Suggestion Make a slight change to Shoi Kohosei in the SAoY

[Andrew]

I've been doing some thinking and got some inspiration from watching some Star Trek Strange New Worlds. They showed Uhara being cycled through different departments before she selected communications.

I was thinking that the Shoi Kohosei rank shouldn't already have chosen their MOS, rather I think when serving on their first Star Army ship, they should be rotated through different departments so that they get a chance to experience different specializations within the Star Army. That choosing their MOS would come at the end of their time as a cadet. (Mainly would apply to those taking their academy courses remotely like those on the Mazu).

Any thoughts? @Wes ?

 

[iaincarter]

Also, a point to consider is that even if you are only interested in one MOS for your shoi kohosei and don't want to rp going through the rest, I can't see any reason that you couldn't work that with the GM and just mention that the previous rotations have already happened and you're now doing the thing you want to be doing. Andrew's suggestion just adds extra rp flavour and gives you more rp opportunity really. Having just recently made a couple of shoi kohosei, I think this idea could really add a lot to the new-officer experience!

 

[Nakshatra]

This would also be super helpful to boost the variety of skill sets if something occured during wartime. That way officers could help in other areas should the need arise, within reason that is. Almost like a base line of training for officers before they go into a specialty.

 

[Yuuki]

Which panels would they wear? The two that come to mind are Cornflower Blue, just like an unspecialized Star Army Soldier, and White like Command, because leaders are what they're ultimately training to become, rather than just their specific occupation.

 

[demibear]

Cornflower Blue makes sense. "Everyone's a rifleman", plus they are just commissioned "soldiers" at that point.

 

[Yuuki]

So 01c Cadet?

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Looking at it from an OOC perspective that is pretty odd. RP can be generally slow and threads can take months. So you are either doing a lot of JPs or might spend months or even years OOC playing square peg in round hole when most of us make our characters with roles in mind of their specialities. Ian makes a good suggestion to this, however!

One might assume that even an entry-level officer in training would already know their MOS well in advance. As the only time an officer in a traditional military does not have a real set role is when they are working as an adjutant to a higher-ranking officer. Essentially a glorified officer secretary with higher clearance than a normal one. And even then they are still trained as a cavalry officer, or etc.

Officers after all are high-ranking player characters which you do not have scores of unlike enlisted PC characters and by having an officer character it is expected that they are in a leadership role and will be leading the enlisted PCs one way or the other because even at a psuedo officer rank they are still important PCs instead of introducing them to learn on the job they should already have training in a specific skill and the Shoi Kohosei should be the kind of rank where they are, for example, already a well-trained engineer and are the second in command of the Engineering department just waiting to take it over once they have familiarized themselves with the ship and crew, and their rank will be finalized if they are a good fit for it by the captain of said ship.

 

[Yuuki]

An SK is more like a Midshipman at Annapolis

Edit: Or like Rainbow Sweater Wesley Crusher

 

[Yuuki]

Also Iain's right, as Char said (and that really is how it should work), but also remember you can also just make a Shoi from the beginning as your first officer character. Making an SK is saying you want the Wesley Crusher experience

 

[raz]

I don’t really think the rank itself needs a change because, as it stands, what any given Shoi Kohosei does changes depending on their plot and commissioning source.

SAAMMS cadets, for example, will always have a destination MOS by graduation. They’ll have already chosen Uchuugun or Rikugun service preference and attended at least one “summer cruise” aboard an active duty ship. Some are sciences specialized. Beyond that, they might not be locked in, but will generally have trained towards a specific skill set by graduation. They rarely appear on ships/plots (though mine is detailing some right now).

Miyamae Officer School students get basic officer training and then are shipped off to attend specific occupational training as freshly promoted kohosei. These ones are kohosei during their assigned/selected MOS training by design. They don’t really appear on ships/plots prior to MOS selection.

Where this all really matters is for Kyoto War College remote learning kohosei (notably the only remote learning officer path, others require physical attendance). In my experience they’ve never really had an MOS selected until promotion to full Shoi. When I played Aiko, for example, she just kind of floated around as a kohosei and did whatever her captains asked of her as part of the learning experience, and only selected an MOS upon promotion to Shoi. They should generally be classified as whatever MOS they already earned as enlisted (since the vast majority of KWC kohosei are mustangs leveling up in the field) or as basic soldiers with no specialization for the rare cadets who do this.

So it sort of already works like you want it to both in fact and in RP precedent.