[Psionics] [Space] Psi Trek - Worldbuilding

[Prince Charon]

OK, with one vote, the decision has been made, and I've made the war longer. I only needed to change two sentences at the end of one paragraph:

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

This failed for multiple reasons: Firstly, the intelligence services of the various members were not idle, and were at least somewhat aware of this plan, even if they were uncertain of the exact details beforehand. Secondly, the less warlike star-nations were fully aware of the benefits they gained from being part of the Authority, and had no intention of giving that up. Thirdly, the anti-USA powers underestimated the strength of the bonds that they were trying to break (and were completely confused as to why pro-war posters in the Concorduim often read 'Gondor Calls For Aid!'), or perhaps overestimated their own political skills. Finally, they were not expecting the Xindi Alliance to just watch as they did, but to opportunistically attack (they would have, if the war had lasted longer, or had looked like it might be successful). The Kaa were the first to bow out, establishing a separate peace in 2183. The Orions reluctantly withdrew from the war in early 2185, with the Kzin holding on until the end of 2187.

[Prince Charon]

T'Kon Curse Ray

Probability Alteration weapon

When people hear the phrase "T'Kon energy weapons," they don't think of the lasers, electron dampeners, or anti-proton accelerators that were made by that ancient empire. They think of the infamous Curse Ray. It was not the most common weapon used by the T'Kon Empire before its fall, but due to a quirk of design, more Curse Rays survived to the modern era in functional states (or states that could be made functional) than most other T'Kon equipment. Likewise, a 'bad luck gun' is so unexpected among the modern races that the fact that so many of them were made by the T'Kon tends to stick in one's mind.

At the lowest levels of effect, machines will malfunction, shut down, or need to reboot, and biological organisms are left stunned, and often dizzy and nauseous. At higher levels or closer ranges, this is accompanied by the ability that gives the Curse Ray its name, as the target becomes unlucky, sometimes extremely so, for some time after the ray hits.

(Affliction: Cursed or Unluckiness (both with Affects Machines) out to 1/2D. Affliction: Stun (with Affects Machines and sometimes Dizziness or Nausea) out to Max, still affecting those within 1/2D range in addition to the main Affliction.)

There is no 'standard' Curse Ray, as the surviving examples come in too many different versions. Thus, the template below is vague:

Beam Weapons (<type>)
Damage: HT-X aff; out to Max; Power: Probability Alteration
linked Damage: Will-X aff; out to 1/2D; Power: Probability Alteration
Cost: Often Not Available for Sale, or extremely expensive (varied widely in the T'Kon's era); LC: Varies.

In some cases, the Curse affliction will be based on Will, and the Stunning affliction will be based on HT. In others, both will be based on the same attribute; no known examples are resisted by traits other than either Will or HT. (EDIT: A possible malfunction of a Curse Ray would be to give the target good luck, or strange luck.)

The smallest working example was part of a Probability Alteration-based multitool built into a signet-style finger-ring, but the item was stolen from the dig site by unknown parties, before a full analysis could be made. The largest working example masses more than a tonne, and appears to be part of a ground-based defensive emplacement, able to disable large spacecraft out to nearly a light-second. The largest non-working example masses nearly twelve tonnes, and had a range and strength that xenoarchaeological engineers have yet to determine.


T'Kon Probability Shield

The other common survivor of T'Kon military technology, these devices grant those within their defensive radius Resistance to hostile Probability Alteration effects (or all Probability Alteration effects, if the device malfunctions in a specific way). How much Resistance varies, but large vehicle-mounted shields (Decade scale (Basic Set p470 text box) or bigger) effectively grant Immunity to personal-scale Probability weapons. As with the Curse Ray, these are rarely available for sale, and of great cost if they are available at all.

The smallest working example was part of the same multitool as above. The largest known example, which started working once power was applied to it during testing, masses over thirty tonnes; it provides effective Immunity (when at full power, which has not been done) to Probability Alteration effects of Decade scale or less, and +12 to resist PA effects at Century scale.


Attempts to reverse engineer this technology are ongoing. How successful this has been should probably be up to individual GMs, but I suggest that newly-built examples should be experimental tech that the PCs are assigned to field-test.



