Who Gets the Chair?

Star Force ship command in FGU's Space Opera.

Star Force is the government military umbrella. StarFleet is the navy-shaped part of it: Astronauts on the Executive track, plus Science and Engineering. Space Marines and Commandos sit under the same roof. For an Astronaut, the career is not only years and rank. It is also which hulls, if any, you were trusted with.

You apply. Rank is only the ticket.

You do not receive a ship when you make rank. Rank and time in service only make you eligible to apply. Once a year, an Executive Officer who already has the required rank and years may bid for a specific class of vessel and must roll the target or better on 2d6; use the table on page 38.

You pick a size class from the rows you qualify for. You cannot bid a Battle Star as an Ensign.

Open at the bottom, stepped at the top

The first three classes are open. Small Craft, Star Fighter, and Corvette list no prior command. A Lieutenant with six years can try for a fighter without having skippered a cutter. Tables often walk those three in order anyway, because the year and rank gates already push you up one step at a time. That is taste, not a hard rule.

From Light Cruiser on, it is stepped. The book will not let you bid a Light Cruiser until you have already commanded a Star Fighter or a Corvette. The capital rows keep asking for a previous serious command. That is the history: the Cruiser Captain has a smaller ship in the file.

Bidding down, failing, and what a win means

You may bid down. Each class below the one your rank normally rates gives +1, to a maximum of two steps. A Captain chasing a Light Cruiser gets +2.

Fail the roll, and you stay an XO without that command for the year. Success does not make the ship yours. It writes the command into the service record.

Two lists, one procedure

The rank chart in the same chapter also prints a “StarForce Command” column — Cadet/1 with small craft, Ensign with StarFighter, Lieutenant with Corvette, then Destroyer, Light Cruiser, Cruiser. Treat that as the grade the service thinks you are ready for. The 2d6 table is the application. The book is messy in the usual FGU way (Destroyer on one list, Corvette on the other). The procedure is the same: eligibility, then a yearly bid for a named class.

Years and rank tell you how long they served. The command log tells you what kind of officer they were.

Other services just pin the ship to the rank

Star Force is the one that makes you bid. Several civilian and paramilitary services print an “IPA Command” or “Scout Command” column and treat the hull as part of the grade. Make the rank, and that is the ship the table says you run. No yearly 2d6, no prior-command prerequisite.

The Interstellar Police Agency is the clean example. IPA keeps naval-quality ships up to Fleet Cruiser to hunt pirates and patrol the lanes. Lieutenant is a StarFighter. Inspector is a Corvette. Chief Inspector is a Light Cruiser. Captain is a Cruiser. Assistant Co-ordinator is a Fleet Cruiser. Co-ordinator is a sector squadron. The early grades are squads, not hulls — Sergeant a two-man team, Sub-Lieutenant a six-man squad — then the ships start.

Survey Scouts work the same way, only the ships are bigger sooner. Group Leader is already Corvette or better. Senior Group Leader is Light Cruiser or better, then Cruiser, Fleet Cruiser, and Battle Cruiser as the expedition ranks climb. Those pluses mean “at least this class,” not a bid for a named type.

Merchant Marine is the odd one out. Rank is a Guild grade, not a hull assignment. The book allows player-owned ships of corvette and light merchantman size; it does not hand you a freighter because you made Leading Starshipman.

So if the résumé is Star Force, the interesting line is which bids succeeded. If it is IPA or Scouts, the interesting line is the highest grade they reached. The ship comes with the rank.

Years and rank tell you how long they served. The command log — bid or automatic — tells you what kind of officer they were.