Seven steps to designing Noble Houses for Traveller

Designing Noble Houses

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     Traveller's Third Imperium is a vast place, ruled by the Emperor. However, with the limits of communication-at-the-speed-of-travel, the Emperor cannot rule everywhere personally. So authority is distributed in a feudal fashion through the network of the Imperial Nobility. 

     The character creation rules in Traveller allow for the possibility of one of the PCs being from, or rising into the ranks of the Imperial Aristocracy. I suspect the authors had in mind Poul Anderson's stories of Dominic Flandry and his beloved Terran Empire in developing the setting for Traveller this way. 

     As I have noted elsewhere on this blog, the rules are sketchy on what it means to be of the Nobility. There is a table of noble titles correlated to SOC scores, and a vague paragraph about owning land. How much?  Does it mean the PC has political power? Does this give the PCs access to more money?

     Nobles are the movers & shakers of the Imperium, and above the rank of Baronet the titles are inheritable, which means that there are Noble families who are & have been in the business of running things. Erin Smale at the Welsh Piper blog wrote up some tables for generating Noble Houses in a fantasy setting. He's allowed me (Thanks, Erin!) to adapt those tables for the Far Future of the 3rd Imperium - and they can be easily tweaked for a non-OTU setting. Also check out the link (on the WP page too) to Inkwell Idea's Design a Coat of Arms studio!

The tables are:

• Head of House
• Influence
• Loyalty
• Holdings
• Recent Activity
• Current Ambition
• Family Secret

Head of House (1d6)
 1 Young
 2-4 Adult
 5-6 Retired
Young: The age of majority may be different in the Imperium, but whatever it is, the person currently holding this position hasn't made it yet. Usually there is a regent (family member or not) making the decisions.
Adult: This character can be generated by using the modified Noble career tables I wrote up here. Cap generation at 7 terms. 
Retired: This character can be generated as with Adult, but ignore re-enlistment rolls until term 8. Roll 4+ on 1d6 for the Head of House to be using anagathics.

Influence  (2d6) 
Knight: DM -3 Baron/Baronet DM -2 Marquis DM +1 Count DM +2 Duke DM +3 Archduke DM+4

2-	None	8	Jump-2 range
3	None	9	Jump-3 range
4	Regional	10	Jump-4 range
5	Continental	11	Subsector-wide
6	Continental	12	Sector-wide
7	Planetary	13+	Emperor’s Adviser

     Houses that have influence above the Continental level are likely to have smaller Houses in their sphere of influence; either as direct vassals, or by other means determined by the referee.

Loyalty (1d6)
1 Completely Loyal to the Imperium
2 Loyal to the Imperial Status Quo
3 Loyal to the Imperial Status Quo
4 Loyal, but seeking change
5 Would support a rebellion
6 Engaged in rebellion (overt or secret)

Holdings

Rank	Charge	Typical estate	Typical value
Knight	-	-	-
Baronet	-	10 sq. km	MCr5
Baron	Part of world	100 sq km	MCr50
Marquis	One world	1000 sq km	MCr500
Count	Several worlds	10,000 sq km	MCr5,000
Duke	Subsector/sector	100,000 sq km	MCr50,000
Archduke	Domain	Entire world	MCr500,000

 (1)
 For variety: (1d6)
1 10% of typical estate/value
2 50% of typical
3 Typical estate
4 Typical estate
5 Typical estate
6 150% of typical estate

Recent Activity  (2d6)

2	Political Scandal	8	Usual social/political activity
3	Put down a revolt	9	Gained new holdings
4	New heir to the title	10	Lost holdings
5	Brokered a new trade route	11	Conflict with another house, locally resolved
6	Usual social/political activity	12	Conflict with another house, Imperial
7	Usual social/political activity		Forces called in to settle

Current Ambition (2d6)

2	Recover from a financial loss	8	Gain wealth
3	Gain Imperial favor	9	Develop local culture and arts
4	Settle a new world	10	Resist encroachment on their holdings
5	Drive out pirates	11	Increase land holdings
6	Increase area of influence	12	Create their own Empire
7	Maintain the status quo

Family Secret (1d6) If loyalty is 6, DM +3

1 Psionic talent
2 Religiously unorthodox
3 None
4 Piratical connections
5 Criminal connections
6 Extra-Imperial ties
7 Rebellion

Psi talent: Some or all members of the family are psionics. The family supports the local Psionic Institute.
Religiously unorthodox: The family is devout in an agnostic/atheist society, or atheistic/heretical in a religious society. (See my post here about a Religion Index for Traveller worlds). 
None: This family keeps to the morals and manners of their society.
Piratical connections: The family does business with, or provides cover for pirate crews.
Criminal connections: The family has ties to the criminal underworld networks in their area of influence.
Extra-Imperial ties:  The family has unacknowledged ties with a political power outside of the Imperium.
Rebellion: The house is engaged in overt or covert rebellion against the Imperium. 


     Why should you do this?  Defining noble houses develops your campaign setting, giving it texture, a bit more 'reality', and most importantly, gives the referee lots of potential patrons, allies, opponents and political events to build adventures upon. A noble house has a story, that can become part of the PCs stories.


  (1) I got this table off the 'Net about a decade or so ago. I don't have a record of where I got it, so if someone can help me identify it, or can claim they did it first, I'll be happy to take it down or give attribution.