Prime Directive Traveller
- Thread starter Nerroth
- Start date
Hans Rancke
Mongoose
Survival would probably be higher if serving on a ship where they used more reasonable landing procedures. You, know, first beam down a sizable heavily armed security team in combat armor to secure a perimeter, THEN beam down the Away Team (then stay in sight of the others and don't wander off on your own).BFalcon said:Pretty much nil if you decide on security then...? :lol:
Or is that just if you happen to be assigned to the Big E?
I wonder what a command team that actually took proper advantage of its resources (human and equipment) would do to a lot of the classical adventures?
Hans
Hans Rancke
Mongoose
Semi-seriously, I think the correlation is a lot weaker than the adventures of the Starship Enterprise implies. Sure, being a security guard would still be a more dangerous job than most (after all, the perimeter is where the Bad Stuff usually happens first), but a few basic, no-brainer precautions would reduce the lethality of wearing a red shirt considerably.AndrewW said:
Hans
Zero: Actually the cast have said pretty much the same thing - they respected the character of Picard, but Kirk... no...
To me, Kirk was something of a brat... probably something to do with him being such a young heavy cruiser captain... ordinarily they'd be much older and would have worked harder for his promotions - kirk cheated to get his first advantage and pretty much seems to have played the system from there on...
Picard was much more like how a capital ship captain should be, as was Sisko in DS9. Kirk, to me, was more the wartime destroyer captain - younger and more brash in his actions.
To me, Kirk was something of a brat... probably something to do with him being such a young heavy cruiser captain... ordinarily they'd be much older and would have worked harder for his promotions - kirk cheated to get his first advantage and pretty much seems to have played the system from there on...
Picard was much more like how a capital ship captain should be, as was Sisko in DS9. Kirk, to me, was more the wartime destroyer captain - younger and more brash in his actions.
LimeyDragon
Banded Mongoose
Ok, being one of the crazy people who like to own Trek related RPG material, i am looking forward to MGT: SF. I have PD, PD1, PD20, Gurps, and dabbled with D6. As with all there products they will be excellent to read and a grat reources to use.
Rick
Mongoose
BFalcon said:
Funny you should say that last bit - it came up in either this or another SFU related thread. It makes sense for Kirk to appear as he does as the Star Trek series of the time was set in a time when war between the Klingons and the Federation was getting very close (if it wasn't for the Organians, they would have been at war in the series). By the time of Sisko and Picard, the universe had settled down somewhat and away from a wartime footing - diplomacy and 'showing the flag' were needed, not combat commanders. Sort of hangs together a bit, lol!
Hans Rancke
Mongoose
It's been a long time since I watched any TOS episodes, but weren't there occasions when the redshirt was from Science Division? By which I mean that his narrative function was to demonstrate to the main characters how dangerous the Danger of the Week was?
Contrariwise (and bringing this back to gaming), in a campaign where Lieutenant Whatshisname was a PC security guard, he wouldn't be a redshirt whatever he was wearing.
Anyway, the problem I would have with playing a PC security officer (or a PC starship captain for that matter) would be playing one that didn't insist on taking proper precautions to safeguard Away teams.
Hans
Contrariwise (and bringing this back to gaming), in a campaign where Lieutenant Whatshisname was a PC security guard, he wouldn't be a redshirt whatever he was wearing.
Anyway, the problem I would have with playing a PC security officer (or a PC starship captain for that matter) would be playing one that didn't insist on taking proper precautions to safeguard Away teams.
Hans
Rick
Mongoose
Hans Rancke said:
The problem is that ST was completely unrealistic as far as real world military is concerned - the SFU has gone some way to addressing that with replacing security redshirts with marines, but it would be up to the players and GM to decide how 'real' or 'cinematic' they want their games to be.
Well, I think you need to remember that the Redshirts were supposed to be a low-key security force, who I suspect were often seconded onto Engineering as fitters or something, being the same department, when they weren't needed as security. You also have to remember that even the lowliest of them were Ensigns, so not exactly a regular crop either (none of the ST:TOS crew were enlisted - all were commissioned).
But the Enterprise's primary missions largely included diplomatic and peaceful duties, where heavily armed and armoured troops would have been unwanted, with a minimum of dangerous missions. I think the Enterprise found more than its fair share of the danger, in all fairness. Security members I view more as military police than true marines - the marines would probably have been sent on-board during times of war, but not until, since it may have been viewed either as an escalation or by the politicians as a sign of their failure to avoid it.
But the Enterprise's primary missions largely included diplomatic and peaceful duties, where heavily armed and armoured troops would have been unwanted, with a minimum of dangerous missions. I think the Enterprise found more than its fair share of the danger, in all fairness. Security members I view more as military police than true marines - the marines would probably have been sent on-board during times of war, but not until, since it may have been viewed either as an escalation or by the politicians as a sign of their failure to avoid it.
zero said:^ That the crew were all commissioned for that size of crew and vessel tears at my suspended disbelief.
I know what you mean.
It was something they corrected in TNG, but only slightly, with Chief O'Brien...
Presumably enlisted men weren't considered worthy of serving on starships of that quality... and were confined to lesser ships. Or maybe enlisted ranks were only given to crewmen drafted in from station posts - Starfleet Academy graduates may have been given officer ranks and only they were allowed to man the larger ships in peacetime? In war, they'd be split up and would command crews of enlisted men? I dunno...
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
It wasn't that they were all officer types.
It was just that starflet was very strict. Only Ensigns and above were allowed to speak or be seen by the senior officers.
Enlisted ranks were restricted to a number of decks the officers didn't visit often and if the captain went somewhere the turbolift program alerted his destination to get all the grubby enlisted types out of sight fast. When you see the captain walking the coridors all the enlisted are hiding behind the doors waiting till he has gone :twisted:
It was just that starflet was very strict. Only Ensigns and above were allowed to speak or be seen by the senior officers.
Enlisted ranks were restricted to a number of decks the officers didn't visit often and if the captain went somewhere the turbolift program alerted his destination to get all the grubby enlisted types out of sight fast. When you see the captain walking the coridors all the enlisted are hiding behind the doors waiting till he has gone :twisted:
