Starships have a listed approximation for crew size but are there any rules for running a ship with a skeleton crew? The game I'll be running soon will start with an explosive escape from The Breaking Yards at SR-651 and I need to figure out the minimum crew required to pilot an Iconoclast-Class Destroyer.

I would venture to guess the answer would be around 165 to be able to get underway.

That is, 1% of around 16500. On p224/225 of RT, it discusses crew population. The Crew Population is given as a percentage of the normal crew size. On Tbl 8-13, it appears that any value over 0% allows the ship to function with severe penalties. You prob need to look over the crew population table to figure out what you need. That's the closest I can come up with for a rule right now. The GM probably still needs to do some house ruling.

As long as you have Crew 1, the ship can travel and work normally (although with some penalties). Crew 1 means you need 1% of the Crew listed on the Hull's description. For example, if you have a Jericho-class Transport (Crew: 20.000 aprox) you need aproximately 200 people to make it work.

Don't forget the servitor crew option. It gives the benefits of a full crew while keeping actual people off the ship.

It might not be as hard as that. On most 40k vessels; most of the crew literally live their entire lives onboard their ship (AKA "Voidborn). You can pretty much assume that up to 20% of the crew are actually Hardwired servitors. Furthermore, A Crew of a chaos ship are most likely mostly slaves (At least the "normal ratings!"). They might actually be more than happy to help your Intrepid rogue traders to overtake their vessel in order to escape bondage!

The game mechanic that allows a ship to function (barely) with 1% of the crew nicely reconciles the Battlefleet Gothic/Rogue Trader/Battlefleet Koronus approach of tens of thousands of crew with the Dan Abnett version where you have shady Rogue Traders tooling around the Scarus Sector with tiny crews in the tens or hundreds.

Some people have criticised Abnett's books on the basis that his interpretation of ship crew size differs significantly from the rest of the canon, but this 1% rule sorts out any differences nicely, I think.

After all, if you're a true heretic trying to operate within the imperium in secrecy, you probably can't safely operate large crews, explaining why the heretical cartel in the Ravenor books were using a skeleton crew.

(Plus as has already been mentioned, the RT system already covers the "all servitor crewed" option that crops up in Eisenhorn.)

Radwraith said:

This is something I've been kicking around for my players. I wanted to give them a Repulsive-Class Grand Cruiser and am toying with them wresting one from the hands of a chaos crew. Having the lower crew assist in the takeover would also alleviate some of the hassle of replenishing afterward.

Ale Golem said:

There is a crew quorters Component in Hostile Acquisition called Slave-Crew Quarters or something like that, which may be useful to you.