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/

[mike wightman]

A subsector duke is unlikely to be able to do more than make requests of IN ship captains or fleet admirals, unless they have an Imperial edict to back them up...

We know there is a sector admiralty, and it is they that issue fleet and ship orders, probably with some input from the sector duke and local megacorporatioons. The often forgotten aspect is that a fleet or ship could be months away from the sector HQ, and thus their standing orders must involve an awful lot of 'use your own discretion' clauses.

An IN fleet assigned to a particular subsector probably has to act most of the time on requests from the sub sector duke - providing they don't clash with sector fleet orders.

E.g the duke of regina can not order the IN 215th fleet to attack the Zhodani and begin a frontier war, but he can probably request that the fleet admiral sends some ships to efate to aid in putting down the unrest brewing there.

[aramis]

Originally Posted by Meteoric Assault

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/

The subsector fleet? Yes, at least by prior canon. But we don't see any of those local navies in the novel; all we see are IISS and IN.

[ovka]

There seems to be a large number of people with wafer jacks. It never occurred to me that would be the case, but since it is on the T5 benefits table for all careers, it makes sense that maybe 1 in 5 people might have them.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

[savage]

The Agents, Reference, Capital, etc. all flesh out 3I much better.

Would be nice to know more about the earlier ship versions. I'd rather see specific planet sheets than all the game stats in the back.