Noble Campaign Plot Lines

[Elliot]

As I understand a Noble Campaign sourcebook is planned for D20 and I was wondering how this might be developed.

IMO Traveller has never really got to grips with the quasi feudal system in terms of tangible adventure plots and the Imperial nobility have always been distant deus ex machina type patrons. TNE on the otherhand deconstructed the Imperial nobility with all that guff about noblesse oblige (i.e. DN couldn't be bothered!).

In my conception, the Imperial nobility are very much like the nobles found in seventeenth century European tragedy and history - i.e. always plotting to increase their influence and position with the Sector Duke, Archduke or Emperor.

In terms of campaigns, I envision that the PC's fit in as courtiers or retained men, or as lesser nobles committed to the fortunes of a particular house.

For example here are a few plot lines:

One PC is a baron whose family has become bankrupt through the vice of a (now dead?) brother. The other players are his friends or followers. In order to recover the family honour [and its impounded estates] the baron must do the bidding (not always wholesome) of his world's politically ambitious marquis or the cluster count. The marquis/count 'likes' the barons sister. The marquis/count's wife is the sister of the sector duke. She (and her brother) are not impressed.

R is the son of Count C, J is the daughter of Count M. The two families are involved in a subsector wide feud. The duke tries to maintain the peace but cannot do so. R loves J. R (or the duke) approaches the players (one of whom is a baron/marquis who is neutral to the feud) to help him make peace between the families so that he can marry J. Later this does not work and a more desparate solution is called for. . .

H is the son of a subsector duke who has been away at Capital studying at the University. H returns to find that his father is dead and that his mother has married his uncle. H wants revenge, he is not that sane. The players are his friends enlisted to help him/to prevent him.

P is a subsector duke much taken with the study and practice of psionics. He was deposed in a coup by his brother and exiled to an interdicted system. He wants to get his dukedom back. Thats where the players come in . . .

 

[gardclan]

I had a rather long running campaign where one of the characters started out as a knight and was later elevated to barron. (The character was actually an archaeologist and former naval officer.) Poor sap founded a mercenary company and got himself shot with a LAG at close range shortly after a combat drop in the service of the Duke. (The funeral was lovely, btw.)

What I found was giving the players too much "rank" tends to eliminate lots of problems that normal folk have to wrestle with. (It also creates quite a few...).

In order to deal with the problem of potential resources getting out of hand, and to resolve the issue as to why a barron was out adventuring; I created (altered, actually) two types of nobles IMTU:

Itinerant nobles hold rank and authority, but generally have no fifedom. These persons hold their rank due to service to the imperium and are granted their rank as a reward. A stipend and certain legal powers are also granted to Itinerant nobles for the discharge of their duties. Typically, such persons work for the local duke or count (at least on occasion). Itinerant nobles are limited to the rank of Barron, and follow their title with the abbreviation Int. (E.g., knight itinerant or barron itinerant.) Itinerant titles can be heridetary, but this depends on the actual patent when issued. An Itinerant Barron whom is promoted becomes a Parlimentary Barron and is granted a fifedom to govern. All knights are itinerant.

Parlimentary nobles are the nobles in the classic sence. They hold lands, power, and prestiege. These were pretty much unmodified from the basic concept described in the books.

Since even itinerant nobles carried some force of law, this allowed my player to act as a noble (with all the fopishness he could muster) but still adventure and visit all those marvelous seedy bars without raising too much of an issue.

Its an idea anyway.

 

[autochthonic]

I recommend the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois M Bujold. They are about a noble with credible duties and obligations.

And for balance, the Jeeves and Wooster stories can provide plots that don't involve much gunplay.

 

[Vargas]

As I've said elsewhere, 'Young Miles' reads like a Traveller adventure.

 

[DrSkull]

My T20 playtest campaign centered on a Baron who founded a mercenary company (he had the good sense never to be in the frontlines of course, that's for the lackies) so he avoided taking any LAG rounds in the chest.

I gave him a fief consisting of a small "hunting lodge" on an airless moon which circled an important gas giant in an important system. The moon had an automated fuel-purifier station which was run by a mega-corp that paid the baron a small income for the lease.

He hobnobbed with the powers that be, got the jobs, found investors and recruited troops. He also made the broad policy decisions, while the ship captain ran the Happy Fun Ball, and the Troop Commander ran the gunmen.

The Baron and one other character did actually skim off profits by setting up phony investors, and since only these two paid attention to the books, they got away with it.

 

[Elliot]

What do you think about using concepts from renaissance tragedy (greed, seeking of position, revenge of debts of honour, corruption, the use of low-life) to make the noble campaign darker (i.e. all's not well in the Empire of Strephon!)?

As far as I am aware this has never been a plot line in a traveller adventure (although in Marooned/Marooned Alone the wife of the Duke was an ex ⌧ star!)

 

[gardclan]

Originally posted by DrSkull:
My T20 playtest campaign centered on a Baron who founded a mercenary company (he had the good sense never to be in the frontlines of course, that's for the lackies) so he avoided taking any LAG rounds in the chest.

Well, this fella sorta had to be on the front lines. See, he was an archaeologist and the campaign was set durring the fifth frontier war. His knighthood was a result of his work on the Ancients. The later barrony was due to services rendered as the owner of a mercenary company.

The mercenary company was a direct outgrowth of his need to study things in the war zone and in a few places he should not have been. As a result, he originally hired a small group of "bodyguards" (that being the rest of the party) to help keep himself alive.

