Benefits of playing a Noble PC

For years as a Referee I beat my head against a metaphorical and game-mechanical wall trying to resolve a conundrum. Traveller allows PCs to be high ranking members of interstellar society. But there are exactly no rules or directions on how playing a Noble confers any advantage.

High Status in the Far Future

 

Much of my thinking about his amounted to “how much money should I give a Noble PC? Is this too much? Is this too little?" I used to think the cash handouts from the Robe & Blaster article were tiny and pointless. I have revised my thinking on this somewhat. Nobles in Traveller have their money tied up in land, properties, investments and ships. The benefits given below are the dividends, the residual free cash.

I now also see these dividends as small enough to not break the game. If a PC gets rich by adventuring, great! Travellers can and should seek High Level play. That should happen in the game, not because of meta-game artifacts like huge cash grants. Eventually Nobles will have connections with all sorts of VIPs, own ships and direct large-scale ventures. But beginning Noble PCs don't have all that. Not yet, anyway.

Below are the likely benefits from the R&B article.

Definition of Nobility Benefits 

These are the ones available to Knights and Barons:

• Pension: Same as standard additional service pension. Roll ld6 X 1,000 Cr./Pt.
• Merchant House Holdings: Stock/bond portfolios yielding annual value of ld6 X 1,000 Cr. dividends. May be sold at market value.
• Space Lane Carrier Holdings: As per merchant holdings, except player rolls 2d6 X 10,000 Cr.
• Court Influence: Used as a+DM on Reaction Rolls as allowed by Referee. May also be used as a DM in dispensing patronage.
• Ancestral Lands: Planetary holdings held by player in perpetuity. Roll 3d6 X 10,000 Cr. for value. Lands yield 10-60% total value (1d6) annually in revenues and cost 10-60% of value for maintenance once every four years.
• Immediate Inheritance: As per Ancestral Lands but player additionally rolls 3d6 X 10,000 Cr. For immediately available cash.

Instead of cash, the Referee can use other already available force multipliers. I mean, of course, henchmen and vehicles. A PC with a Noble title enters play with one or more loyal retainers, one of whom can operate the vehicle they may own.

Set the Heads'l! It's the Sailors Career

This time out we are looking at the Sailor career from COTI. 

Sailors: Members of the Nautical Force Command (the wet navy) of a world.

Naval Force Command is informally called the Wet Navy, to distinguish them from their space-faring counterparts. The descriptive text gives us nothing else about the service.

Any world with a Hydrographic rating above 1 could have a Wet Navy, and above Hydro-5 is likely to do so. Worlds technology levels at or below contra-gravity would still make use of sailing vessels. The conventional wisdom is that a new settlement will go next to a body of water. Transport of people and especially goods by water is an order-of-magnitude less expensive than by road, rail or air. even in the Far Future, sailing the ocean blue will be a thing. And we all know that sailing the seas can lead to Adventure.

Career Figures

Enlistment throw is 6+ with DMs for END and STR. Not a difficult career to get into. Survival is 5+ like the Flyers, with an END DM. Not too dangerous, but more risky than Doctors.

Getting a Position/Commission is also 5+ with a DM for INT 9+. Promotion is at 6+ with a DM for EDU 8+. These numbers are not high.

First observation: of 40 pregen characters, there is only one Admiral (rank 6) and three Captains (rank 5). Odd. 22 of the list are unrated ordinary seamen, including several with four or five terms.

Time and Traveller

No, this post is not about time-travel.

Time is a scarce resource.

The passage of time matters, as it affects all of the above in-game mechanics and more. The setting of Traveller, whether OTU or homemade (like my Church and Empire setting), is in motion. Things happen, polities and VIPs are making and executing plans. The PCs exist within and as part of that setting. The setting exists for the players, not the PCs. Even after the players achieve High Level Play the setting is still independent of the PCs.

Keeping track of time creates urgency, and encourages planning. Time spent is always a trade-off. If you’re doing this, you can’t do that.

The more I read from other bloggers about the importance of time in TTRPGs, the more I am persuaded that it’s an important aspect that I have neglected.

Time=Money

Take to the Skies! the Flyer Career

Clear the Flight Decks! 

Flyers: Members of the Close Orbit and Airspace Control Command (the air force) of a world. The description text includes this suggestion:

“Each character is assumed to have undergone the mustering-out procedure, although the Referee may elect to use them as if they are still employed in some form of flight activity.”

I know these days we're all about Unmanned and Remotely Piloted vehicles. In the Far Future, however, it is contrary to the spirit of Adventure to let the drones do all the work. Strap into your cockpit and let's examine this career choice.

The Army and Marines are two of the Original Six careers, so the inclusion of the Air Force in COTI is not a surprise.

Unless you have a copy of Striker, Classic Traveller gives you very little direction on how to employ aircraft, especially combat aircraft, in adventures.

The MegaTraveller supplement COACC has design tables for aircraft at several tech levels, and these can be easily back-converted into Classic.

In the OTU and in my Church and Empire setting, there are many worlds with the right atmosphere & tech level combinations for aircraft to be a common mode of transportation. Having Travellers familiar with aircraft operation can be very handy.

Session Report Heirloom Heist!

Holtzmann, week 9 of year SA 929

At this week's session we had three Travellers: Graham Clark, Dietrich Smith and a fellow known only as C-418 or C4.

Clark and C4 are senior staff in the motor pool in the household of Count Murietta, one of the Contenders. They are usually serving the Count's son, Lord Francisco, a Naval officer.

Some while back, Carter and C4 made an impression on Lord Francisco when they were instrumental in recovering a data device which someone had stolen from Murietta's estate.

When Lady Elise Kindrick, a friend of Lord Francisco (not his fiancee) came to him with a problem, he knew just the guys to help resolve it. Lady Elise had accepted a marriage proposal from the son of Marquis Tellez, a prominent nobleman. Her fiancee gave her a piece of heirloom jewelry which she would wear publicly at the party when they announced the engagement. The party was a week away.

I bet you can guess where this is going.

Sure enough, somebody had pinched the heirloom. Lady Elise hadn't told her fiancee, as the news would certainly end the engagement and cause a big scandal. She went to Francisco, instead, who promised to help.

Play Report: The Return of the Star Walker

The Star Walker (see this post) limped out of jump space in an unknown system far to the galactic South of Holtzmann's Corridor. Fortunately for them, the system was inhabited. They found out the locals called their world Saorsumma. In the undefined subsector it is in hex 0303.

On Saorsumma, Mac and Carter, along with the crew & passengers, were taken into captivity by the local government. Saorsumma it seems has starships, but they have lost the knowledge of how to construct or repair them. Jump drives are now to them a Black Box technology. The locals were excited to say the least to get their hands on another functioning J-drive. They wanted to know how to get more. Mac and Carter wanted to get back home.

After a few weeks in (relatively comfortable) captivity, a few of the Walker's passengers made a break for it with some local separatists. They disappeared into the world's back country. Maybe some day we'll play out what became of them.

Mac and Carter came up with a plan. The locals weren't thrilled but it sounded like the best option. They have waited four months for the local shipyard to finish the “refit” of their ship the Star Walker. (and we've waited three months to play out the next part of this adventure) I took what the players wanted and checked in Trillion Credit Squadron. By the book, it would take sixteen weeks to complete.