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Thread: Branches and Rank

  1. #1
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    Question Branches and Rank

    Do you have to be a member of the Command Branch before you can reach the rank of Captain or higher or is your branch totally unimportant?
    I´m asking bacause I think that I´ve once seen a TNG Admiral with a golden uniform.

    Any comment would be appreciated.

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  2. #2
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    any branch can make it to admiral, but that doesn't mean they can snag command. A medical admiral (surgeon-admiral), would have command over the medical branch, for instance. Science admirals would probably be responsible for very select research/exploration programs. Engineering admirals would probably have either command of a production line or development program. Going off of the navy tradition, I assume that an officer going for captain in these positions needs a 'sea tour'; they have to go to space for at least a tour. Then they can do their desk duty til death or retirement do they part. (One character is currently doing his 'ship tour', following an entire career at Utopia Planitia...he wasn't happy.)
    Ops I run differently: ops people become command officers past a certain point, I would think (completion of bridge duty or command school, if you need the rules). For my players, once they hit a certain position -- operations officer -- they move from ops into command (ops officer is a command position in the navy...)
    Hope that helps you.

  3. #3
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    Sorry...didn't realize how pobscure that beginning part was.

    Non-command admirals would not have STARSHIP command...then follow the examples. If they go to starship command, they become command officers.

    Once again, this is based almost solely on the US & UK navies.

  4. #4
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    For clarity sake.

    Starfleet (like most military or quasi-military organizations) have both line and non-line officers.

    Line officers are command branch or command qualified officers who will ultimately command starships and will have more chance to end up as an Admiral.

    Non-line officers are officers in specialities like engineering, science and medical. They can rise to admiral rank but will never command but may end up heading their branch.

    They can reach the rank of Captain and be assigned to a ship as department head but will not command (remember Scotty was actually a Captain during STIII-VI as was Spock) they'll be referred to a "Captain of Engineering" say to signify that they are branch captains and not line captains and therefore not eligable for command.

    Although such postings will be exceedingly rare. Captains of Engineering will usually be assigned to starbases or shipyards rather than active starship although a new experimental type may have a Captain of Engineering on board during its shakedown period and maybe just beyond especially if radical technology is being introduced.

    It may be possible for a Doctor to command a medical ship (but Beverly Crusher was a qualified line officer) or a science officer to command a science vessel but such assignments are rare as without command qualification and certification, Starfleet would not trust them with command except in exceptional circumstances.

    Ultimately command training is a must for all characters regardless of branch. If you use the optional rules in the Player's Guide that would mean qualifying as a bridge officer (ie: able to stand watch) check out the TNG episode "THINE OWN SELF" for bridge quals (required of and ultimately command school (culminating in the Kobiyashi Maru test for those who did not take the test as part of command branch training).

  5. #5

    Unhappy

    Hi

    I'm a French Game Master and after month of talk I'v finaly managed to motivate my players to play a Game of
    TNG.

    A few questions Are bogging me.

    Where can I find a suitable repartition of the crew of the star ships.
    -spaciality.
    -hierarchy(enseign lieutenant).
    -male/female repartition.
    -repartition of species onbord
    -shifts.
    -How come the officers are on duty at the same time?
    -Who does the job the rest of the time?
    -Are the enseign working in different sections
    Well how come we only see 1/10 maximum of the crew in each episode.
    Where are the others Hiding.
    Does everyone have a big room on the ship or only the main caracters?

    It's enough fo a start

    Terry

  6. #6
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    A french guy, a french guy! I feel less lonely now that Cracou left (unless he's just in lurk mode).

    I think that these questions may find their answers in the upcoming Spacedock.pdf, but only Steve Long or a playtester may confirm. Some info about ship's life can be found in the Player's Guide too.

    About Rooms it seems that Ensign have shared rooms (2 people) and Lt jr have their own room. In the episode "Lower Decks" we saw Ensign Lavel wishing he would be promoted to have his own room (If I remember Correctly) while he was sharing it with the Vulcan Ensign. I suppose that for enlisted crewmen it's an all different story with 4 people in bunkbeds (enlisted officer like O Brien surely have their own room though).

    ------------------
    Hoping You'll understand all of this

    [This message has been edited by Lee T (edited 11-13-2000).]

  7. #7
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    O'Brien has his own room mainly because he has a wife and child...you can't expect the wife and kid to bunk with the rest of the crew...

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  8. #8
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    Bienvenue, Terry! (Did I spell that right? High School in Canada was a long time ago.) I know you'll find at least one of your countrymen around here if you have trouble translating. That means you, Lee T (nudge nudge).

    There's a thread titled "Crew Compliment?" in the Narrator's Ready Room forum that has a lot of good info on crew size and duties. That will probably answer a lot of your questions.

