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How powerful is a newly minted Rogue Trader?

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ThePoarter

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Rogue Traders are exceptionally powerful individuals in their own right with their powers increasing the further they are from the centre of the Imperium. Within the Imperium they might have a little more influence than a ship captain while outside it they are practically High Lords. However bearing this in mind how powerful is a newly gifted Rogue Trader with a Dauntless-class Light Cruiser?


 
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It depends very, very heavily on exactly what the Warrant of Trade specifies. If it's a newly written one, then it's going to have some quite specific limits on area of responsibility, worlds where the Rogue Trader has the rights of the press and raising troops, what groups like Astartes Chapters they're permitted to make pacts and alliances with, etc.


An older Warrant is more likely to have much broader authorities and specifications, including appointment as a de facto officer of other Imperial Adeptus.
 
Second to the warrant, their own prior personal power. A warrant Noble basically gains a lot more leway with a ton of existing assets. A former Guard or someone who doesn't have much sway to begin with, only the ship and the warrant, doesn't have that much power.

They're in a lot of position to gain more, but they can't really go around bullying local authorities or running headlong through rivals yet. Their power at that point is mostly the power of their ship + a high degree of leeway.
 
If we're going purely height wise I may end up as a Custode. Which would suck but would also be really really cool.

Edit; I am also an Equerry to Our Glorious Leader IRL too...Chairman Meow strikes again.
 
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I'm not super up to date with the lore but I imagine it varies from case to case. Some of them would be wealthy enough to bring their own special her or personnel along. Others might have connections which get them stationed to areas with more action.
 
A Rogue Trader is normally a powerful person with exceptional wealth and connections to begin with.

Edit: One of the more common reasons for a new Warrant of Trade is to get rid of someone e who is becoming too politically powerful.
 
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Osteoclast said:
A Rogue Trader is normally a powerful person with exceptional wealth and connections to begin with.

Edit: One of the more common reasons for a new Warrant of Trade is to get rid of someone e who is becoming too politically powerful.
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And even in cases where it's not, the Warrant is so valuable that they'll rapidly gain power as people hitch a ride on that wagon. There's a lot of stuff you can realistically only do if you sign up with a Rogue Trader.

Are you an Admech who wants to study Xenotech? Either be part of the right faction on the right major Forgeworld with a ton of seniority and the right patrons... or sign up with a Rogue Trader.
 
If you were a rogue trader what would you do? Me ? I'd just be a more free range merchant who now sells goods between all interested human parties in a sector.
 
> be me
> be rouge trader
> have a crappy ship but little to no influence
> no connections
> knows a few cute eldar girls
> Rowboat Girlyman nearby
> ????
> become the second hand of most powerful person in Imperium
 
ThePoarter said:
Still what can you do with a dauntless class ship?
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A fair bit, including pirate-hunting, intimidation, or even piracy itself*. Just gotta use your imagination.



* But only as long as it's discrete, and aimed at people who don't have connections to peers of the Imperium who might take offence at someone half-inching their mate's stuff
 
You can do some pretty significant trading- plenty of transport/cargo ships are basically escort size or a bit above. Even being a fairly lean vessel for it's size, it can't really do the heavy bulk loads, a Dauntless can carry a notable amount of stuff, and it can do so in some pretty darn dangerous areas where normal chartist traders with lesser armed ships wouldn't go.
 
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How powerful is a newly minted Rogue Trader?

More powerful then a vanilla rogue trader but less powerful then a chocolate one :V
 
Okay let's upscale or downscale the size to a battlecruiser or escort class ship. Now what?
 
ThePoarter said:
Okay let's upscale or downscale the size to a battlecruiser or escort class ship. Now what?
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A battlecruiser means both a lot more firepower, opening up military options, and a lot more cargo space, opening up what they can transport (the Dauntless was limited to more high price-per-volume stuff). They're a lot more expensive to maintain, so they can't really afford to spend much time not earning, but they can pretty much roll up on worlds and take what they want. You can forge a new trade route very easy as you can both secure it and do a few major loads. They're very powerful.

