VDonnut Valley

DonTraveller Careers Final Draft 1.1

In this post I will elaborate on what I already said on Mastodon in regards to Traveller and Careers.

MyTraveller vibe

When I first created a subsector in Traveller (I think it was Mongoose first edition) I found out that the part of cosmos generated was terribly chaotic and uncaring - planets with large populations were during or right after revolution, habitable planets had small populations, the only place with high technology was this Garden World outpost with a few hundred people. Sound like retreat for ultrawealthy and not like proper society. Subsector was all full of failing colonies, unstable governments, weird cultures, places with law level in the 10+ (dictatorial stuff) and other. There was not even one regular world even close to Earth.

When I first read the book I didn't understand it. I thought "why is this space opera system so restrictive" or "why would anyone need this or that". But after I generated the sector I understood. Why would you use swords and knives when there are laser guns? Well, because laser guns are banned on over half of the worlds and are produced on maybe one of them if at all. And since travel between neighbouring worlds takes a week minimum and costs exorbitant amounts you can imagine how much it costs beyond the simple payment for this laser carbine.

And then I became fascinated by it. The chaos of the cosmos, the struggles, the coldness of it as if no one cares what happens on these worlds. I understood why there is this service of lodging and travels available on all high class starports. It is like a drop of comfort and stability in this harsh reality. I got really hooked.

Past Careers

The Classic Traveller was all in on coldness and uncaringness. The only careers available were military, one was hybrid military/civilian (Merchant) and one was Other as sink for everything else. It paints the picture where most people who take the mantle of Travellers come from the environment where the available jobs are mainly military ones or because if you land some cushy planetary job you don't become an adventurer.

The other versions are more forgiving. Both Mongoose versions allow you to try being Citizen, Noble, Entertainer. Cepheus Engine let's you choose way more of the job pool. It makes the game feels worldly, more like our modern times. But I have found out it is not what I chase. I don't want characters that I happened to roll with Mongoose. I don't want anyone to spend 7 terms as a Noble, retire with pension, one and a half Yacht and no debt. Or another, successful Artist turned Criminal, tons of money, benefits and friends. It implies there are possibilities for such careers. It suggests anyone can try. It implies there are enough stable and lively worlds to allow existence of many such nobles, artists, office workers and others. Warm and comfortable jobs. Which undermines the cold, chaotic and uncaring vibe.

It felt worldly and modern and I wanted it in my version. I copied it without thinking. And recently I started to think it needs revision.

Now Careers

Military careers stay. Army, Marines, Navy and Scouts. Whole four such careers make it feel like the military is huge presence in the world. Like the world is scary and unstable. CHECK!

Merchants stay too. They are partly military. Also it sounds like straight path to being Traveller taking a mortgage to own a ship. CHECK!

Then I also want Agent career. It is law enforcement which neatly slides into enforcement and violence just as military careers. So the original four + Merchant + Agent become the Draft. Six careers suggest cosmos is violent. Feels like Alien universe. CHECK!

All right, now we jump to the normies, to the civil careers. There must be less of them than those included in Draft so we don't undermine the feeling established earlier. I want each of the civil careers to feel special with their requirements. Starting with the essentials - Drifter. It stays. I like that it is this space vagabond, independent wanderer, seasonal worker trying to get by in unforgiving space. Yeah! Of course we keep the idea that anyone can automatically enter this career. It is in the middle of survivability and doesn't offer Commission - and by extension Advancement. It is kind of punishment which feels fair as the qualification is so easy.

Now we're hopping to more planetary and stationary careers. And first one included will be... Criminal. Yeah, again, it is also violent and it pushes vibe to extreme. All those violent careers as character background may really create Travellers as a bunch of broken, hardened and troubled creatures like characters from Disco Elysium. What is special in Criminal? Very easy to qualify, makes sense, just stick with a gang or a mobster and you're in. Survival is very hard though - a lot of violence inside the underworld and constant struggle with the law (and Agents!) makes criminal life rather short on par with old Scout service. And getting a Commission to jump in the "management" is hard but once you get it then Advancement is almost sure. Well, IF you survive.

Finally we can get some relax and breathe. You can become just a regular Citizen in one of the worlds. It is the mix of civilian careers - mentioned before entertainers, bureaucrats, politicians, workers, nobles, colonists, lawyers, physicians and whatever planetary job you can find. I mean, it doesn't mean you choose whatever skills you want. It is resultant of all regular careers with harsh spin - you're way more likely to get blue collar skills than white collar or specialist. What about requirements? Well, here comes the surprise. If this is your starting career you can get it very easily - if you're born and live on a planet it would be hard not to get a career in place. But if not then it is very hard to get settled as a outlander. Very easy to survive, rather hard to Commission and when you get in management position it is not terribly hard to Advance. Boring, safe, unfulfilling, far from adventurous.

And the tenth career on the list will be Scientist. I kind of wanted to make it more elite, more like overall Academic mixed with Noble, Physician, Lawyer, when I think of it now more like medieval scholar haha. But in skill based system where each skill table allows for six options it's hard to achieve in a natural way. In the end I made Scientist very theoretical career - Basic skills are Medicine, Art, Social Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Natural Sciences and Tactics. All over the place, but all generally theoretical stuff. And if you Commission into management stuff you get a whiff of Etiquette and Swordhandship of noble elites. As for requirements - very hard to get to, hardest to Qualify from all careers. But all Survival, Commission and Advancement relatively easy.

Summary

So in order to keep the vibe of cold and uncaring cosmos as in Alien franchise the available careers are:

Finishing touches

I don't think available skills, Qualification, Survival, Commission and Advancement rolls are enough to differentiate between careers. They're close but not enough. I think I might make three additional tables in case you don't make Survival roll. Military careers should have the worst potential consequences, you're in active combat after all. Criminal too. Merchants, Scouts and Drifters also have dangerous lives but not as bad. And Scientists and Citizens are living in relative piece, maybe risking their reputation and employment chances. I don't know but I might follow this lead.

Okay, now it seems fine. I like it. Next time in MyTraveller journey I will want to talk either about Skills or about World Generation. Because of course I want to change it all!

#Traveller