Traveller_5th_Edition_-_Book_01_-_Mercenary.pdf

T RAVELLER

Mercenary

C REDITS

C ONTENTS

Classic Traveller

Marc Miller

I NTRODUCTION

A RMY AND M ARINE C HARACTERS

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

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

David MacDonald, Wayne Roth, Paul R. Banner.

C REATING A M ERCENARY

N EW S KILLS AND S PECIALITIES

Mongoose Traveller

A UTHOR

Bryan Steele

R ECRUITING U NIT M EMBERS

N EW C OMBAT R ULES

E DITOR

Nick Robinson

M ERCENARY H EADQUARTERS AND

M ILITARY B ASES

N EW E QUIPMENT

I NTERIOR I LLUSTRATIONS

Andrew Dobell, Phil Renne, Carlos Nuñez de Castro Torres, Marco

Morte, Tony Guaraldi-Brown, Javier Charro Martinez

I NDEX

107

S PECIAL T HANKS

Marc Miller, Tom O’Neill, Brian Caball, Aidan Rafferty, Robert

Eaglestone, Loren Wiseman, James Maliszewski, Donald McKinney,

William Hostman, Martin Costa, Mike West

P LAYTESTERS

Adam Gulwell, Alexander Fennell, Roger Calver, Dave Lai, Scott

Hughes

significant 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 fiction. 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.

M ERCENARY T ICKETS

I NTRODUCTION

In the worlds of Traveller there are countless souls sailing across the

sea of stars in search of fame, fortune and perhaps some deeper

meaning to it all. Some are looking for the answer to the eternal

questions of their civilisation, others simply want to get away from

it all and find something better in the void. Anything can happen in

the stretches of emptiness between worlds, and sometimes this can

mean trouble. For the unprepared, this is often fatal. If someone

cannot protect themselves from the dangers of the universe, there

are always others who will – for a price.

Just as it would be in the military, mercenaries must decide what

is more important to them on a ticket – their morals or their bank

accounts?

In Traveller , mercenaries are generally accepted by the spacefaring

culture. They are a monitored and standardised private force that

the rich and powerful can call upon to help them with their military

needs. The types of groups that hire mercenaries are vast; as are

their reasons for doing so. Companies might require a group of

escorts to protect something from their rivals, or they could seek

someone to strike at the competition in a more direct fashion than

with price wars or corporate takeovers. Governments often use

mercenaries to do what their armed services cannot, either morally

or sometimes even legally. Private parties rarely have the funds or

connections to acquire a mercenary ticket, but those that do can

have the strangest and most unique motives. In effect mercenaries

are far more prevalent than in our reality; they exist to fill the roles

that others fall short of.

Traveller: Mercenary is a guide to the gritty life of the hired gun. These

specialised few are often more than just soldiers looking for some

side money, they are frequently members of units of like-minded

militants that devote their lives to pulling the trigger. It is a hard life

to enjoy, and a harder one to be successful at. Wherever there are

spacefarers, there will be violence; where there is violence there is a

need for mercenaries.

From freelance soldiers of fortune to ranking grunts of a structured

military charter, there are mercenaries from all walks of life across

the universe. It is a good life of adventure for most travellers, and for

those fortunate enough to survive a long enough while in ‘the life’,

wealth, fame and adventure is almost certainly assured. Of course,

there is always the chance that the mercenary dies a horrible death

fighting a battle they never should have been involved with – but

that is just the hazards of the job, is it not?

The use of mercenaries is a vital part of the small skirmishes that

often take place on the frontier borders of expanding space. Full

militaries are too structured or limited in their abilities to function as

they should; their hands commonly tied with political or corporate

red tape. As interests move beyond the limits of law and government,

mercenaries are the best solutions for many of the hazards found in

the less well travelled regions of space. The mercenaries do the job,

the employers reap the awards, and everyone goes home happy; in

theory, at least.

Mercenaries within Traveller

From the basic character creation methods and tables found in

the core Traveller rulebook, players can create military-minded

characters or just combat-oriented characters from other walks of

life. Although anyone can sell their services to the highest (or not

so highest) bidder to become a mercenary by the strictest definition

of the term, true mercenaries are a lot more than just a gun for a

paycheque.

