New character’s rank

[Valdivia]

 

As our characters go through missions, they get experience. We, as simmers, get to know them better, but they also evolve themselves, as we get to live through their missions. From the moment they step out of the academy, we have shaped them, but we have not been the only ones. We have also been a powerless witness as they lived moments that would shape them in the future. Sometimes, all those experiences and evolution are rewarded with a promotion, and as time passes, both the characters and the players get promoted into our game.

However, sometimes, a player gets a new character. Maybe just as a secondary character, maybe switching main characters. Maybe it was supposed to be temporary and evolved into a PNPC they use regularly. Whatever the case, sometimes a player gets a new character. And then, sometimes, the rank of the player and the rank of the character are not equal (the character being lower ranked).

When this happen, and you might choose to create a new character, you can take the same rank your previous (or maybe still active) character had. It makes sense, you are used to playing a lieutenant, for example. Ranks have some effect on our game, so changing ranks also means a change of mental frame.

On the other side, if you create a new character as a higher ranked officer, you have missed a great part of his evolution. You have to imagine how his evolution to that rank, from being fresh out of the academy, has been, in whichever ship you imagine he has served.

So, when you  create a new character, what do you prefer?

This is a new post in our category Simming Questions. Here we will be asking questions about our community, our characters and our writing, and how you interact with it all.

 

[Vylaa]

I like to play around with the uncommon ranks for my PNPCs.  I just recently created two Bynars who are Petty Officers, as well as two Cetacean Warrant Officers.  It's more fun for me, because they think differently than officers.

[Zephyr]

It depends on the role they are filling at the time where I start the rank system. My first secondary (Cadfael Peters) I started at Ensign because I just made Lieutenant with Chythar. My first PNPC who later became my secondary (Carter Greyson) is an ensign, but some of my other NPCs like Merlin Emrys are crewmen rank. Devlin's easy: he's a dog -- civilian by default.

[+ Arturo Maxwell]

Not so much new characters, but I have a pair of PNPC's....

The first one is a Lt JG which is now equal to my character rank. She started out at that rank even when my character was an Ensign, but she wasn't "written" as a PNPC and was only made reference to. Since my character moved up a rank, she has become a 'proper' PNPC.

 

The other PNPC is a Marine Private. The rank chosen deliberately so he's at the bottom of the food chain

[Renos]

I often start my new character at Ensign as I like to see them evolve from the start of their career, but it depends on the reason I'm creating them so it can vary a lot. I might be using them as a stand-in department head while training junior PCs to be able to take over, in time, and need them to have a higher rank, or they might even be an enlisted character to flesh out the wider crew or a civilian.

[Jalana]

It completely depends on the Character. My first PNPC was one rank below my character when I started simming them (they still are Ensign, just I am not lol). Others were enlisted or Civilian, again others had the same rank when I started playing them. I just usually go with what fits best to them, where I wanna go with them or their whole background story, age and so on.

[+ Cory Stoyer]

My PNPC wife is a Chief Warrant Officer 3.  I have another PNPC that is a Command Master Chief.  My main character started as an enlisted Crewman.