Crashlanded

Started by RedEve, January 30, 2013, 12:10:44 PM

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Frelance

Quote from: Deathnote on February 11, 2013, 07:50:21 PM
Hmm... maybe I should just remove that "Assistant Engineer" part from my character's role, then.  Unless you don't think it matters all that much, since he's supposed to primarily be the Operations Officer anyway.  I was thinking that he'd be knowledgeable enough about Engineering to be an extra pair of hands for the Engineering team, if necessary.
I would keep it in there. I am sure your character will be needed after the crash and your character is already made so there is no reason to change him now.
Evolution is an arms race

RedEve

#101
Quote from: MagicalPen on February 11, 2013, 07:07:37 PM
I was going to create a Marine...a Captain in fact...but don't want to tread on any toes.

RedEves profile has her as leading the Marines on board, but only as a LT...I would think at least a Captain would be involved?

If having a Captain of the Marines won't work, let me know and i'll do something else.
I'm not deadbent on having her being the marines' leader, I could demote her to Sergeant and make your character the unit commander.

*edit* And it's done. 
"I don't have a dirty mind, I have a sexy imagination."
My ons and offs- My F-list

xPeachyPuff

#102
Here's my character! (: Hope people like her~

-xSRx






Name: Ashenee Winoa.

Age: 20.

Societal position: Hunter’s Daughter.

Biography: Ashenee’s mother died giving birth to her which meant that her father had to bring her up alone. She was brought up in a small settling which only made it harder on the man in some circumstances, while in others, it's helped him out alot. Because it was such a small group, everyone seemed to know one another; he had a lot of help from his villagers and the women were especially encouraging. Her father managed his craft well for the village and brought food in for his people, occasionally giving extra to the women who helped with his daughter; it was easy to hunt where they lived as they were on the outskirts of the jungle. As she grew, he began teaching her his tricks of the trade and she began mastering her abilities as a huntstrass. She hated it when she was younger, the blood and killing, but things became easier as she aged; it was easy to understand why she needed to do what her father had done for many years. She now lives alone, having moved from her small village after her father passed away. Ashenee now lives in a much larger city and has learned to skin the things she hunts well enough to sell them at the market to sustain her living conditions. She is handy with a spear and knives and could be considered one of the more deadly women in the city; though they aren't few and far between.

Frelance

Here is my approved character.

Name: Telnor Sider
Age: 25
Rank: Crewman
Role on the ship: Engineer
Biography: Telnor is a Junior engineer was assigned to the ship right out of his training. He had left behind an agricultural home world that supplied much of the food for its home system. He left home to see the universe not wanting to spend his life on a single world growing food for others to eat while he struggled to keep machinery running with whatever he was able to pull off of scrapped equipment. The Agro Corp has kept cutting the budget for the planet as it tried to improve its profits and by the time Telnor was fourteen Argo Corp had found that it was able to maximize its profits by sending junked industrial equipment to the planet and let Telnor and the engineers pull them apart looking for any useful parts. What was left was sold off to be melted down and used for something else. At least that was what his father had told him.

Going into engineering was not something he had ever questioned. His father and grandfather had been engineers and when it was noticed that he had a natural talent for it his father would bring him to work when he could to teach him. The work he enjoyed but he got bored and frustrated with the planet so as soon as he had graduated he applied to Galaxy Corp seeing as how they were hiring and he knew if he wanted excitement they were the ones to work for. Since he had graduated in the top ten percentile of his class he was not surprised to get hired quite quickly.

He was assigned to the Neriglissar for his first tour of duty and has only been on since it last made port not long before. Most of his time has been spent learning the ships systems so he had not met most of the crew.

Evolution is an arms race

Chrystal

Quote from: MagicalPen on February 11, 2013, 07:07:37 PM
I was going to create a Marine...a Captain in fact...but don't want to tread on any toes.

RedEves profile has her as leading the Marines on board, but only as a LT...I would think at least a Captain would be involved?

If having a Captain of the Marines won't work, let me know and i'll do something else.

Bit of Navy lore here...

There can only ever be ONE captain on a ship. The naval rank of Captain is the highest commissioned rank below flag officer status and is the highest rank that will ever command a ship. Naval officers of all ranks from Lieutenant up can command a vessel, and when in command of that vessel are referred to by all personel aboard as "Captain", even by those of senior rank.

