Whenever my players get involved in an Endeavour which involves shipping large amounts of goods back to Port Wander (and thus the wider Calixis Sector) I generally assume that transports have to be involved. That is to say, when the Explorers set up a mining colony, or establish a trade route to a distant world, it seems natural to assume that this would involve having a vessel which would come and pick up the ore or whatever good is being traded, and haul it back, presumably bringing something back with it to leave at the colony or sell at the trade stop. Usually in the past, I've had it that the Explorers could either contract a Free Captain or a shipping cartel to take care of that for him, or they could use a transport they own, buying one if they don't own one. (the latter would seem to be more of an option for more established Rogue Traders, however)

Is this how most players handle it though? I was noticing in the rules about Endeavours that none of the requirements mention these NPC transports doing milk runs, but it does mention Rogue Traders doing plenty of cargo runs of their own - and of course player ships usually have cargo holds themselves. This confuses me a bit, because I wonder if I'm missing something. I had always assumed that because Profit Factor is not a single sum of finite wealth, but rather a continual income from investments, rents and commerce, that the Endeavours would naturally be aimed at setting up a more permanent source of wealth. But it seems like it'd be incredibly boring for a Rogue Trader to use his fancy Sword-class frigate or Lunar-class cruiser or what have you to be picking up Naduesh silk and then running back to Port Wander to sell and then making the return haul with whatever Naduesh wants. Not to mention that if a Rogue Trader spends all his time doing this, he certainly can't spend his time pursuing new Endeavours!

Am I missing something? Should it be assumed that these NPC milk run transports are being used? If so, what kind of cargo runs should I expect the Explorers to do?

AkumaKorgar said:

For your own sanity assume that they have contracted transports to run the cargo for them. This also leaves you open to hit their cargo routes with pirates that the explorers have to go hunt down.

The explorers should really only be involved if they are very poor or the cargo is very, very valuable.

Cargo runs will consume large amounts of time that the explorers can better fill by trying to make more money.

I've been pondering this very issue as I gear up to my first actual gaming session of RT (I've had two sessions so far, the first made characters, the second made the warrant and ship). I'm very interested in seeing the responses on this.

The idea I was wrestling with was that the dynasty had a number of transports available to it to handle the mundane back and forth of trade between established stops in a trade route. For every X amount of Profit Factor the explorers have, they have Y number of transports. At first, I was thinking that X would equal the cost of a transport, so a 20 ship point stock Vagabond would be available to a dynasty with at least 20 points of Profit Factor. But that seems too limiting, as even a well established dynasty with sixty or seventy points of PF would only have a handful of transports. Looking at the example Rogue Trader Peers in Edge of the Abyss, some of the other rogue traders have fleets of vessels beyond just transports at PFs well below 100. I think some linking of PF to number of available ships to a dynasty is possible, but my brain hasn't worked it out yet.

Perhaps a number of transports and support vessels equal to the tens digit of the explorers' PF? At least as they start out, something that can scale as the dynasty increases in wealth, influence and power in the Expanse?

I for one would much rather have the players focus on Endeavors and having fun exploring the dark reaches of the Koronus Expanse than shuttling back and forth every couple months between Lucien's Breath and Port Wander when a load of nephium's ready....

I've always run this as the OP suggested, with free captains, trade cartels and so on. The larger more established rogue trader dynasties have their on transports but still contract a lot of basic trade routes out.

Example.

The PCs do something tremendously exciting and get the potential to open a new trade route (lets say they deposed a monarch and installed their own puppet). They probably fill their hold and head to civilization to "cash in". After this however, you don't really want them spending their time hauling bulk goods back and forth, thats not epic, fun or cool and the other rogue traders wil mock them as "merchants". Instead, the PCs contact a free captain or trade cartel, basically a bloke/s with a piddly transport and they rent him the trade route. He pays the dynasty and conducts what trade he can.

Or

They sub-contract to a free captain/merchant cartel. This contract states they they move x amount of goods from planet A to their factor on planet B. In return they get to keep a certain percentage, or ar paid a certain amount.

Either way, the PCs head off to open new trade routes, exploit new territories and generally indulge in epic hi-jinks.

