OK, then....Citizens.

[TrippyHippy]

Well, they are not in the playtest rules as they stand just yet, but I want to stick my vote in putting them back in. In all honesty, playing an 'everyman' character is a staple of a lot of sci-fi fiction, and would be missed greatly (by myself at least!), if you couldn't play them in the game. All for the sake of a couple of extra pages! I don't want them to be put into a follow on supplement, or a free pdf. file. I want them together with the others as a core career.

Golan2072 has created his own version of the Citizen, which he has sent on already. It's pretty good, and definitely worth looking at.

I wonder whether the Bureaucracy and Service Assignments should be conbined (into Clerk), to allow for Farmers to be included too. Anyway, here it is (formated as best I could, apart from Mustering out, which you'll have to decipher yourself):

By Omer Golan, 1/12/07
Citizen
Qualification: Int 3+
-1 DM for every previous career.

Assignments: Choose one of the following:
• Bureaucracy: You hold a desk job, such as a clerk, administrator or secretary.
• Services: You work in the service industry or in retail.
• Technical: You are a technician, mechanic or factory worker

Skills and Training:

Personal Development
1 +1 Str
2 +1 Dex
3 +1 End
4 +1 Int
5 +1 Edu
6 Jack-O-Trades

Service Skills
1. Admin
2. Computers
3. Drive
4. Leadership
5. Streetwise
6. Trade

Advanced Education [Minimum EDU 8]
1. Athletics
2. Art
3. Flyer
4. Language
5. Medic
6. Science

Specialist: Bureaucracy
1 Admin
2 Advocate
3 Admin
4 Diplomat
5 Leadership
6 Computers

Specialist:Services
1. Carouse
2. Broker
3. Persuade
4. Science (Psychology)
5. Mechanic
6. Steward

Specialist: Technical
1. Diplomat
2. Trade
3. Computers
4. Engineer
5. Remote Operations
6. Trade

Survival

Bureaucracy: Soc 4+
Services: Int 4+
Technical: Edu 4+


Mishaps
1 Injured. Roll on the Injury table.
2 Accused of embezzlement or theft.
If you were wrongly accused, gain your accuser as an Enemy; if you were rightfully accused, gain a +2 DM to any one benefit roll.
3 Fired from your job and unable to find a similar one.
Lose one additional benefit roll but gain Streetwise 1.
4 A disaster or war strikes.
Roll Int 8+ or End 8+. If you fail, roll on the Injury table. If you succeed, gain Survival 1, Gun Combat (any) 1, or Medic 1.
5 Conscripted into the Armed Forces. Apply to the Draft.
6 Blacklisted due to political reasons. Lose one point of Soc.


Events
Roll 2d6 Events
2 Disaster!
Roll on the mishap table, but you are not ejected from this career.
3 You join the local militia or reserve unit.
Gain Gun Combat (any) 1 or Recon 1.
4 Workers from your workplace strike in protest of job conditions.
If you join them, receive 1d3 Allies but roll Persuade 8+ or Legal 8+ to avoid being fired from your job.
If you oppose them, receive your employer as an Ally and the striking workers as Enemies.
5 You attend a convention related to your job.
Gain 1d3 contacts.
6 Life Event.
Roll on the Life Events table.
7 Life Event.
Roll on the Life Events table.
8 Life Event.
Roll on the Life Events table.
9 You have a chance to get involved in local politics.
If you agree, roll Persuade 8+ to get elected; if you succeed, gain +1 Soc; if you fail, gain one Rival.
If you refuse to enter politics, you gain nothing.
10 Your boss takes interest in your career.
Gain the boss as an Ally and a +2 DM to your next Advancement check.
11 You receive a bonus or a dividend.
Gain a +1DM to any one Benefit roll.
12 Your hard work pays off.
You are automatically promoted.

Advancement
Bureaucracy: Edu 8+
Services: Int 8+
Technical: Edu 8+


Ranks and Skills
Rank Bureaucracy Skill or Benefit Services Skill or Benefit Technical Skills or Benefits
0 Asst. Clerk
1 Clerk Admin 1 Steward 1 Trade (any) 1
2 Supervisor
3 Asst. Manager Advocate 1 Persuade 1 Computer 1
4 Manager Leadership 1
5 Executive Diplomat 1 Science (any) 1
6 Director +1 Soc

So, whatd'ya all think?

 

[weasel_fierce]

I think Farmer is good, but I wonder if it might just be a subset of the Technical service ?

 

[TrippyHippy]

Well....it needs a few animal skills too, I'd imagine.

 

[Klaus Kipling]

I'd like to see Citizen too. At worst it's perfect for creating NPCs, and it balances the emphasis on the military a bit more.

 

[Deniable]

I think Farmer could just be a technical specialty too. It you allow Trade on the skill tables to be Trade or justifiable, approved skill it would allow the player to pick job skills while preventing abuse. You could also say that Trade(Farmer) can substitute for the relevant Animal skill. Freely allowing these sorts of changes would allow the player to model a lot of different civilian jobs.

