Posted by Commodore David Shotton (FComm, Meridian Fleet) in Proposal to amend MOO to include defined enlisted ranks.

Posted by Captain James Sinclair (Supervisor of Experiments / FComm, Pioneer Fleet) in Proposal to amend MOO to include defined enlisted ranks.

Posted by Robert Archer in Proposal to amend MOO to include defined enlisted ranks.
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
I have seen a few people play characters that are technically enlisted rank. I think this is awesome and should continue, as it allows for expressive Role Play.
However, it might be easier to go ahead and amend MOO to include these enlisted ranks, just to Order the Chaos, as it were. I really like the idea of being able to play a career enlisted character without having to worry about hitting a wall at “ensign”. Since there are people already playing characters at some of these ranks, I believe that an official list will be no bother to them, merely give them a chance to expand on the “real feel” of their characters and stories.

To be clear, I am not proposing any changes to rules or MOO in general, merely adding some ranks to the list for the purpose of clarification.

The Current Starfleet Ranks are listed thusly:
Civilian
Crewman
Cadet
Ensign
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant
Lieutenant Commander
Commander
Captain
Fleet Captain
Commodore
Rear Admiral
Vice Admiral
Admiral

With the addition of proper enlisted ranks, the list would look like this:
Civilian
Crewman Recruit
Crewman Apprentice
Crewman
Petty Officer Third Class
Petty Officer Second Class
Petty Officer First Class
Chief Petty Officer
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Master Chief Petty Officer
Command Master Chief Petty Officer
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Fleet
Chief Warrant Officer
Chief Warrant Officer 2
Chief Warrant Officer 3
Chief Warrant Officer 4
Chief Warrant Officer 5
Cadet
Ensign
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant
Lieutenant Commander
Commander
Captain
Fleet Captain
Commodore
Rear Admiral
Vice Admiral
Admiral

(For the sake of completionism, MOO can be found here:
https://www.star-fleet.com/library/bookshelf/charters/charter-moo.html )

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk,
-Capt. Dave Eads

Two Roach Thumbs Up For Supporting This I’m all aboard with this update proposal.

Also Ted Talks rock :D

Robert Archer

This is a great proposal. I fully support the idea. I think it will really give a nice opportunity for some great rp-ing.

James Sinclair

While I like the idea in general and agree we could do with some clarification and added enlisted ranks, I do oppose the list proposed. Reason for this being I think it makes things far too clumsy and complicated with an eye to RP. What real difference in RP value exists for someone who is unfamiliar with many of these ranks between a Chief Warrant Officer 3 and Chief Warrant Officer 4, for example? Many of these ranks I have no idea what they would actually be doing in RP terms, or why we would differentiate them.

I think reducing the sheer number of those ranks and simplifying them is going to give more value than adding the sheer number of options offered here. For example:

Civilian
Crewman
Petty Officer
Chief Petty Officer
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Master Chief Petty Officer
Command Master Chief Petty Officer
Chief Warrant Officer
Cadet
Ensign
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant
Lieutenant Commander
Commander
Captain
Fleet Captain
Commodore
Rear Admiral
Vice Admiral
Admiral

Of course I have no military background, especially not American, so someone please educate me if there is a compelling reason to differentiate the ranks in a Star Trek RP site.

-Dave S

If it helps the discussion with regard to how many, most of our rank image sets have around 10 enlisted ranks, based around Miles O’Brien’s rank insignia. I think the equivalents would look like this:

This is what we just have lying around. I don’t know how many of them we “need” or are appropriate, because I don’t know anything about naval enlisted ranks, and most of what we know about enlisted people canonically is really all contained in a single character. Anything with a question mark is something that I’m not sure what it actually is.

I do know that it has been requested of me to add ranks that are within this range to Exodus so that people can play characters with them, especially Chief Petty Officer and Senior Chief Petty Officer, which are ranks that Miles O’Brien had during Deep Space 9. Every time someone has asked for that, I’ve declined because MOO doesn’t allow people to play those ranks. I’ve also suggested that they make a proposal like this to fix that oversight. I’m glad to see somebody finally has.

The effort to change the rank list in Exodus is really minimal, so it shouldn’t influence this discussion one way or another.

Joe