When it comes to the safety of the vessel, even the Admiral Of The Fleet must take orders from a Lieutenant if the Lieutenant is the Captain of the ship the Admiral happens to be on.

If a Naval Captain is on board a ship commanded by someone else, the officer of rank Captain is bumped up a rank and is referred to as Commodore - the lowest flag rank.

If an army or marine Captain is on board a vessel, they are always refereed to as "Major", again bumping them up one rank.

To save confusion, I would suggest, however, using Naval rankings for the marine complement? So the sergeant would actually be a Chief Petty Officer, and a Captain would, surprise surprise, be a Lieutenant!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:United_States_uniformed_services_comparative_ranks

Please check out my latest A/A post.
I would rather watch a movie then have dinner than have dinner then watch a movie!

Prince Truhan

For practical matters though remember that "A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn't know what's going on." and "An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody"

RedEve

I'm confused now.  ;D

But I'm okay with any rank that might be appropriate for Jack. So which is it?
"I don't have a dirty mind, I have a sexy imagination."
My ons and offs- My F-list

Chrystal

ROTFLMBCAO!

Very true, sir!

Armed forces are run by the senior NCOs. your NCO has been in the army/navy/air force for years, while the officer directly above him in rank has just graduated from the Military Academy.

It is a very foolish Subaltern who does not issue the orders "suggested" to him by his NCO.

But equally it is a foolish NCO who blindly obeys the orders of a subaltern. or worse yet, tries to countermand those orders. Far better to gain the officer's ear and make suggestions...

Please check out my latest A/A post.
I would rather watch a movie then have dinner than have dinner then watch a movie!

Chrystal

Quote from: mia h on February 12, 2013, 02:52:16 PM
... except thier doctor  :P

That depends on whether the doctor is in an armoured bunker or not.....

Point being, if you see someone who deals with things that go BOOM running that way very fast, you would be well advised to run that way very fast too!

Please check out my latest A/A post.
I would rather watch a movie then have dinner than have dinner then watch a movie!

MagicalPen

I was under the Impression that Marines on board a ship are the equivalent of Army Personnel on a Ship. The Ship has its crew and the 'commander' of that crew is the Captain of the ship, and no one ever outranks him. A Marine detachment pulling security, or being transported could therefore have a Captain-rank on board, but does not outrank the Captain of the ship. The Marines CO would (essentially) be a 2nd-in-Command in a lot of hostile situations while on board the ship, but would be the CO in charge of the show once offloaded from said Ship (as the Ship Commanders sphere of influence does not exceed the boundaries of the ship).

Or, in this case, is the Captain of the Marines also the Commander of the Ship? 

My On and Offs
When the Ink Runs Dry

Looking/Available for New Games

RabbitJanitor

It also helps that a Naval Captain is the Army equivalent to a Major.

An Army Captain is equal to a Naval Lieutenant

A ship needs more officers then the ground pounders do.

RedEve

Look, I'm no expert on military ranks, so I am willing to agree upon whatever works.
But for that to happen, you people will need to reach a consensus?  :-X
"I don't have a dirty mind, I have a sexy imagination."
My ons and offs- My F-list

Deathnote

#112
To understand a starship's ranking system, I just look at a bunch of show's cast list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Irresponsible_Captain_Tylor_characters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series#Cast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation#Cast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine#Cast

Of course, for some of them, I had to click the character's name in order to learn their ranks.

So, what I've gathered so far is that the rank of Captain and being the Captain of the ship isn't necessarily the same thing.  I've confirmed this by checking out Lieutenent Commander, which is the lowest rank (I think) you can be before you can be the Captain of a ship.  The Captain of the Ship is called the Commanding Officer.  The second-in-command is either called the "First Officer" or the "Executive Officer".  Prince Truhan's character's role on the ship would therefore officially be "Executive Officer".  It might be possible to have a second player with the rank of Commander, but there can only be one "Executive Officer".

Please note the cast list for Irresponsible Captain Tylor, specifically the part about how the marines are led by First Lt. Andressen and Master Sergeant Cryborne.  These are marine ranks that are safely below the naval rank of Lieutenent.  Although... it is possible that the creators mixed up the marine and naval ranks a bit... >_>

Then again, Kira Nerys from Deep Space Nine is from the military and retains her military rank while acting as the First/Executive Officer of Deep Space Nine.  I'm assuming the same thing's happening for the marine squad aboard the Neriglissar.

