Freelance Traveller

Optional Career Rules for Mongoose Traveller

by Kelly Kollman

This article originally appeared in the July 2015 issue.

These rules are intended to be used with the Mongoose Traveller Core Rulebook. They may be used as-is, or feel free to modify them to fit your Traveller needs. All page references are to the Mongoose Traveller Core Rulebook unless otherwise noted.

Background Skills

On page 6, under Education, if the character’s Soc is 7+ and Homeworld is High Technology, you can take Flyer (grav) 0 instead of Drive 0.

Qualification/Enlistment

On page 8, under Qualifications, if you fail your Qualification check for the career you want to enter, and you choose not to submit to the Draft (or have already been drafted in a prior career), make a Qualification check on Citizen (Worker). If you fail that Qualification roll, then you must take the Drifter career; otherwise, resolve this term as a Citizen (Worker). This represents getting a job to keep body and soul together—not the job you wanted, but a job nonetheless. Also, remember that a Social Standing of 10 or higher automatically qualifies the character for the Nobility career.

Automatic Draft and Expanded Draft

On page 8, under Qualifications, and page 9, under Drifters and The Draft, as an option, the Referee can say that you automatically have to submit to The Draft the first time you fail an Enlistment check. This is a rule from previous versions of Traveller.

On page 9, under Drifters and The Draft, these optional tables can replace or supplement the Draft Table listed.

Opportunistic Draft:

Roll 1d6, DM+1 for Soc 8+, DM+1 for Edu 10+. If your result is 1 through 5, pick a Career from the Expanded Draft Table below. Example: if you want to be a Space Explorer, then you would choose Scouts (any), and select Explorer as your Specialization. If your result is 6+, you can pick from the Draft Table on page 9. Example: if you want to be a Starfighter Pilot, then you would choose Navy (Flight). The Opportunistic Draft represents ‘connections’ of some sort, e.g., family in a position to influence, political connections, et cetera.

Highly Skilled Draft:

Reroll on the Draft Opportunity Table if you get this result in your character’s first term. Otherwise, roll normally on either the Draft Table on page 9 or the Expanded Draft Table below. If your highest level skill is not listed on any of the Skills and Training tables for that Career, reroll on either table until you roll a Career that has your highest level skill listed as one of it's Skills. If your highest skill isn’t listed for any of the Careers in either table, reroll on the Draft Opportunity Table. The Highly-Skilled Draft represents a critical need for a skill.

General Draft:

Roll normally on either the Expanded Draft Table or the Draft Table on page 9.

Military/Wartime Draft:

This simulates a War or Military buildup. Roll 1d6+1 on the Expanded Draft Table instead of 2d6.

Civilian Draft:

Roll 1d6+6 on the Expanded Draft Table instead of 2d6. Reroll if your result is 11 or 12. The Civilian Draft represents an unusually heavy need for workers of all types, such as during a period of economic expansion, or during recovery from some widely destructive event like a war or a natural disaster.

Skilled Draft:

Randomly pick one of your character’s skills, even if it’s a 0-level skill. Roll normally on the Expanded Draft Table. If the skill you picked is not listed on any of the Skills and Training tables for that Career, reroll on the Expanded Draft Table until you roll a Career that has the skill you picked listed as one of its Skills. If the skill you picked isn’t listed for any of the Careers in the Expanded Draft Table, reroll on the Draft Opportunity Table.

Rejected:

Your character just got out of Draft Duty for some reason that has no bearing on the rest of your character’s life. Continue on through the Career Qualifications process and don’t submit to the Draft again.

Why Was I Drafted?

The draft actually represents several situations—not just the military draft for war (“Uncle Strephon Needs You!”), but pretty much any situation where a person might feel compelled to take a job—or enter a career—other than his/her first preference. Note that depending on the character of your Traveller universe, even a military career might not be in the service of the Imperium. For those who like to develop back-story for their characters, rather than just building a stat sheet, here are some ideas for reasons that a character might have ended up drafted into a career:

Army (Infantry) or Marines (Ground Assault):

An insurrection needs to be put down.

Agent (Law Enforcement):

You were deputized to help deal with an emergency.

Citizen (Colonist) or Drifter (Scavenger):

The government has decided to put all the able-bodied ‘useless eaters’ to work. You’ve been swept up in the operation.

Merchants (Merchant Marine):

An all-out effort to capture more of the haulage on an important trade route is being made, and they need people to man the ships.

Rogue (Pirate):

You and your family were captured by Pirates and they gave you a choice: ‘either work for us or your family dies’.