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How often do the civilians get the right to own and drive a space ship?Ships with warp drive are only found in the hands of military,some rich pirates,Mechanicus and Rouge Traders.
Sub-warp ships are fairly common as they are used for trade.

IvanTih wrote:How often do the civilians get the right to own and drive a space ship?Ships with warp drive are only found in the hands of military,some rich pirates,Mechanicus and Rouge Traders.
Sub-warp ships are fairly common as they are used for trade.

You already have the answer. Nothing short of trade or transport vessels are ever given to civilians, and even then it's not uncommon to have some form of authority on the ship.

OK.

NEVER!

kravus master of Horus wrote:NEVER!

And why?

IvanTih wrote:

kravus master of Horus wrote:NEVER!

And why?

Firstly, he's wrong.

Secondly, don't listen to him. He posts about two or three words and never touches a topic again. Another person posting for the sake of posting and getting higher numbers.

Most of the good stuff goes to fight the enemies of the Imperium i guess. And if you're stuck in your Manifactorium for nine-tenths of the day, you probably don't have much use for a ship.

I think that it depends on the system,in some you can't get it and in some it isn't common,but you require license to operate throughout the system.
Look at this site,althought it isn't official it explores new themes in the 40k universe.
http://anargo-sector.net/explore/imperium/imperial_technology.php
http://anargo-sector.net/explore/technology/imperial_aircraft.php

Read the Rogue Trader RPG books.
Also featured in the novels by Ian Watson "Draco"/"Harlequin"/"Chaos Child" (now together in "The Inquisition War", warp travel trade ship) and Andy Hoare's "Rogue Star"/"Star of Damocles".

It is incredibly rare. First of all the only people who actually "own" a warp drive are the Ad Mech, everyone else just has them on loan (or lease), no matter what they think. The warp drive is more expensive than most planetary governors would ever be able to finance, and requires the maintenance of some extremely talented tech priests. The technology itself is so advanced it might as well be magic, and has the capability to cause massive damage to the fabric of space time (as when they blew one up to take out a large portion of a hive fleet).

So they're highly expensive and dangerous (even by Imperial standards), highly technical, and only available as a "lease" from the ad mech. And that is why you don't see them in civilian hands (in most circumstances).

A rogue trader has special authorization and is actually given a ship and crew, since it is unlikely they would ever be able to afford one no matter how wealthy they were before becoming rouge traders.

As for non-warp capable ships, that more depends on the system. Fairly likely for civilians to have them in the more advanced systems.

riplikash wrote:A rouge trader has special authorization and is actually given a ship and crew, since it is unlikely they would ever be able to afford one no matter how wealthy they were before becoming rouge traders.

I hate those privileges for cosmetics dealers

Alot of civillians go on pilgramiges, and use ships
Mention in Hammer of Daemons and 5th ed brb I think.