Hello; again.

[Ebon Pharos]

Hello everyone,
I have come back around to Traveller again and rereading Core Book 1/ Starter Book 1 and I finally made a character. I wanted to clarify a question, when I rolled for skills I came up with Education +1, my Education to start was 7, so that would make it an 8, since according to the Starter book this takes effect immediately, could I then roll on the Advanced Education chart? I assumed so, however I chose not to, so it will not effect this character at all. I just wanted to clarify this for the next several that I want to make. Thank you in advance for the help. I am sure I will have other questions.

 

[atpollard]

Yup. You got it right.

 

[Ebon Pharos]

Thank you for the quick reply.

 

[mike wightman]

Yup, immediate effect.
Say your character is in the Army and gets three skill rolls for the term. If you opt to take the first on the personal development table and increase Edu by 1 (so it is now 8) you can now use the advanced education table for the other two skill throws and skill throws in subsequent terms.

 

[Ebon Pharos]

Thank you. Second character and next question.
I generated a Marine Colonel, in the Muster out rolls, I rolled a 6 on the benefits table. This would give me a High Passage, but I add one for having a rank of 5, so that is +2 to the Social. Now here is the 'problem', this would give my Marine Colonel a Social of 11, A Baron.... WTH!!!! How can I explain this? Everything else more or less fell into place, but this I can not figure out how to explain.

 

[Brandon C]

You character performed a great service and was rewarded well by the nobility. Perhaps you led a mission that saved an Archduke's life

 

[atpollard]

Or the classic (from history) ... a military officer (Marine Colonel) was tasked with putting down a local uprising and granted landholdings on the world as an insurance policy against future problems. The Duke does not want 'fair', the Duke wants 'peace and quiet' ... as long as he gets 'peace and quiet' you get to remain a Baron (he is hoping ... forever ... Baronies are cheap, insurrections are expensive).

 

[MThompson016]

SOC increase as a reward for excellent and valorous service. Not unlike the Honors received by senior officers in the British Military.

 

[Ebon Pharos]

Thank you all. I do not know a lot about the 'history'of Traveller, but I am headed in a slightly different direction and this will actually help out with how I am setting things up. I am still reading Book 1 (Combat), so for my universe I have just a few ideas going and I do not want to form any hard and fast stuff till I have read more.

 

[robject]

Mustering out benefits are either "pension"-style benefits, or rewards. +2 SOC is clearly a reward, and therefore for rendering a special service. Since baronies are conferred from above, that service was to someone or something important.

 

[mike wightman]

Or you could make it that as a 'baron' he now has the authority to start his own mercenary battalion...

 

[Ebon Pharos]

Oh I like that Idea.... How much territory would a baron have? planet, subsector?

 

[robject]

A feif on a mainworld -- presumably the world for which he rendered a service, or a world owned by the fellow for whom he rendered service. Say a hex 100 km in width, and whatever resources it has.

Plus another feif (again a hex about 100km across) on a minor planet or moon in the system.

In short: two home bases, one relatively protected (on the mainworld) and one remote (elsewhere).

I assume a feifdom includes whatever structures were on it at the time it was granted... and who knows about the condition the former owner left it in? It might be a rather nice estate -- or a secure subterranean compound -- or a game preserve with a luxury bungalow -- or a very small, private Class B starport. Or ruins from an extinct culture. Or all of the above.

 

[kilemall]

A feif on a mainworld -- presumably the world for which he rendered a service, or a world owned by the fellow for whom he rendered service. Say a hex 100 km in width, and whatever resources it has.

Plus another feif (again a hex about 100km across) on a minor planet or moon in the system.

In short: two home bases, one relatively protected (on the mainworld) and one remote (elsewhere).

I assume a feifdom includes whatever structures were on it at the time it was granted... and who knows about the condition the former owner left it in? It might be a rather nice estate -- or a secure subterranean compound -- or a game preserve with a luxury bungalow -- or a very small, private Class B starport. Or ruins from an extinct culture. Or all of the above.

Not that I am that big on OTU nobility, but it occurs to me that it could be a fief from one of the ringleaders of the insurrection, which is free due to effective abdication by revolt.

Leading to all manner of hooks with the very angry dispossessed family and friends.

A careful reading of Machiavelli's Prince may be in order.

 

[Lapthorn]

I assume a feifdom includes whatever structures were on it at the time it was granted... and who knows about the condition the former owner left it in? It might be a rather nice estate -- or a secure subterranean compound -- or a game preserve with a luxury bungalow -- or a very small, private Class B starport. Or ruins from an extinct culture. Or all of the above.

Surveying and securing a new fief sounds like a really good hook for the start of a new campaign.

As a variant, the "fief" might be a small shipping line in a frontier subsector. The previous owner had his assets confiscated for some nefarious reason (involvement in smuggling, treasonous contact with a hostile power etc.) and the shipping line has been made over to the new PC Imperial Baron. The PC will probably need to knock a few heads together to enforce the change of management. In all the confusion, some of the assets (e.g., ships) have probably been misappropriated by others and need to be retrieved.

Optional plot twist: the confiscation was illegitimate / unjust, confronting the PCs with an interesting ethical dilemma!

 

[Ebon Pharos]

I have created a third character and am now on to reading combat. I plan on using my characters as NPC in a campaign, I am not sure how I want to run this campaign. I have the Tancred book and have had thoughts of using it as my baron's new fief and he hires a group of PCs to help out in some way, but I would like to have the fiefdom more on the edge of the Imperium to give the PCs more chances to explorer new worlds and or face other threats.