Another point, in some cultures a lot of the technical or service jobs will be self employed or otherwise subject to economic variations. Having an economic down-turn/ bank takes the business result in the mishaps could be an idea. This could be covered by the fired and cannot find another job mishap, but it could possibly be separated.

 

[captainjack23]

Well, depending how socialist you want to get, all you need is :

Workers: those who work
Farmers: those who grow
Employers: those who own

Perhaps administrators and the like fit into "employers"....all perhaps to be called "the man".

Cap

 

[Deniable]

Why not proles, party members and party bosses?

Actually, I can see people producing variants that use existing careers but change the titles, mishaps and events. "Counter revolutionaries[1] seize power. You make it out alive, lose one benefit roll and gain an enemy."

Benefits would also change like proles getting no benefits. This really makes you want to join the party.

[1] or Rob S. Pierre's Committee for Public Safety

 

[Drifter]

Yes please.
I just posted something supporting this idea in the V2 bugs thread:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=32033&start=45&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

I think they are essential. I'm just wondering if theres space for Civil/Emergency services in there?

Excellent write up, by the way.

 

[AKAramis]

1) Good stuff (as usual) Omar.

2) Trade really needs to be exempted from the "Specialization at Level 1 gives level 0 in all other specializations"

3) The service skills as basic training don't work well for this one. The specialty tables would.

 

[Golan2072]

Employers: those who own

This is IMHO already covered in the Noble career; just file off the feudal titles and there you have your big stockholders and execs (Rulers), managerial staff (Diplomats) and rich playboys (Dilettantes). Party members for your typical Stalinist system would be Citizen/Bureaucrats with the Party Bosses being Ranks 5-6; you'd also need a variable Party Standing (think Vargr charisma and its constant shifts) to represent the constantly changing balance of power between rival factions of the ruling bureaucratic clique...

Agriculture in an industrial society is, in most respects, a subset of industry, as it is heavily mechanized and uses industrial production methods - just substitute Animals for one of the occurrences of Trade and you're all set. If you really want small-scale family-farmers, you should probably create a Colonist career or a more detailed Barbarian one - these would have a wholly different subset of skills than factory-farm workers from any well-established core world.

 

[captainjack23]

Employers: those who own

This is IMHO already covered in the Noble career; just file off the feudal titles and there you have your big stockholders and execs (Rulers), managerial staff (Diplomats) and rich playboys (Dilettantes). Party members for your typical Stalinist system would be Citizen/Bureaucrats with the Party Bosses being Ranks 5-6; you'd also need a variable Party Standing (think Vargr charisma and its constant shifts) to represent the constantly changing balance of power between rival factions of the ruling bureaucratic clique...

Agriculture in an industrial society is, in most respects, a subset of industry, as it is heavily mechanized and uses industrial production methods - just substitute Animals for one of the occurrences of Trade and you're all set. If you really want small-scale family-farmers, you should probably create a Colonist career or a more detailed Barbarian one - these would have a wholly different subset of skills than factory-farm workers from any well-established core world.

Heh. An excellent addition to a tongue in cheek post.

Perhaps as you rise in the party, your survival roll should get worse - in a truly stalinist party, the nail that stands up tallest gets hammered flat fastest...as does its family and supporters. Who then confess to being screws at their trials.

More seriously, I do like your point about industrial farming - the ur-sf farmboy was himself a "moisture farmer" with air/raft , piloting, electronics, mechanics and droid programming skills.
Yes folks, Han may have shot first, but Luke farmed water. Mainly he was an environmental tech, I'd say.

Yeah: citizens could be captured by worker,colonist, and....service industry - "fries with that" (skill supersize-2);

Or just: blue collar, white collar , colonist. Managers are bureaucrats. capitalists as nobles works fine.

-cap

 

[pasuuli]

Is it me, or does it just seem like a faceless career?

For example, Diplomat. When I think of civilian diplomats, I think of a corporation, perhaps, or an NGO, which seems to make them a sort of agent in both cases, or possibly a merchant in the first case.

Similarly Admin, Leadership, Trade, Broker, Mechanic, Steward, and Engineer.

But, the rest I can easier see being truly, generically Civilian.

 

[Golan2072]

Is it me, or does it just seem like a faceless career?

To a point, this was my purpose when designing it - to create a career of completely mundane ordinary people (unlike the much more colorful and heroic feel of many other careers, especially military ones) for those players who like the "ordinary people in extraordinary situations" aspect of Traveller.

 

[pasuuli]

Is it me, or does it just seem like a faceless career?

To a point, this was my purpose when designing it - to create a career of completely mundane ordinary people (unlike the much more colorful and heroic feel of many other careers, especially military ones) for those players who like the "ordinary people in extraordinary situations" aspect of Traveller.

OK, I grok. I guess my point is sorta moot, but whatever a Traveller is, he's completely ordinary in one sense (especially if you do the "Average Joes in Space" thing), but he's completely extraordinary in another (the Traveller is rare), no matter what the career is.