Returning to previous career?

[swordtart]

I would personally ignore that as the GM, but it does seem like it is the actual rule.

If the referee decides to allow you to skip basic training (as the organisation will recognise prior service) then it would make sense that your previous rank was reactivated.

If you re-join one of those careers where the basic training is assignment specific and you re-join a previous assignment then it would seem logical that you also skip basic training and again retain rank.

If you re-join one of those careers where the basic training is assignment specific and you re-join in a previously untaken assignment then it would seem logical that you have to do basic training (even through you might already have all of the skills at zero or higher) and lose any rank.

With any of this though it is a story decision. Regardless of what might realistically happen, we have plenty of story examples where a disgraced or retired officer was reinstated in their previous rank for "reasons" - Ripley in Aliens, Deckard etc.

There are also real world circumstances where courts martial or other involuntary separations (i.e. failed survival roll) from service have been reversed and servicepersons reinstated at their former rank. Retired officers can often return at their former rank if there is a need for officers at that rank. Even premature voluntary resignation might not preclude reinstatement of rank if the need is pressing.

Outside the military ranks is less rigid and people can often transfer from one organisation to another in the field and return at an equivalent position as they formerly held (and often in a higher rank). If they left voluntarily it could be seen as a sabbatical with their value considered increased rather than diminished by wider experience. If they were sacked then it might be more difficult but not all employers work to the same guidelines and standards, bullying in one organisation might be seen as banter or robust management in another.

For those rare cases where the dice throw you into a previous career you could presume by default it is one of those "You know the score, pal. You're not cop you're little people!" scenarios.

 

[swordtart]

The idea of "rank" for Drifter seems a bit flawed. Here's a rank structure idea, though I'm not sure of the order: Bum, Tramp, Vagabond, Transient, Vagrant, Hobo.

Once you reach Hobo, you are basically flag-rank among the drifters.

What of Pan-handler, Drop-out and Gentleman-of-the-road? You do them down sir, for shame, for shame

But exploring this a little more seriously it depends on the drifter assignment. Belters and scavengers could have a rigid unionised structure. In such dangerous work hierarchy (by merit) is important. Barbarians just live on low tech worlds, they already have titles and being a warlord on one planet might still be respected somewhere wholly different (once you have bust a few heads).

Wanderer could be another word for freelancer, or you could be the Fisher-King or a Fagin since advancement seems to suggest a flexible approach to property and the truth (and not everyone can aspire to being a tech Rogue like Raffles).

As long as you still get the free skills and better benefits

 

[Condottiere]

The opposite of drifter would be squatter.

 

[MonsterX]

Well at least you didn't insult them by adding bindlestiff.

You have a better thesaurus than I it seems.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

You have a better thesaurus than I it seems.

Not really, just a memory of an author who had a character warn another not to carry the "bindle" as it would make hobo's think him a bindlestiff and at best avoid him.

For those who may not know the classic hobo image of him carrying a stick with an improvised bag on the end is a bindlestiff, he robs other hobos. Too cowardly to rob the rich he robs the poorest who have little more than the clothes on their backs and who the police will ignore having been robbed. The real hobos of the day would have some form of case ranging from a briefcase to a suitcase (or nothing at all), they tried to appear respectable to allow them to get jobs (even for an hour) or hand outs.

 

[Vormaerin]

If the referee decides to allow you to skip basic training (as the organisation will recognise prior service) then it would make sense that your previous rank was reactivated.

I'm not making the decision on that basis. IRL, if you are a former US army guy and you join a PMC or the French Foreign Legion or whatever "Army, but not the same career", what rank you get will depend on all sorts of factors that are only vaguely related to the rank you had before.

However, from a game play point of view, telling the player "Oops, you got the same career again, so you get no skill this term" is bad design. It's unfun and Traveller doesn't give out a lot of ranks in the first place, so stiffing players more than necessary is unhelpful. And repeating basic will usually have that effect, since getting a skill 0 doesn't stack with the skill 0s you got in basic the first time around.