Imperial Warrant/meta
Rancke Notes (2008)[edit]
The idea of the Warrants probably comes from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. In the book, Cardinal Richelieu writes a note "It is by my order and for the good of the state that the bearer of this has done what he has done". The note is given to the Cardinal's secret agent, Mylady de Winther, as a "Get out of jail free" note (It, of course, falls into the wrong hands). The resemblance is only superficial, however. Mylady's note allowed her to escape punishment for crimes she might commit in the Cardinal's service but it didn't allow her to go down to Le Havre and order a fleet to invade England. An Imperial warrant gives the holder great authority, but it doesn't allow him to get away with crimes.
The Traveller authors never intended the warrants to be as open ended as the Cardinal's. They were designed to allow the players to go through much annoying red tape quickly. They were also, perhaps, not altogether well thought out. Even with many limitations written into a warrant, it is possible for the players to run rampant with one, but worse than that, letting a group of PCs get their hands on a warrant that they didn't have a right to carry and encouraging them to use it would be an extremely nasty hose job if the GM then had the Imperial authorities react as they could be expected to react once they realized that there was an unauthorized warrant floating around...
The ability of dukes to issue ducal warrants is not, AFAIK, supported by any canon, but I believe it has been accepted as true for many years. Or maybe it's just me.
- - Rancke 17:24, 8 February 2009 (UTC)