Here's a thought: what if a Free or Chartist Captain decides that he's bored of trudging slowly between two tedious star systems under the restrictive terms of his charter, and opts to leap his ship and crew into the warp, travel to the Koronus expanse, and start trading within it?

He would lack a warrant of trade, so would be forbidden from returning to the Imperium and trading there, but we've seen that there are still plenty of places within the Koronus Expanse that are happy to trade with anyone: Footfall for example.

It would of course be a huge risk for a free captain, as he'd be prey to pirates, travelling without a dynastic support network etc...but are these risks really much greater than those of a "proper" rogue trader operating under a warrant?

I mean there are many obstacles to this course of action: not all free captains have navigators (many make dozens of short warp "hops" instead), you'd become a wanted criminal, and there's the thorny issue of what your crew think about all this... But none of these obstacles seem completely insurmountable to someone with limitless ambition.

A "true" Rogue Trader like this (ie one who's truly operating completely illegally) might make for an interesting NPC for players to encounter...

um well there is the fact that most chartist captains if I'm remembering it correctly don't have navigators and so can only make blind jumps of about 2-4 light years

Which I did specifically mention as an obstacle in my original post. And as I say, if you're ambitious and devious enough, not a real problem. There are renegade and shrouded navigator houses who might have members desperate enough to hire themselves out to such a "true" rogue if the price is right.

Actually if you want to look at what "real" rogue trading is about on a scale which fairly much dwarfed anything else, read up on Admiral Zheng He, his fleet and his exploits across the world at a time when literally the rest of the world was pretty much still crawling around in the dark ages. He kicked arse for the Emperor

I dont think it works.

Chartist vessels would be designed like the universe class, but lacking in Navigators. As a true rogue (recidivist) trader, the Imperial Navy would not come to help you, quite the opposite. Anybody else helping you would take a bite out of your profit etc. And the swarm of frigate equipped RTs would transport all the valuable stuff away from a planet, while you are still flying towards it...

I dunno, it might work, but if my RT came across a wanted fugitive in possession of a chartist trader, might just grab it for fun. And depending on the Administratum, either give it back (stripped of all valuables though; yes very sad weapons smashed by pirates apparently), or add it to his own fleet after adding some Navigators to said ship.

Not only do they lack navigators, but they usually lack military vessels.

Most chartist and fee captains use transports. Often very old and very poorly maintained transports. Chartist vessels especially are locked into a charter to only fly certain routes. Their crew, pilots, offfcers become part of those worlds. Like the Mesericord, its simply not got the flexibility to survive the expanse.

The ship might be creaky and leaky enough not to survive the buffeting of the expanses rowdy warp.

Its unlikely to have the military strength that a rogue trader vessels does. Why would it, usually it flies regularly patrolled routes in settled space. The space one spends on guns could be used for another cargo hold to squeeze a bit more profit from a trade run.

Finally, Rogue Traders themselves are likely to be a bit miffed by an upstart without a warrant moving into their territory. I'd imagine most free captains would re-evaluate their choice after facing down a rogue trader frigate.

This isn't to say it would be impossible. Just that a free captain would have to work hard to improve his vessel, not annoy the rogue traders and generally keep off the radar. And his problems would only get worse the more well known he got.

Not only do they lack navigators, but they usually lack military vessels.

Most chartist and fee captains use transports. Often very old and very poorly maintained transports. Chartist vessels especially are locked into a charter to only fly certain routes. Their crew, pilots, offfcers become part of those worlds. Like the Mesericord, its simply not got the flexibility to survive the expanse.

The ship might be creaky and leaky enough not to survive the buffeting of the expanses rowdy warp.

Its unlikely to have the military strength that a rogue trader vessels does. Why would it, usually it flies regularly patrolled routes in settled space. The space one spends on guns could be used for another cargo hold to squeeze a bit more profit from a trade run.

Finally, Rogue Traders themselves are likely to be a bit miffed by an upstart without a warrant moving into their territory. I'd imagine most free captains would re-evaluate their choice after facing down a rogue trader frigate.

This isn't to say it would be impossible. Just that a free captain would have to work hard to improve his vessel, not annoy the rogue traders and generally keep off the radar. And his problems would only get worse the more well known he got.

These are all valid points: but I dispute that all the Chartist vessels are generally Universe-class sized: the BFK writeup for the Universe Class suggests that vessels of that size are fairly rare. I imagine most Chartist vessels are normal transports.

And yes, one imagines that a (let's call them) renegade trader would be a tempting target for a proper, warrant-holding Rogue Trader, as they have no right to retain their ship. But that makes interaction with them even more interesting, expecially if the renegade trader has a more powerful ship than the players.

Uhh having a transport vessel smaller than a universe gives them even less chance of survival? I thunk....

And a renegade chartist trader having a vessel more powerful than a RT? What kind of RTs run around in your gaming group? Most i have in my adventures and those one can read on this forum, can make short work of light cruisers.

Well a Universe class is actually a pretty vulnerable vessel, really, given its slow speed, size, appalling manouvrability etc, but that aside my point was that the "average" chartist captain is unlikely to have one. (Although I accept that a former Chartist renegade trader in command of an ancient Universe Class would make for an interesting chronicle, especially as the BFK write up states that it's effectively a world in its own right, and the occupants don't always care what the commanding officer is up to as they're so caught up in their own traditions...)

And my point on the power scaling was that being presented with a renegade trader presents a proper, authorised Rogue Trader with lots of interesting choices. The obvious one being "kill him, take his ship," but a good GM would provide lots of alternative options: peaceful collaboration, adoption by the dynasty, peaceful trading etc etc.

And bear in mind that a former chartist captain renegade trader need not JUST have entered the Expanse: he could have been there for centuries, modifying and expanding his ship, creating an entire renegade dynasty...perhaps even an interplanetary human empire with Imperial technology but no loyalty to Terra. Could make for a colourful opponent whatever the power level of your players.

Why not just have the Captain find a derelicked frigate with a claimable Warrant?

It could be a great campain of it's own as the "wanted" captain tries to make a break for the Empire to claim the warrant to the administrum (and bring back the many gift in the old) and then try to claim a litte dynastie for himself?

Many rogue trader coudl try to stop the incoming competition or even claim is treasures, etc.