Why no pension for Scouts???

[Lord Iron Wolf]

It's always struck me as odd that the Scout Service has never offered a pension to their retirees. Scouts is a military service with a lot of danger to it and who knows how many injuries/diseases from alien worlds. Besides a Scout ship that you may or may not get and some good cash out rolls, the retired scout seems to get the dirty end of the stick when it comes to retirement.

Can anyone think of a good reason for this. The only thing that I can think of is that Scouts are never retired but continue to work for the Scout Service through missions, patrons and grants but that seems a little far fetched.

Anyway, would anyone else care to share a few thoughts on this logic in the game?

Lord Iron Wolf

 

[AnotherDilbert]

They are not retired, only on detached duty, hence the free ships.

 

[steventirey1985]

As AnotherDilbert said, scouts don't retire. They just reach a point where the service lets them do what they want most of the time. And if you gain a scout ship through a benefit roll, it isn't yours either.

The following is specifically MgT 2e, but the same in other editions as far as I know:

Scout ship: You receive a scout ship. You have full use of the ship and can modify it as you see it, but it still belongs to the Scout Service and can (and will!) be recalled back into service as needed. This means you will be expected to complete missions for the Scout Service from time to time. If you roll this Benefit more than once, re-roll the result.

 

[mike wightman]

Even if an ex-scout fails to acquire a ship on mustering out they still get:
free room and board at scout bases
free berths on scout/couriers if there is a vacant stateroom
free berths on x-boats if there is a berth
they have pilot 1 so a working passage should be easy to get

 

[aramis]

Early on, some interpreted it to mean that scouts were generally hired as independent contractors.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

In the real world, "Detached Duty" is synonymous with "Temporary Assignment", and usually means something like ". . . a period of service at a new, temporary work place other than through a permanent transfer".

If we apply this meaning to the Traveller Universe, we may assume that Scouts never really retire, and that they may be recalled to active duty at any time -- their "temporary work place" being the universe at large. Traveller rules may also imply that, while they are not on direct payroll, they still receive certain perquisites of being in the IISS, to wit:

• Free room and board at scout facilities.
• Free passage on scout vessels, on a "Space-Available" basis.
• More readily-acquired working passages, due to proficiency in the Pilot skill.
• Sometimes they also receive a Scout/Courier to maintain and use as they see fit.

IMTU, a former Scout member in possession of a Scout/Courier may receive messages from the IISS, which 'request' that the Scout travel to a certain location to take on a certain passenger and/or certain cargo for delivery to a certain destination . . . with no questions asked.

Then there is also the cooperative association between the IISS and IRIS (Imperial Regency Intelligence Service), which sometimes leads to shared resources and personnel . . .

 

[Redcap]

Given IRIS appeared in Challenge, and may well have been inspired by DGP, how canon do you consider it to be, compared to the two entities in LBB #6 "Scouts", which mentioned the Security and the Detached Duty Branches, both of whom possess security and intelligence duties?

If IRIS is reasonably canon, aside from it's duties in arbitrating the succession, providing for the security of the Emperor, and monitoring potential threats to the Imperial line, what else might it do (i.e., what might its mission creep push into)?

 

[mike wightman]

IRIS was debunked in Survival Margin.

The IISS Security Branch - Intelligence Service agent - now those guys I would be scared of...

 

[Redcap]

Ah, not got that, thanks for the heads up

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

IRIS was debunked in Survival Margin.

Maybe that's just what they WANT you to think!

The IISS Security Branch - Intelligence Service agent - now those guys I would be scared of . . .

IRIS . . . IISS/SB . . . whatever, it's all cloak-and-dagger anyway . . . sometimes more dagger than cloak.

 

[mike wightman]

Maybe that's just what they WANT you to think!IRIS . . . IISS/SB . . . whatever, it's all cloak-and-dagger anyway . . . sometimes more dagger than cloak.

When the Emperor Strephon himself tells you there is no such thing as IRIS...

 

[McPerth]

They are not retired, only on detached duty, hence the free ships.

I don't believe so. Not all Scouts are in Detached DUty when they leave the scouts.

