6 replies to this topic

[mjohnson]

I was just kind of curious why the Marine career path is the road less traveled and was interested in hearing everyone's thoughts. Personally im having a "blast" literally

[Whale]

Having simmed marine NPCs for a while, and having been a Marine Captain myself for a little while, here's my take on it.

Basically, there's very little frame of reference for how/when marines would be involved in a mission. We've all seen engineers and security officers and helmsmen is the countless Trek incarnations, so we know what they do, when they do it, and largely how they do it. We can fairly easily figure out what their involvement would be in any given mission. But we don't have that with the marines, so in many cases it can be difficult to determine how they fit into a mission.

Speaking for myself, one of the reasons I ended up switching back to security after being a marine is that there was no difference to what I was doing. The way the marines were being assigned in terms of duty responsibilities, I was basically chief of security anyway, just wearing green instead of gold.

I certainly think that lack of canon connection leads people to shy away from the marine posting, which is a shame, because I think we could really build the role into something interesting.

[KNicholotti]

Basically, there's very little frame of reference for how/when marines would be involved in a mission. We've all seen engineers and security officers and helmsmen is the countless Trek incarnations, so we know what they do, when they do it, and largely how they do it. We can fairly easily figure out what their involvement would be in any given mission. But we don't have that with the marines, so in many cases it can be difficult to determine how they fit into a mission.

I think this is the root of the problem. Different people have different ideas of how Marines really fit into Starfleet, and so they often are simmed with the knowledge of current day Marines (both US and not) which can lead to some issues that stem from the frame of reference. IE - Modern Marines don't act quite like Marines in a future, nearly utopian society would. In the end, it becomes a very complex and difficult duty post to sim sometimes, especially if you don't have a specific task to get involved in (thus leading to being lumped in with security for many matters).

Kali is, was, and always will be a Marine. She's also a doctor though, and now a First Officer. In her heart, she will always wear green. I got lucky, I believe, as the Captains I have served under allowed me the chance to find that niche and sim it. Kali and her counterparts were often used in specialty security details (akin to the Secret Service maybe) and in response to outside aggressors and the possibility of boarding. On our current post, Starbase 118 Ops, there are so many ways for the Marines to find that niche as well. It's all a matter of finding a way to fit rather than following the guide we find in cannon Trek.

It makes this a very difficult post at times, often comprised of many, many sims about PT, military training, etc, but given the right circumstances and environment, some pretty killer sims can be born. =)

[mjohnson]

I definately agree it would lead to some pretty interesting scenarios if more people would go the route of the Marine. ie maybe a Marine assault frigate used for potential "hotspots" also agree with Kali. I would be lieing if I said i didn't utilize my first hand knowledge from currently serving as a combat medic in the Army as a basis for my understanding of tactics and combat medicine. For me the reason I chose Marine is because it is the least well known of Starfleet roles and it allows me to bring my rl knowledge and experience to the sims and thus make them more believable.

[KNicholotti]

That seems to be a fairly good approach. I know when I first joined the Fleet, I hadn't seen an episode of Trek for about four years. I was a die hard fan up until I had my kids, at which point my attention got focused elsewhere. The first 'reboot' movie brought me back to Trek and to the PBeM, but I still hadn't re-familiarized myself with the show. The Marine position allowed me to base a lot of my sims on my real world knowledge (Kali was born as a combat medic, based on my first responder experience) while participating in the world of Trek. I did try to consider how she would act in the society of her day, however, and what ended up happening was almost the mirror image of other Marines that Kali was working with at the time. It was actually pretty cool.

Of course, since then I've been watching as many episodes as I can find the time for...

[mjohnson]

Lol Kali I will go you one better. My mother got me interested in Star Trek at a young age and thus I blame her and I just now got her gift she sent me for my 36th Bday(Dec 24) and Christmas. Yes I got the short end as a child lol "Just one gift for you" The "Ultimate" Star Trek DVD collection. Every season of TOS,TNG,DS9,Voyager plus all 11 movies. The only series im missing is Enterprise

[Oxford Brown]

Brown had little choice in joining the Marines, it was either that or prison. 

 

In his teenage years he was involved with a group of youths who got involved in joy riding, during a rather daring ride one of the group died in a chase with the security forces. 

 

During the trial Brown was cleared of any wrong doing, He was given a choice by his father make a major change in his life or leave the family home and be disinherited so he joined the marines, the rest is history.