Captain

Captain
Description		Command the ship and its crew to the best of your ability.
Department		Command
Rooms		Captain's Quarters, Ready Room, Bridge
Rank/Paygrade		Captain (O-6)

The Captain, or the Commanding Officer, is the highest-ranking officer onboard the ship and its supreme commander. Their duty is to oversee the ship, manage its crew, and communicate with their department officers to make sure everything runs smoothly and according to schedule. Nothing in the ship can be kept from them, and they have the authority to issue orders to any department and order the ship to do anything, as long as it's in the best interests of the crew.

Duty

A Captain's job, on the surface, appears simple: your ship, your rules, right? In reality, commanding competently is far more difficult than one would guess: it requires making critical decisions that are well-informed, yet simultaneously made split-second. A good Captain knows everything about their ship and its crew, and knows how to pull the right strings to get things done their way.

As the Captain you are the executive authority presiding above your Officers, and your main duty is to manage them. Fortunately, you are not alone in this endeavor: your First Officer is intended to be your right hand and ensures your orders are carried out, or executed; there is a reason their alias is the Executive Officer. Together with them, you ensure the officers are maintaining the ship, doing their duties, and managing their departments. It's crucial to note that a good Captain will not manage departments directly or bypass their respective heads; rather, it is in everyone's best interest to give orders to that department's head to give to their crew -- following the chain of command -- so that the ones giving the orders remain the most knowledgeable on the matter at hand. For example, a Captain may order the Chief Engineer to prepare the ship for emergency manuevers, but they shouldn't be telling the engineers what stations to man.

The last thing a good Captain should do is micromanage: your crew and officers are there to handle the ship, not you. The Captain should give out orders and is free to roam the ship, but should otherwise avoid poking their nose into every activity that happens onboard. Your department heads will get the impression you don't trust them, and relations will inevitably sour.

Authority

It's no surprise that the Captain's authority is final onboard their own ship. If sound of mind, a Captain can order the arrest, demotion, or suspension of duty of any crewmember or officer for any valid reason. Valid orders from the Captain must be followed as well; a crewmember wouldn't want to be thrown in the brig for disobeying the captain after all, would they?

Your First Officer, however, is the foremost person to which you should discuss with. They are your advisor and your aide, and you have to trust them -- and vice versa -- if you are to succeed as a competent commander of a starship.

Diplomacy

As the highest-ranking officer on the ship, the Captain is the premier representative of the Sol Defence Corps and the Final Frontier Project, and is expected to be as competent in diplomacy as they would be in strategy. One wrong statement can mean the difference between a peace treaty and war. Good Captains, therefore, must be skilled in charisma and the ability to weaponize words as well as toe the line between arrogant and power-projecting. In a diplomatic situation, a Captain must be friendly; but they must also remind the person they are negotiating with of their ship's crew and firepower and that they are not to be bullied.

Nobody said you had to do it alone, however; you're more than welcome to bring your First Officer or other Officers along to a diplomatic meeting to distribute the burden among yourselves.

Your Quarters

The Captain's Quarters and its adjoining Ready Room are a luxurious suite for a powerful individual: the rooms command presence and authority, as well as diplomatic sophistication. Use your quarters to host dinners for diplomats or with some officers, or use your office to brief, order or reprimand someone personally.

The Ready Room is directly connected to the Bridge, and can be used as a staging ground (hence the name "ready room") to get ready for a long day's work.

Background

Captains can come from all sorts of backgrounds and career tracks from across the SDC. However, most career paths that lead to the position of a Starship Captain involve fields directly involved with ship operations: this can be security, gunnery, engineering, or bridge crew.

When creating a Captain character, keep in mind their seniority and the steps they took to get to where they are today. Did your Captain fight in a war? Were they assigned to some backwater station? Your Captain's background can also determine their personality and leadership style too: are they paranoid, looking over their shoulder due to working with spies in the past? Are they a paper-pusher, giving boring orders to their crew and remaining in their office? Or are they a mustang, socializing with enlisted more than officers? Captains are best played as storied characters, in the end, as their relative seniority and position means they do definitely have many stories to tell.

Roles
Command	Captain ∙ First Officer ∙ Senior Enlisted Advisor ∙ Navigator ∙ Communications Officer
Security	Chief of Security ∙ Security
Special Operations	Spec Ops Officer ∙ Spec Ops
Gunnery	Gunnery Officer ∙ Gunner
Engineering	Chief Engineer ∙ Engineer
Medical	Chief Medical Officer ∙ Doctor
Research	Research Director ∙ Scientist
Exploration	Chief Explorer ∙ Explorer
Supply	Quartermaster ∙ Cargo Technician
Service	Crewman ∙ Steward
Robotic	A.I. ∙ Robot
Other	Unknown ∙ Hostile