    We don't see more than 1/10th of the crew because it would cost money to hire that many actors and costume them. There are nameless characters who are sometimes seen taking over a station when a main character leaves, or leaving a station when a main character takes over; these are probably the people who run things when the main characters are off duty.

    In ST6, there are scenes that show crew quarters with several bunk beds in each room on the Enterprise-A. Most of the Defiant's quarters seem to have one set of bunkbeds. On the Enterprise-D, we know at least some of the ensigns share quarters; the episode Lower Decks included a conversation with a Vulcan ensign telling a human that they didn't have to be roommates if he wasn't happy.

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  9. #9

    Exclamation

    Hi again,

    thank you for the answers.
    I compared the notes found sowhere else on the crew, but they say some are enlisted and everyone I saw on the TNG DS9 or votager have all a rank of at least enseign.

    So how do you recognise people enlisted who are not officers?
    What is doing the security when rhere is no attack?

    I forgot to specify that I speak English fluently but forget some words when people speak french around me.
    Terry

  10. #10
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    Enlisted crewmen don't have the same insignia. O'Brien is an enlisted (although his status is really clear only in DS9). You can find the enlisted rank insignia proposed by Don in the Tactical section of this site.

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    Hoping You'll understand all of this

  11. #11
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    Lightbulb

    Rank insignia continues to be one of the problem spots of continuity in Star Trek. The officer ranks are common knowledge, the enlisted are a huge mess. This is complicated by the fact that Gene Roddenberry flatly stated there were no enlisted in Starfleet -- I guess ensigns scrubbed the decks with everyone else.

    DS9 complicated matters by solidifying, quite clearly, that O'Brien was an enlisted officer.

    So, to the point, what about all these people walking around who are 40+ in the background who are ensigns?

    I prefer to think of these individuals as Chief Warrant Officers, with a CWO2 having a rank insignia of a "hollow pip," easily mistaken at a distance as an ensign. (Page 211 of the Encylopedia, 3rd edition.)

    Also, for the proposed enlisted insignias (found here at TrekRPGNet), I intentionally gave "Recruits" no insignia, allowing for the loophole of persons onscreen without any insignia at all! (Yes, there have been more than a few.)

    The real explanation is, of course, that the unnamed crewman walking through a scene got whatever uniform the prop department had lying around -- and they didn't give a rat's ass what insignia was on it or continuity.

    Yea, that chapter was a real joy to write...

    As what security is doing when they aren't at red alert (and all the enlisted guys), I refer you to the "Players' Guide" which has a whole chapter on life in Starfleet and what goes on off screen. (That was more fun to write.)

    Don

  12. #12
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    **I think that these questions may find their answers in the upcoming Spacedock.pdf, but only Steve Long or a playtester may confirm. Some info about ship's life can be found in the Player's Guide too.**

    There's a whole section in SPACEDOCK addressing crew complements by ship category (Explorer, Frigate, etc.), with breakdowns by department and officer/enlisted. There's also a (if I do say so myself) nifty li'l random crewmember generation table.

    However, I doubt that the information I provide will satisfy more than a tiny percentage of Trek gamers. If you don't accept my assumptions about the composition of Starfleet -- and gamers being gamers, and Trek fans being Trek fans, I doubt many will -- then my breakdowns won't necessarily work for you. But they'll at least provide a starting point for discussion, and methodology for people who prefer to come up with their own tables.

    Steve Long


  13. #13
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    Our campaign uses a buttload of enlisted. Most ships have a 2/10 officer/elisted ratio: the enlisted guys are the ones that clean hte ship, do the laundry, fix your sonic shower, etc...

    On science oriented vessels, the ratio is skewed much heavier toward officers or civilians.

    Especially with the stingent academy entrance exams, Starfleet would have a bunch of talented people who either had no interest in going htrough the academy or couldn't pass the exams.

    My opinion, 'course...

  14. #14
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    Don said...
    "This is complicated by the fact that Gene Roddenberry flatly stated there were no enlisted in Starfleet..."

    Sorry to contradict you here, jefe, but Gene never said anything of the sort. What he said was that everyone in Starfleet was a fully trained astronaut. Stephen Poe (writing as Stephen Whitfield) is the one who interpreted that as meaning they were all officers. In point of fact, enlisted personnel appeared throughout TOS, as evidenced by such characters as CPO Garrison, Crewman Gaetano and Technician Fisher.

  15. #15

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    Originally posted by Owen E Oulton:
    In point of fact, enlisted personnel appeared throughout TOS, as evidenced by such characters as CPO Garrison, Crewman Gaetano and Technician Fisher.

    And of course Yeoman Janice Rand.


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    Dan.

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