Player Character roles on a Starship?
I'm getting ready to run a game. The following issues have come up.
I am really opposed to the idea of a PC being the Captain of a ship. I would still like for the Characters to be Department Heads but the Captain will be an NPC.
It looks like we are going to have 6 Players and myself as the DM. So I am thinking great, all of the newer shows had about 7 main characters. However, the it was brought to my attention that if two players want to be Tactical Officers...then what?
I can think of other jobs for characters to play plenty that there shouldn't be a problem but how is this best handled? I can't say i have had to deal with it before the last game I had run had fewer players and so it wasn't an issue.
The other issue is...what do all the characters do? What is the easiest way to handle that? For example it will probably happen that a PC will be the First Officer although at least one of the players thinks that may be a bad idea as well but lets say during space combat what does a First Officer actually contribute other then sitting by the Captain?
I want to be sure to keep all the players interested in a session and happy. I suspect that most groups aren't as blessed as mine that has as many players as we do but on the flip side I am worried that blessing may become a curse if I am not careful.
Interested in opinions and past experiences of people. Thanks in advance.