Hey there guys. This is my first post here, though I've lurked for a (short) time. I'm starting up a RT campaign with a group of friends, and I have the first 'chapter' sorted. The only problem is, I only have a few vague ideas for what happens after that, and the chapter should only take up one or two gaming sessions. I've got a bit of time to prepare, as I'm currently running a short play-by-post campaign on our forum for them to get the rules (which I'm deliberately not planning, to practice my improvisation just in case).

Basically, though, my question is this: How does this sound, and where do I go from here?

So, without further ado:

The party find themselves being press-ganged/hired into service aboard a ship, as lowly workers (combat-patrols, I think, working to halt mutinies, boarding parties, that sort of thing). They find out that the ship's crew are fairly demoralised by poor working/living conditions.

They find themselves in combat with an Imperial Navy ship, and the party is asked to repel a boarding party before taking a shuttle to the enemy ship and fighting toward the ship. The encounters should be easy, but there's a chance to avoid two of them if they can spot/unlock a service passageway on the other ship. Once on the bridge, they can either threaten, charm or kill the crew, but their objective is to lower the shields, hang about until the generators are destroyed by lance fire, and then return to their own bridge. There's one more group between them and the shuttle, and one of those enemies drops a heavy weapon (undecided which), if they want one.
Upon returning to the ship, they are met by one of the crew NPC they met earlier. He tells them that they've mutinied in secret, and claimed as much of the ship as they dare without risking discovery. He walks with them to the bridge, informing them that they have a choice. They can either warn the captain of the mutiny, and probably die with her, or they can kill the captain and her bodyguards and take control of the ship quickly. He also mentions that none of the mutineers have the specialist knowledge required to run a ship, so it would be effectively theirs if they kill the captain. If they kill the captain quickly (only a few combat rounds), and they spared the other captain, then I'll give them an opportunity to negotiate for the other ship's survival, to possibly help them gain some Navy allies for the campaign.

It is more detailed than that (with names and whatnot worked out), but I left most of it now for brevity.
As I say, this is all so far, other than basic ideas with no real structure. Thoughts?

Biggest problem is that you are going to start a pirate campaign not a RT campaign. They dont have a Warrant of Trade to call their own and the ship is registered and they will have a lot of explaining to do to the authorities who will like to know how they obtained this vessel.

But if you want them to be mutineers then I would let the PC's initiate the mutiny. Let it be their plan, let them be the ones to convert the crew and initiate the rebellion. Yes, this will take a few sessions but it would feel more like it was their accomplishment. After the pc's decide that they need to replace the captain (He is crazy, a heretic, an imbecile who will kill everyone in his quest for glory, he is cruel beyond means) they will need to feel the crowd out. Build a group of trustees for when the day comes but without letting the Scenesshal learn of this. Then they need to obtain weaponry, paskeys to forbidden sections such as the bridge. Finally they need to stage a sucesfull Mutiny and get the remaining crew on their side. Last but not least, they need to devise a plan to keep their vessel in their possession, by either running away and going pirate or bribe, convince or deceive the authorities that they are indeed Captain X and his crew.

That should keep them busy for a couple of sessions.

Yes, that could certainly work. The only problem is that I've never GMed for this group before, and a far as I know only one of them has RPGed before. I'm a little worried that their natural instinct will be to follow the railroad, which could involve following the orders of the insane/heretical shipmistress until I dangle a plot hook right in front of them. That said, I really don't want to railroad any more than I have to. The idea here then was that I'd railroad them into gaining the ship necessary for a campaign, at which point I'd practically force them to come with something themselves.

That said, however, I think your idea certainly has merit. If I subtle hints at willingness for mutiny, and not-so-subtle hints of the unsuitability of the shipmistress (and I think I may be able to portray insanity reasonably well), then they may well follow the plan. It works in my favour that the RPG-experienced member is also the unofficial leader out-of-character (second to me, but that's why I'm GM), as well as the arch-militant in-character, so he could certainly be the main instigator of mutiny, even among the party.

On the point of issues with authority, that's why I thought to add in possible navy allies. I was going to have the negotiations for their survival started by the navy ship, to avoid the possibility that they wouldn't think of it. Obviously, if they're controlling the timeline then I'll have to think of some way to factor this in (or leave them without contacts in Imperial authority, and hope they can deal with that).

