Profit Factor and Acquisitions

Profit Factor is a measure of how wealthy the Rogue Trader dynasty is. It is a party attribute used to purchase items and for throwing wealth around.

Wealth not strictly in vaults of shimmering coins; in land, deals, profitable interests, artifacts, services, and privileges.

Acquisitions

To buy something available in a market, test against your Profit Factor. Some things won't be available and you can't buy it. Other things might only be available in limited quantities.

Roll 1d100. If you roll less than your modified Profit Factor, you obtain the item in the quantity and Craftsmanship you desired. If the modified Profit Factor is ever equal to 100 or more, you automatically succeed the roll. If the modified Profit Factor is ever equal to 0 or less, the roll is automatically failed.

After an acquisition roll has been made for a certain type of item, there is a delay before the same Acquisition Roll can be made again. This period is 1 month plus the unmodified Transaction Time of the item's Availability. Thus, if a party attempted and failed to purchase bolters to arm a marine platoon, they cannot attempt to purchase bolters in that market or planet again for a month and two weeks. Certain difficult-to-find items may only be purchased once, or may even only be offered once.

Acquisition Roll Modifiers

Four aspects of an acquisition modify the roll: Availability of the item, Scale of the acquisition, the Craftsmanship of the item, and the type of item.

Availability Modifier

Each item has an Availability, indicating how widespread and common it is in the Imperium. These are general markers of complexity, usability, and easy of manufacture, but they don't guarantee availability in any particular place. A Rogue Trader would be hard-pressed to find widely available lasguns on a feral world, while even an advanced xenos race might not have human-usable technology.

Scale Modifier

The amount of items being purchased can also affect how difficult the purchase is. Certain items are unaffected by the scale of the purchase.

Craftsmanship Modifier

The Craftsmanship of an item also can affect the ease of acquisition. See the Craftsmanship section for more information.

Item Type

All vehicles have an additional -10 penalty to Acquisition rolls.

Starship components: Their availability is always determined by their SP cost. They receive no benefit from Scale.

Archeotech Components are always Extremely Rare; Xenotech Components are always Near Unique.

Military units have additional modifiers based on the technology level of the unit's home planet, its type, and its equipment. These modifiers are explained in that section.

Acquisition Time

Each Acquisition takes a certain time to pursue, based on the Availability, Scale, and Craftsmanship. During this time, it is a assumed that one character is going through the market, making contacts, striking deals, and pursuing the acquisition. During this time, a character cannot partake in other activities, and if they are interrupted, they will have to resume spending the time where they left off. The party may concurrently pursue a number of Acquisitions equal to the number of player characters in the session. Otherwise, the time for each acquisition will need to be made sequentially.

With local knowledge or reliable partners, this time may be further reduced or eliminated.

Availability sets the base time required to acquire an item. This time is modified by the modifiers listed for the Craftsmanship and Availability, and these modifiers are multiplicative. The Acquisition time can never be less than 1 hour.

Upkeep Tests

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Craftsmanship

The galaxy of the forty-first millennium is one of artisans and bespoke construction as much as it is factories and mass-manufacturing. All items have a Craftsmanship rating (Best, Common, or Poor), representing how much effort, quality, and care was put into its construction. Best-Craftsmanship items might be handmade by skilled artisans in limited batches, using only the finest materials and secrets passed down master to apprentice. On the other hand, the hive worlds and forge worlds of the Imperium pump out plenty of Poor-Craftsmanship items, trading reliability for cheapness and speed.

While every Rogue Trader would wish for only the finest things in life, they must reckon that even their vast wealth has limits. When it comes to their own equipment, they might be able to afford the best gear, but when it comes to equipping retainers and troops, compromises to quality may be necessary. As shown in the Acquisitions sections, Poor equipment is slightly easier to acquire, and Best gear is much harder.

The mechanical impact of craftsmanship is determined by the type of equipment. In all cases, unless otherwise noted, Common items operate and have the listed statistics as shown in their sections.

Weapon Craftsmanship

• Best: +2 to attack rolls and +1 to damage (including Shock damage). The weapon is finely balanced and tuned for increased lethality.
• Poor: -2 to attack rolls and -1 to damage. The weapon is unbalanced, prone to jamming and failure, and lacks punch due to shoddy construction.
• Note: Weapons with the Gets Hot! quality that are Poor-Craftsmanship meltdown on a roll of 1-4.

