Basic Command Officers

[DavidSnyder]

What do fresh-out-of the Acadamy Basic Command Officers do on starships? I'm trying to imagine what their day-to-day job might be.

-Dave

[pathstrider]

Paper work, mainly. Administration... that sort of thing.

[Shoshuro]

Aides to senior officers

Evening/Night command duty on ship bridges.

Shuttle "squads"

Teachers at Star Fleet Academy

[CmdrBluejeans]

In the days pre-TNG, when we didn't see 'Ops Mgmt Officers', I could easily see junior Command officers assigned to specific decks of the ship to monitor the many Operations Technicians as a 'deck officer'.

That's how I plan to run things for my c.2305 CODA Trek game.

BJ

[Dan Stack]

Leading away teams/landing parties.

I don't think role-playing paperwork would be fun. (Except possilbly in Call of Cthulhu )

[DavidSnyder]

>Leading away teams/landing parties.

I don't really see the fresh out of the Acadamy guy leading landing parties where everyone else probably outranks him. I'd expect he'd have to participate in some first before being put in charge. But what's he going to do as a participant? Take notes I guess.

-Dave

[Dan Stack]

That depends.

If I were to do a game with characters all fresh out of the academy, I would place them on a small ship, so ensigns have some importance. The captain could send a bunch of ensigns and enlisted men down on away missions.

[pathstrider]

I dunno. I one ran a few sessions of an officer (Admitadly the XO) just doing his job - taking reports, touring the hsip, making inspections, that sort of thing.

One of the best episodes I've seen. Deprived of action, the character roleplayed his socks off

Mark

[CmdrBluejeans]

Junior command officers other than the above might include:

* Diplomatic Attaches
* JAG Liaisons
* Training Officers
* Counterintelligence Specialists
* Deck officers (as noted above)

I see no reason to limit one to binary paperwork-or-away team leadership roles.


BJ

[E W Dawson]

To me, one of the coolest things about Coda-Trek is its emphasis on roleplaying. Sure, the game also has its action packed combat situations (and the rules for it seem top-notch), but on most levels the game seems to place great emphasis on player to player and player to NPC interaction (a la roleplaying).

Playing a basic command officer, for example, could include some very cool roleplaying situations in which he or she must coordinate the efforts between to research groups that are not on the best of terms. Of course, all of this would depend on just how skilled your narrator is and how much time he or she wants to put into it. Running combat scenes is arguably easier than running NPC interaction scenes.

Just like in the Trek shows, problem solving should play a main role in the Trek rpg. Though, it is fun to blow things up and shoot at bad guys from time to time.