Command branch - WTH do they do?

[C5]

I have some difficulties to have an idea of the exact job of an officer in the command branch (apart from the CO and XO, of course).
I'm using the basic templates from the TNG core book, and one of my player took this branch for his character. So far, I see the job of a command officer as one of supervision and coordination; for instance, the officer could have the responsibility of an away team mission (but my player thinks he could boss everyone on such an occasion, so I would need something more specific to see to wich extent he could do that).

Could you please tell me how you use command officers in your games (and what would mean the Department head advantage for a command officer - does that mean he's CO or XO?)?

Thanks in advance.

[Dan Stack]

Never used it in any of my games - all the command officers have come from other branches and "multi-classed" (ducks and covers) into command functionality with experience.

[ghosty]

Command branch characters tend to fill roles in the administration and logistics in my games. Remember that the conn officer is usually command branch - in my game conn is a command function and under the command branch and not ops.

The best way to handle command branch characters is to rotate them around each branch to give them a general feel of what each branch does.Command characters are flexible and should move around to learn every aspect of ship handling and command to make them better executive officers and captains later.

[Captain Zymmer]

Well this is the problem of color coding and the ambigous nature of the TNG posistions.

In TOS there were Command/Helm/Navigation all wearing Gold and the Engineers, COmmunciations and Security wearing Red.

Now we have Command in Red, Conn in red, but Conn officers are part of Ops? So they should wear gold...but they don't etd...

Geordi goes from Conn to Chief Engineer, Worf from Conn to Tactical Security.

Why does Starfleet invest in training these folks?

[Dan Stack]

If my knowledge of US Navy procedure is correct, I believe that wearing many hats over one's career is actually a fairly common circumstance. For example, to be a CO or XO of a nuclear submarine, I believe you must first be a chief engineer. Navy vets, feel free to correct me.

[Captain Zymmer]

True enough I guess, but for a Helmsman to become Chief Engineer seems a bit odd, especially considering the amount of trainng they recieve..though I may be off on this as well.

[Phantom]

Originally posted by Captain Zymmer
True enough I guess, but for a Helmsman to become Chief Engineer seems a bit odd, especially considering the amount of trainng they recieve..though I may be off on this as well.

Depends on what their "major and minors" were at the Academy. I can see someone who is mainly trained as an engineer taking Conn classes, and vice versa. I think that was one thing they did very well in TNG, showing that a member of a starship crew needs to be crossed trained...Worf had training in engineering systems (Geordi asked for his assistance on at least one occassion) and Troi took the Bridge Officers course, which gave her a smattering of training covering the whole shipboard spectrum.

Plus the VISOR would give Geordi a big advantage in Material Engineering.

[Dan Stack]

Actually, if I recall correctly, helmen tend to be enlisted in the US Navy (again, someone with knowledge beyond my reading of numerous early Tom Clancy books please correct me).

However, I do believe the path of navigator->chief engineer->xo->co is fairly common for nuclear submarines.

[ghosty]

Actually being a nuclear engineer is a requirement to be a Captain of a nuclear powered submarine in the USN. Its a holdover from the early days of nuclear propulsion. Much like in the USN only qualified aviators can command an aircraft carrier. Most of these little requirements sprang up to keep others out of the sandbox more than anything else.

Changing branches and designations are fairly common. Most officers are required to know something about everything on their ship before rising to command so they tend to get posted around a lot - while obviously their early years will be in the specialty they studied at the Academy but ultimately they'll pick up additional skills as they go along so that they can fill additional roles who can forget Troi's little adventure in ship handling in Generations - if the counselor (with little cross-training) can land the bloody saucer section in an emergency, anyone can.

