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Approved Submission [SAoY] Special Operations Fire Teams

Wes

Wes

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🌸 FM of Yamatai
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Submission Type: Setting Element / Fluff
Submission URL: https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=stararmy:special_operations_fire_team

Faction:
FM Approved Yet? Yes: 11/23/15 by Wes
Faction requires art? Yes, but not for this type of article

For Reviewers:
Contains Unapproved Sub-Articles? No
Contains New art? No
Previously Submitted? No

Notes:

Finally broke down and started on some sort of special forces for the Star Army, based on something like a Black Spiral style fire team or a D&D adventuring party. Basically intended to let Star Army of Yamatai RPs do their thing with minimal overhead.
 
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DATASS Signatory support confirmed.

As a Yamatai player on the side, I love this concept, I love it very much, and hope to see great things come of it.

Now, what will it take to get one of those fireteams for Helen Klein, and a light gunship with door gunner ports?

 
I'm sort of curious as to why it says that the team leader must always be an NCO rather than stating they must be at least an NCO.

Other than that I can see this potentially being useful for a wide variety of plots. So I suppose a second vote of approval. After all if people don't want to use this sort of organization for teams/plots they don't need to so it doesn't hurt anyone.
 
The reasons are:
  1. 3-4 people is not a big enough element for an officer to command. It's just too small for the rank.
  2. The risk of ultra-high-risk jobs these teams will do are not the type you want to risk your officers on.
 
Ya know, versus three Chui and a Shosho commanding a crew of ten, four of which are sprites, some of which are sprites turned full on crew.

Also, ya know, the risk of ultra-high-risk jobs, like those that a Ketsururi Princess holding the rank of Shosho would throw herself head-on at on a regular basis.

Leadership by example, and the example that is set in place by the Ketsururi Clan is that Yamataian officers are field officers.

That kind of poking at aside, it should be noted that IRL, US Army Captains lead 'A-Teams', as noted here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speci...rational_Detachment-A_.28SFODA.29_composition

While in the USMC, Captains lead Marine Special Operations Teams. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps_Forces_Special_Operations_Command

This would mean that officers of the rank of Taii would not be entirely outlandish for commanding a SOFT team in the field. Alternatively, it may be advisable to perhaps increase the possible size of a SOFT team to perhaps be of a squad size... which would incidentally mesh quite well with the way that field operations have been carried out in many cases by various plotships.

Besides, a SOFT team can also be a power armor team, this implies a level of responsibility far beyond a few grunts with guns, which would certainly call for a field officer to be handy.
 
Hey wait a second!

When I suggested this, everyone got super angry at me despite Wes' approval. I feel like this should meet the same standards of "It's from someone I don't like so its bad" that the Giretsu met.

Maybe some more fleshing out?
 
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Let's not forget the SEAL team led by Lt. Michael Murphy, SDV Team 1. Lieutenant for the Navy also is an O3.

I get you might want to give this format to a new GM, but they can still be led by officers and WOs, along with NCOs (Itto minimum).

Also, Kirk: we didn't like it in part because you were still "brand new" at the time. Wes' idea also is more general and flexible.
 
Since Kirk brought it up I'll also elaborate on why I met this more warmly than his suggestion.

When the Giretsu came up they were proposed as a separate group of elite special forces. Apart from being their own unit with tasks that overlapped with traditional SAINT or even possibly Ketsurui Samurai tasks, it also put into my head the sort of showy strutting that IRL special forces are prone to which makes the average soldier resent them. In contrast SOFT to me seems like the sort of organization that draws from talent among the regular SAoY forces, the cell exists long enough for them to complete their task, and then they go back to regular life. With SOFT you go into battle with peers instead of being drawn from a special group.

Essentially I like SOFT more because it doesn't divide the average soldier from an operative. People get picked to go on missions because they had the right skill set for the particular mission, not because they went to a camp and drilled themselves to be exclusively elite.
 
Edited to allow officers to lead teams based on your feedback.
 
I believe that the average soldier, the average person -in- power armor in the Star Army, which is everyone, is not Special Operations Capable. That maybe yeah you do need to separate the people who can handle what is required from the average person, rather than just picking people who are skilled, or more likely, people who an officer likes to go do a special mission. It... is kinda the way the modern military handles special operations.
 
Kirkatan said:
Hey wait a second!

When I suggested this, everyone got super angry at me despite Wes' approval. I feel like this should meet the same standards of "It's from someone I don't like so its bad" that the Giretsu met.

Maybe some more fleshing out?
Click to expand...
He's a faction manager. This is him managing his faction.

