a ship, contrast them to the size of a real life luxury apartment building. Now think about how many senior staff could have multiple floor "apartments".

6. All such senior crew would probably have lavish quarters. Rogue traders are effectively nobility and 40k nobility believe in living the good life, they make no attempt to mingle with the masses. Some Rogue Trader senior crew might differ but i can't see anyone voluntarily sharing quarters with the common crewman, not in the kind of conditions they live in.

7. might be better to think less of departments or divisions and more of clans and villages. e.g. The Enginarium crew spent their lives sweating next to the plasma reactors and generally die young from radiation poisoning, but they consider this a minr side effect of the closeness they feel for the ships machine spirit. They believe that on death their spirits become part of the fiery heart of the reactor and that the reactors thus are literally powered by the sacrifice of their ancestors. They would not appreciate being moved to another sector. Crew on the gunnery decks are all deaf from the macro cannons and communicate solely through sign language. Each gun has its own crew who live like a family, each gun sections families consider themselves a clan who are suspicious of outsiders, etc.

I've always seen the crew divisons as more like seperate villages living close to each other than as a unified crew working in different units.

8. As alexkilcoyne said, most ships won't have huge numbers of warriors. Most ships have Armsmen but these guys are usually poorly trained, lightly equipped and their cheif task is to control the huge mass of crew. If you start getting them killed planet side, not only is it going to annoy the rest of the crew, but its going to leave you short of enforcers to maintain order and law onboard the ship. However, its perfectly feasible to get a barracks and stuff it full of mercenaries or requisitioned guardsmen. However, the imperium is a medieval universe and the commoners expect their leaders to lead from the front and put their lives where their profit is. The crew and the soldiers aren't going to respect a captain that won't get stuck in to the fighting. Throw in waves of troops if you will, but lead from the front and go in with them.

9. Sisters of Battle are primarily nuns, that kick ass. So they'd make great preachers, ships chaplains, etc. Arch-militant is a less exclusively religious role that i imagine they might be able to do, but might have conflicts of interest on certain actions.

10. What alexkilcoyne said, completely agree, with the minor caveat that you could always buy more light craft.

11. What good captain would leave port without the comforting arms of a woman aboard? Or man if the captain is female. I've always thought it was kind of appropriate for captains, senior nobles, etc to have harems if they wanted them. The imperium is very much up on the idea of people as property and a harem really exemplifies this. I've had a naval base commander offer a few girls from his harem for the night to the PC inquisitiorial party before as a sign of welcome and friendship. Essentially, life is cheap. No one cares what the rich and powerful do to the poor and defenceless. Grim and dark, oh yes.

12. I'd imagine that on a cruiser with a pop of 100,000, there would be many women. I see the crew as being part voidborn, born on the ship and raised there and part originally from a planet. This goes back to my thoughts of ships as linked villages in space, with families, tribal groups, etc. I certainly wouldn't see them as purely baby makers. Female crew muck in with everything the men do, occassionally they might get pregnant at which point their tribal group (gunnery deck C crew for instance) might work together to get her the easier jobs and pick up the slack for her. Babies might be fairly common but i'd imagine that amongst the lower level crew the mortality rate for children is high.

On most points, I agree with Gribble. With regards to other ships, I assume that most RT dynasties have a few transports in the background, doing the "milk runs" on routes the RT has founded. They might either directly belong to the RT or have some kind of profit sharing deal with him. After all, most RTs want to be on the border of the unknown - but that's usually where all the costs are while most of the actual profit is slightly before the border on the worlds recently discovered by the Trader. So I assume most RTs will have a "retinue" of chartist traders or trading cartels to whom they lease the rights to newly-discovered trading routes.

Thank you for your quick responses. I have some more questions, mostly regarding the Seneschal and the execution of her duties.

From what I understand, given the text of the Seneschal's section, this officer basically makes sure the ship is running properly, their expenditures are under control, and tries to maximize the profit margin of any given voyage. Am I wrong to assume that this guy is, basically, second in command? Or, at the least, he's some sort of Executive Officer, not necessarily second-in-command, but the guy that is in charge of overall ship management?

