Captain JJ
D987D6 Merchant Academy, 4 Terms Sector-Wide Merchant Service, age 38
Command School, Business School
Liason-3, Steward-2, Admin-1, Trader-1, Computer-1, Broker-1, Comms-2, Legal-1
Cr5,000, 2 x High Passage, Traveller's Aid
Captain JJ (no one can pronounce her name as parts of it go into subsonics) is the rare Virushi plying the star lanes as a merchant. Like most Virushi, she feels best when she is working within a group and cooperating with others. Wanting to see the stars but in a safer way than the Scouts, she entered the Merchant Academy at Glisten (The Tukera Merchant Academy for Tukera Lines). She graduated though without honors, and decided to enter the Pursers as a cadet. Her first couple of years she apprenticed to the other stewards and picked up some basic skills. In her third year she was promoted to Junior Purser, though a 1000 kilogram Steward is junior to no one in size! She learned better to communicate the passengers needs to the crew. She covered mostly established routes throughout the Glisten subsector, though one year saw her ship head into District 268 for some exploratory trade.
Her second term she spent the first two years on established and boring routes, but she managed to gain some trading skills, improved her steward skills and was promoted to Assistant Purser. She went to Business School for a year to improve her merchant skills, and her classes on liason and computers improved her already significant liason skills as well as giving her an advantage on computers. The last year of this term she was on a chartered trip but acting as a junior purser. She did manage to pass the exams and was promoted to Purser.
Still wanting the merchant life, JJ started her third term in more exploratory trade in District 268 - she is becoming quite the expert for that subsector outside the Imperium! So good she managed a Cr5,000 bonus for her efforts. Returning the Glisten she was at the Trading Station, where she picked up some brokering skills as well as improving her liason skills further. Tukera, seeing an advantage to having a Virushi merchant, thinks she may better serve on Deck, so they send her to command school where she gains comms but can transfer to the deck division. She does wonder about smaller trade ships, but she has been assigned the larger fleet ships so there has been room for her on the bridge. Her final year is another charter trade route, where the ship she is on is on a mission to Five Sisters for an extended tour.
Her fourth term, and first as being in the command division, she starts in more exploratory trading. The tests for promotion are more difficult, yet she prevails in her first year, becoming captain of her own vessel. She had to learn more legal aspects than she would have liked as well. Given a "safe" route, she spends more time on the comms and gains Comms-2. However, the next exploratory route she is acting as 1st officer, not a captain. Somewhat disgruntled, she stews a bit and does not learn much of anything. She had a close scrape that has her second guessing her move to command. Her last year, she is acting 1st officer again on a safe route, and, knowing she is too nice to make an effective captain, she decides to retire from Tukera Lines and seek out adventure in a different way.
She parts with Tukera, who grant her a couple of High Passage tickets and membership in the Traveller's Aid Society. She is a happy person, though she sometimes leaves a trail of destruction if she is not careful.
Where you may meet Captain JJ
So, I did use my random Traveller race decision maker and ended up with a Virushi. And a female one at that. Decided to stick her in Glisten and I used the Merchant supplement from Journal 12 (this was before the Merchant book came out but I think close to the same thing). The Virushi are also described in there, and pretty much copied into Mongoose' Journal volume 5 as well. Sadly Rob's XBoat Alien special did not include a Virushi though there was a picture of one!
Source for Merchant & Virushi: Classic Journal 12 / Mongoose Journal vol 5. Virushi are gentle giants used to a dense atmosphere. They are also very people-friendly and generally prefer supporting roles: JJ's move from the purser branch to command was not a good choice for her. Tukera just thought she could intimidate her way into good deals. And that never did happen.
Major/Minor: 6 choose a minor race
Minor races: 2 Virushi
Stength: 1d6 + 10: 3 = 13
Dexterify: 2d + 2: 6 + 2 = 9
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 6
Education: 10
Social: 2d - 2: 9 - 2 = 7
pre-enlistment: merchant acadamy rolled an 8; success; need a 7, rolled a 10; education: 1d-2; rolled a 5 so + 3 for an impressive UPP: D986D6
Honors: need a 10+ (with +1 for edu), rolled 6, so no honors. JJ graduates with Cadet rank.
Roll for sector-wide line: 7 (and +1 for strength and +2 for barely making the intelligence; 10); I choose Tukera Lines from their Glisten hub.
JJ chooses Purser department as that fits in well with Virushi. She gains Steward-1 as a Cadet for the Purser division.
