On 30/8/25 11:55, Jim Vassilakos - jim.vassilakos at gmail.com (via tml
list) wrote:
> Our player in the Plankwell PBEM has an idea for a semi-secret
> organization operating WITHIN the Imperial Navy, called The Compact.
> He writes, "Every ship had an underground economy. There were too many
> hours in jump transit and naval crews were always overstrength due to
> likely combat. The best ships had organized shadow markets and strict
> rules enforced by the members of the compact. The Navy was a society
> of people primed for violence, and it did not stint on the pleasures
> that helped keep people in line." Also, "...as captain, my law was
> absolute, no one, not even the compact denied it, but as Haman (a new
> member of the crew), I was also now obliged to let the compact work.
> Thousands of years had settled the arrangement. Sometimes Haman would
> be asked to do a favor for the compact, sometimes I would ask a favor
> of the compact. Not every captain had the honor, but they were here,
> with the purple light, so another step for me in the compact."
>
> While I'd like to find a way to work this in, I'm initially somewhat
> skeptical, as I've always thought of the Imperial Navy as being the
> top-tier of the Imperial military, and to have a secret (or even
> semi-secret) organization running within it, one dealing in contraband
> and who knows what else, seems a bit unlikely. On the other hand, I've
> been told that some of the major street gangs have, at least over the
> last decade or two, infiltrated the U.S. Navy, but my understanding is
> that the Navy is trying to clamp down on this. How successful they've
> been, I have no idea. In any case, the player wrote, "the compact is
> what I imagine the mafia and yakuza have evolved into," the key word
> here being "evolved". It seems the proposal is that it's a bit of an
> open secret, but I'm still not sure.
>
> What do you all think?
>
Jim,

I guess one difference would be, IYTU, whether the IN is officially
"dry" (a la the USN) or "wet" (a la the RN - apparently was some
interesting times when the RN's carrier forces cross-decked to USN
carriers to keep their hand in while the Old Dart built some).  More fun
could ensue if that differs by, say, domain or sector, where personnel
previously from a location with one transfer to a location with the other.

Winchell Chung, at
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/humanfactor.php , under
the heading "Space Booze", posits that _some_ form of alcohol will be a
(near-)inevitability shipboard.

Given that, I can see _some_ regulation (official or otherwise) evolving
to better-regulate the "night shift" - if desired gubbins aren't
supplied by official channels or benignly-neglected semi-official ones,
they _will_ be supplied, possibly in a manner the chain of command may
not like.   It may not go as far IYTU as your player's concept may
indicate, but IMV, a balance would evolve over the decades/centuries.

IMGTU, the IN is officially "wet" (it doesn't _exist_ in the
Advisoryverse), with the major guideline being "Enjoy yerself, but turn
up to work with a clear head."

Back in 2010, the game I was running had the PCs and their 400-dton J-4
boot operating into the Islands cluster out of Cerebin in the 1140s,
after Reft had been bridged at significantly lower operational cost than
what Mongoose ultimately ran with. The ship's subcargo was "Naturally" -
one of my longest-standing NPCs, who got his start as a
supernaturally-gifted IMF divisional supply sergeant, illustrated by (in
an earlier game):

PC general (Unified Army of the Five Sisters): "Where'd them fighters
come from, Naturally?"

Naturally (IMF): "Naval base, sir!"

PC: (groan) "Do they _know_ they're gone?"

The players in the 2010 game were quite intrigued by the cabin that
Naturally shared with Largo - specifically, the armoured fume cupboard
the pair had finangled in said cabin.  Turned out that fume cupboard had
independent pressure, gravity and temperature control, and contained,
surprise surprise, a rather beefy still. Naturally, being the scrounger
extraordinaire, kept the still supplied with raw materials while Largo
was the not-quite-master distiller.  There was usually two or three
washes fermenting in their cabin at any one time, and a rather large
feints keg.

The pair openly paid off the captain, one Commander Richard Robert Roll,
IN, ret, with the _second_ bottle from each batch - the _first_ bottle
went to the medics to verify it was safe to consume.  Doctors
Visarikaa-Lanashraa (a PC) and Iwakura (IN, ret) quite liked this
setup.  Everyone else had to buy their bottles.

Given the time, yes, the players made _all_ the jokes about the captain
never giving them up, running them around, or hurting them.  The
captain's response?  "I've heard far worse jokes made about my name."

Alex