Has anybody created a "Dilettante" noble per Book 8 ? (Put it in quotes, as the book allows for various classes and types). Did you find the Portfolio benefit (a lot of monthly income) destabilizing to the campaign? How many Portfolio benefits did you allow (I'm thinking max of two). I already had rolled up a "noble since birth" character (natural 11), but as he also had decent Int and Edu, sent him to the Naval Academy and he had a good naval career (increased Soc by 1 upon leaving career) and then spent one term in the 2nd ed. Core Rulebook Noble career - received a "yacht" ((safari ship)) out of it with 25 %mortgage paid off, an inheritance from a relative under Life Events). While rolling up other characters (ret. Navy CPO engineer; ret. Marine Col, knighted; former Navy Lt. pilot; ret. Marine Gunny - all of whom served together) also got another with 10 Soc, but poor Str and End, and mediocre Edu, but good Dex. Seemed like a bad candidate for the armed services but possible Dilettante (rolled her up per Book 8 as Aristocrat, Chevalier subclass - the good Dex making her a possible duelist). In addition to being knighted eventually (Soc 11), she also received a "yacht" with 25 % paid off. If I use her in this crew, I'm toying with the idea of it being the same vessel and the two nobles being cousins having to share the bequest from their great grand aunt (could be amusing if their goals don't perfectly align). What is giving me pause is that her Portfolio monthly income is over 26,000 credits and this steady infusion of cash could mean the crew might not be as "hungry" to earn monthly mortgage and ship costs. Thoughts ?
MGT Only: Book 8: Dilettante Anybody roll up one ?
- Thread starter CaptRet
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That doesn't necessarily have to be the motivation to adventure. Having a source of income to pay off a vessel (esp. a non-mercantile one) is not necessarily a bad thing; it opens up the possibility that the characters may have other economically viable forms of employment (or personal drives and motivations) to adventure.
ShawnDriscoll
SOC-14 1K
I've never had issues using it.
Just check with GM. Dilettante is generally supposed to be used in a "nobles" campaign but it can be used in a regular one so long as everyone is okay with it.
On that note, check with the players too. Make sure they're cool hanging out with Richie-Rich.
The obvious role for such a noble is a non-working ship owner who is just there for the fun and adventure. You could also convert the pension into a ship ownership %.
Great RP opportunities though as the rich-yet-ignorant-of-lower-class-incomes wants to hit the nightlife at each starport and spend a few thousand creds... one night with him/her and the crew are going to be sick of it.
On that note, check with the players too. Make sure they're cool hanging out with Richie-Rich.
The obvious role for such a noble is a non-working ship owner who is just there for the fun and adventure. You could also convert the pension into a ship ownership %.
Great RP opportunities though as the rich-yet-ignorant-of-lower-class-incomes wants to hit the nightlife at each starport and spend a few thousand creds... one night with him/her and the crew are going to be sick of it.
I created a character that was later nicknamed by one of the other player as "Fred the Red". Fred was a Dilettante and ended up with skill levels in Artistic and Legal. This was because Fred kept rolling "mishaps" that got him involved in some sort of political trouble, but always rolled to end up on the winning side.
So with his tens of thousands of credits per month, Fred decided to just become a "Cosmopolite" ... a citizen of the universe ... and each month purchase a First Class ticket to anywhere that whim took him, where he spent the next three weeks looking for political injustice to stick his Legal-3 nose into and some inspiration for his next artwork.
Wealth did not eliminate adventure, it made Fred completely free to pursue any adventure for any personal reason. Wealthy, bored and looking for SOMETHING interesting to do.
I did not make characters for use in a game, but I make heavy use of the Social Status scaling rules to allow other characters to shine. Money does take away from the day to day getting scratch campaigns, but it does grease the wheels for most other styles of play. Work on that.
BRJN
SOC-12
Gold-diggers, con men, would-be startup company founders, the Tax Man, aggressive bribe-soliciting bureaucrats, previously-unknown distant cousins are all going to come out of the woodwork if they smell the money on this Aristocrat.
But perhaps (as a defensive reaction) the money is really in a bank account a few systems away.
This might be a good way to handwave unwanted drudgery like keeping fresh victuals on the ship: it is paid for using the "allowance".
Review 76 Patrons for more inspiration.
And the follies / foibles of IRL The Rich And Famous.
Winged Cat
SOC-10
I have been in a campaign where someone else rolled up a Dilettante. Their traveller was basically shanghaied by their old college roommate (my traveller) into adventures, money notwithstanding.
They went along to humor their friend, and because they had been sufficiently bored with life they spent most of the past 4 terms livestreaming from a ship going near-c the old fashioned, relativistic way (the narrative explanation for how they only experienced 3 terms in the time my traveller experienced 6 - the novelty of making a time-dilated livestream was the point of doing this, for the dilettante).
They went along to humor their friend, and because they had been sufficiently bored with life they spent most of the past 4 terms livestreaming from a ship going near-c the old fashioned, relativistic way (the narrative explanation for how they only experienced 3 terms in the time my traveller experienced 6 - the novelty of making a time-dilated livestream was the point of doing this, for the dilettante).
