Esprit d'corps??

[san*klass]

When I have ever run a CT campaign it has always ended up (very loosely) as a semi Han Solo style
campaign. Smuggling, helping those oppressed by the 3I or megacorps. Transporting illicit goods or "wanted" people.
Just got me wondering though, four of the possible six (just from TTB) CT professions are wholly or at least mostly 3I millitary ones. In your games do any players go with their previous careers and take a more "toeing the official line" position in play?
I have never had anything to do with anything millitary in my RL, so I am just wondering??

 

[mike wightman]

Typical actions of players IMTU:
doing jobs for the Ine Givar (anti-Imperial freedom fighters in the Spinward Marches)
robbing megacorporation banks
piracy on megacorporation shipping
raiding Imperial bases
raiding megacorporation bases
smuggling stuff - past Imperial blockades
smuggling stuff - to circumvent megacorporations
doing jobs for nobles that support the locals

 

[san*klass]

Sounds like for your team the answer is a resounding "No" then Mike??

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

well, most of my RPG games that I have played in end up routinely breaking the law and doing illegal things, regardless of what its saying on our character sheets about alignment.

I think its part of the "escapism" element of RPGs. The chance, not only to "break the law", but to get away with it and be cool while doing so. A lot of people also enjoy the "David and Goliath/Sticking It To The Man" angle as well, taking pleasure form screwing with corporations and governments plans in a "safe" manner.


form a In-game point of view, its worth pointing out that "big T" Travellers, by their nature, are a collection of people for whom into the regular career paths didn't suit, and have left them behind, at quite a young age in many cases, to seek their own fortune elsewhere. In short, they are the "misfits" of 3I society, It makes sense that they would have a larger than normal number of people who believe the crime is getting caught, and are not opposed to such activities purely as a matter of principle.

 

[mike wightman]

The thing to remember about CT character generation and the original Spinward marches setting:

the characters have left their service on the edge of an empire that doesn't want or need their service anymore.

Sure they may have a pension and a bit of status, but all their dreams and ambitions just took a major change of direction - something I once wrote about the nature of the Traveller PC:

Philosophy of Traveller

A Traveller is a person who has had an epiphany, that what they have been doing with their lives so far is over and they have to head out on their own.
Their old career is gone, and the society they were part of no longer wants them in that role. Rather than lie down and wait for the end they break with society's norms and begin to Travel. They adventure, seeking to gain rewards, rewards that actually matter: a sense of worth, money, reputation; not social status since they are now living outside societal norms...

Remember what it says in the Final Word to referees:

The players themselves have a burden almost equal to that of the referee: they must move, act, and travel in search of their own goals. The typical methods used in life by 20th century Terrans (thrift, dedication, and hard work) do not work in Traveller; instead, travellers must boldly plan and execute daring schemes for the acquisition of wealth and power.

Adventurous conduct, by its very nature, is not civilized. It is frequently not law-abiding either. Any world which is civilized enough to deserve the term also has a vested interest in suppressing adventurers, for the good of society. It is only on the fringe worlds, where there are neither enough people nor enough civilization, that "taking matters into your own hands" is routinely a viable strategy for dealing with problems.

 

[Timerover51]

well, most of my RPG games that I have played in end up routinely breaking the law and doing illegal things, regardless of what its saying on our character sheets about alignment.

I think its part of the "escapism" element of RPGs. The chance, not only to "break the law", but to get away with it and be cool while doing so. A lot of people also enjoy the "David and Goliath/Sticking It To The Man" angle as well, taking pleasure form screwing with corporations and governments plans in a "safe" manner.


form a In-game point of view, its worth pointing out that "big T" Travellers, by their nature, are a collection of people for whom into the regular career paths didn't suit, and have left them behind, at quite a young age in many cases, to seek their own fortune elsewhere. In short, they are the "misfits" of 3I society, It makes sense that they would have a larger than normal number of people who believe the crime is getting caught, and are not opposed to such activities purely as a matter of principle.

That is one of the problems I have with the way people approach Traveller. In D&D, someone starts playing in ways that violate their alignment, I make sure that they suddenly have major problems, including in one case, a lightning bolt three levels down, and finding that his 8th level cleric now had no spells.

I am not one to tolerate criminal activity in any game.

 

[BlackBat242]

Those military veterans have, in my Traveller experience, often ended up as Mercenaries (remember the title of LBB #4?).

Simply put they put their military experience & skills to work on contract, rather than according to political loyalty.

The last CT campaign I ran (2003-2006) involved a motley crew of varied background, species, and experience, that started out to be independent merchants with a single Far Trader - and ended up a 3-ship Chartered Mercenary Company*.

Most of their work was done on behalf of local sub-sector/sector governmental bodies, and was thus mostly law-abiding in nature.




* the original 300dt armed freighter, a captured 200dt Aslan Combat Scout, and a 100dt converted Scout (the Paranoia Press space-shuttle-like version)**.


** from a Terran rather than Imperial source - my campaign was set in the time-frame of the 2I, but in a universe where the 1I didn't collapse and the 1I & TC are in a centuries-long "cold war" across a "neutral zone". The TL was 11 "common", 12 "state-of-the-art", and 13 "experimental/military developmental".