As time went on, the company grew to the point that our as yet "un-enfranchised" had to take the odd ticket to pay the bills.

On this particular drop, our dear fellow had a rather delicate artifact to retrieve. Guess he should have trusted the sergeant!

 

[Uncle Bob]

For a noble without responsibilities, let me suggest Alexei Panshin's Anthony Villiers novels. (Star Well, The Thurb Revolution, Masque World)
Tony Villiers is the second son of the Duke of Charteris, black sheep, duelist, friend of the Emperor's heir and associate of baggage handlers, thieves, revolutionary students, and unregistered aliens.

Also Anthony Viscount Charteris was one of the SF characters at the back of 1001 Patrons.

 

[autochthonic]

It's been a while since I read any but I remember that Panshin is seriously odd.

I didn't know there's a supplement coming out about the nobility, I'll look forward to that.

imtu, there's a shadowy organisation of butlers "behind the throne", called the 'League of Gentlemen's Gentlemen', their motto: "Anyone can pour a drink, but it takes a Gentleman to Serve". They leave the "wet work" to the equally capable "Union of Chauffeurs and Rude Mechanicals". The League's head is the semi-immortal Jean Mandler, rumoured to have been the butler to Marie Antoinette amongst others. He's the kind of guy who knows how to serve cake to a mob. I'd tell you more but Strephon would be upset.

imtu, there are many ex-nobles. It's the House that is noble, not the family who occupy it, the Emperor can always revoke a charter. And of course there's Baron Whmhhm, who gave it all up to become a morris dancer.

 

[Vargas]

While you may not want to go to the lengths of setting up such a grand campaign, 'Dune' serves as another example of a noble campaign. And it allows you to bring in non-noble retainers.

 

[DrSkull]

Originally posted by Darth Sillyus:
His knighthood was a result of his work on the Ancients. The later barrony was due to services rendered as the owner of a mercenary company.

The mercenary company was a direct outgrowth of his need to study things in the war zone and in a few places he should not have been
On this particular drop, our dear fellow had a rather delicate artifact to retrieve. Guess he should have trusted the sergeant![/QB]

Sounds good. Our Baron was from the Noble character class, and born a noble. We explained the fact that he had only 200,000cr and his small fief, by starting the campaign in his accountant's office where he was selling the last of his stock shares to pay off his late father's gambling debts. 200,000cr though was nice seed money to found some light infantry mercs. His character was feeble in combat, so he always had an excuse to stay in the hotel.

I had all the players have two characters (a ground guy and a space guy) our Baron's other guy was a rogue, who was an old family retainer and house "master of assassins"

 

[Murph]

Oh, yes! My players generally worked for a noble, either as "Art collectors", "Special tasks agents", and most ended up as either knights, or baronets. One ended up as a Marquis (and became an NPC patron), another an Earl (again NPC- Bingo Thevins), and One the ruling prince of an independent world (again NPC status). I saw nobles as patrons, and the level of knighthood/Baronet as the more common level for players. It gave them some pull, but not too much for the campaign.

Originally posted by autochthonic:
.

And for balance, the Jeeves and Wooster stories can provide plots that don't involve much gunplay.

 

[Douglass]

Originally posted by Vargas:
While you may not want to go to the lengths of setting up such a grand campaign, 'Dune' serves as another example of a noble campaign. And it allows you to bring in non-noble retainers.

As I stated in another thread, the Dune prequels (by B. Herbert and K. Anderson), even more so than Dune itself, provide an excellent example of a feudal society very similar to Traveller's.

 

[kafka47]

Actually, the first SJG world book (Kamsii) has given me the idea to do an Imperial masquerade party on that very world...

Of course, the party will turn sour when a rival to the host will show up but in the meantime the Zhodani Ambassador will be detained. Our noble adventurers will have to find the way to keep the Court sufficiently entertained whilst intrigue is lurking behind every tentacle...

Doh! I have said too much already here come the Aslan Mercs...

 

[WendellM]

As it happens, the 1968 film Mayerling, about the murder/suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf Habsburg, the son of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and the Baroness Mary Vetsera in 1889, at the royal hunting lodge at Mayerling is on TCM at this very moment. Replace carriages with air/rafts and you're on your way....

 

[kafka47]

Do I detect a Sissy thread wanting to start?

Please if the Empire's dilettantes want adventuring they had better take off their lace gloves...in the meantime the lumpenproletariat are revolting. Ah yes, the smell is atrocious.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Nobles. They'll get you in trouble every time. Never give you all the details you need to do the job properly. And they always think they're sooo clever, playing their little cloak-and-dagger games. With me as pawn.

I remember this one time, the Duke of Regina had hired me to . . .

On second thought, I'd better not say any more.

 

[Murph]

Actually its not really the lace gloves as plausible deniablity. The vicious infighting between noble families can get ugly at times. After all what else do they have to do except, plot, intrigue, seduce each others wives/sisters/daughters/dogs/cats/etc?

 

[kafka47]

Long live President Dulinor!

As the Men in Black nab him and send in back into the parallel MT Milieu.

 

[autochthonic]

I've realised that I knew a real-life noble at college. And he played Traveller. He's a Lord, and has a reasonable estate. What he does mostly is work as a commercial surveyor, which is of course no use as campaign material. His friends are rather dull people with nice cars.