Mercenaries do what they feel they can and must do in order to

pay their bills, fill their stomachs and pass the time. While this

makes them individualistic and unpredictable, it also makes them

numerous and somewhat expendable – all perfect traits for Player

Characters in a Traveller game.

Mercenaries in Specific Traveller Settings

This book is written with a general setting in mind, specifically

one that has legalised mercenary activity for the use on the

space frontier (like that of the Third Imperium setting). This does

not mean that every setting or culture will have the same rules

and limitations on the existence and use of mercenaries. One

government might freely utilise mercenary groups to put down

threats, but the next could think all mercenaries are nothing but

criminals.

Traveller allows for any character to become gunslingers or

swordsmen if they wish to practice at those skills, but mercenaries

are dedicated to making it their livelihood. They require more

focussed training and attention than a common solider would; they

are mostly fighting for the credits – not for orders, their planet or

the Emperor. This makes them invest far more to protect their own

skins, and they have to be sure that their training must be better

than anyone they might go up against.

Mercenaries are commonly stereotyped as being violent, callous

and purely self-serving. Although some may be, it is not always the

case. Groups of mercenaries can be tighter and more fraternal than

familial brothers, and some charters have been around long enough

to have multiple generations of mercenaries raised in their ranks.

The overall usage of mercenaries is limited by the designed

setting of the Referee, as he may or may not want to make his

game ‘easy’ for his mercenary Player Characters.

I NTRODUCTION

What This Book Adds to Traveller

Traveller: Mercenary brings a new type of character to the table – the

professional mercenary. Whether it is a member of a bodyguard

service in the private sector or a plasma-slinging paramilitary

guerrilla, players can turn their normal Traveller characters into

something else entirely. This book is written to expand the scope

of Traveller to include these professional soldiers-for-hire in many

ways.

of gritty realism or heroism to their battles. These rule additions will

turn a common fire fight between larger groups from a clunky dice-

rolling frenzy to a full scale conflict worthy of media attention.

Whether in a true military or a private mercenary unit, active combat

forces need a place to recover, rearm and re-equip. Commanding

officers need stations where they can plan everything the unit needs

and important documents should be stored safely in case of an

unexpected leadership change. This book contains a detailed list

of possible bases and headquarters useful to Referees in order to

create the central locations of their game’s mercenary and military

units.

Most readers will look into the first chapter as the main reason they

are picking up this book. The start of the book is devoted to the

creation of mercenary Player Characters. It is filled with new career

paths, advancements and mishaps that can shape a character to

become the best mercenary they can. From the first term that he

qualifies to do so, a character can begin the life of a true mercenary.

No matter if they left the armed services on their own or at gunpoint,

they might be able to find profit in selling their services here. The

new career paths listed in this book are designed to be used in

addition to those found in the core rulebook – not replace them.

A good mercenary is only as good as the equipment he is trained

to use, and this book brings a host of new bits of gear for just

that reason. Adhesive bandages, gyro-stabilised hip rigs, and anti-

personnel airburst artillery rounds are just a few examples of the new

and fantastic equipment this book unveils. With so many wonderful

new toys to choose from, Player Characters might join a mercenary

ticket just to get access to some of them!

The book also contains a chapter dedicated to the addition of new

skills that Traveller characters can now utilise. These skills range in

use and purpose, but they can be important to characters devoted to

professional soldiering. Although designed to appear in the creation

tables for the mercenary career paths, these new skills can also be

acquired by some of the core Traveller careers; how this is possible

is noted here as well.

Traveller: Mercenary is not just a guide to living the life of a hired gun.

It serves as a collection of useful rules additions and augmentations

to the entire system, bringing a brand new facet of adventure and

excitement to the Traveller system.

Mercenaries do not simply wander around looking for their next job.