Onto Crime and Punishment.

At some point, it's inevitable that a crewman, be he an ordinary scrub or an officer, is going to violate the ship's rules, or something more serious. Is it up to the Rogue Trader and his retinue to determine how justice is meted out? Or is there some sort of regulation pertaining to such things? What role might the Seneschal have in meting out punishment?

Does each member of the Rogue Trader's retinue (the other PCs) get full staffs of their own? I can imagine a Navigator PC with a whole staff of people under his wing to help him do his job.

Wayfinder said:

You've got a ship with a crew in the tens of thousands, most of whom will have never seen beyond their section of the ship. It's extremely unlikely that the Rogue Trader or any of his immediate staff would involve themselves in such small matters as punishing the infractions of the common mass of workers - that's a matter for the men supervising the workers in question - work crew leaders, petty officers and the like. It's not unknown for the bowels of Imperial Navy vessels to have gang wars between the work crews of different sections (at least until internal security deal with it at the behest of the Ship's Commissar or a similar authority figure for non-Navy vessels), or for black markets and other illicit activity to form. Given the size and complexity of a starship, it's inevitable that such criminal elements will find opportunities to make a few extra thrones here and there. The larger a ship is, the more likely it is that the lower decks will begin to resemble a city in its culture and services.

At the other end of the scale, officers would generally be dealt with by more senior officers, and at this side of things the Rogue Trader and his immediate retinue may get involved if it's a particularly serious matter.

To the matter of women and breeding aboard starships... I'll answer that one with a question: where do you think all the Voidborn come from?

When designing the ship, a ship probably a few thousand years old you should keep in mind that some families have been there for more than 20 generations.
Those families should be named and some of those might traditionally take care of certain parts of the ship, their partiarchs or matriarchs might even dine at the captains table.

And about law...the Captain is the law...if somebody objects...airlock him...

Wayfinder said:

The Seneschal is a finacial advisor and a spymaster. Much of his role is in collecting and processing information that comes from beyond the interior of the Rogue Trader's vessel. He's not necessarily someone with command authority over ship management - I see that as being more likely to fall to the Voidmaster. However, every Rogue Trader sets up his inner circle differently, and some Seneschals may actually be the true power behind the throne.

BTW, I've found nothing that suggests a single vessel would have more than a single Navigator. These are a scarce resource, and the Navis Nobilite want to keep it that way. Place two on a vessel, and the captain now has the ability to threaten either (or both) - not a good thing for the Navigator. Some may make a concession for playability - that of placing the Navigator into firefights - but in-setting there really should be very few ships with even a pair of Navigators assigned. Most of this would apply to the Astropath Transcendent too - these guys are rare even among the Astropaths, so having two or more clumped in one location is unlikely to occur.

BTW, I've found nothing that suggests a single vessel would have more than a single Navigator. These are a scarce resource, and the Navis Nobilite want to keep it that way. Place two on a vessel, and the captain now has the ability to threaten either (or both) - not a good thing for the Navigator. Some may make a concession for playability - that of placing the Navigator into firefights - but in-setting there really should be very few ships with even a pair of Navigators assigned. Most of this would apply to the Astropath Transcendent too - these guys are rare even among the Astropaths, so having two or more clumped in one location is unlikely to occur.

That was explained by Ross a while ago: Most Rogue Traders have a deal with a Navigator House where they get one experienced and two or three "newbie" navigators for a slightly reduced fee. The benefit for the Navis Nobilite is that they get more money and can let their younglings train in a variety of conditions while the Rogue Trader has a lesser risk of being stranded in the middle of nowhere should the main navigator insist on frying his own brain. If the navigator was the only one of his kind on the ship, it'd be a cold day in hell before I'd let him out of his Sanctum to do any adventuring.

Where can I read this explanation for myself?

HappyDaze said:

What I meant about staff for the retinue was individual personnel assigned to the service of these people. The Navigator surely might have servants and possibly security to help protect him and to help him do his job. I didn't realize that Navigators themselves were that rare, but couldn't Navigators bring up novices in their trade?

