Hi, I am going to be setting a Rogue Trader game for some friends, and since the group has a low-ish SP total I was looking for some good ships to offer them. I noticed the core book has a Wolfpack Raider and mentions that it is an optional premade ship if the group does not want to create one, and it got me thinking - it is close to most other light raiders, but with extra 5 points of space, which can be extremely nice on a raider. It doesn't have the space of a havoc or all the goodies of a Meritech Shrike, but it strikes me as a rather nice option. Has anyone here used it as a starting ship for their group, and how many SP do you think the hull would cost? I am thinking something like 32-33.

It really depends on the type of Dynasty. The right selection of character classes means any ship they choose can hold its own in a fight, or at least escape. A small raider can work well if the dynasty has a military bent and plans to act like a corsair. If they want to open new routes, however, that raider isn't going to be much use. All of the raiders are decent ships. I really like the Iconoclast. And the Hazeroth and Cobra will probably fit into your group. The Meritech is a bit expensive at 35 SPs.

Yeah, to be honest I put on a few points on the Orion and the Meritech as they were extremely effective for their points (heck, the Meritech is sometimes considered better than some frigates). I will pitch the idea of the trader (or someone else) having the child of dynasty background, this should give them enough for a Havoc if they want something bigger that can still fight.

The wolfpack raider is really just a Cobra with non-optimized set-up.

Raiders are as good as their crew, and even a starting out Rogue Trader crew is going to be better than most of the default ships of that type, and tend to stand a good chance of taking up the next tier up. A Raider basically means they'll be running sneaky, clandestine operations and keep in mind that one good crit can really mess up a Raider's day.

Thematically it works quite strongly. It's sub-optimal, but so is not taking a Cruiser really. If your players want to have fun with it, go for it.

I think it could be fun for you, so long as the party sees what they are getting into, and what they shouldn't get into, as a result. A smaller ship could certainly give them the feel of "just starting out", and while I don't want to say the GM will only give you small challenges, at the beginning, because who knows, really, if they do decide they don't like it, or need something meatier, once their money, prestige, and reputation are more established, and far-reaching, it could certainly go toward getting a bigger ship, or, and this would be my hope, serving as a nice escort of a bigger ship they later acquire.

I'm not sure how much I always buy the "this ship is really only good for this thing" line, as upgrades, and crew choices, can have as big an impact, but so long as they don't bite off more than they can chew, and are not forced into it by some of the book scenarios, if they plan accordingly, and it flows with the kind of dynasty they want to be, it should be fun, and doable.