No prereq's for Starship Officers?

[Ensign Deconn]

I noticed in the PG that the Starship Duty special ability substitutes for the prerequisites in the elite starship professions.



In an otherwise awesome book, this seems a bit lame. If the prereq's don't count if you have the Starship Duty apecial ability, why have the prereq's?

Also, I finally follow what others were saying about mixed-heritage players: it does give you better stats. Now I can't find that thread . Anybody know how this was resolved

[DavidSnyder]

If you look at the errata thread, there's a fix for this. If you take Starship Duty and you don't meet the prerequisites, you need to pay the five point advancement cost to take an elite profession, while if you do meet the prerequisites you get out of it. So there's a benefit for Starship Officers meeting prereqs.

-Dave

[Jinx]

The Starship Duty professional ability is only available to the Starship Officer base profession (and cannot be taken with the Innovative edge). A character from any other base profession would need to meet the prerequisites to take one of the Starship Office Elite Professions.

[Doug Burke]

Originally posted by Ensign Deconn
I noticed in the PG that the Starship Duty special ability substitutes for the prerequisites in the elite starship professions.



In an otherwise awesome book, this seems a bit lame. If the prereq's don't count if you have the Starship Duty apecial ability, why have the prereq's?

The prerequisites are for those who take one of the Starship Officer Elite Professions when starting in a different Basic Class. Please note that the text on the prerequisites should read "Starship Duty OR..."

[Doug Burke]

Originally posted by DavidSnyder
If you look at the errata thread, there's a fix for this. If you take Starship Duty and you don't meet the prerequisites, you need to pay the five point advancement cost to take an elite profession, while if you do meet the prerequisites you get out of it. So there's a benefit for Starship Officers meeting prereqs.

-Dave

That's pretty much how it works, though Starship duty does cover both the prerequisites and the five picks for your first elite profession.

[Chris Landmark]

Originally posted by Ensign Deconn
In an otherwise awesome book, this seems a bit lame. If the prereq's don't count if you have the Starship Duty apecial ability, why have the prereq's?

First off, I refer you to the "Official Coda Errata" thread; It's a "sticky" thread, so you should be able to find it pretty easy. You will find some clarifications of the Starship Duty professional ability (there have been several) which may answer your question for you.

Now, the reasons why there are prereqs despite the existence of Starship Duty. You'll need to read those official errata to fully understand why.

1) So that characters who started out with a profession other than Starship Officer can enter a Starship Officer Elite Profession.

2) To make it easier for Starship Officers to change departments durring game play.

Yes, as written in the Player's Guide, there is a bunch of confusion around Starship Duty, but it has been hashed out here pretty satisfactorally.

-Chris Landmark

[Kronok]

Originally posted by Doug Burke


That's pretty much how it works, though Starship duty does cover both the prerequisites and the five picks for your first elite profession.

Doug,

So if you meet the prerequisites for an Elite profession you don't have to pay the 5 picks? OR is that just for the Starfleet Elite Professions?

"This place is so confusing!"

- Long Duck Dong

[Ensign Deconn]

Originally posted by DavidSnyder
If you look at the errata thread, there's a fix for this. If you take Starship Duty and you don't meet the prerequisites, you need to pay the five point advancement cost to take an elite profession, while if you do meet the prerequisites you get out of it. So there's a benefit for Starship Officers meeting prereqs.

-Dave

I thought starship officers had to pick an elite profession at the point of character creation? Since you have no advancement points at the time, how can you pay them?

When you think about it, this can all be gotten around by making sure you have the necessary prereuisites at the start of play.

Also, how can a non-starship officer (rouge, soldier, mystic, etc.) get an elite starship officer profession; I don't see how they can get the Starship Duty special ability. Or am I missing something?

[DavidSnyder]

Originally posted by Ensign Deconn


I thought starship officers had to pick an elite profession at the point of character creation? Since you have no advancement points at the time, how can you pay them?

Character creation is the exception. You don't need to pay the five points or meet the prerequsites then.

When you think about it, this can all be gotten around by
Also, how can a non-starship officer (rouge, soldier, mystic, etc.) get an elite starship officer profession; I don't see how they can get the Starship Duty special ability. Or am I missing something?

Non-Starship Officers need to meet the prerequisites and spend the five points. (Ignore Starship Duty in the list of prereqs. It shouldn't really be there.)

-Dave

[Sea Tyger]

No, it's Starship Duty OR the prerequisites.

Characters who choose Starship Officer as their base profession automatically receive the Starship Duty ability. This means that the character begins play with a Starship Officer Elite Profession.

Later in his career, if the Starship Officer wanted to change careers within Starfleet (i.e., choose another Starship Officer Elite Profession) he would spend 3 picks in an advancement and select the new profession.

If, say, the character was instead a Bajoran soldier who was part of an exchange program with Starfleet, and she decided that she wanted to join Starfleet after a number of years, she would have to meet the other prerequisites (because she is barred, by rule, from taking Starship Duty using the Innovative edge) before she could qualify to become a member of a Starship Officer Elite Profession.

[PGoodman13]

Okay, let's see if we can clear anything up for you.

