1e Supplement 12: Dynasties errata & questions

[J. L. Brown]

Mongoose Traveller 1e had a supplement (#12: Dynasties) with a way for players to take on roles in 'dynasties' -- governments, corporations, religions, and similar entities. The minimum basic time for anything to get done on this scale was ~1 month, with some things taking years or decades. It seemed a little smaller-scale than the T4: Pocket Empires rules, and there are a dozen or so examples of various entities at the back of the book.

This is great, but I rapidly ran into a couple issues; has anyone dealt with these before?

p4 'Creating the Dynasty':
There are three methods discussed; 1} roll 2d6 for each of the eight (Cleverness (Cvr); Greed (Grd); Loyalty (Lty); Militarism (Mil); Popularity (Pop); Scheming (Sch); Tenacity (Tcy); and Tradition (Tra) ) characteristics; 2} point buy; 3} determine the base characteristics & pool of additional 'build points' by deriving these values from the skills, attributes, etc of the 'founding' characters. Great, except method 3 is not described or detailed in any way at all.

p49 'Aptitude checks'

Every Aptitude check also has a Time Duration attached to it. Unless otherwise stated in the action’s description, an average Aptitude check takes 2d6 Months to undertake. During this period of time the Dynasty is considered too focussed on this action to undertake another. While it does not mean that the Dynasty is sitting idly by, it does mean – in game terms – that only one Aptitude check can be performed at a time.

This seems very weird to me; an Empire-Spanning MegaCorp with millions of employees cannot both perform research in the Spinward Marches and wage a Trade War in the Glimmerdrift Reaches? Has this ever been amended or updated or houseruled to allow more than a single 'Aptitude' at a time -- perhaps based on the Characteristics, Traits, or Aptitudes of the dynasty?

And every dynasty has five Traits: 'Culture', 'Fiscal Defense', 'Fleet', 'Technology', and 'Territorial Defense' -- plus some levels in the 30 'Aptitudes':
Acquisition, Bureaucracy, Conquest, Economics, Entertain, Expression, Hostility, Illicit, Intel, Maintenance, Politics, Posturing, Propaganda, Public Relations, Recruit, Research, Sabotage, Security, Tactical, and Tutelage.

How all of this -- and the effects of clashes between dynasties, which is kind of the whole point of this entire supllement -- translates 'Morale', 'Populace', and 'Wealth' into 'systems owned' and 'credits available' (or even 'Resource Units') -- is never made clear. How does this work?

I have been spending a lot of time trying to get a deep understanding of the Trojan Reach for a planned Pirates of Drinax campaign, and I want a rule-set that can allow the players to continue with the rebuilt Kingdom of Drinax after 'Finale' (if they are successful) is finished. T4's 'Pocket Empires' and 1e 'Dynasties' both promise that, but in both cases I am struggling to understand how to apply them to the various Aslan Clans, the Third Imperium, the Florian League, the Kingdom of Drinax, GeDeCo, all the little independent systems, and etc. Has anybody tried to (or better: successfully built a) model this in the 'Dynasties' rules?

 

[Geir]

I read it and didn't really get it either. But it's been a while since I remembered I own it.
Had a better plot than 1,001 Characters, though.
Some updated Pocket World Tamers Empire Dynasty book might have merit.

 

[Anstett]

I have both books with the same intentions.

My first skim through was, hmmmm I guess I need a spreadsheet to compare and combine these things.

For your example of a Mega-Corp I take that to be each Division is it's own small Dynasty. Sometimes working together and sometimes working at odds with the other Dynasties/Corporate Divisions.

I know I want to consider this as the Fourth tier on the economic scale.

1st rung/tier - Personal Traveller level economics
2nd tier - Starship level economics
3rd tier - Corporation level economics
4th tier - Planetary level economics
5th - MegaCorp level
6th - Multi-system level
7th - exceptions that are beyond scope - 3I, Hierate as a whole, etc.

I know there is bleed through on 5 and 6, not sure what the differentiators should be.

 

[Limpin Legin]

I have both books with the same intentions.

