Always a touchy subject, and always one that seems so ill defined after all these years...
It wasn't until T5 came out, that Marc and gang finally set down to say "hey, this is how the landed thingie works, and these are the worlds that have what kinds of nobility, and if the noble doesn't arrive at the moot, he can sell his vote to be voted by proxy.
Prior to that, we had GURPS NOBLES, that, sorry to say, goes through contortionist hoops to idealize man's role in the Imperial government, and doesn't really explain a thing. <sigh>
Which brings me to implications, the nature of the human beast, and the fact that governments impose order by means of overwhelming threat of applied power so as to keep the really beastly individuals from running rough shod over the rest of society, thereby killing any hope of peaceful co-operation. It seems that man NEEDS government to keep things operational. That is, until something goes wrong.
Which brings me in a roundabout fashion, to the question. How the Imperial government works. Take for instance, the prospect of Nobility having to be of a given level or higher, in order to vote in the Moot. I've noted that most worlds that have only a knight assigned to the world, have a low population value. Those that have Barons or higher, tend to have high populations. I noted too, that in theory, it seems as though a mere 10 people could gather round, call themselves a government, and they'd have to be treated as such - right? Yet, on other worlds, they're corporately owned, and the people on the world are workers extracting raw materials etc. If 10 people can constitute a government, who is to say that 20 people who show up later can create their own government right? Who is the Imperium going to recognize as the rightful government?
So, as I wrestle with these questions, I have decided, for my Traveller Universe at least, that there are essentially two kinds of worlds. The first, is "Member Worlds" who have a voter in the moot. The second are those worlds that do not have a member of Nobility who can vote in the moot. For me, that implies that membership in the moot sort of requires that the world must meet certain minimal requirements before the world needs a Baron or higher.
With the advent of T5's scheme of nobility, and detailing the fiefs of the landed nobility, I had to ask myself "What are the rules surrounding a Noble's fief? Does the Noble find that his land comes under the auspices of the world government, and is governed by the world's laws, or does his manor, like the starport - have an extrality line that clearly marks the boundaries of his domain from that of the rest of the world? Can someone race over the boundary that demarks where the world's government holds sway ends, and where the Imperial land's sway begin? Can a fugitive cross that line somehow, and beg for asylum? What happens when a world finds itself at odds with a political party that want's its government tossed on its ear, and replaced with a new political body? Often, such a change requires a revolution, or a coup, or what have you. What happens if the government, that has a treaty with the Imperium, is overthrown? Can the new government tell the Imperium "Get the heck off our land and stay there"? Can the new government say "We didn't sign the treaty with you - what are you going to do, bomb us back to the stone age?" All these questions and more...
So, here's a thread for people to air their thoughts - not only on how they'd like to see how the government works per se, but also to point out implications of past written material on how the Imperium works. For example, if the "ruling class" doesn't have skin in the game, they tend to not care all too much about the well being of the rest of the universe. If the ruling class gets too powerful, corruption sets in as they try to gain more power, or safeguard what power they have. It took Rome some 300 years to go from a culturally moral and civic minded culture, to a corrupt one that engaged in the practice of "What's good for me is good for Rome" instead of how it used to be "what's good for Rome is good for us." I won't go into the area of modern politics in the United States as it runs the risk of getting too personal, too political, etc. But the point I'm making is that the Imperium is likely to run into stability issues and having to combat corruption somehow, as it is in the nature of the human beast to do things like selfishly gather power and abuse it.
So - what do Nobility really do in the Imperium? How does the "fief" rules work (like starports)? How does the Imperium deal with change in the form of a world undergoing rebellion, and the government type changes? What is the law level of the Nobility in question? Are they custom bound to honor the laws of their Emperor at the Capital? If they can arm their own huscales and have a body guard with them at all times, chances are, there are laws, and then there are LAWS.
Air out your own quesions and see if people can hammer out a solution here. Me? I'm busy digging into GURPS FAR TRADER to detail the world trade values (tonnage and value of the trade per annum). Then I Have to create actual trade partner lists - so that when players show up on a given world, all of the traffic going from one world to another - can be listed easily enough.
Well, the hay is yelling out my name, and my eyelids are getting heavier by the second...