My thoughts: Give Jack any marine rank of 1st Lieutenent or below.  This is just high enough to command a platoon of 16-40 marines or second-in-charge of a company of 70-250 marines.  Anyone who wishes to be in charge of the marines just need a naval rank of Lieutenent or above (or a marine rank of Captain or above) and they automatically outrank Jack.  A marine rank of Captain is high enough to command a company of 70-250 marines (they can also be in second-in-charge of a battalion... but I doubt there's nearly enough people on board).  Also, anyone who wishes to use a marine rank should specify that they're using a marine rank in their character sheet.

RabbitJanitor

That sounds good and all, just remember that Commanding Officer and Executive Officer are Positions on the ship and not ranks. My character (not up yet) is a Lieutenant, but is the ships chef engineer. It sorta gets confusing when they get the marine ranks mixed in there, because you have ground lieutenants saluting ensigns.  So Jack could still be a Captain, but still be out ranked by the Commanding Officer, who's a higher ranking captain.

Also, Lieutenant Commander is not the lowest. (Forgive me if I'm getting you wrong.) To use a Star Trek next gen example: When Captain Picard and Commander Riker are a way, Lieutenant Commander Data is the one in charge of the ship. Its the rank between Commander and Lieutenant. Its entirely possible that a Lieutenant be given command of a ship, though its usually a small ship, maybe a Systems patrol boat or something of the like.

Naval                                 Army

Admiral                              General
Captain                             Colonel
Commander                      Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant Commander    Major
1st Lieutenant                  Captain
2nd Lieutenant                 1st Lieutenant
Ensign                              2nd Lieutenant

This is an example. I agree with Deathnote in saying 1st Lieutenant is the best way to go for 40 or so troops.

RedEve

I should remind you all that this is a completely fictional ship that has no real relation with Earth as we know it.

So any command structure would fit, be it completely fictional or not.

So I just need you all to agree upon something and stick to it.

Or otherwise I will come up with a command structure of my own... And you won't like the titles I will choose.  ;D
"I don't have a dirty mind, I have a sexy imagination."
My ons and offs- My F-list

MagicalPen

I think I'm going to go ahead and make the CO of the Marine contingent a Captain.

My On and Offs
When the Ink Runs Dry

Looking/Available for New Games

Prince Truhan

It seems that everyone is favoring what they are familiar with, it is natural, I know I would have an easier time adjusting if we just use the structure of schlock mercenary.

Anyway Redeve has stated that she really doesn't care how we call the ranks, so I believe the easiest way to go is defer to Chrystal, she is after all the co-gm and is familiar with ranks.

Chrystal

The only reason I made the suggestion I did is that if the Marine CO is rank Captain, it means everyone will refer to him as Major. Would it not therefore be easier to just make him a Major?

However, I believe it also should be worth pointing out that on a ship with 100 or so people on board, only about 20 of those would be marines...

20 soldiers is actually a short platoon. A platoon would be commanded by a first or second lieutenant, with a warrant officer (senior sergeant) in support

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_organization#Armies

For a Captain or Major to be in command you would need a Company, which is two to eight platoons and a minimum of 80 soldiers!

Unless, of course, the ship is mostly automated and only 20 of those on board are the Navy personnel, with the remaining 80 being the marines?

I'm not trying to make things complicated, honest, I'm trying tto make them simpler.

@ Deathnote: This is not the startrek universe. If it was, I wouldn't be playing!

Please check out my latest A/A post.
I would rather watch a movie then have dinner than have dinner then watch a movie!

RedEve

Quote from: Chrystal on February 13, 2013, 12:44:43 PM
The only reason I made the suggestion I did is that if the Marine CO is rank Captain, it means everyone will refer to him as Major. Would it not therefore be easier to just make him a Major?

However, I believe it also should be worth pointing out that on a ship with 100 or so people on board, only about 20 of those would be marines...

20 soldiers is actually a short platoon. A platoon would be commanded by a first or second lieutenant, with a warrant officer (senior sergeant) in support

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_organization#Armies

For a Captain or Major to be in command you would need a Company, which is two to eight platoons and a minimum of 80 soldiers!

Unless, of course, the ship is mostly automated and only 20 of those on board are the Navy personnel, with the remaining 80 being the marines?

I'm not trying to make things complicated, honest, I'm trying tto make them simpler.

