Traveller_5th_Edition_-_Book_06_-_Scoundrel.pdf

T RAVELLER

S COUNDREL

C REDITS

C ONTENTS

Classic Traveller

Marc Miller

I NTRODUCTION

S COUNDREL C AREERS

Loren Wiseman, John Harshman, Frank Chadwick, Darryl Hany,

Winston Hamilton, Tony Svajlenka, Scott Renner, Doug Poe,

David MacDonald, Wayne Roth, Paul R. Banner

C RIMINAL O RGANISATIONS

P IRACY

Mongoose Traveller

A UTHOR

Gareth Hanrahan

I NTRUSION

S MUGGLING

F ENCES AND I LLEGAL G OODS

E DITOR

Nick Robinson

E QUIPMENT

L AYOUT

Joseph McCance

T RAMPS AND T HIEVES

B ELT M INING

113

I NTERIOR I LLUSTRATIONS

Andrew Dobell, Carlos Nunez de Castro Torres, German Ponce,

Travis Leichssenring,Marco Morte & Leonel Domingos da Costa

O DD J OBS

116

S CAVENGERS

126

G AMBLING AND C ON G AMES

128

P ROOFREADER

Charlotte Law

L OST W ORLDS

132

I NDEX

136

S PECIAL T HANKS

Dominic Mooney, Stuart Machin, David Ives

P LAYTESTERS

Stuart Machin, Andrew James, Alan Welty & Gregory Wolfe

forbidden. All signiﬁ cant characters, names, places,items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing.

This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open

Game License, please go to www.mongoosepublishing.com.

This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Kingdom and of the United States. This product is a work of ﬁ ction. Any similarity to actual people

organisations, places or events is purely coincidental.

Traveller is a trademark of Far Future Enterprises and is used under licence.

Printed in the USA.

I NTRODUCTION

This book covers two related Traveller career paths – the Rogue

and the Drifter. The Rogue is a criminal who has rejected lawful

society and instead willingly embraced an illegal and dangerous

existence. By contrast the Drifter has failed to ﬁ nd lawful

employment and has other choices; he does what he must to

survive. Often, this means committing crimes. Not all wanderers

are criminals but they are more likely to be familiar with the

underside of society than the average starfarer.

By far the largest set of laws are mala prohibita , acts which are

not inherently wrong but are nonetheless unlawful. Operating

a starship is not a wrongful act but operating one without the

training and licensing required by law is illegal. In Traveller

terms the higher the planet’s law level, the greater the number

of mala prohibita .

Even criminals recognise mala in se ; this book is about thieves,

smugglers and pirates, not monsters without any regard for

human life or decency. It may be necessary to kill a man, even

right to kill a man in certain circumstances but that does not

mean that the criminal kills blindly or without cause.

The galaxy is vast and strange. What is legally acceptable on

one world is punishable by death on another. Societies deal

with harmful or taboo elements in different ways. The Imperium

tries to maintain trade links but other than guarding against

piracy and enforcing the few High Laws, it has little inﬂ uence

over law and criminality on its member worlds. The power of

the Imperium stops at the edge of the atmosphere, except for

the starport and there are plenty of gaps where an ambitious

smuggler or pirate can thrive.

Criminals

While the full range of criminal activity is slightly larger than

the full range of human law, there are a few speciﬁ c crimes

that are of special importance to Traveller games. These are

piracy, smuggling, hijacking, breaking & entering, criminal

organisations and fencing stolen goods. Three of these

are key to spacefaring games; the other three are regularly

encountered in Traveller adventures.

Types of Crime

There are three types of law in Imperial theories of justice.

First and foremost, there are the Imperial High Laws which all

members must agree to uphold. These laws are sacred not

because of any inherent validity but because adherence to

those laws has kept the Imperium together for more than 1,000

years. Meddling with the High Laws is almost unthinkable, lest

any change causes a chain of events that tears humaniti’s

fragile peace to shreds.

In addition, this book covers criminal activity and law enforcement

at different Technology Levels and presents a selection of

specialised illegal tools and vessels which those on the wrong

side of the law might use or encounter.

See The Galaxy On 30 Imperial Credits

A Day

Only a small percentage of humans ever leave the world where

they were born. Most of those who do travel make only a handful

of journeys – a business trip to visit corporate headquarters,

a once–in–a–lifetime holiday, a tour of duty with the military.

Few are regular spacefarers and even fewer are Travellers ,

making their own destiny and setting their own course amid the

stars. Most Travellers have their own ship or can afford to book

passage but for those who feel the call of deep space but have

no money, the only option is to take whatever jobs or berths will

get them offworld.

