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You Are: A sector admiral of a strained imperium.

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Snowfire said:
Ehhhhh

Prowess 13 vs Prowess 17 might not be a sure thing for Ranca, but it's a definite advantage. Ranca's Prowess score advantage translates to the average result on a d6, so it's effectively 3d6 vs 2d6 in her favour.

I am ok with those odds.



Not if it's Ranca who does the beating :p
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You're assuming she isn't using a second like we would be.
 
@kaeim Well if you dueled her personally and won? Obviously she was a useless excuse for a noble who failed, or you cheated and are duplicitous scum, but you have an Imperial House baron who likes you and would be one of the witnesses, so back to her being a useless failure.

If Ranca beats her? Then you might well be viewed as an Arril pawn working for Ranca? But Ranca is a black sheep and Arril dislikes you heavily, it would be messy.

Regardless though you are going to be viewed as 'Thwarted us annoyingly and cost us a promising heir' by House Arslan.

A lot is really going to depend on how you handle things when you return, if you deal with those battleships and how the Governor General takes it. Handled the wrong (or right?) way this could kick off an Arslan/Imperial civil war early.
 
kaeim said:
Is society as stratified and rigid as I'm imagining it to be or am I barking up the wrong tree in that any harm she takes physical or imagined, is going to get us in deep trouble with the nobility
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The society is stratified but she issued the duel and as long as we don't kill her any damage done is with in expected results. Dueling is a major part of the nobility veneer that they cling to.
 
If she uses a champion (which she could do) then her only superior option would be Commander Lord Jose Morgan Arslan, the XO of the Smaug and her cousin. He has Prowess 14 so not much better.
 
[X] Send Ranca

This is literally her job. To beat the shit out of any scum that wants to fight us. She is reasonably much as good at duels as we are at stratefy.
 
Thank you @Packrat

I do notice though that you haven't said what might happen if we lose, only what if we or Ranca win.

Could you elaborate on potential fallout if we lose?
 
kaeim said:
And why not? She's a noble challenging a lesser to a duel. He is ultimately a commoner by birth, simply buying a title won't give him the respect he needs, nor would military prowess. Otherwise we wouldn't exist in such a stratified society that is literally descended from a few families.
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We are lesser but buying into the system actually will reduce how much less we are viewed by. The society is stratified to an extent but there are ways to advance. The families set up this Empire as a way to get even richer after all and to be bigger assholes as well.
 
Adventwolf said:
We are lesser but buying into the system actually will reduce how much less we are viewed by. The society is stratified to an extent but there are ways to advance. The families set up this Empire as a way to get even richer after all and to be bigger assholes as well.
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Do you have anything backing this up, because so far in the quest we haven't seen anything resembling social movement. If anything, we've seen the opposite, there doesn't appear to be a middle class, only nobles and commoners, the former of whom are extremely rich and/or privileged, and the latter of whom are in constant debt which is near impossible to escape from.

Heck, this imperium kidnaps people of value from enemy planets, slaps a debt on them and forces them to work for the nobles
 
kaeim said:
Do you have anything backing this up, because so far in the quest we haven't seen anything resembling social movement. If anything, we've seen the opposite, there doesn't appear to be a middle class, only nobles and commoners, the former of whom are extremely rich and/or privileged, and the latter of whom are in constant debt which is near impossible to escape from.

Heck, this imperium kidnaps people of value from enemy planets, slaps a debt on them and forces them to work for the nobles
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Shares are bought and sold, or granted to those worthy of them. It's undoubtedly a rare occurrence, but the fact that protocols exist to grant us a Share via us spending PC instead of Wealth is proof enough of that in my mind. Commoners who strike it lucky can attempt either route and the descendants of Nobles who lost their Share(s) can try to reclaim what was once theirs. It's undoubtedly incredibly difficult, I mean consider that we've only acquired sufficient Wealth/PC to do so because of utterly bullshit space combat stats married to a good sector to apply them. But if society didn't allow for upward movement, we wouldn't be able to move upwards within it. It's really that simple.
 
kaeim said:
Do you have anything backing this up, because so far in the quest we haven't seen anything resembling social movement. If anything, we've seen the opposite, there doesn't appear to be a middle class, only nobles and commoners, the former of whom are extremely rich and/or privileged, and the latter of whom are in constant debt which is near impossible to escape from.

Heck, this imperium kidnaps people of value from enemy planets, slaps a debt on them and forces them to work for the nobles
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He has word of QM that those very few commoners who manage to acquire a share are accepted because the founders set it up so that the hardest workers and the luckiest would rise to the top to join the powerful.

(Basically, the Empire is a "what if" a bunch of Ayn Rand enthusiasts got to set up their version of utopia, que this shit hole of a nation)

But anyway, acquiring a share by dint of your own hard work and means is something to be respected and a bedrock institution in the Empire.