Training is not a problem with modren hypno and sleep learning techniques and with holodeck technology it allows hands on experience without wrecking or endangering the ship or its systems. I mean you could probably recreate the entire warp core in the holodeck and strip it down to its component parts and rebuild it again

[Fortunae]

I don't know how to just link you to the previous thread so, forgive me for just C&Ping an old response on this subject here...the original was started by Dan Stack in the Spacedock folder. I put up a real long response the first time so I figured it was easier this way...old response to this question follows:

Well some of this has been covered above but I have a few more elements to add on as to what are all the Red Shirts doing:

All Red Shirts as Command Line must become Bridge Certified regardless of the "rank" requirement, they are automatically Line officers so they should do this, they may not actually get *chair time* on their vessel until they meet the rank guideline, but I have always considered that Command officers get promoted faster then other branches or switch departments to get a broader experiance (Geordi had a Red Shirt in the first season until he became the Chief of Engineering).

But what do you do with a bunch of hot shot leader types who are too junior to really be in the hot seat yet?

Officer of the Watch -- reporting to the officer currently on Bridge Conn, the Officer of Watch would act like an executive assistant to the Bridge Officer currently having "command". On a large ship, there would likely be several Officers of the Watch in various departments for each shift.
Ex: Ensign Martin is the Officer of the Watch on the Gamma Shift (2200 to 0600), she takes the work list sent down from the Bridge and Department Heads and coordinates other departmental work teams as they conduct their duties, keeping the Bridge aware of status at regular intervals. This gets Martin "command" experiance and wide amount of first hand learning about what exactly each department does without interfering with the more critical Alpha shift activities. (Usually a Chief Petty Officer from the actual department would be leading up the work team and acting as the point of interface between the ensign and the crewmen doing the job)

Records Officer: Supervising the records crewmen specialists, the Records officer is reponsible for making sure each department is submitting their reports at the right time and the right way, also keeps track of making sure the records section keeps all crew records up to date and sends "flags" to various departments when some one needs to update something.
Ex: Ensign Govak notices that Petty Officer Doval, a Life Sciences Specialist is due for a Phaser Marksmanship training update, He sends a note to the Training Officer and the Chief Science Officer so they are aware of the discrepency and they can arrange for this to be corrected.

Shuttle Bay Officer: According to the TNG:PG shuttle pilots are under operations, and Engineering and Ops would do the maintenence; still, this is an excellent Administration in Small Area location for Red Shirts to hone their Starship Administration and personnel management skills...the SBO would send his reports to the Operations Manager and the XO.

Training Officer: Though this could likely be something hangled by Security or Ops, this is another good place for a Red Shirt to hone their skills -- ensuring everyone on board keeps thier skills up, creating and coordinating training opportunities in the holodeck or the occassional planetary exercise; and being the "transistion point" for Midshipman from their Squadron Faculty Advisor at the Academy (most likely an enlisted NCO) and their Department and Section leaders. The training officer would ensure that the Department Heads are aware of the status of their Midshipmen, and keep the Midshipman aware of their requirements if the want to be commissioned at the end of their Cadet Cruise.

Diplomatic Officer: Working for the CO/XO and the Counselor, the Diplomatic Officer supevises the diplomatic aides and prepares their research and reports for dissimination. The Diplomatic officer doesn't so often conduct the diplomacy, but supervises the preparation on cultural briefs AND any existing treaties or pacts the CO/XO and Counselor will need to prepare for their own tasks.

JAG Liason Officer: Actual JAG officers are likely to be found only on Starbases, so the Liason officer's responsibilities would be focused on fine lining details of regulations and laws to provide upon request to the command staff, doing the preliminary work for a court martial so it can be conducted as quickly as possible when arriving at a starbase and screening mission logs for possible legal issues and annotating them for the Captain and Fleet Command. This is an excellent area for a Red Shirt to increase their working and academic knowledge of Federation Law and Starfleet regulations.

P.I.B. Liason Officer: This officer prepares press releases to be delivered to the Federation Press and Information Bureau regarding the activities of the starship and it's crew, or on larger vessels where a PIB Reporter is aboard, screens their reports for any classified information before allowing them to be sent out. Finally, a PIB Liason Officer might screen the hundreds of thousands of PIB and civilian new services reports and make a daily or weekly starship "NewsPADD" briefing that keeps the crew up to date on "local" sector news as well as important stories from around the federation. This position would increase the officer's ability to deal with a Federation Bureau (Bureaucratic Manipulation specialty?), Diplomacy (I appreciate your writing but you can't print that because...), and overall understanding of the way the Federation works so preparing for their future in the Big Chair.

