Freelance Traveller

by David Jaques-Watson

Introduction

Throughout history, humaniti has been governed by laws and customs designed to keep societies from lapsing back into savagery and barbarism.1 The enforcement arm of society is the police force.

General Background

Police forces occur at several levels. A world may have metropolitan forces for each of its large cities, several constabulary forces for its lesser populated areas, a para-military force stationed against rebels in the outback, and an overall planet-wide investigatory agency (or agencies). Many times there will be several layers of police organisations, sometimes with overlapping jurisdictions, and often working at cross-purposes.2

When looking at the overall picture within the Imperium, law and justice exists on three levels. The lowest is the low justice of planetary and local authorities that governs everything from homicide to littering. In the middle is the middle justice of the subsectors, intended to protect helpless societies from exploitation, and to protect all societies from excessive military action. Over all this lies the high justice of the Imperium, intended to prevent revolt against Imperial authority; keep the peace between worlds, subsectors and sectors; uphold the rights of sentient beings; and preserve free trade between member states. High justice is presided over by the Imperial Ministry of Justice (MoJ), and enforced by the Imperial Navy, Army, and Marines, often assisted by the Security Branch of the Operations Office of the IISS.1

The lowest two levels of law and justice are covered by the character generation system below. MoJ characters have a separate MoJ character generation system, although Police characters do have opportunities to transfer up.

Police Ranks

Ranks for characters in the police are shown in the Police Table of Ranks. Ranks O1 to O7 are called commissioned police officers. Ranks E1 to E7 are simply called police officers, and correspond to enlisted rank in the military.

Police

The general term for officers serving in any form of police force, regardless of rank, branch, or type of force, is police.

Initial Activities

A beginning Police character must determine if their homeworld is Aggressive (more likely to use weapons to control tense situations) or Non-Aggressive (more likely to use negotiation to control such situations). If Grand Census or World Builder's Handbook is available and the homeworld is known, then check the world's Aggressiveness Action. Militant and neutral worlds are considered Aggressive for the purpose of these rules, whereas peaceable and conciliatory are considered Non-Aggressive.

Pre-career Options

Once the character's statistics are rolled, their homeworld determined, and their default skills allocated, characters intending to follow a Police career may consider attending College.

Honours graduates receive EDU +1 or EDU 10, whichever is greater.

Enlistment

Enlistment is automatic (if desired) for College graduates. College graduates and normal enlistees begin with rank E1; College honours graduates begin with rank O1.

Terms of Service

A term of service is 4 years long. Each term is subdivided into 4 one-year assignments, each resolved separately. At the end of a term, a character can attempt to re-enlist or elect to muster out.

Branch Assignment

Upon enlistment, the character must roll on the following table for their branch assignment. A character with SOC 9+ may choose any branch. Characters must stay in their assigned branch unless they undergo Cross-Training in another branch, in which case they can transfer to the new branch at the beginning of a new term of service.

Optional DMs: if STR 9+, DM-2; if END 7+, -1; if INT 8+, DM+1; if SOC 9+, DM+2.

Riot police control civil disturbances that are beyond the capability of uniformed police, but do not require military intervention.
Uniformed police deal with routine crimes in the community.
Detectives investigate crimes in order to identify and gather evidence against criminal suspects.
Customs police guard starport entry points and associated free trade areas, and deal with crimes concerning extraplanetary trade (such as smuggling).
Planetary Security police investigate crimes against the state. The scope of this mandate depends on the government. Societies with high law levels will treat even minor political dissent or illegal economic activity as crimes against the state; those with lower law levels will only deploy security police against clear dangers to the social order (espionage, sabotage directed against the defence forces, major economic crimes such as counterfeiting, etc).
Strike officers are a specialised force who raid newly-discovered havens of criminal activity.
Liaison officers maintain contacts between the Subsector Police and the various planetary police bodies.
Investigative officers investigate crimes that affect more than one member state of the Imperium, in order to identify & gather evidence against criminal suspects.
Protective officers guard non-military installations of the subsector government.
Subsector Security officers act as bodyguards to the subsector bureaucracy.

