Love the way you handle this mate. We usually have high soc as relatives of nobility as it’s the easiest to explain to new players. Rarely heirs or second in line. My favourite was the player idea for being the great nephew and favourite of a dowager Duchess. Which explained his career as a Merchant and 60% ownership share of a free trader, working for the family Shipping Corporation (other 40% owned by his Great Aunt) and still unofficially working for the family corporation as an intelligence agent. The dual soc stat is a good idea. Thanks.
This is why I like the K'Kree way of explaining SOC. You're nearly never the official title holder that your SOC implies, unless you're at the lowest noble rank. You're either the servant of the person with the title, or their kin. I also like the Vargr CHA stat because of how dynamic it is, and because Vargr psychology doesn't really allow you to slum it and hide how important you are. You can withold your actual background, but no vargr with a high CHA will be able to resist acting like the biggest most personable person in the room even if they keep everything else about themselves secret.
That's the great thing about Social Standing that people fail to realize, It was not meant as a just a Charisma Stat, It has so many things it can do, as you explained here, very good video.
you ever think about recording you guys' sessions? Another great video! I would love to play a high SOC character and just be THE most unbearable, yet convincing, snob alive
I like the write up in the Traveller Companion about SOC. It adopts the dual Value. You maybe a Baron (12), but your SOC does not instantly rise, you must spend money to appear like a Baron for a few months.
I took the charisma route in the companion book and use SOC as a if you are in the location that you have that influence. Even thought about having a more complex SOC system where you have 10 with nobles but 2 for underground like a rep system and what not. Similar to what you were talking about
@mnkyj9 I tried that but my players can be rule lawyers so I was kinda forced to use it lol cause what books I have access too they do too. So had to shift things around lol. As soon as you can I would get the book tho lots of good stuff. We play more military stuff and they got moral stats that I use religiously lol good book tho.
I think Soc is better as a reflection of bearing and being more then a title. I have a high soc character and I play him as a kind dinner for schmucks nobleman
In fiction, at least, lower SOC characters are often caught when trying to "put on airs" but, less frequently, higher SOC characters are also caught trying to "slum it". Even in disguise, higher SOC characters might be spotted and given deference by their peers because "blood will tell" or such. Maybe a penalty for high SOC when you're trying to infiltrate the underworld? Maybe they can use either their _initially rolled_ SOC or their final SOC, as the situation dictates as they "kept in touch with their roots", while characters who were born into nobility, rolling a 12 in chargen, don't have that lower stat to fall back on? It wouldn't be _too_ immersion-breaking, for some people anyway, to allow full SOC even in disguise, as pulling strings behind the scenes, having "your people" call ahead and make arrangements, or just having other high SOC NPCs recognize the need for people in their stratum to travel discreetly and giving you a pass once they see the signs that you're "one of them". Obviously, some players will find the whole idea of classism and social strata objectionable, but since it's a part of the whole Charted Space milieu, I guess it's probably a fair discussion.
There is a Viz Comic character called 'Raffles the Gentleman Thug' where a high social standing character lives the life of a common thug - he always gets his sayings wrong - so the thuggish 'Kick the little bastard' becomes 'Lapidate the little illegitimate', 'Eat my dust' becomes 'Consume my pulverulence' and 'There's plenty more where that came from' becomes 'There's an elegant plenitude from whenceforth that originated'. In my head canon, a high Soc person trying to infiltrate the underworld would give themselves away by such comedic errors.
To me, SOC only has inherent value within the character's native society. Outside of that society, it's just a general indicator of their ability to maneuver within various social circles, and their knowledge of how such circles work. Unfortunately, I think it's easily confused with the concept of "faction reputation," even in the material presented above. A celebrity may well have a high reputation with one faction of society and an abysmal one with another, and likewise a criminal lord will have high standing in a particular underworld faction but be considered lowlife trash by polite society. The US President might be at the top of the chain in his own society, but on the prison island of New York, it's the Duke who's A Number One. The single fixed SOC stat is really insufficient to account for all this, and it can get very confusing to apply it so generally. Within the character's native culture it carries inherent advantages or disadvantages, but otherwise it's only useful as a baseline stat for roleplay checks, modified by skills like Carouse, Diplomat, and Persuade, as well as by the SOC of the NPCs involved in the roleplay encounter.
Love the way you handle this mate. We usually have high soc as relatives of nobility as it’s the easiest to explain to new players. Rarely heirs or second in line. My favourite was the player idea for being the great nephew and favourite of a dowager Duchess. Which explained his career as a Merchant and 60% ownership share of a free trader, working for the family Shipping Corporation (other 40% owned by his Great Aunt) and still unofficially working for the family corporation as an intelligence agent. The dual soc stat is a good idea. Thanks.
