By 
The early years of Rogue Trader:
The rulebook written by Rick Priestley for the game Warhammer 40000, Rogue Trader was published in 1987, this first issue is vastly different from any future issues. It is mostly a cross between RPGs and classic board games, rather than a pure tabletop battle game. Rogue Trader had more detailed information and background on the broader reaches of the 40K universe, its races and its technologies, unlike later editions of the game, for me that is why it is considered a treasured collector’s item and holds a special place. in my collection.
This rulebook is considered much less rigid in the 40K rules than later editions, as it employed a much broader set of viewpoints within the narrative than was common in future versions and easily encouraged mixed factional forces. .
Jokero, Slann, Squats, Zoats are examples of races that were not included in the first edition of RT.
Rogue Trader had six sections:
- rules of combat,
- Setting for the Crimson Fist Space Marines fighting the Orks on Rynn’s World,
- An equipment section.
- background section
- Special rules for advanced players,
- A summary that includes all the graphics in the book.
Some environment elements (bolter guns, Dreadnought armor) can be seen in a wargaming ruleset called Laserburn written by Bryan Ansell and produced by Tabletop Games in 1980. The influence of these can also be seen in the prototype game mechanics. of Necromunda.
My interest in Rogue Trader
When I got into Games Workshop products in the late eighties, it was the Rogue Trader miniatures that caught my eye. Rick Priestley really did a number on my life! When I first started modelling, I used to build and paint my own lead models, typically British Redcoats, Prussian and Napoleonic forces etc.
Then one day I bought a pack of Ral Partha fantasy figures and started to stray down the fantasy route, but it wasn’t until 1987 with the advent of Rogue Trader that I found something that would take me a lot of time, effort and money of course. . and that was the good old Imperium of Man – (Rick Priestley wrote Rogue Traders as freelance scouts employed by the Imperium to search for planets outside of established borders) and all the hideous creatures you had to fight. Although at first there were no signs of Chaos, well, not like the ones that exist today; sure Preistley hints at the forces of the warp (Chaos), but it wasn’t until some expansions came out that we saw the full power of the forces of Chaos coming. through.
The pride of my collection was an entire army of Imperial Space Marines, painstakingly built and painted over several years. Then again, he also had a fantastic collection of Zoats, Space Slann, Imperial Guard, oh the list really is endless!
After a few years I moved in with my future wife and had our first child, suddenly gaming became less and less important, working and paying the bills seemed to occupy every moment of my life (even when I was attending University. I managed to balancing games with real life, but having kids really is a whole different ball game 🙂
So over the next decade, my beloved collections were lost or broken when we bought our houses and moved due to our careers, and sadly I finally stopped playing!
Then jump to 2001 and a football injury brought me home for 6 months and down and lo and behold, I started shopping for 40K models at the local GW store. In the years that followed I started to really appreciate the workmanship of the Rouge Trader models (today’s models are definitely more sculpted/ornate and are really easy on the eye) I missed the simplicity of those early models, maybe I had the pink eyes and bags of nostalgia that I remembered them but suddenly wanted to recover my lost collections!
Boy!!! Was it easier said than done? Since Games Workshop put all the RT stuff out of production and broke most of the molds I was having a hard time finding them BUT luckily the web was really starting to reach its potential and I was able to start finding clubs and websites where I could talk. with other like minded people and of course EBAY :)) Now I know it has its knockers and downsides but it was the #1 stop for finding many of my lost minis BUT it was a nightmare of bid rigging, sniping, buyers who they get pulled from sales because the auction didn’t hit what they wanted, figures being lost or broken in post, etc.
Unfortunately there are now a multitude of places to find your old thumbnails 🙂
The complete list of Games Workshop Rogue Trader armies and their codes:
The codes were changed in the 1991 edition, but I have listed the codes from early releases.