An escort means a lot less power. Now the Trader needs to be a lot more careful about where they go- they're a lot more likely to encounter local forces they can't fight than even the Dauntless, and trading is even more limited as they have even less cargo space. However, the lower maintenance cost on the ship and it's lower profile means they don't need to worry about bringing a score back each run as long as it evens out in the long run. They're more suited to following up rumors of the really big score, aiming for lost artifacts and so on, or at least carrying the high-quality stuff (loads of lasguns aren't going to bring in the bucks at this scale. Loads of high-quality bolters, maybe!), and exploration is probably the name of the game. Find something valuable and sell it/sell the info.

Bottom of the barrel in RT power if you're a newbie with a small ship, though even that much makes you a valuable ally to some and you are in a position to gain more power and reputation, but it requires more cleverness.
 
Q99 said:
A battlecruiser means both a lot more firepower, opening up military options, and a lot more cargo space, opening up what they can transport (the Dauntless was limited to more high price-per-volume stuff). They're a lot more expensive to maintain, so they can't really afford to spend much time not earning, but they can pretty much roll up on worlds and take what they want. You can forge a new trade route very easy as you can both secure it and do a few major loads. They're very powerful.

An escort means a lot less power. Now the Trader needs to be a lot more careful about where they go- they're a lot more likely to encounter local forces they can't fight than even the Dauntless, and trading is even more limited as they have even less cargo space. However, the lower maintenance cost on the ship and it's lower profile means they don't need to worry about bringing a score back each run as long as it evens out in the long run. They're more suited to following up rumors of the really big score, aiming for lost artifacts and so on, or at least carrying the high-quality stuff (loads of lasguns aren't going to bring in the bucks at this scale. Loads of high-quality bolters, maybe!), and exploration is probably the name of the game. Find something valuable and sell it/sell the info.

Bottom of the barrel in RT power if you're a newbie with a small ship, though even that much makes you a valuable ally to some and you are in a position to gain more power and reputation, but it requires more cleverness.
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Interesting. Thank you. I'm just wondering what would be the bare minimum power a newly minted Rogue Trader would have. I'm trying to imagine an idea of someone literally rising from the lower rungs of Imperium society and climbing the social ladder to become a rogue trader abeit one of the weakest ones possible.

So once again thank you.
 
Q99 said:
A battlecruiser means both a lot more firepower, opening up military options, and a lot more cargo space, opening up what they can transport (the Dauntless was limited to more high price-per-volume stuff). They're a lot more expensive to maintain, so they can't really afford to spend much time not earning, but they can pretty much roll up on worlds and take what they want. You can forge a new trade route very easy as you can both secure it and do a few major loads. They're very powerful.

An escort means a lot less power. Now the Trader needs to be a lot more careful about where they go- they're a lot more likely to encounter local forces they can't fight than even the Dauntless, and trading is even more limited as they have even less cargo space. However, the lower maintenance cost on the ship and it's lower profile means they don't need to worry about bringing a score back each run as long as it evens out in the long run. They're more suited to following up rumors of the really big score, aiming for lost artifacts and so on, or at least carrying the high-quality stuff (loads of lasguns aren't going to bring in the bucks at this scale. Loads of high-quality bolters, maybe!), and exploration is probably the name of the game. Find something valuable and sell it/sell the info.

Bottom of the barrel in RT power if you're a newbie with a small ship, though even that much makes you a valuable ally to some and you are in a position to gain more power and reputation, but it requires more cleverness.
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Now scale it up and down even further. What if the Rogue Trader was given a Retribution Class Battleship or a Viper Sloop?
 
As someone who's not very familiar with WH40K: what does a Rogue Trader actually do? As in, what is their job like?

I assume it has something to do with trading (hence the name), and all this talk about military and personal power is to facilitate that (dangerous locales and navigating local politics), but what purpose drives the Rogue Trader's occupation? Is it to basically make as much money as they can through trading?
 
Adloquium said:
As someone who's not very familiar with WH40K: what does a Rogue Trader actually do? As in, what is their job like?

