Crew Quality Rules (Full Grunt)

On the whole, I like. Most useful for campaigns I guess but could be used in
one off games in the same way as aces and turkeys from MT.

Once fleets have been worked out both players then roll for crew and leader
capabilities. ROLL Quality Captaincy Admiral 1 Green Level 3 Level 3
        2-5     Regular Level 2 Level 2
6 Veteran Level 1 Level 1

For a Campaign you need some system that is simple that allows crews and
captains to improve over time.

All ships leaving construction yards are considered Yellow until they
complete a 4 week shake-down cruise (this accounts for gremlins in the
ships systems). Once this is complete the crew is rated Green. A player may
use a higher quality crew by transferring all the crew from a higher rated
ship of the same Mass to the new vessel. To do this the higher rated ship must
be at the dockyards where the new ship is built. The crew will still rate as
Yellow until the end of the shake down cruise and will then resume its actual
status.
        All crews/ships accumulate experience points at the rate of 1
point for every 6 rounds of combat they survive. They gain an extra point if
the battle is won and lose a point if the battle is lost (most battles of
around 2000 pts per side in my experience don't last more than 18 turns).
These points are permenant to the crew. Also after the battle each crew rolls
a dice and adds it to their experience points for that turn only. Crews with
level 3 captains roll a d4, level 2 captains a d6 and level 3 captians a d8
(this is the officers and petty officers pushing the men through drills and
exercises to ensure things go more smoothly the next time). Crews need a
certain number of points, including dice rolls after battles, to advance to
the next level. If the dice roll takes them into the next level then they are
upgraded and start to accumulate experience anew. Yellow crews need 25 pts to
goto Green, Green crews need 50 pts to goto Regular, Regular crews need 100
pts to goto Veteran, Veteran crews need 200 pts to goto Elite.

Captains also advance with all new captains starting as level 3. Captains gain
1 point for each enemy they destroy plus 1 point for each row of damage their
ship loses and survives. Captains lose 5 points for the destruction of their
ship. If a ship is boarded roll a d6. 1 the captain is
court martialed and cashiered, 2-5 returns to duty loses 1 point, 6
returns to duty and gains 2 pts (he has learned a lesson and won't do it
again). Once a captain reaches enough points to advance roll a d4. On a 1
stays at
this level permenantly no further rolls, 2-3 roll again each time
captain earns more experience pts (once for each battle not once for each
point), 4 captain advances to next level. Level 3 captains need 15 pts (and
must pass die roll) Level 2 captains need 35 pts (and must pass die roll)

When a new admiral is needed randomly which captain is to be promoted (leaving
out those that were promoted this turn). Admirals keep the level they had as
captains and do not advance. An admiral can command no less than 15 ships
unless he is designated as a Comodore. Each Admiral may have one Commodore as
his 2IC. If the Admiral is killed then the Commodore immediately takes his
place and is promoted to Admiral after the battle. Officers are marked on ship
record cards and are subject to threshold checks but always fail on a 6 no
matter how many checks the ship has made.
Officers that fail checks are rerolled after the battle. on a d10, 1-4
dead, 5-7 minor wounds returns to duty after d6 weeks, major wounds
returns to duty after d10 months except that a roll of 1 indicates that the
officer is too badly injured to take up active duty and is retired or given a
desk job. Admirals can be retired. A retirement rattempt can only be made if
the captain loses a battle with either nil loses or >75% loses. Roll a d10,
1-7
your stuck with him, 8-10 court martial has found him guilty of
imcompetence/cowardice and is retired.

        If a ship is destroyed roll a d10, 1-4 all the crew survive and
may be
rescued, 5-7 half the crew survives and may be tranfered to a ship of
half the Mass of the original or combined with another half crew of the same
quality to make a crew for a ship equal to half the sum of the original
ship Masses, 8-10 majority of the crew is killed and has no real effect
on ship quality if rescued and reassigned. If the ship explodes add one to
this dice roll for each damage point over that which was need for the ship to
be destroyed.

If you work out something similar for generals (battlion commanders) in
Dirtside that will be great. If running a campaign make admirals and generals
subject to assisination attempts.

Alrighty then - let's get nit-picky... ;-)

> Once fleets have been worked out both players then roll for crew

By using 2d6 for this roll, you can get a wider variety of results, and
control the pecentages a little more accurately. SGII uses random counter
selection for the same task, allowing the counter mix to provide the
percentages, but I've never liked that method.

For example, for just crew quality:
2-3 - Elite (9%)
4-5 - Veteran (19%)
6-8 - Regular (45%)
9-10 - Green (19%)
11-12 - Untrained (9%)

That distribution holds fairly closely to the counter mix from SGII

> All ships leaving construction yards are considered Yellow until

I'd say that reducing a crew's quality by 2 levels makes more sense than an
arbitrary Untrained. After all, an Elite crew should be able to work around
the gremlins much more efficiently than a real Green crew.

> All crews/ships accumulate experience points at the rate of 1

This seems slightly too record intensive for me, as well as potentially points
inflated. Likewise for the roll which is added for the single campaign turn
only. Call me silly, but I prefer things a bit more simple.

Say: 1 point per combat where the ship fired and was fired upon 1 point for
being on the winning side 1 point per week training (may only be used to
advance to regular status, no higher) 1 point lost per [?] crew casualties

The reduce the points needed for improvement:
Untrained to Green - 8 points (2 months training)
Green to Regular - 16 points (4 months training)
Regular to Veteran - 32 points
Veteran to Elite - 64 points

I like your concept of a rolling total which can be modified up or down.

> Once a captain reaches enough points to advance roll a d4. On a 1 stays

Once again, a wee bit too much paperwork involved in my opinion, though I
really like the die roll.

Say that captains gain and loose points along with the ship they're on, though
none for training, and when they reach a certain threshold level:
Level 3 to 2 - 16 points
Level 2 to 1 - 32 points

They may pay for a d6 roll with 4 points. If the roll is less than or equal to
half (fractions round up) of the current level, he's stuck there. If the roll
is greater than or equal to double the current level, he increases a level.

Note: this makes it more likely that a level 3 officer will stay crummy, and
that a level 2 officer has better chances at improvement. A "3" officer has a
33% chance to be a dolt forever, and a 16% chance of bettering himself. On the
other hand, a "2" officer has a 16% chance of never improving, and a 50%
chance of bettering himself.

If an officer passes down below the threshold level for his level, he drops a
level, and has to regain it normally. Call it loss of confidence from loosing
so many men.

> When a new admiral is needed randomly which captain is to be

I disagree that a captain will retain his level directly to admiral. Some do
and some don't; it's a slightly different job which requires other aptitudes.

All of this is intended to be constructive, and I hope it hasn't come off as
contrary.