[SE] Need help with a reference society

[daniel_gudman]

For a character?

Probably "Claim to Hospitality" paired with "Duty". Higher you go inside the House, the bigger point value each of those would be worth.

Status and Rank...

Having no House affiliation would be Status -1 or -2, I think. A character could probably be either depending on circumstances and such.

General Status and Rank would be... probably based on how high up the food chain you are, and also how high up the food chain the House is.

Authority and leadership inside the House only would probably be Courtesy Rank, which is basically a -80% accessibility limitation on Rank.

I have some questions I'm going to throw at you.

What about layers of Houses? Like, if I'm happily married with a wife and 2.4 kids, and I file as "Head of Household" when I do my taxes for the IRS (in an analogy), then would that be a formal House? What about when I go to work, debugging code for Innitech, is that another formal House, that I'm a member of? Can I be both or neither? Would my personal House be considered a branch House of my employing House? What if I get a new job at Cyberdyne? How does my House affiliation change?

How does "House" structure compare to modern "Corporate" structure? Reading the "history of corporations" article on Wikipedia the idea of an imaginary person for business purposes (a corporation) is early TL4, and become fully institutionalized and irremovable parts of society in TL6.

Actually that gets me to another point, what TL are you imaging this society at? How do the fantastical bits change that?

[umbros]

Originally Posted by daniel_gudman

What about layers of Houses? Like, if I'm happily married with a wife and 2.4 kids, and I file as "Head of Household" when I do my taxes for the IRS (in an analogy), then would that be a formal House?

Technically, Yes but it's unlikely you could maintain such a position, without a patron or extraordinary power.

Originally Posted by daniel_gudman

What about when I go to work, debugging code for Innitech, is that another formal House, that I'm a member of? Can I be both or neither? Would my personal House be considered a branch House of my employing House? What if I get a new job at Cyberdyne? How does my House affiliation change?

Innitech would be a house i. e. "House Innitech" and you would be a member of that house and not independent. You would formally have to be either/or. Though you might be a client/employee (doing piece work/day labor) and be outside the House's protection. In any case if you are a client and had not been dismissed or granted the Patriarch's blessing; leaving to work for another House could be seen as an insult.

Originally Posted by daniel_gudman

How does "House" structure compare to modern "Corporate" structure?

Not sure.

Originally Posted by daniel_gudman

Actually that gets me to another point, what TL are you imaging this society at? How do the fantastical bits change that?

TL 3 with TL 4 elements (typical dungeon fantasy)