Generating Enlisted Characters

in LUG's
Star Trek The Next Generation Roleplaying Game

Introduction

Every military or paramilitary organization can basically be divided into two subgroups: Those who lead and those who follow. Those who follow are usually the Enlisted. Those who lead are the officers.

The officers, being well covered in the base book, comprise only a fraction of Star Fleet's personell rosters. They also are over-represented in the films and shows. Enlisted personell don't always have the glamorous jobs (Chief O'Brien being the exception), but they make the fleet and bases work.

This essay provides for a means of generating Enlisted Characters, based upon my extractions of the ranks and titles of enlisted persons in the Next Generation environment. It is: not official, not sanctioned, not liscenced, not intended as challenge to legitamate or rightful property holders of the various trademarks and copyrighted materials referenced..

Enlisted Ranks

I am using the following Rank Structure for the purposes of my campaign

Abbr	Title	Cost to attain	Total Promotion Cost	Insignia	notes
Rct	Recruit	0	0		Automatic promotion to SP3 upon completetion of initial training
SP3	Specialist 3rd class	0	0
SP2	Specialist 2nd class	1	1
SP1	Specialist 1st class	1	2
PO	Petty Officer	2	4
SPO	Senior Petty Officer	2	6
CPO	Chief Petty Officer	3	9
SCPO	Senior Chief Petty Officer	3	12
MCPO	Master Chief Petty Officer	4	16

Generation Procedures

The steps are cery similar to officer creation. Two steps are eliminated, however. All of the needed tables can be found in the STTNGRPG Rulebook or the UFP-PoF sourcebook.

Select a racial Template.
Select a specialty Overlay
Take an Early Life History.
Do Not take an Acadamy Life History!
Do Not Take a Cadet Cruise History!
Begin taking tours of duty, as normal.

Enlisted tours are very similar to officer tours, but should always include raising some skill from the overlay. Enlisted characters do not get the wide cross-training that officers do, so they typically will be specialized more heavily. The following Table lists skill requirements to hold a given rank. It also lists the Reknown levels required, which must be in starfleet approved areas.

Abbr	Reknown Needed	Requirements
Rct	0	None, other than passing the Star Fleet General Entrance Exams.
SP3	0	Completion of the 2 year indoctrination process. (Basically, the overlay skills).
SP2	0	at least level 4 in one specialty from overlay.
SP1	3	Completion of 1st tour At least level 2 in 3 departmental skills
PO	5	Command (Military Training) 1 (2) or better, at least 2 departmental specialties at (4).
SPO	7	Planetary Tactics (Small Unit) 1 (2) or better, at least 3 departmental skills at level 3 or better
CPO	10	Command (Military Training) 1 (3) or better, Planetary Tactics (Small Unit) 1 (3) or better, 4 departmental skills at level 3 or better, at least 4 specialties in departmental skills at (4) or better, and one at level (5) or better, all departmental skills at level 2 or better.
SCPO	15	Command (Military Training) 2 (4) or better, Planetary Tactics (Small Unit) 2 (3) or better, 4 departmental skills at level 3 or better, at least 6 specialties in departmental skills at (4) or better, and two at level (5) or better.
MCPO	20	Command (Military Training) 3 (4) or better, Planetary Tactics (Small Unit) 3 (4) or better, all departmental skills at level 3 or better, at least 5 specialties in departmental skills at (5) or better, and one at level (6) or better.

Some Special Additional Tours

NCO School: (1 year.) Command (Military Training) 1 (2), Planetary Tactics (small unit) 1 (2), -1 Aggression and +1 leadership reknown.
this school is a hard, 1 year course, which, while not required, is a training course which provides the basic leadership and tactical training required for advancement in the Petty Officer grades. This package may only be taken by enlisted characters. It intentionally is not a 5 point package, but costs only 5 points.
Reaction Forces Support: add specialization of Phaser rifle to Energy Weapon skill, Unarmed Combat (SFMA) 1 (2), one additional specialization level in World Knowledge, Personal Equipment, Energy Weapons, or Planetside Survival.
This represents planetside time with a ground forces unit. Engineers, Sciences, and sometimes others are often attached to ground forces for a while.