Ship Captain PC's

[IceGiant]

The reason I went with a small ship was to allow the ship captain to be a PC, and not have to run 2 games. The captian side and the away-team side. Is there any other way to let TNG-DS9 era captains to be able to do the away missions instead of being forced to stay on the bridge because it might be too "dangerous"?

[Evan van Eyk]

Yes, lets call it an "order".

If the Captain decides to leave the ship, he leaves. He is the ruler of the ship and therefore what he says is more or less law. He therefore can decide to ignore Starfleet regulations. Because it is only a regulation that the CO should not lead an away team into hostile situations, it is no standing order of Starfleet Command.
there is nothing anybody onboard can do to stop the Captain from leading an away team.

[Pantoufle]

It may be possible that the CO has more expertise in the matter at hand then the XO.

For exemple a diplomatic crisis in a warzone or something, the obviously more experienced CO should take care of it even if there is possible danger.

[redwood973]

I wonder. . .do you think captains of small ships (say Oberth or Saber classes which would probably have a CDR or LTCDR as captain) would be free from such limitation?

[Phoenix]

Icegiant, another way to resolve the problem of getting all your players on both away missions and bridge time is the troupe style of play. Everyone has more than one character.

In the game I run the player that runs the captain also has the senior enlisted engineer and a vulcan councilor.
His wife has the Senior Helm, CMO, and an Operations officer.
Another player has taken over characters his GF ran when she moved to Florida, so he now plays Head of Security, Chief Engineer, Intel-operitive, 2 science personel, and a Red-Shirt...security.
Lastly my wife has the Chief Science Officer, an enlisted engineer, and a field medical officer.

All players are involved in the command meetings, as well as having below-decks typesand away-team characters.

In order to keep some GM-ly in-game power, I have the XO.

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

*blinks* That almost sounds like ambitions in chaos there Phoenix.

I've been lucky, the players of the CO's of my ships have always understood that to capture the feel of TNG, they might occassionally have to step back from the action.

However, I usually found ways to keep if not their character, the player themselves involved though I am a TOS baby so I had no problem with the Captains taking a more active role. The most recent campaign was somewhat Voyager-like so the Captain ended up being in the thick of it quite often as the ship was cut off from the Federation in semi-hostile territory.

The game would likely still be going if the majority of the group did not end up moving.

Another thought is stick the campaign during the Dominion War as a number of ideals tended to go by the wayside and as Pantoufle stated perhaps the Captain has a great deal of experience with something. Let us say in this case a race or power of some minor note.

Set up a static campaign by ordering the PC vessel into the sector because Starfleet is seeing signs that the area is destablizing and they fear what would happen if things truly broke out as they are already stretched to the limit. In essence, they are there to put out the brush fires before it turns into a completely out of control bonfire.

It would require a bit more prep work on the Narrator's part as he has to prepare the material that the captain needs to know about the region well in advance but you could have a number of scenarios that slowly uncover the real reasons behind the destablization and the crew is forced to counteract these efforts and bring calm to the region.

Perhaps the Captain is personally known to some of the planetary regents and they insist dealing with him. Perhaps the XO needs more bridge command time to season him out, if he is an NPC that is.

Just a couple of thoughts at any rate.

Regards,
CKV.

[IceGiant]

Originally posted by redwood973
I wonder. . .do you think captains of small ships (say Oberth or Saber classes which would probably have a CDR or LTCDR as captain) would be free from such limitation?

I don't think the captain's "actual" rank matters Red, except that he is the captain. My thought though is that on small ships you don't have the crew luxury of sending down "others". So the captain gets a "get out of the command chair " free card . Sisko and the defiant being a prime example. My players complained the Ju'day is too small (crew 12) so I may have to bump them up to a defiant in the end.
Which means their ship probablyt will have an "accident"

[IceGiant]

Originally posted by Capt. K. Vaughn
However, I usually found ways to keep if not their character, the player themselves involved though I am a TOS baby so I had no problem with the Captains taking a more active role. The most recent campaign was somewhat Voyager-like so the Captain ended up being in the thick of it quite often as the ship was cut off from the Federation in semi-hostile territory.

*sigh* If I was still living in Medicine Hat CKV, I'd so be in on that campaign

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

How long ago was that IceGiant?

I moved from the Hat almost 12 years ago to Calgary.

[Owen E Oulton]

Is there any other way to let TNG-DS9 era captains to be able to do the away missions instead of being forced to stay on the bridge because it might be too "dangerous"?

Go back and watch the episode of TNG where Riker and Picard discuss this - it's NOT the default in Starfleet, it's an arrangement that riker specifically had with his commanding officers. If it had been Starfleet's SOP, Riker would not have had to make such a deal about it with Picard. Therefore, there is no reason a captain should not participate in any Away Team mission he wants to go on.

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

Originally posted by Owen E Oulton
Is there any other way to let TNG-DS9 era captains to be able to do the away missions instead of being forced to stay on the bridge because it might be too "dangerous"?

Go back and watch the episode of TNG where Riker and Picard discuss this - it's NOT the default in Starfleet, it's an arrangement that riker specifically had with his commanding officers. If it had been Starfleet's SOP, Riker would not have had to make such a deal about it with Picard. Therefore, there is no reason a captain should not participate in any Away Team mission he wants to go on.

It was either Best of Both Worlds or the two-parter dealing with the Vulcan Psionic-artifact that indicates that Riker cannot lead the away team because he is now the Captain and I believe someone does quote a regulation at him.

I do not have time to double check the actual episodes though.

Regards,
CKV.

[Thanatos]

Originally posted by Capt. K. Vaughn
It was either Best of Both Worlds or the two-parter dealing with the Vulcan Psionic-artifact that indicates that Riker cannot lead the away team because he is now the Captain and I believe someone does quote a regulation at him.

I do not have time to double check the actual episodes though.

Regards,
CKV.

I'm pretty sure that was Best of Both Worlds and, if memory serves, it was Data that pointed it out to him. That particular away mission was, I think, the one where they first actually saw Locutus (sp?), right before the big deflector attack.

Still, I think Starfleet captains, at least major character ones, have a pretty well documented history of ignoring certain regulations that conflict with their personal command style (or deny them a drink of choice at diplomatic meetings) so... I'd think any PC qualifies as a "major character" by default and thus is probably going to be brushing off certain regulations as long as he can get away with it

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

Agreed Thanatos. As long as everyone is comfortable with it and it works for their game, go to town and enjoy.

Regards,
CKV.

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by Thanatos
I'd think any PC qualifies as a "major character" by default and thus is probably going to be brushing off certain regulations as long as he can get away with it

This of course applies to all characters regardless of rank.

Got a Captain, XO, Engineer and Klingon Diplomat on your crew. These are the guys that will attend all away teams, whether they be Diplomatic, combat or scientific based. All the narrator needs are appropriate red-shirts to fill in the gaps and show them how the monsters work.

[IceGiant]

Originally posted by Capt. K. Vaughn
How long ago was that IceGiant?

I moved from the Hat almost 12 years ago to Calgary.

Hmmmm, I graduated from Hat High in '87, and moved to Nova Scotia in '88 or '89 so 15 or 16 years ago.

My real name is Chris Stansbury if that rings any bells