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Red Shirts, Marines, Officers... ??
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Dal Downing
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Joined: 06 May 2008
Posts: 647
Location: Western Wisconsin

PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 3:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am sure KP still exsist just not the way you would expect. Just like there are thousands and thousand of menial jobs to do like cleaning the head or scrubbing the shuttles. As far as "Gaurd Duty" goes I am rather fond of confining someone to their quaters when they are not on duty. And when they are finish with their primary duty gthey can stand watch IN the Reclamation Center of Environmental Services. That's how you know you really screwed up.
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Jeffr0
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Joined: 19 Jun 2009
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 3:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Steve Cole wrote:
There are always going to be young cadets who are "marked for higher things" like Robert E Lee and George B McClellan were.

In peacetime, combat officers rotate through staff jobs l ike supply and personnel. During wartime, those guys move to new warships and star fleet brings in zillions of civilians to do human resources and supply work and so forth as Limited Duty Officers. So it depends on wartime or peacetime.


That's the theme I want. Young officers (probably) marked for higher things. But they can't be babied too much or they'll be wasted. (See David Weber's Shadows of Saganami for an example.) So... they have to do risky things and do the OJT stuff to slowly become ready for the authority that they only technically have at the beginning of the campaign. (Also... this is an excuse to allow the GM to learn about officer life slowly and along with the players instead of starting out in a high powered campaign where everyone is already awesome and knows everything.)

So in the course of the campaign, you have the potential for an arc where the characters grow into "real" officer responsibilities and learn about the costs of that responsibility. (Basically... Aragorn's arc in the LotR movies... but with characters where that theme and arc actually fits.)

Of course, PC's also have the potential of washing out or getting courtmarshaled for stupidity....

Edit: The PC's will be replacement officers on a Fed CA... replacing casualties. They are drawn together because they are all new together and are getting up to speed together. One of the players can be a Marine officer, but the rest will be naval officers being groomed for bridge positions. The marine will hang with the naval officers because he is new as well in spite of any traditional barrier between naval and marine folks.

It is post TOS TV five-year-mission era, but before the general war. Feds are only just reacting to the increased intensity of the Klingon Border following the treaty of smarba.
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Sgt_G
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Joined: 07 Oct 2006
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Location: Offutt AFB, Nebraska

PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jeff,

I like the basic concept for your campaign except for the part about the player-characters "replacing casualties". If the setting is "between wars", then it's more likely that they are routine assignments. If you want to go with the casualties idea, you could say that the ship had an accident or ran into a space monster rather than direct combat against Klingons Romulans.

The characters don't have to be all straight out of academy; for most of them this could be a second assignment but first time as starship duty. It depends on how many points you give them to spend up-front. If they are all brand-new Butter Bars, then you want to put them on a larger ship (nothing smaller than a CL) because a smaller ship would not have billets for more than perhaps two or three uncertified Ensigns / 2Lt at one time.

There's nothing wrong with the Marine officer interacting with Fleet officers. In fact, the stronger barrier is between Marine officers and enlisted, so who else is the poor guy supposed to socalize with?

One suggestion: if you have a particualy strong player (as in strong-willed, the natural leader of the group), put his character into a support role. I was going to say make him the ship's assistant logistics officer, but that doesn't give a reason to beam down with the landing party. Maybe a junior communications officer or shuttle-craft co-pilot. His character will hate it because he thinks his talents are being "wasted" (not realizing this give him a well-rounded background for his future as a ship's captain), and it will tone down the player's ability to dominate the group-think.

Don't forget to make one of the NPCs a crusty old Chief Petty Officer that the young officers can turn to for advice. He won't give advice freely unless asked (except to prevent the character from blowing up the ship and killing everyone), for he believes in letting officers make "Ensign mistakes" while they're still Ensigns. He knows that if young officers are coddled too much, they won't get the stupids out of their system, and then when they make CMDR and don't have anyone to hold their hand, they'll make Ensign-level mistakes but with Commander-level results. So, this Chief will help those Ensigns who are smart enough to know they don't know anything and are willing to ask for advice.
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Jeffr0
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Joined: 19 Jun 2009
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah... instead of casualties... it'll be replacing people that retired, transferred or got promoted to another ship or command. (You'd be glad to go from Navigator on a CA to being XO of a DD, right?) Nothing dramatic. Well... except for what happened to that guy on Talos III. But other than that....

I wish I could reread Honor Among Enemies and Shadows of Saganami before the con....
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