I think it lacks detail too but Wes isn't known for detail.

It is what it is and that's enough, really.
 
Eistheid said:
In contrast SOFT to me seems like the sort of organization that draws from talent among the regular SAoY forces, the cell exists long enough for them to complete their task, and then they go back to regular life. With SOFT you go into battle with peers instead of being drawn from a special group.
Click to expand...

This also fits with Yamatai's recruiting system for its national police force, which uses the same "draw from talent" method.

However, this suggests that SOFT members don't necessarily go through SAINT-style training and modification, which creates an compelling dynamic for diverse teams.

Lastly, a Final Fantasy-inspired motto: "Got a problem too hard or stiff to solve? Use a SOFT."
 
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SAINT teams would have to be composed of SAINT members.
 
A non-SAINT team could possibly have a SAINT agent among the group though. This way even while normal soldiers wouldn't be allowed on SAINT operations, SAINT personnel can go on non-SAINT opperations allowing for team diversity.

The biggest benefit of this proposition is that it officiates what plots already do with their members.

Moving on to address the complaints... You say that the average soldier isn't capable of Special Operations... But then again when was the last time that a Player Character was considered a representation of the average soldier? We write the exceptions to the norm almost exclusively so it is a little counter intuitive to say that the average soldier isn't a good fit. Since they wouldn't be written anyway.

Also on the subject of this lacking detail, I'm honestly not sure what detail it could use. No one has put forward any suggestions on what would make it better and I'm devoid of ideas for increasing the depth and fluff of this so unless someone else can chime in I say leave it as is.
 
Kirkatan said:
I believe that the average soldier, the average person -in- power armor in the Star Army, which is everyone, is not Special Operations Capable. That maybe yeah you do need to separate the people who can handle what is required from the average person, rather than just picking people who are skilled, or more likely, people who an officer likes to go do a special mission. It... is kinda the way the modern military handles special operations.
Click to expand...
Well if this article is meant as Eistheid is suggesting it isn't about picking average people, it's about picking people who excel at certain things as if they had special training or those who do have special training without already being part of a special unit. Like people who choose to take optional specialization training or people who have simply routinely found themselves continuously being in the same role(s) and developing a specialty through experience. Also, the idea lets people make special operations teams without having to say everyone went through operative training which would be useful for justifying characters being part of a plot without tacking onto their wiki entries that they took special classes. Realistic or not it helps facilitate roleplay and it makes certain roleplay more realistic because characters with ordinary backgrounds are going to end up in the same situations as special forces because the GM simply wants PCs to get to be exceptional in exciting, normally rare situations even if they're supposed to be ordinary. Another thing is everyone might not want their characters to go through SAINT conditioning which alters one's personality and puts a kill switch in them.
 
This review is for ...

Star Army of Yamatai Special Operations Fireteams

The submitted article is/has …

[x] A very high level of overall quality
[x] A general topic sentence under the title header
[-] Artwork (Required for new species; Strongly recommended for vehicles and hand weapons)
[x] Needed and/or useful to the setting
[x] In the proper format/template
[x] Proofread for spelling and grammar
[x] Easy to read and understand (not a lengthy mass of technobabble)
[x] Wikified (terms that could be a link should be a link)
[x] No red and/or broken links
[x] Reasonably scientifically plausible
[x] Reasonably neutral point of view

The submitted article is/does not …

[x] Overpowered (or cutting tech for a faction with little or no roleplay)
[x] Obtusely redundant
[x] Contain copy pasta descriptions of systems or interior compartments
[x] Unauthorized by faction managers or player-controlled corporation
[x] Contain references to IC events that have not occurred (SM must authorize retcons)
[x] Use second-person language (“you” or “your”) unless it is an instructional guide aimed at players.
[x] Use bombastic language (“virtually immune,” “nearly indestructible,” “insanely powerful,” “horrible effects”)
[x] Use an unbalanced header/text ratio (many headers but sections are one-liners)
[x] Use major unapproved sub-articles that should be submitted separately
[x] Lacking detail
[-] Images hosted on sites other than stararmy.com (Photobucket, Imageshack, etc are not allowed)

The article has …

[-] Speeds in compliance with the Starship Speed Standard, if applicable
[-] Damage Capacity and Damage Ratings in compliance with the DR Guidelines
[/] The in-character year of creation/manufacture. (Should be current year. Future years not allowed).
[-] The Standard Product Nomenclature System, if applicable.

Status: This submission is in progress.

The article's a bit bare bones, but I wouldn't say it's lacking in detail. Did you mean to leave out when the teams first started being fielded?
 
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