They are commonly sought out and hired on an official and legal

contract. These contracts are collectively called ‘tickets’ in Traveller ,

and they represent a fully-enclosed mission that the mercenaries

are being hired to accomplish. Mercenary tickets are the bread-

and-butter of a mercenary’s life, sometimes literally. This book

includes the full description for Referees of how to create individual

mercenary tickets for their games. Either using the detailed facets of

ticket creation or the random tables given in this book, a Referee can

not only quickly draw up a mission for their players to set out on, but

also can know how much something like that would pay. The use of

mercenary tickets is a standard in the business, and this book tells

readers precisely how they work and how to create them.

As mercenaries leave behind their freelance or order-taking days

in search of becoming something more, they might decide to start

their own mercenary groups or charters. They will need to recruit

new members in order to do this effectively. This book offers a good

system on how any given character, not just mercenaries, can go

out and recruit hirelings and subordinates. If any character is skilled

and convincing enough, they could acquire the men they are looking

to lead.

With the addition of more militarily-leaning missions and tickets,

this book also brings a few new additions to the way larger battles

and combats work in Traveller . With new rules concerning morale,

suppression fire and the like will allow Referees to bring a new style

I NTRODUCTION

M ERCENARY S LANG AND L EXICON

The following is a short collection of common terminology used by many mercenaries and their allies in the Traveller universe. Players

of mercenary characters should pay attention to these words and phrases, as that their employers, partners and employees will often

use them in common parlance.

Ace(d) – Any one-shot/one-strike kill; as in ‘I aced him with my seventy-six, right in the eye!’

‘Act the Part’ – Overplaying a dramatic stance as a mercenary in order to earn a bigger reputation

Aggro – Becoming overly violent or aggressive; as in ‘Whoa! Why all the aggro? It was just a joke!’

Bar Tab – A tongue-in-cheek term used to describe the amount of money spent on supplies for a specific ticket

Black Op – Any ticket that cannot be officially or legally claimed; most often also a ‘wet ticket’

Camo Job – Any ticket that will require the use of standard military fatigues, uniforms or other apparel; alternatively a ticket where the

mercenary is hired by an armed service branch

Cloak and Dagger – Any ticket that requires stealth or anonymity

Dead Ticket – A mission that has been tried and failed; also used to describe a ticket that has passed its expiration without being

undertaken

ETC – Anagram for ‘estimated time to conflict’; as in ‘I have the convoy in my sights, what is our ETC?’

FUBAR – Anagram for ‘fouled up beyond all repair’; can also be used as a profanity; as in ‘The evacuation site is crawling with hostiles,

this ticket is FUBAR.’

Glassing – The use of high explosives or incendiary devices to deal with a lightly or unarmoured target

Heat/Hot – Slang term for violent conflict, as in ‘Negative, I cannot get in yet. Too much heat out here to ignore. I could use some

help.’

‘High Tide’ – A description of very high or unexpected activity in a conflict situation; as in ‘Get that PGMP up here, it is pretty damned

high tide outside that bulkhead!’

Ice Cold Ticket – A mission that requires a low sense of morals and likely a great deal of violent action

JIR – Anagram for ‘justifiable immediate response’; or the level of violent action that should be taken in response to opposing

stimuli

‘Low Tide’ – A description of little or low activity in a possible conflict; as in ‘Holster up your big guns guys, its nothing but low tide

the rest of the way.’

Meatmonger – Derogatory term for any mercenary that is overly violent in situations where it is not necessary

Merc – Slang term for any mercenary; sometimes used by non-mercenaries in the derogatory

One-off Job – Any ticket from a new employer that has no current plans of re-hiring the mercenaries afterward

Park Walk – Any ticket that is appraised as being far easier than the overall skill level of the mercenary group signed on to it

Sandbag – Extremely derogatory term for a mercenary who is not holding up his share of a specific ticket; as in ‘Move your sandbag

ass Hawkins! You are slowing us all down!’

‘Take Two’ – Anytime a skilled mercenary fails at a simple task and is forced to perform it again

Trial by Fire – A mercenary’s first combat-based ticket

Zoo Trip – Any ticket that takes the mercenary to an unknown location with unknown flora/fauna that must be dealt with in some

way

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