Thoughts?

[Prince Charon]

Ranks of the Space Forces question

I've been working on this for a while, and I'm wondering if this version is acceptable:

(See also Ranks and insignia of NATO.)

Ranks with greater responsibility and/or social influence than the number of personnel normally under their command, are listed with levels of Courtesy Rank appended.

Commissioned Officers

Rank 9 [45]

OF-10 Commissioner of the Space Forces

Rank 8 [40]

OF-9 Commissioner

Rank 7 [35]

OF-8 Deputy Commissioner
OF-7 Lieutenant Commissioner

Rank 6 [30]

OF-6 Commander
OF-5 Chief Superintendent

Rank 5 [25]

OF-4 Superintendent

Rank 4 [20]

OF-3 Chief Inspector

Rank 3 [15]

OF-2 Inspector
OF-1 Lieutenant Inspector


Officers in Training

Courtesy Rank 3 [3]

OF(D) Space Cadet


Warrant Officers

Rank 3 [15]

WO4/WO5 Master Warrant Officer (w/Courtesy Rank 3 [3])
WO3 Chief Warrant Officer (w/Courtesy Rank 2 [2])
WO2 Senior Warrant Officer (w/Courtesy Rank 1 [1])
WO1 Warrant Officer


Non-Commissioned Officers & Enlisted Personnel

Rank 2 [10]

OR-9 Sergeant Major (w/Courtesy Rank 4 [4])
OR-8 Master Sergeant (w/Courtesy Rank 3 [3])
OR-7 Senior Sergeant (w/Courtesy Rank 2 [2])
OR-6 Staff Sergeant (w/Courtesy Rank 1 [1])
OR-5 Sergeant

Rank 1 [5]

OR-3 Staff Corporal (w/Courtesy Rank 1 [1])
OR-3 Corporal
OR-2 Space Constable first class

Rank 0 [0]

OR-1 Space Constable
OR-1 Space Recruit


As you can see, the current version is based on the SC Space Patrol ranks, with additional ranks added due to having significantly more personnel. That's not the only possible option, but it's what I have right now. So, the question is:

Is the above table of ranks acceptable, or should it be changed?

*1: Yes, use it as is.

*2: Yes, with a small change or changes (please specify).

*3: No, it should be more overtly military.

*4: No, it should be more alien/eccentric.

*5: No, something that I haven't thought of (please specify).


Clearly, some of these will trigger another vote if they win.

I'll warn you now that I'm rather opposed to using a lot of Navy-style ranks for this, as space is not an ocean. Using a few Navy ranks, or using positional titles that sound like Navy ranks (e.g. the commanding officer of a vessel being called 'Captain,' while not having a specific rank called 'captain'), would be acceptable.

[TGLS]

2

From smallest to largest:

- Move up OR-3 Staff Corporal to OR-4

- A rank above Sergeant Major; doesn't need to be common at all

- Warrant officers as distinct from enlisted personnel seems to be anomalous to the US forces. Maybe it should be eliminated or merged with the top end of enlisted?

- Maybe even out enlisted ranks a little? Right now, the ranks go:
Rank 0: OR1
Rank 1: OR2-4
Rank 2: OR5-9

Surely they could be banded together in groups of three or so? Maybe:

Rank 0 [0]
OR1: Constable
OR2: Constable, Second Class
OR3: Constable, First Class (Courtesy Rank 1)

Rank 1 [5]
OR4: Corporal
OR5: Sergeant (Courtesy Rank 1)
OR6: Staff Sergeant (Courtesy Rank 1)

Rank 2 [10]
OR7: Senior Sergeant
OR8: Master Sergeant (Courtesy Rank 1)
OR9: Sergeant Major (Courtesy Rank 2)
...
OR9: Sergeant Major of the Space Force (Courtesy Rank 7)

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Ranks of the Space Forces question

[…]

Is the above table of ranks acceptable, or should it be changed?

I vote 2 and 3.

The lower ranks for the Commissioned Officers sound like they were designed for a police department. That would be fine for customs enforcement, but doesn't make sense for a military organization. I'd change OF1 thru OF3 to Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, and Senior Colonel, respectively. This makes the officer ranks sound militaristic but non-naval.

