Rogue Trader Fleet

Ghost Whistler · September 16, 2011, 10:35:06 AM

Assuming an average starting profit factor, is it realistic that your average rogue trader is only going to have one ship?

Blackhand · September 16, 2011, 11:58:33 AM

Yes.

Ships are priceless and ancient artifacts you can't actually put a price on.

'Average' traders are lucky to have the one they have with an 'average' profit factor, though they may have non-warp capable ships to travel to the surface of a planet.

If they do have more than one warp capable ship, they would be kings amongst kings. They might even draw the attention of one or more Imperial organizations that keep a lid on that sort of thing...i.e. one person having a personal fleet of ships.

kryyst · September 16, 2011, 01:30:18 PM

Also don't forget these ships are mammoth. Holding 10's of 1000's of people on them.

FrankTrollman · September 16, 2011, 01:45:43 PM

Most chapters of space marines have one ship.

Although those warp ships also are more like carriers than galleons, because they launch other non-warp ships out of them when they arrive somewhere.

-Frank

Ghost Whistler · September 16, 2011, 02:07:01 PM

I get that ships are prized technology, but the simple practicalities of running a merchant dynasty seem to require the setting affords them that luxury.

danbuter · September 16, 2011, 02:08:27 PM

In the "Enforcer" series, a Rogue Trader has an entire fleet of his own.

Ghost Whistler · September 16, 2011, 02:10:27 PM

Quote from: FrankTrollman;479215Most chapters of space marines have one ship.

Although those warp ships also are more like carriers than galleons, because they launch other non-warp ships out of them when they arrive somewhere.

-Frank

Most chapters are not even a fraction the size of a trader's crew.

Ghost Whistler · September 16, 2011, 02:11:34 PM

Quote from: danbuter;479220In the "Enforcer" series, a Rogue Trader has an entire fleet of his own.

That's what I imagine. It just doesn't seem 'realistic' (and yes I use that term advisedly) for a trader to run his empire with one ship.

Pseudoephedrine · September 16, 2011, 03:33:27 PM

A starting rogue trader will probably have only one ship, even with good profit factor. Thanks to salvage and prizes of war, a rogue trader can quickly start getting more, though necessarily they'd be inferior to his starting ship at combat.

Chances are, most RTs leave behind thousands of people whenever they jump who maintain a commercial presence in his absence, and which he then absorbs back when he returns.

PaladinCA · September 16, 2011, 07:10:41 PM

I'd find it highly unlikely that a Rogue Trader with multiple ships could be considered a threat to the might of the Terran Emperor. A Rogue Trader better know his place in the end. Or else.

Blackhand · September 17, 2011, 01:37:18 AM

Quote from: danbuter;479220In the "Enforcer" series, a Rogue Trader has an entire fleet of his own.

In the OP, Ghost used the qualifier "average". The example you present is not average.

Ghost Whistler · September 17, 2011, 03:03:11 AM

I have never read BFG but I think this focus on starships as something totally unique and ancient, as if they cannot be built anymore, is a bit lopsided. I really don't think the material supports this. Certainly in fiction I've seen, where ships were necessary, they were available. That's not to say it should go to the other extreme.
I cannot see how a rogue trader can manage trade routes, protect from pirates, venture into new spaces, with just a single albeit enormous starship. It's like the hanseatic league with a death star.

Windjammer · September 17, 2011, 04:16:03 AM

In Andy Hoare's novel Rogue Star, the opening scene depicts a Rogue Trader dynasty which, between father, son, and daughter, owns three ships.

On my understanding only the father owns an empirial charter, so technically he'd possess or be otherwise 'entitled' to all three of them.

Whether or not that's an "average" case may depend entirely on your understanding of whether or not dynasties regularly come in such happy, affluent families. The 40k game certainly doesn't focus on such cases.

Ghost Whistler · September 17, 2011, 04:56:27 AM

What indeed constitutes the average isn't really the issue. It's understanding the practicalities. If a trader establishes a trade route to a previously known planet/race, how does that route manifest? Shipping must be involved and presumably to a point controlled by the trader.

danbuter · September 17, 2011, 12:21:22 PM

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;479453I have never read BFG but I think this focus on starships as something totally unique and ancient, as if they cannot be built anymore, is a bit lopsided.

BFG has different eras of ships, so new ones are definitely being built. Gothic ships are really old, yet still in service, for example. In the novels, there are Navy planets dedicated to this.