New Question: The book occassionally refers to Rogue Traders bringing on aliens in certain capacities, most often as auxillary or even advisors. Since my player's ship will have a Sister of Battle aboard, how might this cause trouble aboard the ship?

1) It is written in several places that Rogue Traders often command multiple vessels. Do the PCs start out with just one ship, or the one ship accompanied by several lighter vessels?

It would likely possess light craft for boarding, etc, but not other ships listen in the options for player vessels unless the GM determines that it is appropriate (for multiple players playing the Trader class, or if players start with a lot of ship points and want to divide them between two I suppose).

2) If a Rogue Trader has multiple ships that are his (or his Dynasty's, at least), do they all accompany him, or can he send out Transports on routine cargo runs on the trade routes he has established? And if the latter is the case, wouldn't they be relatively unprotected if they go at it alone?

By default, they would be on their own. However, players could certainly arrange protection as part of an Endevour to establish the ship along a route. I'd assume that investing a whole ship into a trade route (rather than contracting one or so forth) would itself make the route more secure and productive in the meanwhile. Threats to a trade route are normally Misfortunes in any case.

3) If a Rogue Trader has multiple ships, are all the captains effectively Traders too, but without the Warrant of Trade? Do they all have to be PCs?

They are simply representatives of the dynasty. They are answerable to the Trader and he is answerable for their actions to a degree, but their authority is far below that of a Trader. They don't have to be PCs, but I'd say that if you are commanding a battle with multiple ships, any ships with no PCs aboard would require Command checks for any given action.

4) The crew of the ship they made is more than 25,000. That's a lot of mouths to feed. I don't know if overhead is an issue to be handled in the game, but how is a crew sustained during a voyage? Are there massive gardens or Soylent Green factories aboard?

There are ship upgrades to help with supplying the crew over long voyages. Corpse Starch Rations, ie soylent green without the pleasing taste, are an established part of the universe, although most traders prefer better.

5) The Captain's Cabin. My Rogue Trader Player wants to know generally how big a cabin he gets. I thought, given the size of their ship, a mini-mansion might not be out of the question. What is a common expected accommodation for the captain?

Depends on ship size. If you have a Cruiser, he probably has an impressive set of quarters, and a small mansion isn't out of the question. For a frigate or light cruiser, he probably has impressive, but more functional, military quarters. If you have a Raider or a Transport, he likely doesn't have the room for extravagent quarters yet. Also, there is a Luxury Passenger Quarters upgrade that reflects the general effects of pampering elite crew and guests- it impresses certain people you want to impress (giving bonuses to achieving various Endevours), but dimishes crew morale. I suggest that you require that he take this upgrade.

6) What about the other PCs? What kind of accommodations might the trusted retinue of the Rogue Captain expect? Given each individual career, I'm sure maybe the Navigator and Astropath Transcendant might have very different accommodations than the Arch-Militant.

On some ships, Navigators have entire sections of the ship reserved for themselves and their families (outlined in the Dark Heresy book, if you're curious). Astropaths likely have significant space to themselves as well, especially if there is a small Choir aboard. The others likely have comfortable quarters, in accordance with their tastes. Adama's quarters in BSG is a good guideline for anything from a modest Trader down. Void Masters and Arch Militants may indeed prefer more spartan quarters near the barracks of their elite pilots and crew.

7) How is a ship's crew comprised? With 25,000 or so, some are going to be in Engineering, some are Security, some are Gunners, Cooks, Medical, Chaplain support. Are there other departments?

Whatever you feel you need. And Explorator may command a contingent of Tech-Priests (these will always be the engineering department) and servitors, a Missionary or less prominent pastor several assistants, etc. There might be pilots, labourers for loading cargo, even soldiers barracked in the appropriate upgrade.

