van Riebeeck said:

Nitpick to the rescue.

There is one journey that is always safe.

[Trumpets sound]

The return to Holy Terra, His Throne!

[further trumpets]

Beyond that? Either you are a chartist vessel on a semisafe warp route, or you have a Navigator onboard. And even then the Ruinous Powers lurk.

*grins*

I will remember that when you lead a Black Ship back to Holy Terra. Tsýsck Char Tvua Matikar, Lord of Change will certainly not try to decieve you on such a momentous voyage.

FvR

Van Riebeck,

With only 30 ship points to spent, they had went for a Transport. I am not exactly sure which Transport at the moment though.

I wouldn't give them a battlecruiser or bigger for free though? Personally I think it would be cooler if it is tied to some storyline type thing as a big payoff during one of the arcs.

I fully agree. Keep the big ships as rewards for tremendous achievements and great connections with the Navy and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Whatever the rules are as written, I would never hand over such a ship on a roll.

If they go for a transport, they might consider taking a look in 'Into the Storm'. The Orion class starclipper there is a very fast and nimble ship and should be within their Ship Point budget. Suitably dashing for the quite impressive profit rating they should logically have as well.

FvR

Och i really like the cruiser. It really has the customization space. The Light cruiser is simply not worth it as written.

And even with max SP a cruiser is far from finished and probably severely lacking in rare and flashy ship components. The story turns from getting a bigger ship into getting the ancient dynasties ship back up to speed. My RT just got a barracks fitted in. (because instead of payment he bartered with the Navy to pull some strings) and he still needs any troops to fill the barracks with .

Upon realising that Rogue Trader possesses ostensibly decent Space Warfare rules, I tried to introduce the setting to my player group (A group of three players) and so far two of them are interested in giving the game a spin.

However, I'm curious about some of the possibilities this RPG has to offer while I wait for the Core Rulebook to arrive in my mailbox.

Rogue Traders tend to acquire entire fleets, is this possible for the players (or are Rogue Traders limited to a single ship)?
What do I need for memorable Space battles? Being a Star Wars junkie, it is at least one thing I want to be able to adequately, perform, if you will, narratively tell.
Grand campaign or personalised stories? Being 40K I assume I should treat my players to a part of the grand scheme of things?

Thanks in advance, I eagerly await your answers.

Question 1. As covered by Errant, you can technically have as many ships as you want to let them have. But more than 5 will get hard to keep track of in a mission. One way to allow the dynasty to have the extra ships but keep them out of the way is to take advantage of the fact that most writs require the holder to set up any new endeavor, but once they’re in place any dynasty representative can continue them. So, the crew could establish trade routes, mining operations, colonies, or just about anything else, and once its established detail some of the dynasty ships and personnel to keeping it going in the background.

Question 2. Really depends on what your group’s players like in memorable space battles. I’m a big fan of daring boarding actions myself, but I’ve always been a privateer at heart.

Question 3. Both! Grand epic campaign for the overarching background plot and as a pointer to keep the crew somewhat headed in a direction you want, but each individual endevour and mission that will make up that epic campaign when its history is written afterwards should be focused on individual stories.

I am currently looking at these three 'core books':
Rogue Trader Core Rulebook (Woop, just got in the mail)
Into the Storm
Battlefleet Koronus
What kind of fluff books should I go for first? Edge of the Abyss or Lure of the Expanse?

Definitely get Lure of the Expanse. Not only is it the best 40k module written so far in my opinion, (Disclaimer: I haven’t gotten to read The Emperor Protects yet) it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. You can fail your official primary objective for the whole three part greater endeavor… and really not care if you set things up right along the way.

Everyone
First off, thanks for the support.

What I am wondering though, with only three players I reckon that the game might be a little borked. How should I go about creating NPCs that fill the rest of the roles? For example if they are without a Navigator, should I create an NPC version?

As many others have said, there is actually no role that absolutely NEEDS to be handled by a real character. There are plenty of roles you’ll need handled by at least one person on the ship, think of any ship’s command crew, but any of them can be covered easily by an NPC.

If no PC Rogue Trader, then there’s an NPC Lord-Captain they group works for. No Navigator of Astropath? Great! Now you can handwave or box-text whatever dramatic (or blessedly safe) result you want for you story. No Seneschal, NPC quartermaster takes care of it. No Explorator, that just means the Mechanicus representatives on the ship prefer to stick to the engine room. Many of the more mundane class options can easily be covered by normal armsmen and voidsmen using the regular crew rules. So, having a small group isn’t an issue when you travel in a sailing city.

Van Riebeck,
With only 30 ship points to spent, they had went for a Transport. I am not exactly sure which Transport at the moment though.
I wouldn't give them a battlecruiser or bigger for free though? Personally I think it would be cooler if it is tied to some storyline type thing as a big payoff during one of the arcs.

The transport would definitely work. They have a large starting profit factor that they can quickly make even bigger with some lucrative early Trade endeavors, they’ll just need to be careful they don’t wander very far into the Expanse as they won’t stand up to the many dangers out there. The high Profit Factor they’ll have will then allow them to simply purchase and outfit some small combat ship or two to use as an escort allow them into the more dangerous (and likely more profitable) areas.

If your party prefers to jump right into dangerous and combat oriented voyages they could also get an absolutely basic equipped Hazeroth Raider out of the main book or Iconoclast Destroyer from Battlefleet Koronus. Then it’s off privateering for fun and profit! (Totally my route )

Or, if they’d rather take a middle ground, check out the Q Ship or Orion Star Clipper out of Into the Storm. A Q ship is a merchantman refitted with hidden armor and REAL guns so it can take out raiders that come after it. Historically they were used as traps for pirates and later submarines who discovered too late that their easy target wasn’t nearly so easy. The Star Clipper is fragile, but with finesse can be a very effective raider. Both of them come with integral cargo bays, so they’re still viable transport ships at the same time.