Bu and Embla do the Fifth Frontier War - Free Chrissy Prezzie!

I stick to what used to be.
For the frontier sectors.
Imperial government starts at the subsector level.
To which I add:
The duke and their family rule the subsector's Imperial assets (Ministries, civilian oversight of Imperial Military), but can only advise on issues for individual planetary governments.
But.
Every world with an Imperial Starport will have nobles of a lesser rank than duke. There will also be an Imperial embassy. These nobles report back to the local duke.

You may find the odd world where an Imperial Ministry, a Megacorporation, or an Imperial noble and their family own an entire world.

This is basically what I do as well. Worlds may have a Knight who is effectively an Imperial Ambassador to the world and its population, and may have other Imperial Nobles either simply living on-world who are Honour Nobles or who are involved with overseeing and running Subsector-level Imperial Ministries, or they may have Imperial Nobles assigned to the world in a representative capacity to the Imperial Moot and/or before the Sector and/or Subsector Government, and therefore have some influence both through their fief-lands on-world and through their subsector-level influence to negotiate and establish trade and other inter-world arrangements with other world-nobles in consultation and collusion with the world governments in question.

That is basically a conflation of CT and T5.
 
. . . the extra subdivisions (viscount, baronet, big, little, and bigger duke), rigidly applied like it was a Trade Code, seem like one of those T5 overengineered things that probably should have stayed there. But, alas, no.

I think it is better thought of as "This is what would normally be expected if assigned to a fresh brand-new Imperial world of this type and statistics, all other things being equal". Unfortunately, most worlds are not "brand-new Imperial worlds" and have legacy titles, history, promotions, and intrigue. And not all things are equal for external reasons as well, like location, strategic situation, etc, that should impact many of those title assignments on a "real" stellar subsector map. A backwater subsector bordering a substantive Rift is much less deserving of a major Noble (unless there is something locally important) than one that is a subsector along a critical Border-March with a Foreign Power or an Open Frontier.
 
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Now I'm imagining a lordlet who pissed off the sector duke and gets assigned a fiefdom on some nasty world (high gravity, near cryogenic temperatures, chlorine atmosphere?) as 'reward'.
 
I don't mind the various T5 ranks, but I definitely assume that normally an "Honour-Title" is the lesser of two possible titles at a given SOC-value (with a few possible exceptions, like Baron), and that the "Lesser-Duke" level is normally the highest attainable title for a PC (Honour or retired Rank-title). A High, Rank, or Proper-Landed/Administrative title can be either the Lesser or Greater Title at a given SOC-level, they just are not normally PCs.
I'm one of those people who don't use SOC as social status. It's basically Charm like the Companion. In CT to have it be societal rank because SOC didn't have a fixed modifier. What, if any, effect it had on a social skill task depended on the situation. In MgT2e, though, the effect is that every lord is socially adroit and street scum are all pretty bad at social skills if taken literally.

IMTU, the family and descendants of someone with an Imperial title are nobles, but don't have any title besides Lord/Lady unless they personally do something to get one. Knighthoods and other titles are things that could be acquired during Chargen. Another personal change I make is that jobs aren't hereditary. The Duke of Regina's children are wealthy nobles, but they don't have any claim to the job "Duke of Regina". Obviously, intrigues and corruption can affect that in some cases. But "Duke of Regina" is a civil service job that makes you and your descendants nobles, but it isn't hereditary.
 
I'm one of those people who don't use SOC as social status. It's basically Charm like the Companion. In CT to have it be societal rank because SOC didn't have a fixed modifier. What, if any, effect it had on a social skill task depended on the situation. In MgT2e, though, the effect is that every lord is socially adroit and street scum are all pretty bad at social skills if taken literally.

I use SOC as is (it makes a useful score and modifier statistic for Social Standing related interactions), but I think a Charisma stat would have been highly beneficial alongside of it as a true UPP "Personal Stat", as they are two very different things and can both have a "Social Impact" in different ways. Someone with High Social Standing and Low Charisma/People skills, and visa versa are both meaningful character types. (And being High on both or Low on both are interesting Character types as well).

IMTU, the family and descendants of someone with an Imperial title are nobles, but don't have any title besides Lord/Lady unless they personally do something to get one. Knighthoods and other titles are things that could be acquired during Chargen.

(y)

Another personal change I make is that jobs aren't hereditary. The Duke of Regina's children are wealthy nobles, but they don't have any claim to the job "Duke of Regina". Obviously, intrigues and corruption can affect that in some cases. But "Duke of Regina" is a civil service job that makes you and your descendants nobles, but it isn't hereditary.

The only thing is that sometimes due to the distance involved from Capital, and depending on what the position is, it may be beneficial to have the job be something one is trained up to inherit for regional stability reasons. Perhaps like the early post-Norman Conquest "Earl" in England which was initially a non-hereditary posting for a Great Landlord (a "Baron") to oversee a city and its surrounding "County" (like in France at the time). But Earls would often try to have their offspring appointed as the next Earl if at all possible.

Perhaps the "Frontiers" like the Spinward Marches (due to distance) would benefit from the original statement about them from CT that "they have extensive provision for home rule" and the Dukes and some of the lesser nobles might benefit from easier than normal succession-appointments for their offspring as long as they haven't screwed up and their heir-apparent isn't a loser.