8) With all these crewmembers, it seems as though the PCs will want to try to solve every hostile action or potential hostile action that isn't in space by sending down large detachments of "troops." What I'm asking is how do I get my PCs involved in something without it always being a surprise attack by some bold Orks that they would rather handle themselves without pulling a Zapp Brannigan and sending wave after wave of men at the problem?

Traders who allow their men to handle everything suffer in prestige, and therefore aquire less Achievement Points and Experience. Also, as the book mentions, the NPC crew is less able than the players, with far inferior characteristics and weaponry (which is why scale figures into acquiring weapons and armor), making them less likely to succeed. They also also limited in the number of actions they can take (pg. 214). As well, giving a command is a Command test, and PCs may perform poorly or even perform the wrong actions depending on the success of the test.

9) One of my PCs wants to be a Sister of Battle. What role might she play on the ship? One thing to note is that there is no Arch-Militant, so my first thought was that she might take up that role, but I can't help but think that's not going to be a permanent position if the Adeptus Sororitas has anything to say about it.

She may fill in for or assist a Missionary or Arch-Militant if you are committed to Religious Endevours or combating heresy. She may even be there as one of the conditions for the Trader being granted his Warrant of Trade (perhaps he has been charged with seeking out and converting a hostile lost colony, for example).

She might also have left before taking her oath (rank 3 if I remember correctly), or have been corrupted (more than 10 CP and loses faith powers). Perhaps she is actually a Missionary, having left the ranks of the Sisterhood to take the word of the Emperor to the heathen worlds (Missionaries get most of the same powers and actually another new Faith power).

11) Going back to my Rogue Trader player, he wants his own harem. Would that cause him any problems with the Imperium in any way?

Not really, but religious or military types might see it as a sign of decadence, and have less respect for the trader. Having multiple heirs also complicates the line of succession for the warrant, leading to interesting forms of trouble. If you want to let your player have his wish fulfilment, have it come back to haunt him, perhaps by his son by a former harem member showing up to claim the warrant with a small pirate fleet at his side.

12) The subject of harems brought up the topic of women. What might life be like for women aboard the ship? My Sister of Battle player, a woman herself, offered up something interesting: that they see it as their duty to procreate for the ship (her words not mine). Is that plausible?

As Void Born, they'd probably perform whatever jobs they were born into, which would likely be much like whatever their husbands do. Many members of a ship's crew never see land, and like it that way. Many crew members are little better than serfs, and women from those ranks may barely (if at all) get leave for pregnancy and raise their children on the job. Others, such as security personelle, may be better treated. Higher ranked crew members may see having a wife who can afford to raise children and keep a home ready for social events as a mark of privilege (this is actually where we got the idea that a woman's place is the home, until the late 18th century and early 19th, women worked fields or kept shop with their husbands), but more likely they also contribute, as a ship has no real place for idle hands. Likewise, children would begin working quite early. Basically, look at any source material for Void Born or shipboard life in either book and you'll get ideas.

(Also note that Sisters of Battle are strictly chaste, assuming they have not broken their oaths).

edit:

[New Question: The book occassionally refers to Rogue Traders bringing on aliens in certain capacities, most often as auxillary or even advisors. Since my player's ship will have a Sister of Battle aboard, how might this cause trouble aboard the ship?

She attempts to kill the foul Xeno and anyone having truck with their kind, unless, perhaps, there is an active fight against a mutual foe occuring right that minute. Complicating any investigation (or exploration in this case) involving anything but the most straightforward Purtianism is just part of the class- and half the fun of playing it!

@HappyDaze

Where can I read this explanation for myself?

In a Designer Diary, obviously.

@HodgePodge

(Also note that Sisters of Battle are strictly chaste, assuming they have not broken their oaths).

According to Cain's Last Stand, many people assume this but it's actually not the case.

@Wayfinder

What I meant about staff for the retinue was individual personnel assigned to the service of these people. The Navigator surely might have servants and possibly security to help protect him and to help him do his job. I didn't realize that Navigators themselves were that rare, but couldn't Navigators bring up novices in their trade?

Navigation is not merely a trade - you have to belong to one of the Navigator House bloodlines and have the Third Eye to be able to perceive the Warp.

