If someone could point me to this that would be great, but I can't find any mention of how smalll a warp capable ship could be?

I'm looking to create a small ship that has no storage for cargo nor passengers, purely built essentially for the PC's.

No thrills just warp, would be the bumper sticker for this ship.

I'm not sure if the fluff ever specifies a minimum size for a warp-capable ship. What you probably want to do is figure out how big a warp engine is and make a ship that's big enough to hold that + X PCs.

That said, flying off into the Warp with nothing but an engine is probably a bad idea. No cargo space also means no food or supplies in the event that your journey gets delayed somehow (and delays are, if anything MORE likely with the unstable time-space nature of the Warp.) It also means no room for weapons or shields in case the ship gets attacked. Not ot mention a lack of spare parts/escape shuttle/whatever in the event that the ship sustains a hull breach or otherwise breaks down in the middle of nowhere ( literally .)

You as the GM might be willing to say "Look guys, I'm not going to run any ship to ship combat and I don't care how much food you have with you" but from a suspension of disbelief angle, it still strikes me as incredibly stupid for a group of people to shoot themselves out into deep space without any kind of emergency precautions. I'm just sayin' is all.

Edit: Also, loot. What's the point of going out adventuring if you don't have somewhere to put all the fancy loot you find and bring it home?

There's a thread about it in here somewhere.... Ha! Here we go. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=123&efcid=3&efidt=443253&efpag=0

I guess some storage would be needed. If only so that the PC's don't starve to death.

Thinking about it, I realise that I'm looking for a shuttle with potential for warp travel, but small enough that it would be able to sit in the main ships hanger bay.

I will have to look into the smallest published hull type and go from there.

Thanks.

Thanks for the link Errant, thats what I was hoping for.

40k is big, but just downsize where you can.

Other than the Inquisition only ships (as in, only the Inquisition have the power or funds to get hold of them), the smallest warp capable ships I've seen is about 700 metres long or so, about the size of the Cobra-class destroyer.

You won't get a shuttle that can dock into a bigger ship that can go through the warp. This is why Eisenhorn had his guncutter, which him and all his guys lived on, but booked transport via warp capable ships in order to get around (they'd just park the guncutter in the bay and then the bigger ship would take them through the warp to their destination).

I modified the AdMech probe from Lure of the Expanse as an Inquisitorial insertion/extraction unit in my DH game. Add a Void Abacus, Teleportarium and Empyrean Mantle, no crew and strip the ship weapons. I assumed that a sealed oxygenated metal box could carry enough provisions for an Inquisition Kill Team.

But there is really no way I think a RT should get their hands on anything like this.

If they're outside the Imperium the option of using captured Xenos vessels opens up. What's the smallest Tau warp vessel? Others?

Tau don't use Warp travel, so their ships are a fair bit smaller, but are mostly rubbish for interstellar uses. As for Orks, non-Orks can't use their ships, same for many Eldar ships (especially since they can only travel through the Webway), and Rak'Gol ships are about the same size as Imperial ones, and the same applies to Chaos.

from france

tau use warp travel according to the fluff and battle fleet gothic. the main difference is that their travel in the warp are slow and short. secondly their escort "orca" can't use warp travel and must be tow by shio like ill fanor.

They use "warp travel" in an entirely different way to everyone else, in that they only go to the very edges of the warp, in the border-space between reality and the warp, and then out, doing this repeatedly in little hops to get anywhere. They never go into the deep warp, and all research and testing on proper warp technology was halted by the Tau after Medusa V. This is all because they lack psykers and Navigators, which means they can't pilot themselves in the warp.

LINKY

Will there ever be an RT (not DW) book for Tau ships and characters?

Given that the Tau are as close as you can be to being on the opposite side of the galaxy from the Koronus Expanse, and all Rogue Trader stuff centres around the Koronus Expanse, I seriously doubt it. We were pretty lucky to get rules for pulse weapons and the like.

MILLANDSON said:

Which would also be true for Kroot and they are fully playable with a variety of Kroot weapons available. I think there is even a warsphere in Battlefleet Koronus.

Maybe, but kroot actually do have warp tech- the Warspheres are based off orkoid "designs", and the kroot have inherited sufficient greenskin DNA to make use of the orks' inherent knowledge to actually use it properly.