Originally posted by Ensign Deconn
I thought starship officers had to pick an elite profession at the point of character creation? Since you have no advancement points at the time, how can you pay them?

At character generation, you do have to choose a Starship Officer Elite Profession. Starship Duty, at this point in the game, acts as all your prerequisites. There are no advancement picks involved in becoming a Starship Officer at this point, since the character is just now being generated; you can safely ignore anything about advancement picks at this point in the character's existence.

When you think about it, this can all be gotten around by making sure you have the necessary prereuisites at the start of play.

I don't know that it's possible, with the limited amount of skill advancement made in the Personal Development phase of chargen, to actually have all the prereqs for a SOEP at the beginning of play.

This is why Don keeps his books with him at all times, I'm just sure of it....

Also, how can a non-starship officer (rouge, soldier, mystic, etc.) get an elite starship officer profession; I don't see how they can get the Starship Duty special ability. Or am I missing something?

You're missing something.

The Starship Officer Elite Professions are just like the other Elite Professions: Once the character is in play, any character in any profession can become a member of any Elite Profession if they meet the prereqs and pay the advancement picks. Staship Officer Elite Professions are no different from other Elite Professions in this regard.

Once in play, as I said, anybody can enter any of the Elite Professions. If a soldier wants to become a Starship Security Officer, he has to meet the prerequisites for that Elite Profession and pay five advancement picks to acquire that Elite Profession. He'll have to spend his next advancement on professional skills for that Elite Profession. Voila! He's a Starship Security Officer.

If, on the other hand, the character was already a Starship Security Officer and wanted instead to be a Science Officer, he could take the Starship Duty professional ability. This will give him some options on how to become a Science Officer. (The following is what I've gotten from the errata and discussions here on the forums; if I've misinterpreted anything, I'm counting on people in the know correcting me gently. )

(A) He could take Starship Duty, ignore the prereqs for Science Officer, and spend the two remaining picks for this advancement on Science Officer professional skills. He then pays his five advancement picks from his next advancement to transfer to the Science Officer position. In my game, he also spends his next advancement on Science Officer professional skills.
(B) He could meet the prereqs, take Starship Duty, and not pay the five advancement picks to enter the Science Officer profession. He would spend the remaining two picks from this advancement, and all of the picks from his next advancement, on Science Officer professional skills.
(C) He could meet the prereqs, pay the advancement picks, and not bother with Starship Duty at all. He would still need to spend his next advancement on Science Officer professional skills.

It's not phrased as clearly as it could be in the book, but overall it's not as complicated as it appears to have become in your mind.

Hope that helps.

[Doug Burke]

Originally posted by Kronok
So if you meet the prerequisites for an Elite profession you don't have to pay the 5 picks? OR is that just for the Starfleet Elite Professions?

That only applies if you choose a second instance of the Starship Duty professional ability. If you don't get Starship Duty again, you have to both meet the prerequisites and pay the five picks.

This information only applies to Starship Officers, as Starship Duty cannot be taken using the Innovative trait.

[Doug Burke]

Originally posted by Ensign Deconn
I thought starship officers had to pick an elite profession at the point of character creation? Since you have no advancement points at the time, how can you pay them?

As it says in the errata thread, the first instance of Starship Duty (which required when you make a Starship Officer character, waives both the Prerequisites and the Advancement Picks (which you don't have when you make a new character anyway).

Also, how can a non-starship officer (rouge, soldier, mystic, etc.) get an elite starship officer profession; I don't see how they can get the Starship Duty special ability. Or am I missing something?

Anyone of a different basic profession from Starship Officer must meet the Prerequisites listed and spend the five Advancement Pciks required for an elite profession. Again, I refer you to the errata thread which points out that the Prerequisites should read "Starship Duty or ..."

[PGoodman13]

Okay, here's an ancillary question. I know how I'm going to handle it in my game if it ever comes up (and I doubt it will, knowing my players, but they might surprise me), but I think an "official" ruling might be in order, just to make sure.

Let's take my hypothetical soldier who takes on the Starship Security Officer EP. He decides then that the Starship Officer's life is really the life for him, but Security sucks (he was, apparently, the next security ensign up for away team assignment). So he decides to become an Engineer on his mighty starship. Now he has a Starship Officer EP on his resume. To transfer to Engineering, does he get to take Starship Duty to do it?

My gut tells me no, since Starship Duty is a Professional Ability not of one of the SOEPs, but of the base Starship Officer profession. Since as his base profession, our hypothetical career-swapper is still a soldier, he doesn't have access to that particular ability. I can see, however, where some might argue in favor of it. This is why I think a rules clarification one way or another would be a good thing at this juncture.

[Doug Burke]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PGoodman13
To transfer to Engineering, does he get to take Starship Duty to do it?

Nope. For one simple reason. Starship Duty is a prfoessional ability of the Starship Officer basic profession, not the Security Officer eltie profession. For the same reason, if this soldier-turned-security officer-turned-engineer wanted the Rounded, Capable, or Intrepid professional abilities, he would have to use the Innovative Trait to get them.

Hope that clarifies it enough...