When to get a ship?

[Black Armos]

If you had a player at Lt Commander (First Officer), how long would you take before giving them a command of their own? We have had about 7 episodes and I was just wondering. I am the Narrator, not the player of the character.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Depends on the ship. A small scoutship or surveyor might be commanded by a Commander. At the very least, they have to pass the Bridge Officer's test.

[Black Armos]

Bridge Officers Test? The character is the First Officer of an Ambassador-class. Is that what you mean? I was trying to think of a way to give the player command for a limited time and see how he does. Just don't know how. More than a game seesion at least.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

The Bridge Officer's test. Although presumably if they're the XO, they've already taken it.

You could take the Captain out of commission for a while. Kidnapping, alien possession, disease, injury...

Alternatively, there could be a situation where they are forced to take command (being the highest ranking officer, or most experienced or something) to resolve it.

[Shoshuro]

Depends on the person as well, look how long it took Spock and Riker to get their own command. Others on the other hand just fall into it like Picard.

[LUGTrekGM]

For me, it depends on the needs of the campaign.

If thus guy is slated to command a ship, and is the higest ranked player, then do this:

The NPC captain says look, there's a new command opening up, on [name the border or frontier].

Much as I'd like you to stay, I've recommended you for command of the vessel, and the rest of the bridge staff as your senior officers. Starfleet wants to rotate the ship out of this mission, and use this vessel as a training command.

Of course, I'd prefer you and the rest to remain here.

What would you like to do?

[C5]

If you want to test how the player (not the character) fares as commanding a ship, you can either have the Captain out of the picture for a while, as suggested (kidnapped, ill, on holidays, on a diplomatic mission while the ship have to go elsewhere to answer an emergency...), or have the XO take a temporary command of a smaller ship, for instance to deliver it from Utopia Planitia to a starbase where the regular captain is supposed to take command. Of course, some adventures will happen on the way and if the player fares well, then either he keeps the ship (the intended captain doesn't want the command for one reason or another), or Starfleet Command offers him command of another ship soon thereafter.
There is also the emergency scenario: the XO is flung somewhere with a crippled crew and a starship, and have to take command as he's the higher ranking officer.

If the question is related to Starfleet regulations, I guess a Lt-Cmdr with a commanding experience can hope for the command of a small ship (crew of 200 or 300). I don't remember seeing an officer ranking below Commander captaining a ship. An exception to this could be if your adventures happen during the Dominion War, where every officer still alive will be needed.

[Tobian]

Well technically an ensign can take command of any ship, in the right circumstances, but it's fairly rare.. Typically a ship is put under the command of the minimum of a LT Commander, though in war that might be lowered. One example I can think of is the episode 'Ensigns of command' from DS9, where a bunch of cadets were given brevet promotions when most of the actual crew died!

You could plan out a special episode where your officer gets a 'special mission' such as when Data gets the command of the Sutherland in 'Redemption', to give him a taste of command, without breaking continuity and having to breakup the command structure of the ship (if you don't want too). You could also have him break away, with perhaps your other players, on a large shuttle for a special mission, or leave them behind on a planet/ space station, and have the main ship fly off, giving them a taste of command.

There's no reason a First Officer can't become a Captain if something happens to the present captain, especially if it's a long mission (out on a 5 year deep space mission!) if only temporarily.

In the case of a ship attached to a Facility (like the Defiant was) there's no issue with a lieutenant commander can't take control really, especially if the facility commander has to ... run his facility

[The Tatterdemalion King]

"ensigns of command" actually had no ensigns, and Data was doing the commanding. You're thinking of "Valiant."

[Tobian]

Doh, yes I am, my Trek Fu is waning, I should get them on DVD but I was thinking of Data on the Sutherland in Redemption

[Black Armos]

Great posts everyone. They help a lot.

How about this as an idea.

Background: The crew's ship was just attacked by the Romulans because they were testing a working cloak detector (see A Fragile Peace Adventure Book). The Romulans took the device, data and Vulcan scientist who invented the cloak detector. The players assumed the Vulcan must then be the spy they knew was on the ship (because of a rather vocal player). They could also not pursue the Romulans because their propulsion system was offline.

New Idea: A few episodes from now the players are informed the Vulcan High Council is furious one of their top scientists was captured. The players are then ordered by Starfleet to take the USS Armstrong, a saber-class vessel, into Romulan space to rescue the scientist. The ship will be the players for a limited time and commanded by the player in question.

So what do you guys think?

[C5]

I think there should be a reason why the regular Captain of the Armstrong could not command his ship.

It's a minor concern : the Armstrong could have been docked at a nearby starbase waiting for a replacement crew, and the PC's regular ship having to deal with an emergency somewhere else, leaving the Armstrong as the only available ship in the area.

Of course, you can complicate matters with for instance having the Vulcan scientist's research requiring complete secrecy and thus needing to put as few people as possible in the know (I don't know if it matches your background), or be more devious with the Armstrong being a decoy sent here while the Vulcan Intelligence tries to recover the scientist on its own (and will of course end up in need of the player's help).

[Black Armos]

In my game, the Armstrong is to Starbase 234 like the Defiant is to Deep Space 9. The players also know it is there but are not currently assigned to it. Does that help any?

Also, I like the idea of the Vulcan team and only using Starfleet personal already in the know.

The Vulcan team could be a clue that the Vulcan High Council has lost some faith in Starfleet after the Dominion War (whether that is true or not).

[Jem'hadar]

The short answer is let the PC take the Bridge Officer's test whenever you, in your infinite wisdom as GM, determine it's appropriate to your campaign. Maybe now or maybe several more episodes or maybe never.

Personally, I prefer the Captain to be a GM character so I can have some control over the PCs missions. Assuming the PCs are all Starfleet crew, then STRPG is a little different from your standard RPG in that the PCs are not freelance adventurers. They're members of a highly structured, military-like organization. They have rules & regulations to follow & must comply w/ orders from superior officers. They can't just decide not to go on a mission or beat up an uncooperating witness who they're interrogating (well, at least not w/o consequences).

With that said, I prefer to keep the Captain a GM character to so I can give them instructions for their missions, to keep them on track when they go too far off on a tangent, to give them someone to report to, & to remind them of Starfleet regulations & Federation laws.

I think it's realistic if the Starfleet PCs never get their own ship to command b/c there are hundreds of thousands of officers in Starfleet but only a limited number of ships to command.

Of course, the PCs could always quit Starfleet, get their own ship, choose their own captain, & chart their own course. But then you'd have a different sort of campaign.

[Evan van Eyk]

Erm, Command Branch officers don't take the Bridge Officer test. They have it, especially when they are XO's of ships, because they are supposed to take command whenever needed. So there is no need for a test.
Troi had to take the test because she was not in the Command Branch, but still had to show the ability to take command if necessary to reach the rank of Commander.

However a very brilliant reaction within a critical situation can of course convince Starfleet Command to give someone a Comanding position.

As a sidenote you also need not be Captain to command a ship. Dax was CO of Defiant during the Dominion War for some time, Sisko himself was only a Commander when he took over DS9.