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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mattcolville" data-source="post: 3263529" data-attributes="member: 1300">I'm running a game in which the PCs are officers in what is essentially The Black Company.We've played several games and one thing that's come up (my fault, entirely) is that the players don't know what being an officer means. Can they give orders? Are they expected to take command of troops? I should have answers to these things. I should have had them before we started playing.This is a complex question. There's a collision here between the reality of real-world armies, and the needs of the gaming group. This is a game in which there will be lower-ranking soldiers to command. Wars to fight.Some of the players have made characters specifically to lead. But this is not the same, really, as Command, if you get my meaning. Someone who wants to determine the direction and fate of the Company is different from someone who wants to plan a battle, is different from someone who wants to lead a company of men into fighting.In other words, some players want to be Eisenhower in WWII and some want to be Patton and some want to be R. Lee Emery from Full Metal Jacket.And some players want to be snipers and medics.So I've been thinking in terms of Feats. Special feats you're awarded for service. So you don't purchase them, I don't want to tell the players "You must take one of these feats" since there isn't really a narrative option, currently, in the game to NOT be an officer in the company. A different game, where some players could do that and others could, maybe it would be a normal feat a player buys. But in this game, which we're already several sessions into, I don't want to take a feat away from the players after character creation.I'm calling them Commissions, and here are the kinds of Commissions I'm thinking of.----Officer: CommanderYou have the high-level goals of the Company in mind. You represent the Company to those who seek to hire you. You are the public face of the Company, and determine the direction in which the Company moves. You often consult other officers but you, ultimately, decide what commissions the Company accepts.Officer: StrategistOnce the Commander decides what you're going to do, you decide how you're going to do it. Maybe you're an expert in logistics; you know how to keep the army moving and fed. Maybe you're an expert strategist; you know when to attack and how.Officer: SpecialistYou're a medic, or a spy, or a sniper (?). You're still an officer, people salute you, you command respect. But if you suddenly decided to take a squad of troops away from their sergeant and go fight a war, the soldiers would think something was wrong. You're not that guy, and they know it. Generally, you don't want to be that guy. ----Now, the problem here is; I want there to be mechanical benefits to this. What are they? I dunno. Maybe the only way there can be mechanical benefits is if there are mechanics for armies and whatnot. But it'd be real nice if picking one of these somehow made you better at it.</blockquote>

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