Dukes:
My personal thought concerning the T5 system as regards the Upper-Level "Greater" Duke (F) is that the appointment of Subsector Governor and the Rank of Greater Duke (F) must both likely be Life-Appointments that can be actively reaffirmed in the next generation by the Throne. The way the system seems to work in T5 for promotion is that all "Dukes" are normally promoted to Greater Duke (F) by first being elevated to Lesser Duke (f) and then receiving an additional elevation. Both ranks have separate fief/land-grants (the greater twice the size of the lesser, and they are nominally cumulative since a Lesser Landed Duke (f) is normally appointed to an "Important" world that is NOT a Subsector Capital, while a Greater Landed Duke (F) is specifically appointed to a Subsector Capital.

That suggests to me that the situation is something along these lines:
The Subsector Capital is static and is the place where the Imperial Administrative Bureaucracy and Imperial Naval Administration (apart from Naval Depots and Bases) are tied to and cannot casually be moved (IISS XBoat lines and IN Courrier lines go thru here, etc.).​
When Nobles are first elevated to Duke, they receive the title of Lesser Duke (f), and if Landed it is associated with an "Important World" in the Subsector.​
When it is necessary to appoint a new Subsector Governor, one of the Lesser Dukes (f) will typically be elevated with a new (additional) title to Greater Duke (F) that is specifically tied to the Subsector Capital. If he does well in the position, he might expect his heir to be granted the title in turn if qualified. If not, then the family will relinquish the Subsector Governorship (and the Higher Ducal Title (F)), and another Lesser Duke (f) will be appointed to the position of Subsector Governor at the Subsector Capital, the old family returning to their Lesser Ducal (f) holdings that they had held (and have continued to hold) while Subsector Governor.​
The Subsector Capital does not move with the establishment of a new appointee to the world of the Lesser Ducal (f) appointee's already established holdings, rather the appointee moves to the Subsector Capital with a set of additional granted Lands and holdings as long as he holds the Subsector Governorship but does not relinquish his Lesser Ducal (f) title. The Greater Ducal Title Holdings (F) will be relinquished if he loses the appointment, however.​
 
Certainly past experience is that local authorities will do all they can to consolidate power in their families. All the HRE Counts were originally life grants that eventually got made hereditary when central government needed something from the locals.

In my campaign, if you get appointed Subsector Governor, Ambassador, Starport Administrator or whatever civil service job you have, you get an appropriate Title to go with it. Is Duke Norris gonna help the career of his daughter, Seldrian? Pull strings to try to get her to be appointed when he retires if she wants the job? Possibly. Is that going to work? Depends on the local situation, Seldrian's personal qualities, other competitors, etc. That's just garden variety human corruption. But if Seldrian's off being a research scientist on Yori, she's not going to inherit her father's Governorship. She will be Lady Seldrian because of her father's successful career and inherit his personal property. But not the property associated with Governor of Deneb.
 
I'm quite confident that a baron would be offended to be called the same social class as a baronet. ;)
So you have an in-game SOC number that is known by the characters/NPCs? Interesting. I have always used the SOC score as a game mechanic and in his chart, they would not know they share a "SOC 12".
 
So you have an in-game SOC number that is known by the characters/NPCs? Interesting. I have always used the SOC score as a game mechanic and in his chart, they would not know they share a "SOC 12".
If there is a game mechanic that equates them, it is reflected in game in how people treat them. They don't know anything about a mechanic but if they are treated differently, then the mechanic would be different.
 
If there is a game mechanic that equates them, it is reflected in game in how people treat them. They don't know anything about a mechanic but if they are treated differently, then the mechanic would be different.
They are being treated differently; one is given land on their home planet only and the other is being given land on any planet in the Imperium. Thus, they could be given land with a much greater value based on location for example. I suspect people would see the difference and act accordingly. But then it is your table, do what you wish. :)
 
They are being treated differently; one is given land on their home planet only and the other is being given land on any planet in the Imperium. Thus, they could be given land with a much greater value based on location for example. I suspect people would see the difference and act accordingly. But then it is your table, do what you wish. :)
It is odd that a non-titled entity usurps the traditional Knight position, and that an inferior position is the only entry that shares a spot.
The table makes more sense with the Gentleman/Lady taking the SOC9 position, Knight keeping its SOC10 spot and then that leaves room for the inferior Baronet to have its own SOC11.

After all, the Gentleman/Lady trying to feign the pretense of nobility are merely snooty, rich commoners making airs and pretending to be above their station.
 
It is odd that a non-titled entity usurps the traditional Knight position, and that an inferior position is the only entry that shares a spot.
The table makes more sense with the Gentleman/Lady taking the SOC9 position, Knight keeping its SOC10 spot and then that leaves room for the inferior Baronet to have its own SOC11.

After all, the Gentleman/Lady trying to feign the pretense of nobility are merely snooty, rich commoners making airs and pretending to be above their station.
I'm on board with this.
 
Baronet was originally a term for a lord who no longer has a guaranteed right to a seat in parliament and so was basically a knight who used to be more important than he is now. Later, it became a way for the King to sell titles to people to raise money. Kind of a "I gave the king moneys, so I can be a Lord with no power, but people have to pretend to GAF about who I am."

The big difference between a baronet and a knight was that a baronetcy was inherited, while the children of knights are not automatically knights themselves. Note that the spouses of a baronet are not baronets, unlike the spouses of Peers, who get to be Countess or Duchess or whatever.

What their function in the Imperium is, who knows?
 
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