In T2K, the game, medals are cool fluff. I think that they do have their place in the T2KU. I doubt that many physical medals would be distributed in the T2KU after the exchanges, but paper "I.O.U."s would likely continue to be handed out.
It's a morale thing. People like to be recognized for their efforts. A PC in a PbP that I play in recently told some new PCs that my PC had earned a Silver Star during a previous episode of the campaign. That was news to me, but I was thrilled to read it. What does it mean in the game world? Not much. There's no paperwork, AFAIK, and my character never received a physical medal of any kind. If the unit gets wiped out tomorrow, no one will ever know about it. But IC, it's a subject of IG conversation, a source of pride for the character, a piece of shared history for the members of the unit. Perhaps, someday, some sort of tangible reward will be attached to it (like a promotion or free drinks at a bar). Even if nothing else comes of it, it was a cool moment and I appreciated a fellow player making mention of it. I imagine that other players would likely feel the same way if their characters were awarded a medal.
|