The Conclave

The Ordos Majoris - Hobby, Painting and Modelling => The Dark Millennium => Topic started by: Jamas Orian on August 20, 2010, 04:22:36 AM

Title: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Jamas Orian on August 20, 2010, 04:22:36 AM
What sort of ship would an inquisitor do his day to day business in? - such as hopping between worlds, storing one's personal armoury, interrogating prisoners, etc.

Also - what sort of stuff would an inquisitor keep about and do on their ship apart from the aforementioned?

I spent a lot of free time today sketching out a ship for Inquisitor Orian here, and was wondering how other people cart themselves about the galaxy in search of things to kill etc.

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/asteconn/inq/P20-08-10_03071.jpg)
[better scan will  be forthcoming]
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Zakkeg on August 20, 2010, 08:09:45 AM
Assuming an Inquisitor has his own ship (not a given), I'd say whatever sort he damn well pleases. ;D

To give a more useful answer, it varies quite a lot. Felbranche has a small Warp-capable ship of his own. (Small being relative - we're talking light cruiser here.) Malkevid tends to travel incognito on civilian transports, or simply finds a way to blackmail someone useful when he needs to move quickly. Montague just doesn't travel much.

Considered in terms of technical skill, the sketch is excellent. From a practical standpoint I'm less certain. The fins say it's an atmospheric craft, while the rather non-aerodynamic gubbins suggest it's Warp-capable and probably much too large. Also, it doesn't really scream "Imperium" to me. Maybe it's a little too sleek. I'm guessing you used BFG ships for reference, but have you looked at Forge World's stuff?

Again, though, because it bears restating: technically brilliant.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: MarcoSkoll on August 20, 2010, 08:41:29 AM
Well, two examples from my own collection.

Inquisitor Skoll has acquired the services of Arden Holf, a former smuggler - partly on the basis of "making his crimes disappear", partly through large heaps of money. The smuggler's freighter does a good job of carrying a very large number of resources, although it's not armed.

In the few years since the smuggler started working for Marco, the freighter has been modified to include such things as the aforementioned armoury, a number of training facilities, offices and a vault for securing items of importance.
It's also got a smaller dropship and a lot of internal defences, but it's had those since a long time before Arden started working for the Inquisitor.

Inquisitor Rhodes has a smaller Cobra class cruiser (partially decommissioned). It's strictly still part of the collection of her old mentor, but as he's "retired" to desk work and research, he wouldn't get as much use out of it as her, so that's the way it works out.

But as Zakkeg says... not all Inquisitors are lucky/ostentatious enough to have a ship - some may use more subtle means of transport, either because they haven't a choice or because they prefer to arrive completely unseen.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Flinty on August 20, 2010, 09:32:43 AM
What happens on board a ship may depend on what type is available and how the Inquisitor operates. Do they travel with a regular retinue and use the ship as a base of operations, or move independantly and connect with thier local cell(s) when additional help is required? (I find Dark Heresy is always a good starting point for thinking about things like this).

It may be that the Inquisitor has a non-warp capable ship that requires transport between star systems. Dont forget that warp capable ships can make small jumps through the warp using charts on some routes, although this is obviously a) dangerous, and b) extremely time consuming on long distance trips compared to having a Navigator onboard.   

Beyond having a personal or permenantly chartered (whatever the 'contract ' terms may be) vessel, most systems will have direct contact - or indirect via a couple of shorter intrasystem journeys - with interstellar transport networks.

An Inquisitor may decide to use public transport, travel incognito by choosing to work a passage or even stowaway. Alternatively a flash of the Rosette could gain a lift from any Naval or Imperial ship - or virtually any other ship come to that. The DH Inquisitors Handbook mentions an extremely covert method of travel, entering suspended amination in order to join the cargo of a tomb/necropolis ship...

Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Kaled on August 20, 2010, 10:31:45 AM
Inquisitor Kaled feels that far too many Inquisitors requisition naval vessels without any thought for the consequences - even a Cobra Destroyer has an important role to play in the fleet and in the defence of the Imperium, and requisitioning one just because you have the authority to do so is irresponsible in the extreme. He generally travels aboard a navy ship, and has, on occasion, retasked navy ships (and, even more occasionally, entire fleets) when he has deemed it necessary. His strong connections with the navy, and his intimate knowledge of its operations makes him almost uniquely qualified to make such decisions. Or so he believes, others find his attitude arrogant in the extreme.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Koval on August 20, 2010, 01:52:27 PM
Decommissioned warships seem to be rather prominent among my own characters. For example, Osmond Johm in the (pending) Price of Damnation RP has gone for, yes, the old standard of a decommissioned Navy escort. So saying, I've had a character go all the way and opt for an Inquisition Blackship before (itself a decommissioned Dictator, but I digress).

On the other end of the scale, another character of mine has upgunned an old transport freighter and converted it into a Q-ship, and even further down the scale of ship importance, I'm writing something where the primary character just runs off with a condemned criminal's private yacht because he can't be bothered risking the loss of anything bigger.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Jamas Orian on August 20, 2010, 02:48:48 PM
Quote from: Zakkeg on August 20, 2010, 08:09:45 AM
Assuming an Inquisitor has his own ship (not a given), I'd say whatever sort he damn well pleases. ;D

To give a more useful answer, it varies quite a lot. Felbranche has a small Warp-capable ship of his own. (Small being relative - we're talking light cruiser here.) Malkevid tends to travel incognito on civilian transports, or simply finds a way to blackmail someone useful when he needs to move quickly. Montague just doesn't travel much.

Considered in terms of technical skill, the sketch is excellent. From a practical standpoint I'm less certain. The fins say it's an atmospheric craft, while the rather non-aerodynamic gubbins suggest it's Warp-capable and probably much too large. Also, it doesn't really scream "Imperium" to me. Maybe it's a little too sleek. I'm guessing you used BFG ships for reference, but have you looked at Forge World's stuff?

Again, though, because it bears restating: technically brilliant.

I imagined this ship would be smaller than an escort - Corvette or smaller sized even - with a crew of at most 100, and capable of atmospheric flight. I've deliberately made it look a little 'normal', so it is not an ostentacious show of power - it is a ship for getting from A to B, rather than proving a serious threat to enemy shipping.

I've taken a lot of visual cues from both the chaos and imperial fleets from BFG - The front is something of a cross between the arrowhead of chaos ships and the armoured prow of imperial ones. It's sleeker-than-normal appearance is to give it a sense that it is rather swift, and to give it some appearance that it's quite an old vessel.

Annoyingly, the picture hasn't kept all of my relatively delicate gothic theming on the dorsal ridges, and the solar panels on the vertical fins (again, a throwback to the lack of size of the thing, and its primary job as a transport)

Also, an important consideration I had when making this vessel, is I wanted it capable of landing. On a planet I created a year or so ago, the space port consisted of a very tall docking tower and a very large expanse of concrete next to it. I just wanted a ship capable of using facilities as those.


Quote from: MarcoSkoll on August 20, 2010, 08:41:29 AM
Well, two examples from my own collection.

Inquisitor Skoll has acquired the services of Arden Holf, a former smuggler - partly on the basis of "making his crimes disappear", partly through large heaps of money. The smuggler's freighter does a good job of carrying a very large number of resources, although it's not armed.

In the few years since the smuggler started working for Marco, the freighter has been modified to include such things as the aforementioned armoury, a number of training facilities, offices and a vault for securing items of importance.
It's also got a smaller dropship and a lot of internal defences, but it's had those since a long time before Arden started working for the Inquisitor.

Inquisitor Rhodes has a smaller Cobra class cruiser (partially decommissioned). It's strictly still part of the collection of her old mentor, but as he's "retired" to desk work and research, he wouldn't get as much use out of it as her, so that's the way it works out.

But as Zakkeg says... not all Inquisitors are lucky/ostentatious enough to have a ship - some may use more subtle means of transport, either because they haven't a choice or because they prefer to arrive completely unseen.

Actually, I can blame Marco's superbly written background and IC posts for wanting a ship of my own in the first place. There is, on the port side just underneath the defense battery fore of the port wing, a landing bay door for a shuttle of some sort.

Jamas is neither outwardly forward about his presence or massively super-stealth. A lot of warbands seem to go with one extreme or the other, I thought it would be a little different to have someone in between :D

Quote from: Flinty on August 20, 2010, 09:32:43 AM
What happens on board a ship may depend on what type is available and how the Inquisitor operates. Do they travel with a regular retinue and use the ship as a base of operations, or move independantly and connect with thier local cell(s) when additional help is required? (I find Dark Heresy is always a good starting point for thinking about things like this).

