Scout Culture

[kilemall]

I am always on the lookout to define differentiation in tech and locations and SPAAACE and orgs and people, as a way to get across something is different and unique.

And there are few RPG orgs more unique then Traveller's Scout Service. Deliberately no hierarchy and a 'one problem one scout' training and mentality, good stuff.

So I have come up with a couple Scout Culture items so far to hit my players up. I think they are generic enough for any version with Scouts to use, and hopefully it will spark discussion on other items I can use in return.

 

[kilemall]

Reaction Rolls

Using the personal reaction rolls for NPCs, normally you would get/give some clues as to which way an NPC is regarding you (most often a 'you are hired/get out of here' reaction to employment). Some will hide their reaction just as a way to 'get along', professionalism, rank deferment, or to avoid consequences and do harm/good later.

But it occurred to me that Scouts have to be able to assemble teams quickly of disparate personalities and skill sets, is working on a budget where there likely IS no one else but the hastily built team, and there is no time to build a rapport or smooth over things, and a lack of liaison as a priority skill set.

So, I decided Scouts have a culture of telling people EXACTLY how they feel about each other right then and then insist on working out how they were going to deal with each other's issues, which is very jarring to business people, military hierarchies, and 'polite' society in general.

This would translate to an immediate reveal of the reaction roll results on a roleplay basis, and a possible reroll based on player reaction during the 'how are we going to deal' part of the protocol.

This is so team gelling issues are dealt with ASAP, or at least will be open and dealt with one way or another.

Scouts will only reflexively do this in 'professional' situations, in personal situations the scout might act as they do on the job, or react with their offduty persona appropriate to the social venue.

This training and behavioral habit caused the saying 'as up front as a Scout' to enter the general lexicon. Others say 'rude as a Scout'.

There may also be people who prefer dealing with candor, or avoid dealing with Scouts in general due to the discomfort and sometimes problems this protocol generates.

 

[kilemall]

Detached Duty Ships

The Scout Service does not in general award through rank, power, or great wealth, but it does have the detached duty Scout ship benefit, a cheap entree to interstellar freedom and adventure.

The trick is, not all surplus Type S are created equal.

Your scout might get a very shipshape latest model surplus item (greatly in demand due to comforts or latest tech capabilities of secondary systems), or may be handed the oldest 60 year old model.

With most campaigns with the full TL15 range, the higher tech ships would be rare and prized assignments, while the TL9 grungy economy version is more typical and to be avoided.

So, the continuing battle inherent in the main Scout force vs. the support bureaucracy can continue after retirement, with favor shown to Scouts that please the hierarchy by getting premium ships, while those out of favor get the backend of the lot no one wants.

 

[Godi]

So, I decided Scouts have a culture of telling people EXACTLY how they feel about each other right then and then insist on working out how they were going to deal with each other's issues, which is very jarring to business people, military hierarchies, and 'polite' society in general.


I think that is a very apt description of a Scout's attitude. I see them like John McClane in the Die Hard movies. What ever the task at hand is they'll get it done. It might not be pretty but it'll definitely be spectacular.

 

[Drakon]

How I see it

Scouts are used to small crew. A typical scout starship has a 4 man crew and each member has a specific job. This would strongly color a scout's temprement. In an opposite way to someone who has always worked inside of large organizations.

Small group dynamics are different from large groups. Small groups can afford greater familiarity. This does not scale up to large groups simply due to limitations on human memory. Its tougher remembering everything you need to know about 100 people than it is for 10, or less.

Also, due to the tight quarters and limited resources, including air. Someone either "earns their air" or they are dead weight, "cargo". Useless people are looked down up. This is an attitude common to most space fairers, belters and freetraders.

Also, scouts are used to doing so much with so little, they have a reputation for doing the impossible with nothing. Many scouts are reluctant to openly contradict this stereotype.

 

[BlackBat242]

Scouts are used to small crew. A typical scout starship has a 4 man crew and each member has a specific job.

