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I only ever hear of massive battleships and bulk transports travelling through the warp. Are there any civilian sized freighters that can go through the Warp? I know that Rogue Traders use WT all the time but are there ships about the size of, say, the Millennium Falcon that can use WT? Another thing I'm wondering is how likely are your average, run of the mill citizens to get on a ship and travel the galaxy? Is it only available to the wealthiest or can anybody get a ticket on a freighter to the next sector? If there are any novels or rule books/codices that detail more on Warp Travel I'd love to hear about them.

Virtually never. Long distance space travel in 40k is reserved for the military, important Imperial officials and of course the crews of space ships (who never actually leave their ship).
Very wealthy and lucky individuals may one day be able to get passage on a freight ship to make a pilgrimage to some shrine world or something like that after saving for the trip their entire life, but that is about it. Your run of the mill Imperial citizen spends his life toiling away in a manufactorum, most likely never even leaving his district, let alone his planet.
40k is feudalism in space. Just as feudal serfs rarely ever left their villages, so do the people of 40k.

Well, pilgrims along the various pilgrimage routes get to experience warp travel (some might even get eaten) - whether it is to the holiest of holies on terra or the lesser holies on other "legendary" routes.

For others, though, it depends on how prosperous they might be - chartering passage with a RT or other sanctioned traders - to get where they wish to be.

There are also colonists, not sure if they can be called civilians.

Some rogue traders are civilians from among the navigators. Some of those have even gone outside the Milky way and no one knows if they made it. That's pretty far to travel!

Fairly accessible. Pilgrims from a great many worlds make their way across the galaxy towards Holy Terra and other such sacred worlds regularly. Generally, these are hazardous trips that may take an entire lifetime to complete, but they're still accessible even to the poor.

EldarArmy wrote:
Some rogue traders are civilians from among the navigators. Some of those have even gone outside the Milky way and no one knows if they made it. That's pretty far to travel!

Small potatoes compared to the wider universe.

Jaq Draco pried gems from the Rhana Dandra to obtain travel incognito. 1st class of course.
Theres probably a crap tonne of menial jobs that arent worth getting a servitor for, going on a starship. Which would help pilgrims do the tiki tour.

There are also civilian traders who use warp travel to move around.

It's hard to describe how accessible it is to all civilians because that includes well off planets that could be sending traders everywhere and feudal worlds where air travel is magic.

Indeed, there's plenty of civilian merchant ships, in fact they vastly outnumber the Imperial Navy (as is usually the case).

The shortest answer: It depends on the world and the social status of the civilian.

Warp travel is pretty much impossible to access for people on frontier or feral worlds, unless someone important from offworld, such as an Inquisitor, visits and decides to pluck them up.

On most Imperial worlds that are less off the beaten path, you have to be extremely wealthy to afford space travel. The exceptions are worlds where pilgrimage ships make their rounds. These ships are little more than massive space rafts that cram as many of their human cargo into their holds as possible. Living conditions are squalid and overcrowded, and the ships are completely unarmed, making them easy prey for the terrors of the galaxy, but passage on them is fairly cheap, "cheap" meaning that typical civilians can sell all of their possessions to buy a ticket. They're also good places for cultists and criminals to stow away, since there isn't really any screening process for the massive hordes of people when they board.

And then of course there are the merchant and supply ships, and the Rogue Traders. The crews who man these ships are all civilians, and they usually are born, live, and die aboard their home ship, spending little to no time on the surface of a proper planet. These ships occasionally will give people rides offworld, but you have to have money and/or status for them to even consider giving you a lift. These aren't passenger ships, so the captains aren't going to be too keen on having a bunch of people taking up space and getting in the crew's way while they go about their business.

In the Imperium, you're born on a dystopian planet which is your whole universe. The only way off is to make it into the Marines or Guard, and either one is a death sentence. Then the Tyranids/Orks/Chaos/Dark Eldar/Necrons/Inquisition come along and Eat/Dismember/Corrupt or sacrifice/Pillage and Torture/Vaporise/Exterminatus you and your whole livelihood. Welcome to the 41st Millenium.

You could always hope to be born a psyker, that way you might get a free trip on a black ship

Though there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of ships in the Imperium that travel between its worlds every day, and thousands and thousands of people aboard every one of them, as either crew or passengers... the vast majority of Imperial citizens will never leave the planet of their birth.

 Psienesis wrote:
Though there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of ships in the Imperium that travel between its worlds every day, and thousands and thousands of people aboard every one of them, as either crew or passengers... the vast majority of Imperial citizens will never leave the planet of their birth.

This.
Maufactorum Gamma worker 24681k will likely never leave his immediate area of work. He will rise in his cramped hab block, make his way to work on a Mag-lev, casually observing gangs shooting at each other far below, trudge along a crowded avenue filled with PA boards announcing the victories of the guard in a neighbouring system over xenos interlopers and demanding vigilance for xeno sympathisers. He'll then sit at his work station and fabricate cogitator screws all day until its time to go home.

