IISS Academy?

[Meteoric Assault]

It's an interesting topic, I'm glad you have brought it up

What till what's next

SCOUT Pay Grades and Titles!!!!! strap in...and hang on

 

[mike wightman]

Nonetheless, LBB7 presents us with a Merchant Academy, merchants being not only civilian, but also not a single large body (as Military or Scouts are), but multitude of various sized companies...

Which is why it doesn't exist IMTU, I find the idea of an Imperium wide chain of merchant academies ridiculous.

If you take the time to think about the Naval Academy presented in LBB5 it only really makes sense for a planetary navy or duchy/subsector navy to have an academy.

The Imperial Navy Academy is either a franchise or it is so far away that it requires you a year to get there and a year to get back - plenty of shipboard training I suppose

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Hey now.

What till what's next

SCOUT Pay Grades and Titles!!!!! strap in...and hang on

This is supposed to be a child friendly site, so you got to stop talking all sexy like that, mister.

Now, with my serious hat on, I can't wait! I too have ranks and stuff for my Scouts, so it is matter close to my Traveller heart.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Which is why it doesn't exist IMTU, I find the idea of an Imperium wide chain of merchant academies ridiculous.

If you take the time to think about the Naval Academy presented in LBB5 it only really makes sense for a planetary navy or duchy/subsector navy to have an academy.

The Imperial Navy Academy is either a franchise or it is so far away that it requires you a year to get there and a year to get back - plenty of shipboard training I suppose

Online courses and holo simulation training ... IMTU each Sector has an imperial academy .... FYI I adjusted terms to 5 years for traveller time and to charge per diem!

 

[aramis]

Starport Security Administration should be a career path, and have it's own academy.

They're responsible for ensuring nothing illegal is transited through a starport.

Technology should be advanced enough for them to be issued X-Ray spectacles.

They are a separate service - the SPA. which is written up in JTAS 19.

 

[aramis]

Nonetheless, LBB7 presents us with a Merchant Academy, merchants being not only civilian, but also not a single large body (as Military or Scouts are), but multitude of various sized companies...

And in contrast, Military Academy does not appear in LBB4 (while it appears in a JTAS and in MT), the military having them in RL in most (not to say all) countries...

EDIT: Also, the fact that Scouts are said to fall under Navy command and that the Way Stations and Scout bases are used as Naval bases in times of war, hints that the Scouts have a military trend, even being a basically civilian agency.

The US and UK both have merchant systems whose officers and ratings can be integrated into naval service during wartime, and which provides a regularization of training for merchant shipping. The USMM isn't so much a service as a collection of employers who (due to laws) use the same ratings and training requirements, and who can be drafted into the navy in time of war.

In the US, there's a grid of ratings for the deck and engineering departments. it's a bit convoluted. Charter Captain Licenses are yet another wonky bit.

Deck, Limited:		Able Bodied Seaman (type)	Mate (Tonnage and type)	Master (tonnage and type)
Deck Unlimited	Ordinary Seaman			3rd Mate	2nd Mate	Chief Mate	Unlimited Master.
Engineering: Limited		Designated Duty Engineer (HP limit)	Assistant Engineer Oceans	Chief Engineer Coastal	Chief Engineer Oceans
Engineering Unlimited	Wiper		Designated Duty Engineer Unlimited	3rd Assistant Engineer	2nd Assistant Engineer	1st Assistant Engineer	Chief Engineer Unlimited
Charter	Operator Uninspected Passenger Vessel (6 passengers, ≤100 RT) aka "6-Pack"	Limited OUPV (≤100 RT)	National Master (Type*) ≤100 RT	National Master (Type*) ≤200 Rt	National Master ≤100 RT

Type above refers to one of: Inland, Great Lakes, Near Costal (100 miles), Oceans.
Type* indicates same as Type, but not allowing oceans.
HP Limit is 1000 HP or 4000 HP,
Tonnage varies by type

note that we don't really want to implement this as such in Traveller terms, for that way lies madness.

I don't know the UK system for UK Merchant Seamen, but generally, it is said to be similar.

I've worked out before a system for merchant spacer's cards in MegaTraveller...
it became a headache to use for more than color.

 

[Redcap]

Personally, I'd have called it the "IISS Training School", and been done with it Saves a world (sic) of problems and connotations over the word "academy", that does

 

[Drakon]

I don't see the IISS having an academy - it's just not that sort of service IMHO.

I can. While the academy would serve primarily to train scouts officers and senior management, it could also act as a repository for all the information the Scouts collect. After a scout has been out for a long time, teaching the next generation what they may encounter would aid the scout service as a whole, as well as employing older scouts who may not be fit for travel.

A school, research and library complex for the scouts would be a valuable asset.

 

[mike wightman]

Scouts don't have officers - it says so in the basic rules

I really think GDW screwed up introducing the scout bureaucratic arm in contradiction to previous canon.