Actually, in such small crews there is a requirement for everyone to have at least some ability to do the other crewmembers' jobs - at the least to function as an effective assistant.

Scout work is supposed to be a dangerous profession - having only one crewmember that can do a specific job would guarantee death for everyone if that person is killed. Thus there is always at least two that can pilot, or navigate, or operate/repair the computer/jump drive/etc.

That is why Scouts commonly have Jack of All Trades skill - so they can do more than just one job well.

In an opposite way to someone who has always worked inside of large organizations.

Yes - only in large ships can you afford to have rigid specialization and strong lines of "that is not your job, go away" - the crew size means that there are several people who can do that (and only that) job, and therefore the loss of a couple does not mean disaster for everyone else.

 

[GypsyComet]

oldest 60 year old model

Only 60? That's just barely paid off, like an 8 year old car.

Double that age, convert it to a Seeker. Convert it *back*. Belly land it a time or two.

Now we're talking.

 

[Drakon]

Actually, in such small crews there is a requirement for everyone to have at least some ability to do the other crewmembers' jobs - at the least to function as an effective assistant.

Scout work is supposed to be a dangerous profession - having only one crewmember that can do a specific job would guarantee death for everyone if that person is killed. Thus there is always at least two that can pilot, or navigate, or operate/repair the computer/jump drive/etc.

That is why Scouts commonly have Jack of All Trades skill - so they can do more than just one job well.

True. There is a lot of cross training. Its not so much a matter of having a specific individual for a specific job, but that the crews are designed that everyone has to do their job. The crewman who is slacking off, not getting their work done, not "earning their air" will end up grounded. Scout services are dangerous, and there is no room for goldbrickers.

Yes - only in large ships can you afford to have rigid specialization and strong lines of "that is not your job, go away" - the crew size means that there are several people who can do that (and only that) job, and therefore the loss of a couple does not mean disaster for everyone else.

More than that, there are more layers of command to go through, and more need for a hierarchal structure. Scanner techs and sensor techs may be two different divisions, who report to the navigation or gunnery departments. Techs and operators may be different divisions aboard a larger ship.

With a more hierarchal structure, the higher degree of stratification, the more importance rank becomes, the more an organization has to rely on formalities and customs.

Scouts salutes differ from Naval salutes.

You are correct that Scouts would be more "Jack of All Trades" than big ship Navy. Although cross training requirements would be more stringent for scouts, any space farer should have some training outside their specailties. Crew size will determine the culture and dynamics of the individual crewmembers with respect toward each other.

 

[Condottiere]

A group of ex-Scouts might be like the Expendables.

I think that only two types survive in the Scouts, team players and those the team deem too valuable to frag yet.

 

[kilemall]

Well, what other scout culture idiosyncracies that translate into 'you are dealing with scouts' concrete behavior and attitudes?

 

[kilemall]

After rereading this thread, I realized for some reason I didn't throw in one of my other scout culture items, the scout jacket.


Scouts do not commemorate unit service, battles, big on awards or uniforms, etc.

Instead they follow ancient Terran astronaut practice of personal or team created mission patches that were meaningful, for whatever reason.

They attach the patches to their scout service jacket, typically not officially issued, but prized and protected especially since they are so individual.


When coming onto a new base's Scout Lounge, or forming a new mission team, it is customary to wear the jacket to convey the scout's history in a way a dry resume or even military dress uniform does not.

The phrase 'reading a scout's jacket' is used to describe the process, key in settling the one thing that is on every scout's mind when meeting a potential team mate- who are they and what do they bring to the mission.

 

[GypsyComet]

Well, what other scout culture idiosyncracies that translate into 'you are dealing with scouts' concrete behavior and attitudes?

Aloha shirts as formal wear; the louder the better. In our group this precedes Wash (Firefly) by at least a decade.

 

[Enoki]

I'd think that this, in good part, would have to do with what the Scout was doing exactly as a job.

