Officer Roleplaying Guide

Rank Structure & How to Sim a Leader/Officer

The following is strictly a roleplaying guide. At no time is it meant to be definitive when it comes to IC and OOC promotions. It is meant to convey context with regards to rank and responsibilities of officers and enlisted personnel when a military rank structure is used such as in Starfleet. Another purpose of this guide is to help writers in developing a characters history. Whether they started as an enlisted recruit and moved into the officer ranks or joined the Academy at eighteen years old. This can help to give proper depth to your writing.

Rank/Naval Officer	Rank/Marine Officer	Grade	Time In Rank	Special Notes
Captain	Colonel	O-6		Time in rank is a general guideline. Promotions can happen sooner based on individual merit and leadership ability.
Commander	Lieutenant Colonel	O-5	36 months to CAPT		Warrant Officer	Grade	Time In Rank	Special Notes
Lieutenant Commander	Major	O-4	36 months to CMDR		Chief Warrant Officer, Grade 4	CW4		As with officer ranks, time in rank is a guideline and exceptions are made for individuals showing superior aptitude
Lieutenant	Captain	O-3	24 months to LCDR		Chief Warrant Officer, Grade 3	CW3	60 months to CW4
Lieutenant Junior Grade	1st Lieutenant	O-2	24 months to LT		Chief Warrant Officer, Grade 2	CW2	48 months to CW3
Ensign	2nd Lieutenant	O-1	18 months to JG		Warrant Officer, Grade 1	WO1	24 months to CW2
Enlisted/Naval	Enlisted/Marine	Grade	Time In Rank	Special Notes
Command Master Chief Petty Officer		E-10		E-7 through E-9 are based on yearly reviews and merit.
Master Chief Petty Officer	Sergeant Major	E-9
Senior Chief Petty Officer	Master Gunnery Sergeant	E-8
Chief Petty Officer	Gunnery Sergeant	E-7
Petty Officer, 1st Class	Staff Sergeant	E-6
Petty Officer, 2nd Class	Marine Sergeant	E-5	10 months to E-6	Enlisted times are almost strictly based on time in service and not merit.
Petty Officer, 3rd Class	Corporal	E-4	8 months to E-5
Crewman, 1st Class	Lance Corporal	E-3	6 months to E-4
Crewman, 2nd Class	Private First Class	E-2	12 months to E-3
Crewman, 3rd Class	Private	E-1	6 months to E-2

Note: Times listed above are generalizations. Promotions can happen faster or slower at the discretion of a commanding officer.

Ensigns - the bottom of the foodchain?
By Trovek Arys

The vast majority of players begin their SB118 Journey as an Ensign fresh out of Starfleet Academy. That is great for a start into the game, but not necessarily the only way to enter service aboard a Starfleet vessel. Ensigns are the most junior of line officers, but they are still line officers - meaning they have attended Starfleet Academy. Regardless of the courses taken - leadership skills would be part of the program. There is a great likelihood that you were taught how, and expected to, be able to take charge of a situation. What situations? I am so glad you asked! Ensign Harper motioned one of the nurses to help her. She didn't know their name - after all, Harper was just fresh out of Starfleet Academy. "Help me here, and grab a dermal regenerator. I don't want the cut to leave any scar tissue." Most of a starship's or starbase's staff consist of enlisted personnel, who carry out day-to-day operations and maintenance. Rather than attending Starfleet Academy, they would have attended a comparatively short program in which they are taught the ropes in a more simple way, and only relevant to their actual division. All Commissioned Officer ranks, from Ensign upward, outrank all Enlisted in the chain of command (an exception would, for example, be Miles O'Brien in his position as chief of operations on DS9). Lieutenant Harper took a step back and let Ensign Noxwyn take charge. After all, Nella was a security officer, and best equipped to handle the situation they had found themselves in. Situations may occur in which an Ensign takes charge, which mostly happens when the higher ranking officers do not have the necessary skillset. In this case, you defer to the person of the highest rank with the applicable skills. As you can see, it's not always a black and white situation, but important to remember is that situations may occur in which your character has to draw on the skills taught to him. To say it with the words of our dearest Aine Sherlock: It's like if you're on the bridge, in the middle of battle. Captain's dead, first officer is crying and falling apart. Who's in charge? Maybe that Ensign at the back of the bridge is the only one to nut up and take control.

Role Playing An Officer
By Aine Sherlock

The following can be considered a role playing primer in the responsibilities and duties of simming an officer. It will include examples of duties common to the individual ranks and the relationship those ranks play with Warrant Officers and Enlisted personnel. Officers are leaders, decision makers. Even when consulting with higher ranking officers, once decisions are made, it is not often for them to ask permission instead they will often act. For a senior officer to give a direct order, as in "I order you to...", usually means the junior officer is not performing up to the expected standards of an officer as there would be no reason for someone trained as an officer to not be able to make the decision themselves.