Drake Lordsonn, disgraced highborn noble fugitive and his associate Junn 'Madder-frakkin' Grist, the wealthy gang lord, will absolutely afford a one way trip on a Civilian Freighter carrying cogitator screws to Forge World Pentium.

I always took it that warp travel for trade was pretty extensive with huge amounts of trade and freight whizzing round so with that I assume that passenger travel would be fairly accessable.

I dont think the Imperium would function without a certain degree of free movement. Certainly in many of the books which feature more of the normal life in the Imperium we are seeing that while not easy movement of people does happen.

I think as was said above it depends on how and where you are, Hiveworlds its often mentioned that for many of the hivers the only way out is joining the guard, but i take that as being a financial restriction rather than a avialability one

Well, it's probably A) very expensive and B) extremly dangerous. Pilgrims to Holy Terra have to get there somehow, but many of them die in transit, from malnourishment, gang violence, sickness and so on. Imagine a huge cargo ship, filled to the brim with poor, stinking, starving people. That's your inter-system travel in 40K. Horrible stuff.

TheWanderer wrote:
I always took it that warp travel for trade was pretty extensive with huge amounts of trade and freight whizzing round so with that I assume that passenger travel would be fairly accessable.

I dont think the Imperium would function without a certain degree of free movement. Certainly in many of the books which feature more of the normal life in the Imperium we are seeing that while not easy movement of people does happen.

I think as was said above it depends on how and where you are, Hiveworlds its often mentioned that for many of the hivers the only way out is joining the guard, but i take that as being a financial restriction rather than a avialability one

For every cargo hauler making the run to Ryza, there are uncounted billions of hab-workers who do not even understand what "galactic empire" means. Such concepts are so far beyond them that they might as well be myths. These sorts of people form the bulk of the Imperium's populace, and it is these very same people who may actually see, with their own eyes, a void-farer once in their lives, but will never set foot on one.

And for every one of them, there's a thousand more that DO know that there's a galactic empire. You have to understand, that the Imperium's enormousness is something the Imperium is proud of. They don't downplay their size.

For the majority of people I don't think they have a reason to travel to other worlds. For a civilian your planet provides all you need (generally) or you don't know that space travel even exists. Plus it's really, really dangerous. Imaging getting on a plane and having the flight attendant tell you that it was even odds that one or both engines would fail (because they are 10,000 years old and no one really understands how they work anymore) and that in the event of a water landing please turn to page 743 of your prayer book and recite the Litany of Flotation.

It would also depend on the technology and GDP level of the planet. A scrub colony barely above subsistence level is going to have minimal travel. However one of the more developed systems will likely have a good bit of interstellar trade, communication, and business occurring.

I can see sub-light speed travel within a star system being common on higher tech worlds. Systems with a strong naval presence or lots of mining/farming colonies on habitable moons or large asteroids.

I still see interstellar travel as rare for your average citizen. I mean, even worlds within the same sector are separated by hundreds if not thousands of light years, requiring a warp jump and all the risk that entails. Even in 40K Space is BIG.

 Melissia wrote:
And for every one of them, there's a thousand more that DO know that there's a galactic empire. You have to understand, that the Imperium's enormousness is something the Imperium is proud of. They don't downplay their size.

Even if they know they are part of a star-spanning empire, that does not mean that Hab Worker #3485734753-947 has the means (financial or otherwise) to buy a ticket on a ship to go to another planet. Most American workers are aware that there are other countries in the world, but most do not possess the means or the will to ever visit them.

 Psienesis wrote:


Even if they know they are part of a star-spanning empire, that does not mean that Hab Worker #3485734753-947 has the means (financial or otherwise) to buy a ticket on a ship to go to another planet.

Yes. Imperial citizens are much more like serfs, tied to their particular industry as peasants were to their fields. They are nearly and sometimes actually owned by the manufactorums and companies they work for.
I'd say it's possible though- and occasionally the Imperium will call for colonists to repopulate a world newly discovered/ devastated by war etc.
Cally Sanstag and her Husband (Titanicus, Dan Abnett) were a couple who moved world in search of a better life.

 Psienesis wrote:
Most American workers are aware that there are other countries in the world

[Citation needed]

Are there any civilian sized freighters that can go through the Warp? I know that Rogue Traders use WT all the time but are there ships about the size of, say, the Millennium Falcon that can use WT?

Definitely not.

That is to say; there are civilian freighters. But the most common 'merchant ship' that's commanded by Chartist Traders* is the Vagabond-class - which is about a kilometre long. That's really, really small. Aside from incredibly rare archeotech ships that even the Assassinorium and Inquisition doesn't have many of, this is about as small as warp-capable starships get, because there's only so small 'modern' imperial technology can make a Warp Engine or Gellar Field.

If there are any novels or rule books/codices that detail more on Warp Travel I'd love to hear about them.

Rogue Trader (the RPG) is your best bet. Between it and it's assorted sourcebooks (particularly Into The Storm, Stars of Iniquity, The Navis Primer and Battlefleet Koronus) you can get a pretty good feel for the 'size' and 'speed' of Imperial shipping.