Brownie Points

Brownie points (BPs) are special DMs received for significant success efforts on the part of a character. A brownie point may be used as a special DM on any die roll after it has been rolled. Once expended in this way, a brownie point is used up for good. Any number of brownie points may be used on a given roll, as long as the character has them available. They may be accumulated for as long as desired and used whenever desired.

For police characters, BPs include:

No brownie points are awarded for a Wound Ribbon.

Basic/Advanced Training

Police characters undergo Basic Training at the Police Academy. They receive Gun Combat (Brawling if homeworld is Low Aggressive) and one skill rolled on the appropriate Branch Skill table.

Advanced Training occupies the remainder of their first year after enlistment. Roll one skill on the appropriate Branch Skill table.

Career Resolution

Contacts (optional)

Contacts are as per TNE rules. Police characters receive one Law Enforcement and one Criminal contact per term. The referee should determine the specific nature of these contacts, preferably by reference to the assignments the character undertakes that term.

Assignment Determination

Each year, roll 2D on the appropriate Assignment Table to determine the character's basic assignment for the year. Special Assignments are determined by rolling on the appropriate Special Assignment table.

Assignment Resolution

Roll on the appropriate table for the year in order to determine survival, decorations, promotions, and whether skills are acquired.

Survival:

A character risks some chance of injury or death while serving in the Police. To survive a duty assignment, roll the indicated number or higher. If successful, the character survives and continues with the resolution of the assignment. If unsuccessful, the character must leave the service immediately. The current term of service does not count when determining the number of mustering out benefits, but the character does receive a yearly pension no matter how long they have been serving (they are "pensioned out sick").
If the indicated number is rolled exactly, the character has been wounded while on duty and receives a "Wound Ribbon".
The character may take up to -2 for survival (the police force discourages risk-taking) and add that figure onto the Decoration roll. Alternatively, they may take up to +2 for survival, but must subtract this from their Decoration roll.

Decoration:

If a character rolls the indicated number or higher, they have performed outstandingly well and receive a decoration for actions above and beyond the call of duty. If the character rolls the indicated number or higher, they receive a Commendation (Com). If they roll at least three higher than the indicated number, they receive a Meritorious Conduct Medal (MCM). If they roll at least six higher, they are awarded the Police Star (PS).
If the character fails a decoration roll by 6 or more they have been criminally charged and must consult the Court-Martial Table (MT Players, p 47).

Promotion:

Promotion chances in brackets are for E1-E6 only; commissioned officers cannot be promoted in these assignments.

Skill Eligibility

Skills are received from basic/advanced training, special assignments, or from the skill roll. The Skill Tables are restricted as follows:

Modifications to Skills (these apply to Special Assignments as well):

1. Brawling may be replaced by Martial Arts at the referee's discretion.
2. If homeworld is Non-Aggressive, the first receipt of Gun Combat may be taken as Brawling instead. On subsequent receipts, the character may choose to take either Gun Combat or Brawling.
3. If homeworld is High Law, player may choose to receive Interrogation skill instead of Interview.

Special Duty

DM+1 if rank O1+. DM+1 or DM-1 allowed if EDU 8+.

Administration School:

Receive Admin, then roll 4+ for each of the following: Computing, Instruction, Interview, Legal, Liaison, Recruiting.

Attache/Agent:

Roll 1D. On 1-4, the character is seconded to serve as an attache (liaison officer) to the Subsector Police; on 5-6, the character serves as an agent for the Imperial Ministry of Justice. An attache receives Liaison, a promotion of one grade and +1 Social Standing. An agent receives one roll on the MoJ Staff Skills table (assume MoJ rank E2), +1 Social Standing and may choose their next assignment (other than Attache/Agent). At the end of any subsequent term of service, the character may transfer to the seconding organisation (to the Subsector Police at equivalent rank, or to the MoJ at rank E2).

Combat School:

Receive Gun Combat, then roll 4+ for each of the following: Battle Dress, Heavy Weapons, Recon, Survival, Special Combat, Vehicle. This school CAN be attended by a character from a Non-Aggressive homeworld.