 

[hiro]

I am not one to tolerate criminal activity in any game.

How often do your players manage to evade the long arm of the law?

 

[sabredog]

Few of the players I"ve had in the past were even in the military, let alone ran characters that considered that career as more than a way to gain skills, see the universe, and earn money for college. My current group though, has a player who runs a Marine, much like himself IRL, who has gradually become more and more "Marine-y" in-game.

He's now the self-designated quartermaster/armorer/security chief/and pilot (effectively owner given how he treats it) of his baby - the cutter "Dragon Wagon". With the addition of a couple of alien NPC's who joined the crew a while back, he effectively has his own fireteam and runs it like he is still in the Marines. It's great role-playing and a lot of fun to see him become more and more concerned with rules and the legalities of some of the things they've gotten involved in, but more and more "tactical" in conflict. "His Boys", the two NPC's Nippi and Rippi, love him dearly and will follow him to hell and back again, too. He doesn't like Naval personnel as a matter of honor and knows he could fly rings around any Imperial Navy fighter pilot with his battered old cutter. We used to have another Marine PC in the beginning and the two were busom drinking/carousing buddies in arms until the younger one was eaten by a horrible giant arthropod thing that was peeling the combat armor of a PC like it was picking the shell off a shrimp. The younger Marine ran out of ammo and dove in with his Blade, saving the other character but dying in the process. The other PC gave him a hero's funeral with a 21-gun salute on a nameless dustball world.

Another player has a Naval doctor with an amusing history I wrote for him and who looks at the Marine PC with a jaundiced eye. The feelings are semi-mutual but the doc stitches up the Marine so often that feels like a tailor more than a surgeon. Due to the unique to Traveller way combat and damage seems to really make it more likely a buffed character will get killed or horribly maimed more often than a "normal" statted one, the Marine gets patched up a lot under fire, or scooped into his armor and tossed in the autodoc by the surgeon. He then complains about the overreliance of Squids on technology while he steeps in the healing juices. The doctor has often used his connections and knowledge of obscure Naval traditions and courtesies to help the group many times when encountering my versions of Imperial and Frontier Naval personnel, as well as some minor nobility given his former rank and a knighthood gained while also earning a medal in combat.

Unfortunately, the doctor has also some dangerous enemies when the doctor made some unwise comments on a local noble he felt was an alcoholic lackwit. The lackwit was also the commander, as it turned out, of a rival ship in the same squadron. A "traditional" enemy as it happened, too... rivals for the place in the line of battle and all that old school military stuff. His buddies got him really good and drunk the night before the now-requisite duel over the insult, and drunken themselves sent him off in cold sleep on the first ship out to some planet they forgot the name of, and oh, they lost the ticket stub, too...."oh well, the doc'll figure things out when he gets there, he's a good egg....."

So now the doc spars verbally with the Marine, the Marine's "boys" eye the doc with what they have read in the ships' library as proper distrust as a "squid" in order to get the approval of the "sarge" (who was really just a corporal when he mustered out from a wound in his second term), and the doc makes sure he uses his dullest needles when he has to stitch up the Marine.

 

[McPerth]

There's one major assumption I make in every RPG I run: if law is kept is because it has the force to be.

That means that when I GM'd D&D, my players soon learned that being medium level fighters made not them above the law, as the City Watch had also medium (and higher) level individuals that can match (and usually more) them. And disturbing those (usually high ranks in the city) people used to have bad consequences, even long term ones...

That's also true in 3I. It will not be disturbed for every minor infraction, and less so for some smuggling (that after all is not usually against Imperial law, but local one), but if you begin to be too trublesome, you can feel the weight of the MoJ or even the IN. And be sure evading such large TL15 organizations with (in game terms) unlimited ressources for long time is not posible without leaving their zones of influence...

How often do your players manage to evade the long arm of the law?

As said, this will depend on how seriously are they searched.

For some minor infractions, they are likely to evade it for quite long time. For local infractions, at least until they return to the planet in question, but for serious HIgh Justice crimes, they'd better leave the Imeprium and don't return to it...

 

[Timerover51]

How often do your players manage to evade the long arm of the law?

Generally, they are on the side of it, or at least not directly opposing it. If one decides that they want to go to the "Dark Side", then that one find himself in a nice dark box underground, or it the whole group goes bad, I leave.

 

[hiro]

Generally, they are on the side of it, or at least not directly opposing it. If one decides that they want to go to the "Dark Side", then that one find himself in a nice dark box underground, or it the whole group goes bad, I leave.

I know we've discussed this before, it was a while ago, please forgive me if we rehash the conversation.

I've always found that the best games I've played and refereed hinged on ethically challenging situations. Some can be legal, some not - that kinda depends on who's making the laws.

Going back to the OP, in my experience players are split (I'm unsure of the percentages) between those who choose certain careers to mine them for their skills and benefits whilst playing basically the same character every time and those who take the chargen process and use it to outline the PC's personality and then fill in the gaps in play. Both ways work, each serves for the players to have the fun they're looking for in the game.

It sometimes causes me to raise an eyebrow when a career marine with a noble title suddenly goes off the straight and narrow for no apparent reason. When I'm refereeing players who do this I try and illicit an explanation in game as to what's happened.