• Welcome to the new COTI server. We've moved the Citizens to a new server. Please let us know in the COTI Website issue forum if you find any problems.
  • We, the systems administration staff, apologize for this unexpected outage of the boards. We have resolved the root cause of the problem and there should be no further disruptions.

References to diplomats

rancke

Absent Friend
I'm looking for references to diplomats in general and Imperial diplomats in particular. I know of the passages in GT:Far Trader and GT:Nobles, the three different versions of Exit Visa, and the character generation of generic diplomats in CotI. And I wrote the bit about the diplomatic quarter on Mora in A Festive Occasion myself.

What else is there?


Hans
 
Last edited:
Have you tried T4 probably a lot in there as it is the start of the 3I. What about that robot that exploded on the Slyea battleship that resulted in the robot accords - some diplomats there from memory.

ordeal by Eshaar from FASA has an imperial diplomatic mission and the alien encounters book from GDW that accommpanied the original alien modules had a zho embassy or two
 
GDW ALIEN REALMS: Deep Metal is about Zho Diplomats.

http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Ministry_of_State
Wiki on IDC organization

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=1652
A discussion on related subject with no Rancke input.

There was a 50 year diplomatic effort on the Rim from 940-990. It resulted in Rim war. Possible mentions of diplo efforts in various Sollie supplements. The GDW Sol book clearly showed the heavy Impie hand by deliberately provoking the Sollies with March 13 date. but no details in depth.
 
Thought there might be something in CT Supp 8 - Library Data A-M... there is but not under D for Dipomat/cy. Very brief mentions under "Centaurs" (K'kree diplomats) and "History of the Solomani Movement" (Imperial diplomacy). Neither with any real info imo.

Keep meaning to get my pdfs properly indexed so I can do global searches, others have, maybe they can do a quick check for you if they see this.

I seem to recall a diplomat written up as a special passenger aboard the "King Richard" if you have that. Mine is tucked away somewhere at the moment. It might have some info to build on.

EDIT:

Quick check of CT Supp 11 - Library Data N-Z (thought maybe under N-Noble but nope)... some brief mentions: "Imperial Space" pg 6, "Pacification Campaigns" pg 12, "Solomani Autonomous Region" pg 19, "Sword Worlds Confederation" pg 23, "Sylean Federation" pg 23, and "Politics in the Solomani Rim" pg 44.
 
Doing a few article searches over on RPGGeek using appropriate keywords, I found some magazine articles that might be worth finding:

The Traveller Politician, Dragon (Issue 32 - Dec 1979). Diplomacy and Intrigue in the Traveller Universe.

Personality: Lom Twahhuin, Tiffany Star (Issue 7). Chief Diplomat of Vega NPC profile.

Feature Adventure: Ikonic Voyage, Stellar Reaches (Issue 9 - Summer 2009). A Traveller diplomatic adventure, deal–making puzzle, and travelogue for the Empty Quarter.
 
JTAS #1 has a variant rules writeup for diplomacy in the Imperium game.

If you're not limiting yourself to canon or CT istr a Diplomacy supplement from an independent publisher for MgT. It's a vague recollection though, no details or even surety that I'm recalling correctly :)
 
I've long wondered who the diplomats as represented in S:4 represent.

Are they representatives of the Imperial Diplomatic Service tasked with liaison with member world, or is that the role of Imperial Nobles?

Are they representatives of member worlds at the other worlds within their sub sector and/or at the sub sector duke's fief?

Are they Imperial Diplomats sent to major foreign powers or worlds outside the Imperium?

Come to think of it could they be the diplomats from those foreign powers or worlds?
 
T4 Missions of State? Can't remember - I'll have to look through it again.

Pocket Empires, as well, but that's more rules on using diplomats, and isn't so much canonical data, which is what I think Hans is looking for.

As for what the COTI diplomat career is, I always thought it was the internal forum of the 3I, not the external, that they worked in. As in, they're the guys going and working out trade tariff deals with neighbor worlds, and sucking up to the subsector dukes.
 