This character was a Chevalier - an Aristocrat subclass that acts as champion for a higher aristocrat (e.g. as substitute in duels, on missions, etc.). Besides being fairly competent with blade and reasonably so with gun (went on safari one term), she racked up some decent soft skills (and a diletantte's interest in archeology, as well as some contacts among the nobility). I think having her as the cousin of the former Naval Captain (himself a lesser aristocrat, but not really rich), and having them share equal ownership (25% each) of their deceased grandaunt's safari ship (really great grandaunt - anagathics, don't you know) could be interesting. The former Capt (more an example of the service nobility, e.g. Prussian junkers and British Navy officers) would have one type of goal (missions for allies in the Navy and bureaucracy), while his younger cousin would ostensibly be looking for adventure and dabbling in archeology (while actually having once worked as an informant for a planetary ruler). Most of the small crew would be connected to his naval service, with her having perhaps one retainer (was toying with idea of a Vargr).
Actually, it isn't
We ran the Beltstrike campaign with two characters created via Dilettante, while the others all had SOC 5-. It created a very interesting dynamic, particularly when the Dilettantes were blowing more cash on an evening's party (trying to out do one another) than the others earned in a year. Combined.
It went very well. The low SOC characters were the ones who were on the bridge of the first jump-capable ship at the end of the campaign, whereas the Dilettantes had... stickier endings.
One committed killed himself during a bout of Russian Roulette, fuelled by drug-induced desire for extreme danger issues. But by that time he had already started his own religion which, upon his death, exploded in popularity...
Other examples from history that are usable for our purposes include-
* Explorer, many a noble type went off to be first somewhere to make their fame or at least historical footnote eternal,
* Colonist, I would say the colonists of Jamestown largely approached their preparation and first months as the dilettantes they were before imminent starvation and a now famous mercenary captain disabused them of the utility of their Social Standing,
* Relic Hunter, doesn't have to be Lora Croft or Indiana Jones as archetypes, plenty of rich amateur archaeologists that dug up Egypt for instance. An interstellar frontier can certainly be fertile ground for servicing the "antiquities market" or perhaps in the case of our dilettante, fighting same when the government is uninterested or otherwise occupied,
* Weird Theory, rich people sometimes get a wild hair for some idea of arranging society, science, humans, history etc. or what constitutes valuable art/culture. They are obsessed with proving their conventionally debunked concepts/tastes, and have the funding to independently pursue it. Such a person sometimes forwards an entirely different functional science/invention/creation, ala the TV show Connections. The dilettante in your group could inadvertently drive all sorts of advances, shrug at the astounded teammates, and comment that yes yes yes the invention of Hop drive is useful but what really counts is proving Bacon assassinated Shakespeare.
Finally, don't neglect a big opportunity with Dilettantes- the archrival or enemy. An opponent that is well-funded, can connect with whatever local authority to cause trouble, and above all are NOT busy being powerful people/scientific explorers/mercantile empire building/criminal masterminding have all the time in the world to make your players their hobby or obsession.
* Explorer, many a noble type went off to be first somewhere to make their fame or at least historical footnote eternal,
* Colonist, I would say the colonists of Jamestown largely approached their preparation and first months as the dilettantes they were before imminent starvation and a now famous mercenary captain disabused them of the utility of their Social Standing,
* Relic Hunter, doesn't have to be Lora Croft or Indiana Jones as archetypes, plenty of rich amateur archaeologists that dug up Egypt for instance. An interstellar frontier can certainly be fertile ground for servicing the "antiquities market" or perhaps in the case of our dilettante, fighting same when the government is uninterested or otherwise occupied,
* Weird Theory, rich people sometimes get a wild hair for some idea of arranging society, science, humans, history etc. or what constitutes valuable art/culture. They are obsessed with proving their conventionally debunked concepts/tastes, and have the funding to independently pursue it. Such a person sometimes forwards an entirely different functional science/invention/creation, ala the TV show Connections. The dilettante in your group could inadvertently drive all sorts of advances, shrug at the astounded teammates, and comment that yes yes yes the invention of Hop drive is useful but what really counts is proving Bacon assassinated Shakespeare.
Finally, don't neglect a big opportunity with Dilettantes- the archrival or enemy. An opponent that is well-funded, can connect with whatever local authority to cause trouble, and above all are NOT busy being powerful people/scientific explorers/mercantile empire building/criminal masterminding have all the time in the world to make your players their hobby or obsession.
One other thought- Mcr25 may be a lot of money to the average Traveller, but it can be burnt up in the blink of an eye. A single ship combat, a merc ticket, saving lives or ruining them, a data heist or stock run and it's all gone.
And the trust fund noble shouldn't be the only one with MCr in their credchip at one point or another.
Live large, try large, lose large and die trying- everyone should have a big score in their past or their future.
And the trust fund noble shouldn't be the only one with MCr in their credchip at one point or another.
Live large, try large, lose large and die trying- everyone should have a big score in their past or their future.
Interesting point - about half her money is "safe" with a "predictable but "safe return," but half could be subject to the vagaries of the markets and to other life events (one such is that her cousin, the baronet and former navy captain, during his naval service was a member of the shipboard poker game and has gambler 1 - old habits could be hard to break, and a gentleman always pays his gambling debts, if not his tailor)>
And of course if one fails to pay one's debt, one isn't a gentleman is he?
SOC -# appropriate to the level of default, every time debt is not settled in a timely manner.
Well, in the Regency period there were quite a few "gentlemen" who were deeply in arrears on payment of their tailoring and victualing bills - putting off the "tradesmen" until one's "ship comes in" (often quite literally in the 18th and early 19th centuries) is a theme in much literature of the period. But a man who didn't pay a gambling debt was universally deemed a "cad."
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