Hey Rogue Trader fans!

This week I present a guest Designer Diary from writer Sam Stewart. Sam talks about working on the Starships chapter for Rogue Trader, so definitely give it a look!

+++++Her armoured prow and multiple void shields mean she is all but impervious to lesser foes, and her macrocannon broadsides can devastate an opponent in a few well-aimed salvoes. However, the Sovereign Venture is more than just a warship—she is a five plus kilometer long emissary of the Imperium to the Expanse. Her hull is covered in statues and engravings of the God-Emperor a hundred metres high, so that all who see her knows where her captain’s allegiance lies. Alongside her cargo holds are Ministorium temples and barracks capable of transporting an entire regiment. When the Sovereign Venture arrives over a heathen world, its rulers are left with a stark choice: submit to the rule of the Imperium, or be destroyed.+++++

<Polite applause>

Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you write GW fluff text.

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And just imagine the hardware The Deathwatch must get to play with!

:-)

Thanks, Ross!  A little more crunch this time.

It's nice to now have an idea where RT is set (Koronus Expanse).

And at least an idea of starship construction with Components and Complications.

Definitely like the write up on the Sovereign Venture.

Now I'm looking forward to future updates!

So far, so good.  I, for one, am looking forward to the shipbuilding system.  I like how he went on to say that  the ships will have personality.

And the other poster mentioned, "more crunch".  Excellent, thanks.  I think it was a well-written diary giving concrete expectations without hard and fast commitments to details which was perfect.

Thanks!

Definitely looking forward to seeing how the system for this breaks down. I'm assuming it's open and customisable for additions (see future supplements).

This book is looking better by the minute  and that Sovereign Venture is one impressive ship; and at 5km she is almost Battleship size (as per BFG).  More please!!

DW

GenCon can not come too quickly. I haven't been this excited about a game for years!

Excellent Diary, and I love the way he specifically addressed the concerns of the community, meaning that you're paying attention to us.

Excellent work, excellent diary, and I can't wait to see Rogue Trader in action.

Maybe I missed something, but where is the Koronus Expanse at? Is it in/near the Calixis Sector or is it a new location?

I'm guessing the Koronus Expanse must be inside the Halo Stars? I don't know, that's just speculation. I mean the whole Halo Stars region is much larger than an Imperial Sector, so maybe it's a particularly resource-rich region within the Halo stars. Again, just a guess... 

What I like about this diary is that it's giving some concrete figures abut the size of starships. It actually puts a minimum size on interstellar spacecraft of 1,000 meters: as far as I know this is the first time any 40K setting writer has stuck their neck out and said this outright. It's been a source of speculation amongst fans for ages. 

The general fan view (based upon what Andy Chambers had said ages ago, and a more recent post from Richard Williams, a BL author, on the BL forums) was that a standard Imperial Cruiser was 3 kilometres long. People had extrapolated from this that the smallest interstellar craft was a cobra destroyer, which scaled next to an Imperial cruiser would be about 750 metres long. 

The new designer diaries posit a slightly larger scale for Imperial vessels, but not monumentally so.

Personally, I like this. FFG are actually drawing in all of the vague fluff about starships and establishing some basic ground rules not only about their own system, but about the setting as a whole. I'm getting excited about Rogue Trader!   

In the next designer diary can we get more information on the Koronus Expanse?

Or info on the origins for PCS?

Peacekeeper_b said:

I asked the exact same question over on dark reign asking where the expanse was, and so far no one knows.

I seriously hope its near the Calixis Sector so that I can if I want do a few crossover games with Dark Heresy and Deathwatch when it comes out, without having to rewrite entire swaths of fluff.

Xathess, were I you I would not be worried. 

I can only say right now that the Koronus Expanse and the Calixis Sector are linked in some interesting and unusual ways...

The general fan view (based upon what Andy Chambers had said ages ago, and a more recent post from Richard Williams, a BL author, on the BL forums) was that a standard Imperial Cruiser was 3 kilometres long. People had extrapolated from this that the smallest interstellar craft was a cobra destroyer, which scaled next to an Imperial cruiser would be about 750 metres long. 

I select to see it as a quite reasonable average value for the size of ships, not really the true range.  It's a good value, to be fair, and one that fits into some of the crazy imagery of the 40k universe.

Edit: The stupid quotation system struck again.  Sorry for that.

Kage

It is certainly true that one should use generalisations - huge, vast, titanic etc. when talking about 40kisms, precisely to stop people reading to much in to things...

:-)

Remember, Dezmond, that not everyone sees the 40k universe through the same lens.  To suggest that 40k must be viewed in a certain way is akin to saying that there is only one way of looking at the divine, or only one true god.  It works for some and it's great for them, providing them sustenance and inspiration when required, but to others that same solution is little more than ashes on the tongue.  To them, another way of looking at it is their thing.  Another god?  Many other gods?  No god or gods?  (God is equivalent to goddess herein.)

...And there are even those dastardly people who select to view multiple paradigms.  Where the trappings of one faith or another just doesn't quite fit their own sense—their own... sense.  And on top of that (or beneath it; don't read too much into the directional sense of this!) there are anthropologists.  Dang their nature of being "rudderless in a sea of ecclesiastical possibility."

Huge?  Vast?  Titanic?  Great imagery there!  

On the other hand?  Do you need to remove the meaning for those that select to see it, even if it is between the lines?  Sure, it's their meaning and not yours, but it is meaning nonetheless.  The joy, for me, is the meeting of minds and the discussion.  I'll leave the sermons behind, however.  (The irony here being that it is almost becoming a sermon in and of itself.)

But, pray, continue.  Tell me what to think!  

Kage