the Noble Career revisited

[Bob Weaver]

A few weeks ago on my blog I wrote up a revised career for the Noble character, which got some positive feedback, so I'm sharing it here, to get some more discussion. An excerpt from the post:
"The one characteristic that most strongly recommends itself to me when I think of what Nobles do is "be in charge of stuff". As an American, I have no direct experience with real-life aristocracy, so I default to depictions of British aristocrats in media.
[FONT=&quot]For a more specifically Traveller example, read Space Viking by H Beam Piper. Lucas Trask is a nobleman in a feudal society who knows nothing about spaceships and the like when he buys a battleship to pursue his enemy on a mission of revenge. Guess what, Trask is the guy in charge."

My re-worked Skill tables
[/FONT]Personal Development Table Education Table
+1 Intelligence Hunting
+1 Education Pilot
Carousing Leader
Jack of All Trades Gun Combat
Leader Vehicle
Brawling Medical

Service Skills Table Advanced Education Table
Leader Leader
Administration Administration
Carousing Liaison
Liaison Bribery
Bribery Jack of All Trades
Gambling Computer
[FONT=&quot]
(sorry about the formatting)
The whole post is here

What other Noble characters are there in science fiction that could be modeled this way?
How do Nobles come into the picture in your game - as PC's or NPC's? Should Leader skill provide a DM on the reactions table?

Cheers,

Bob W.

[/FONT]

 

[curmudgeon]

Just so I am clear, the rest of the things you need for character creation: Enlistment Roll, Survival, Promotion, Reenlistment, are all the same as the one from Supplement 4, right?

 

[Matt123]

Leadership (getting to run stuff) comes from your position which is conferred (royalty, team leader, ceo, president of the country) and from respect which is earned. Your get some respect from position, but that is quickly eroded if you prove incompetent.

The typical view of Aristocracy is of an Aristocrat whom has the first, but believes that means he does not need the second, respect is due to him/her as a right. The stories involving Aristocrats in Sci-fi that do well, all involve them earning the respect of the reader and the other characters in the story.

Doesn't help with character generation, but might contribute to role playing.

 

[pennshome723]

A Noble comes from a Family that has Rank and Privilege. The respect they are give in mostly because of the family that they belong too. In many cases people either treat them with respect or they encounter terrible situations that means they might end up dead or worse.

Now a specific Noble character's skills also add to how they are viewed by the society that they live in, and they might also have some job or are incharge of something. It all depends on what the plot line you assign to them, what they do. Just view them as better than the rest of society and they get special treatment by all. They might be a good character, but the world they live in is much better than the normal persons life. Like they don't wait in lines, they just walk up front and walk in. Certain standards do not apply to them and they sometomes flaunt or rub that existance in normal peoples faces. Play it up.

 

[Bob Weaver]

Just so I am clear, the rest of the things you need for character creation: Enlistment Roll, Survival, Promotion, Reenlistment, are all the same as the one from Supplement 4, right?

Yes, that's right. What I found to be unsatisfactory about the Noble career was that it did not emphasize enough that nobles are by virtue of their social status often in charge of things. I thought the skill tables should reflect that, and emphasize social skills, actual leadership among them.

Cheers,

Bob W.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

Sifu strolls in...

Nice discussion, friends. May I drop a line, please?

IMTU there is a wholesale exodus of humanity from Terra. Freedom and choice for everybody, yet there are those who have some advantage because of rank and/or privilege. To simulate this, I allow those characters with a Noble Soc to get one free roll on a skill table of choice.

Since this is not the character's primary occupation, any failed survival rolls are converted to wounds or near misses as plot may direct. Roll for promotion as usual but no extra skill throw.

A failed re-enlistment roll could mean trouble at home, foreign influence, etc. Plot twist as necessary to enhance primary career.

Here is a sample character developed for my third novel...

