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Crew Positions on a Starship?
Talonrazor
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Registered User regular
I am throwing around some ideas for a possible game that my regular D&D crew may play as a break. I am wanting to flesh out positions on a starship, with the idea that you have to be licensed in certain areas. Combining ideas from Air Force and Merchant Marine. I have been looking at what positions flight controllers fill at NASA. Now I am looking for more ideas for positions in spaceship. This would be a large ship that carries freight and passengers. Here is what I have for ideas.
Captain - Master of the Ship
First Mate, Executive Officer - Responsible for safety and security of the entire ship and crew, leads the first watchshift.
Second Mate, Operations Officer - Chief Officer of the Deck Department, responsible for general day-to-day operations of the ship as well as managing cargo. Leads the second watchshift.
Third Mate, Flight Officer - Chief Officer of the Flight Department, responsible for navigation, guidance, FTL jumps, piloting & course corrections, atmospheric entries and flight planning. Leads the third watchshift.
First Helmsman - Certified Flight Crew, Lead Pilot - Flight Department
Second Helmsman - Certified Flight Crew, Assistant Pilot - Flight Department
Navigator - Certified Flight Crew. Responsible for plotting jumps, astrography, spatial positioning. - Flight Department
First Engineer - Chief Officer of the Engineering Department. Responsible for structural & mechanical frames. EVA specialist.
Second Engineer - Responsible for Propulsion & FTL drives. - Engineering Department
Third Engineer - Responsible for Power Generation, Storage & Distribution - Engineering Department
Sensors Calibration & Flight Command Systems Technician - Does all the avionics work and manages the sensors. - Flight Department
Information Systems Technician - Manages all the computer systems. - Engineering Department
Communications Systems Technician - Runs the communications systems. - Engineering Department
Environmental Control & Life Support Systems Technician - Does waste, water, air, gravity, heating, ventilation & cooling systems. - Engineering Department
Data Collection & Management Technician - Controls all the data gathering systems and databases. - Engineering Department
Ship's Purser - Chief Officer of the Steward Department
Loadmaster - In charge of the cargo loading/unloading operations. Also keeps track of the ship's stores.
What else do you think would be on a spaceship? What other crew positions would there be? Machinist? Electronics engineer? "Space" plumber? Ship's doctor? A ship taking months going place to place would need a completely self-sufficient crew. What other skill sets would you need onboard?
Captain - Master of the Ship
First Mate, Executive Officer - Responsible for safety and security of the entire ship and crew, leads the first watchshift.
Second Mate, Operations Officer - Chief Officer of the Deck Department, responsible for general day-to-day operations of the ship as well as managing cargo. Leads the second watchshift.
Third Mate, Flight Officer - Chief Officer of the Flight Department, responsible for navigation, guidance, FTL jumps, piloting & course corrections, atmospheric entries and flight planning. Leads the third watchshift.
First Helmsman - Certified Flight Crew, Lead Pilot - Flight Department
Second Helmsman - Certified Flight Crew, Assistant Pilot - Flight Department
Navigator - Certified Flight Crew. Responsible for plotting jumps, astrography, spatial positioning. - Flight Department
First Engineer - Chief Officer of the Engineering Department. Responsible for structural & mechanical frames. EVA specialist.
Second Engineer - Responsible for Propulsion & FTL drives. - Engineering Department
Third Engineer - Responsible for Power Generation, Storage & Distribution - Engineering Department
Sensors Calibration & Flight Command Systems Technician - Does all the avionics work and manages the sensors. - Flight Department
Information Systems Technician - Manages all the computer systems. - Engineering Department
Communications Systems Technician - Runs the communications systems. - Engineering Department
Environmental Control & Life Support Systems Technician - Does waste, water, air, gravity, heating, ventilation & cooling systems. - Engineering Department
Data Collection & Management Technician - Controls all the data gathering systems and databases. - Engineering Department
Ship's Purser - Chief Officer of the Steward Department
Loadmaster - In charge of the cargo loading/unloading operations. Also keeps track of the ship's stores.
What else do you think would be on a spaceship? What other crew positions would there be? Machinist? Electronics engineer? "Space" plumber? Ship's doctor? A ship taking months going place to place would need a completely self-sufficient crew. What other skill sets would you need onboard?
Talonrazor on
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Security/Marine/Ground Officer: In charge of close-quarter boarding/repelling party, crew member extration and general all round infantry style ops (Navy never really learn how to do it properly and it gives someone who wants a more boots type a place to go)
Civilian Liason: Crew need a POC (point of contact), diplomatic negotiations need to occur, hes your man (basically, a talker style char)
Maintence crews would be a big one - everything from plumbing and electrical, to fixing the freezer.
Medical/Surgical crew
This ship would have to be huge.
Like Neelix.
Hey, we all know that's a made-up position so he wouldn't get bored and take to chewing on cables in the jeffrey's tubes.
In all seriousness this would probably be a fun job to role play for a PC, if they were given enough to work with in the context of your campaign. Could lead to all sorts of crazy situations, but would probably suit a light-hearted campaign over a super-serial one; all depends on the way you want to play it.
