Tactics skill

[HorseSoldier]

So, how do you handle things when the character should be a skilled tactician (say, a special ops major with 20 years of service) but the player is tactically incompetent?

That sounds about right for a lot of majors I knew in SF . . .

The issue never really came up in games I ran, where things rarely or never got past squad level or sort actions where my players could pretty well grasp the concepts. Every once in a while I might pass a note here or there to a player whose character should know this or that factoid (tactical or technical) that the player wasn't read in on, but that was usually enough to cover the occasional gaps between real and notional knowledge.

If players were going to be in a situation where they were providing the leadership to larger elements, and firefights were going to be a mix of abstract rolls and direct participation in the gunfighting, I'd probably add in a Tactics skill (and probably just assign it arbitrarily based on background and maybe any flair or failings the player had demonstrated to that point with his character).