---Doreen Carlson START---6879CA BORN 2229
TEK GRAV-0 GUN-0 COMPUTER-0

CAREER SCIENTIST/(NOBLE)
PE .COMPUTER

T1 N/1 .JACK-O-T ..COMPUTER (.GUN CBT)
E1 -51 DISCOVERED ALIEN COLONY SITE

T2 N/2 ...COMPUTER .BLADE CBT (.ADMIN)
E2 -55 FORGE ACCESS PASS ALIEN COLONY SITE, BREAK GUARD FACEPLATE TO ESCAPE

T3 -/- ..JACK-O-T .MECHANICAL (+1 DEXT)
E3 -59 MAKES OWN MUSKETS FROM DURAPLAS

T4 -/- ( 0/-1/ 0) .ELECTRONIC ....COMPUTER (..ADMIN)
E4 -63 BREAK INTO LOYALTY OFFICE SITE AT DIG FOR HACKING

T5 N/- (-1/-1/ 0) .MEDICAL ...ADMIN (..GUN CBT)
E5 -67 SURVIVED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, KILLED HITMAN

DOREEN CARLSON, ACTIVE DUTY SCIENTIST 5679CC Age 38, 5T
Computer-4, Admin-3, GUN CBT(BodyPistol-2), Jack-O-Trades-2, BLADE CBT(Dagger-1), Electronic-1, Mechanical-1, Medical-1

9 BP [WEAPON-2 YACHT TRAVELLERS' Mk128,000]

Note that I managed to take a pretty much random throw of dice and weave it together pretty well. In a future post, if there is interest, I will post some fiction featuring her.

BTW, since Scientists have no rank structure in Supp. 4, I house ruled that any 'near miss' which is a survival throw that requires use of characteristic bonus to succeed, earns a brownie point.

 

[McPerth]

I've always seen the noble career as those nobles that dedicate to administration, while most noble born in other careers are those that, despite their titles (or knighthoots) do not follow the administration/governement way.

About your tables, just one thought: in persona ldevelopement, you included brwling. As I don't envision most nobles in such aristocratic society engaging in brawling, as they probably don't see it appropiate, wouldn't it be better to exchage it for long blade, or even gun combat, representing some duelling/hunting tradition?

 

[Bob Weaver]

I've always seen the noble career as those nobles that dedicate to administration, while most noble born in other careers are those that, despite their titles (or knighthoots) do not follow the administration/governement way.

About your tables, just one thought: in personal development, you included brawling. As I don't envision most nobles in such aristocratic society engaging in brawling, as they probably don't see it appropriate, wouldn't it be better to exchange it for long blade, or even gun combat, representing some dueling/hunting tradition?

McPerth, I agree with your vision of what the Noble career is intended to represent, it's just that I felt the skill sets offered did not match that vision well, hence my changes. My blog post explains my reasoning more fully: http://deepinthestax.blogspot.com/2013/06/traveller-nobility-revisited.html

Brawling, to me, has always represented unarmed combat of all sorts. Boxing, bartitsu, basic martial arts as well as bar-room roundhouses. Not everything can be solved (at least in Traveller) with social skills. Abraham Lincoln had to wrestle a competitor for his officer position during his military service; Theodore Roosevelt practiced boxing and judo in the White House - and he was from an upper crust NY family. A more famous example would be John Douglas, the Marquess of Queensberry and his rules for boxing. I'm sure that many Nobles in Traveller and real life do not approve of fisticuffs, but at least some do. For those that do, there is Brawling skill. Perhaps Blade could be added into the Benefits table (if it's not there already) - and Blade skill could be picked up there.

Cheers,

Bob W.

 

[BlackBat242]

Theodore Roosevelt practiced boxing and judo in the White House - and he was from an upper crust NY family.

Cheers,

Bob W.

While we think of TR as this big-chested incredibly tough "manly man", he was a skinny sickly boy. He basically forced himself into robust health through constant physical training as a teenager... and continued his obsession with any form of "rugged and manly" exertion until his late 50s.

 

[arbitrary.remora]

Nobles of the 3I may be (or wish to be) the sophont in charge but how much risk is indeed involved in their careers?

Consider the Glorious Party Workers of the Solomani People and their survival roll of 8+ (with a Edu 9+ mod no less ) contrasted with the somewhat more passive lifestyle of the Imperial Noble.

Now who is the human in charge?

-Arb.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

There was a long time ago a White Dwarf article called "Sword and Blaster" which provided an alternate method of generating benefits. It provided tangible benefits (Land, Cash, Ships, improved "privleges") which helped to define the scope of the noble's control besides simply that of a Soc F was a Duke of such and such territory and so on.