Aristocracy in TE

[TheImperialKhan]

Terran Empire mentions the existance of an Imperial Aristocracy but gives us no details. So I was wondering:

What are the titles?
How many points do they cost?
What kind of authority do they have?
How big are their holdings?
Are the titles the same throughout the Empire or do they change from region to region?

And so on. An expansion of this idea might make a good DH article.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by TheImperialKhan
An expansion of this idea might make a good DH article.

Or Steve & Co. could combine this with the money question in another thread, and make them the seed for an entire book. Intrigue among the Imperial Houses could always make for a fun campaign, and a 150-page book could cover that from many different angles....

[Peregrine]

The parameters and activities of the aristocracy, while fascinating, are difficult to enumerate for gaming, unless you are willing to have PC's who can have a significant impact on the setting, to the point of changing the campaign setting by their actions. It is my perspective that, given the role of the aristocracy in TE (or Traveller's Third Imperium, for another example), any GM-imposed limitations on the impact of PC activities would not be true to the setting.

That said, I'd love to see a good treatement of gaming at that level, with both player and GM guidelines for how to handle a campaign where the PC's actions can have direct impact on the setting.

[Steve Long]

There are about a million zillion things I'd like to write re: the TE setting, and a more extensive exploration of the aristocracy is just one of 'em. At this point, though, we're going to have to wait to see if sales of the setting justify doing more books beyond what we've already got scheduled.

In the meantime:

1. While I don't have time to write any DH articles about TE, there's no reason someone else can't. They'll get the "not canonical" label, but that's not to say they might not prove highly influential.

2. I'd say you can pretty much make up whatever sort of aristrocratic titles you like. Given the plethora of families, planets, and species, all sorts of bizarre combinations are possible. The whole arrangement could make the Germanic title system (something I recently researched for FH) look positively well-organized.

[Peregrine]

Originally posted by Steve Long
2. I'd say you can pretty much make up whatever sort of aristrocratic titles you like. Given the plethora of families, planets, and species, all sorts of bizarre combinations are possible. The whole arrangement could make the Germanic title system (something I recently researched for FH) look positively well-organized.

OTOH, a logical, well-reasoned system of aristocratic titles would distinguish the TE from its historical antecedents, as well as making for a clear framework for gaming.

On the gripping hand, the aforementioned 'spice of life' structure has its own gaming opportunities.