Armor Craftsmanship

• Best: +1 to AC, -1 Shock Damage (min. 0). The armor is contoured and fitted to the wearer, allowing for increased protection while maintaining mobility.
• Poor: +1 Enc. The armor is ill-fitting and heavy, or patched together from mismatched components.

Other Craftsmanship

Other items can also have Craftsmanship. This section will be updated as general Craftsmanship rules for other items (vehicles, starship components, servitors, drugs, etc.) are added. Certain items, such as adventuring gear, will list out the effects of Craftsmanship for those particular items.

Craftsmanship can also affect items in ways not covered by their mechanical implications; view these rules as a starting point, not the only application. Best-Craftsmanship items are more likely to survive harsh conditions or rough handling, while Poor-Craftsmanship items might break easily. On the margin, Best-Craftsmanship items might bypass skill rolls while Poor-Craftsmanship items might give a skill roll penalty. A Best-Craftsmanship item might impress an NPC, a Poor-Craftsmanship item might offend. Players are encouraged to invoke the Craftsmanship of items (theirs or their opponents') when negotiating risks and results with the GM.

Encumbrance

Gear has encumbrance, measured in points, as exampled in the table below. The more awkward or bulky the object, the greater the encumbrance. The GM adjudicates ambiguous objects.

Gear is either Stowed or Readied. Stowed gear is packed away carefully in pockets, packs, and harnesses. It’s easier to carry but harder to quickly access. Using Stowed gear requires that the bearer take a Main Action to pull it out before using it. Readied gear is carried in hands, holsters, quick-access pockets, or other easily-accessible places. It can be used as part of an action without any further preparation.

A character can carry a total number of Stowed encumbrance points equal to their Strength score. They can carry a number of Readied points equal to half their Strength, rounded down. Thus, a PC with a Strength score of 11 could carry 11 points of Stowed gear and 5 points of Readied.

PCs can haul much heavier objects if necessary. If they push their limits for longer terms, they can carry an additional two Ready and four Stowed items. The first time they do this, their Move speed is cut from 10 meters to 7 meters. The second time, it’s cut from 7 meters to 5 meters. More weight than this can’t be practically hauled over significant distances.

Bundled Gear

Small, regularly-shaped objects such as oil flasks, potion bottles, rations, and torches can be wrapped into bundles for easier portability. These items are marked with a "#". Three such items can be tied into a bundle that only counts as one item of encumbrance. Breaking into this bundle takes an extra Main Action, however.

Bulk Weights

Sometimes the PCs need to transport bulk amounts of goods that are measured in pounds. When it’s necessary to convert these weights into encumbrance points, a GM can just assume that fifty pounds is worth about ten points of encumbrance to a PC hauling a pack out on their back.

Tonnage

Some equipment have their encumbrance appended with a "t". These items are so heavy that they are measured in Imperial metric tons. These pieces of equipment typically have to be carried by teams or vehicles. Vehicles with carrying capacity will list the total tons they can carry.

Weapons

Ranged Weapons

* Burst Fire
# Fire to Suppress
$ Gets Hot!
^ Vehicle Instakill
° Blast
@ The weapon takes two Main Actions to reload.

A ranged weapon can be Primitive, Las, Projectile, Explosive, or Energy, and can also be Heavy. These types affect the ammo used, and what Grievous Injuries a victim receives.

• Primitive: Primitive weapons deal no damage to Power Armor.
• Las: All las weapons grant +1 to hit. Las weapons use up a Type A Power Cell as 1 magazine.
• Projectile: All projectile weapons have their own types of ammo.
• Energy: Energy weapons use a Type A Power Cell as 1 magazine.
• Explosive: Explosive weapons have their own type of ammo. Where the magazine is listed is "-", each weapon is used up after an attack.
• Heavy: Heavy weapons must be mounted or braced before being fired. The wielder cannot move and fire them, or fire and move. Heavy weapons ignore Basic vehicle armor when dealing damage to vehicles. Heavy Las and Heavy Energy weapons use Type B power cells.