It may be that the Inquisitor has a non-warp capable ship that requires transport between star systems. Dont forget that warp capable ships can make small jumps through the warp using charts on some routes, although this is obviously a) dangerous, and b) extremely time consuming on long distance trips compared to having a Navigator onboard.   

Beyond having a personal or permenantly chartered (whatever the 'contract ' terms may be) vessel, most systems will have direct contact - or indirect via a couple of shorter intrasystem journeys - with interstellar transport networks.

An Inquisitor may decide to use public transport, travel incognito by choosing to work a passage or even stowaway. Alternatively a flash of the Rosette could gain a lift from any Naval or Imperial ship - or virtually any other ship come to that. The DH Inquisitors Handbook mentions an extremely covert method of travel, entering suspended amination in order to join the cargo of a tomb/necropolis ship...


Jamas does have a regular retinue - he's both concerned for his staff in a fatherly/mentory/boss sort-of-way, and distrustful of others. He'd rather have someone that he can rely upon than hitch lifts with all sorts of unknown variables.

I'd imagine that this ship is warp capable to an extent, in that he probably has a lesser navigator and can make shorter warp journeys to get to and from primary warp routes.

Quote from: Kaled on August 20, 2010, 10:31:45 AM
Inquisitor Kaled feels that far too many Inquisitors requisition naval vessels without any thought for the consequences - even a Cobra Destroyer has an important role to play in the fleet and in the defence of the Imperium, and requisitioning one just because you have the authority to do so is irresponsible in the extreme. He generally travels aboard a navy ship, and has, on occasion, retasked navy ships (and, even more occasionally, entire fleets) when he has deemed it necessary. His strong connections with the navy, and his intimate knowledge of its operations makes him almost uniquely qualified to make such decisions. Or so he believes, others find his attitude arrogant in the extreme.

I don't think Jamas' ship would be felt as too much of a loss for the navy, if it was a navy vessel to start with. I've yet to decide on any history for the vessel.

Quote from: Koval on August 20, 2010, 01:52:27 PM
Decommissioned warships seem to be rather prominent among my own characters. For example, Osmond Johm in the (pending) Price of Damnation RP has gone for, yes, the old standard of a decommissioned Navy escort. So saying, I've had a character go all the way and opt for an Inquisition Blackship before (itself a decommissioned Dictator, but I digress).

On the other end of the scale, another character of mine has upgunned an old transport freighter and converted it into a Q-ship, and even further down the scale of ship importance, I'm writing something where the primary character just runs off with a condemned criminal's private yacht because he can't be bothered risking the loss of anything bigger.

I did initially think of making this ship all black and inquisitory, but then I changed my mind about the uses of the ship as I've mentioned above.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Shannow on August 20, 2010, 04:09:25 PM
Lovely sketch btw, very nice looking thing, reminds of me of the blackbird stealth bomber.

I personally like the idea of an inquisitor having his own custom ship built to accomodate his particular style, flash, grandiose, hulking all that sort of jazz
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: MarcoSkoll on August 22, 2010, 01:56:12 AM
Quote from: Jamas Orian on August 20, 2010, 02:48:48 PMActually, I can blame Marco's superbly written background and IC posts...
What? The crap I write? ::)

QuoteJamas is neither outwardly forward about his presence or massively super-stealth.
Actually, that's an approach I use pretty often. After all, these are meant to be ingenious people with plenty of guile and cunning - so it makes sense that they'd know when to be forward, when to be stealthy, and when to go for the middle ground.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Koval on August 22, 2010, 09:16:09 AM
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on August 22, 2010, 01:56:12 AM
Quote from: Jamas Orian on August 20, 2010, 02:48:48 PMActually, I can blame Marco's superbly written background and IC posts...
What? The crap I write? ::)
It's not crap! You could probably make money off of it if you wanted to.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Kaled on August 22, 2010, 11:35:52 AM
I'm not sure I buy the idea of an Imperial ship as small as this. Warp capable ships are almost invariably huge things measuring the best part of a kilometre in length at the very least with a crew of many thousands. The Holy Ordos do seem to maintain a handful of smaller ships, but such things are hardly common and would immediately mark the owner as someone hugely rich and powerful. A small merchant ship might be a kilometre long as anything much smaller wouldn't be able to carry enough cargo to turn a profit, even if it was dealing in high value cargo rather than bulk. And a smaller warship wouldn't be able to carry enough firepower to have any impact, not if it was also going to have warp engines, shields etc.

