Tactical Officer?

[Ramage]

Hi gang,

My players are all coming together now and it looks like in a couple weeks the game will finally begin.

Question, though.

One of my players wants to be the Tactical Officer, a fine and good choice for Trek, but if you look at the Profession Abilities under Starship Officer nothing really matches. Security Officer has strictly to do with shipboard security, Flight Control has to do with getting from point A to point B.

So, has anyone else run across this as a need? Any solutions being batted about?

Share and enjoy

[Sea Tyger]

IIRC, a tactical officer is a security officer that specializes in shipboard weapons operation.

You began to see the formation of the security/tactical officer in the movies, as Checkov moved from the navigator's console to a special "weapons" console in TMP. In Star Trek III and VI, he appeared to have additional security duties, aside from his standard Weapons Officer posts (as well as being the acting-science officer in Spock's absence). By the time TNG rolled around, the security and tactical were part of the same profession.

Worf and Tasha were Chief Security Officers, but they were also the senior tactical officers (and manned tactical during crisis situations on the bridge).

If you check p.95 of the PG, you will find a "Tactical Officer" package for starting security officers. Security Officer professional skills (as stated on p. 73) include System Operation and Tactics, and two of the profession's abilities deal with tactical operations. So, yes, the Starship Security Officer Elite Profession covers tactical officers.

[Ramage]

Yeah, that's what I thought, since Worf and Yar were Security.

Sounds like I'll have to come up with something on my own, then -- although it may be "canon", I have a hard time imagining MP and Fire Control as the same position...

[AslanC]

I agree. That's why I separated the two departments, and put Tactical/Strategic Operations as part of Command, like Conn

[Don Mappin]

...that and Worf looked hot in red, right Aslan?

[AslanC]

Funny, I knew you were gonna say that the minute I posted it.

Glad to be your straight man, though with that Worf comment the straightness is in question. Ba-dum-dum!

[Doug Burke]

If you think about it though, Ramage, it makes sense to have the Security Chief in charge of Tactical. After all, Tactical could be considered External Security.

[CaptainMatt]

Also on page 73 of the PG, there is the tier 2 professional ability of tactical officer. The prerequisite is Security Protocal. Which gives the character plusses in System Ops (Tactical). The knowledge of strategy in any battle like situation is what Tactical is. Whether it is taking down a crazed Klingon or avoiding a Borg cutter beam. Just the same thing different scale, different name.

[Lancer]

I have tried to convert our Icon tactical officer to Coda and encountered the same problem.
In the end I started him out as a Security Officer and then added the Operations Officer EP. That way it's possible to get the security officer abilities that apply to the tactical position and then take some abilities that enhance your performance at the tactical station.

And as the official ruling now seems to be that you can take two EPs in addition to your Basic Profession this officer will still be able to advance his Tactics skill at the 1:1 cost.

[Dan Gurden]

For myself it doesn't matter what the skill package is. I use both Security and Tactical. Same basic package, but the extra training separates them...

And as for the colour of the uniform, just because the character uses a security officer template doesn't mean that you have to put them in yellow. Feel free to call the Tactical and put them in Maroon

Its what I do in my games.

But if you want to go to the effort of making a new template, go ahead, and feel free to post it here so we can look and see which is best.