Ensign/2nd Lieutenant Ensigns being the junior most officers are essentially in training to lead a platoon sized unit. Generally, outside of their specialty, they'll work alongside a Lieutenant to learn the ropes. Largely this is administrative. What does this mean in the context of Star Trek? Off-screen, your character would have duties such as tasking and work scheduling of the personnel under them. It is beneficial to the reader to occasionally hear about these tasks and how they may affect your PC whether it is a stressful thing for them, or a positive learning experience, can give the reader more background on the personality of your character. In Security, this would be the general patrols that happen aboard a starship. In Science, it would be the assistants and researchers assigned to whichever task happens to be at hand. Medical, this would be nurses and assistants. Etc.

Lieutenant Junior Grade/1st Lieutenant A Lieutenant Junior Grade would be a platoon level officer. Now directly in command and responsible for between 20 and 50 enlisted personnel. Duties would include tasking and work scheduling and even discipline on the platoon level for non-judicial infractions.

Lieutenant/Captain The rank of Lieutenant means a person has now moved up to company level command. The individual would be in command and responsible for between 40 and 250 personnel. Among those under their command would be 2 to 5 junior officers and 2 to 6 senior enlisted personnel, including their companies senior non-commissioned officer. The rest of a company is filled out with enlisted personnel under more direct leadership of the junior officers. The company commander's orders are usually given through their senior NCO or directly to platoon leaders who then pass the orders down to the enlisted personnel.

Lieutenant Commander/Major The rank of Lieutenant Commander is often looked at as an interim rank. Most often this position is at the battalion or regimental level, third in command. Most often, in the case of Star Trek (but not always), this rank is held by department chiefs. Administrative duties are similar to a Lieutenant but on a broader scale consisting of 2 to 5 companies. They will have a senior non-commissioned officer directly under them in addition to all their company level officers. This kind of responsibility often means an officer is likely to move into command given their duties at the battalion level.

Commander/Lieutenant Colonel Second in command of a battalion or ship. Duties and responsibilities follow the same trickle down system as described above. In terms of Star Trek, different departments can be viewed as different companies. The ship overall as the battalion.

Captain/Colonel For all intents and purposes: God.

Note: There are exceptions to every rule. In Starfleet, some officers may not have people directly assigned to them as they may themselves be a highly specialized officer. An example of a specialized officer would be a pilot, similar to pilots in real life. Also of note, if a Lieutenant were to be given a Chief's position, that person, though of the rank of Lieutenant, would be in command, possibly, of a group/team larger than their rank would normally be in command of.

Warrant Officers It is often difficult for people to understand what a Warrant Officer is. One way they are often described is: The respect of an officer, the responsibilities of an enlisted man. Warrant Officers come from the enlisted ranks and go through additional training to become a Warrant Officer. It is not a "next step" for enlisted personnel. Warrant Officers usually have a specialty such as being a pilot. Concerning this example, pilots are Warrant Officers or Officers trained in that specialty because of the responsibility related to the profession. They can also be assigned to similar positions as officers such as platoon leaders. Another example would be a non-commissioned officer who trains to be a Warrant Officer in Intelligence. In this case, they may not have command over anyone, similar to a pilot, but have other responsibilities of an officer.

Enlisted The enlisted ranks are often the most misunderstood despite the fact that they would be the largest contingent in Starfleet, as we have not seen them much onscreen. Much like today, college is not for everyone. This does not mean, however, they are incapable. Promotions in the lower enlisted ranks most often come with time in service. Essentially, if you can do your job and do it well, you get promoted. Once you move into the non-commisioned ranks (E-4, Petty Officer 3rd Class, Corporal), you are given more responsibility such as team leader in which you will be responsible for a handful of personnel. Moving beyond this rank, you are often considered a career enlisted man. At this point in ones career, they'd often choose which direction to go in either becoming a Warrant Officer and learning a specialty or even looking to attend the Academy or Officer Candidate School and become a commissioned officer. Most will stay and follow the enlisted career path.

If one chooses to stay in the enlisted career path and they become an E-5/Petty Officer 2nd Class/Marine Sergeant, they will be given a squad. This is a leadership position and requires training in leadership. Beyond this rank, promotions are given less often. A yearly review, the persons desire to progress, and availability of positions will all factor into promotions from here on out. It is not uncommon to see an E-8/Senior Chief Petty Officer/Master Gunnery Sergeant retire with 20 years of service, just to give an idea of the time often involved. E-6 to E-7 is often a platoon level position working side by side with the platoon leader (see Lieutenant Junior Grade/2nd Lieutenant above). While all officers do outrank all enlisted, at this point, enlisted personnel are given a high amount of respect by good officers given the enlisted man's experience and training up to this point. When given orders by an officer, it is often done in the same manner an officer would give another officer of the same rank. E-8 and E-9 move up in commensurate positions within the battalion as do the officers. Similar to the platoons NCO, these positions work side by side with their company and battlion leaders, respectively.

E-10: See Captain/Colonel for appropriate description.