This might be a slightly strange question but, for those of you who have done stuff like Lure of the Expanse, Edge of the Abyss, and/or the Warpstorm Trilogy, is there any sort of indicator, to you, how much time, in the universe, is going by? With the vagaries of warp travel, and a certain amount of time left vague, by design, so that the players can, conceivably, do other things that interest them, or at least get their ship fixed, even upgraded, if they are fortunate, I find I really can't envision how much time someone would have to invest in it all, to be the quintessential central Rogue Trader of the franchise (have done all the published stuff).
To waste a bit more of your time, if I imagine that my Rogue Trader starts the line, running the mission at the end of the core book, does some stuff I invent, then hits Lure, does a little bit more, tangles with some Orks, and Eldar, runs through Edge, gets stuff ready to go, and then hits Warpstorm, with maybe a small gap between each, to set up the next one, which doesn't start at the prior one's ending, to basically go from brand new, even old guys like Hadarak Fel are giving you crap, because he's old, and you are untested, to "we just saved the entire Expanse from what WST was doing (I'll leave it at that, for the people who might get to play it)", I don't know how much older said character would be.
I'm sort of asking because I'm trying to figure out how long one of my events would take, that being the invasion by the Tau. On the one hand, Lord Solar Macharius is said to have conquered a thousand worlds in seven years, and with considerably less military force than many other crusades use, whether in Guard, or Space Marines, but I've also seen numerous crusades, like the Angevin Crusade, sputter, and spiral down the drain, going on for over 100 years, and there are numerous other examples of big wars, on single worlds, even, just dragging on. Now, to be fair, much of this invasion will be space-based, with ships duking it out, and some boarding actions, for action, more than ground-pounding sloughs with various armies bashing heads, but there's some other stuff going on, and a few things where it would be nice to envision how much time has passed, or how much one can get away with, in the likely window of time they actually have. I'm tentatively looking at a six-year space war, from when the Tau are first discovered, and the Lord Sector calls in a favor on the Letter or Marque, making our star deal with it, while the Calixian and Koronus Battlefleets size up options, gather some intel, wrap up some other obligations, and decide how much help they want to offer, through Inquisitor vonCossrath, and where the big battle is fought, over Kesh M'yen J'Karra, and either the Tau are forced to return to Jericho, or get wiped out. Not sure if that's a decent window, how much the Tau force can get done in six years, etc. While I'm sure it is all somewhat convenient to the written campaigns, when not being used as a criticism of them, many of them seem rather short, and I could imagine many of them being weeks, at best; if the book didn't say "months", or remind me of how long it might take from warp-jumping to the edge of a solar system, and then slow-flying to the third planet, when not hiding from raiders, limping away, for weeks, I'd think this Rogue Trader could become the most famous guy since Winterscale, and STILL be in his thirties, which also seems rather young to be doing anything, in a world where you might live 200 years (or die horribly, tomorrow).
Sorry if this is sort of rambly, or hard to understand. In your typical runs, how much in-game physical time usually passes between what you describe as "starting the new campaign", and wrapping it up, for them to get rewards, and feel like what they'll do next is part of a different story, with different plot, and objectives? Thanks much, and please have a good one!