Free Trader Ranks & Positions

[Mithras]

I've been creating a few merchant NPCs recently, and was trying to figure out how the crew all interact with one another. Looking at Book 7 I see that spacelines structure their crews very much like a modern container ship or cruise liner. I can live with that, but hate pushing the nautical feel into MTU. Heinlein's Starman Jones is all about a young man's rise through the hierarchy of a spaceliner - very enlightening, with some great details.

But it strikes me that the Free Trader ranks are different. Book 7 says as much, there are no departments as such. I liken a free trader-sized ship to an airliner or a WW2 bomber. Look at the crew for a type M or the 1000 ton Solomani bulk carrier. The captain is also the pilot.

With so few crew (9 for the type M) the organization could easily match that of an airliner. The captain is the pilot and commander, the navigator and copilot is the first officer, the engineer is the second officer, the steward is the third officer and the fourth officer is the medic. That covers all major crew positions on a ship of this size ...

I note that most adventure class ships are layed out like aircraft with cockpit at the front and traditional cockpit seating I would recognise today.

This all makes sense to me. Especially with first officer gaining pilot skill in the LBB1. I note that required skils for promo in Book 7 are slightly different from mine, but I put my ranks in order of pay, like the merchant marine.

Anyway, I'm finding I like this model, I can much more easily visualise what people are doing and where the chain of command lay.

 

[shadowcat20]

Starman Jones?......Its been years since I read that one. One of his Juvinile books, but still great. In later years he got a little decadent.

 

[Mithras]

Yeah, nice little book. Good to see young Jones gain a transfer from the Purser's dept to Deck, then gain promotions. Lovely details like buying new uniforms, eating with passengers, what is and is not allowed at different ranks.

Good book!

 

[JAFARR]

Starman Jones?......Its been years since I read that one. One of his Juvinile books, but still great. In later years he got a little decadent.

His "juvenile" books & Andra Norton's free trader stores make great reading at any age. Little or no sex, or profanity and lots of good stories.

 

[Dragoner]

Just re-read Starman Jones (found a book store with a huge basement filled with Science Fiction), a good book, recommended.

 

[Captain Midnight]

I also enjoyed David Drake's "Starliner", which was a look at how a bigger ship might be run. You do get a chance to see how different departments function, and how the ship as a whole functions, but it's very much focused on the hero.

 

[bromdenlong]

I always thought that "pilot is captain, navigator is executive officer, engineer is third in command" stuff was way too formulaic, especially for free traders. Why shouldn't the navvy or even the engineer or chief steward be the captain?

Then again, IMTU Nav skill equals jump skill. I see navigators as being pretty useless otherwise.

I also never bought the CT LBB pay scale paying gunners less than stewards. Stewards can't save your life and your ship from pirate attack, and gunners could serve as stewards.

 

[aramis]

I always thought that "pilot is captain, navigator is executive officer, engineer is third in command" stuff was way too formulaic, especially for free traders. Why shouldn't the navvy or even the engineer or chief steward be the captain?

Then again, IMTU Nav skill equals jump skill. I see navigators as being pretty useless otherwise.

I also never bought the CT LBB pay scale paying gunners less than stewards. Stewards can't save your life and your ship from pirate attack, and gunners could serve as stewards.

Because, in any sensible universe, the captain requires a master's ticket, which will REQUIRE pilot and nav skills. A ship without a licensed master won't be allowed off the ground.

Think of the automatic skills by rank: in CT/MT, 1st officer is Pilot 1. So the first officer and pilot ranks of the merchant career probably represent a master's ticket. (At present real world, most merchant marine 1st officers either have or are working on their master's ticket. Many shipowners won't hire a 1st officer who doesn't have a master's ticket, although it might not be in the size ship he's hired for.)

Also, in CT, merchants need not have a navigator to jump. One can readily buy course tapes. Gotta have an engineer, gotta have a pilot, but a navigator's a good idea but not essential. Stewards are must have only if you have passengers. Safety regs require a medic, too.

