I found the idea of the Naval Regiment to be very intriguing. It has a different flavor than the Marines, which makes the Regiment rife with opportunities.
So, would you ever as a GM, run such a campaign? *teasing grin*
Take for example, the following campaign concept...
The Lunion subsector naval assets, are tasked with security within the subsector. As a captain of a 5,000 dton destroyer, you have at your disposal, various subcraft, some marines used for ship security and manning turrets, along with a crew whose training make them capable crew - just not the best in the subsector.
So, you as an XO, are tasked with handling the various things that come up in the hopes that you're keeping the dumb stuff off the ship commander's plate. You might be looking through the ship records and noticing that you're about to lose a really good sensor operator due to the fact that his separation from service date is coming up fast. Topping that, while you on office of the day duty on a shift, your sensor operator sings out "Jump emergence event, bearing 260 degrees on the eliptic plane. Weak signal either implies a long distance emergence, or a small hull or both."
Do you make a determination to investigate the event, on the presumption that your ship's commander left you enough latitude in his orders to order such a course change, or do you wait until the next shift change to inform whomever takes command of the bridge, or do you think "this is important enough to wake the captain?"
Sensor operator speaks up again saying "Transponder signals read that the recent jump space emergence was the IMS Credit Dew, registered with Lunion as port of registry. No unusual communications traffic to report!"
As you might guess, I look at SECTOR FLEET as a way of maybe exploring what life might be like aboard a ship, along with events that a destroyer might encounter that is routine, along with some not so routine events. Maybe one of boats goes missing along with its crew of two. Organizing a Search and Rescue might be the focus of the adventure that session. Or perhaps the Destroyer reaches port and settles down into a berth at the down port. Organizing a security team to keep the ship secure during its stay in port might prove to be interesting (or not). Having to recover crew on R&R during an emergency call up for the ship to lift and respond to a distress call could be the start of an adventure where the Destroyer is missing elements of the crew it had to leave behind. Does the XO recommend thawing some of the Frozen watch to get back up to operational fully manned status, or does the ship retain its current undermanned state?
Then there is the issue of Frozen watch. How long does one hibernate? Does one get paid to be in low berth? Does the ship's routine work out such that the frozen watch alternates between wakeful status and sleep status so that ships are manned with 1.5 or 2x normal crew any time a ship heads out?
These are all questions that go through my mind as a GM trying to imagine shipboard life in the Imperial empire.
Then of course, there is the fun stuff. Potentially hostile sensor contact has been confirmed, and the Commander orders a course change. What was the contact? Was it a smuggler? Was it perhaps a Sword World spy ship trying to get information from long range? Was it a would be pirate testing the waters (so to speak) to see if this is a good area of operations to set up in? Maybe the unknown sensor contact is probing the commander's responses to see whether he's aggressive in chasing down sensor contacts, or if he's likely to avoid such things as being a waste of time? What if the Commander's orders were to actively slip into Sword World space and render aid or discover what happened to a sensor picket ship in the outer rim of a Sword World star system?
This and many more are ideas inspired either by SECTOR FLEET or other sources for a Traveller campaign.
That I use GURPS TRAVELLER rules for starship building has led me to think outside the box of the standard roles in CT or other Traveller ship building schemes. Having the ability to use stealth systems (which I believe MgT also permits) might make running a naval campaign something FUN - something that is not the usual fare in a Traveller Campaign.
