>Does this mean that your PC's ship is gonna tow a target for a cruiser to shoot at and >afterwards inadvertantly cut the tow line?
No, but the next time they reach an imperial naval base, the local commodore will commandeer the ship for a bit of target drone maintenance and operation.
By the way, during the last session, their patrol orders got countermanded by one of Admiral Santanocheev ONI cronies. They now have to shuttle a bunch of scout trainees to an INSS OpsArea on a particularly backwater world in Egyrn subsector, 4 jumps away from their current location (there’s more to it, of course, but the players don’t know yet) This pissed of Capt Franssen no end : “Well gentlemen, if the admiral wants us to be a school bus, let’s at least make sure we are the best goddamned schoolbus in the whole navy !” Of course, he said it in French, this being belgium
, but Caine connoisseurs will recognize the quotation. In the same spirit, after the briefing, he ordered the PC vargr XO to go back to the imperial embassy, “and not to come back without the dope!”
>Will they screen a landing force invading a planet and then throw out an airlock a >yellow dye marker for the landing craft to follow when they reach within a kilometer of >the surface all while the captain is hiding?
No, but the ship got into a skirmish with a flotilla of drug smugglers/pirates in the Judice system. Capt Franssen fairly panicked, hovering at the back of the bridge, looking scared and yelling “mais faites quelque chose !” to the puzzled OOD when missiles started flying toward Agidda.
>Will they be assemblied in the ward room in the wee hours of the night to investigate >the missing quart of strawberries from the galley, then search the crew and the ship >ooking for a non existant duplicate key to the food locker?
There will be a “strawberry incident”-like episode in the future. Capt Franssen has already started calling officers in his stateroom at ungodly hours, always over trivial subjects, always ending in yells and tremendous ass-chewing. The last time he did this was on arrival in Collace, where a ball was scheduled at the imperial embassy. The skipper wanted to check which wardroom members were the best dancers. Not feeling really satisfied with the report, he then summoned all officers to the wardroom for a crash refresher course. Great roleplaying ensued…
On the other hand, Capt Franssen nearly succeeded manipulating the XO into organising an all-ship, all-crew strip search because illegal drugs had been found aboard. The XO very sensibly backed off at the last moment, getting even deeper into the captain’s balck book at the same time, of course.
What else ?
- Capt Franssen kicked off his first wardroom briefing with : “There are four ways of doing things : the good way, the wrong way, the navy way and my way. From now on, I want things to be done my way”. He wrapped it up with “On my ship, good performance is unsatisfactory. Excellent performance will be the norm. On my ship, I want everything and everybody to give 110% of his best, all the time. Failure is not an option !” (these sentences found their way into several real-life briefings aboard belgian Navy ships or units in the following weeks, as a matter of fact).
- No twirling of ball-bearings, as this would have too obvious, but he keeps playing with an antique silver pencil-holder.
- Anonymous crewmembers have begun circulating hard copies of Articles 184 to 186
of imperial naval regulations, pertaining to relieving commanding officers in exceptional circumstances.
What other events from “Caine mutiny” will I try to implement in the future ?
- the water famine
- the incident when Queeg tries to sneak contraband liquor into the US
- the shirttail incident
Of course, I’m using other sources of inspiration as well, and mixing them all, but for those who are not familiar with it, I strongly recommend reading “The Caine mutiny”. Not only is it excellently written, but its depiction of shipboard atmosphere is really accurate. It also shows WWII in the pacific from another viewpoint than the usual carrier perspective.