New Question: The book occassionally refers to Rogue Traders bringing on aliens in certain capacities, most often as auxillary or even advisors. Since my player's ship will have a Sister of Battle aboard, how might this cause trouble aboard the ship?

That depends. A Sister of the Orders Dialogous might be somewhat reasonable here since they also have limited permission to traffic with xenos while excavating their secrets. Others... not so much.
However, allowing a Xeno to hold a position of authority won't go down well with many crew members.

Cifer said:

You need to have the Navigator gene and the third eye, but that doesn't appear to require a house bloodline. There's been some suggestion that the Navigator gene can appear in individuals with no traceable link to the Navis Nobilite. That said, such individuals are likely hunted by the Navis Nobilite in much the same ways a rogue psyker might be hunted by the Inquisition - although whter to kill them or use them for breeding stock is left to the imagination.

HappyDaze said:

The Navigator Gene is stated in many places to be recessive - that's a good part of what results in the mutations suffered by most Navigators (they're all inbred to some degree or another, to maintain the Navigator Gene). The overwhelming majority of Navigators will be from one of the houses, because the benefits of their unique genetics are hugely unlikely to show up outside of the pairing of two Navigators

Never make assumptions on what will appear with a RPG setting or in-game based upon what is seen in an "overwhelming majority" and what is "hugely unlikely" - unless you're betting on the million-in-one chance to occur nine times out of ten.

@HappyDaze

Do you have a source for non-house navigators? I've always assumed that the conditions for the third eye are so difficult to reach that gaining them by accident (instead of very careful breeding programs) has a rather negligible chance of happening.

I mean, of course you could get some mutant somewhere who has warp-seeing capabilities similar to those of a Navigator. And maybe he'd even manage two hours of actual navigation before going completely bonkers, devolving into a blob of flesh or becoming possessed.

Never make assumptions on what will appear with a RPG setting or in-game based upon what is seen in an "overwhelming majority" and what is "hugely unlikely" - unless you're betting on the million-in-one chance to occur nine times out of ten.

Depends on the kind of appearance. A non-house navigator should be a massive plot point, possibly even the focus of an entire campaign when multiple parties try to find out whether the conditions leading to his existence are repeatable - a limitless supply of navigators without guild- er, house ties would be an asset of extreme value. If it only appears as a one-off mentioning ("The bad guys with the good warp capabilities have no traces to a Navigator House because - ha- ha! - their Navigator was born outside any house!")

Massive plot points tend to come up all the time. Slave boys from a desert planet that are the Chosen One in Star Wars, and similar stuff pops up all over the space fantasy genre. Having a space fantasy game without some plot point character in them somewhere seem less common that the 'one-in-a-million' types.

Cifer said:

Novels not withstanding, the material in DH makes it clear the Sisters of Battle are chaste.

The other orders within the Sororitas might not be, but they also are generally less interesting.

I think the main point to draw from the feedback you've recieved here the reoccuring thread of atmosphere. Noone has a lot of stats for you, just rich storytelling points of interest.

The Senior Officers' appointments are extravagant, while the other 20k+ crew live and toil in toxic squalor. The Rogue Trader and his retinue will feast on a private stock of exquisite provisions while a gunner's mate will make the most of a lean ration of synthgruel. The cubic floorspace of the RT's quarters are irrelevant beyond setting a mood, namely that the player's are a vast "cut above" the common soul of the 40k universe. As such, they have far more pressing matters to attend to then the composition of their harem (and of course they have one!). Too much time spent dallying over a concubine is a surefire way to lose her (or him)!

I had a problem initially trying to convey this to my players: That their days of poking around for copper pieces after they killed the kobold chieftan were over. Among them were the type of players (God bless 'em!) who will waste an hour nosing through the Equpment chapter wondering if they can get a discount for buying holy water by the barrel and if a thouroughbred donkey is worth the extra silver (and then what to name it). In RT, I let them have everything they wanted. Hell, I let them have two of everything they wanted.

Then I gave them a flight of Eldar raiders off the port bow.