T4s Pocket Empires has careers for both Bureaucrats and Diplomats in it (pg 90-91).

It also has rules for economics, technological uplift, political actions between pocket empires, and quarterly meta-tasks for combat between PEs.

I'm fairly certain that this book was the source for a lot of the expanded world data for T5 and that it can all easily be extrapolated for dealings with the 3I.

Edit: when combined with the info in T4s Milieu 0 that is...
 
The King Richard Diplo scenario refers you to use the KR in the ORDEAL BY ESHAAR Adventure.

What does 'KR' stand for?

Sadly, I have neither of those supplements. I'd be most grateful if someone would summarize the pertinent details from Ordeal. Ranks of the diplomats involved and that sort of thing.


Hans
 
KR is for the King Richard (I expect).

I don't recall having Ordeal By Eshaar so it's odd I associated a Diplo scenario with the KR. Going to have a quick look in a few obvious places for my copy of KR and check that if I find it. Will post back later.

I am also recalling some extensive workups on Diplomats. Gear, skills, and some ships... more than the bits in CT. But again it's a bit of a vague recollection. Might have been something I was working on myself ages ago and have mostly forgotten. Might be in my pile of old notes if that's the case, but digging through that won't happen soon.
 
Hmm, well the Diplo mention in King Richard is just a note (adventure seed/advert for Ordeal By Eshaar) that the KR is the perfect vessel for a diplomatic mission adventure and suggests getting "Ordeal By Eshaar" for that reason. Must be what I was recalling. Maybe I'd made up my own diplomatic mission adventure way back then since I couldn't get the FASA one? That might be what I was recalling as more details of gear, skills, and ships. It might even have been before I had any Supp 4 careers knowledge of Diplomats. I really need to collect and organize all my old notes someday :)
 
I've long wondered who the diplomats as represented in S:4 represent.

Are they representatives of the Imperial Diplomatic Service tasked with liaison with member world, or is that the role of Imperial Nobles?

Are they representatives of member worlds at the other worlds within their sub sector and/or at the sub sector duke's fief?

Are they Imperial Diplomats sent to major foreign powers or worlds outside the Imperium?

Come to think of it could they be the diplomats from those foreign powers or worlds?

"Diplomats: Members of the Foreign Service of a government." [CI:5]

Seems pretty generic.


Hans
 
The Ambassador or Chief of Mission might well be a noble, but there is the whole staff of Assistants to the Ambassador, Special Assistants, Protocol Chief/Assistant PC, and so on that most likely are NOT nobles, but rather career bureaucrats within the Diplomatic Service, trained for the job through normal higher-education & service training routes.

Of course, required reading for referees intending to incorporate the Corps Diplomatique Impériale into their Traveller game are the various memoirs of Jame Retief http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jame_Retief#Retief_Novels_and_Stories



Jame Retief is the main character in a series of satirical science fiction stories by Keith Laumer. The stories were written over a span of thirty years beginning in the early 1960s, without much regard for chronology or any particular scheme.

Detailing the travails of Jame Retief in the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne (CDT) the stories have a base in Laumer's experiences in the United States Foreign Service, notably his time as vice consul in Burma in the 1950s. Reorganisations in the Foreign Service both before and after World War II were a source of considerable conflict at the time, as the diplomatic "old guard" were confronted with a new world situation and a new generation of diplomats, men like Laumer, who took a more pragmatic approach to the service. This conflict undoubtedly informs the Retief stories, in which stubborn and often ignorant superiors mired in bureaucracy cause him endless difficulties in the carrying out of his duties.
 
Wouldn't an Imperial diplomat be a noble though?

According to GT:Nobles, Imperial ambassadors (basic character generation Rank 6) have to be knights or baronets, Ambassadors Extraordinary have to be barons, and Ministers Plenipotentiary (who carries Imperial Warrants) have to be marquesses.

One of the three paths a noble can take in MgT character generation is diplomat.


Hans
 
Back
Top