I do like the basic design of the ship though, so would suggest scaling it up, making it about the size of a Cobra Destroyer with a crew to match - it'd still be considered a small ship but not so unusually small that it's owner would immediately attract attention.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Shannow on August 22, 2010, 12:33:50 PM
Quote from: Koval on August 22, 2010, 09:16:09 AM
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on August 22, 2010, 01:56:12 AM
Quote from: Jamas Orian on August 20, 2010, 02:48:48 PMActually, I can blame Marco's superbly written background and IC posts...
What? The crap I write? ::)
It's not crap! You could probably make money off of it if you wanted to.

Don't say that! He might begin charging us to read his profiles....
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Jamas Orian on August 22, 2010, 02:01:48 PM
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on August 22, 2010, 01:56:12 AM
What? The crap I write? ::)

Yes ;)

Quote from: Kaled on August 22, 2010, 11:35:52 AM
I'm not sure I buy the idea of an Imperial ship as small as this. Warp capable ships are almost invariably huge things measuring the best part of a kilometre in length at the very least with a crew of many thousands. The Holy Ordos do seem to maintain a handful of smaller ships, but such things are hardly common and would immediately mark the owner as someone hugely rich and powerful. A small merchant ship might be a kilometre long as anything much smaller wouldn't be able to carry enough cargo to turn a profit, even if it was dealing in high value cargo rather than bulk. And a smaller warship wouldn't be able to carry enough firepower to have any impact, not if it was also going to have warp engines, shields etc.

I do like the basic design of the ship though, so would suggest scaling it up, making it about the size of a Cobra Destroyer with a crew to match - it'd still be considered a small ship but not so unusually small that it's owner would immediately attract attention.

Having done some research, I have infact found that Cobras are indeed the 'smallest independent warship' of the Imperium. Not so sure on independant transports though.

My main reason for wanting the ship to be relatively small is so that I don't have 1000+ crew members to worry about, in addition to the warband themselves.

How -do- smaller interplanetary ships get about anyway?
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Koval on August 22, 2010, 02:46:23 PM
The same way warships do. A Warp drive in a smaller ship like yours probably takes up most of its volume.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Jamas Orian on August 22, 2010, 03:43:38 PM
Quote from: Koval on August 22, 2010, 02:46:23 PM
The same way warships do. A Warp drive in a smaller ship like yours probably takes up most of its volume.

Ahh... that's an idea. If say, I had the back 3 fifths of the thing taken up entirely by engines and gellar field, and the front 2 fiths taken up by cargo hold, I could have a relatively small number of people manning the dorsal areas?
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Kaled on August 22, 2010, 03:47:26 PM
Rogue Trader has info on all sorts of
merchant ships, but none are exactly small. If you don't want many crew then I'd make it a non-warp capable ship that hitches a ride on a large warp capable transport to get itself to the right system, then makes it's own way to whichever planet or station is it's final destination.

How big do you see this ship being?
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Kaled on August 22, 2010, 04:02:46 PM
The problem with just two fifths being cargo and crew areas is who would build and operate a ship like that? It would be almost as expensive as a larger ship as it would have all the systems but not have the capacity to do anything useful. As I said before, the owner would have to be hugely rich and powerful - to say that a ship like that would be worth it's weight in gold would be an understatement. And I'm still doubtful you'd get the crew numbers down to the figures you're talking about. A frigate has 22000 crew, even if your ship is a quarter that size and was unarmed it'd still need 3000-4000 crew.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Koval on August 22, 2010, 04:15:34 PM
Quote from: Kaled on August 22, 2010, 04:02:46 PM
The problem with just two fifths being cargo and crew areas is who would build and operate a ship like that? It would be almost as expensive as a larger ship as it would have all the systems but not have the capacity to do anything useful. As I said before, the owner would have to be hugely rich and powerful - to say that a ship like that would be worth it's weight in gold would be an understatement. And I'm still doubtful you'd get the crew numbers down to the figures you're talking about. A frigate has 22000 crew, even if your ship is a quarter that size and was unarmed it'd still need 3000-4000 crew.
He could just say most of them are servitors, to be fair. And who's to say the ship didn't live its former life as a pilgrim transport?
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Kaled on August 22, 2010, 04:51:54 PM
Maybe it was a pilgrim transport, but if I was transporting a cargo like that I'd get a ship that had loads of cargo space compared to space taken up by essential systems. Not something sleek that looks like a small warship.