Term 1
Year 1: Apprenticeship, acting with rank with a roll of 7 (barely) roll 2: Speculative Trade
auto-survive, 8 for bonus (no), skills, 3 (no) but apprenticehip skill: Admin-1
Year 2: Apprenticeship, 10 to maintain rank, roll 5: Route
auto-survive, no bonus, choose to roll for promotion instead of skill: 5, so no. Apprenticeship skill: 2 for Steward-1
Year 3: maintain rank with 6 (+1 DM for education); 10 for exploratory trade
survive 3 but only needed a 3+; 2 for bonus so no, again trying to rank up: rolled a 8 so O1, Junior Purser, get Steward-1 (already have that)
Year 4: do not serve as 02 but 01. specific assignment: Route
auto-survive, no bonus, skill roll: 5, +1 for Steward-1/ Roll on Officer table: Liason-1
Term 2: roll an 8 for re-enlistment - success!
Year 1: failed position assignment so working as a cadet; specific assignment 8 = Route
auto-survive, no bonus, cannot try for a promotion but a 7 = skill; pick the Merchant's Life and roll a 4 (+4 for 01 rank) = Trader-1
Year 2: made my position roll with an 8; a 9 = Route
auto-survive, no bonus, will try for a promotion: 8 so success: 02, Assistant Purser and Steward-2
Year 3: did not make my assignment wiht a 4; specific assignment: 11 = special!
special duty: roll a 5, but w/my education I can add a 6. Business school: 2 (no admin), 6 Liason-2, 5 Computer-1, 4 (no broker)
Year 4: 9 so acting as assistant purser; 6 = Charter.
auto-survive, no bonus, will try for promotion: 7 so yes, 03 = Pursor, Liason-1 but as I've already Liason-2 it does not add (technically I was not allowed to try for promotion; we'll let it slide though)
Term 3 - 3 and barely re-enlist!
Year 1: assignment is barely as a Purser with a 7 (+1 for my education); assignment: Exploratory Trade
survive: 5 for a 3+; bonus: 7 + trader skill = yes; will try for another promotion: needing a 7+ I roll a 6
Year 2: assignment with a 12; specific assignment: 11,
special! another 5, but I'll not add my education bonus so trading station: Liason=3, 2 (no admin), 6 Broker-1
Year 3: roll a 6, +1 for education, so can take the promotion test; another 11 for special!
1 = command school, or if I use my education, deck department. Is the bridge large enough?
Deck department: 4, 5, 1. So I pick up communications-1 and can go into the deck next term
Year 4: 10 for position; 6 for Charter
auto-survive, no bonus, trying for a promotion: 5 and needing a 7+, so no.
end of term: bonus: rolled a 3 for Cr10,000, take half for Cr5,000
Term 4: Going to move to the deck division to get some command skills! an 8 for re-enlistment is good.
Year 1: I do manage to stay in my assignment; 10 = exploratory route!
survive easily with a 7; another 7 and no bonus, and trying for a captain rank: needed 9+ and managed a 9! 05 Captain! Pick up Legal-1.
Year 2: rolling an 8 I am still working as a captain for the Route again. Probably given a "safe" route for my 1st year as captain.
auto-survive, no bonus, and an 8 for skills means a skill, and rolling on the shipboard life a 4 + 4 from rank gives me Comms-2.
Year 3: a 4 means I am not doing my captain thing; apparently not enough trust for the 4 / exploratory route
survive: a 4 on 4+ means something bad almost happened! a 5 for bonus = no bonus; and a 3 for skills = no skills this year
Year 4: a roll of 6 means I am not a captain; I'm on a safe route
auto-survive, no bonus; a 5 for skills so no skills.
Seeing as I was not making any traction as a captain, I leave the service after 12 years with a sector-wide rank of Captain. I'll take all 4 rolls on the benefits table as I have a bit of cash left over from that bonus from a few years back.
- 5 (+1) = high passage
- 1 (+1)= +1 intelligence (UPP: D987D6)
- 5 (+1) = high passage
- 6 (+1) = Traveller's Aid
2 comments:
How well does she help people?
She offers her brokerage at 8% instead of the 10%? Virushi are social, per the wiki: the Virushi seem unrelentingly cooperative and mild, and bizarrely immune to all concepts of authority. So she'll assist fellow merchants and Travellers, perhaps as guests at a TAS hotel to get some of the services available there. She is, like most Virushi, a pacifist so won't help in anything that would hurt someone, physically or otherwise.
Honestly I've never played one, though way back in college one of my players wanted to play an aggressive Virushi, so I allowed it, and he had combat armor. The literal walking tank. I would not allow that now but back in college, and the early days of RPGs, things were a lot more loosely played.
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