MGT Only: Reading about the Drifter character...

[Spinward Scout]

I was reading a thread on the Mongoose forum and someone mentioned the Drifter class as being a 'dropout' kind of character.

I have to disagree. Isn't the Drifter the character who would update the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Imperium' - the HHGTTI*?

What other things could the Drifter accomplish?

*Now in print with real howood paper for that extra weight you need on some low-G settlements?
Don't purchase the howood version of the HHGTTI if you are allergic to howood.

 

[TamsinP]

Just took a quick look at my MgT2e CRB to confirm what the Drifter "career" covers. The three "assignments" are:
Barbarian - You live on a primitive world without the benefit of technology.
Wanderer - You are a space bum, living hand-to-mouth in slums and spaceports across the galaxy.
Scavenger - You work as a belter (asteroid miner) or on a salvage crew.

I guess the HHG contributor would fall into the second option. Other possibilities for that option are perpetual tourists, taking working passage to get from system to system. Or maybe a sophont version of The Littlest Hobo.

 

[whulorigan]

... the Drifter "career" covers. The three "assignments" are:

Barbarian - You live on a primitive world without the benefit of technology.

This was a Classic Sup4: CotI Career to cover all of those low tech worlds

Scavenger - You work as a belter (asteroid miner) or on a salvage crew.

This was also a Classic Sup4: CotI Career, with expanded scope. Firefly was a combo of Free Trader, Smuggler, and Scavenger (Salvage).

Wanderer - You are a space bum, living hand-to-mouth in slums and spaceports across the galaxy.

I guess the HHG contributor would fall into the second option. Other possibilities for that option are perpetual tourists, taking working passage to get from system to system. Or maybe a sophont version of The Littlest Hobo

Wanderer is also the classic Traveller: See Dumarest from whence the term comes. Earl Dumarest was a Barbarian stowaway who got trained as a Merchant and then was ejected from the career and became a Wanderer (Traveller).

"You fail your enlistment roll; either submit to the draft or become a Traveller . . . "

 

[Spinward Scout]

Just took a quick look at my MgT2e CRB to confirm what the Drifter "career" covers. The three "assignments" are:
Barbarian - You live on a primitive world without the benefit of technology.
Wanderer - You are a space bum, living hand-to-mouth in slums and spaceports across the galaxy.
Scavenger - You work as a belter (asteroid miner) or on a salvage crew.

I guess the HHG contributor would fall into the second option. Other possibilities for that option are perpetual tourists, taking working passage to get from system to system. Or maybe a sophont version of The Littlest Hobo.

Ford Prefect would have been a Journalist and Wanderer, I'd think. What's it called when your work gets downgraded to the words 'Mostly Harmless'?

Firefly was a combo of Free Trader, Smuggler, and Scavenger (Salvage).

I don't see Smuggler anywhere on the Mongoose list of Careers. Would it fall under Pirate?

 

[kilemall]

Ford Prefect would have been a Journalist and Wanderer, I'd think. What's it called when your work gets downgraded to the words 'Mostly Harmless'?


I don't see Smuggler anywhere on the Mongoose list of Careers. Would it fall under Pirate?

I believe he’s focusing on the Belter part of the description.

Firefly has elements of Rogue to it too.

 

[TamsinP]

Ford Prefect would have been a Journalist and Wanderer, I'd think. What's it called when your work gets downgraded to the words 'Mostly Harmless'?

Journalist is one of the assignments for the Entertainer career - so maybe a combination of Entertainer/Journalist and Drifter/Wanderer?

I don't see Smuggler anywhere on the Mongoose list of Careers. Would it fall under Pirate?

Thinking about who is likely to engage in smuggling, which is usually an adjunct to a main career, it could be Merchant/Free Trader or Rogue/Pirate.

This was a Classic Sup4: CotI Career to cover all of those low tech worlds

This was also a Classic Sup4: CotI Career, with expanded scope.

Indeed they were.

Wanderer is also the classic Traveller: See Dumarest from whence the term comes. Earl Dumarest was a Barbarian stowaway who got trained as a Merchant and then was ejected from the career and became a Wanderer (Traveller).

A good example.

 

[Enoki]

Just took a quick look at my MgT2e CRB to confirm what the Drifter "career" covers. The three "assignments" are:
Barbarian - You live on a primitive world without the benefit of technology.
Wanderer - You are a space bum, living hand-to-mouth in slums and spaceports across the galaxy.
Scavenger - You work as a belter (asteroid miner) or on a salvage crew.

I guess the HHG contributor would fall into the second option. Other possibilities for that option are perpetual tourists, taking working passage to get from system to system. Or maybe a sophont version of The Littlest Hobo.

That seems rather limited. I'd think you could add:

Trust fund baby (equivalent). A character that's rich not through their own effort who is otherwise useless in virtually any situation but causes endless trouble they can buy their way out of. They have latched onto the players and cause them nothing but disaster. The problem is the players can't rid themselves of this person without fatal consequences. TFB's cannot be killed as they balance out natural brilliance with their insane levels of stupidity.

Hikikomori variant: A recluse / loner that has one unique, overpowering skill / area of expertise, that is otherwise forced into being a player character.

The 'trucker' variant: A person that has a solitary job and existence but is OMG powerful for some reason in their backstory. Corbin Dallas, cab driver, in the Fifth Element sort of guy.

The Man with No Name: Usually a quiet, utterly ruthless killer, who shows up and is either on the side of good or evil.

All of these are tropes of the "drifter" character.

 

[whulorigan]

That seems rather limited. I'd think you could add:

Trust fund baby (equivalent). A character that's rich not through their own effort who is otherwise useless in virtually any situation but causes endless trouble they can buy their way out of. They have latched onto the players and cause them nothing but disaster. The problem is the players can't rid themselves of this person without fatal consequences. TFB's cannot be killed as they balance out natural brilliance with their insane levels of stupidity.

That is actually a description of the Noble (Dilettante) Career: "Like a Drifter, but with more baths . . ." - Works for a character with Soc=A (No title, but eligible for the Career).

 

[Garnfellow]

That is actually a description of the Noble (Dilettante) Career: "Like a Drifter, but with more baths . . ." - Works for a character with Soc=A (No title, but eligible for the Career).

Great observation. In Dumarest terms, Dilettantes are called tourists, as opposed to travellers. Tourist ride high, dosed on quick time, stay in hotels, are voyeurs to whatever happens on their destination world. Real travellers ride low or working passage, have to scrape by for food, medicine, and lodging at the next destination, hoping to scrape enough together for passage to another world . . . They have to engage with the destination world if they ever hope to leave it.

 

[Condottiere]

Vagrancy.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Vagrancy.

How many credits do you have to have before you're not considered a Vagrant? Does it depend on Law Level.

 

[Condottiere]

Dependent on the jurisdiction.

Probably easier to disappear into the background in an urban setting, than, say, a small Southern town, with a nepotically staffed sheriff department.