Actually, to me, it looks like it creates a pretty average spread of Travellers - just not the average spread of citizens.
social standing
- Thread starter flykiller
- Start date
Actually, to me, it looks like it creates a pretty average spread of Travellers - just not the average spread of citizens.
I should hope so ... but there should still be a pile more high-SOC folks than the tiny number of Imperial nobles would suggest.
"The 1%," to borrow from contemporary discourse, would still be 200 million people in the Glisten subsector.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I agree that the generation tables generate Travellers, not the average population of the OTU - even if you add in S4:CotI.
De-coupling soc from noble title makes sense.
De-coupling soc from noble title makes sense.
I don't. My point is that there are a lot of high-status people who are not nobles, i.e. that they aren't coupled.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Imperium titles are limited; I'd resolve the rest with life peerages given to their children and those on the Honours list, and after that, old money, new money, celebrities.
And move that decimal point to right, twice.
And move that decimal point to right, twice.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Has anyone tried using Social Standing as a negative modifier? In other words, a situation where high Social Standing works against the player by arousing highly negative views with the group the player has just encountered.
creativehum
SOC-14 1K
That's how I would plan to use it for CT. In situations where I need to get a reaction from PCs, I'd use the Reaction Table -- with a DM based on the differences in the SS of those interacting with each other.
SS is not only land/estate/resources, but how one carries ones self, what one is a willing to put up, where tribal lines of class are drawn. These differences can it both ways dependent on situation.
I have this baked into the reaction rolls, with a professional setting people default to 'on the job'- or not.
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
I don't see it that way. You're SOC 11+ you are nobility. You are 10 or lower you are a commoner. That doesn't mean a 10 commoner might not command respect even to levels of 12 or 13, it simply means they are not nobility.
Nobility infers something beyond simply your wealth or popularity. It is a world apart. Nobles get a pass when commoners wouldn't. That means you're, say, a knight. The guy at the customs booth takes a glance at your passport and stamps it without question. "Welcome to .... (wherever) Sir So and So."
You're a 10 you slide the guy a 100 credits and he ignores you.
As a noble you are a member of the fraternity, sorority, secret hand shake society, and that has real and tangible benefits.
The customs guy doesn't have to worry with a commoner that you are overly connected. He knows damn well if you're nobility you are connected. There's no doubt about it.
Nobility takes care of their problems within their ranks themselves without too much publicity. Commoners end up in the justice system.
So, while SOC 10 confers some status being a noble, even a lowly Knight, means something that is tangible. Nobles literally are above the law that rules commoners. But, they screw up and there is a sort of unwritten law that nobles know they will face for doing so from their peers.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
See France, circa 1789 to 1793, for what could happen within such a society of the Nobility being above the law.
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
Isn't that sort of what MT is all about...?
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
MT is more like Game of Thrones - it is a battle between the nobles to decide who gets the throne. Commoners are cannon fodder and nothing more.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Yup, I have used it a few times in that way.
Typically if the PCs are trying to gain contacts within an underground/criminal/revolutionary organisation.
It is much easier for an ex-other with a streetwise of 2 and a soc of 4 to convince the Ine Givar cell he wants to join than it is for the soc 12 Admiral Kablamoowee (retired).
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
MegaTraveller is more the Nobility squabbling over who gets to run the Imperium, not a revolt by the lower classes against the nobility. Note, I am not an expert on all of MegaTraveller, nor am I a fan of it.
Absolutely.
I take a similar view, but IMO you aren't nobility without patents thereof; otherwise, you're just rich. The megarich rub elbows with nobles without enjoying their formal legal status.
But consider all those successful kleptocracies sustained by ruling classes wise enough to shower benefits on the classes that enforce their laws....
The Imperium remains stable because of rich, high pop worlds that benefit from the system.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
You mean like a certain country located on the north shore of South America?
I got that idea that in MegaTraveller, the Imperium was not exactly stable.
Exactly. We must be careful not to confuse SOC with fame and/or power. Take for example this description of Power from T5
T5 said:
In T5, Fame is a separately tracked value which equates as follows:
T5 said:
In MgT, a starting list of Allies, Contacts, Enemies, and Rivals are all determined as part of the character creation process.
None of these rely on SOC. All of these help to determine the character's social influence.
Cheers,
Baron Ovka
Yes. I've done so. A duke trying to pass himself off as a mobster. Hit him with a difficulty shift on his streetwise/charisma roll.