I assume it has something to do with trading (hence the name), and all this talk about military and personal power is to facilitate that (dangerous locales and navigating local politics), but what purpose drives the Rogue Trader's occupation? Is it to basically make as much money as they can through trading?
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You know the English East India Company? Imagine that, but with more power.

Rogue Traders are allowed to trade, war, explore, destroy, all in the name of the Imperium. As long as whatever do benefits the humanity, they can do whatever they want, even deal and trade with xenos. A newly minted RT doesn't have much but a dynasty lasting thousands of years are mighty noble houses in their own right.
 
Adloquium said:
As someone who's not very familiar with WH40K: what does a Rogue Trader actually do? As in, what is their job like?

I assume it has something to do with trading (hence the name), and all this talk about military and personal power is to facilitate that (dangerous locales and navigating local politics), but what purpose drives the Rogue Trader's occupation? Is it to basically make as much money as they can through trading?
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Rogue traders are as much explorers and agents of the Imperium as merchants, with a wide array of additional responsibilities beyond trading (which is often with people or groups outside the Imperial sphere, like, well, the Tau for e.g.). A lot depends, of course, on what a specific dynasty's Warrant of Trade says and how it explicitly empowers them to act in the name of the Emperor (as well as what their own power, prestige, and so on lets them get away with even if not specifically empowered to do so).
 
Hykal94 said:
You know the English East India Company? Imagine that, but with more power.

Rogue Traders are allowed to trade, war, explore, destroy, all in the name of the Imperium. As long as whatever do benefits the humanity, they can do whatever they want, even deal and trade with xenos. A newly minted RT doesn't have much but a dynasty lasting thousands of years are mighty noble houses in their own right.
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Captain Orsai said:
Rogue traders are as much explorers and agents of the Imperium as merchants, with a wide array of additional responsibilities beyond trading (which is often with people or groups outside the Imperial sphere, like, well, the Tau for e.g.). A lot depends, of course, on what a specific dynasty's Warrant of Trade says and how it explicitly empowers them to act in the name of the Emperor (as well as what their own power, prestige, and so on lets them get away with even if not specifically empowered to do so).
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Taken further ship size effects things individually. You're basically gunboat diplomacy on quite a few occasions. So ship size effects?
 
ThePoarter said:
Taken further ship size effects things individually. You're basically gunboat diplomacy on quite a few occasions. So ship size effects?
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Yes, which again ties into the powers and authority granted by the Warrant of Trade, and the Rogue Trader's own personal power and prestige. The acquisition and maintenance of a capital warship and its supporting flotilla would require one of the old, rare Warrants, the truly broad ones, and a newly minted Rogue Trader of no small means themself.

Whereas one of the modern Warrants, written to a consistent standard, and with less personal resources to build on, would lead to a more modest vessel.
 
ThePoarter said:
Now scale it up and down even further. What if the Rogue Trader was given a Retribution Class Battleship or a Viper Sloop?
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Battleship? Like a battlecruiser only more-so. You can role up on most planets and do whatever. You can transport huge amounts of cargo- and really should be doing so, those things aren't cheap to take care of. You can probably wrangle yourself a whole small fleet pretty quickly so as to send smaller ships when you Retribution isn't needed. You can sell your services to planetary governors or even sectors- there's few people rich enough to hire a battleship but those who can are very rich, and one that can do off-the-record stuff has it's uses. Sometimes it might be as mundane as "the local Navy admiral is having a snit and won't do what I want/deal with this," other times it's "My rival consortium is trying to mine this area on this isolated system. I want you to go in, smash it, take everything, destroy all their ships there, and devastate the moon so it cannot be rebuilt." Or for less shady, "There's this xeno world, I think they have cool stuff. Destroy their space station and kill them from orbit for me, will you?".


Viper... that has little cargo space and isn't designed for long range, but it does have good recon capabilities. I imagine at that point you want to head into dangerous areas, sneak to find valuable stuff, and then get the heck out. It's good sensors and ability to avoid/outrun danger means it can slip where larger ships won't. A fairly high-risk strategy would be the case, more a treasure hunter type.
 
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