Keeping or Changing Rank in T2K

[Marc]

Originally Posted by copeab

To be contrarian, in most groups I've known, the rank would be irrelevant. If the captain has good ideas, the PCs would listen to him, otherwise they'd ignore him. Then again, most players I've known would consider any adherence to rank contrary to the spirit of the game (PCs with military skills, military training, but no effective command structure).

This is what I would calificate as the pragmatic point of view of a GM! And a great true, in my opinion. It’s a problem that always appears when the characters are tied to any kind of strong jerarchy and occupying different ranks inside it. And this is specially true if the game develops in a military background.. I suppose that in a “Play by Post� game this factor becomes softened, but in a “face to face� game it is very present. And is better for the GM no try to fight agains the natural dynamic of the group. It’s a sure ticket for an anticlimatic roleplaying situation.

One possible “solution� I use sometimes(depending of the group and the game) is to have pre-generated characters for the players and allow them to distribute the character sheets among themselves, clarifing that rank would be an important factor (if that is your intention in the game).