First codes:
RTO1 – Space Marines (wd93)
RTO2 – Space Orcs (wd93)
RTO3 – Space Dwarfs (wd94)
RTO4 – Space Elves (wd94)
RTO5 – Imperial Army (wd96)
RTO6 – Marine Heavy Weapon (Multi-Melta)
RT7 – Mercenaries (wd95)
RT7 – Dreadnought Armor (wd95)
space marines
RTO1 – Space Marines (wd93)
RT101 – Imperial Space Marines (wd99)
RT101 – Imperial Space Marines (wd100)
RT103 – Marine Heavy Weapons (wd102)
RT105 – Imperial Commander (wd98)
RT106 – Vincent Black Shadow (wd99)
RT106 – Bicycle Doctor (wd102)
RT107 – Rhino Crew Marines (wd103)
RT108 – Imperial Robots (wd104)
4106 – Space Marine Chaplains (wd108)
space ork
RTO2 – Space Orcs
RT202 – Ork Command Group (wd97)
RT204 – Ork Battleship (wd99)
RT205 – Ork Battle Buggy (wd98)
RT206 – Dreadnought Ork Expansion (wd99)
RT207 – Ork Heavy Weapons (wd100)
RT – Space Orcs (wd106)
space dwarfs
RTO3 – Space Dwarfs (wd94)
RT302 – Space Dwarf Commando (wd97)
RT303 – Space Dwarf Heavy Weapons (wd97)
RT304 – Squat Strike Gun (wd101)
RT305 – Squat Bikes (wd103)
space elves
RTO4 – Space Elves (wd94)
RT401 – Space Elves (BotA)
RT402 – Space Elf Commando (wd99)
RT403 – Eldar Dreadnought (wd100)
RT403 – Eldar Warbot (wd101)
RT403 – Eldar Warwalker (wd102)
RT404 – Eldar D Cannon (wd99)
RT404 – Eldar Artillery (wd103)
4306 – Eldar Jet Bike (wd106)
4306 – Motorcycle Jet Harlequin (wd107)
4306 – Harlequins (wd107)
imperial army
RTO5 – Imperial Army (wd96)
RT501 – Imperial Army 1 (wd98)
RT501 – Imperial Army 2 (wd98)
RT502 – Imperial Heavy Weapons (wd102)
RT502 – Mercenaries (wd95)
RT503 – Imperial Land Speeder (wd101)
RT505 – Imperial Rapier (wd100)
RT509 – Motorcycle Protections
4010 – Commissars of the Imperial Guard (wd109)
4010 – Imperial Guard (wd109)
Miscellaneous
RT601 – Adventurers (wd99)
RT601 – Pirates (wd103)
RT602 – Ambull (wd99)
RT701 – Doctors
IC301 – Iron Claw Space Pirates (wd99)
IC501 – Iron Claw Squats (wd100)
IC2003 – Jump Troops
Boxed sets:
RTB01 – Space Marines
RTB02 – Space Orc Raiders
RTB03 – Ravagers
RTB04 – Rhinos
RTB05 – Land Raiders
RTB06 – Harlequins
RTB07 – Imperial Guard (Plastic Kit)
RTB08 – Predator (Vehicle Plastic Kit)
RTB09 – Terminators
RTB10 – Space Dwarfs (Plastic Kit)
RTB11 – Land Raider (Single Kit)
RTB12 – Rhino (single kit)
RTB13 – Space Orcs (Plastic Kit)
RTB14 – Ork battle tank (Kit)
RTB15 – Space Marine Strike Force
RTB16 – Terminators and Tyranids
TSF (ampoules)
TSF16 – Jet Cycle
TSF18 – Slann Space
TSF18 – Space Zoats
Imperial Hero of Ogyrn
Ogryns (and ogres)
Limited Edition Rogue Trader
gravity attack vehicle
RTLE – Christmas Marines
SFD Giant Robots
LE1 – Space Orc
LE2 – Imperial Space Marine
LE6 – Space Santa
LE9 – Space Skeleton
LE10 – Marine with Power Armor
LE22 – Orca Bazookas
LE101 – Chaos Renegade Army
LE102 – Legionary Catering
Battleships of the Space Crusade