My first skim through was, hmmmm I guess I need a spreadsheet to compare and combine these things.

For your example of a Mega-Corp I take that to be each Division is it's own small Dynasty. Sometimes working together and sometimes working at odds with the other Dynasties/Corporate Divisions.

I know I want to consider this as the Fourth tier on the economic scale.

1st rung/tier - Personal Traveller level economics
2nd tier - Starship level economics
3rd tier - Corporation level economics
4th tier - Planetary level economics
5th - MegaCorp level
6th - Multi-system level
7th - exceptions that are beyond scope - 3I, Hierate as a whole, etc.

I know there is bleed through on 5 and 6, not sure what the differentiators should be.

The only two I see missing are the Career Path mini-game economics and Squadron economics. In Career Path, for example, you are supposed to be able to afford anagathics to offset ageing, during character generation, yet it is questionable whether the PC can afford such drugs in the first place.

 

[Anstett]

Squadron economics.

Do you think this would be different than the Starship Level or Corporate level?

Going with the idea of a Squadron being a "separate entity" of the military similar to the idea of Mega-Corp Division?

I can see a Squadron being at the Corporate level for most Polities other than the ones at level 7.

 

[Condottiere]

1. Repo Man - you have done a wonderful job in preserving your original organs, but you mortgaged them to pay for that loan to buy anagathic drugs.

2. Subdivisional sizes vary, and terms drift on definition; I think it's more area of responsibility, and as usual, annual budget.

 

[J. L. Brown]

I have both books with the same intentions.

My first skim through was, hmmmm I guess I need a spreadsheet to compare and combine these things.

For your example of a Mega-Corp I take that to be each Division is it's own small Dynasty. Sometimes working together and sometimes working at odds with the other Dynasties/Corporate Divisions.

I know I want to consider this as the Fourth tier on the economic scale.

1st rung/tier - Personal Traveller level economics
2nd tier - Starship level economics
3rd tier - Corporation level economics
4th tier - Planetary level economics
5th - MegaCorp level
6th - Multi-system level
7th - exceptions that are beyond scope - 3I, Hierate as a whole, etc.

I know there is bleed through on 5 and 6, not sure what the differentiators should be.

I appreciate the different scales, but I think the fundamental unit that underlays all this is 'number of sophonts being managed'. A dozen uninhabited planets are easy to manage; a single highly populated planet can be a complex nightmare to manage.

 

[Limpin Legin]

Do you think this would be different than the Starship Level or Corporate level?

Yes of course. You'd have to account for a military grade organisation that runs a squadron roster and fleet carriers, command vessels. More bookkeeping of assets without necessarily entailing Credits, such as shipyards new constructions and repairs in progress, fuel levels of each vessel.

I don't know what you would consider as being within scope. But if I could do these things from a spreadsheet, then I'd be chuffed.

 

[Condottiere]

Delegation.

Especially with time lag.

Wrestling with a shrinking budget allocation is always fun.

 

[J. L. Brown]

I think I have an acceptable approach to a house-rule that allows multiple actions in the same time period. There are three limitations to how many and what types of actions a Dynasty may take:
1} In any given month, a Dynasty may only begin ONE new aptitude check;
2} A single Characteristic or Aptitude can only be in use for one action at a time;
3} At least one month must pass between the end of a task which used a given Characteristic or Aptitude and the beginning of a new task which uses either (or both) of the Characteristic or Aptitude.

Reactions and similar tests created by events or actions of other dynasties are not affected by the above.

So a (p55) 'Apply new learning techniques to children' task (Tutelage aptitude, Tradition characteristic) , 3–18 Months, Easy (+2) -- means that for the next 3d6 months, plus an additional month afterwards, neither of Tutelage or Tradition are able to be used to initiate new actions. This means that any given Dynasty might have as many as a maximum of eight (each using one of the eight different characteristics) 'Aptitude checks' in progress using eight different Aptitudes. In a single generation, a Dynasty might attempt up to 360 different tasks -- likely far fewer, as the tasks take months to perform.

Some adjustment to 'Generational Goals' is probably called for.