Perfect Organism's Warhammer 40,000 conversion thread.

[Sam Baughn]

Originally Posted by PPoS

Hm ok. I was under the impression that they could do as they wished (not counting the trading with aliens and travel outside the Empire), but maybe I mixed them up with Inquisitors (which can do almost as they please, except any crimes against the Emperor and the Empire itself).

I think the first edition Warhammer 40k rulebook had rogue traders commanding entire fleets and effectively being above the law (if for no other reason than the fact that they had more firepower than many planets), but since then they have been toned down a lot. Being ridiculously wealthy and commanding a vessel which allows you to travel beyond the reach of most authorities still gets you a fair amount of leeway of course.

Originally Posted by PPoS

Just out of pure curiosity (and I'm not very familiar with merchant rank); would there be separate merchant ranks for different guilds (or similar), so that anyone with the same merchant rank as a Rogue Trader wouldn't have the same benefits as they [Rogue Traders] have ? There must be some kind of limitation to the other merchant ranks or some kind of enhancements (not strictly GURPS speaking) on the Rogue's rank ?

I'd expect so. Merchant rank in one guild will give you access to that guild's resources and priveledges, much like military rank only gets you access to your army's equipment and intelligence, religious rank only lets you make pronouncements that your faith cares about and so on.