Great video on a commonly underutilized aspect of Traveller.
This is why I like the K'Kree way of explaining SOC. You're nearly never the official title holder that your SOC implies, unless you're at the lowest noble rank. You're either the servant of the person with the title, or their kin.
I also like the Vargr CHA stat because of how dynamic it is, and because Vargr psychology doesn't really allow you to slum it and hide how important you are. You can withold your actual background, but no vargr with a high CHA will be able to resist acting like the biggest most personable person in the room even if they keep everything else about themselves secret.
That's the great thing about Social Standing that people fail to realize, It was not meant as a just a Charisma Stat, It has so many things it can do, as you explained here, very good video.
We have an entertainer rock star. His SOC is his fame.
SOC is a very important stat.
you ever think about recording you guys' sessions?
Another great video! I would love to play a high SOC character and just be THE most unbearable, yet convincing, snob alive
👍🏻😎🇺🇸
I rolled a character similar to your son once. I was alone and just playing with the system. Alas, never to be played.
An admiral probably has a presence that commands respect even if no one knows they are an admiral.
I like the write up in the Traveller Companion about SOC. It adopts the dual Value. You maybe a Baron (12), but your SOC does not instantly rise, you must spend money to appear like a Baron for a few months.
In Hostile the high Social Standing is usually Corporate ranks, So the Daughter of a Megacorp CEO would have a high SOC.
I took the charisma route in the companion book and use SOC as a if you are in the location that you have that influence. Even thought about having a more complex SOC system where you have 10 with nobles but 2 for underground like a rep system and what not. Similar to what you were talking about
I do not have the companion book, but from what I understand I do too, but I just call it social.
@mnkyj9 I tried that but my players can be rule lawyers so I was kinda forced to use it lol cause what books I have access too they do too. So had to shift things around lol. As soon as you can I would get the book tho lots of good stuff. We play more military stuff and they got moral stats that I use religiously lol good book tho.
I think Soc is better as a reflection of bearing and being more then a title. I have a high soc character and I play him as a kind dinner for schmucks nobleman
In fiction, at least, lower SOC characters are often caught when trying to "put on airs" but, less frequently, higher SOC characters are also caught trying to "slum it". Even in disguise, higher SOC characters might be spotted and given deference by their peers because "blood will tell" or such. Maybe a penalty for high SOC when you're trying to infiltrate the underworld? Maybe they can use either their _initially rolled_ SOC or their final SOC, as the situation dictates as they "kept in touch with their roots", while characters who were born into nobility, rolling a 12 in chargen, don't have that lower stat to fall back on?
It wouldn't be _too_ immersion-breaking, for some people anyway, to allow full SOC even in disguise, as pulling strings behind the scenes, having "your people" call ahead and make arrangements, or just having other high SOC NPCs recognize the need for people in their stratum to travel discreetly and giving you a pass once they see the signs that you're "one of them".
Obviously, some players will find the whole idea of classism and social strata objectionable, but since it's a part of the whole Charted Space milieu, I guess it's probably a fair discussion.
There is a Viz Comic character called 'Raffles the Gentleman Thug' where a high social standing character lives the life of a common thug - he always gets his sayings wrong - so the thuggish 'Kick the little bastard' becomes 'Lapidate the little illegitimate', 'Eat my dust' becomes 'Consume my pulverulence' and 'There's plenty more where that came from' becomes 'There's an elegant plenitude from whenceforth that originated'. In my head canon, a high Soc person trying to infiltrate the underworld would give themselves away by such comedic errors.
To me, SOC only has inherent value within the character's native society. Outside of that society, it's just a general indicator of their ability to maneuver within various social circles, and their knowledge of how such circles work. Unfortunately, I think it's easily confused with the concept of "faction reputation," even in the material presented above. A celebrity may well have a high reputation with one faction of society and an abysmal one with another, and likewise a criminal lord will have high standing in a particular underworld faction but be considered lowlife trash by polite society. The US President might be at the top of the chain in his own society, but on the prison island of New York, it's the Duke who's A Number One. The single fixed SOC stat is really insufficient to account for all this, and it can get very confusing to apply it so generally. Within the character's native culture it carries inherent advantages or disadvantages, but otherwise it's only useful as a baseline stat for roleplay checks, modified by skills like Carouse, Diplomat, and Persuade, as well as by the SOC of the NPCs involved in the roleplay encounter.