G
gloriousbattle
Guest
The Others are, kinda by definition, the throw away service of the original six, and when the game gets expanded with some additional rulebooks, adding in cool services like pirates and nobles, they are seldom seen again.
However, this seems to ignore their potential. Several editions of Traveller have hinted that the Others are connected to the underworld in some way. Still, this would make them just another sort of rogue, unless they were an organization of some sort.
I "upped" them, by turning them into a nefarious, loosely organized shadow government /crime syndicate, who's true goals and leaders are not even known to the membership. They may even have access to strange aliens or forbidden technologies, no one really knows.
What's more, no one ever truly "retires" from being an Other. The Others can always call on you for a small favor now and then... Failure to answer favorably can have unfortunate consequences.
Similarly, any Other will have a contact that will allow him to call on the organization for help. This is similar to membership in the Traveller's Aid Society, except that it takes the following form:
Once per month, any Other who has not betrayed the organization (best not to think about the consequences of that) can petition the Others, informally, for a "favor". This takes the form of a single bonus of 1D-2 skill levels to a single roll of Bribery, Forgery, or Streetwise skill made by the character. Note that if the 1d2-2 roll ends up as 0 or -1, this simply means that the organization would not or could not help in this particular situation, it does not penalize the character's chances.
Obviously, this is not something that can be pulled out "on the fly" or in the middle of a firefight, but must be set up in a manner that the Ref agrees is reasonable under the circumstances, based on the PC contacting the Others. For example, an Other PC could not simply decide that he was going to use this roll to add to his Streetwise skill to question a thug he just met in an alley. However, if he knew that he was going to need information on a recent rash of warehouse burglaries, and wanted to use bribery on a local official for this purpose, he could use the roll to set up a little "pressure" on the bureaucrat for this purpose, though it might take a few days or even weeks to accomplish, as the ref's discretion.
My idea for this came from Gordon Dickson's Dorsai novels, in which the nefarious Others have become the most insidious threat to humanity. Also think the Orion Syndicate and Jabba the Hut. Though they are by no means omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, the thought of angering the Others organization as a whole is enough to given even the nobles of the Imperium a moment's pause.
However, this seems to ignore their potential. Several editions of Traveller have hinted that the Others are connected to the underworld in some way. Still, this would make them just another sort of rogue, unless they were an organization of some sort.
I "upped" them, by turning them into a nefarious, loosely organized shadow government /crime syndicate, who's true goals and leaders are not even known to the membership. They may even have access to strange aliens or forbidden technologies, no one really knows.
What's more, no one ever truly "retires" from being an Other. The Others can always call on you for a small favor now and then... Failure to answer favorably can have unfortunate consequences.
Similarly, any Other will have a contact that will allow him to call on the organization for help. This is similar to membership in the Traveller's Aid Society, except that it takes the following form:
Once per month, any Other who has not betrayed the organization (best not to think about the consequences of that) can petition the Others, informally, for a "favor". This takes the form of a single bonus of 1D-2 skill levels to a single roll of Bribery, Forgery, or Streetwise skill made by the character. Note that if the 1d2-2 roll ends up as 0 or -1, this simply means that the organization would not or could not help in this particular situation, it does not penalize the character's chances.
Obviously, this is not something that can be pulled out "on the fly" or in the middle of a firefight, but must be set up in a manner that the Ref agrees is reasonable under the circumstances, based on the PC contacting the Others. For example, an Other PC could not simply decide that he was going to use this roll to add to his Streetwise skill to question a thug he just met in an alley. However, if he knew that he was going to need information on a recent rash of warehouse burglaries, and wanted to use bribery on a local official for this purpose, he could use the roll to set up a little "pressure" on the bureaucrat for this purpose, though it might take a few days or even weeks to accomplish, as the ref's discretion.
My idea for this came from Gordon Dickson's Dorsai novels, in which the nefarious Others have become the most insidious threat to humanity. Also think the Orion Syndicate and Jabba the Hut. Though they are by no means omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, the thought of angering the Others organization as a whole is enough to given even the nobles of the Imperium a moment's pause.