Hal
It wasn't until T5 came out, that Marc and gang finally set down to say "hey, this is how the landed thingie works, and these are the worlds that have what kinds of nobility, and if the noble doesn't arrive at the moot, he can sell his vote to be voted by proxy.
Prior to that, we had GURPS NOBLES, that, sorry to say, goes through contortionist hoops to idealize man's role in the Imperial government, and doesn't really explain a thing. <sigh>
Which brings me to implications, the nature of the human beast, and the fact that governments impose order by means of overwhelming threat of applied power so as to keep the really beastly individuals from running rough shod over the rest of society, thereby killing any hope of peaceful co-operation. It seems that man NEEDS government to keep things operational. That is, until something goes wrong.

Which brings me in a roundabout fashion, to the question. How the Imperial government works. Take for instance, the prospect of Nobility having to be of a given level or higher, in order to vote in the Moot. I've noted that most worlds that have only a knight assigned to the world, have a low population value. Those that have Barons or higher, tend to have high populations. I noted too, that in theory, it seems as though a mere 10 people could gather round, call themselves a government, and they'd have to be treated as such - right? Yet, on other worlds, they're corporately owned, and the people on the world are workers extracting raw materials etc. If 10 people can constitute a government, who is to say that 20 people who show up later can create their own government right? Who is the Imperium going to recognize as the rightful government?
So, as I wrestle with these questions, I have decided, for my Traveller Universe at least, that there are essentially two kinds of worlds. The first, is "Member Worlds" who have a voter in the moot. The second are those worlds that do not have a member of Nobility who can vote in the moot. For me, that implies that membership in the moot sort of requires that the world must meet certain minimal requirements before the world needs a Baron or higher.
With the advent of T5's scheme of nobility, and detailing the fiefs of the landed nobility, I had to ask myself "What are the rules surrounding a Noble's fief? Does the Noble find that his land comes under the auspices of the world government, and is governed by the world's laws, or does his manor, like the starport - have an extrality line that clearly marks the boundaries of his domain from that of the rest of the world? Can someone race over the boundary that demarks where the world's government holds sway ends, and where the Imperial land's sway begin? Can a fugitive cross that line somehow, and beg for asylum? What happens when a world finds itself at odds with a political party that want's its government tossed on its ear, and replaced with a new political body? Often, such a change requires a revolution, or a coup, or what have you. What happens if the government, that has a treaty with the Imperium, is overthrown? Can the new government tell the Imperium "Get the heck off our land and stay there"? Can the new government say "We didn't sign the treaty with you - what are you going to do, bomb us back to the stone age?" All these questions and more...

So, here's a thread for people to air their thoughts - not only on how they'd like to see how the government works per se, but also to point out implications of past written material on how the Imperium works. For example, if the "ruling class" doesn't have skin in the game, they tend to not care all too much about the well being of the rest of the universe. If the ruling class gets too powerful, corruption sets in as they try to gain more power, or safeguard what power they have. It took Rome some 300 years to go from a culturally moral and civic minded culture, to a corrupt one that engaged in the practice of "What's good for me is good for Rome" instead of how it used to be "what's good for Rome is good for us." I won't go into the area of modern politics in the United States as it runs the risk of getting too personal, too political, etc. But the point I'm making is that the Imperium is likely to run into stability issues and having to combat corruption somehow, as it is in the nature of the human beast to do things like selfishly gather power and abuse it.
So - what do Nobility really do in the Imperium? How does the "fief" rules work (like starports)? How does the Imperium deal with change in the form of a world undergoing rebellion, and the government type changes? What is the law level of the Nobility in question? Are they custom bound to honor the laws of their Emperor at the Capital? If they can arm their own huscales and have a body guard with them at all times, chances are, there are laws, and then there are LAWS.
Air out your own quesions and see if people can hammer out a solution here. Me? I'm busy digging into GURPS FAR TRADER to detail the world trade values (tonnage and value of the trade per annum). Then I Have to create actual trade partner lists - so that when players show up on a given world, all of the traffic going from one world to another - can be listed easily enough.
Well, the hay is yelling out my name, and my eyelids are getting heavier by the second...
Hal