I am at the moment giving some extra attention to the mining of an asteroid belt in a reasonably settled system. So far, some of my ideas are:

- The centre of operations will be a vast space station where most of the ore is processed into metals and even refined if need be. This space station is fed from numerous sources, amongst which:

- At the most primitive level, large asteroids will be the site of 'regular' mining operations (as on planets) based on a power, life sustainer and crew quarters pod. From this base, classical mine shafts are dug to extract the precious minerals. Probably not the most efficient method of mining but in WH40K terms still doable. The only capital investment is the mining base (which is both build to last and to be deployable to another asteroid). Labour is provided by whatever you wish: bonded workers, prisoners or mutie dregs.

- The next level will be the 'prospectors' looking for suitable asteroids to drag/push to the space station for processing. These prospectors can be either free agents (gold rush anyone) or employees, looking and vying for the most profitable asteroids. Once found, they have to claim it (possession equals title!) and keep it. This will allow for a nice frontier feel in the space station, with independent miners striking a rich haul, bars, everything that goes with bars, the criminals that follow suit and you name it.

- More organised are larger system mining ships. These ships are equipped with an asteroid mining facility and are large enough to strip down entire asteroid on their own. If possible, they will try to refine the ore as much as possible. This will allow them to fill their holds with precious metal instead of ore and means they can stay longer in the mining zone.

- Finally there might be some fully fledged warp capable mining ships operating in system. The advantage of having a space station close by is a huge one, It is far more efficient to mine asteroids with this specialised ship than transport its proceeds. That any basic trading ship can do more efficiently, as they have far more cargo space.

- The space station is both the industrial melting and refining centre and the entrepot of the megatons of different metals won. At (semi) regular intervals trading ships from forge worlds will pass to unload these metals in their cavernous holds, brining in return new people to try their luck and everything such a station needs.

- A last caveat. To turn iron ore (which should be plentiful) into steel, carbon is needed. This is quite hard to mine in space. But different ways might be used, from the (don't laugh) waste products of the residing humanity to carbons/hydrocarbons imported from a nearby planet (or possibly from a different system, in those huge trading ships).

So, what do you think of it. Does this seem logical and WH40K'ish enough?

I am at the moment giving some extra attention to the mining of an asteroid belt in a reasonably settled system. So far, some of my ideas are:

<snippage>

So, what do you think of it. Does this seem logical and WH40K'ish enough?

Only if the mining station has a representative of the Adeptus Mechanics who routinely blessed the hand drills and other powered tools which the miners carry, and sometimes placates their machine spirits when those get riled up..

As for the waste products... For a truly WH40K feel, this should include any and all amputated limbs and eyes from humans who get turned into servitors, or who might get hurt in the line of duty only to receive a cheap cybernetic replacement. Plenty of carbon to be extracted from carbon-based lifeforms, it seems.

I do like what you have going there. Indeed, it seems logical enough to me, in so far as WH40K could sustain any true logic, of course.

- A last caveat. To turn iron ore (which should be plentiful) into steel, carbon is needed. This is quite hard to mine in space.

You just need to find some Titan-like moon, scoop hydrocarbons from it and use methan cracking.

I love your ideas. I think you might need to go deeper, but I'm sure you've already considered further plots with the "free" miners fighting the corporate concerns, especially after the discovery of a mother lode asteroid.

