I'm sorry if I've overlooked this in the rules book, but I've not been able to figure this out. In the game of Rogue Trader I'm ramping up to right now, my friend rolled for the lowest possible ship points with the highest possible profit factor (or close to that, he's got 30 SP and 60PF). This fits in well with his background. His Rogue Trader was the commander of part of the Imperial Guard that got embroiled in a rather ugly and large civil war. However, he ended up on the losing side. Too inconvient and powerful to execute (it would sparked further conflict), he was given a Warrant of Trade and a presumed unarmed Shrike Raider (it has the wolf in sheeps clothing trait), and was sent off on his way. Because of this, a very hefty portion of his crew is former Imperial Guard and PDF under his command that he managed to get spared on the condition that they join his crew.

He's decided that he wants to use boarding actions as a primary method of combat, and asked if in exchange for some profit factor to even it out, could he get bonuses for the fact that he has a crew of professional killers that he's had experience commanding in combat for years. I'm totally ok with this, but I'm not sure how to represent this in the rules. I've been able to find the various bonuses for crew size and such, but none for the quality of the crew being used outside of the NPC crew quality charts. How do I represent the fact that his boarding crews are going to consist of former Stormtroopers?

I'd look at the rules for murder servitors as inspiration, even if they are meant for Hit & Run instead of boarding actions. A permanent +10 Command bonus during boarding actions would be a good way to handle what you describe. Alternatively, you could reduce the morale or crew damage your crew takes on failing such tests. Instead of losing 1d5 crew/morale, they'd instead lose 1d5-1.

These are just suggestions since the book doesn't seem to offer any such rules as far as I can tell.

A quick and dirty solution would be to give the ship the benefits of the barracks component in return for downgrading the crew to Incompetent. The ship has plenty of soldiers/manpower, but a shortage of trained voidsmen.

Sticking to the rules in the books, there are some options. The most obvious being an actual barracks component. Having lots of crewmen with basic weapons training is all very well, but with a barracks said men are kept properly equipped and ready to deploy as a military unit rather than as a hastily assembled mob.

The murder-servitors component also works. You could refluff it to represent strike units backed by combat servitors rather than "pure" murder-servitors.

Into the Storm has a "Storm Troopers Detachment" ship upgrade. The "Crew Improvements" upgrade could also work. (Morale is very important for boarding actions.)

Ship upgrades aren't normally available at character generation but you could work out a SP cost by working backwards from the component costs table in Battlefleet Koronus (page 19). Example: A Storm Trooper Detachment is Extremely Rare (ItS 164). An Extremely Rare non-essential starship component typically costs 4 SP (BK 19). So, a Storm Trooper Detachment is the equivalent of a 4 SP starship component.

Edit: Hold on, how on Holy Terra is he going to afford a fully equipped 34+ SP Shrike Raider with 30 SP?

I would reccomend using the stormtrooper detatchment rules from into the storm as mentioned.

Another thing you could do is create several NPCs using the character creation rules as his commanders. Each of these would be able to take thier own extended actions, like doing hit and run attacks with smaller units while your player leads the boarding action.

Iku Rex said:

My bad, I just poked him and he has 40/50, not 30/60. Derp. So, looking through the rules, I definitley like the storm trooper detatchment idea as well as the murder-servitors. I wouldn't want to downgrade his crew to incompetent though, since the entire crew isn't guardsment. I just need to settle on how to fluff it out and how to dock his PF to even things out to start. I can't seem to locate the Barracks component though after looking through Into the Storm. What specific page is it on?

Barracks are in the core rulebook.

It's not as war-gamey a solution, but you could also run the assault as a normal combat encounter. It seems to me that your players are stepping away from the macro scale of ship combat, and making things more personal. Micro scale RPG combat. If they manage some success on their assault, apply the benefits of a successful boarding action.

Here's hoping their boarding vessel makes it past the turrets...

It sounds like you want to reward a player for their character's backstory. Allow him to spend one of his starting acquisitions on this 'regiment', have them come equipped with basic gear (lasgun/shotgun + flak vests) and basically give them a +10 on boarding actions. Simples.

It's not as war-gamey a solution, but you could also run the assault as a normal combat encounter. It seems to me that your players are stepping away from the macro scale of ship combat, and making things more personal. Micro scale RPG combat. If they manage some success on their assault, apply the benefits of a successful boarding action.

Here's hoping their boarding vessel makes it past the turrets...

You could make the players play some of the NPC soldiers for this combat... and if they live/die apply the relevant results.

I like TiLT's idea of just a small bonus to Command. No matter how murdery your killers are, there's only a handful of them invading a ship of tens of thousands at a time. Hit and Runs are meant to be quick boarding actions that work via people entering by surprise, blowing some stuff up and running. Even if you're a twenty times better than the average person - which by most Stats you're probably not - you're still vastly outnumbered by the vessel you're boarding.