> From: "J.A.F.O." [email removed]
> 4) The starship crew lifestyle is worth thinking about, hardly ever on your
> homeworld... in lose quarters with the same crew for often years, the kind
> of starship-starport subculture that could spring up. One of my party
> see's the universe as a procession of bars where the drinks and licensing
> laws are all that change. The kind of bond a small ship crew can form esp.
> a warship like a t-type, gazelle or fiery and the fact that the trav'
> universe is apparantly an equal opportunities employer meaning sex ratios
> are roughly equal.
I'm running a naval campaign in which the players are officers and crew
on an Imperial warship. When I started I thought a bit about what rules
the Navy would have about shipboard interpersonal relationships. What I
came up with was 'Rule 37':
"The formation of close emotional bonds detrimental to the
discipline and efficiency of the ship is punished by..."
This puts the burden squarely on the ship's captain. If he says something
is allowed, then it is allowed. If he forbids anything, then it's forbidden.
The catch is that if anything _does_ go wrong, then it's his responsibility
too. Note that the rule includes, but is not limited to, sexual relations.
I also decided that over the years several rules of thumb had been arrived at:
1) Relationships between people directly above and below
each other in the chain of command is problematical.
2) Relationships between people with too disparate rank
is problematical.
3) Relationships between people with approximately the
same length of service is less problematical (So an
officer and a CPO would probably be OK, as long as
they weren't in the same line of command).
I've never had occasion to use this though. The thoughts of my players
dosen't seem to run that way. They're more interested in blasting pirates
and getting promoted!
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]
- ------------
- "You don't know wood from canvas,
and you evidently don't want to learn.
Well, I'll teach you!"
- Captain Bligh