Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[luisto]

After a long D&D-4th-edition detour my group is about to get ready to continue the Pirates of the Spanish Main campaign we left a year ago. In my campaign, PCs are Royal Navy Officers who will take dangerous missions on behalf of the British Crown against Spain and France. I'm structuring my campaign so that as characters grow in experience, they will increase in Navy rank, thus receiving more soldiers, boats and more complex missions (possibly more Mass Battle actions and such), maybe culminating in major naval offensives.

I'm a bit stumped on how exactly to award the Officer edge, however. Officially, the Officer Edge is an Edge like any other; therefore, players should select it as part of their advancements. However, I can imagine the discussion: "Great, you concluded the adventure and as a reward you get an advancement. You MUST use it to pick up the Officer Edge, you have no choice" (player grumbles that the GM is heavy-handed).

On the other hand, I'm not sure I should simply give away the Officer Edge as a "free" Edge every time the campaign needs it. It sounds like I'm overpowering my players.

As an alternative to forcing my players to take the Officer Edge, or giving it away for free at specific times in the campaign, I thought about changing the rules so that a player cannot advance in rank until they've bought an Officer Edge (for example, a Seasoned character can't advance to Veteran level until they've picked up the Officer edge at "Commander" level). This way there is an incentive for players to pick up the edge by themselves, when they feel ready for it.

Any ideas or suggestions on how to handle Navy advancement within my career would be welcome. Thanks!

Luis

[Control]

Aarrgghh that's a quandary all right.

I'd suggest asking at least one of them to take the officer edge but not requiring it. When the first player to do so gets the benefit the others may follow suit without needing to be forced into it or rewarded for it. Play up the soldiers, boat, etc to help encourage them. Tell the player in character that the service has need of men (& women) of their caliber in these difficult days when you bestow an officers rank. A little foreshadowing that does not have to give away your plot may be just the nudge and wink you need.

Oh, and good luck to you mate!
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[Wendigo1870]

Your players will want to play their characters how they like it, not how you like it. If you really want them to become officers, give them the Edge yourselves (after all, YOU want it, not the player).

If you do have a player (or some) who actually want to advance in the Navy, I'd allow them to buy the officer Edge themselves, thus increasing faster in rank (which resembles extra effort put into it - as opposed to the regular players, who just did their job and nothing more).

Forcing them to buy it probably creates resentment and maybe a quick end to a campaign. There might even be players who just like to stay one of the low-ranking Navy crewmen (albeit a very able one at that), and who don't want rank forcied on them (even when it's a free edge).

How would you like to be treated if you were a player in this campaign? Talk with the players about which way you want to go with the campaign, and ask their opinions.
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He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

[DanF]

This is sort along the lines of the above posters. I would use the Officers Edge to represent either actual training for the position or actual accomplishment the character preformed in order to get the Officer position.

However, during the time period of the campaign many people were given high ranks because of family connections, bribes, or plain dump luck. So, in your characters case give them the rank you want, but if none of them have the appropriate Officer Edge then they basically have the rank for reasons other then merit. You can use this as a good role playing opportunity as some of the men might be less motivated or question the authority of the characters.
An example of this is the anime Legend of Galactic Heroes (Showing my age here) the main character is the brother of the Emperor's mistress, at the start of this very long anime. Most of his subordinate officers thought that was the reason for his high position, and did not respect him at first (he won a few major battles to earn their respect).

Another way to look at it is the Officer Edge itself. A Lieutenant (Navy or Army) would usually command more then just 10 men, but those 10 men in the Edge represent those that are loyal to the Lieutenant. This number is highly useful in a mutiny. Also, many of the higher ranks give fame bonuses to represent a person’s accomplishments as to why they are in charge.

[steelbrok]

The way I do it is to have the edges available during charcter generation but after that to borrow the rolling for promotion system from deadlands Reloaded

[DerFinsterling]

The officer edge is there to give a player the option of starting to play as one. In this regard, the edge mirrors some of the back history of the character that brought him to this place.

If he starts as a simple sailor and later gets promoted to officer, he does not need to take the edge to acquire the rank - this happens through the story, not in the background history.

However, if the character gets promoted and wants to take the Officer edge at a later point to get a hold of the other benefits the edge provides, then this would certainly be a good choice, but it's not necessary.

In Savage Worlds in general, the professional edges are there to mark you as an expert in your chosen profession. You can be a good hunter or thief or wizard without ever investing in the Woodsman, Thied or Wizard edges.
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