One thing that differentiates Rogue Trader from Dark Heresy is what I call "The Phat Lewt" motive.

DH isn't supposed to be about accumulating wealth, which sort of throws off younger players. I know a lot of purist GM's who won't allow their players access to really cool equipment, and I have to understand there is a certain enjoyable ambiance about playing in a low-tech setting...but it doesn't dissuade me from coveting Terminator armor and Inferno pistols nonetheless.

This isn't DH though. This is Rogue Trader and I don't just want a Bolt Pistol and to be able to afford the ammo, I'm going to want 1000 Bolt Pistols, several metric tonnes of ammo and to make an enormous profit when I sell them to the Planetary Governor who's embroiled in a civil war....

So I'm wondering what the economic system is going to be like. I've been gaming since the late '70's, so I own a lot of RPG's and it occurred to me that I can't remember any of them that go into detailed rules for intergalactic trade. Traditionally, "Merchant" is a class lower on the totem pole than "Cleric". Seriously, when we started playing DH nobody wanted "to be the Cleric" until they understood that 40k clerics don't hang out in the back and heal people, they're out in front killing people. But this isn't any old Merchant, this is Rogue Trader. A man of sophistication, a conqueror, a crusader, a man of wealth and obscene power (hopefully, if your character lives that long).

Invariably, my GM will make me start out rather impoverished, with one dilapidated ship in need of overhaul and low on Macro Cannon shells. I'm curious to know the game mechanics that will make me Lord of a Fleet of ships, an army of Imperial Guard and several detachments of Astartes....

I was wondering this myself, you worded it better however. Yes, the motives for a Rogue Trader are completely different from most games, being more in line with "dungeon-crawl" style D&D in many ways (namely the straight line from risk to reward.)

One other thing I wondered however is that if you trade and negotiate with xenos... how do you sell that stuff back to the Imperium? At least... how do you sell that stuff in bulk?

One other thing I wondered however is that if you trade and negotiate with xenos... how do you sell that stuff back to the Imperium? At least... how do you sell that stuff in bulk?

You use the classic colonial system: Buy ressources, sell finished products. You may not be able to sell Xeno tech, but who cares about the origins of a few bargeloads of rare ores? Sell the ore to the Imperium, buy trade goods from there and sell those back to the Xenos for more stuff. This also establishes a nice facade behind which you can buy and sell tech to privileged (or just rich, depending on your concept of morality) members of the Imperium.

Cifer said:

Okay, fair point. My knowledge of pre-capitalist trade is a bit hazy. And given that we're driving around small cities, who's to say we can't have a manufactorum or two somewhere?

Pre-colonial I'd say. More Vasco de Gama.

009. M42 To do List:

• Discover Xeno planet.
• If well defended, commence trade for ores, retrogradable Imperial goods, interseting tech. If not comence plunder.
• Return to Imperium with goods.
• Repeat.
• When resources too heavilly depleated/ trade to expensive invest in army to teach natives what for. Plunder then renegotiate.
• Repeat.
• When rivals discover warp routes/ trade and plunder become unecconomic report vile xenos to Imperium and lead/join charge to claim planet or the rightful dominion of man. Make profits on war sales/ colonial effort. Leverage trade concesions from Imperial factions (from nature of world to be cleansed.
• Repeat.

The happy world is now secure in the bosom of the Emperor with happy and contented colonists... that you are well placed to exploit.

I like the idea of using a concept that is a little more to do with a pirate theme. A cool theme could be that we are not Inquisitors and that the "Rogue Traders", are one of the first glimpses of player characters that are not Acolytes. This being said I would think it is fun to destine a group of outlaw rogue traders to comiserate illegal trade or possible heretic activity, playing the opposite side of the gambit avoiding Inquisitors on the fringes of the Maw and within the Warp. I like the idea of bartering. It gives it a feudal and "low-tech"approach to the game. However contradicts the pirate theme causing amassing wealth beyond comparision for the rogue trader should be what they are about.

I think of the Rogue Trader concept as similar to what was going on during the Viking Age. You had people who were explorers, goods traders, harvesters of raw resources, plunderers of wealth, and conquerers/settlers of new lands all rolled into one. How you interacted wiht the native populace depended mainly on what they had to offer or their abilty to defend themselves. Sometimes it is more profitable to do trade with a community than to raid it. Or sometimes they would do both. Raid the monasteries because the church would not typically trade with the "Heathen" Vikings, so they just took what they wanted from the church and then did trade with the laypersons who were craftsmen and farmers.

I can see a correlation to Rogue Trader in that you might raid technology and raw resources from Xenos, rather than do trade with them, and establish a network of commerce with the communities of humans living on the outer rim of the Imperium.

Adeptus Stormicus said:

I like this although I agree with what Lars is saying. Rogue Traders/Explorers are likely to have their fingers in all sorts of things from the heretical study of xeno-tech to the whole viking thing.