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Inquisitorial Ships

Started by Vladilek, August 18, 2011, 06:18:41 AM

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Kaled

That sounds familiar Knobby - where's that from?
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

Knobby2

Oddly enough this conversation got me reading my bfg books, its from the armada expansion theres a few pages about bastion fleets, and the need for a large pool of reserve ships readily available

Battle fleet cadia and agrippna are the biggest fleets, with over 150 ships each but this is as they are bastion fleets guarding the biggest warp routes

Kaled

Ah yes - I was flicking through the BFG files looking for info but hadn't got as far as the Armarda stuff. I bought the Battlefleet Koronus book for Rogue Trader but confess I haven't really read it - I have had a quick flick through and it looks like it has loads of useful information for Inquisitors with ships, Navy characters and the like.
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

Dolnikan

Thanks for posting that, it greatly clarifies things. So basically warships don't get fully decommissioned, only put into the reserve, making that route hard as well.
Circles of the wise My attempt at writing something, please comment on it if you have any advise.

Knobby2

the only ship i can 100% say is permanently decommissioned is the emperor class battleship named the lord solar macharius (dont quote me on the name)

it is anchored over the planet that macharius died upon and is his final resting place, it is the only ship too be decommissioned 100% that i know of and even then only because it was a warship named in his honor that was also his flag ship,

In very severe cases ships could be decommissioned but again ive only heard of it I dont know of any ships or information of it actually happening, I once read that a ship lost for over x amount of years can be classed as a decomm also a ship where repair costs out weigh it use will usually see it decomm and maybe in a very rare case a very wealthy person might be able too buy a frigate or destroyer , many ships outside of the merchant fleet (cargo ships) are hereditary, passed down with the great names of houses who can trace their ancestory back too the age of the crusades and fought at the emperors side, their ships are relics and were usually gifted too the family name for some great valorous deed, most cases they would be great victories in the emperors name, finding a rare STC or possibly saving a high ranking imperial lord from the crusade times

Koval

#65
There's also a bit in the background of the Sabre (Rogue Trader core rulebook pg.211) which mentions how it was more or less bought from the breaker's yard. The Measured Response (Into The Storm pg.166) was also decommissioned after only two and a half centuries (and then bought privately).

There's a fair amount of fluff in Battlefleet Koronus about where ships come from, for what it's worth, so questions of ownership aside, the notion that a particular ship exists isn't all that difficult to justify.

---

On ownership: Seeing as Marco and Dolnikan have gone through which of their characters owns what, I'll do the same for those of mine that I still use.

Eliesa Schwertwald (mentioned above) has her Dictator, the Quietus, though she's fully aware that it's on permanent loan rather than actually belonging to her. It came from her sector's Conclave, and will no doubt return to the sector Conclave when she dies.

Ottakar Grant (last seen in an RP from two years ago) "acquired" his Cobra, the Dragonfly, after its previous owner -- Inquisitor Asgeir Yngvesson -- went rogue and made the mistake of attacking the above sector Conclave. I never expanded on where it came from originally, though considering that Yngvesson had something of a superiority complex, it's likely that it was originally a Navy vessel and that Yngvesson just didn't care about the Navy losing a ship.

Rosheine Macauley (from Lines Drawn and Vanity) also "acquired" her Cobra, His Resolve, after its previous owner met a grisly end. In this case, however, she was the aggressor, murdering another Inquisitor when he got too close to finding out who she was. She then went on a full-scale purge of the ship's crew, and sod the amount of time/money/other resources needed to do that because it helped her cover her tracks. She used to own a bigger ship (a Sword called the Eye of the Emperor, which was bought privately) up until an accident in the ship's generarium tore it out from under her, which probably makes her the only character I currently use for whom I've detailed two ships.

Madoc Haines (Defiant Echoes) hitched a ride with Marco's character Riley Hallona to get to where he needed to go, as he doesn't own a ship. Considering what happened to him on board the Asculum, I doubt he'll ever invest in one.

Gelert Hesh (background-character for the moment) owns a stealth/prison ship called the Camberai, which is privately owned and, as ships go, really small at just over 1.2km long. Hesh uses it to keep heretics/witches in cryo-storage or stasis. It's only very lightly armed, though, so he'll requisition Navy vessels when he needs something with actual firepower (and only for as long as he needs them, although he's fairly militant so this happens more frequently than the Navy finds comfortable)

Fabian Filipowski (background-character for the time being) does not have his own ship; although he has his designs on an impounded Sword called the Colline Gamma (formerly owned by yet another renegade), it's not likely to be unimpounded any time soon and will probably end up in the Carthaxian Conclave's possession when it does get released.

Other characters I've not mentioned are either non-Inquisition (Commodore Vargas) or antagonists (Zagan), so they have their own reasons for having ships.

Knobby2

Ive gotta buy that book,

Its a matter for your gaming group i think as too wether your inquisitor has a ship, if your main group leader is a rogue trader and he doesnt have a ship then its either a damn shame or youve forgotten something, but groups might see it as he has frigate x, so ill take light cruiser y, but then hes going too take grand cruiser z, and it eventually becomes a paper arms race if players fall into the trap

a good gm can carefully monitor this though

Akuro Adenn

The sad thing is that unless they're renegade, there is absolutely no need for that arms race. It would be nothing more than a mindless circle jerk as to who has the bigger ship. If they want to do ship combat, they can play BFG, or use the Rogue Trader rules for it.

Dolnikan

There might not be a need for it, but such arms races can come intgo being very quickly, mostly because people don't want their characters be less than those of another player. Such things can easily escalate to an immense degree. Back in the day when I still played 40k such a thing happened in our group, with everyone detailing the massive resources of their own commander, and everyone claiming to have greater resources/powers/etc than all the others. It even went as far as saying that the battles we fought were irrelevant because their leader would just do X when they lost and win anyway.

In our group we have one character who even owns multiple ships, but she has in the years that she has been in use grown to be a rogue trader of immense power, coming from a powerful dynasty and descending directly from a saint. she has stakes in many industries across the sector. But by all other players she also is considered to be the single most evil and amoral character we have going in our games. Her flagship is an ancient Grand Cruiser from the crusade era which is enormously overdecorated with golden ornaments, both on the inside and the outside. Added to that she also has a small fleet of smaller vessels, mostly transports, which are the base of her wealth. But this of course never really comes up in games, it is mostly part of her fairly extensive background, which also contains many relatives(such as her only surviving brother, a famous fashion designer).

This shows that is is not a big thread if a character is depicted as having enormous background power, for instance, a Lord Inquisitor will also be a tremendously powerful individual capable of calling on whole warfleets when the need is there. But, even an Inquisitor Lord will not take a large ship to serve as a base of operations for a long time, of course, he or she can set up camp on such a ship when the need is there, such as while hunting space-based heretics, but afterwards the ship will be left behind again.
Circles of the wise My attempt at writing something, please comment on it if you have any advise.

Koval

The problem, though, is not the power that the character itself has, so much as it is the question of the owner's responsibility and/or adherence to fluff and common sense. I'd have absolutely no problem with a character like the above Rogue Trader so long as the owning player knows what he or she is doing.

Knobby2

I agree with koval, but a lot of people who get involved in an arms race dont have the common sense, respect for fluff or sensability to do it fair and right

Dolnikan

That is true, and that is why there is one vital question one should always ask oneself: Why does my character need this power, what does it add except for more power?

That usually is enough to throw out plenty of over the top things, often such big things are merely tacked onto the character because they are cool but they form no essential part of it.
Circles of the wise My attempt at writing something, please comment on it if you have any advise.