I second TLGS's comment that the enlisted ranks need to be evened out. It seems weird that there are so many subdivisions for Rank 2. I think his scheme works pretty well.

However, it still has the problem of having 5 nominal ranks in a row all being variations on Sergeant. This is a little hard to keep track of for game purposes. I'd make OR8 and OR9 distinct ranks such as "Field Marshal" and "Marshal". Or make the Sergeants 1- thru 5- star Sergeants.

Finally, I'd make OF10 "Secretary of the Space Forces" or similar. That prevents confusion between the head of the Space Forces and their immediate subordinate.

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

I'll warn you now that I'm rather opposed to using a lot of Navy-style ranks for this, as space is not an ocean. Using a few Navy ranks, or using positional titles that sound like Navy ranks (e.g. the commanding officer of a vessel being called 'Captain,' while not having a specific rank called 'captain'), would be acceptable.

I would definitely use "Captain" as a positional title for the Star Trek feel. "Commodore" and "Admiral" might be used as positional titles for captains in charge of task forces.

[Prince Charon]

I've rearranged the quotes to fit the best places for my responses. I hope that it isn't annoying. Sorry if it is.

Originally Posted by TGLS

- Warrant officers as distinct from enlisted personnel seems to be anomalous to the US forces. Maybe it should be eliminated or merged with the top end of enlisted?

Warrant Officers being something other than senior enlisted/NCOs was originally somewhat common, as they were created to give professionals greater authority situational, without giving them the broad authority of commissioned officers. I might drop them, though.

Originally Posted by TGLS

- Maybe even out enlisted ranks a little? Right now, the ranks go:
Rank 0: OR1
Rank 1: OR2-4
Rank 2: OR5-9

Surely they could be banded together in groups of three or so? Maybe:

Rank 0 [0]

<SNIP interesting idea>

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

I second TLGS's comment that the enlisted ranks need to be evened out. It seems weird that there are so many subdivisions for Rank 2. I think his scheme works pretty well.

Hmm. That looks pretty good aesthetically, but given that these are GURPS ranks (which means that in the absence of Courtesy Rank, they are based on how many people are under your direct command, and only theoretically connected to your pay grade), I would want to check the size of the normal command for that rank. I thought that what I had was how it would usually work. This wikipedia article may help.

Technically, you could say that NCO and commissioned ranks (and warrant ranks where those are separate) are parallel systems (hence levels of Courtesy Rank). I think someone did a post on that, but I can't recall who or where.

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

However, it still has the problem of having 5 nominal ranks in a row all being variations on Sergeant. This is a little hard to keep track of for game purposes.

I based that on RL militaries, where the higher NCO ranks (in English) do very often tend to be variations on 'Sergeant' or 'Petty Officer.' Examples (again, from wikipedia): US Army, US Navy.

You may have a point about it being difficult for gaming purposes. I've never seen that, but I'm just me, and can't be sure how far the experiences of others differ.

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

I vote 2 and 3.

The lower ranks for the Commissioned Officers sound like they were designed for a police department. That would be fine for customs enforcement, but doesn't make sense for a military organization. I'd change OF1 thru OF3 to Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, and Senior Colonel, respectively. This makes the officer ranks sound militaristic but non-naval.

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

I'd make OR8 and OR9 distinct ranks such as "Field Marshal" and "Marshal". Or make the Sergeants 1- thru 5- star Sergeants.

...Colonel (which is normally the highest or second-highest senior officer rank, just below field officers) as a junior officer and Marshal as senior NCO? Um, that's a bit strange. Like, to my mind, that would be heading toward option 4. Using stars to rank the Sergeants isn't as bad, that's a minor change, but it seems odd with your objection to those ranks all being variants of Sergeant.

Here's the British Army officer ranks, for comparison.

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

Finally, I'd make OF10 "Secretary of the Space Forces" or similar. That prevents confusion between the head of the Space Forces and their immediate subordinate.

I really would prefer to use something other than Secretary, as that is a civilian position, and OF-10 would be the professional head, who would answer to the Secretary or Minister. OF-10 is where 'Field Marshal' (or 'Air Marshal,' or perhaps 'Space Marshal') would normally go.