 

[Mithras]

You see, the First Officer having pilot means that both Captain and First Officer are pilots, which I can see as the pilot and co-pilot on an airliner, and I like that.

 

[fiat_knox]

If the ship is running well enough financially, I imagine the positions of Owner, Master, First and Second Officer, Pilot and Navigator occupied by different people - especially on some of the larger independent liners.

It's only on the smaller vessels, and the ones running behind on the payments and struggling to make ends meet, that you're bound to run into Captain Manyhats, the Swiss Army Bridge Officer, running the nav console with one foot, piloting with his right hand and operating the computer with his left.

 

[bromdenlong]

Because, in any sensible universe, the captain requires a master's ticket, which will REQUIRE pilot and nav skills. A ship without a licensed master won't be allowed off the ground.

Think of the automatic skills by rank: in CT/MT, 1st officer is Pilot 1. So the first officer and pilot ranks of the merchant career probably represent a master's ticket. (At present real world, most merchant marine 1st officers either have or are working on their master's ticket. Many shipowners won't hire a 1st officer who doesn't have a master's ticket, although it might not be in the size ship he's hired for.)

Also, in CT, merchants need not have a navigator to jump. One can readily buy course tapes. Gotta have an engineer, gotta have a pilot, but a navigator's a good idea but not essential. Stewards are must have only if you have passengers. Safety regs require a medic, too.

I see the "licensed master" scenario as one sensible (or more importantly, realistic) way to go, but not the only one. I can just as easily envision it being illegal to lift without a licensed pilot and engineer, but have no mandated skill requirements per se for the captain. In the age of sail, an owner could captain his boat and leave sailing and navigation to the "sailing master".

Having said that, CT book 7, Merchant Prince, does support your view in its required qualifications for advancement. My opinion that the ranks and functions were too formulaic was a reaction to the LBBs, long before I ever saw book 7.

I always treat those required qualifications in book 7 as automatic skills upon promotion, taking 1 year each to obtain.

I see the jump tapes as a temporary solution, not a good standard operating procedure. I see jumping/navigating as involving perhaps less hands-on time than piloting, but not reliably being a "calculate, punch the button, sleep for a week" operation.

I also see stewards as being more than waiters, cooks and cabin boys. I also see them as something akin to USAF loadmasters.

 

[aramis]

I see the jump tapes as a temporary solution, not a good standard operating procedure. I see jumping/navigating as involving perhaps less hands-on time than piloting, but not reliably being a "calculate, punch the button, sleep for a week" operation.

I also see stewards as being more than waiters, cooks and cabin boys. I also see them as something akin to USAF loadmasters.

You see a lot that's not supported by the rules...

The only penalty for jump tapes is they are 1 use... no extra hazard by the rules. And everything in CT, MT, and TNE implies jump is exactly a "Do the calcs, push the buttons, then sit back for a week"... the engineer still monitors the drives, but that's to do with LS as much as anything else.

Note that Merchant 1st Officer gets Pilot skill as a freebie under Bk 1. And until Captain, the ship is not going to happen. (Can't happen, in fact.)

Scouts get Pilot, and have access to a ship from term 1 on...

Pirate Lieutenant gets Pilot one; Pirate Captain has a chance of ship.

Scientist and Noble both can get ships without having pilot, but in both cases, the logical conclusion is that they are not crew aboard; They own it but don't captain it.

The only weirdness is Belters... who can get a ship, and would be expected to captain it... but may not have pilot.

 

[bromdenlong]

You see a lot that's not supported by the rules...

Yep. I was referring to MTU, and what makes sense to me, both within the fiction of the game and dramatically for the players. I think Nav is a pretty useless skill for characters unless you equate it to Jump skill, and pretty dull for players unless you make it more hands-on. I'm trying to think of ways to make navvies roll more often, too..