For example, several Scouts enter a dining facility. They're wearing typical spacer attire but don't have a patch, insignia, or anything else that distinguishes them. They're likely doing some black ops sort of stuff for somebody...

Matching uniforms (of a sort) with nice haircuts, and shiny shoes probably means they're a vip taxi for somebody higher up in the service.

The guy sitting alone is probably an X-boat pilot.

The base types, particularly management are more likely to look like white collar office workers and upper management wearing the equivalent of a suit and tie.

I'd think that while the crew of a scout ship (of whatever sort) might be very loose with what they wear, the guy in command is a bit more formal as he /she has to deal with the management on a regular basis. This would apply when the ship is in port, but could change to less formal when out in the field.

 

[epicenter00]

While romantic images within the Scouts exist (especially within the Scouts), one thing I've noticed isn't so much taken into account is that mavericks have a poor reputation with others, and while the Scouts would tell you they're just misunderstood, the reality is that reputation is not entirely unjustified.

* The Scout Service are regarded by many within the Imperium as a waste of money; their Survey work is sub-par, holding back information is normal for them, and they have a holier-than-thou attitude in deciding who gets what information. It's noted in canon that the Scouts set up Red Zones for "altruistic" reasons while the Navy does it to hide their mistakes. However, organization-wide this kind of power and discretion given to Scouts can't be a good thing - As they have no good oversight, Scouts likely do hide information for personal reasons, sometimes good, sometimes selfish, and often for reasons scouts think are good but aren't really.

* The Scouts are cowards. In the Navy, the Scouts have a reputation as a kind of 'carpetbagger' - cowards, thieves, civilians, even traitors. Part of the Scout service's role during wartime is to service as ... scouts for the Navy. They're supposed to be getting intel: setting up listening posts, scouting enemy deployments, and so on. Scout intel is spotty at best; requests for the Scouts to do things regularly result in enough sandbagging that Arrakis would run out sand. Requested intel is never timely or accurate - in fact, the Scouts often don't even deploy at all. The Scouts ... don't totally deny it but within the Scouts, the attitude is that they're not going to send out their creaky, lightly armed ships on what are basically suicide missions for the Navy who wants the Scouts to go into a system, just see who shoots at them and want a detailed after action report of what was shot at them, how much of each was shot at them, and how often it was shot. The Bureaucracy has a lot of members who want to work with other Imperial organizations; the field agents are often exercise maximum discretion. This kind of maverick attitude would finally come back to bite them in the TNE era when Norris guts the Scouts - his memories of their "actions" during the Fifth Frontier War ultimately made Norris agree with the Navy when it came time to cut costs.

* The Scouts are looters. During the Fifth Frontier War, Naval Scout squadrons have detailed tapes of Scouts looting ("salvaging") warship wrecks and carrying off components. While the Scouts were seen to be respectful of the remains found on board, they were seen to be ship components as well as pocketing valuables. Before being thrown out of an airlock without spacesuits, the Scouts were taken into custody by their superior officers who promised they would receive maximum judicial punishment. It's been noted the Scouts were simply transferred to the Solomani Rim. Again, the Scouts wouldn't see anything wrong with this; they were being respectful to the remains and it's not like they needed the equipment anyway. Meanwhile, the Scouts really needed a new a grav-field stabilizer for their fusion reactor ... plus a few extras so they could trade them later on to make some much-needed repairs to their life support system. What? Isgar was taking valuables from personal quarters? Man, we've told him multiple times he shouldn't be doing that ... but it's true that him selling stuff like have helped us out of a pinch, so we don't like it but...