Much the same can be said about the crew of the ship under their command. A good crew is seen and not heard. Among it's composition are (much loved, I'm sure!)personnel responsible for enforcing ship's law and doling out punishment for any infractions. A Rogue Trader orders the broadsides to fire, and then he wants them firing. There are certainly a hundred things that happen between the two, but beyond a storytelling point, who cares? A highborn that wants to preside over a midshipman's diciplining for pilfering an extra ration is either a megalomaniac (I'm reminded of 'The Cain Mutiny') or is in desperate need of a long lost starchart to an ancient trove of xenotech.

As said above, the Rogue Trader and his companions are a cut above, and this should be at no time more apparent then when "the help" is sent to do something the players should be doing themselves. "The security detatchment you sent planetside is reporting, M'lord... it's not good..." And any player with responsibilities on ship will have a staff of menials to delegate those responsibilities out to. Any attempt to get them to do anything you want the players doing should reveal a heady mix of incompetence and/or disloyal ambition. They're all bottom feeders, after all, that's why THEY weren't issued a Warrant of Trade.

Wayfinder said:

Why does people think this and similar questions is a matter about "how is it for women"? It is probably because most players see males as the standard issue human, and females as a derivative. I say it is a question about how we look at the roles of gender and how they relate to biological sex. Most importantly it is a question about which of our real life ideas we have the creativity and willingness to break with when creating worlds.

There is a very good thread on the DH forums about marriage in the 40k universe. A lot of text, but it can probably help expand your imagination on the matter of how people can arrange their lives in regard to love, gender and reproduction. Here is the thread:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=70&efcid=3&efidt=221219

I considered the Sister of Battle approach in my Rogue Trader game (in the end the player changed their mind though ) I did consider a couple of possible routes for her though:

1) The Rogue Trader has a renound warrant of trade signed by a saint. A small group of battle sisters have been dispatched to protect this holy relic and to assist with the saint's wishes that the Rogue Trader should enforce the will of the Imperium outside its bounds.

2) The Rogue Trader is from a noble house which has a long standing agreement with one of the Orders Famulous, by various complex arrangements the Rogue Trader has been assigned a Battle Sister along with several more diplomatic members of the order to remind the RT of their loyalty to the Imperium (this works well as a Seneschal background too)

3) There is a small detachment of Orders Dialogous on board the ship to assist with the exploration and translation of ancient languages. One of these sisters is on detachment from a militant order (again works for multiple careers)

4) The Rogue Trader is a Zealot who has found common cause with the Adepta Sororitas, by agreement a number of sisters are on board to assist with the conversion of the heathen masses the Rogue Trader seeks to rediscover and bring back into the warm embrace of the Imperial Creed.

What really gave me a hard time were the Stats. Would I convert the career path from the Dark Heresy Inquisitor's Handbook, or modify one of the Rogue Trader careers to fit the background.

Gribble_the_Munchkin said:

I absolutely love the idea of separate clans of people all working different bits of the ships... Like, all the engineers have no eyebrows as they frequently get burned off by small fires breaking out and have unsightly tumours from working amongst high levels of radiation, or maybe the chefs all have missing fingers from accidents with butchers knives... You could go on.

In fact, it brings to mind the workings of Gormenghast : an immense castle, with some people never seeing outside of the huge kitchens, maybe going their whole lives without ever meeting the people they're providing for. The Rogue Trader (and his crew) sit at the very top of the pile, basically kings and queens of their domain. When we start playing, I'm going to impress on my players how important they are (which, granted, is often not difficult to do with the average Roleplayer).

(This is stuff George Lucas et al. never touched on; I'm reminded of the 'Death Star Cantine' sketch by Eddie Izzard. Just how did Darth Vadar feed all those thousands of Storm Troopers?)

The best way in RT for a Sister of Battle, aka an Adepta Sororitas of an Order Militant, is either use the DH one, or the Arch-Militant RT career allowing them to buy the Faith talents from the missionary career. For the Other Orders, the Missionary career is probably best.