Traveller 5: System Generation Iomaria Part 6 the Viscount

Lady Shana Lerisnarii Akrashash of Iomaria, Baroness of Gald

88879e age 33

World Knowledge (Iomaria)-3, Grav-1, Tactics-1, Counsellor-1, Ship's Boat-1, Athletics (Endurance-1), Medic-1, Advocate-1, Leader-1, Wheeled-1.

A "working" noble her whole life, Shana has worked her way up the ranks with thoughtful and deliberate choices. Her few times exiled from the glory of the Imperial center was usually to Iomaria, and deciding to take a post there, she is the official host for the world when the Imperium comes to visit, as well as the final legal guide. Her vast estates (24 terrain hexes on Iomaria, and 6 on Gald (baronet 2 + 4 for barony) gives her an income of Cr720,000 from her interests on Iomaria, and Cr120,000 for Gald, an ice-capped non-industrial world 2 parsecs from Iomaria. She has a large staff at the port but is rarely there herself. Her primary goal is keeping Iomaria's population stable and growing, and while not as jovial or overly self-confident as Sir Flynn, the Lady Shana does throw a more elegant soiree than our brash Marquis.

Some notes

In going through the noble career again, I think I messed up the Marquis a bit, but not enough to worry. I did have to cut his income in half - misread the table as a Marquis gets 8 hexes, not 16 (though I also did not add his 4 hexes from his elevation, so back to another edit!) Shana is also not highly skilled in the T5 sense - the only major skill or knowledge she has is due to that roll 1d6 for world knowledge. 

Shana also got a baronet and baron ranks, and they each some with land. I decided to stick them on a neighboring world and rolled up a random world from page 56 of T5 Book 1, just swapping out the Spinward Marches name for a MTU name (not that these worlds exist anywhere outside of these blog notes, though perhaps I'll add them to the D'Arlee sector sometime)

Rolling up the character

I'll admit it took quite a few random rolls to get a noble (and yes, I could have just made it up, but for me creating NPCs whole-clothe via the same way PCs are created just seems better to me. Otherwise, I fear my NPCs would all end up pretty much the same as the others. Plus, it gives me a chance to roll dice and re-read the rules. As I seem to keep interpreting the T5 differently every time I read them!)

Starting with 77878B, our future viscount starts as a knight (and if I don't end up with any elevations, will be the knight as I am going through character creation writing this post).

With average intelligence and education, our knight is going to just go through the noble career, a working woman who takes the Imperial role perhaps more seriously than Sir Flynn, our Marquis. Of course, with these stats it is more difficult to get an elevation. Perhaps I should have taken Sir Flynn a bit further!

Sadly, she is exiled in year 1 (and in re-re-reading, it looks like elevation was NOT calculated as I thought, that was only for the exile roll. I think. The elevation roll is social class with the DM being a flux roll, so it is a bit more random than I thought. Regardless, in exile I rolled on the personal and interestingly a 6 is a +1 to social class! Our knightess is now a Baronet, though in the Imperial hinterlands somewhere. This also gives her 2 terrain hexes somewhere, probably not Iomaria. Her full title shall be interesting when we get there.

Year 2, she does return from exile and rolling the travel table, picks up Driver. Going with Grav-1 as I always wanted a flying car! 

Year 3 she fully makes her intrigue (exile: 1, intrigue: 1) with a 12. Even with flux though, she does not get elevated. And in reading a bit further in the book, there is a table of random intrigues! The <element> Affair...hmm, there are +100 elements so just rolling d100 we get The Iron Affair. She picks up a Councellor-1 skill

Despite that intrigue success, she is exiled again (just barely). The Iron Affair, while initially successful, had some elements (see what I did there?) that backfired. She picks up Leader-1. Exile: 2, intrigue: 1

For her 2nd term as a working noble, she returns again for exile. And in reading the text, it actually implies she can do intrigue: assuming that failure: continued exile; may not attempt intrigue implies that if you succeed, you can attempt intrigue. With that reading in mind, she navigates Araskii's Exile but is not elevated. Apparently, she applied some Tactics-1 skills. Exile: 2, intrigue: 2

Year 2, she barely misses exile and again is not elevated. This year Riston's Palace, a place full of political backstabbing. She escaped the tedium by picking up a starship skill. I was thinking that was the traditional pilot skills (ship's boat, pilot) but is actually a broader choice. Think I'll stick with my original Ship's Boat-1 skill as that was her escape from the political shenanigans. Exile: 2, intrigue: 3

Year 3, she is at Shakabaii Palace. Rather than flitting about, she takes up running and gains Athletics-1. And did not make her elevation - looking like it is going to be hard to get her elevated to Viscount! Exile: 2, intrigue: 4

Year 4, she is exiled again. Deciding to get stronger in a physical sense, she gains strength +1, giving her a 87878c UPP so far. Yep, small C as the ranks are expanded a bit. Exile: 3, intrigue: 4

3rd term she is out of exile (9 -3 [exile] +4 = 10 which is > the 8 she needed. She does not make her intrigue roll, so this was a year and the back halls and not accomplishing much of anything. Picking up another starship skill, she gains Medic-1 as a starship skill. And I realized I missed that she gets an extra 2 skills when elevated! I don't know if the personal skill gaining a social counts, but I am going with yes, yes it does. Hoping for another shot that way, rolling both of those on the personal skill table. And yes, now she is a big C Baroness and gains a dexterity for a UPP of 88878C. That also helps with intrigue a bit. Exile: 3, intrigue: 4

Year 2, and turning 28, she barely avoids exile (that +1 from the intrigue helped!) She has no intrigue this year and rolling on the vocation table I get Capital. She picks up World Knowledge-3 of the world she is a baron on. Let us be optimistic and say Iomaria - she is an expert there (well, okay, the skill levels in T5 are a lot different than Classic but she still knows a fair amount of this world).  Exile: 3, intrigue: 4.

Year 3 and flies through intrigue, the Titanium Affair. She does not make the elevation but gets Advocate-1 to handle rudimentary legal processes. Exile: 3, intrigue: 5

Year 4 and scrapes by exile and goes through the Judgement of Otakir Dvorak. She is not elevated and decides to take up driving and gains Wheeled-1. Exile: 3, intrigue: 6. This gives her a +3 on at least checking for exile and elevation, so that helps our rolls a bit. 

4th term and I still need to gain 2 more ranks! and she starts having to worry about aging rolls I think. Year 1, at age 31, she finally makes an elevation (thank you flux roll!) and is now 88878D. Getting two rolls, I am going to roll on the personal & hope I get a 6! I do not...apparently she went to Marquis school and worked on her dexterity: 89879D. Exile: 3, intrigue: 7

Year 2 (age 32) she makes the intrigue (Johannes' Exile) but no elevation. Hoping for the personal roll to make it, I do, so we now officially have our viscountess with 88879e (lower-case e). 

Year 3 she makes the intrigue roll (the Platinum Affair) and does not make elevation (which is actually good...she picks up the Political-1 skill, and I think we'll plop our still youthful viscount on Iomaria.