@ Deathnote: This is not the startrek universe. If it was, I wouldn't be playing!

The numbers you are mentioning are - I assume - based on real-life human units.
But there is no reason why we should conform to reality. This is after all a sci-fi game set in a completely alternate universe.
So if we want to make it a 80-20 distribution in favor of Navy personnel, why shouldn't we?
"I don't have a dirty mind, I have a sexy imagination."
My ons and offs- My F-list

Frelance

Quote from: RedEve on February 13, 2013, 04:40:24 PM
The numbers you are mentioning are - I assume - based on real-life human units.
But there is no reason why we should conform to reality. This is after all a sci-fi game set in a completely alternate universe.
So if we want to make it a 80-20 distribution in favor of Navy personnel, why shouldn't we?
80-20 in favor of Navy personnel sounds good to me. That will give the Marines more to do since they could want to train some of the crew so that they can better defend themselves.
Evolution is an arms race

Chrystal

No reason whatever...

I'm just pointing out that "form follows function".

If you have twenty men in a unit, they are not commanded by a general, unless they are all colonels. And you wouldn't have a front-line fighting unit composed of all colonels!

The only exception - the only time you come across a military unit where the lowest rank is an officer, is in an aviation unit, where all the members are pilots! Now, this does bring to mind an excellent but sadly "Foxed" TV series called "Space: Above And Beyond" in which a squadron of Space Marine pilots often fought on the ground as an elite unit. The lowest ranked member of the squad was a 2nd lieutenant, I think.

If the marine contingent on the ship is something like that, then it works to have them all as officers, with a senior officer in command.

If we have 18 enlisted men and a sergeant, it doesn't make logical sense for them to be commanded by a senior officer, who should be commanding a much larger unit!

My other suggestion is to create a totally new rank structure, the way the USSR did in the 1920s.

So, instead of calling him Lieutenant, Captain, Major or whatever, we call him Platoon Leader.

Please check out my latest A/A post.
I would rather watch a movie then have dinner than have dinner then watch a movie!

Deathnote

Quote from: Chrystal on February 13, 2013, 05:42:31 PM
No reason whatever...

I'm just pointing out that "form follows function".

If you have twenty men in a unit, they are not commanded by a general, unless they are all colonels. And you wouldn't have a front-line fighting unit composed of all colonels!

The only exception - the only time you come across a military unit where the lowest rank is an officer, is in an aviation unit, where all the members are pilots! Now, this does bring to mind an excellent but sadly "Foxed" TV series called "Space: Above And Beyond" in which a squadron of Space Marine pilots often fought on the ground as an elite unit. The lowest ranked member of the squad was a 2nd lieutenant, I think.

If the marine contingent on the ship is something like that, then it works to have them all as officers, with a senior officer in command.

If we have 18 enlisted men and a sergeant, it doesn't make logical sense for them to be commanded by a senior officer, who should be commanding a much larger unit!

My other suggestion is to create a totally new rank structure, the way the USSR did in the 1920s.

So, instead of calling him Lieutenant, Captain, Major or whatever, we call him Platoon Leader.
Speaking of Platoon Leader, I looked it up on Wikipedia while clicking around in the Command Hierachy page.  According to that page, a Captain can be in charge of a platoon if it's special enough.  It's entirely possible that the Neglissar marines form a Special Forces platoon.  Either that it was it given the designation of "Special Forces" as in excuse to put a Captain in charge of it.  :p

Anyways, yeah... I agree that we should call whoever's in charge of the marines "Platoon Leader" while Jack can be the "Platoon Sergeant".  That seems simple enough.  ^_^

Prince Truhan

Well there would be 20 when the other 80 die in a horrible crash (if I didn't misunderstood how this goes)

The other consideration I would have is that they are mercenaries, it might be me but I think telling people Captain whatever and his people are heading over to deal with things sounds more impressive than platoon leader.

Then again, as I was typing this people started agreeing, so disregard everything I said and just tell me what my character is :P

Chrystal

Quote from: RedEve on February 03, 2013, 05:33:42 AM
I would say their full complement would be around 100 crew-members, with around one in five perishing in the crash.

So 20 die in the crash leaving 80 survivors.... Of those, around 16 would be the surviving marines.

Please check out my latest A/A post.
I would rather watch a movie then have dinner than have dinner then watch a movie!

Prince Truhan

Oops, guess I should have more faith in our pilot :P