You'll almost certainly need some degree of a security and tactical staff, doubling as police, infantry, and ship combat crew. Even if this isn't a bog standard scifi universe with a new race of aliens around every star, there's still presumably other humans around which can be just as bad, and the chance for internal problems with the crew itself. And if it there are aliens around every star, some will be outright hostile and some you'll manage to piss off unintentionally or otherwise, and you need to be prepared to deal with both situations. This department would also probably include a gunnery officer in charge of the armory and ship's weapons.
Some of the ideas you mention, like electronics engineer and plumber would fall into the existing engineering duties. Some of the engineering officers may specialize in different areas, but you don't really need to create a new department to cover plumbing when you have a general engineering department.
DCA - Damage control assistant. They pretty much run damage control for the CHENG (chief engineer)
Traino - Training officer responsible for training the crew and managing qualifications
Commo - Communications officer and IT divo
Auxo - Auxillaries officer runs all the stuff that isn't a weapon system or engine. (IE water maker)
CSO - Combat systems officer -department head in charge of all weapon systems
Weps - Weapons officer works for CSO and pretty much responsible for any firing evolution
Ops - Operations officer. department head that runs day to day operations and interfaces between the CO/XO and the rest of the ship.
Also here are some positions within naval aircraft
Mission commander. a pilot or non pilot who has over arching responsibility for the mission. He will delegate jobs and assets to the rest of the crew to assure what ever needs to get done gets done. Usually has tactical knowledge of foe.
Naval flight officer. Back seat mission commander. Goose in top gun.
Pilot in command. a qualification that supersedes rank. A LT can fly with a Commander and tell him what to do if the LT is the PIC (pilot in command) This is used so that a subject matter expert is always at the controls and not some loony high ranking officer.
A Payroll/HR person? An Accountant?
Bridge:
Navigation:
Fire Control:
Engineering - Engine Room:
Engineering - Maintenance:
Research and Development:
Fighter Squadron:
Sick Bay:
Ship Management:
Realistically, large ships that carry cargo do not have a large crew. Pretty sure that the heavy duty maintenance work requiring expertise is done on shipyards and specialists aren't usually taken along for the ride so combine some of those roles into more generalist functions.
If you are talking about a passenger ship, you might want to include more people related staff like waiters and/or managers that are more akin to a cruise ship. People who aren't running the ship but attending to the passengers.
I think you should start with the big picture. Circumstances of your universe might have clues to the roles required on your spaceships.
What effect does traveling for months have on the ship/crew?
Does your ship have to handle different alien types? Maybe a xenobiologist/doctor is needed. Or a translator. Maybe your spaceship requires regular removal of magic space dust from the hull every day because it hampers space travel? So a special space wizard is needed to enchant the dust off. Or that might be a job for the magical space robots on the ship. Maybe they need specialized, daily maintenance. Then you'd need a robot specialist?
What else is your spaceship supposed to do? How do you compare this particular spaceship to others in your universe?
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Those things operate in a similar set of circumstances a space ship would - an extremely hostile exterior, limited resupply, limited chances at personnel replacement, limited size.
"hm?"
"What exactly is his job on the ship?"
"Oh. Public Relations."
I missed the bit about freight and passengers with my last post... But UrQuanLord88's post is pretty much there, my last post is kind of out.
A ship like that doesn't need to be self sufficient in a setting with faster than light travel. It's job calls for regular stops, it only has to last long enough to make the trip. Standard security, patch-and-hold maintenance, basic flight crew. Depending on how hostile space is, it may not even need to cover all shifts during the trip, autopilot through deep space with a night watch to hit the alarm when anything goes wrong.
The sort of extensive crews I and other people are talking about (Infinite Space and Star Trek related posts) are more for active military ships and multimission ships like the Enterprise. The Enterprise needed a massive and diverse crew because it was meant to go several years without a stop if a mission called for it. The Defiant, on the other hand, was meant to run out, complete a mission, and haul ass back to a space station. It had 50 crew, a good chunk of which were combat crew and an assault team. Bare bones engineering, a tiny medbay only equipped to keep people breathing and not treat them fully, and any science officer wasn't there to do science.
I don't think limited size is too relevant, unless this thing is being launched from earth. once you're in space, there isn't much stopping you, is there?
Makes sense. Food is perishable, fuel isn't.
The setting is a galaxy several hundred years in the future. Humanity has made contact with a vast culture of hundreds of different types of "near-humans" aliens that are an offshoot of extremely ancient human civilizations that got off of Earth million of years ago. They also have made contact with a few "true alien" species that are too foreign to truly understand. Travel around the galaxy is possible via GAPTRAN, or Galactic Public Transit Network. These are a bunch of jumpgates that connect wormholes together and allow speeds of up to an light year an hour. Once in the system, ships can use Alcubierre Drives to travel at a light year a month or general sublight drives which are vastly slower.
This ship serves as a general purpose freelancing ship in the "Fringe", a ring of systems that mark humanity's furtherest expansion and thus have limited resources, infrastructure and megacorporation influence. The ship does mercenary work, can conduct exploration missions, haul freight and passengers, produce research papers and perform recovery and salvage operations. The difference between this ship and other vessels in the Fringe is that the ship is actually licensed by both the near-human culture and the United Nations analog to be a deep space merchant ship, research ship, salvage ship, etc. Communication while inside wormholes or an alcubierre bubble are impossible and once outside, it is very limited due to lag-time and low bandwidth.
