[TML] Merchant Marine/Merchant Navy in Traveller(was Future wars will be run and won by computer control)

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 8/9/08 3:27 PM, "Garry Ward" <garry.e.ward at worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> Depends on where they came from in char gen. If they were Navy or Marine,
> they may have a reserve clause in their enlistment that makes them subject
> to recall. Or if they were Scouts on detached duty they could be called
> back.
> 
> Need to pay attention to their past careers. They may have made a deal with
> the devil to get something in char gen that'll be a nicely barbed hook to
> pull them where you want them later in life.
> 
> Could be a way to get a ship financed. Sign a Merchant Marine contract with
> the Imperial Bueauracy and the Imperium cosigns your loan (perhaps even
> helping put up the down payment) but you have to agree to a certain number
> of transports at the behest of the Imperial Navy, Marines, Scouts or Army
> each year.
> 
> Then, when ever you need to railro-- ensure they go where they need to be,
> invoke the contract to haul something somewhere.
> 
> Of course they could pass up the contract but that'd make it harder for them
> to get a ship.

Also, like I was saying in the other post, the order to duty has to catch up
to them.  If the financing system is fighting a war, and the players & ship
are several parsecs away, the system may have no reliable way to get orders
to them.  Or to enforce the order anyway.

That for a local system Merchant Marine.  Of course, if it's an Imperial
Merchant Marine, the Imperial Bureaucracy has enforcement powers.