Yep, you could have a crew made up of mostly servitors with a smaller number of humans. You'd need a huge number of them as servitors are usually mono-task, and you'd need people with the technical skill to program and maintain them. Again it's not impossible, but is highly unusual and would mark the owner out as someone rich and powerful. A pressed crew is far cheaper and easier than a crew of servitors.

There are a few examples of small warp capable ships in the canon, one only needing a two man crew, but they were owned and operated by the Ordos - an organisation with the power and wealth to construct such impractical ships. For practically everyone else a small warp capable ship means one almost a kilometre long with a crew of many thousands.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Koval on August 22, 2010, 08:23:59 PM
Quote from: Kaled on August 22, 2010, 04:51:54 PM
Maybe it was a pilgrim transport, but if I was transporting a cargo like that I'd get a ship that had loads of cargo space compared to space taken up by essential systems. Not something sleek that looks like a small warship.
OK, bad example, but it's not impossible that there are going to be slightly-smaller-than-standard transports of some description out there.

QuoteYep, you could have a crew made up of mostly servitors with a smaller number of humans. You'd need a huge number of them as servitors are usually mono-task, and you'd need people with the technical skill to program and maintain them. Again it's not impossible, but is highly unusual and would mark the owner out as someone rich and powerful. A pressed crew is far cheaper and easier than a crew of servitors.
Barring those that actually supply the servitors and technical staff (whether Adeptus Mechanicus or laity), who's going to know?

QuoteThere are a few examples of small warp capable ships in the canon, one only needing a two man crew, but they were owned and operated by the Ordos - an organisation with the power and wealth to construct such impractical ships. For practically everyone else a small warp capable ship means one almost a kilometre long with a crew of many thousands.
In that case, maybe it is a ship operated by the Ordos. In fact, it is by no means an impossibility that the ship in question is just a very small Inquisition Blackship -- if you want to remain low-key until absolutely necessary, then it's definitely one option.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: DapperAnarchist on August 22, 2010, 08:54:58 PM
Something that hasn't been mentioned much here is the option of lift-hitching - not so much comandeering a vessel, but having your own sub-light craft (that may well be faster at sub-light than most Warpships) that simply hangs on, inside the Gellar Envelope, and is carried from system to system by whatever ships happen to be going that way.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Kaled on August 22, 2010, 09:33:13 PM
Maybe it is a smaller than usual transport, maybe it is a ship belonging to the Ordos - I never said such things didn't exist - and if that's the sort of thing the OP wants then fair enough, I was just pointing out that such things are very unusual.

As for a ship crewed by servitors, again I never said it wasn't possible but again it's unusual and such a ship would have a very different supply chain to one with a crew. Again if the OP wants that sort of a ship then fair enough, but it's hardly a ship with a crew of just 100 - it has a much larger crew as well as needing very specialised support.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Heroka Vendile on August 22, 2010, 10:28:48 PM
I personally prefer personal yachts, capable of interplanetary travel and surface-landing, while also being able to dock with or go completely inside far larger ships for system-to-system travel.
I can see the design in the OP being of a small enough size to fill this category, which would result in a far smaller crew compliment, with the caveat of being pretty much useless for space-combat due to it's relatively small size.

Note that this isn't to say that i disagree with everything else that has been covered in this topic, there is nothing wrong with Inquisitors having warships or always travelling incognito.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Morcus on August 23, 2010, 01:43:19 AM
Alot of the Ships in Dan Abnetts Ravenor and Eisenhorn series seem to have quite small crews. The number of Crew shouldn't be determined by the size of the ship, more by its function. A warship will need alot more crew because the ship itself does more, they need Gunners, Loaders, engineers and such and all sorts of other militry type guys. Also they need more people to look  after the Crew than a smaller, no combatant ship would.

