Representing Rank and Commendations in Game Rules

[Stan]

What are ways you've seen of mechanically representing rank (Captain vs. Ensign, etc.) and commendations (The Federation Medal of Honor, etc.) in Star Trek games?

I'm working on my own custom Star Trek game which I'll release once finished (inspired by 'Where No Man..' rules and Star Wars D6 1e). I'm toying with different ways to mechanically represent the impact of rank and commendations. Some ideas I've had so far:

Rank

Point Buy Balance: Everyone gets two characters, and you have points so if you're upper decks character is the captain, your lower decks character is an Ensign. Another person could have a Lieutenant Commander for their bridge crew character, and a Lieutenant for their lower decks character. Keeps things balanced.

Social Roles Bonus: Like Flashing Blades, higher rank gives you a bonus on social roles so you can more likely influence a lower ranked person, but you're less likely to influence a higher ranked person.

Commendation

+1 Resources: Commendations are something like a +1 bonus you can spend once per game when it makes narrative sense ("Because I have the 'Starfleet Academy Graduate' commendation and took survival training, I get a +1 on a role to survive on this harsh planet", "Because I have 'The Federation Medal of Honor', I can get a +1 to impress this alien diplomat in a social roll).

Rank Improvements: Each commendations give you a +1 when rolling to see if you can get promoted after the end of an adventure arc.

Anyway, I'm just thinking through ideas -- what ideas do you have on ways to give Rank and Commendations mechanical benefit in a game? (And, choosing to just ignore these things is yet another option, but I'd first like to explore ways to make rank and commendations important in the game).

[Stan]

Here is a draft of my 'Point Buy Balance' rules.



Optional Rule: If a player has unused Rank points after creating their two characters, the GM may allow players to convert each unused Rank points to 1 extra point to spend on Skills during character creation.

[Falconer]

I use the rules in “Beyond the Final Frontier” by Paul Montgomery Crabaugh from Different Worlds #18. Crabaugh in turn seems to have been inspired by Starships & Spacemen. Basically, you start at the bottom and “level” through the ranks as you gain XP. The higher the rank represented among the PCs, the better ship the PCs get to command. Hence the players started commanding a shuttlecraft, then the Cody, then the Saladin, and at present the Moloch (cf. SFTM).

N.B., there is no Lieutenant Junior Grade in BtFF. This rank is not well attested to in Star Trek.

N.B., a Lieutenant in command of a Scout or a Lieutenant Commander in command of a Destroyer are addressed as Commander.

I would say this has been working really well. Yes, eventually it will be a bit odd to have a ship full of captains, but if it plays out that way, so be it. But I have to say I don’t think it will quite play out that way, as everyone has multiple PCs, and there are missed sessions and deaths, etc., which creates some variety. But also if you consider the progression from “The Cage” (even Number One is only a Lieutenant) to the movies (when almost everyone is a Captain if not Admiral), it actually mirrors that just fine.

Some of the players created what you call “Lower Decks Characters” and what we simply call “Red Shirts.” Funny, but these invariably end up being interesting and popular characters which eventually get fleshed out, sometimes taking over as main PC. Some players also have non-Starfleet characters which they sometimes play. I eventually decided to let the players allocate their XP to whatever character they wanted, played or not.

(The non-Starfleet characters have “ranks” for mechanical purposes.)

BtFF also has rules for skills, how you get them at start and how you increase them as you rank. This all seems more or less along the same lines as what you do, I’ve just played it by ear a lot.

[Stan]

Ah, great feedback! I will read "Beyond the Final Frontier" with great interest, and make the corrections on rank you mentioned in my rules. Eventually I will get these rules in good enough shape to share and get further community feedback. :-)

[Falconer]

It’s not really a correction. S&S 1e and WNMHGB 2.0 both include the Lieutenant Junior Grade rank. If it’s useful to your sense of scale, keep it. Personally I didn’t “inherit” it from the BtFF rules, and I just agreed that it seemed more idiomatic and satisfactory to go from Ensign to Lieutenant.

[putraack]

I haven't had a game go long enough for anyone to earn a promotion, so I can only speak to starting ranks.

I'm leery of using the rank = level rules in Starships & Spacemen, that just feels wrong to me when all of a ship's officers progress with the same rank.

For my last campaign, I did something bigger than your troupe play concept, I allowed each player 3 PCs: one at bridge-command level, one at mid-grade (Lieutenants), and one at low-rank (Ensigns or enlisted). That was too many, so I applaud your limit at 2 per player, and balancing them across ranks. It would probably be no fun for others if one player has both the captain and first officer roles, after all.

Your use of commendations as one-time benefits sounds workable.

[aramis]

It's worth noting that Modiphius' Star Trek Adventures has a form of troupe style in the core. Non-main-cast characters get activated when your Main Cast Character is inappropriate for the scene; a limited number (based upon the ship) are available per adventure. The more they get used the more details get filled in, and they gain bonuses, as well. They still don't add up to PC levels. Oh, and the number of NPCs available is through the session, not total to the ship overall. Just because you used Ensigns Alphard, Brick, Conway, Davis, Eppson, and Farouk on adventure one on your destroyer with a 6 Cast limit doesn't mean you have to use them in the next one; you might use Gorlois, Deckard, Alphard, Brick, Conway, and Mary-sue the next adventure.

It's an idea which works well in Trek as a setting, and is easy in level-based games, such as S&S... Every time a PC levels, an NPC gets one, but no NPC can go up twice in a session, nor to the same or higher level as the PC just attained.

[ThrorII]

I'll be using a slightly modified version of v1.0 Far Trek.

Each player gets 3 characters - 1 red shirt, 1 gold shirt, 1 blue shirt. One character is command staff level (Lt. Commander or higher), one is Lt. level, one is ensign level. Players will choose (or have chosen) which character(s) is to be used that adventure.

There is no mechanical or other benefit to rank.

But, I'll be running a more beer-and-pretzels type game (1 session episodes).

[putraack]

ThrorII, that's pretty much what I started doing in Far Trek. I was too relaxed in limiting the players to 1 PC at a time ( I was hoping to limit them to 1 per scene, but it bloated into all of them gaggling around at the same time by the end).

Hope you have better results than I!