In real life, the US Army's equivalent of OF-10 is the five-star rank 'General of the Army,' which outranks the four-star rank of 'General' (though there hasn't been a promotion to five-star rank in the US in decades).

I get the feeling that you don't geek out on military ranks and trivia as hard as I do (or if you do, it's for a country other than the US or UK).

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

I would definitely use "Captain" as a positional title for the Star Trek feel. "Commodore" and "Admiral" might be used as positional titles for captains in charge of task forces.

OK, this part I have no problem with. I was basically thinking that the size and/or threat level of the task force would determine the positional title:

Small force, or a force of smaller or lightly-armed vessels: Fleet Captain.

Medium-strength force: Commodore.

Large, heavily-armed force: Admiral.

Seriously huge task force that might only be gathered together once in a lifetime, if then: Fleet Admiral.


I hope that this is coherent, as I'm fairly tired, again.

[TGLS]

Here's the thread that talks about Doug Cole's old Pyramid article about it http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=39412

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Using stars to rank the Sergeants isn't as bad, that's a minor change, but it seems odd with your objection to those ranks all being variants of Sergeant.

Part of my objection was that the Sergeant ranks don't do a very good job of showing hierarchy. That works in a real world military, where enlistees would be immersed in the military culture and have the ranks memorized. But for a game it is cumbersome to require players to memorize the relative positions of the ranks or the GM explaining that detail of the setting whenever it comes up.

Using a five-star sergeant scheme solves that particular problem.

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

I really would prefer to use something other than Secretary, as that is a civilian position, and OF-10 would be the professional head, who would answer to the Secretary or Minister.

OK, I can see that argument for not making the Secretary a commissioned officer. I'm torn on whether to represent their de facto control over the military with Status or Rank.

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

I get the feeling that you don't geek out on military ranks and trivia as hard as I do […]

You hit the nail on the head there. I'm more concerned with getting a Rank system that is playable than one that is based on real world militaries.

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

I was basically thinking that the size and/or threat level of the task force would determine the positional title:

Small force, or a force of smaller or lightly-armed vessels: Fleet Captain.

Medium-strength force: Commodore.

Large, heavily-armed force: Admiral.

Seriously huge task force that might only be gathered together once in a lifetime, if then: Fleet Admiral.

These all work for me.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

OK, I can see that argument for not making the Secretary a commissioned officer. I'm torn on whether to represent their de facto control over the military with Status or Rank.

I'd use both: Status for the social status that comes with being the Secretary/Minister of Defense (and Undersecretaries/Deputy Ministers for the Army, Starfleet, Marine Corps, Starfighter Corps, etc., or whatever branches you go with), Political Rank for their positions in the political hierarchy, and Military Rank 10 (or whatever level you top out at) for their ability to give orders to whatever passes for your Joint Chiefs of Staff (the 5-star generals/admirals in charge of their branches of the military).

My own Rank and Status Tables gives my thoughts on Administrative/Political, Merchant, Military and Police Ranks. I'd put Star Trek's United Federation of Planets, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Cardassian Empire, and similar sized entities at "Large Interstellar Nation-State" and smaller sector-sized entities such as the Breen as "Typical Interstellar Nation-State"; folks like the Bajorans would be "star system".


With the military ranks, I don't give E-1, E-4, O-6, W-3, etc. breakdowns; likewise, police pay grades and titles are all over the place!

[Prince Charon]

Too tired to give a more detailed reply, but I don't want people to think that I'm ignoring this: I would say that anyone above the professional head of the service (the one I listed as 'Commissioner of the Space Forces,' above) would be a civilian, and would fall into the territory of an article or articles on the civilian administration of the USA. The Head of State or Head of Government of the Authority would be the Commander-in-Chief of the Space Forces, unless we want to have a collective HoC/HoG with split responsibilities (so one is the Commander-in-Chief, another is the leader of the legislature, and so on). If we go there, we'll also have to work out how the responsibilities are split.

As for that professional head, if it's generally agreed that 'Commissioner of the Space Forces' isn't wanted, would 'Space Marshal' or 'Marshal of the Space Forces' work better?