• Your space station sounds like a very important part of your plot-construct. It then becomes important to properly outfit it. You want a mobile space station. I might be nit-picky but a mobile space station is a spaceship, albeit a large one. Placed centrally in the system, you won't need it to be mobile, saving an awful lot of space not devoted to drives. I'd think a standard Wayfarer Station sufficient for the task. They are the size of a light cruiser. This then becomes a much more doable endeavor. If you need the base to be mobile you need a much larger station, though you did specify "massive." I'd still recommend looking at the Wayfarer for ideas, even going so far as to extrapolate its components into power/space consumption. Otherwise, a Universe might be what is called for, though I'd think that a prime target for pirates. A Wayfarer could be placed inside a particularly dense asteroid field inside the belt and covered in some areas with mines. Stations, being stationary, need long-ranged weaponry so a pirate with a long-ranged popgun doesn't just sit out of range and bombard it into submission. Hecutor batteries are very doable when you don't have drives to consider, though, and keel-mounted torpedoes are also recommended for this role.
• Your concept of warp-capable mining ships obviates the need for a space station. I'd reconsider that notion, unless it's a single ship that's in place to stir up plot trouble.
• The amout of carbon needed for industrial purposes is probably rather small. That from your human waste probably needs to be recycled. This system is not going to be self-sufficient unless a much larger infrastructure is in place. Even so, this place is going to require imports, but's that's a good thing. Your transports need to have something in their holds while incoming in order to make a profit on both legs of the journey. That makes it more lucrative for the ship captains and owners. Oxygen is going to be used up in copious amounts, and water. Both might be available from comets or ice asteroids, but that requires ice-miners in addition to ore-miners, not to mention machinery for converting water to oxygen and hydrogen. Minerals for alloys are going to be needed in much larger quantities: manganese, nickel, tungsten, titanium, chromium, vanadium, etc., in descending order. Else, this place is only exporting unrefined metals (e.g. pig iron), which probably won't justify its existence economically.

But yeah, I think your idea is a good one and you've given thought to the logistics of the operation, and that's what's important to make scenery like this come alive. When you consider the myriads operations that are required to keep an operation like this going, you've gone a long way toward providing a living breathing settlement for your players to adventure in. Good job.

Thanks for the feedback. It seems I am on the right track and that is nice to hear. What I am planning is not straight Rogue Trader game(although there is a chance, albeit a small one, that the party could get its hands on an old Warrant of Trade), as we don't have the time right now to plan in regular weekly sessions of valour and mayhem. Basicly, the players will inherit the station and will have to deal with all the problems of the system to keep it running smoothly and even make a profit. In this way, I hope that we can do quite a bit by mail, asking for decisions and policies and then presenting the players with the result. Obviously, this means that the background should be both logical and realistic, as they will have quite some time to mull over the problems.

Let me get into some of your hints:

- The Adeptus Mechanicus will most definitely be present and has an important role to play. I even plan to give them the feudal overlordship of the lower parts of the space station, which includes the plasma generators and lower keel batteries. As such, they will be one of the major local powers and the PC's will have to ask nicely if they wish to enter the Ad Mech grounds.And who knows what the Magi are up to in the holds.

- I love the idea of using all 'waste matter' to retrieve carbon, even if it seems that I will probably import old fashioned coal from a nearby planet. They can use some low tech mines filled with poor underpayed workers. Fits perfectly with what will happen there.

- Idem for scooping hydrocarbon. But I will go for a lower tech/greater story relevance solution.

- The space station will have to play a vital role in the whole system, both as the main port of call for a rather lively agriworld exporting millions of tons of meat and as the centre of the mining industry. It is indeed a vital part, no, the vital part of the plot construct. Luckily for me, I can design it as a GM so I have a bit of freedom. It will be build up and in a massive asteroid (or perhaps a couple of asteroids, still pondering about that), so it will have loads of space, loads of hidden nooks and crannies where people can be up to no good, vast cold storage holds holding rack on rack of frozen grox meat, blast furnaces, steel mills and more of that. I even decided to add some canneries to it (might have played Tropico a bit too much).

- Obviously, this station has many factions aboard. And while my players might become the feudal overlords, all these factions have their feudal rights. We often tend to forget that part of a feudal system: the rights and privileges of the governed can not be waived away. I allready mentioned the Adeptus Mechanicus. But I will add a limited Adeptus Administratum presence to check the Imperial tithes, throw in a couple of guilds (smelters, butchers, canners, stevedores, to name but a few), independent industrialists (those canneries are on the station but not owned by the staion), Adeptus Ministrorum and more. The shadier unoffical side of this station will be present in the form of hookers, beggars and mobsters. Maybe an Assasin Cult. And the politics of the agri world will be reflected.