This is quite explicited in MT (PM, page 57):

Detached Duty: Any Scout who is serving in the Detached Duty división when he leaves the service is given permanent detached duty statuson a roll of 9+ (DM + number of terms served). Although the assignment has no responsabilities, the individual receives a Scout/Courier (if he has not already received one thought mustering out) and a stipend (similar to, but not exactly like, a pension) of Cr 4000 per year.

It's not so explicit in CT (and I guess not aplicable to TNE (except in the Regency) nor in T4:M0).

I'd say any Scout who receives a scout/Courier should be also assumed to be in Detached Duty...

Although is explicited that the assignment hs no responsabilities, see this old thread for ideas...

About why they don't receive pension, IDK. A metagame explanation I once Heard was that they were moslty a way to kill an unwanted carácter in CharGen, but I cannot say how much truth is on this assertion....

 

[kilemall]

From a game design perspective, assuming just first 3 LBBs it would be a game balance thing, since they have a chance at a free and clear ship with no financing or maintenance costs.

Note they also can't score the +1 on the money table, no gambling skill.

 

[Redcap]

Maybe that's just what they WANT you to think!IRIS . . . IISS/SB . . . whatever, it's all cloak-and-dagger anyway . . . sometimes more dagger than cloak.

That's be my take on it, too. Makes for a useful tool in the "Nice ship. Shame if something were to happen to it. You ARE going to do what we'd like you to do, aren't you...?" box

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

When the Emperor Strephon himself tells you there is no such thing as IRIS...

Ahh . . . but was it the REAL Strephon?



Never let your players believe that they know everything.

 

[mike wightman]

Yes.

Ok, longer answer

the original intent was that the Strephon that lead the Strephon faction in MT was a robot/clone/body double/hologram/sock puppet

fan pressure forced DGP and GDW to have the real Strephon survive - Arrival Vengeance and Survival Margin make this pretty explicit in universe

no real Stephon no Avery

 

[jcrocker]

A friend of mine was telling me about Jack Vance's "Gaean Reach" stories. Space travel was old, there was no interstellar government, and they didn't have anything like the IISS, the closest that they had were 'Locators'.

If you needed something on another planet, you could pay a Locator a bare minimum, and they would go fetch it. Physical stuff, orbital scans, anything that you could pay someone to go get. They had tiny little ships, were expected to make do, and were expected to make deals on the side to actually make any profit. You happen to go to the planet where they use giant rubies as landscaping stones? Shovel the hold full and sell them elsewhere.

Wikipedia says most of Vance's sf stories were in the 50s and 60s, so maybe that was an inspiration?

 

[Vargas]

there are no retired Scouts, only former Scouts.

(They're like Marines in that way . . . )

 

[aramis]

there are no retired Scouts, only former Scouts.

(They're like Marines in that way . . . )

Just the opposite of the marines, you mean. The usual line is "The only ex-marine is a dead marine."

I've seen USMC official documents that use Ex-Marine for persons discharged with all levels of discharge... it's a semi-false claim by the members of the USMC to point out that no man is unchanged by the Corps, and that the Corps tries to look after even discharged members, even if only unofficially.

(Remember- ex is the latin for "out of" in the same sense as water is ex-faucet, and in deus ex machina, "God comes forth from the machinery," it refers to the actor playing the deity being raised or lowered into scene...)

 

[AnotherDilbert]

They are not retired, only on detached duty, hence the free ships.

I don't believe so. Not all Scouts are in Detached DUty when they leave the scouts.

This is quite explicited in MT (PM, page 57):

You are right, I was sloppy. I extrapolated from:

Retirement: Scouts are not eligible for retirement or pensions.

The Detached Duty Office was created to keep track of all retired and detached Scout personnel in order to be able to swiftly recontact them and return them to active service in an emergency. In addition, the Detached Duty Office controls all surplus llSS craft (scout ships and courier vessels), making them available to some ex-Scouts if that will help the llSS in its missions.

LBB6.

Apparently no longer serving Scout characters without ships are in some unknown category.