Imperial characters playing Pirates of Drinax campaign

[RogerMc]

So given the that the Pirates of Drinax campaign will at some point lead to the Imperium getting very pissed off how do you handle this if your privateers are imperial citizens?

And particularly if they are navy and marine veterans and thus reservists in the fleet that will eventually be sent to deal with them?

I suppose it is possible to play a double game and even to have the players as imperial agents who are trying to create a new buffer state between the Imperium and the Aslan threat - in which case any punitive expedition may be treated as either a local imperial commander who is not been put into the loop or who has decided that this is the wrong policy and wants to sabotage it.

This seems a stretch though and I am wondering if it would be better to run it with Sword Worlders who'd be quite happy to give the Imperium a bloody nose?

 

[MonkeyX]

I have a navy and two marines involved in my Drinax campaign along with a scoundrel and trader, the Imperium characters came up with an excuse why they are effectively on the run from the 3I but I am planning on playing on some of their sympathies later.

 

[paltrysum]

Well, they're retired Imperial citizens, and their departures from their careers aren't always amicable, so there's that. It could also be that they've been travelling in the Outrim Void for a while and develop sympathy for the beleaguered citizens there, unprotected by any major power but used as a freeway for their trade routes.

 

[wordboydave]

I don't see any problem since no one is actually on active duty. Everyone is a free citizen and can place their sympathies wherever it makes sense to. And I think being through an imperial military is just as likely to make you cynical about their aims as it is to keep you patriotic.

 

[steve98052]

Who says that working with a foreign power has to mean working in opposition to one's home power? Is it not possible to work for a Pirates of Drinax power while still trying to do good for the Imperium?

And maybe their home loyalties within the Imperium are not to the huge abstraction that is the Imperium, but rather to a noble within the Imperium who is vying with other nobles for a leg up in the hierarchy. Maybe they're supporters of the Duke of Trin's Veil, and think that their activities rimward of the Marches will help their duke gain the upper hand over the wrong-headed Duke of Glisten.

 

[Juums]

Who says that working with a foreign power has to mean working in opposition to one's home power? Is it not possible to work for a Pirates of Drinax power while still trying to do good for the Imperium?

And maybe their home loyalties within the Imperium are not to the huge abstraction that is the Imperium, but rather to a noble within the Imperium who is vying with other nobles for a leg up in the hierarchy. Maybe they're supporters of the Duke of Trin's Veil, and think that their activities rimward of the Marches will help their duke gain the upper hand over the wrong-headed Duke of Glisten.

That's in the vein of how I tackled the issue when I had to deal with it. I framed it as the Imperial Navy generally smiling upon efforts to restore Drinax, as a revived Drinax poses no military threat to the Imperium and its ships can safely be counted on to stand athwart the ihatei tide. Which was played off the Tobian ducal administration's distaste for all things Drinaxi, for reasons that in all likelihood predated the Fall of Sindal.

Running PoD with Imperial factions generally opens up a lot of storytelling possibilities, as once you accept that there is no monolithic Imperial position, it's not hard to find elements of the Imperial government that might have an interest in the PCs' success and be able to provide resources that which wouldn't be normally available. (For example, as an alternative source to GeDeCo to build a new Drinaxi Highport on a campaign-friendly time-table that's also conveniently got a proper shipyard.)

 

[steve98052]

. . .
Running PoD with Imperial factions generally opens up a lot of storytelling possibilities, as once you accept that there is no monolithic Imperial position, it's not hard to find elements of the Imperial government that might have an interest in the PCs' success and be able to provide resources that which wouldn't be normally available. . . .

It's pretty much silly to think that the Imperium would not be divided into endless factions. The Rebellion timeline focused on divisions that were brewing for a long time (presumably back as far as the Mongoose time setting), which finally broke into civil war. But those divisions all seemed to be about who should be emperor, not smaller regional differences.

The only canon example I can think of there was the rivalry between Duchess Delphine of Mora, also Duchess of the Spinward Marches, and Duke Norris of Regina, also Duke of Regina Subsector. After an adventure involving an Imperial warrant, Norris removed Delphine's favored admiral from leadership of the Fifth Frontier War, named himself admiral, and turned the tide of the war. For that he was created Archduke of Deneb, elevated above Delphine, though she remained Duchess of the Spinward Marches.

That's still a pretty big picture rivalry compared to petty details like policy in the Outrim Void. And other than the question of how to manage the Fifth Frontier War, it's mostly a matter of who should hold the highest office in the spinward edge of the Imperium, not so much about details of policy.

Here in the real world, we have all levels of factionalization: disputes between nations over trade, environment, human rights, etc.; disputes within nations about taxes, civil rights, environment, etc.; down to local disputes about zoning, traffic, environment, schools, etc. And of course there are also rivalries over who should have power at every level of government.

A big difference between real world politics and Traveller universe politics is that we know all about real world politics, whether it's individual or group rivalries or policy, but almost nothing is published about Imperial politics except individual rivalries. If you want policy disputes, you have to figure out what Imperial nobles would argue about, and then invent factions to advocate each position.

 

[locarno24]

Well, that's essentially what Darokyn is, isn't he?

Also, there are several factions, all of whom might think they have 'the right idea' for what to do in the reach; Drinax, GeDeCo, Daroykn and his old friends in the Admiralty - there are more than enough imperial factions capable of projecting influence who might each be enacting a plan to try and shore up the reach without talking to one another.