Re: Nobles

> [email removed] (jim vassilakos) writes:
>
> [email removed] writes:
> > Based on how the GDW/DGP Traveller universe works, Dominic, you blew it
> > bigtime when you let two characters roll up random dukes and duchesses.
>
I agree. A 'Travelling' imperial noble is really quite ridiculous (as
IMO is an ex-High Admiral or other high imperial official).

> Let's face it. It's not entirely out of the question that a
> character should roll a natural 12 on Social Standing and then
> add three points in service.

No indeed. It is actually quite likely that one will show up if
you play long enough.

>                               If such a situation occurs, though
> unusual, must it be the GM's responsibility to deny the "Ducal"
> status in the name of party-balance?

Yes! Yes! Yes! It is ALWAYS the responsibility of the GM to vet
the rules and veto anything that will upset the game (remind me
sometimes to tell you about the time I played classic Traveller
with a GM who played _by_the_book_!)

>
> > I find that if the players treat the
> > nobles as they should, any noble over rank 12 utterly trashes game
> > balance. Good luck!
>
> Agreed, game balance is put in dire jeopardy, but there are three
> generic alternatives.
>
The solution I've adopted is to ignore the MegaTraveller version of
nobles and stick to the classic Traveller interpretation. Vis: That
the ranks rolled up on the character generation tables are _local_
_planetary_ranks. I furthermore interpret noble rank in the conti-
nental manner (in which all the sons of a noble inherits the rank)
instead of the english. This makes nobles much easier to handle ;-)

      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]