For the next couple of posts I am going to go through the careers in ST and Citizens of the Imperium Supplement 4 and the Law Enforcer which I think is in a JTAS and I know is in MT. I will look at what the game says; skills available and the Mustering Out benefits and how I am going to apply them in my view of the Imperium. Keep in mind I have decided that all pre-game career generation is in service to the Imperium which has a universal conscription and no provision for enlisting as anything other than rank 0 scrubbo no matter the service or UPP of the character. How sincere the stated goal of universal employment and skill training is remains up in the air as does the claim all the services promote on merit. Starting with Starter Traveller itself here we go.
NAVY
The service is described as patrolling space defending society from lawless elements and foreign invaders. Meh, that works. From latter works we know there are Imperial Fleets; Imperial Reserve Fleets and local squadrons. During character generation service is with an Imperial Fleet only. People go from the Imperial navy to local (world) navies or noble huscarles but everyone starts serving the Emperor. It is harder than average to volunteer for the navy with Intelligence offering a slight bonus and Education offering a bigger one. Which using my take on the UPP means knowing a bunch of stuff by memory. The naval entrance exam therefor is a grueling test covering a very wide swath of possible knowledge relying mostly on concrete facts rather than problem solving.
Survival indicates it is moderately dangerous with an Intelligence DM showing quick thinking is key in avoiding what dangers come up.
Commission is where nepotism makes its first appearance it is friggin' hard to get a commission from the ranks and Social Status is what gives you a leg up. A little more thought and it seems likely to me the Emperor wants his fleets controlled by people tied to the future of the Imperium most closely which means his feudal vassals the nobles.
Promotion is a little less likely than average and again the Education DM implies giant tests of facts rather than problem solving. The difference between the difficulty in gaining a commission and getting promoted is significant on a 2D6 roll so once you get rank it is possible to advance.
However the reenlistment is not conducive to a long career. Having no DM for reenlistment makes me even more content with the everyone gets drafted idea because the career system does make your career end kind of arbitrary in there is no way to improve your chance to continue.
Mustering out of the Navy gives you an equal chance for the best and worst kind of travel; improved mental agility; a really significant bump in the crap you know; Blade combat and finally membership in TAS. If you made it to Rank 5 or 6 you can zip into the peerage with +2 to SOC on every 6. Passage vouchers can be used on any ship at any time so I am thinking they are awards by a grateful company/vessel to the crew a of a naval vessel for a rescue of some kind so it is a civilian perk not government one. The Intelligence and Education increases represent the years of living under naval expectations and what they train their people for. TAS is weird to me because if you don't get it mustering out it would cost 1 Mcr. So I think of it as a partnership between the Imperium and TAS in a kind of lottery if you get TAS you could goof off never working again by cashing in your high passage for 8,000 a month for life. The Blade reward is an actual bladed weapon (and skill 0 if not already possessed) with additional awards being different weapons or +1 skill in the same weapon.
This benefit has always mystified me, why the sudden knife fights at the end of your career? True you can view it as something that took place during the career and it is a mechanic of the game that awards it at the end but there is a stranger possibility that occured to me. Combine my belief the Imperium gives the option to return you to your homeworld at the end of enlistment and TAS giving 16% of naval personal the million credit prize upon leaving the service with humankind's fascination with individual conflict and we have the campaign enhancing and creepy TNS exclusive traveling retirement tournaments. If you take up the offer for returning home you travel along on your way home participating in televised first blood duels amongst the various services. Kind of an olympic reality TV recruitment propaganda campaign with TAS getting revenue from broadcasting and the services getting tv exposure to boost enlistment. And this GM enhances his setting where the Imperium is tone deaf to how it can appear not to care about individual citizens, everybody wins! The final high rank getting a noble title also adds to my earlier supposition the Imperium wants those people capable of leading a fleet loyal to the current structure of the Imperium.
The cash table just comes out odd as you can get between 1000 and 150,000 credits with gambling skill of any level being the only DM. <shrug> I got nothing.
However I would suggest and am going to see if it is worthwhile to have each roll represent something worth at least a sentence of backstory. Sitting here writing a blog this seems a good idea actual rolling needs to be done to see if is worth it.
On to the skill tables. The personal development table gives an equal chance to increase any of your characteristics, meh.
Service skills I have always taken to represent the most common tasks that need to be performed and the Navy has Ship's Boat; Vacc Suit; Forward Observer; Gunnery; Blade Combat and Gun Combat. Hmmm, looking at this it seems to me the navy does a lot of boarding actions as all except Forward Observer are useful for this. It also seems the Navy routinely bombs land based targets. If we take my point of view these are the skills the Navy expects its members to need it indicates a fair amount of unequal contests ie piracy and uprisings.
Moving on to the first Advanced Education table we get Vacc Suit; Mechanical; Electrical; Engineering; Gunnery and Jack of all Trades. Vacc Suit makes sense in that the first thing ships are going to do if combat seems likely is depressurize their interiors. The next three seems to indicate keeping the equipment on the ship running is important. Gunnery has shown up twice as well because the Navy is there to shoot stuff when you come down to it. Finally the oddball skill of JOT which is poorly explained leading to really interesting debates on the G+ group on what it should be used for. I am leaning toward it being a DM pool that can be used on any roll and resets every gaming session in addition to the stated level-0 in all other skills.
Finally the is the 8+ Education Advance Education table which I again believe can be explain by that most beloved of bureaucratic tools the standardized test. You have to test to get into the technical schools for these skills Medical; Navigation; Engineering; Computer; Pilot and Administration. Making these skills harder to get would imply the Navy wants more control over the people capable of doing them and looking at them they are the ones which will have an effect on a whole ship rather than the personal on the ship individually.
Not to be ignored are the two rank awards of +1 SOC each as you rise in rank again supporting my view the people able to lead a ship into a fight are the ones the Imperium wants tied to the current status quo.
So we end up with a service that is moderately difficult to get into, really hard to get rank in and probably not one you are going to retire from. While in you spend a lot of time in Vacuum and fights. The more prestigious jobs involve you with keeping the ship going. You also spend a huge amount of time taking tests checking how well you memorize stuff. If you can get a commission you can get promoted and will move in higher and higher circles of society as you do. When you get out you get somewhere between lame and decent money and recognition through free tickets an exclusive membership most people dream about the way we do about winning the lottery and the possibility of some media exposure getting in sensationalized combats with sharp things. If you got high rank chances are good you will receive a title. Applying this to ship design theory I see naval vessels as having the bridge (and senior officers) separated from the rest of crew, every vessel having small craft and at least a few missile weapons for bombardments.
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