Mustering Out How do you handle reward's

[Jacqual]

IMTU when a player has created his or her character and decides it is time to muster out of the service. They roll their benifits and money rewards, this is when I start roleplaying with them. To many times have I seen the Ref say to the player with the marine ok you rolled a TAS membership, a gun, cutlass, and 2 low passages. With your money rolls you have 120,000 Imperial credits.


I feel that is kind of boring, what I do is this (I will use the Cutlass as an example). Ok you rolled a Cutlass this sword comes in a scabbard marked with your rank # in silver if your character was a NON Comm and in gold if you were commissioned. The Baskit Hilt is silver or gold depending again if your commissioned or not. The Blade of the Cutlass has your Name, Rank and serial number etched in it. All of this is done in a nice fancy script. Then lets say the character being a commissioned officer is rolling rolls cutlass again. Well then I state your rolled the Cutlass again you can choose among the following you can raise your Cutlass skill by 1, you can choose a second bladed weapon, or you can upgrade your Cutlass you recieved to an IMC Honor Blade. Which with everything already mentioned above the Basket Hilt and Crossguard area are decorated with Iridium Stones. A very decrotive Tassle gets added to the Hilt. and on the backside of the blade opposite your Name Rank and serial # is added an Honor slogen depending on your character's history. The scabbard has additional decorations including replicas of any medals recieved, as well as service marks for any important battles your character was in. You have seen only a few retired officers wearing these and you have seen the reactions of the solders in active duty paying their respects to these officers. as if they were still in uniform.


Now which would your players prefer They give up the skill everytime. They do not take the other blade. The adventures I have had like onetime I had the Sword stolen from the character, when the adventure was done and the character got his sword back, everyone agreed it was one of the best adventures they had been on. They said it didnt matter which game it was the actual adventure was the best they had ever been on.

 

[BlackBat242]

I do it very similarly to you. I work their mustering out rolls into a part of the character's narrative, and allow for unique items. I got this from my personal experiences.

In my high school days, I took ROTC classes. Yes, in Utah there is ROTC in several high schools, not just the Universities.

The head instructor in my school was a retired US Army Sergeant First Class. His last active-duty assignment had been as an ROTC instructor/liason in a major University in the southern US (I can't remember which one).

He had a rifle that he prized very much, which had been given to him on his retirement by the students.

It was a fully functional Springfield M1903A3... chrome plated, polished mahogany stock, tooled-leather sling strap, and was engraved with gold-inlay... with decorative artwork, his name/rank, the school's name, and an inscription thanking him for his years of service.


I have done that sort of thing for high-ranked (NCO/PO and officer) PCs before, and they always wanted the "presentation-quality" weapon over another skill... especially as the weapon was always valued at 10X base value, and meant they had "off-the-record connections" with whatever organization/service/unit gave it to them.

 

[atpollard]

Very clever.
I like it.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Nice.... Must appropriate for my own...

 

[jfetters]

I have always figured that the benefits, at least the material posessions, are things accumulated over the course of the character's career - weapons, money, etc. Like you said, then you can have a story behind some of the stuff.

I've never been comfortable with the idea of, "OK, you have just retired from the Navy. Suddenly, you get Cr75,000, a gun, and somehow, your brain can store more information."

 

[Icosahedron]

I run it both ways. Certainly stat increases and cash are more likely to be gradual accumulations, but a weapon must have been acquired on a single occasion, and 'on retirement' is the most likely, but not the only occasion to use. For a Naval Officer, yes a presentation weapon works; for a streetwise Rogue, maybe he picked up the pistol from the guy he knifed on the streets back in his first term.

 

[Jacqual]

With another take on this look at the Bureaucrat, they get a watch. In the description it says a watch valued I believe in the 50 to 250 Imperial Credit Range. OMG is that ever boring, look at what a watch can do today in the real world, I think if Mr. Miller created the career today for the first time he would change the word Watch to PDA. Look at the uses of a PDA Day Planner, Phone, Watch, GPS, Media Player, Phone, and even more uses. Why can't a player receive that instead, think of the uses you could put into a TL 14 or 15 PDA compared to todays standard's. I figure that in the Traveller Universe virtually every world above TL 10 would have a GPS system in place. This GPS system in a high enough TL world could very well support the planets version of the internet. So the Bureaucrat could very well download information on local laws, customs, addresses, and all that other information that is available on the web today. Wherever he is, he would also be able to use the PDA as a voice recorder so he can record what was said around him with photo and/or video making him invaluable in letting authorities here and see what happened clearing the players from wrong doing. Getting the confession of the crimminal. This is just some of the things that can be added, making the roll of just a watch become something every character may just want to get themselves. Make further rolls for the PDA add as the skill Computer to give it just a little more ummmph. I mean people look over those mustering out tables what sticks out as maybe needing a little more flavor. A little tweak here and there round it out, it will make for your players getting a little more into the character which will make better role-playing, which turns into better gaming and better campaigns. Place your ideas here and that will help me round out my tables and others as well, I incourage all of you to discuss and add items here the more ideas the better I think it will be for everyone.