- As for guns, hell yes. I might keep it at sunsears, as those can deal with about everything barring serious capital ships, but we will include hangar bays. This should give a nice combination of volume and range and Secutor Plasma's just feel a bit too high grade military tech. Although in the bleak future, there is only war. And plasma guns do give me the chance to introduce a 'full power to the plasma guns' home rule, with all rewarding explosions of both raiders and keel batteries to keep the story going. Hmmmm.

- The station will indeed need a load of stuff, but I plan to have the nearby agri world provide most of it (in each case food and coal). That way, the troubles that will be stirring there will be of a direct interest to the players.

- The Warp capable void ship is indeed part of the plot. It is an interest of another power (probably a Scintillan consortium) and might give our players some headaches.

So, the plot thickens by just working out the background. Feel free to keep shooting those ideas.

- I love the idea of using all 'waste matter' to retrieve carbon, even if it seems that I will probably import old fashioned coal from a nearby planet. They can use some low tech mines filled with poor underpayed workers. Fits perfectly with what will happen there.

- Idem for scooping hydrocarbon. But I will go for a lower tech/greater story relevance solution.

Low-tech carbon industiry? Forget mineral coal, you need charcoal, and then you go for ruthless deforestation and giant coal pits , burning under a layer of turf , with people who falls into these pits.

I remember an old novel, I think by Niven, where the protagonist was poking fun of people of our era for burning coal, as they were deep mining for coal hydrocarbons by the time of the novel to use for food. Still, carbon is the 6th most abundant element in the universe. It will be in demand at any colony, but not likely in huge amounts, and you already have an agri-world placed nearby. In my current campaign there's a system where the vast majority of protein in the colonists' diet comes from a varieties of jellyfish species that populate a local gas giant. There are fishing shuttles built for the purpose.

You mention an agri-world that exports meat products. If that's in the same system, and the exports are vast in volume, then I'd think it would have the space station in its orbit, or another of its own, especially if transports don't regularly land on planets in your campaign. Orbital docks would be necessary to warehouse goods for transports, to speed the loading process. That way shuttles can continually bring exports up from the surface, instead of being limited to bringing them up only when a ship is present.

Your space station might have become a mini-Footfall, with separate manufactorums to support the mining industry, and warehouses to support the shipping industry. If the system has an agri-world and extensive mining there might not be a lot in mineral exports. It seems as if the system has needs of its own, and any outside source might have to compete for those scarce minerals.

You also might want to think about the service sector of your economy. You mentioned black market activities. There's also the police, firefighters, and teachers, and don't forget the Adepti, the Administratum, Arbites, Psykana Scholana, and hordes of others. I don't know about you, but I really enjoy drawing up semi-autonomous systems. It requires considerable thought.

I'd probably think twice about attack squadrons. Unless this is an important system with a lot of wealth coming out of it, then it's probably not worth that kind of investment by the Imperial Navy. Then again, a cartel of Rogue Traders might be invested in the station's defenses. Of course, that would imply a government structure that included them, perhaps a corporate board or some such.

And you're right about the sunsears. Sunsears will fight off pirates, and that's the main threat. Still, even light cruisers can mount Hecutors. I guess it's all about what's been invested in the community, by whom, and how long it's been around.

Awesome concept! A few things I've done for important and long term places is create a checklist of what all I think the place needs, a Rolodex of important/not-so-important-but-think-they-are NPC's, important dens/cantena's/locations/shops/views, organizations present, important events and holidays/times.

