No longer being one financial setback away from homelessness I stumbled on my old series of blog posts going through Starter Traveller and Supplement 4 to extrapolate a version of the future using the rolls as presented. I had managed to get through the base 6 careers and did the first two in supplement 4 which I was using as secondary careers that opened up after an initial enlistment in one of the 6 basic careers. The next one up is the Sailors open to Army personal who have reenlisted and then succeed in an enlistment roll. My thinking is the Army is tasked with fighting on a worlds surface and the Sailors specialize in an environmental subset of a worlds surface. To summarize the Navy fights in space over interstellar distances and the Marines fight to control the approaches to a planet.
The Sailors are more selective in who they accept with a slightly higher roll and higher stats to get a bonus to the roll. They value endurance and Strength with the latter having a higher effect. The survival rate is the same however the Army gets a boost from a fairly mundane level of education and sailors get a bump from a better than average Endurance. The chances for commission and promotion are the same but a high endurance helps to get a commission in the Sailors as opposed to the Army's Education and both feature a bonus from Education for Promotion although the Sailor's need a higher stat to get the bonus. Finally if you get into the Sailors you have a better chance to keep your job needing a 6 as opposed to the Army's 7. Looking at mustering out we see Low Passage; +1 Edu; Weapon x2; High Passage x2 and if you are rank 5 or 6 +1 Soc. So they can win the base line passage in the Separation Games and the service is equally competitive in the blade and marksmanship contests. On the higher end of the scale Sailors seem more welcome in the better social circles with High Passages and the chance to move up in the world at least socially. Their mustering out pay is identical to the regular Army.
Skill advancement is odd in that you do not get an automatic Watercraft - 1 unlike Flyer who all get Aircraft - 1. The Personal Development Table has +1 to the physical stats; Gambling; Brawling and Carousing. So the Service doesn't promote education as a way to advance in life. Like most branches of the Imperial government they promote gambling. They train their members in unarmed combat implying much of their work is more law enforcement rather than combat. Carousing isn't one of the Starter Traveller skills and I don't really see it offering much to the game beyond Steward or Streetwise the 2 closest matches. Harking back to the impression of a law enforcement component it gets replaced by Streetwise. Service skills are Gun; Commo; Fwd Obs; Vehicle x2 and Battle Dress. Keep in mind I am viewing these as the skills the service needs most to perform it's job. Gun Combat isn't surprising for any of the armed services. Communications is another skill not in Starter Traveller and also one I don't see a pressing need to add I am replacing it with Navigation which covers the operation of sensors as well as going from point A to B. Forward Observer is a sensible skill for a service operating vessels armed with stand off weaponry. Vehicle as opposed to the more specific Watercraft of the next table fits with my premise of this being a subordinate branch of the Army in that they could be trained to operate any vehicle and most vehicles operate on or near the worlds surface. This can also account for Aircraft Carriers and Amphibious Assault ships. Battle Dress exists are an item in Starter Traveller but not a separate skill and I can't see why the branch of the Army specialize for aquatic missions would be the only branch to get it. It is replaced with Vacc Suit to represent the most common version of diving suit. The first Advanced Education table has Watercraft; Electronics; Mechanical; Gravitics; Navigation and Demolitions. I am somewhat at a loss to rationalize why the service would provide a more restricted version of Vehicle as an Advanced skill. Keep in mind that Vehicle has Watercraft under it so you are twice as likely to achieve this using the Service Skill table. That being said it isn't unreasonable that the service would specifically train people in the operation of watercraft so I won't change it. Electrical and Mechanical are both necessary to operate any kind of vehicle. Gravitics is another added later skill I don't see as adding much value so it become Engineering which covers fusion power plants the most common source of power. Navigation is also a sensible skill even with its interstellar applications. Demolitions is another addition that seems way to narrow a skill when using the Starter Traveller set given the small amount of skills you are likely to get. I am replacing it with Gunnery so the earlier Forward Observer skill has some use as otherwise there is no way to get experience in firing heavy weapons in the Sailors. The final Advanced Education table provides Medical; Vehicle; Streetwise; Computer; Admin and JOT. Medical; Computer and Administration are reasonable for any service to value enough to provide training for. The generic Vehicle as opposed to Watercraft strikes me as odd although not enough to change it. Streetwise seems to reaffirm my view of the Sailors operating as a paramilitary police force with specific train in infiltrating underground groups. And JOT strikes me as a program to train people for unconventional problem solving.
And now the part I have enjoyed most doing this posts, what can we interpret the various rolls to mean? Looking at the skills you can earn it strikes me that the Sailors are them Imperial occupation force. The Navy gets you to the System then the Marines get you a way to land the Army on the world. After the Army eliminates organized resistance they plop down some subs and carriers to support a few divisions of Amphibious troops and leave. The prevalence of vehicle rather than Watercraft means (to me at least) the most common craft the average member of the service operate are not watercraft at all. I am aware submarines can exists undetected for extended periods of time but they cannot retake a world or even materially impact an occupation force on a global scale. This means the water is the best place to keep your occupying troops as it would be extremely difficult to mount even harassing attacks versus ships either underwater or 100+ klicks from the nearest shore. Again with vehicle being so prevalent most sailors are more frequently traveling by something other than watercraft. Brawling being as likely as Gun Combat implies it is as desirable not to kill a target as to just shoot them, you can't kill your way to being popular with the locals. Streetwise (even before my addition) implies that the service trains people to move about in situations where they will be mistrusted but still need to get information which seems like a good thing for an occupying force to know. It also explains train for JOT as no other of the Armed Services provide it.
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