* The Scouts are thieves. While they don't steal from each other, they have a reputation of theft among other Imperial services, particularly the Navy. If Scouts are allowed anywhere near a Navy warehouse, all kinds of things will grow legs and wander off base. An example of this might be something like: "After the Fifth Frontier War, the Imperial Navy was doing some analysis on Zhodani wrecks when they were alarmed to find that Consular Guard warships had some TL15 components in their meson guns, significantly improving their performance. Analysis of the components revealed they were exact copies of Imperial navy components. Further investigation, now by Naval CIS, revealed they were specifically components installed to upgrade some older Voroshilef battleships at a certain system. Investigation revealed that there were significant shortfalls in inventory of these items after ISS ships came to call at the local service depot." This is a side effect of the Scouts being chronically underfunded for so long. It's tradition that the Scouts do a lot of "horse trading" to get the supplies they need to keep running. For the Scouts, this is a tradition of self-sufficiency and doing what's necessary to get things done. To others, it's a lot less glossy and romantic. Over time, this corruption (and it is corruption) has become ingrained in Scout tradition; they'll trade anything with anyone for what they need and Scout crews are always on the lookout for opportunities - the Scouts are so proud of this, they'd even do it if they were properly funded. Unfortunately, this kind of tradition enables a lot of "ethically challenged" behavior that tends to get worse over time - Scouts are skilled bargainers, able to find what people want and supply it in return for getting what they want and are experts at trading not for not-like; a few crates of 'natural stimulants' which are from some planet and are so obscure they're not listed as contraband (the Scouts know many such substances and don't report them) traded to the quartermasters got the Scouts some meson gun components, which they then traded to a planetary government supposedly for their deep-site meson guns (in return for components the Scout crew needed for water purifiers). Of course, after they had traded the items, the Scouts no longer had control of them and they eventually found their way to the Zhodani who made very exact copies...

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

A scout crew to me has always been Frank Poole and Dave Bowman along with other scientists on board. Sometimes frozen.

 

[Black Vulmea]

Deliberately no hierarchy and a 'one problem one scout' training and mentality, good stuff.

I agree with the second half of this sentence, but not the first. The Scouts have a hierarchical administration and operations supervision structure, but field operations are implemented using qualifications-based staffing. I provided an example of this in another thread awhile back.

In Grand Survey, the ten-sophont crew of a Donosev-class survey scout is spelled out, including the minimum skills required to hold each position. The pilot, who is also the mission commander, is required to have a minimum of Pilot-2, the ship's doctor is required to have Medical-3, the lead surveyor is required to have Survey-2, and so on; other skills, such as Survival, Air/Raft. and so on are usually present among the crew assigned to the survey scout.

Now put yourself in the shoes of a Scout Leader (O7/IS-16) commanding a survey scout squadron. Among the assignments on your desk is a routine Class II survey to catalog the abundance of surface fresh water on a thinly populated world - this is pretty routine stuff. so you can assign field scouts from the IGS with the minimum qualifications to crew the assigned survey scout.

Also sitting on your desk is a class IV survey of an asteroid belt, to identify lanthanum deposits as a strategic Imperial resource. This is a hazardous assignment - independent belters don't want the Imperium sniffing around, because they know that's just one step removed from big mining platforms moving in and edging the independents out, plus the system is a known haven for smugglers and pirates. For this mission, you must select a highly skilled and experienced crew of IGS field scouts, one with exceptional skills not only in their crew specialties but also related skills like Vacc Suit and Zero-G Combat; you might even put a Scout Commander (O6/IS-15) in the pilot's seat, commanding the mission with her mix of Pilot-4 and Leader-3, due to its risks and sensitivity.

I likened the culture to that of my own experience in the National Park Service.

Coming from a background in the Park Service, I've seen how this works in a real-world organization, where a GS-9 ranger may move from sub-district ranger in a big park to district ranger or chief ranger in a smaller park or even superintendent of a small monument, or move out of visitor management and fire safety - the 'pine pig' side of the service - altogether to spend a couple of years as a district naturalist or chief interpreter - the 'fern feeler' naturalist-rangers - or working in an administrative role like concessions manager, to be qualified for superintendent of a 'crown jewel' park someday.