After a period of time a dynasty can expect to have multiple contracts with multiple groups. This allows the GM to exploit them as plot hooks (e.g. free captain contacts PCs and tells them that pirates are harrassing him on their trade route, etc)

Or simply purchase a new transport, crew it, and run it as a Background Endeavour. Though any of the above solutions could be as such.

Hmm... isn´t every RT ship supposed to have at least SOME cargo holds? Where else should plunder be stashed?

I always assumed that a transport class ship is just fitted with LOTS of cargo holds. And very big cargo holds.

Thereby, I would allow the RT to handle things with their own ship...as long as it is just one or two colonies

After all, if might take some month until enough ore is ready for howling. In between, the pc could about business (adventures).

Till they have established about three or so routes. From that point on, I (as a GM) would make it clear to them that their little commercial empire has grown to the point where they either need to haggle over a contract with a shipping cartell... or will need to aquire a transporter on their own!

Both would be Endeavours in their own right, including social challenges and dealings.

And if they opt for "a new ship", I would premanently rob them of some of their profit factor (to represent the fact that a lot of their wealth is now towed-up in this new vessel and crew). Perhaps the new vessels SP divided by two or three.

Thereby, the game would go own since "after the expansion is before the expansion and organic growth needs a growing turn-over"

Hmmm, I'll also have to make a note of these suggestions. Some of them are quite good, though my group will likely go with the subcontracting route, they're not really all that interested in trade or economics though I do plan to have them run a Resource World endeavor this week.

vastrix said:

This is precisely the route my players have chosen. They're piloting a Sword Class Frigate that is kitted out to take other ships a-prize - Disruption Macrocannons instead of a Lance, Murder Servitors, Munitorium, Flak Turrets, Tenebrae Maze, etc. This means they don't have the time for too many trade endeavors. I've introduced them to "interested parties" - NPCs that are willing to ship safe and established routes. They will clear a route and escort ships as part of their endeavor. They will also hire NPCs to serve as haulers along their routes. They will spend 1 Profit to get 2. It has worked more than half of the time and they like the idea of intrigue, wheelin' 'n dealin', not to mention destroying the competition. They like to find out why it failed and "fix it." IRL, it's just a die roll but I hide that with a story. There's story behind the success and the failure.

Not a "Zero Sum" game. I also like to have allies appear, people who prospered from the open trade and want in. For example, the players are pushing House Chorda out of Lucien's Breath and aid House Winterscale by supplying hookers and blow from Solace Encarmine to the lonely miners on the Ice World. Chorda is working with Stryxis as a military arm to push back. The players have made their mark. Now other Merchants want in. They want to mine the ammonia Ice and other natural resources that would be denied under Chorda.

We also have a running gag that they have no room for stores. Early on the Lord Captain bought LOTS of food supplies and their Navigator turned out to be much better than they hoped. So now they have all of these Onions, Frozen Burritos, and Chips littering the ship.

"An extra ration of Onion-Slurry for the men!"

A few ways to do this:

To do trade in the Calixis or any civilized space you need to get in touch with the Merchant Fleet. A Rogue Trader has NO right to conduct legal trade within the Imperium without buying trade route rights (yeah right why would you wanna pay money to haul cargo in civilized space anyway) - that monopoly belongs solely to the Merchant Fleet.

To get the goods from their colony to Port Wander, they could sell the trade route to a Free Captain(s) if they dont want to haul cargo themselves. Or they could buy a transport and hire a crew.

Or they can sell the entire trade route to a merchant/noble house and let them figure out the logistics and distribution.

Alternatively they can sell both the colony and the trade route lock stock and barrel or the majority of shares in them and retain just financial interest in the operations.

Gribble_the_Munchkin said:

+1 to that.

My PCs mostly go for the contracts. It can make things interesting with competition, renegotiations and so on. Although there's also the possibility to buy "NPC" transports so that the Dynasty can run cargo under it's own flag, maybe to maximize the profit or keep others away from precious exports. One shouldn't forget that not all cargo haulers are gigantic warp-traversing vessels, there are huge bulk freighters that fly intersystem that might be a lot cheaper to buy and maintain. But is there really a too high price when it comes to showing off with huge warp-faring fleets?

Now...I'm not sure which source book I read this, but the players could essentially sell the trade route. Different trading companies would put in bids to purchase the route much like a silent auction (or bidding to plow a snow route out here in the boonies). The players get a lump sum and then have no further worries about the route.