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PCs as rulers of worlds?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gloriousbattle
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gloriousbattle

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How many of you have explored this option in Traveller gaming, where the PCs are the ruling nobles of various planets, fighting feudal wars, negotiating trade agreements, hiring assassins to provide annoying enemy nobles with an "early retirement", etc.

I have done this regularly and found that there are some excellent articles out there for this purpose: "Robe and Blaster", by Rick D. Stuart White Dwarf, 22 and "Relief for Traveller Nobility", by Paul Montgomery Crabaugh Dragon, 73 both give nobles the powers of rulership.

Some people enjoy this type of gaming, which harkens back to the very oldest roleplaying styles. Others think it is boring running an estate when I could be out blasting SolSec Agents and Ithklur.

Where do you fit in?

Incidentally, I wrote a set of rules for this that is compatible with CT and fits one a single sheet of paper:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?p=356286#post356286

If interested, enjoy.
 
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T4s supplement Pocket Empires covered it extensively. Did a fair job of it as well, covering everything from growing your empire to founding a dynasty to advancing your worlds TL.

You should check it out...
 
Cryton said:
T4s supplement Pocket Empires covered it extensively. Did a fair job of it as well, covering everything from growing your empire to founding a dynasty to advancing your worlds TL.

You should check it out...
Click to expand...

Ugh. I appreciate the thought but... Pocket Empires! What a math fest that was. :(:(:(
 
Mathematics can be fun in small doses, and PE is interesting to read through and perform the calculations to create a world, but it gets extremely tedious to perform all the calculations on a turn/annual basis, especially if you are controlling an empire of many worlds. Even a spreadsheet doesn't remove all the tedium.

I tried running a character as a PE world ruler and it simply didn't work. With one year turns, I found that the plans my character was putting into effect would be seen to fruition by the character's grandson. Masterminding wars is more interesting than managing estates, but in PE wars can last decades or centuries. The only way you can work it with PE is to role-play a dynasty.

Maybe that's realistic. The idea of Emperor Ming taking over the universe before he retires is a bit 'Silver Age' - unless you have an unlimited supply of anagathics.

I'll be interested to read your rules and see how you handle it. :)
 
Icosahedron said:
Maybe that's realistic. The idea of Emperor Ming taking over the universe before he retires is a bit 'Silver Age' - unless you have an unlimited supply of anagathics.

I'll be interested to read your rules and see how you handle it. :)
Click to expand...

Mine is considerably more unrealistic, in that a clever Napoleon could probably conquer a subsector in a relatively short time, but it is fun, and it doesn't have a lot of math... :D
 
Icosahedron said:
The idea of Emperor Ming taking over the universe before he retires is a bit 'Silver Age' - unless you have an unlimited supply of anagathics.
Click to expand...

I agree. Even without the buxom distraction of Dale Arden he would have had a hard time conquering the universe (as per the title of the third serial). ;)
 
The answer lies in Pocket Empires and Dune...take control of a strategic resource and marry well. Sadly, did not end well for Paul but maybe your PCs will have a better chance. I think players running planets is a poor fit for Traveller outside of the Interstellar Wars and M:0 era. Each of those remind of the film - The Man Who Would Be King. Other eras are more civilized too allow more commoners to rise. Whereas, I have players ascend to the nobility, they are more akin Arthurian knights than true nobles. When they play nobles - they are usually of the disenfranchised sort being 2nd or 3rd daughters/sons...charged with only having the title but cheated out of the fief.
 
gloriousbattle said:
THAT'S

JUST

WRONG

:oo:
Click to expand...

And yet, I enjoy doing the math, leisurely-like, outside of play. In play, single digit multiplications, plus add and subtract, are the limits of my tolerance.

Math is fun, for a certain subset of math and a certain subset of fun.
 
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