First, the way you want to get it started is not what RT is about. In this way, your players start without any word about how there ship is like. And the ship is kind of an extra party member in RT. Second, the whole thing is "micro level". The pc are bugs, not the giants stepping on them. At least to begin with.

I understood that you took this direction because your players aren´t that familiar with RPG, perhaps not familiar with 40K at all and might be very used to "getting orders".

My advise, let them start out on a ship (build by them or by you, as it befits your group) as the officers of an old RogueTrader Captain who is (clearly or not) reaching the end of his life. If one of your guys plays an "RT" himself, he will be a more distant relativ like a nephew, a grandchild (or great-grandchild!) whom the RT called onboard since he either has no soon daughter or at least none that would be still alive or "fitting". The first view missions will be with the "old hawk" at the helm. But he will give them much leanway, ask them about there cause (because he knows he won´t last long anymore and wants a heir for his ship and title). Only if they are really clueless what to do, he will give them orders (and in that case start to chevy them along like a bunch of hounds).

Thereby, your players have time to get used to it and get introduced. If you think they are ready and comfortable, the old captain dies and the RT will inherit the Charta.

There's nothing wrong with getting the ship through mutiny or other more foul means. Sure, it's not the out of the box approach, but the end result is still the same, they get a ship. It worked quite well in my group. Only one of their characters was an officer aboard the ship and he's the one that set the wheels in motion to get the others positions of power and actually managed to get one of them that he felt he could control put up as captain 9he's starting to regret his decision though). They're, of course, now on the run from the syndicate who owned the ship, along with a long laundry list of other enimies the PC's brought with them, but still very doable.

To make sure the players had a sense of ownership, i had them build the ship as per normal, they just knew they weren't going to be in command of it immediately. It took three game sessions for them to finally gain command of it and those three games were some of the best. Having the characters just on the ship with all the story focused there with the ships crew, the politics of the ship, the feel of it, and various locations aboard it really brought the ship alive for them and me as well as giving them a much larger feeling of accomplishments now that they control it as opposed to taking it for granted because it was simply handed to them outright. Then they had to work to get a navigator on it... after sailing without one with bad charts (they won't be taking the navigators for granted either, I can tell you that!) Either way, i think it's a valid rout to go, especially with new players who are new to 40k. Keeping them small at first and just focusing on the ship would be a great way of teaching them the game and world without overloading them all while having the fun of playing until they're ready to take the reigns of the ship trough mutiny or what-not.

As mentioned above, a problem they'll run into (which isn't a problem with the story or game) is the lack of a Warrant of Trade. Without it, they'll have a harder time getting around and doing business, but, again, it's not insurmountable. You could go the free captain/pirate rout or you could set them on the trail of a Warrant that they might be able to win, steel, prove linage to, find and Shanghii the last surviving member of the dynasty, etc. Not having a warrant is just an opportunity for more interesting stories to be told. Again, it can work as my group is currently very much the renegades and borderline pirates at the moment working to get the funding to keep the ship and their quest for the warrant funded and going in a forwardish direction. It has been crazy fun so far and they've only just now slinked away from Port Wander to enter the Maw for glory, profit, and a warrant lost out there somewhere.

So, i say take your idea and run with it, but start thinking about how they're going to keep the ship after the mutiny, how will they be able to conduct business afterwards, who was the financier of the ship and will they be looking for it once it leaves its charted course, etc.

Here's an idea:

They get press-ganged or whatever, but it's in an Inquisitor's ship. The idea is to basically play Dark Heresy and at some point they do something worthy of great reward, that great reward being a Warrant of Trade and their own vessel....

They can follow the railroad until they figure out how to fly.

Or as an alternate. They discover that the captain is a Chaos whorshiper, Xenos in a people suit, daemon possessed or the like. The PCs get helped a long by an Inquisition agent. They defeat the captain, but he escapes (or the thing in him). The PCs are granted the ship and a warrant to travel into the expanse to track down their foe, and disrupt his plans.

Yeah, that could work, and it also acts as a nice substitute for the navy ship as allies, if the Inquisition arrive to help defeat the captain. Or, I guess they could side with the captain, and take the consequences. Much as I try to predict them, somewhere along the line they're just too... imaginative to be completely predictable.