Special Rules

• Burst Fire: Use three rounds of ammunition, get +2 to hit and damage.
• Fire to Suppress: Use double ammunition. Every target out of hard cover in the gun's arc must make an Evasion saving throw or take half damage.
• Gets Hot!: On a unmodified roll of 1 or 2 to hit, the weapon Gets Hot! Searing jets of plasma issue forth from the weapon and may injure the wielder. The gun's wielder makes an Evasion save to drop the weapon. If they fail, they are hit by the weapon and take damage normally; if they succeed, they take half damage instead. A Poor-Craftsmanship weapon Gets Hot! on a roll of 1-4.
• Vehicle Instakill: These weapons are designed to destroy and disable vehicles. When they hit a vehicle, roll a 1d10+Shoot. On an 8+, the vehicle is instantly wrecked. Otherwise, damage is applied as normal.
• Blast: These weapons always roll to attack AC 10. On a miss, the weapon lands 1d10/2d10 meters away (for normal and heavy weapons, respectively) from the target. Then, everything within the blast radius is hit for the damage listed, with an Evasion save for half damage. Frag grenades and mortars have a radius of 5 meters and demo charges have a radius of 20 meters. Targets in a blast take 1 less point of damage for each point of AC above 13.

Melee Weapons

Where not noted otherwise, all weapons function as their SWN counterparts.

Melee weapons are distinguished by their tech level: Primitive or Advanced.

Primitive weapons can't harm targets in Power Armor.

Advanced weapons treat Armor with a TL of "Primitive" as AC 10.
While Advanced melee weapons do use energy in-fiction, it is assumed they do not expend a meaningful charge during battle and continue to function unless their wielders are totally cut off from power for a day.

Shock

Some melee weapons inflict Shock on a missed attack roll. This damage reflects the inevitable harm a poorly-armored combatant suffers when engaging in armed combat. Shock for a weapon is recorded as a point value and target Armor Class, such as “Shock 2/15”. If the wielder misses a target with this weapon that has a Armor Class equal or less than the weapon’s Shock rating, they suffer the listed amount of damage anyway. Thus, if that weapon were to miss a victim with AC 13, it would still do 2 points of damage.

Some attacks apply Shock on a miss regardless of the target’s Armor Class. This benefit may be granted by certain abilities, or it may be part of a dangerous NPC’s talents. Such Shock ratings are recorded with “-” as the affected AC, such as “Shock 5/-”. This automatic Shock is still negated by cyber or abilities that grant a subject immunity to Shock.

The only modifiers that add to Shock damage are the wielder’s relevant attribute modifier for the weapon and any damage bonuses that explicitly add to Shock.

Specific Weapon Rules

• Flamer: Instead of an attack roll, the intended victim makes an Evasion saving throw to dive clear, otherwise suffering an automatic 2d8 damage at the start of each round. The victim can use their Move action to try to stifle the flames with an Evasion save. Flamers can be fired to suppress but even targets under cover must save.
• Grenade Launcher: This weapon can shoot either frag or krak grenades, and deals the damage listed in those entries. The entire magazine must be the same type of grenade.
• Heavy Flamer: As Flamer, but deals 5d4 damage instead.
• Hellgun, Hellpistol: Both weapons treat a target's armor equipment as granting AC 10.
• Long-las: When used to make an Execution Attack, the target is instantly killed with no chance for stabilization.
• Meltagun, Multi-Melta: Both Melta weapons ignore vehicle armor and treat a target's armor equipment as granting AC 10.
• Power Fist: This weapon ignores Basic vehicle armor.
• Shock Staff: This weapon deals non-lethal damage. When this weapon deals damage to a target, that target must make a Physical saving throw (with a bonus equal to AC - 10.) On a failure, the target is stunned for the next round.
• Suit Ripper: Every hit with a suit ripper tears open a voidsuit.

Armor

Where not noted otherwise, all armor function as their SWN counterparts.

There are three types of armor:

• Street Armor: Armor that can be worn openly in most places. Typically made of materials that are easy to integrate into normal clothing.
• Combat Armor: Armor specifically designed to survive battlefields. If you wear this around, people will assume you are looking for trouble.
• Power Armor: The pinnacle of Imperial armor. Requires one Type B Power Cell per twenty-four hours of operation. Functions as a void suit as well. Immune to primitive melee weapons and unarmed attacks.

