Has Agent changed your vision of the Third Imperium?

[mike wightman]

Marc's novel has got me thinking about what I thought I knew about the Imperial setting, and the implications of the technology in the novel and buried away in T5.

Just wondered what the novel has done for your interpretation of the setting?

[aramis]

The only thing it's adding is Brainchips and the agents themselves.

I found it scary how much like my prior games the novel was.

[Reban]

I'm still reading but two things stand out:

1. Everyone is very obedient; the agent is the voice of the Emperor, thats fine, he speaks with supreme authority, but there are also little hints. the marines and junior officers who bow and genuflect to the Captain's chair (notice that that changes as the novel progresses). There is no referencing higher authority for orders, that is in keeping with the Age of Sail motif, but the default rather than the senior officer being "Johnny on the Spot" is to defer to a personality chip which is out of touch with local events (although that probably means immune from local politics).

2. The complete separation between the Navy and the Worlds. In every crisis I've read so far the Agent deals with the Navy analysis without referencing the local nobles or inhabitants. That's stretching my credibility at the moment.

[Meteoric Assault]

Originally Posted by Reban

I'm still reading but two things stand out:

1. Everyone is very obedient; the agent is the voice of the Emperor, thats fine, he speaks with supreme authority, but there are also little hints. the marines and junior officers who bow and genuflect to the Captain's chair (notice that that changes as the novel progresses). There is no referencing higher authority for orders, that is in keeping with the Age of Sail motif, but the default rather than the senior officer being "Johnny on the Spot" is to defer to a personality chip which is out of touch with local events (although that probably means immune from local politics).

2. The complete separation between the Navy and the Worlds. In every crisis I've read so far the Agent deals with the Navy analysis without referencing the local nobles or inhabitants. That's stretching my credibility at the moment.

I agree, I have found it hard to come to terms with what you have mentioned.. I do enjoy the fleshing in of details that make giving context to the OTU with such color and detail.

[mike wightman]

Imperial government begins at the subsector level - the subsector duke is the local emperor.

A ship captain/fleet admiral coming across a problem has three options:
1. deal with it;
2. send to the nearest subsector duke for guidance/orders/authority to act - this may take a couple of months;
3. activate an agent wafer.

Note that options 2 and 3 are both passing the buck...

Local nobles have no authority whatsoever over IN ship captains or fleet admirals, and they are likely to be part of the problem...

[Meteoric Assault]

Originally Posted by mike wightman

Imperial government begins at the subsector level - the subsector duke is the local emperor.

A ship captain/fleet admiral coming across a problem has three options:
1. deal with it;
2. send to the nearest subsector duke for guidance/orders/authority to act - this may take a couple of months;
3. activate an agent wafer.

Note that options 2 and 3 are both passing the buck...

Local nobles have no authority whatsoever over IN ship captains or fleet admirals, and they are likely to be part of the problem...

Usually wouldn't in be in the best interest of the Noble to work and "manipulate" the imperial navy? This raises a question does a subsector duke exercise any administrative or command function with the subsector fleet/

[Orion Shipyards]

Originally Posted by mike wightman

A ship captain/fleet admiral coming across a problem has three options:
1. deal with it;
2. send to the nearest subsector duke for guidance/orders/authority to act - this may take a couple of months;
3. activate an agent wafer.

Note that options 2 and 3 are both passing the buck...

Well... Not exactly. There were a number of situations where some expert, cadre of experts, or computer program look at the combined threat analysis and decided this was a situation where the wafer had to be activated. If the situation you're in meets those criteria, you're getting a wafer agent, or you're violating protocol.

There were those situations where someone just felt "Maybe it'd be smart to get the input of someone with a lifetime of experience in this matter before I make a final decision..." and ended up waking up and being ordered around by someone with massive imperial authority because... Well, maybe they didn't think through the whole range of Edict 97 ramifications or something.

IMTU we have Imperial Marshals that are similar in concept to the Agent. So, we've had some games and campaigns that bear a passing resemblance to specific episodes of the story in that sense.

We use subdermal computer/communicators rather than specific chip-jacks, but skill and knowledge chips haven't figured very prominently in our games. The idea of a full-consciousness download that could overlay and subdue the user is interesting and rife with potential. Subderms are about as common in space professionals in MTU as the wafer-jack seems to be in Agent.

The feudal government influence / model reaches further and deeper in my universe than in much of canon, so the enhanced Imperial authority felt right at home.

The biggest single way the novel changed my view and will likely change my GMing is that, over the course of so many years of Traveller with mostly the same players in largely the same game universe, it seems like I haven't been emphasizing the other races nearly enough... It's been ages since anyone really encountered anyone who wasn't Aslan, Vargr, or Humaniti. My players all know what a Droyne or Hiver or K'kree is, but they never really show up, and - well, like I said, it's been ages since they interacted with anything else.

That'll probably change soon.

[GypsyComet]

Originally Posted by mike wightman

Just wondered what the novel has done for your interpretation of the setting?

Very little, to be honest, aside from giving form to the "apartness" of the Navy.

[Maksim-Smelchak]

Originally Posted by mike wightman

Marc's novel has got me thinking about what I thought I knew about the Imperial setting, and the implications of the technology in the novel and buried away in T5.

Just wondered what the novel has done for your interpretation of the setting?

Yes, absolutely yes.

It's really updated the setting and added a lot of stylistic changes.

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Agent_of_the_Imperium

Shalom,
M.