Might sound like a lot of stuff, but they all intertwine and make stories of their own. Like maybe the place needs a water purifying plant, with an overseer and maybe a couple shift leaders who think they are important, with maybe a watering hole called "Taps" down on their level that has a steamy atmosphere. An organization that wants to make a niche into the station could be the Slaugth, and an important time is at 2111, 21st day of Solace. Reason for this is could be is when a Saint visited the station. So now, you have a shift supervisor who works the late shift, has to work during a special event and might take resentment toward this, visits "Taps" at a regular basis, and the Slaugth are trying to sneak themselves/food/equipment on/off there through clandestine means (maybe through a full/empty water shipment container).

...Imperial Navy. Then again, a cartel of Rogue Traders might be invested in the station's defenses. Of course, that would imply a government structure that included them, perhaps a corporate board or some such.

And who says it's IN? It could be moth balled attack craft, with mercenary pilots. Kinda like the beginning part of Lost in Space the movie, where he is piloting around shooting at pirates. Always liked that movie too.

I said Imperial Navy, because that's who's in command of any Imperial craft that can reach orbit, short of privately-owned craft like those of a Rogue Trader or Navis House. I'd figure that the Navy wouldn't let go of Furies and Starhawks easily, so those craft most likely to be in the hands of non-Navy would be Lightnings, Thunderbolts, and Marauders, which make for mediocre attack craft based from an orbital station. I'm in doubt that mercenary pilots exist in the 40K Imperium, at least by what I've read, though admittedly that's little.

I said Imperial Navy, because that's who's in command of any Imperial craft that can reach orbit, short of privately-owned craft like those of a Rogue Trader or Navis House. I'd figure that the Navy wouldn't let go of Furies and Starhawks easily, so those craft most likely to be in the hands of non-Navy would be Lightnings, Thunderbolts, and Marauders, which make for mediocre attack craft based from an orbital station. I'm in doubt that mercenary pilots exist in the 40K Imperium, at least by what I've read, though admittedly that's little.

To be fair, if a private party has the connections and resources to acquire and maintain attack craft, they probably also have the connections and resources required to build, train, and maintain a corps of pilots. They may have started with a seed group of ex-Navy pilots, or maybe favors were pulled to get some Navy pilot instructors or access to them for the initial group, and then the existing pilots are involved with training new pilots.

For that matter, if you're willing to eat the costs involved in getting a couple manuals and self-taught pilots, you could probably start a core group of attack craft pilots drawn from people qualified to pilot other small craft. They would then pass on their knowledge to the next class of pilot-candidates.

I understand the concern about the attack craft. They are as valued as high end weapon systems (long range lances and plasma batteries) and so should not be 'just' there. But I thought of that. Originally, this was the hold of a Rogue Trader Gallienus Mordini who leased this station to House Krin when he needed a load of cash fast (burning PF anyone) and proceeded to get lost during the year of Dreaming Depths. The player characters are far descendants of his sister and are recieving the title to the station now. As far as I am concerned, House Krin has ample clout to maintain the presence of attack craft. These are not just there for defence, for they can also maintain a measue of oversight over the independently minded prospectors and enforce the trade monopoly the space staion enjoys over the Agri World. That being said, I won't give the players too many of them. House Krin will have to hand over the station with defences intact and as good as found, but Gallienus had drained the squadrons defending the station to an absolute minimum, with just one squadron of fighters and one squadron of bombers. So House Krin will do the same, even if the station can easily hold a cruiser's worth in its combat flight decks. And because nothing was said about the crew quality, both pilots and crew will be as green as grass (quality 20) with spare parts and ammunitions in short supply.

So that should leave the in game logic covered. Storywise, I think that giving the players a limited ability to deploy attack craft will add a lot of potential. Dogfights in an asteroid field or heroic bombing raids are classical elements of SF heroics and we might come to that. And knowing my players, they will do their utmost to get their squadrons up to strength, giving them something to strive for and a nice sense of accomplishment if they manage it.

Oh, and did I mention that the players will all get the talents Enemy (House Krin) and Rival (House Krin) as a bonus?