Specific Armor Rules

• Armored Undersuit: a skin-tight bodysuit woven of rare xeno-fibers with exceptional shock-activated rigidity and impact dispersion capabilities. Transparent panels and the thinness of the mesh allow for it to be worn with almost any outfit without drawing notice or being detected without a close tactile examination.
• Armored Voidsuit: In addition to providing protection, it functions as a normal voidsuit. It has half the usual chance to tear from an edged weapon or suit ripper.
• Synskin: A bio-reactive bodyglove with an inert surface. It renders its wearer invisible to thermal vision and similar effects. When worn on its own, it also provides the listed AC and a +1 to Sneak skill checks.
• Warpaint: The common term for the bizarre combat fashions and scrap-built street harness of gangers, cult enforcers, street toughs, and other marginal sorts with little money but much need for protection. Most warpaint is fashioned of scrounged scraps of other advanced armors, filled out with gang colors, body paint, intimidating tattoos, and the usual threatening grimace. It is often exceedingly impractical but inspirational to its wearer; an NPC in warpaint that is meaningful to them gains a +1 Morale bonus. Most warpaint is either pieced together over years or taken from the dead. The Availability indicates the difficult in actually purchasing a finished suit, assuming someone can be found willing to part with theirs.

Cybernetics

Mechadendrites are operated as Drones, except controlling a Mechadendrite only requires a Move Action, rather than a Main Action. Controlling a Mechadendrite with Servitor Control Link only requires an On Turn action.

Adventuring Equipment

Descriptions of the adventuring equipment can be found, listed in alphabetical order, here.

Gear

Tools

Ammo and Power

Anima Machinae

Drugs

Consumables

Servitors

Servitors are operated as Drones, per the Stars Without Number Core Rulebook pp. 80.

Vehicles

Light Vehicles

Heavy Vehicles

Flyers

Military Units

A Rogue Trader and their entourage may be well-armed, but there come challenges to a crew that cannot be solved by a three to eight combatants, no matter how skilled and equipped.

A Rogue Trader is permitted to raise household troops for their protection and armies for colonial conquest, so long as it is for benefit of the greater Imperium.¹ Before raising military units, the Rogue Trader must designate a character to be a Marshal for their House (which can be the Rogue Trader themselves if they feel sufficiently martial, or an NPC.) This Marshal determines how many independent, maneuver units the House can operate, equal to their Leadership score. The Marshal's Leadership score is equal to 4, plus twice the better of their Lead and Administer skill levels (with -1 for lacked skills), plus the best of their INT, WIS, and CHA modifiers.

Military Unit Statistics

A military unit has several statistics:

• Size
• Type
• Equipment
• Origin Polity
• Quality

Unit Size

The size of the military unit reflects how much manpower it has. As units increase in size, the manpower does not necessarily equal the constituents units 1:1. This is because larger units require more support and organization, provided by an increasingly long "tail" of staff and support officers, included in its manpower count.

Individual Units of Battalion size or smaller can be transported aboard most Rogue Trader starships without issue (except for the natural friction between voidsmen and troopers.) Units of Brigade size or larger require a Barracks fitting equal to the number of their constituent Brigades to be transported on a starship. Larger units than Divisions exist, but are typically only fielded by polities, or given to Rogue Traders as part of an alliance with an Adepta or other Imperial Peer. A unit of greater than Division size may not be purchased as part of an Acquisition Roll under most circumstances.

A military unit of Battalion size or larger can participate in Warfare. See the Warfare section for details, as units of this size are combined and organized slightly differently.

Type

The unit's type determines its combat role and the support abilities

Origin Polity

The technological development of the origin polity affects the equipment the unit can use, and the types of units that can be recruited. However, it is generally easier to recruit and raise units from more primitive worlds.

Equipment Designation

Different units can be distinguished by the type and amount of equipment they carry. Units can have their equipment designated as Light, Medium, or Heavy. Light units are scouts and skirmishers with small weapons who emphasize maneuverability over firepower. Heavy units have the biggest weapons and heaviest armor, but are not as mobile. Medium strikes a balance between the two.

Quality

A troop's Quality affects their morale and their individual statistics.

Military Unit Equipment

A military unit that a Rogue Trader house raises has standard equipment based on the development of the origin polity and the equipment designation. Note that all cavalry come with mounts appropriate to their culture, either horses or their xeno-equivalent.

If a Rogue Trader crew wishes to equip their forces with anything but the standard equipment, they must make Acquisition Rolls for this equipment as normal, and based on how widespread they wish this equipment to be. For example, if a Rogue Trader has a platoon of Infantry and wants to add extra firepower, they can purchase enough for one fireteam in the unit, using the modifier for that scale instead.

If the Rogue Trader purchases Poor-Craftsmanship equipment for their their troops, their morale is decreased by 1. Best-Craftsmanship Equipment increases Morale by 1.

Feral

Feudal

Industrial

Technological

Modern

Other Military Units

These rules govern military units raised and equipped by the Rogue Trader. Units granted from allies or Imperial Guard regiments will have their own special equipment and combinations.