[X] Send Ranca

(I prefer the option that will lead to the fewest deaths. Besides, Ranca wants this bitch and I am inclined to humor her)
 
Snowfire said:
Shares are bought and sold, or granted to those worthy of them. It's undoubtedly a rare occurrence, but the fact that protocols exist to grant us a Share via us spending PC instead of Wealth is proof enough of that in my mind. Commoners or the descendants of Nobles who lost their Share(s) can attempt to reclaim that. It's undoubtedly incredibly difficult, I mean consider that we've only acquired sufficient Wealth/PC to do so because of utterly bullshit space combat stats married to a good sector to apply them. But if society didn't allow for upward movement, we wouldn't be able to move upwards within it. It's really that simple.
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Just because it exists doesn't mean it grants respect or acknowledgement. Britain in the 1800s had officers purchase military ranks in its army, but there's a reason that you didn't see the likes of a merchants son or industrialist leading regiments or battalions.

And again, to @Valerian do you have that quote? I'm happy to concede and apologise, but I can't find this quote
 
@kaeim Losing a duel would mean, at best, a massive political capital hit on top of becoming Arslan Enemy No1, though they might discount you as a shit enemy who lost. A lot of people might view you as being probably truthful but unwise in saying so and, worse, weak.

Also Share ownership making somebody a true member of the nobility and this being a legitimate way to advance is very much part of the 'national myth', of course a single Share is worth the equivalent or something like half a trillion US dollars (not that the economic systems or scale of economies match up at all). Actually working your way up from nothing is essentially impossible unless like Strauss you are a literal military genius then takes chances and gets lucky.

You would not get 100% acceptance, especially as you lack the literal stature of noble geneering, but it goes most of the way at least.
 
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Packrat said:
Losing a duel would mean, at best, a massive political capital hit on top of becoming Arslan Enemy No1, though they might discount you as a shit enemy who lost. A lot of people might view you as being probably truthful but unwise in saying so and, worse, weak.
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Thank you very much for that Packrat. I think I'm going to have a think about whether to change my vote to @Snowfire then, it seems that we aren't going to immediately enter game over if we do lose, just makes the quest that much harder.

I'll look forward to either victory or defeat then :)
 
Packrat said:
You would not get 100% acceptance, especially as you lack the literal stature of noble geneering, but it goes most of the way at least.
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Yeah, but we can pay to get that done assuming we ever get the damn time. Which at this point I expect to occur somewhere on the better side of never. That or after two interstellar wars, with one of them distinctly uncivil.
 
Snowfire said:
Yeah, but we can pay to get that done assuming we ever get the damn time. Which at this point I expect to occur somewhere on the better side of never. That or after two interstellar wars, with one of them distinctly uncivil.
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Depends on if we get assigned that Officer Academy position after this stint or not. Since the QM said a position like that is a gold mine for PC and we would not need to be tip top shape to do the job, I could see us getting away with the surgery at that time.
 
Valerian said:
Depends on if we get assigned that Officer Academy position after this stint or not. Since the QM said a position like that is a gold mine for PC and we would not need to be tip top shape to do the job, I could see us getting away with the surgery at that time.
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Whilst certainly a valuable position, I'd vastly prefer staying on the border and ranking out to command of two sectors, at least for our next fours years after this stint - assuming that neither war kicks off between now and then.

After that, go for one of: the entire border fleet, officer academy, or fleet command strategist (junior).

Note on the last one, it's probably the easiest way to get our Strategy score to rank up.
 
[X] Arrest Her. She has no right to challenge a senior officer to a duel during active combat, it is arguably illegal. Hard dock the Sword of Democracy with her cruiser and arrest her. You have a faster ship and a vastly larger marine complement, they would be suicidal to resist. This could get messy if her other ships intervene but things are still overwhelmingly in your favour.
 


[X] Send Ranca. Ranca already wanted to duel the Viscountess, you can argue that she has precedence there and have her duel in your stead. She will probably win but if she loses? Again, that would make your accusations against the Viscountess be generally viewed in society as false and anything she does in retaliation 'putting you in your place'. In comparison to personally duelling this would mute the advantages of winning as well as being a lot more likely to succeed.
 
[X] Send Ranca

I'd prefer just arresting her but I'll take this in the hope that Ranca can take her out and we can get on to dealing with the battleships. I feel like if we kept trying to arrest her then she'd refuse and we'd have to board and take her ships which would leave us very badly positioned to deal with the battleships which was the entire point of this plan to return to Chaung Mu.
 
kaeim said:
Do you have anything backing this up, because so far in the quest we haven't seen anything resembling social movement. If anything, we've seen the opposite, there doesn't appear to be a middle class, only nobles and commoners, the former of whom are extremely rich and/or privileged, and the latter of whom are in constant debt which is near impossible to escape from.

Heck, this imperium kidnaps people of value from enemy planets, slaps a debt on them and forces them to work for the nobles
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We have WOG that says there is in fact a middle class it is small and made up of professionals in necessary jobs that have paid off their debts and who work hard with family to stay out of debt.
 
[X] Duel Her. Probably not very wise, her record states she is pretty dangerous with a blade. If you win then you can probably take her into custody without any issues and have retroactively justified your accusations, losing however would be very bad even if she does not kill you.
 
[X] Arrest Her. She has no right to challenge a senior officer to a duel during active combat, it is arguably illegal. Hard dock the Sword of Democracy with her cruiser and arrest her. You have a faster ship and a vastly larger marine complement, they would be suicidal to resist. This could get messy if her other ships intervene but things are still overwhelmingly in your favour.

No reason to allow her to keep up the facade of legitimacy, she committed treason and should therefore be treated as a criminal.
 
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