Colonial Liason Officer: Only on large starships most likely, but this position would be the point of contact with the various colonial governors in the sector the crew's starship travels in. This officer would be responsible for keeping up to date on the details of the colony including "political parties" and what not, managing and updating in place "evactuation and disaster plans" in case their ship has to conduct an immediate action thus increasing the Captain's efficiency and ability to make a quick decision. In a vessel that is not part of a static fleet, this officer would study the colonies along the course to be taken and prepare briefings on them incase something comes up and the command staff needs an immediate fact compilation. (Sure the computer could do this, but an officer is going to take into consideration the current situation and the profile of their specific vessel when compiling the briefings). Another exercise in Administration, Law study, Diplomacy, and general Federation experience.

Other might include:

Supply Officer supervising the quartermasters and dealing with the Merchant Marines.

Finance Officer who tracks and administers the Starship's "budget" and crew Credit rations for purchases off the ship; also tracks crew Leave time accumulation.

Strategic Ops Officer, which has been covered in detail in many places.

Encryption Officer, a S.I. or cross trained officer who handles updating encryption on sensitive materials as well as works on code cracking transmissions recovered by the Communications officer.

Well that's a bunch, I'm sure you can think of even more -- Red Shirts have to start somewhere, it just isn't often going to be glamourous enough to set a TV show about but it may be fun if playing a Lower Decks sort of game.

Peace.

[C5]

Well thanks a lot Fortunae for this long answer and thanks everyone for contributing.

I'm starting to have a better idea of what a command officer could be used for... but don't hesitate to keep sending ideas if you have some.

This command branch is rather tricky, since the only examples we had of it on the series were CO or XO, yet it isn't an invention of the RPG, since I remember two episodes where it is mentionned as a distinct branch (TNG's "Tapestry", and one DS9 episode where Sisko discuss with Eddington).

[heikki]

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/unit/department.htm

Over there is some nice info pf USN depts.

And finaly someone have understuud why there is all those junior officers. They are not just division on depardment heads, but they work as Officer of Deck. (RN has OOW)

Here is some copu/paste from official US navy website:

"An Officer of the Deck (OOD) is always on the bridge when the ship is underway. Each OOD stands a four-hour watch and is the officer designated by the Commanding Officer (CO) to be in charge of the ship. The OOD is responsible for the safety and operation of the ship, including navigation, ship handling, communications, routine tests and inspections, reports, supervision of the watch team, and carrying out the Plan of the Day.
Also on the bridge are the helmsman who steers the ship, and the lee helmsman who operates the engine order control, telling the engineroom how what speed to make. There are also lookouts, and the Boatswains Mate of the Watch (BMOW) who supervises the helsman, lee helmsman, and lookouts.
The Quartermaster of the Watch assists the OOD in navigation, reports all changes in weather, temperature and barometer readings, and keeps the ship's log. "

It can be found from here:
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/...7/pg08-09.html

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Well if Riker is anything to go by, they spend an awful lot of time in the holodeck.

Vulcan Love Slave part 3, anybody?

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Originally posted by Fortunae

Well some of this has been covered above but I have a few more elements to add on as to what are all the Red Shirts doing:

Excellent stuff Fortunae. I have the perfect player for the Diplomatic Officer post, which should come in really handy. Sounds like a good post for a cross-trained counselor type of character.

[Fortunae]

As an addendum to the last post, I am going to share the Command Branch layout on the Steam Runner class vessel we are using in my current game. I used the departmental and officer by ship type guidelines in the Most Excellent Space Dock to give me the original numbers and then came up with following:

Officers:

Captain CO (Cpt)
Executive Officer XO (CDR)

Watch Officers : Ensure the Shift Runs smoothly shipwide, used as on spot trouble shooters sent by the CO or XO, also tapped to sit the Conn when the XO and CO have duties elsewhere on ship and another officer wasn't given the Conn; ie Default replacement of the big chair.

