Command Award / Leadership Award

[Ethereal]

Hi all,

I have a feeling this might be the wrong place to post, so feel free to move the thread wherever's best.

There was some chatting regarding awards in the Discord yesterday and I was messaging a couple of people in DMs about the Command Award in particular.

I feel like the award's text may benefit from some clarification, as to the spirit of the award itself and the intention behind it.

I imagine it was so that the commander of a small ship would get a citation for every mission they are present on the Bridge for, to be rewarded for taking on responsibility. However, there's scope beyond this that may need clarification, or perhaps a reward of its own.

Firstly, is there any distinction between crew sizes, such as a Ketsueki-Class ship versus a Chiharu-Class ship? I'm sure there are department heads that have to command a staff on larger ships that are greater than the total crew manpower of smaller ships. There's also the question of whether individual fighter pilots or squadron leaders of 10/20/30/50 fighters would be eligible or not. Is the spirit of the award more to do with displaying leadership qualities, or is it tied to the prestige of being the de-jure Captain alone?

Secondly, what is considered "equivalent" to a starship, as per the wording of the award? Is a Century the equivalent, which would have the manpower of two Fuji-Class gunships at recommended capacity? This would discount the commanders of isolated Rikugun platoons, SAINT/SOFT teams and Ranger commanders from receiving the reward.

Finally, what about in the case where the de-jure Captain isn't present during the mission, incapacitated, or is otherwise occupied with business that means they aren't in command? What if they've explicitly delegated command to someone else, who is then commanding 10/20/30/50 people in their place? Or delegated 4/5ths of their responsibility to their XO, senior NCO or someone else?

If the spirit of the award is to commend people who have adequately held command to complete a mission, some lexical update to the requirements would go a long way. It'd also make the award less restrictive than being explicitly tied and hard-locked to rank, as there's no award currently for commending lower officers and NCOs that have to fill in for a Captain by necessity, or whom a Captain has voluntarily delegated the success of a mission to.

Failing that, perhaps a more generic leadership award might be a future addition, to reward those who take the initiative to shoulder the responsibility of a mission. It would even help COs and XOs have a better idea of who to delegate to, as citations for command or leadership would make those with aptitude stand out from the award. Obviously, the same benefits would be reaped by clarifying the Command Award as detailed above, without the necessity of a new award for near similar circumstances.

Unlike most awards that are given at Captain's discretion, someone mentioned to me that Star Army Command is the only entity that can award Captains, so in this case the clarification would go a long way.

Thanks for reading, let me know your thoughts.

 

[Wes]

The command award is intended primarily for the captain of a starship. It was previously called the Starship Command award until the Rikugun was created. It can also apply to the commanding officer of a rikugun unit of century-size (standard at the time the award was created) or larger. It's essentially an award for successfully being a CO for the first time.

The command award can only be issued by Star Army Command (Ketsurui Yui and her staff), not by ship captains or Star Army Personnel.

I'm open to submissions for other types of leadership awards.

 

[Ethereal]

Thanks for the clarification! We'll have to see if anyone wants to show the squadron and platoon leaders some love in the future

 

[Wes]

Yeah, I think we should either submit a page or put it as a suggestion.

 

[raz]

Getting promoted in a military is generally the reward for demonstrated leadership.

If a submission for some kind of leadership ribbon gets FM acceptance and reviewer approval that's cool, especially because Wes is receptive to the idea. But it generally doesn't fit within military simulation. The only real-world "leadership" ribbons I can find are the NCO Professional Development Ribbon and an award in the Iowa National Guard, both of which are earned for attending and completing a leadership training course of some kind.

A current Star Army award, the Good Conduct Award, is often given for many of the reasons desired in this thread. If you're a leader in RP, you can count on your GM giving your character this at some point in the plot (as well as ranking them up).

As it stands, the Command Award is very much akin to the Command at Sea Pin or the Command Ashore Pin (particularly in light of these insignia being permitted for wear after an officer's command ends). Transferring the spirit and intent of the Command Award to "leadership in general" is a difficult task, especially because many duties in the Star Army require some degree of leading other soldiers. If "just doing your job as an E4 or higher" qualifies somebody for a new ribbon then it's not much of an accolade.

 

[Ethereal]

Practically speaking, plotship Captains in my experience tend to hold back a lot when it comes to promotions. People down the chain get promotions much faster than those higher up, which doesn't necessarily reflect what is normally a gradual but constant pace of promotions IRL, if we're bringing IRL into the equation. Especially for those people who are only subordinate to them by a few ranks. The XO is a perfect example of someone who is operating in nearly a mirror of the Captain's role but generally goes unrewarded or unrecognised. Especially in our setting where a Captain could not promote the XO without them being required to exit the plot by having a rank too high. The same for people who the GM thinks already hold high ranks for their particular role. The GM could essentially opt to never promote them as their new rank wouldn't fit into their ideal idea of their plotship's hierarchy.

So, while IRL, promotions are given for leadership amongst other things, due to the way plots work they aren't standardised by time like IRL or very reliable in terms of indicating actual on-the-job experience. I'm sure there are some active characters who haven't received a promotion aboard their plotship in years. Hence, we should have at least some standardised way of giving credit where credit is due for such an occasion. Especially for those people who have been on tens of active missions in an important leadership role but by are necessity or design of the GM never promoted. If you do something well and have contributed a lot, you should have something to show for it. Having something to strive for and be proud of can only be good for encouraging activity and participation. Awards are already given to encourage behaviour, and can be tied to OOC factors as well as IC ones, so in my view they could prove beneficial in this case.

 

[raz]

Especially for those people who have been on tens of active missions in an important leadership role but by are necessity or design of the GM never promoted.

I can't think of any examples where this has occurred.

 

[Ethereal]

I can't think of any examples where this has occurred.

I don't have an example to hand, but it is possible. It's unlkely such a decision would be obvious, especially as it's unilateral on the part of that GM, and would certainly cause friction between the GM and player if known. However, I would have thought it self-evident that people are promoted at variable rates to each other based on factors other than RP actions. Otherwise, people in similiar positions in similar plots would be promoted at a comparable rate, which if it is the case, doesn't seem abundantly clear.

However, this discussion thread is regarding awards and such rather than promotions, and we've gone far off on a tangent, if there's anything else to discuss related to the topic at hand?

 

[Wes]

A technical note: Officers are promoted by the Empress of Yamatai, not ship captains.