I think someone did a back-of-cigarette-packet calculation recently and figured out that really, really big freighters (like the Universe-class Mass Conveyor) are roughly equivalent in cargo capacity to Singapore & Rotterdam Harbours combined. But, y'know, mobile.

Certainly colonists and pilgrims do move between worlds - especially new-founded worlds desperate for warm bodies, or looking to rebuild after wars. Equally, Hive worlds' primary export is often population - either as troops or as labourers.

However, moving between worlds takes months and is far from safe. You couldn't (unless you were a noble on 'The Grand Tour') chose to honeymoon offworld, or anything like that. It's more like choosing to emigrate from Europe to the USA in the late 1800s.

Given the values from rogue trader and assorted other sources, getting from the Primary Biosphere (the part of a star system where you find earthlike worlds) to the edge of the outer reaches (where you can jump into the Warp) can take weeks itself, and reaching your destination world once you exit the warp takes about the same.


The warp jump itself can also take days - it should be noted that the 'perceived' time is usually significantly less than the actual elapsed time, though!

Using the information from the RT Core, travel across a sector is 30-60 days under good conditions. (A sector is generally about 200 light years along a side and represents a 'functional cluster' of systems with meaningful regular traffic between one another). You can expect somewhere in the order of twelve times as long to have passed in 'real time'.


* Chartist Traders have a charter from the Administratum and the Navy, the former saying what they can trade in and who with, and the latter saying where they're allowed to travel in their ship. Rogue Traders have a warrant of trade that allows them to go where the feth they like, hence 'Rogue'.

Cally Sanstag and her Husband (Titanicus, Dan Abnett) were a couple who moved world in search of a better life.

Indeed. Note that Stefan Stamstag was a 'valuable specialist' - a high-qualified dockside loadmaster, looking to move to a productive forgeworld that was supplying an ongoing-and-intensifying Imperial Crusade, so whilst far from 'nobility' or even 'rich', he was someone who had his passage paid for him. Cally's passage was paid only on the understanding that (a) she came as a 'package deal' with Stefan and (b) she joined the PDF reserves.

There are pilgrim routes which criss-cross the sectors. So provided you don't want to travel in....you know....comfort or anything, it is possible to move from world to world.

 Psienesis wrote:

 Melissia wrote:
And for every one of them, there's a thousand more that DO know that there's a galactic empire. You have to understand, that the Imperium's enormousness is something the Imperium is proud of. They don't downplay their size.

Even if they know they are part of a star-spanning empire, that does not mean that Hab Worker #3485734753-947 has the means (financial or otherwise) to buy a ticket on a ship to go to another planet. Most American workers are aware that there are other countries in the world, but most do not possess the means or the will to ever visit them.

thats a finance arguement not a capability arguement.

As I mentioned above it depends on who you are and where you are rather than any lack of technology or infrastructure to do it

Also, for the poor, more likely than not it's not about buying a ticket. You're thinking way too much about it in a capitalistic mindset, but the Imperium as a whole is not capitalistic in nature. Rather, it's about convincing your local priest to bless your desire for pilgrimage, or your local administratum agent that you'd be more valuable elsewhere, or trying to find a job on a space ship and hoping to move off after a decade of work on to another planet.

 Melissia wrote:
Also, for the poor, more likely than not it's not about buying a ticket. You're thinking way too much about it in a capitalistic mindset, but the Imperium as a whole is not capitalistic in nature. Rather, it's about convincing your local priest to bless your desire for pilgrimage, or your local administratum agent that you'd be more valuable elsewhere, or trying to find a job on a space ship and hoping to move off after a decade of work on to another planet.

I've recently visited the titanic museum and stood aboard its shuttle boat (Nomadic) and am struck with the notions of class that existed then and will exist again in the 41st millenium.
The Nomadic had a richly appointed 1st class area, like a floating hotel, 2nd class passengers would ride outside. It didn't have any provision for 3rd class- they'd have to get a poor person boat.

I'm sure if you had the funds you would eventually find someone to take you off world- but keep in mind it might be less of a chartered voyage and more the equivalent of an illegal trans-Mediterranean smuggle.
As you point out, the local Administratum might not grant you permission to leave and without blessings and navigators you'll have worse things to worry about than drowning and sharks.

Indeed. The Imperium is extremely classist in that regards. And definitely not as capitalist as people are treating it to be.

Yes, there's aspects of capitalism-- the upper class and those who run the black markets can buy whatever they want if they have the money and influence to get it-- but it's really not applicable, IMO, to most of the society.

This is the thing, the Imperium is so vast that pretty much any combination of circumstances can exist. There's probably a world out there with shining towers of (arma)glass and (pla)steel where civilians commute to work downplanet from orbiting hab-satellites and beggars go mostly unmolested, where your average citizen is productive enough that they could save up sufficient time and cash to take the family on a once-in-a-lifetime trip offworld to the nearest garden planet and actually want to come back home afterwards.

It's probably somewhere in Ultramar.

So, are navigators prolific enough in the galaxy to be employed by private individuals, like rogue traders? If not, how do they get about?