If, IYTU, scouts have officers and a bureaucracy then an academy makes sense - with the caveat that you need a franchise of them. IMTU scouts are as described in the basic rules - no officers.

 

[Drakon]

Scouts don't have officers - it says so in the basic rules

Whatever you call senior management of a pan-galactic exploratory service with ties to the Imperial government. Any governmental or corporate operation will sort itself into some kind of heriachal structure. Just to get things done and coordinate resources without fighting against itself.

I see bureaucracy as inevidable in any attempt to organize a number of people. Especially if logistics, economics or politics is involved. Someone has to direct traffic, someone has to have a final say, there has to be a unity of vision to accomplish a goal, and larger responsibilities broken down and delegated to middle management types.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Whatever you call senior management of a pan-galactic exploratory service with ties to the Imperial government. Any governmental or corporate operation will sort itself into some kind of heriachal structure. Just to get things done and coordinate resources without fighting against itself.

I see bureaucracy as inevidable in any attempt to organize a number of people. Especially if logistics, economics or politics is involved. Someone has to direct traffic, someone has to have a final say, there has to be a unity of vision to accomplish a goal, and larger responsibilities broken down and delegated to middle management types.

BRAVO!!!!!!

 

[Condottiere]

Mission commanders may be on an ad hoc basis, but someone has to be (Den) Mother.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Den Moms HA .... and they sell scouts cookies in front of 'buy and large the superstore'.

 

[Redcap]

Anyone introducing anything even closely resembling a Wall*E machine into this game will be sent to the K'Kree.

With a Bacon and cheese hamburger stuffed in their mouth.

:devil:

 

[Ulsyus]

Why does it have to be an entry-level academy? Could the ISS work on a graduate/veteran program? You qualify on something somewhere else then apply. That doesn't mean that it has no internal training program; it's the ISS - they've go their own survey and survival and contact systems, so they'd have their own institutions. Maybe those are only open to recruits who can do something first before applying.

 

[Quint]

For what it was worth, I allowed anyone to train at college or any of the academies and then enter the scouts. Graduates of College/Medical School/Flight School and the Imperial Academy of Science and Medicine were more common that Naval Academy were more common than the Merchant Academy which was more common than the Military Academy - but the Scouts would take pretty much anyone who wanted to join.

That seemed to solve the need for any specific Scout Academy.

D.

 

[kilemall]

Scouts don't have officers - it says so in the basic rules

I really think GDW screwed up introducing the scout bureaucratic arm in contradiction to previous canon.

If, IYTU, scouts have officers and a bureaucracy then an academy makes sense - with the caveat that you need a franchise of them. IMTU scouts are as described in the basic rules - no officers.

I don't think they did at all.

Bureaucrats being driven mad by crazy scouts doing odd things they don't understand. Scouts being given orders and missions and equipment mixes that just don't translate into the reality on the frontier. IT'S GREAT.

 

[epicenter00]

I would think the Scout Academy would be something that you don't go into before joining the Scouts; it's something you go to after a term or two, when you've decided to make it your career. There'd be a very emphasis on practical skills necessary for Scouts; surveying and contact being two particularly important skills. Perhaps assaying and taking biological samples as well.

Here is the proposed IISS Academy ( home of the friendly first-contact eight legged poni )

Motto: "Shasguli Amariia" in Triplo-Vilani "Friendship is Magical"

I see bureaucracy as inevidable in any attempt to organize a number of people. Especially if logistics, economics or politics is involved. Someone has to direct traffic, someone has to have a final say, there has to be a unity of vision to accomplish a goal, and larger responsibilities broken down and delegated to middle management types.

Someone also has to keep track of all of those Scout ships. I mean seriously, for being a "dead-end" service since the Imperium is hemmed in, why are there so many Scout ships?

 

[McPerth]

There'd be a very emphasis on practical skills necessary for Scouts; surveying and contact being two particularly important skills. Perhaps assaying and taking biological samples as well.

See that this is quite in agreement with my former post, as Liaison is the skill used in LBB6 and MT for contact wiht aliens...

This may be version dependent (after all I'm not sure whate version of Traveller do you use IYTU), as they don't exist in some versions, but I'd add Wilderness Survival (CT, just Survival in MT) and survey to the list of skills that scouts may achieve in Academy, and change the automatic Admin-1 to Liaison-1 (that I remind you serves as Admin 0), as Liaison was initially introduced in LBB 6 (scouts) and is, after all, rue civilian equivalent to leadership.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

See that this is quite in agreement with my former post, as Liaison is the skill used in LBB6 and MT for contact wiht aliens...

Looking at the different branches of scouts, I tried to create an entry level admin who mastered the basic scout skills... Astro-navigation, Admin ( paperwork), Piloting (rolling in the S-Scout), vaccsuit ( survive in space), and Gun Combat ( spend some time on the range ...Pew Pew Pew).

they develop the branch specific skills as they progress through assignments..

new IISS tradition friday is Hawaiian shirt day.