Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Characters & Combat, page 21


Alright, now we get into the mustering-out benefits and what they actually mean. First up is retirement pay. It’s an annual pension of CR 4,000 plus 2,000 CR for every term after the fifth. JR served six terms, so he’s getting CR 6,000 annually. Interesting, Scouts don’t get retirement pay (talk about a ramshackle service), and neither do people in the Other category.

Next up is Travel Allowances, including some money. The different kinds of passages are now explained, with High, Medium and Low defined. High Passage is typical first-class stuff, with a nice luggage allotment of one ton. It’s not clear if using these passages is a one-time deal or if they are a permanent fixture; maybe that will be explained later on. If you want to buy this passage, it’s CR 10,000, which is pretty hefty.

Middle Passage is basically flying coach. No maid service, do your own laundry... and you can get bumped off if there are too many High Passage travelers. But the food is decent, at least. Better than airline food, I hope. Baggage limit is 100 kg, which should be alright unless you’re travelling with your wife. It costs CR 8,000 to fly Middle Passage on your own, but you’re more-or-less guaranteed to arrive alive…

…which cannot be said for Low Passage. It was scary enough before, but now it’s just Russian Roulette; eventually you’re going to die. Even the best doctor in the world only gets you a +1 DM to the survival roll (I misunderstood on the Medical skill and thought it was +1 for every level after 2). And if your endurance is low, you’re definitely risking everything. It’s not worth it, dude! Just shoot yourself in the head and save the CR 1,000 it costs to do this. As I said before, I would NEVER do this.

One thing that isn’t clear at this point: the text may be suggesting that these are one-time tickets, but it’s not explicitly stated. Maybe it will be explained later. For now, I’m going to assume these are one-timers only.

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