I've always found the Other service in Classic Traveller to be an odd duck. A catch-all, civilian background that no player in his right mind would select for their character - unless they had to. :) (Missed the enlistment roll for a military service, rolled poorly in the draft, and you're stuck with the crappiest service).
Others have an easy roll for 'enlistment', survival, and reenlistment. But the lowest skill accumulation rate of any other service, no auto-acquired service skills, and sub-par mustering out benefits. Their skill tables are decidedly slanted towards potentially illicit activity (forgery, streetwise, gambling, bribery, brawling). With some serious dice-luck, and a decent education, you might get Medical, Electronics, Mechanical, or Computer.
I like the general idea of a civilian type service, but whenever I get the inspiration to run CT, I always get the urge to "fix" the Other. Either tweak the skill tables or subdivide it into general categories, but not go so far and specific as Supplement 4. Anyone use the Other RAW, and will staunchly defend the service to their grave?
I use "Other" RAW for Classic Traveller.
I don't really defend it, but it helps if you look at the science fiction of the time, most main characters were military or ex-military with several space merchants in there. The "Other" is the catch-all for everything else that is not that, which tended to be the criminal element.
It is an Odd Duck, which was expanded on in later supplements and editions.
"Other" looks to me like a down and outer, whether a professional criminal or just surviving on the mean streets.
I ditched Other when Citizens of the Imperium came out. However, before that, my house rule was that you automatically got Streetwise-1 for becoming an Other.
BTW, one of our later house rules was the ability to leave one service and try to enlist in another. Then, "Other" became what you did during the term that you failed to enlist into something else. AKA, we had characters who were Marine-2, Miner-1, Other-1 for their terms.
I think Mongoose Traveller has a quite nice solution to this - provide a nice range of civilian careers (much like Citizens of the Imperium, with some careers folded into specialisations in broader careers), and a "drifter" option for people who fail to get into anything they go for. Drifter terms don't get you heaps of interesting skills but they do seem to be open to some intriguing experiences.
It isn't too hard to use Mongoose Traveller career tables in the CT process too.
I like that Mongoose defines what other is, and makes a career out of it. A pretty cool one, too.
Quote from: Phillip;711292"Other" looks to me like a down and outer, whether a professional criminal or just surviving on the mean streets.
Yep. So much for post scarcity...
Quote from: Phillip;711292"Other" looks to me like a down and outer, whether a professional criminal or just surviving on the mean streets.
I've always seen Classic
Traveller's Other as two broad roads for the Character's career:
One, as Phillip describes above, is outside of the bureaucracy implied in the other careers. He wandered the stars, picking up skills of survival in a high-tech/low-social structure life.
The other, if part of the bureaucracy implied by the other careers, is part of spy trade/special ops. He is sent into worlds either as a diplomat (but not actually a diplomat), businessman to nab trade secrets for the government or gathering local intel, posing as a native at street level to spread disinformation or gather intel, and so on. The Other is the man or woman under the radar. Jason Bourne, CIA, MI5, Eric Bana's character from BLACK HAWK DOWN, what have you.
I've never assumed it was a dull civilian desk job at all.
Some of them Other careers that I really like to let players use for my games:
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/chargen/invismasses.html (http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/chargen/invismasses.html)
Yeah, well, one would think no one would want to play a Vagabond with Domestic Skills in RIFTS either, but I've seen it done brilliantly.
OD&D Hobbits "should anyone wish to play one..." or words to that effect.
For some reason when I hear "the other service" i think prostitution. I must be channeling Ian Warner or something...
C'mon, man! The Other service. Not, the Oldest service. ;)