Also, given that the kroot are more prone to wandering than tau (who have a far more organised and conservative view to space exploration and expansion), there's far more chance that a Warsphere would end up on this side of the galaxy.

Tau vessels can be used to go places. If their method of travel is too slow for you steal a Eldar Warp Plotter and shove it into one of their old Explorers and surf the webway. Or if your the adventurous type, use a necron ship (cough cough, deathwish) and avoid the warp all together.

On a more serious note:

The System Ship from the GM screen adventure is 0.65 km long (650 meters) has 25 space. Feeling lucky? Find a way to shove a warp drive and geller field into it and have fun.

• Jovian Class 1 Drive (Modified), Strelov 1 Warp Engine, Geller Field, Commerce Bridge, M-1.r LS, Pressed Quarters, M-100 Auger, Single Void Shield, Main Cargo Hold (its a transport so this space is 'traditionally' already removed from the build and only power need be payed).

With a modified Drive you can fit in all of it and have a small warp ship but it is not fit for getting hit by spitballs and can't shoot back. This build leaves you 6 space and some extra power (9'ish). If you don't have the Mod drive you can't mount weapons, your choice, it has a Prow and Dorsal slot. Hmmm. unless you mount a pair of jovian missile batteries and drop the modified drive then itll all fit with 0 space leftover. With the above build you can add some 'STUFF' for the crew.

• Jovian Class 1 Drive, Strelov 1 Warp Engine, Geller Field, Commerce Bridge, M-1.r LS, Pressed Quarters, M-100 Auger, Single Void Shield, Main Cargo Hold (its a transport so this space is 'traditionally' already removed from the build and only power need be payed), Jovian Miss Batt Dorsal, Jovian Miss Batt Prow. 0 space leftover.

The fluff on the COBRA is 1.5km (FFG fluff from ItS) so its twice as long and has only 10 more space but at least it is fast and has guns.

Thanks all. They are some great ideas.

Only knowing what I have from the core book I'm a little limited in plucking ship knowledge and design from other sources.

I will have to look up some of those mentioned.

I do like the design that bobh offered.

Thanks again.

bobh said:

Nice one, Bobh.

I should also point out that Battlefleet Koronus has rules for higher than average quality components which enable some components to be even smaller and thus take up less space - you may have used these rules already but I don't have my book in front of me so I can't check.

I actually enjoy building smaller ships and finding ways of making them playable, so BFK was a bit of a godsend.

There's a ship in BFK which is even smaller than a Cobra Destroyer, too, a Viper class scout sloop. This is a very fast, lightly armed vessel designed to warp into hostile systems, scan them and then dive out again, usually while being pursued by rival ships. Its expressly stated to be the smallest warp capable ship used by Battlefleet Calixis - though this doesn't rule out even smaller vessels used by other Imperial organisations. Or Rogue Traders, of course.

Looks like I may need to purchase another book in order to satisfy my need of ships. Sigh.

Thanks Lightringer.

No I havent gotten a hold of BFK yet. Looking forward to it.

MILLANDSON said:

I started the earlier thread a there's a lot in there.

Unfortunately since then Battlefleet Koronus has come outsaid outright that Cobras are about as small are you can get (700m) BUT the InquisitionAssassins MIGHT have smaller ships.

Now this ignores several bits of fluff that had 747 sized ships cruising around (Gaunts Ghosts, Inquisition Wars, the Eye of Terror novel, the Bloodquest graphic novel). So I prefer to think they do exists but are rare because they require hard-to-find hard-to-maintain technologybecause they're just not practical. Getting a navigatorastropath, plus fuelcrew to only move a few folksa few tons of cargo just doesn't work. It's like taking an SR71 to fly from NY to Washington.

In the end no one will kick down your door for fluff violations so do what you think will make for a better game.

On the Tau, while I am new to the setting I have done a bit of research. It seems they travel the very same why humans did, before the nav gene They simply skimm the surface of the wrap, not going to deep as they would be totally lost.

The Rt book implies some Humans still do so, for short hops when they do not have a Nav on board., as you do not really need one for a short 3-4 light year jump.

It does seem the Tau do not really show up for the critters of the wrap so they are not in the know of the things going on in the deep.They can not see each other {more or less} so really they prob have a far easier time in the wrap then humans.