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While running my Rogue Trader campaign, I came across a few questions. Would a Firestorm class Frigate be able to make an orbital landing? Or would that be rare? If not, what ship would a Rogue Trader typically use to land? And are there any smaller ships they would use in space?

Possibly...
Most of the time it would require so much fuel it would be impractical and expensive.
Usually they would have a shuttle or a similar craft on board to land on planets.

I assume the ship would have access to transports and accommodations to take onboard fresh materials. Also it's the question of the facility needed to land such a ship there. It's basically a flying Nimitz carrier. So you can certainly see how wind, gravity and such would work at it's disadvantage. Nevermind the possible ecological consequences as I can't think that having such a large vessel's plasma engines burning in an atmosphere could be any bit healthy.

On the other hand Dictator class cruisers are known to go quite low to serve as low-orbit airfields.

A destroyer could do it...
A frigate would be hard pressed to do it but it could manage it...not sure if it could take off again...
It's not like the Imperium is particularly ecologically minded...

A forge-world or hive could maybe accommodate a Destroyer or Frigate landing. And the atmospheres I expect people to know what have happened to. Anywhere else, nah, just send down a smaller vessel, as a larger ship landing there has crashed. The IOM might be ruthless purplefood, but they are not Stupid Evil, they won't destroy a planet just for fun and giggles.

They wouldn't no but they probably wouldn't care all that much...

As per the BFG rulebook, escorts and transports are the largest ships that can land on planetary surface. The escort category goes up to Frigate.

This is just as far as GW material is concerned, though - you're not bound to heed it in any case, just like there may be lots of other licensed procuts that possibly provide a different answer to this question.

That being said, I would think that most Rogue Traders are using smaller landers - or rather, entire flights of landers and shuttles - to make planetfall, anyways. Much more economic, and allows for a quick getaway. Unless you plan to literally unload your entire cargo bay and/or set your ship down as some sort of mobile fortress there for months or years to stay, or make a huge impression on the locals by parking a kilometer-long ship right in front of their city.

Doesn't the Rogue Trader game feature Guncutters? I recall reading about them when I last flipped through the pages ... one or more of those sound like a perfect choice to me. How about a trio, one for the Rogue Trader and his "close circle" (the other PCs) and another two loaded with squads of Armsmen as a honour guard?

I don't remember seeing anything about guncutters, I could completely be missing it. What else would you guys say they land with?

Aquila Lander • Arvus Lighter • Devourer Dropship • Valkyrie • Vendetta • Sky Talon can land, also Avenger • Lightning • Lightning Strike • Marauder Bomber • Marauder Destroyer • Marauder Colossus • Marauder Vigilant • Thunderbolt • Vulture Gunship

I'm lazy and quoted directly from Lexicanum, but the guncutter is the best thingy, even though I'm under the impression that it is the private yacht of rich Inquisitors and not that suitable for transport. You can maybe go an limb and invent something like a Firefly-class vessel. That kind of vessel would likely be a staple in IOM.

I say no myself. The idea of the 1.5 Km non-arodynamic object landing is well, silly. I know some of the lore have ships landing, but I tend to ignore the really odd and insane stuff anyhow. The fire storm does not have landing gear and most places could not withstand the weight of the ship anyhow, and the ships frame would likely not withstand the landing intact either.

Make a big show about how dangerous and risky a landing on a planet with Earth normal gravity would be. The mess it would make, the noise and distruction from the engines, all that good stuff. Put extra emphasis on how difficult and time consuming it would be to take off again.

Then, when they take the little mini-shuttle down and are poking around on the planet, have some massive cruiser class ship come rolling down using crazy archeotech grav lifters and the like. It'd make a great intro for a rival.

imark789 wrote:I don't remember seeing anything about guncutters, I could completely be missing it.

They don't feature prominently outside FFG's RPG and perhaps some novels, I think.
The Rogue Trader supplement "Into the Storm" has stats for a Guncutter, as well as for the Aquila Lander and the Arvus Lighter, by the way.

Hunterindarkness wrote:I know some of the lore have ships landing, but I tend to ignore the really odd and insane stuff anyhow. The fire storm does not have landing gear and most places could not withstand the weight of the ship anyhow, and the ships frame would likely not withstand the landing intact either.

The lack of a uniform canon means that it is left to us as the individual reader/gamer to choose what fits with out perception of the setting and what does not, anyways. By the same token, one could easily say that the Firestorm does have landing gear, too. I don't even remember any source saying otherwise, or even touching the subject in this detail.

Potential consequences of a planetary landing are a good point, although I would add that you may as well regard them as plot potential rather than just a hindrance for execution. For example, the large starship slowly sinking into the ground, having the Rogue Trader and his crew race to find a way to get airborne again, could easily deliver one or more sessions just to solve this one problem!

Sure it could. However one look at the Non aerodynamic 1.5 km hull will tell you it might 'Land"( I mean crash) but it could never again lift off by itself. which is why ya get the planet bound background for ships. In a must have to case, on a kinda low grave would, under power ya might be able to "Land". It would prob take a team of ships and decades in repair in orbit to take back off however.


I say uses the landing craft ya know, designed to land.

Don't get me wrong, I'm advising landing craft as well.

Just that with 40k and its arcane anti-grav technology, I'd never say that putting down a capital ship would "never" work. I would, however, attach a whole lot of strings to it, both to stress the nature of the setting, as well as to give the players an actual choice rather than making one of the options a no-brainer.

I see what you are saying but for me it is a never work thing. I am sure somewhere there are ships made to do this but the fire storm are not among them.

I had this subject come up myself with a transport. They just assumed they could land a 2 km long transport. I informed them this was incorrect and they had landing craft for a reason

 Hunterindarkness wrote:
I see what you are saying but for me it is a never work thing. I am sure somewhere there are ships made to do this but the fire storm are not among them.

I had this subject come up myself with a transport. They just assumed they could land a 2 km long transport. I informed them this was incorrect and they had landing craft for a reason

In general, this makes more sense to me. I'd also let them try to set up a high level endeavor to find suitable archeotech and refit the ship with it. Of course, everybody with a Voidship will come looking for it, not to mention the AdMechs, Navy, and other Imperial agencies. Hell, a particularly bold Cold Trader or slaver might be willing to kill for it, simply to make smuggling easier.

imark789 wrote:While running my Rogue Trader campaign, I came across a few questions. Would a Firestorm class Frigate be able to make an orbital landing? Or would that be rare? If not, what ship would a Rogue Trader typically use to land? And are there any smaller ships they would use in space?

Yeah, ships come with free landing craft. I don't think it's ever specified precisely how many, but they're there. Deploy your swarms of Arvus Lifters and ride down in a Gun-cutter. (Actually, ride down in your Auto-Temple. That's the classy way.)

I'd assume it is not specified anywhere because there are so many factors that would influence it. Ship class / capacity and the Rogue Trader's personal resources would be the most obvious limitations. Thus, my advice would be to simply "guesstimate" what seems most appropriate.

The free introductory adventure to RT places some importance on the ship's guncutter to get around as well - see page 16 here.