Next, there are laws called mala in se – laws punishing acts

that all humans believe are inherently evil and wrong. Virtually

every human society, even those radically transformed by

technological or environmental pressures, recognises certain

acts as fundamentally incompatible with society. Murder, rape

and theft are always outlawed, although exact deﬁ nitions of

what constitutes murder or rape or theft vary from society to

society. A world where the minds of every citizen are scanned

into computers and downloaded into cloned bodies may have

a very different deﬁ nition of murder to a more primitive planet

but the act of wilfully and unjustly extinguishing another human

consciousness is seen as a crime in both cultures. Mala in se

exist on all worlds, regardless of law level. Even on a chaotic

world where might makes right, killing without provocation or

reason is seen as wrong.

Few of these jobs are desirable. Belt mining is a cold and lonely

task; scavenging salvage is even worse, picking through the

wreckage of lost ships for usable spare parts. Others drift from

world to world, hitching or working passage on board ships.

Drifters are a curious subculture in the spaceport, a tribe without

I NTRODUCTION

connections or home; the scum of the spaceways. Madmen,

grifters, penniless travellers and would–be adventurers wander

from world to world by whatever means they can.

Barbarians

There are a few ‘lost worlds’ in the Imperium. These worlds

suffered a catastrophic loss of technical knowledge, dropping

them back to a very low Technology Level. Other worlds were

seeded by the ancients and have never developed advanced

technology. Sometimes, a barbarian from such a lost world

ﬁ nds his way offworld, usually by joining the crew of a passing

tramp merchant that stopped to take on food or water.

The Drifter section of this book covers rules for scavenging,

hitchhiking and other adventures, as well as notes on the drifter

lifestyle. It also covers the unique Barbarian career.

Required & Useful Materials

A copy of the Traveller Core Rulebook is needed to use this supplement. In addition, the Beltstrike adventure book has

considerably more detail on asteroid mining, while the Agent sourcebook will be of great use in criminal games.

Inspirational reading:

• Brian Aldiss’ Non–Stop is a classic depiction of barbarians in space.

• Many ‘cyberpunk’ novels include heists. Neuromancer , for example, has the Straylight Run as its climax, which can be

lifted almost word–for–word for Traveller.

• Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series, especially the early books.

Inspirational viewing:

• Fireﬂ y is great viewing for any Traveller Referee but it is especially appropriate for campaigns where the characters aim

to misbehave. Heists like the train job or the hospital raid are perfect Scoundrel scenarios.

• Han Solo was a smuggler and rogue before he changed career.

I NTRODUCTION

S COUNDREL C AREERS

This chapter presents several new careers suitable for

scoundrels. Several careers (Scavenger, Hitcher, Vagabond)

can be entered without making a qualiﬁ cation roll, like the Drifter

career in the main Traveller Core Rulebook .

C AREER P ROGRESS

Advancement

Survival

Hacker

Int 8+

Edu 6+

Burglar

Dex 7+

End 7+

The Belter career is detailed in the Beltstrike adventure

supplement.

Faceman

Soc 6+

Edu 8+

B ENEFITS

Roll

I NTRUDER

Intruders are specialised high–tech thieves, trained to defeat

security systems and steal especially valuable items. Most are

professionals, hired to complete a speciﬁ c task and work as

part of a small team or on their own. A few are lone operators,

fencing what they steal.

Cash

Other Beneﬁ t

None

Contact or 1 Ship Share

5,000

Thieves’ Tools

10,000

Ally or 2 Ship Shares

25,000

+1 Edu

50,000

3 Ship Shares

75,000

Organisation Membership

Enlistment : Int 7+

• –1 DM for every previous career.

100,000

+1 Soc

R ANKS AND S KILLS

Rank Title

Skill or Beneﬁ t

Assignments: Choose one of the following:

• Hacker: You wormed your way into computer systems and

stole the most valuable prize of all – information.

• Burglar: You were the shape in the shadows, the ghost

that ﬂ its through the corridors without being seen.

• Faceman: You smiled and were just so charming that

everyone assumed you belonged there even as you waltzed

in and stole what you needed.

—

Experienced Thief

+1 Beneﬁ t Roll

—

Streetwise

Veteran Thief

Security

—

+1 Beneﬁ t Roll

Legendary Thief

+1 Social

S KILLS AND T RAINING

Personal Development Service Skills

Advanced Education (Minimum Edu 8)

+1 Dex

Stealth

Engineer (electronics)

+1 Soc

Recon

Computers

Gambler

Security

Sensors

Jack of all Trades

Streetwise

Deception

+1 Edu

Athletics (any)

Security

+1 Int

Deception

Broker

Specialist: Hacker

Specialist: Burglar Specialist: Faceman

Computers

Stealth

Deception

Engineer (electronics)

Engineer (electronics) Carouse

Deception

Mechanic

Persuade

Comms

Sensors

Diplomat

Computers

Stealth

Security

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