Alpha Shift Watch Officer WOA (Ltjg)
Beta Shift Watch Officer WOB (Ltjg)
Delta Shift Watch Officer WOD (Ltjg)

Records Officer RecO (Ens)
Diplomatic Officer DplO (Lt)
Legal Officer JAG (Lt)
Personnel Officer PRS (Ens)
Supply Officer SupO (Ens)

Squadron Leaders: This ship carries fighters, so each squadron has a Command Branch office in charge of each Squadron, the other pilots and REOs are from Operations and Security respectively.

First Squadron Leader SQ1 (Ltjg)
Second Squadron Leader SQ2 (Lt)
Third Squadron Leader SQ3 (Lt)
Fourth Squadron Leader SQ4 (Ltjg)

Shuttlebay Officer SBO (Ens)

Deck Officers: The Deck officers act as Mission Ops for the deployed fighter squadrons, relaying attack orders sent from the Bridge or sensor data reminders to fighters in furballs who may be a bit distracted, they also relay current load and damage reports to the bridge.

Alpha Shift Deck Officer DOA (Ltjg)
Beta Shift Deck Officer DOB (Ens)
Delta Shift Deck Officer DOD (Ens)

Branch Administrators: These officers work with but outside each of the other branches, instead reporting to the Executive Officer. They are like "executive" assistants to the department heads, but while the Department heads and thier staff focus on the duties of the section, the Administrator focuses on making sure all the T's are crossed and I's are dotted, reports are made on time in the correct format and so on. They are responsible for making sure that departments are apprised to changes in regulations, standing orders and so on. They supervise the enlisted administrators who clerk on each shift in that department. This is an excellent way for junior Command Branch officers to learn the ropes of the other branch departments work to prepare them for broader duties.

Medical Administrator MedAd (Ens)
Engineering Administrator EngAd (Ens)
Security Administrator SecAd (Ens)*
Tactical Administrator TacAd (Ens)*
(To clarify, Tactical covers the Ordnance and Phaser Bank divisions while Security is Security specific)
Operations Administrator OpsAd (Ens) #
(Yes, ops people really don't need this as they are all trained to administrate, but this is also the largest department so...)
Science Administrator SciAd (Ens)

Enlisted

Chief of the Boat COB (Senior Master Chief)
(on our ship the COB also works in Quartermaster under the SupO)

Captains Yeoman
XO's Yeoman
Watch Officer's Yeoman A-D

Medical Administration Specialist A-D
Engineering Administration Specialist A-D
Security Administration Specialist A-D
Tactical Administration Specialist A-D
Operations Administration Specialist A-D
Science Administration Specialist A-D
Squadron Administration Specialist x2

Records Specialists x2 A-D
Diplomatic Services Specialists x2 A-D
Legal Aide Specialists x2 A-D
Finance / Personnel Specialists x2 A-D
Quarter Master Specialists x2 A-D

I included the enlisted so you could see how many subordinates the really junior command branch officers would have, the Deck, Watch and Shuttle Bay officers by virtue of their duties obviously supervise across branches controlling the areas they are responsible for.

Ex: Shuttle Pilots are Ops and work for the Ops Branch, Shuttle Mechanics are Engineers and work for Engineering, but on shift they work for the Shuttle Bay Officer who in turn reports to the Executive Officer.

Being insane as I am, I actually went through and broke down the entire crew by department, rank, shift and so on...but, this is just about what Command Branch people do.

Peace


PS: My game crew just transferred up to this class from a Saber with a crew of 45, having 10 times as many people under them and all these new "sandboxes" has been a fun adaption exercise...to complicate things they got upgraded during the Dominion War so most of those junior officers are "replicants"...made with the skill reduced templates in the Dominion War Sourcebook and so in many ways less skilled then the NCOs or even lower enlisted that were trained before the rush program started.