Cross-Training:

Roll twice on the Branch Skill table of another branch. The character may transfer to this branch at the end of any subsequent term of service.

Intelligence School:

Roll 4+ for each of the following: Vice, Communications, Computing, Interpersonal, Interrogation, Language.

Medical School:

Receive Admin, Medical, Science; if one of these skills is at 3 or more, receive Instruction instead.

Officer Candidate School (OCS):

Advance to rank O1 (if rank E5, advance to rank O2) in current or cross-trained branch. Roll twice on the Officer Skills table and once on the relevant Branch table. If rank E6 or E7, advance to rank O3, but receive no new skills.

Space Environment School:

Receive Gun Combat, then roll 4+ for each of the following: Gunnery, Sensor Ops, Ship's Boat, Space Combat, Vacc Suit, Zero-G Environ.

Technical School:

Roll 4+ for each of the following: Communications, Computing, Demolitions, Forensic, Sensor Ops, Technical.

Reenlistment And Mustering Out

At the end of each term of service the player must decide whether to continue this career or muster out. If they want to continue, they must roll 5+ on 2D to be eligible to reenlist. If they want to leave, they must still roll 2D. If the result is 12 exactly, the character MUST reenlist.

Changing Branch

If cross-trained in another branch, the character can elect to transfer to that branch, re-enlisting as normal.

Changing Service

If the character was a MoJ agent at any time during the term, they may transfer to the MoJ.

Mustering Out Benefits

When a character leaves the service (for any reason), they are eligible for mustering out benefits. They may roll on the Mustering Out tables as many times as indicated below:

If they have served at least 5 terms, they may retire and be eligible for retirement pay. Annual retirement pay is equal to Cr2000 per term served. This may be collected in monthly instalments.

No more than three rolls may be made on the Cash table. If homeworld is Non-Aggressive, the first receipt of Weapon may be taken as Brawling skill, unless the character already has other weapon skills.

For travel allowances and material benefits, refer to the MT Players' Manual. For more information on the Forensic skill and the Forensic Kit, see "Law Enforcers" and "Forensic Science", both in Traveller's Digest 4.3, 4

Table Of Ranks

Credits

Edited excerpts from the following sources are included in the Introduction to this work:

1. Terry McInnes, "High Justice", JTAS 14, FarFuture Enterprises, USA, 1982, pp 19-22.
2. Loren Wiseman, "Police Forces in Traveller", JTAS 14, FarFuture Enterprises, USA, 1982, pp 12-15.

The following sources were used as reference material:

3. Robert Parker, "Law Enforcers", Traveller's Digest 4, Digest Group Publications, Boise, ID, USA, 1986, pp 48-51.
4. Robert & Nancy Parker, "Forensic Science", Traveller's Digest 4, Digest Group Publications, Boise, ID, USA, 1986, pp 52-54.
5. Marc W. Miller, MegaTraveller Players Manual, FarFuture Enterprises, USA, 1987.
6. Stephen Brinich & James Schwar, "There When You Need Them", Challenge 30, FarFuture Enterprises, USA, 1987, pp 34-36.
7. Gary L. Thomas, Grand Census, Digest Group Publications, Boise, ID, USA, 1987.
8. Frank Chadwick & Dave Nilsen, Traveller: The New Era, FarFuture Enterprises, USA, 1993.
9. Jeff Zeitlin, "Law Enforcer Characters", Traveller Mailing List, Jeff Zeitlin, New York, USA, July 1995. [A slightly revised version of this article appears on Freelance Traveller as John Law II: Character Generation for Traveller: The New Era - Ed.]
10. Marc W. Miller, Marc Miller's Traveller, Imperium Games, USA, 1996.
11. Lester Smith, Milieu 0, Imperium Games, USA, 1996.
12. Phillip McGregor, "Point-based Character Generation", Dark Star 1, Phillip McGregor, Australia, September 1996, p 15.

With apologies to The Bill.