How to get a Warrant of Trade...

By Luthor Harkon, in Rogue Trader

Hi all.

I know there are examples and descriptions in the RT book of how one can acquire a Warrant of Trade, but I thought in how far other possibilties to acquire a Warrant can work. My groups Rogue Trader player (and all the other players) made up his character yesterday, but we are still thinking about a few background issues. He wants to play the 'Scoundrel' type of Rogue Trader who won his Starship (an ancient xenophilous Hazeroth-class privateer) in a gamble (e.g. regicide). Do you think it is also possible to win a Warrant of Trade in a gamble (against an old impoverished Rogue Trader) or is it out of question because the Warrants are clearly granted to a certain person (and his scions)? Even if the Warrant could not change hands this way, maybe the old impoverished Rogue Trader can adopt the player character Rogue Trader so that he becomes a scion?

Thanks in advance for any help.

I would, in you case, consider marriage to the poor Rouge Traders daughter(or son) to get a hand on a warrant. Heh maybe the old coot gambled that away? Makes for a lot of intrigues. :)

Luthor Harkon said:

Do you think it is also possible to win a Warrant of Trade in a gamble (against an old impoverished Rogue Trader) or is it out of question because the Warrants are clearly granted to a certain person (and his scions)?

Well if you consider the fact that we're talking about a setting on a galactic scale with no real "central government" (yes they have a governemnt that demands taxes, but aside from that it doesn't engage in many of the other tasks a government usually deals with), and no pragmatic way of keeping track of people, then yes, it would certainly be possible to lose a warrant of trade over gambling.

While the legal document might be assigned to a specific person, the Adpetus Terra doesn't really have a viable way of keeping track of every single Rogue Trader in existence, nor all of their eventual children that will inherit the same rights as their ancestor. So it's basically a matter of actually keeping the paper, and it would be ridiculously silly to bluff any authority into believeing that you are in fact a descendant of the original Rogue Trader who the warrant of trade was given to.

Also, it depends on the wording of the Writ. Some may say "And to all his line" or "descendant" or whatever, however others might simply say something along the lines of "the bearer of this writ" (which would makes these really valuable and/or dangerous to own since someone could simply steal it from you) or "to his appointed heir" or the like.

The wording of a writ can make a lot of difference.

I was actually going to write some rules up on this.

The warrant of trade that comes with the Collector's Edition is full of exciting lacuna (from a pedantic legal standpoint) and the book itself is very light on how the warrants are granted. One would imagine that there are many different types of warrants: there are passing references to warrants granted for certain specific purposes (establishing colonies, wiping out dangerous xenos, exiling powerful political rivals etc etc)

I'm going to draw up some rules & background to complement the rules in the book. I agree with the Original Poster that Rogue Trader is a little light on this issue: a major issue for the players is how they GOT their warrant ot trade in the first place. Wether they inherited it, bought it, won it in a game of regicide, stole it...it all adds to the character of the group of players. I'll have a crack this weekend at drawing up some rules that add some colour on this point without restricting player choice.

For the sake of convinience i'd interpret it as, the Warrent of Trade is granted to the individual by the Imperium, after that the Imperium doesn't really give a **** and the warrent may be traded to whoever, because anybody in a position to buy a Warrent of Trade is going to be able to get their hands on a ship, crew, etc and all the Imperium really cares about is that the traders are doing their job, getting our there and finding new wealth, worlds and trade routes.

I'll note that on at least one occasion in canon, a Warrant has actually been gambled away (one of the characters from the Inquisitor skirmish game gained his warrant like that- Cleander von Castellan, iirc, although it may have been Jan van Yastobaal).

On the other end of the scale, however, the Warrant of Maynard Rugolo was considered to be invalid because it was in the name of his father Hansard Rugolo, and apparently lacked the hereditary clause. That said, it was never revoked, but that was because Hansard's death was never reported, and Maynard (with the help of the crew) impersonated his father when they had cause to contact the Administratum.

So essentially, go with what seems narratively appropriate, and tailor the terms of the warrant if need be.

Alasseo said:

I'll note that on at least one occasion in canon, a Warrant has actually been gambled away (one of the characters from the Inquisitor skirmish game gained his warrant like that- Cleander von Castellan, iirc, although it may have been Jan van Yastobaal).

It would have been Von Castellan; Jan Van Yastobaal was given his by the High Lords of Terra to remove an erstwhile political rival; he's actually one of the oldest special characters in the setting, having been introduced as the example Rogue Trader in the original Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader rulebook.