Field Scouts, like NPS park rangers, are comfortable switching hats with the needs of the mission: while I was working at Sequoia & Kings Canyon NPs, I participated in a major search where I worked logistics the first day, including running a helipad, helped place temporary radio repeaters with a CDF captain the day after that - to get SAR communications off the park operations channel - then participated as a search team member the next two, then lead two different search teams over the next four days. My duties and responsibilities were fluid, dictated by the needs of the search.

On this particular operation, the district ranger, second only to the chief ranger, was subordinate to a patrol ranger from another sub-district; the patrol ranger was the parks' search-and-rescue coordinator, and he was selected by the chief ranger to be incident commander over other rangers with higher pay-grades.

So what does this mean in terms of Scout culture? On the one hand, you subordinate your ego to the organization; in the NPS, your loyalty is to the Service first - attachment to a park or assignment is frowned upon.

On the other hand, there's a strong streak of self-reliance among Scouts, as with rangers, which often includes a touch of the daredevil; it was accepted that while, as rangers, we urged visitors to stick to trails and keep itineraries in the backcountry, we ourselves were often taking the most rugged cross-country routes and bagging the most technical peaks.

This combination of loyalty to the mission and an individualistic streak leads to an organization in which consensus is important; when you've got a bunch of sack-swingin' badasses in a room faced with a mission to tackle, simply barking orders won't hunt. Relevant experience is the gold standard, more highly prized than pay grade or which box you fill on an org chart.

In these situations, demonstrating competence is also important; I was EMS coordinator for a park attraction and struggled to get requests for supplies filled until I had a serious medical incident on my watch; I impressed the sub-district ranger with how I handled it, and anything I asked for I got after that.

The culture that results from this is one of respect for ability and achievement: sure, you're the 'Captain,' Big Guy, but it's your navigator who's been to this system before and knows the ins-and-outs, so let's listen to him, 'kay? Scouts are always looking for the smartest voice in the room, from situation to situation; often, it's their own.

 

[kilemall]

I agree with the second half of this sentence, but not the first. The Scouts have a hierarchical administration and operations supervision structure, but field operations are implemented using qualifications-based staffing. I provided an example of this in another thread awhile back

Easy there on the assumptions, cowboy. I read LBB6 too, when it came out, and referenced this re: the fun and inherent conflict of the bureaucracy vs. the idiosyncratic line scout, even in this thread re: detached duty ships.


But I also don't assume that everyone follows LBB6 or it's descendants, hence a nod to the proto-Scouts independent of the OTU.


Nice bit on the smartest voice in the room- exactly the sort of thing I have in mind with the Scout Jacket.

 

[kilemall]

A scout crew to me has always been Frank Poole and Dave Bowman along with other scientists on board. Sometimes frozen.

Well, that Planet of the Apes ship DOES look an awfully lot like a Type S...

 

[kilemall]

I dunno that I buy your line Epiccenter- I can sort of see the super yardgoat thing and unsavory consequences, but expert traders?


The original CT scouts didn't have Streetwise or other 'Other' skills, they are practically Space Monks in that they have all business/ship skills. They don't even have Gambling to increase their money benefits.


LBB6 has a bit more shifty skills available that might justify some of that, but certainly no mercantile skills.


If anything, the descendant Scout skill sets seem to pour on more of the science/exploration part.


So, probably a fun thing to put in if one is wanting a different flavor, or maybe one of those famous 'looks scummy from the outside/heroic from the inside' dichotomies, but the skill sets independent of the settings don't strongly suggest that line.

 

[GypsyComet]

I can sort of see the super yardgoat thing and unsavory consequences, but expert traders?

That is probably era-dependent, as some would need to be self-sufficient beyond the range of logistic support in earlier ages, while in the 1100s far survey types are much rarer.

I do understand where the idea comes from, though. Norton's Time Traders come across as very Scout-like, and do form part of the internal image of Scouts, to me at least.