On 05Jul2020 1700, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
> With the laughable pensions and the limited mustering out $ from some
> careers, there's probably not the option to (unless you want to live
> in penury). Plus if you might live to 75 or 80 in good health, there's
> not a lot of reason to retire after 2 terms if you fail a classic
> traveller re-enlistment roll.
>
> You can't really talk about 'retirement' until you've got 4 terms in
> and that is pretty modest. A fair % of CT characters will kick out
> (esp in some careers) before term 4.
Book 3 informs us that an 'ordinary' living standard costs Cr200/month
for good food and another Cr200/month for good lodgings, or Cr400/month
total. Cr5,000/year provides for that and some new clothes, etc.
(assuming they're not part of the 'lodgings'). Subsistence level is
Cr3,600/year, and a bare minimum is Cr1,440. 'High Living' is
10,800/year. It would appear that if you're not one of the mega-rich or
the destitute, expenditures are actually fairly flat.

Anyway, this means that a 5-term pension (the minimum) buys Subsistence
living (which is actually 'reasonable food' and 'acceptable lodging'),
which seems reasonable for a minimal pension. 6-7 terms buys ordinary
living and extras, 8 terms nearly buys you high living. While it's quite
possible to muster out with next to nothing (take no cash rolls, get
nothing but stat increases on the benefits table), it's also possible to
roll 30 years' living costs from your three cash rolls, and that's
enough to live off the interest from investing the cash.

And you know what? That's probably why half the PC are adventuring -
they didn't luck out, and thus when they left or got fired they were
forced to do something most people in the Imperium don't have to do - go
and do one-off jobs hoping for a decent pay-out, or join a dodgy merchie
and hope it makes enough that they get paid, and otherwise do all those
things that people comfortable in their homes with their nice regular
jobs call 'adventure'.
> As he read it, it reminded me of the sort of business culture (and the
> overall culture that leads to that business culture) that the Vilani
> would really get into.
>
> Maybe the Solomani should have been able to change careers but the
> Vilani would have a harder time doing that as they do have the 'with
> the company/service' until I die or retire just slightly before dying....
And remember that while the Imperial elite might be relatively
'Solomani' in attitude, most of the Imperium is still quite Vilani in
culture.
>
>     MegaTraveller was the same, though both's extended chargen had going
>     through tertiary education as an option as part of the first term.
>
>
>     Now, TNE allowed career changes, along with choosing skills and a
>     number
>     of other not-Traveller things.
>
>     Mongoose Traveller allows a career change (and borrows the idea of
>     involuntary career changes from TNE).
>
>
> Some of those (at least in MgT 1 and some of the 3rd party support
> books) included the wonderful involuntary career change of 'go to
> prison!'. ;)
It's in TNE too (inherited from TW2000 I think, and if not, them from
Dark Conspiracy). Every term as a criminal, check to see if you next is
prisoner.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>