I also Prefer the having a sublight craft and tagging along with larger craft from system to System.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: N01H3r3 on August 23, 2010, 08:27:05 AM
Quote from: Jamas Orian on August 22, 2010, 03:43:38 PMAhh... that's an idea. If say, I had the back 3 fifths of the thing taken up entirely by engines and gellar field, and the front 2 fiths taken up by cargo hold, I could have a relatively small number of people manning the dorsal areas?
The issue there being that you need people (namely tech-priests and the accompanying servitors) to maintain the engines and other arcane and sophisticated devices, aside from the regular crew of the ship. A 'relatively small' number of people could still end up meaning several thousand men.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Flinty on August 23, 2010, 11:53:44 AM
If you really want a 'small' crew - say under 50 or so, then fluff wise it would have to be a non-warp capable ship - ie standard intersystem space travel only.

Such a ship would then require transport on a larger vessel to move between systems - hardly a problem - but would still provide your Inquisitor with localised personal transport, storage and living space etc.

I do echo the view that in an age when only the Navy and a very small number of industrial congolomerates or traders have the resources to build new ships, the chances of any number of people having access to one of the (presumably dwindling) limited number of smaller ships without paying for it (whichever way that may be) must be tiny, tiny, slim.

Yep they are Inquisitors and it could be that they inherited the ship from a mentor, stole it or whatever. I think of the 2 and a half warbands I have in production, only one has access to a ship and thats because he's a pirate. The others will hitch lifts, pay for passage or hijack/commandeer as necessary.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Macabre on August 23, 2010, 11:53:58 PM
I think the problem is that we have diametrically opposing examples within canon and mythos. On the one hand, you have Jaq Draco's ship, which was warp capable, but is only size of a gun cutter/aquilla lander, and on the other, you have older sources (Codex Imperialis springs to mind) stating that warp drives are the size of a small city. Inquisitor Richter Kartheim for example 'owns' a former medicae transport called 'Schadenfreud', its warp capable but is one of the smallest class of ship from BFG and has limited armaments.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Jamas Orian on August 24, 2010, 02:03:58 AM
If the ship was small enough, I'm certain that it wouldn't need the arms to fend off capital ships and escorts. Simply because the primary weapons that ships that size mount would be extremely unwieldy against a target like that, and their turrets would be far too short-ranged.

I think for the size of what I'm after, hitching a lift with other ships is the way to go. Before this thread I did have absolutely no idea at all about the size and/or scalability of a warp drive. I'd certainly not wish to go parading about in an upfront inone's face manner with a ship the szie of a small city :P

How about if the thing was a 'generic' imperial intra system transporter, outwardly none too dissimilar to ones that would ferry people/goods/colonits/etc.?
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Dexter on August 24, 2010, 03:18:03 AM
Quote from: Macabre on August 23, 2010, 11:53:58 PM
I think the problem is that we have diametrically opposing examples within canon and mythos. On the one hand, you have Jaq Draco's ship, which was warp capable, but is only size of a gun cutter/aquilla lander, and on the other, you have older sources (Codex Imperialis springs to mind) stating that warp drives are the size of a small city. Inquisitor Richter Kartheim for example 'owns' a former medicae transport called 'Schadenfreud', its warp capable but is one of the smallest class of ship from BFG and has limited armaments.

Is Draco really a reliable source to go by at this point though?  It seems like GW has retconned every plot device out of it.
I think the idea of having a non-warp-capable ship that hitches rides with warp-capable ships is your best way to go.  When I was designing my Inquisitor, I quickly came to the conclusion that him having a warp-capable ship to call his own would be way too much of a headache for him to have to be responsible for.
Title: Re: Inquisitors' personal ships.
Post by: Kaled on August 24, 2010, 08:27:51 AM
I don't think the small ships operated by the Ordos in things like Grey Knights and Draco are a problem. I don't think it's that you can't have a miniaturised warp drive (i.e. smaller than a city block) built into a custom made small ship, more that such a thing is expensive beyond words - far too costly for anyone who has to worry about money to be able to afford, and far too small to ever make any return or be of any use. Thus such things are probably restricted to a handful owned by the Inquisition who don't worry about such things. The small ship no doubt has other drawbacks too - range, maintenance, spares etc.