Freelance
TravellerReaginworld Rescue Service
An Alternate Career for Classic Traveller
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2025 issue.
“That others might live”
The Reaginworld Rescue Service is a private not-for-profit corporation which provides emergency services to the belters, traders, and researchers of the Reaginworld system. The corporation consists of a small professional staff of careerists who largely handle the administrative and logistical needs of the Service and a large cadre of volunteer Rescuers who work other careers until duty calls.
Character generation is as per any edition of the Classic Traveller core rules (e.g., Book 1: Characters and Combat from Basic Traveller or Deluxe Traveller, the Core Rules from Starter Traveller, or The Traveller Book), Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium, and so on, with exceptions as noted here. Characters may attempt to enlist in the Service as careerists; enlistee careerists earn two skills in their first term of service and one skill per term thereafter, plus one skill for achieving position and one for each promotion.
Characters may also transfer to the Service as volunteer Rescuers; volunteers stand irregular watches or serve on-call as needed while pursuing an additional career. Volunteers must live and work in the Reaginworld system to join the service; active duty military, Scouts, merchants not assigned to a trade station or sales office in the system, and so on are ineligible to become Rescuers. In practice, most volunteers are belters, in-system traders, technicians, outfitters, military retirees, and other residents of the asteroid belt or the gas giant satellite systems. Volunteer Rescuers receive one skill per four-year term in addition to skills gained from their current full-time careers; automatic skills take the place of the single skill roll normally received in the Rescuer’s term. Be careful to keep track of the character’s Intelligence plus Education limit on skills and skill levels.
Volunteer Rescuers may also transfer to the Service as careerists, becoming full-time rescuers upon ending their other career. Most careerists in the Service in fact begin as volunteers who transfer to fulltime; navy retirees are the second-most common careerists, transferring upon retirement from military service.
Volunteers make a separate survival roll each term in addition to survival rolls called for by their current careers; hazard to life and limb is an expected part of the Rescuer’s call to serve. Rescuers undergo a separate mustering out in addition to their current full-time careers; only terms served as a full-time careerist may be counted toward Rescuer retirement. This means in practice very few Rescuers earn a retirement from the Service and must depend on another source of income, usually retirement from their original career.
| Joining the Rescue Service | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Careerist | Volunteer | ||
| Enlistment | 11+ | Transfer In | 8+ (also applies to changing from Volunteer to Careerist) |
| DM +1 if | INT 8+ | DM +1 for each term as Scout, Marine, or Belter | |
| DM +2 if | STR 9+ | DM +2 for each term as Navy or Rescuer | |
| Term Resolution | |
|---|---|
| Survival | 6+ |
| DM +2 if | END 7+ |
| Position | 9+ |
| DM +1 if | INT 8+ |
| Promotion | 8+ |
| DM +1 if | EDU 9+ |
| Re-enlist | 4+ |
| DM +1 if | Rank 1+ |
| Table of Ranks | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Team Leader |
| 2 | Team Manager |
| 3 | Operations Manager* |
| 4 | Assistant Director* |
| 5 | Executive Director* |
| * There is no rank 6. Rank 3+ is restricted to Careerists only; Volunteers may not promote above rank 2. | |
| Skill Eligibility | ||
|---|---|---|
| Careerist | Volunteer | |
| First Term | 2 skills | 1 skill |
| Each subsequent term | 1 skill | 1 skill |
| On achieving Position | 1 skill | — |
| On promotion | 1 skill | — |
|
Skill eligibility for volunteers is in addition to any skills earned in their other career. Volunteers only receive automatic skills for position and promotion. |
||
| Automatic Skills | ||
| On Joining Service | Vacc Suit 1 | These skills are only awarded if the character does not have them at the indicated level or higher. |
| On Becoming Team Leader | Leader 1 | |
| On Becoming Operations Manager | Admin 1 | |
| Acquired Skills | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Development | Service Skills | Education | Advanced Education (Characters with EDU 8+ only) |
||
| Careerist | Volunteer | ||||
| 1 | +1 STR | Vacc Suit | Ship’s Boat | Administration | Leader |
| 2 | +1 DEX | Communications | Demolition | Instruction | Interrogation |
| 3 | +1 END | Zero-G Environment | Gravitics | Recruiting | Pilot |
| 4 | +1 INT | Mechanical | Robot Operations | Liaison | Navigation |
| 5 | Vacc Suit | Electronics | Sensor Operations | Computer | Engineering |
| 6 | Zero-G Environment | Medical | Medical | Administration | Jack-of-all-Trades |
| This table is open to Careerists only | This table is open to Volunteers only | ||||
| Benefits Table | ||
|---|---|---|
| Material | Cash | |
| 1 | Low Passage | — |
| 2 | +1 INT | — |
| 3 | +1 EDU | Cr1000 |
| 4 | Kit | Cr2000 |
| 5 | Vacc Suit | Cr5000 |
| 6 | High Passage | Cr10000 |
| 7 | +1 SOC | |
Notes for Benefits Table
- Careerists achieving Rank 4 or Rank 5 may apply DM+1 on the Material table.
- There is no DM for rolling on the cash table; nobody becomes a Rescuer for the paycheck.
- The receipt of Kit allows the player to select a tool or medical kit of the player’s choice for their character; the player may select as many kits as the character receives as benefits.
- The receipt of Vacc Suit grants the character a TL 12 vacc suit (the Service’s standard issue); a second receipt of this benefit can be taken as a PLSS A for the vacc suit.
If you find this career useful, the author would appreciate knowing. Please send feedback to Freelance Traveller (editor@freelancetraveller.com) and we will pass it on; if you are a member of the Citizens of the Imperium forum, you may also send a direct message to “Black Vulmea”.