HG 1e Capital Ship Crew quibble Command Section Medical Officer

snrdg121408

Mongoose
Hello all,

Before getting started I believe that MgT 1e crew rules are modified CT LBB 5 HG 2e without the Marc Miller approved Consolidated CT Errata corrections or CT Trillion Credit Squadron and that I have quibbles with both CT LBB 5 HG 2e and MgT HG 1e Crew requirements.

To begin my quibble with both CT LBB 5 HG 2e and MgT Book 2 HG 1e is the inclusion of the medical officer in the command section.

CT LBB 5 HG 1e had a separate Medical section that was omitted from CT LBB 5 HG 2e and restored by the Consolidated CT Errata document. CT HG 1e included a medical officer and a corpsman/medic while CT HG 2e had just the medical officer in the Command Section and omitted the medical section that was restored by the Marc Miller approved Consolidated CT Errata, but the nurse was still dropped. In my opinion the medical officer is should be included in the medical section.

On the High Guard Ship Design forum I started a topic Spacecraft Design Crew Requirement Medic, where I was informed that in MgT HG 1e the medical section is part of the service crew. If the medical section part of the service crew I would think that the medical officer would also be counted as service crew.

From Consolidated CT Errata v1.1 02/01/14 p. 15
Page 33, Crew, Medical Section (omission): The paragraph about the Medical Section was dropped:
Medical Section: The ship should have one medical person for every 240 crew persons (including ship’s troops) aboard. The medical section should have 30% officers, and 30% petty officers. Personnel are drawn from the medical branch.

CT LBB 5 HG 1e did not include ship's troops. The organization of ship's troops in both CT LBB 5 HG 1e and CT LBB HG 2e refers you to CT LBB 4 Mercenary that has their medical requirements.

To recap:

My view is that in MgT HG 1e the medical officer should removed from the command section crew requirements and that a medical section be added to the list with a medical officer in charge.
 
Hello Condottiere,

Condottiere said:
Probably a Star Trek legacy.

Thank you for the possible answer, which still means that my quibble with a medical officer being in the Command Section has possibly expanded to Star Trek as well.

I have a copy of the Star Trek RPG Cadet's Orientation Source Book 1966/1983, Ship Construction Manual 1e 1983 and 2e 1966/1985, and the ship recognition books for Klingons 1985, Federation 1966/1985, and Romulans 1985 that are handy to look at. Here is the information I was able to find in the stuff I have.

Ship Construction 1e 1983 p. 43 has Appendix F Crew Sizes which lists the following

Captain: 1 per vessel (Can perform secondary duty on vessels under 5,000 tons)
Navigator, Helmsman, Science, and Communications: 1 per 5,000 tons for vessels under 16,000 ton and 1 per 40,000 tons for vessels over 16,000 tons.
Engineer: 1 per 5,000 tons all vessels.

I have not been able to find any mention of crew size in the copy of Ship Construction 2e 1966/1985, I'm still digging though.

From the Cadet's Orientation Source Book 1966/1983 p. 16:

Departmental Positions Aboard a Starship

Commanding Officer (Captain)
First Officer

Command Department Head
Chief Engineer
Chief Navigator
Chief Helmsman/Weaponry Officer
Chief Communications Officer/Damage Control Officer

Support Department Officers
Chief Science Officer
Chief Medical Officer (Surgeon)
Security Chief
Chief Supply Officer

Unless a later edition changed the rules, which probably has happened while I was not paying attention, the Star Trek Command Section does not include a Chief Medical Officer (Surgeon)

Being retired USN the command section in my opinion are the officers in-line to take over in case Captain/Commanding Officer and the Executive Officer are incapacitated which are the weapons officer, navigation officer, and the engineering officer. The medical officer is not in line to take command.

Again thank you for the reply and including a source that may still support a medical officer in the command section. If possible can you please provide addition Star Trek source book titles and pages I might look at if I have them in my collection?
 
Most likely, the designers made a list of specialties you needed to run a starship, and summarized as the command crew.

You can look at crewing requirements as the minimum needed to operate at a certain efficiency; actual organization would be up to you.
 
Hello again Condottiere,

Condottiere said:
Most likely, the designers made a list of specialties you needed to run a starship, and summarized as the command crew.

You can look at crewing requirements as the minimum needed to operate at a certain efficiency; actual organization would be up to you.

You may be right, that Marc Miller and his GDW crew may have brain-stormed the command section and due to limited time did not cross check with real world sources. I have not been able to convince any of the Powers That Be that the Medical Officer (MO) should not be in the Command Section, which means that for any designs I may share that is the MO is listed.

Thank you for the reply.
 
Back
Top