So my idea is that they would carry a full complement of people (allowing interactions on board the ship as a small community). I am basing positions off of NASA Flight Control, Merchant Marine and the United States Navy and Air Force job positions. I figure there would be four departments; Deck Department which handles the day-to-day operations of the ship and keeping it running smoothly; Flight Department which handles planning jumps, piloting and navigation; Steward's Department which handles passengers, the business side of the ship and feeding the crew; and the Engineering Department, which would handle maintenance and keeping all the subsystems running. Weapons and cargo would fall under the deck department. I am trying to keep the setting as "realistic" as it is possible for space opera so no replicators or stuff like that.
I am thinking a couple of Stewards that double as cooks; a Ship's Purser that runs the company and the Steward's Department; a few weapons systems specialists that serve as mercs, gunners and mechanics for the guns; a loadmaster for cargo; a technician per major sub-system (environmental, information, flight avionics, communications); an engineer per major ship component (power generation and distribution, propulsion, spaceframe, general electronics and mechatronics) and maybe a general mechanic or machinist; a ship's doctor; a fringe scientist and maybe a doctoral student or two for "research" credentials; a basic flight crew of a few pilots, a navigator and someone to run communications and sensors (probably techs running double-duty); and a first, second and third mate that oversee each department and act as operations, flight and executive officers.
I liked the idea of a chaplain or something. I figure a ship with thirty people traveling for a month or two in a wormhole to some distant system with no contact to the outside would probably need like a psychologist or counselor. I am just trying to figure out what else a ship like this would need. What other sub-systems would there be? Who else would be traveling on a ship like this? The guy suggesting a submarine analogy had a good idea I thought, as it would a similar environment. I think you guys are right, the biggest danger on a ship like this is running out of food supplies for the crew.
Thanks for the ideas! It's been fun to figure out what it would all look like.
Well, also it's a nuclear reactor, so it's not like you have to refuel it very often in the first place. And thank God, because a refueling-and-overhaul evolution on a CVN can last years.
Like an aircraft carrier, you're only as self sufficient as your food supply, so put some thought into exactly how that works. The more less self sufficient it's possible to be, the more jobs (major repairs, upgrades, even some medical jobs) can be left on space stations and not handled on the ship itself. Growing it on the ship would require considerable power generation, since humans don't need nearly as much light to work as plants to do grow. Is there a cryonic storage system? Army style nonperishables?
Arthur C. Clarke had various recycling systems in several of his space set novels, basically turning human waste into food. At least one novel it was real food, but I remember others mentioning it being edible and nutritious, but nothing a reasonable person would call food. This would only require advanced molecular engineering, a far cry from the crazy power demands of the matter-energy conversions that Star Trek literally eats for breakfast. But it does introduce a whole set of psychological pressures - astronauts are reluctant enough to drink their purified urine that last I knew, NASA only used recycled water for cleaning, not drinking, even though it's far cleaner than the best filtered tap/bottled water.
My suggested format is a group of ships built to link together to form a train, with the components' thrusters/engines being designed to burn around the components behind or to divert power to a rear collector or the hindmost engine and navigation systems are slaved to your ship. You'd only strictly need navigation, some specialists, a few coordinators, and somebody in charge of building a well balanced convoy (a research vessel for the super-sensors and computer power, a merchant ship to trade storage space for the provisions you supply to the rest of the convoy for a discount on convoy membership, and military/police ships moving between systems to provide muscle). You could have a communal mess hall, in-house provision storage, engineering, emergency/advanced medical care, or security, or even other things if you need more participant space.
You could also get extra 'stuff' for your ship by grabbing space rocks along your rout. They are especially rich in water.
People go crazy and do shitty stuff on long space trips pretty often.
Having criminals locked up in jails means you need some kind of security office, running the prisons, etc.
Unless you just execute your criminals, but that would be inhumane.
I'd imagine you could work a security office onto the ship without starting the voyage with a hardened criminal element. I mean, a security team could be handy to have around if you get boarded, your crew decides to mutiny, you decide to board someone else... No reason to start off with a prisoner, unless you want some tension later on when he escapes and starts offing your crew.
Has anyone mentioned a head distiller yet? You know someone on your crew's going to set up a still eventually, may as well have someone do it at the outset and make sure people aren't drinking themselves blind with terrible bathtub hooch.
I mean, you could have simple maintenance robots to do that stuff, but the maintenance robot union prevents them from being assigned to such menial tasks.
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A couple cases of "sailors sharing a closed space" would be sufficient. You know, drunkenness, drunken fights, drunken use of the long-range transmitter to drunk dial...
Just wanted to say "Thanks". I am in the throes (travails?) of writing and one of the areas relates to a vast colonial star ship. Blah-blah
Realised I needed to identify and develop a) Command chain; b) governing body (federation); c) all others - those who actually do the 'grunt' work.
Found your forum and bingo! So thanks again.